AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.

PART VII. (Chap. 19:5-22:) THE CONSUMMATION.

Closing Testimonies.(Chap. 22:6-21.)

The series of visions is thus completed. What remains is the emphasizing of its authority for the soul, with all that belongs to Him whose revelation it is, and who is Himself coming speedily. Thus the angel now affirms that "these words are faithful and true :" necessarily so, because of Him whose words they are. " The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets hath sent His angel to show unto His servants things which must soon come to pass." Here we return to the announcement of the first chapter. The book is, above all, a practical book. It is not for theorists or dreamers, but for servants,-words which are to be kept, and to have application to their service in the Church and in the world.

The things themselves were soon to come to pass. In fact, the history of the Church, as the opening epistles depict it, could be found imaged, as we see, in the condition of existing assemblies. The seeds of the future already existed, and were silently growing up, even with the growth (externally) of Christianity itself. As to the visions following the epistles also, from the sixth chapter on, we have acknowledged the partial truth of what is known as the historical fulfillment of these. It is admitted that there has been an anticipative fulfillment in Christian times of that which has definite application to the time of the end, although it is the last only that has been, in general, dwelt upon in these pages.

Historicalists will not be satisfied with such an admission, and refusing on their side (as they mostly do) the general bearing of the introductory epistles upon the history of the Church at large, insist upon such affirmations as the present as entirely conclusive that the historical interpretation is the only true one. In fact, the view which has been here followed brings nearest to those in the apostles' days the things announced, as well as makes the whole book far more fruitful and important for the guidance of servants. For how many generations must they have waited before the seals and trumpets would speak to these ? And when they did, how much of guidance would they furnish for practical walk? The application of Babylon the great to Romanism is fully accepted, and that of Jezebel in the same way insisted on, so that as to the errors of popery, we are as protestant as any, if in the " beasts " of the thirteenth chapter we find something beyond this. But nothing of this could have been intelligible to the saints of the early centuries, while the fulfillment of Ephesus, Smyrna, and even Pergamos, would soon be of the first importance.

"The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets"-the reading now generally admitted to be right-emphasizes for us the presence of the living God as what was for these the constant realization, in all the shifting scenes of human history. And so it is for those whose spirit is in harmony with them. God in past history, God in the events happening under our eyes, His judgment therefore of every tiling, while controlling every thing, for His own glory and for the blessing of His people.-in this respect how blessed to be guided by those wondrous revelations ! While the future, to be learnt from the same infallible teaching, is not only that which animates our hopes, but is necessary for the judgment of the present, no less. All lines lead on to the full end, there where the full light gives the manifestation of all.

"And behold, I come quickly." This is for the heart:future as long as we are down here ; and yet to govern the present. ''Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book."

Here we are warned of the mistakes that may be made by the holiest of men in the most fervent occupation with heavenly things. John falls at the angel's feet to worship him ; but the angel refuses it, claiming no higher title than to be a fellow-servant with John himself, with his brethren the prophets, and with those also who keep the words of this book. And he adds, "Worship God:"-worship, that is, no creature.

Unlike Daniel's prophecies, the words of the prophecy of this book are not to be sealed up, for the time is near. To the Christian, brought face to face with the coming of the Lord, the end is always near. What time might actually elapse was another question. In fact, some eighteen centuries have elapsed since this was written :but while Daniel was taught to look on through a vista of many generations to the end before him, Christians, taught to be always in an attitude of expectation, have before them no such necessary interval, and are brought into the full light now, though unbelief and wrong teaching may obscure it. But nothing in this way is under a vail, save the moment whose concealment is meant to encourage expectation. How good for us, and fruitful such concealment, may be measured by the goodness and fruitfulness of the expectation itself.

The solemn words are just ready to be uttered which proclaim the close of the day of grace to those who have refused grace. It is just ready to be said, " Let him that doeth unrighteously do unrighteously still ; and let the filthy make himself filthy still ; and let him that is righteous do righteousness still ; and he that is holy, let him be sanctified still." And when this applies is shown clearly in the next words, " Behold, I come quickly, and My reward with Me, to render to every one as his work shall be :I, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." The last affirmation here shows the irrevocable character of this judgment. He sums up in Himself all wisdom, all power:"none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou ? "

The way of life and the way of death are now put in contrast :" Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Here is the condition of blessing stated according to the character of Revelation, in terms that have been used before. Our robes must be washed in the blood of the Lamb, as those of the redeemed multitude in the vision under the seals, in order to be arrayed in the white garments that are granted to the Lamb's wife. A very old corruption in this text is that exhibited in the common version, "Blessed are they that do His commandments;" but which is the true reading ought to be apparent at once. It is not by keeping commandments than any one can acquire a right to the tree of life. On the other hand, condemnation is for committed evil :"without are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie."

Again it is repeated, "I, Jesus, have sent Mine angel to testify these things unto you in the assemblies; " and then He declares Himself in the two relations among men in which the book has spoken of Him :" I am the Root and the Offspring of David "-the Jewish relation, the divine incarnate King of Israel,-"the bright and Morning Star,"-the object of expectation for the Christian. But immediately He is named-or rather names Himself in this way, the heart of the Bride, moved by the Spirit, awakes:"And the Spirit and the Bride say, ' Come !' " But because it is yet the day of grace, and the Bride is still open to receive accessions it is added, "And let him that heareth say, 'Come!'" And if one answer, " Ah, but my heart is yet unsatisfied," it is further said, " And let him that is athirst come ; he that will, let him take the water of life freely."

Blessed is this testimony. The precious gifts of God are not restricted in proportion to their preciousness, but the reverse. In nature, sunlight, fresh air, the water-brooks, things the most necessary, are on that account bestowed freely upon all. And in the spiritual realm there is no barrier to reception of the best gifts, save that which the soul makes for itself. Not only so, but men are urged to come,-to take,-to look,-with no uncertainty of result for those who do so. The stream that makes glad the city of God is poured out for the satisfaction of all who thirst, and will but stoop to drink of it. This is the closing testimony of the gospel in this book, and that with which it is associated adds amazingly to its solemnity.

There is now another warning, neither to add to, nor to take from the words of the prophecy of this book. Scripture has many similar admonitions, but here the penalty is an unutterably solemn one. To him that adds, God shall add the plagues that are written in this book. From him who takes away, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city. Yet men are now not scrupulous at least to take away many of the words of Scripture, and of Revelation among the rest. Every word is claimed here by the Lord Himself for God ; and if this is not a claim for verbal inspiration, what is it ? As manifestly the closing book of New-Testament scripture, what may we not infer as to the verbal inspiration of other parts? And what shall be the woe of those who dare presumptuously to meddle with that which is the authoritative communication of the mind of God to man? Is it not being done? and by those who own that somewhere at least-and they cannot pretend to know exactly the limit,-Scripture contains the Word of God ?

This announcement of penalty is Christ's own word :"He who testifieth these things saith, ' Surely, I come quickly.' " Is it not when His Word is being thus dealt with that we may more than ever expect Himself? When the testimony of Scripture is being invalidated and denied, is it not then that we may most expect the Faithful and True Witness to testify in person ? And especially when this arises in the most unlocked for places, and Church-teachers laboriously work out a theology of unbelief ?

And the promise abides as the hope of the Church, although it be true that the Bridegroom has tarried, and the virgins have slept ! That-true or false-a cry has been raised, " Behold, the Bridegroom cometh !" is notorious. That many have stirred and taken up the old attitude of expectancy is also true. All these things should surely be significant also. But whatever one's head may say,-whatever the doctrine we have received and hold as to the coming of our Lord and Master,-the heart of the truly faithful must surely say with the apostle here, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

It is the only response that answers to the assurance of His love on His departure to the Father:"In My Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you ; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again, and receive you unto My self, that where I am, ye may be also."
The Lord's coming-the parousia-is just the " presence " of the Lord Himself. Nothing short of this could satisfy the hearts of those who looked up after Him, as He ascended with His hands spread in blessing over them ; and were reassured by the angels' voices, that this same Jesus would come again. Just in proportion as we too have learnt by the Spirit the power of the love of Jesus, we too shall be satisfied with this, and with this alone. May we learn more deeply what is this cry of the Spirit and the Bride :"Amen, come, Lord Jesus." F. W. G.

"He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity." (Rom. 12:8.)

Giving is one of the highest privileges the believer enjoys. But its very nature is such that it offers to our adversary the devil an excellent opportunity to excite in the giver pride and a feeling of superiority; hence we find the above and many similar exhortations.

Did we but bear in mind that we are only '' stewards of the manifold grace of God," pride could gain no foothold. It is His bounty which we are privileged to dispense,-His "manifold grace," whether "carnal things" or spiritual things.

When one gives thus-as a steward, not only is he "blessed in his deed," but the recipients are put in mind that what they have received has come from God, and to Him first their thanks are due. So the apostle writes concerning the help supplied the poor saints at Jerusalem, " For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God."

A beautiful example of the way God would have us give is found in the law concerning the reaping of the harvest, laid down in Lev. 19:9, 10 and Deut. 24:19-22,-"And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger:I am the Lord your God." " When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands," etc.

The wisdom of this law is so apparent, that one is led to exclaim with the prophet, '' This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." Let us look for a moment at some of the numerous advantages of this simple method of giving. In the first place, the habit of leaving the gleanings of vineyard, olive-yard, and field for the poor, the fatherless, and the widow would be a potent guard against the tendency to become grasping and penurious-that covetousness which is so common to human nature. On the other hand, the temptation to be proud of being generous would be much less than if the gleanings were first gathered by the owner of the field and then given to the poor. Again, the distribution of labor would be more equal:the giver would not be overworked by having to go over his fields a second time. Even as the apostle says in 2 Cor. 8:13,-"For I mean not that other men be eased and ye be burdened."

On the part of the recipients, industry and thrift would be encouraged rather than indolence and dependence, quite in accord with the scripture in 2 Thess. 3:10-"That if any would not work, neither should he eat."

Then, too, they would be spared needless humiliation on account of their poverty; for poverty in itself is not a reproach, though it is often keenly felt to be such on account of the condescending manner in which help is given. Our Lord Himself has been called "the poorest of men;" and His disciples, as they walked with Him through the corn-fields on the Sabbath, and plucked of the corn to satisfy their hunger, were taking advantage of a similar gracious provision of the law. (Deut. 23:25.) Then, again, the thoughts of the gleaners would naturally be occupied first and most with Him who had given the increase, for the very fruits of the earth which they were engaged in gathering bear witness of Him, as it is written, "He left not Himself without witness in that He gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." And so their thanksgiving would be rendered first to Him, afterward to the owner of the field, who had not forgotten the law of his God.

So much for the law and its workings in temporal things :is it not equally instructive and applicable concerning our ministry in spiritual things ?

Among God's children there are those who have taken possession of a goodly portion of the land, and have broad acres of rich grain-fields, olive-yards, and vineyards. In other words, those who are well instructed in the Word of God, who have abundance of food for themselves and others. There are also those who are poor, who have never perhaps gotten beyond the '' first principles of the doctrine of Christ."

"The poor shall never cease out of the land," says Jehovah, so there will always be those who have need of just such ministry as these spiritually rich believers have to offer. And it is well that it is so, for the very poverty of these needy ones calls forth the spiritual activities of those who by the grace of God are richer, demands the exercise of their various gifts and keeps them from becoming selfish and careless of the interests of other saints. The Lord would never have His people forget their need one of another. It is written, "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth."

There are fields enough for all the saints in the good land our God has given us; the land is '' wide and quiet and peaceable," and those who are of God's mind will rejoice to see "the poor " come into possession of fields they can call their own.

Ruth the gleaner did not remain a gleaner. After a short season of gleaning she became joint-owner of all the fields of Boaz !

We have often been grieved to hear young believers remark, "I do enjoy listening to a good address, but when I read the Bible for myself I can't get any thing out of it."

And we have often replied, mentally, You have never learned how to glean, and perhaps it is because those who have ministered to you carefully gleaned their fields themselves, and then gave you out of their abundance; instead of leading you straight to the fields where the reapers are at work, and instructing you, as Boaz did Ruth, " Let thine eyes be on the fields that they do reap, and go thou after them."

Had you but been in the fields, you would know where the grain grows, and how it is gathered, and you would not be so helpless.

In plainer language, if he who desires to teach another some truth or line of truth from the Scriptures, is content to lead his pupil on slowly, from text to text, in the Word, giving him time to find each for himself, and see its bearing on the subject in hand, progress may seem slow, and the teacher may not be able to manifest how much he knows about the subject, but the benefit the pupil receives is great and lasting. It may take days, perhaps weeks, to teach him a single lesson; but once learned, it is well learned. He can take you to the Scriptures and give you from them a reason for the hope that is in him. He has been in the fields at work, and the next lesson will be easier to teach him.

Moreover, what he has thus gleaned will be precious in his sight, as the fruit of his own labor. He will measure it as Ruth did, and though it be only "about an ephah of barley," he will, like Ruth, carry it home with him, and after being sufficed therewith himself, will no doubt give of his treasure to some one else, even as Ruth '' brought forth and gave to her (Naomi) that she had reserved after she was sufficed." She was first sufficed, for "the husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits."

When believers are thus taught they are not apt to get their eyes upon the teacher instead of the truth
taught. Their eyes have been upon the field, the Scriptures, and it is their worth and perfection they learn to appreciate.

Such simplicity of teaching is also an excellent guard to the instructor against teaching any thing that cannot be clearly established by the Word of God.

The one thus taught also learns to more readily detect false doctrine, to be suspicious of any teaching for which he is not given Scripture, and to "prove all things," and "hold fast that which is good." Thus, little by little, he increases "in wisdom and stature," and ere long has fields of his own where he may reap and others glean.

Many a young untaught believer upon first hearing some deeply instructed saint open the Scriptures to others, is quite discouraged, and thinks there is not the least hope of his ever gaining such a knowledge of the Word of God. But if this same teacher sits patiently down with him, and leads him to the same fields whence he has acquired all his wealth, and gives him a few lessons in gleaning, he takes fresh courage, his interest is aroused, he sees what possibilities of wealth are before him, and goes earnestly to work. In giving with simplicity, as in every thing else, our Lord Jesus has left us a perfect example. Of Him it is written, '' For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

One can but marvel at such a strange thing as that. We would suppose that if a rich man wanted to make others rich he must surely do it while he himself was rich, and not first become poor ! But not so, From the beginning of the world God had been giving to men as One who was rich and able indeed to give ; but not thus were their hearts won, not thus were they made rich toward God. Not until He came "who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men," did God accomplish His desire. As a poor Man He walked among men and made many rich indeed. He came to minister, but He came as a poor Man. Nevertheless all the resources of heaven were at His command when man's need called them forth. He could heal the sick, raise the dead, feed the multitudes, and all as a poor Man who had "not where to lay His head."
Dearly beloved, would to God we better knew how to give with "the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus." Always '' poor in spirit," that we may be in sympathy with those whom we seek to help, and yet '' filled with all the fullness of God." "Full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another."

So should we be according to the scripture, '' Approving ourselves as the ministers of God … as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." G. M. R.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.- Ps. 32:1.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. . . . out his delight is in the law of the Lord.- Ps. 1:1, 2.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor.- Ps. 41:1.

All the world is in pursuit of happiness. Some are seeking it in wealth; others in power and a great name; while the vast proportion think they will find it in pleasure. This pursuit of happiness is an unconscious confession on man's part that he does not possess it; " for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" So, what a man possesses why does he yet seek for? Ah, beneath all the hurry of business, the rivalry of contending parties, and the shout of merry-making, there is the hungry heart that longs to be satisfied, and is not. In bright contrast to the hunger-a hunger too proud to turn to One who alone can satisfy it, – we have the happiness of the child of God set before us here, its fullness suggested and its fruits manifested in this threefold view. Though taken from the Psalms,
Israel's book, this blessedness is the common portion of all the people of God, brought out indeed into clearer relief through the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

We have first the blessedness of forgiveness. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." This comes first, whether we look at God's desire to bless, or man's need of blessing; for as to the former, His love is always in holiness, and how can a holy God bless a guilty sinner without a sacrifice of His righteousness, unless all the claims of that righteousness have been perfectly met? As to the need of the sinner, what would be a blessing if forgiveness were withheld? Would possession of all earthly and heavenly things satisfy a guilty soul ? Nay, would not all other blessings apart from this but aggravate his misery ? So when God begins with a soul, this is the first blessing He bestows. It is the kiss with which He meets the repentant prodigal "when he was yet a great way off." Of the fullness of this forgiveness, there is perhaps little need to speak here, save for the joy it ever brings to the heart. " Having forgiven you all trespasses." Who can go behind that all? Satan with his ingenuity to suggest, and our poor hearts with their willingness to receive doubts, are both silent before that word. Nor does its fullness apply to sins in number merely, but to time as well. As to the past, all trespasses have been forgiven ; as to the present "being justified by faith, we have peace with God"; as to the future, "he shall not come into judgment,"-he is in a forgiven state, in a position to which forgiveness attaches.

All this is the more clearly understood and enjoyed when we look at the grounds of this forgiveness. The word for "covered" is also that for making atonement – the true and only covering. When man covers sin, it only brings misery:"When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, . . . my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." How different when God covers it! It is done on the ground of righteousness, of expiation by Another. The blood upon the mercy seat-"the covering"-told of a sacrifice which had been offered and accepted. Upon that ground the priest, as representing the people, could enter into God's presence for them, and not die; and come out of that presence as God's representative to bless. The reality of all this is blessedly familiar to us, who know that Christ now appears in the presence of God for us, as our representative, having first as that been made sin for us; nay, that we ourselves have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus"; who also know that the Holy Ghost has come out to us the witness of our acceptance and the bearer of heavenly gifts to us. Truly we may say " blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."

But God does not leave a man merely forgiven, as we well know, nor does salvation make us fit for heaven while leaving us unfit for earth. In days of looseness we need to guard all points. The freeness of the gospel is attacked, but there are also not wanting those who would "turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness." But how careful is God's word to guard against any such misuse of grace. '' The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, . . . of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:19-21.) "For this ye know that no whoremonger, nor unclean person . . . hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words." (Eph. 5:5, 6.) "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (i Cor. 6:9, 10.) Here we have a solemn and concurrent testimony from three epistles most unlike in their contents and points of view. Galatians was written to those in danger of going back to law; Ephesians to those "faithful in Christ Jesus," who could appreciate the fullness of blessing, both for the individual and the church, which is unfolded in that epistle; while Corinthians treats of disorders in a church where grace was known and gifts enjoyed, but all was abused. Yet from whatever viewpoint, the judgment is the same, the testimony identical. And so it is with all Scripture:the walk in this world is of the utmost importance.

Now in our second Scripture this is pressed. '' Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. . . . but his delight is in the law of the Lord."

The child of God is here described in two ways – negatively and positively. He is separated from evil-"cease to do evil"; then occupied with good-"learn to do well." It is a familiar truth that we are formed by our associations:it needs no proof, only exhortation that we take it to heart. In all its forms, intercourse with the ungodly is forbidden,- whether walking, standing, or sitting, indicating the various grades of intimacy. Christ is our example. If he was "the friend of sinners," He was also "separate from sinners." We need not add that heart separation is meant. There is no conceivable way in which God's children can break down the wall of separation between them and the world, without peril to their souls. No link of business or religion, social or political, between God's children and the world is contemplated in Scripture. We can be and should be kind, helpful, and gracious; but "the plowing of the wicked is sin," and the unequal yoke will sooner or later gall the neck of him who wears it. We cannot too strongly impress this upon the young Christian. How many bright lights have grown dim through neglect of it! How many happy hearts have grown heavy!

But God does not deal in mere negations. If we are to free ourselves from that which denies, it is that we may be engaged with that which is good. And what a place is here given to the Scriptures; "his delight is in the law of the Lord." In a day when God's word is being attacked and doubted, we need to be recalled to it. "Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name," above all else that declares God – His works, His providence, His judgments. God's word is God speaking to us, showing us His mind and the thoughts of His heart. Do we delight in it ? Is it a constant and growing pleasure to dwell upon it ? Is it our one book, studied, held up in every light, fed upon, meditated upon ? The danger is not so much that we will know the Bible intellectually only, as that we will not know it well. . Let us read it as never before. Let our thoughts be upon it "day and night," our opinions formed by it, our path marked by it. What do we know of it as yet ? The best instructed will reply, "but little." And, yet it lies open to us, inviting our search into it and assuring us that we will be most richly rewarded.

Of the results of this delight in God's word and the fruits of meditating upon it, we need only look at the tree planted by the rivers of water – fresh in leaf and yielding seasonable fruit. Is it thus with us ?

Man was made for God, and can never be truly at rest until he is with God. We know what a sense of loneliness comes over us if we have man only before us. Not even the word of God, did it not bring us into intimate fellowship with Himself, could do away with this sense of loneliness. The heart craves an object, and that object must be a living person. We are reminded of this by the last quotation at the head of this paper, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor."

In the psalm just preceding this (Psa. 60:), and which unquestionably refers to the Lord Jesus, who came to do God's will by the sacrifice of Himself, and who was brought low, even into the '' horrible pit and miry clay,"we hear Him saying, "I am poor and needy." "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich" (in glory and in honor) "yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich." Christ is the poor Man whom it is blessed to consider. Are we tempted to murmur ? Consider the poor Man, stripped of all,-poor in life, infinitely poor in death, as deprived of the smile of God,- consider all that He was deprived of, and can we murmur ? Are we tempted to be envious, vainglorious ? Again the divine remedy is in the consideration of that poor Man who did not clutch at that which was His right – to be equal with God – but resigned it all and took a servant's form; and where is the vainglory? If the Son of God has taken the lowest place, who dare take a higher? Oh, as we "survey the wondrous cross," envy, vainglory vanish; we learn, in the light of that self-abasement, to "pour contempt on all our pride."

Would not we realize more what true blessedness is did we have our adorable Lord more constantly before our souls ? Beds of languishing would be turned into places of worship did we thus consider the poor.

How full a blessing we thus have – forgiveness to give peace and liberty; the word of God and a narrow path to enjoy it in; and above all a precious Savior and Lord, who has come very near to us, and would constantly be drawing our hearts nearer to Himself. May He give all His dear people to know increasingly what a blessed portion we have.

Having been made of late afresh to realize the prevalence in certain quarters, of an insistence upon experience in such a way as to obscure and adulterate the grace of the gospel, I am induced to take it up briefly now. It will be allowed that whatever does this is important enough to claim examination at our hands. And alas, our minds are naturally so legal, that which under one form we have renounced and done with, under another we are but too prone to receive and welcome. Thus it can never be in vain to go back to first principles and to review what Scripture teaches upon a matter of so deep interest and value for our souls.

The doctrine to which I refer is this, that, in order to vindicate our claim to be Christians, we must be able to put our finger upon a certain date in our past history, and to say, "that was the moment of my conversion to God." It ought to be at once clear that Scripture makes no such demand upon any, and that therefore we have no right to add to Scripture. It ought to be clear moreover, that such an addition really obscures and perverts the gospel, changing the foundation upon which the soul rests from Christ to an experience:making many a heart sad that the Lord would not make sad, and rendering that insecure for all, which it is sought to establish.

John the Baptist, "filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb," would under such a test be declared an unconverted man:and this is alone sufficient to stamp the whole theory as false and tin-scriptural. How many may there not be, in these Christian days, in whom God has wrought from the very beginning of life in such a way as to make it impossible for them to say when they were not converted? while for how many others has conversion been so slow a process as to make them unable with any certainty to point to the time and steps of it! Souls are not always born to God amid the throes and agonies of intense conviction; and it is as great a folly to refuse the evidence for the present time of a Christianity which is otherwise distinct and trustworthy, as it would be to decide that the young man who stands in life and vigor before you was not alive, because he could not from his own experience, satisfy you as to the day of his birth.

But I go further than this, and ask in the conversion of a soul, as instantaneous and indubitable as that of Saul of Tarsus, upon what is it made to rest for peace? upon Christ Himself and the value of His work, is it not? and that entirety apart from anything in oneself whatever. Or does the convicted and repentant sinner rest upon the satisfactory nature of his conviction or repentance ? Are these the objects of faith, or is Christ the object ? And have not these their real value in forcing him outside of himself, to rest on Christ alone? This surely every one knows who knows the gospel aright. All is darkness until God reveals His Son in us; and the death of Christ, the precious blood shed, was shed for our sins and nothing else in us. As sinners, we rest in Him. "'When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

How important is it that we should be dislodged from all confidence in ourselves! how many are kept from peace just by a morbid self-occupation which, if it can find no rest in good deeds that we have done, will try and make something out of groans, and tears, and experiences ! But these lose all their value just by the effort to make value out of them. And how anxious is the Lord to assure us of how freely He receives all who come to Him,-how him that cometh unto Him He will in 110 wise cast out! " Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." Is there room here for doubt? Is not the remedy for self-deception, never to trust self?
Now, if in a true experience one has found Christ thus for one's need, is it necessary ever to turn back to the past to assure myself of title to this Christ that I have found? I need no title but His own perfect grace. I trusted Him as a sinner, when I could have no other; have I now as a saint need to reinforce this confidence by a trust in what then I renounced as trust ? Have I need of the past at all to build upon, when Christ is here and now in the present for me ?

Scripture never turns me back to past experiences to build upon, never tests things in that way. If it says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life," the proof is in the present, not the past:it is "because we love the brethren." And this is such a proof as comes from a previous and joyous confidence that we belong to the family of God,-it is the love of kinship:not anything that brought me there, or was my title to be received. Such fruits may be, and should be, pressed upon those who profess faith in Christ. More real and severe as tests than any appeal to a past history-possibly misread-they bring one face to face with his actual condition. "Faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone." "Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace." Every sweet and holy assurance, such as this last is, becomes a real test for the soul. Yet we would not escape from them. They are holy, but they are not legal. They do not show the ground of confidence, but they confirm it for the man who does confide, pointing him to results of which he will be conscious, -the holiness of grace, the fruitfulness of faith. Of such things, however feeble he may be, the true believer will be conscious. Faith and grace are what is pressed, and conscience it is that responds to the appeal :how different from the raking up of past experiences in order to question the right of present confidence! The tests used in Scripture are but the fruits and results of faith in Christ, and, rightly understood, can never shake but only confirm in it. Conscious of what faith has wrought, my rest in Christ becomes more profound. I do not need to ask if I have come honestly by what all are welcome to and besought to have.

The root of all the evil is that, in all this which I am speaking of, Christ is not really seen as offered to sinners but to saints, or at least to those who have gone through a certain quantum of preparation and fitting for Him. New birth is looked at as the ground of assurance, instead of the reception of Christ by the sinner being that ; whereas it is "to as many as receive Him, to them He gives right to be-come the children of God," while the divine explanation of how this can be is in what follows, "which were born again . . of God" (Jno. 1:)

New birth is the accomplishment of divine power in the soul,-absolutely needed for the Kingdom of God; but Christ is the Life, without the reception of which there is no birth possible. God's order then is not birth for life, but life for birth and the consequences of any other order are disastrous. Christ is then not for sinners in the full unreserved royalty of His grace, but for a class of them already begun to be changed, and finding in that change their title to Him. Assurance is the result of "introspection" therefore,-satisfaction as to this needful process, of new birth. But in this way the result is scarcely absolutely ever without doubt, and Christ is hindered from being the full occupation of the soul.

But in Scripture, new birth is never put as the gospel, or confused with it. The Lord speaks of it to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, to lay the ax at the root of his self-righteousness, and bring him to the foot of the cross; to the woman of Samaria He says nothing of it, but encourages her to the reception of God's gift of living water. Nor is it recorded that He spoke of it to any other, except as it might be involved in that eternal life which he who believed in the Son already has. And how often is that door set open!

In the epistle of John, to those who were already Christians, the moral characters of new birth are insisted on. As a means of peace or assurance to the soul it is never presented, but Christ Himself is made this, known by a faith which, as such, unites with repentance to exalt Him alone. If conversion be a "turning round" of the soul, repentance is the back turned upon self, that faith may have the Lord of glory in unobstructed vision. F. W. G.

Death is not the normal condition of the child of God. Life-in all its manifestations, both in this world and elsewhere-is what God gives. "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." "In Him we live and move and have our being." He is the "living God," and death in itself means only separation from Him. So we read, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." It is the dark accompanying shadow of sin. "The wages of sin is death."

We need not remind the reader that the death spoken of in the scriptures quoted is something more than bodily dissolution ; nor of the blessed fact, as we shall see later, that, for the child of God, the sting has been taken from death and the victory from the grave. We are simply premising this fact-that death is an abnormal thing, an interloper, if we may so speak, into God's fair creation where He pronounced all "very good; " and that now for the child of God it is not the final goal toward which he is tending, nor is the state of the blessed dead that in which they will spend eternity.

The " blessed hope " of the believer is not to spend a long and useful life in this world, then to lie peacefully down in the grave, and as to his soul, to be in heaven happy forever;-

"An honored life, a peaceful end, And heaven to crown it all."

Nowhere in the New Testament is death mentioned as the hope of the child of God, or as the inevitable close of his earthly course. He may have a desire to depart and be with Christ, as being far better than his present surroundings; he may be both confident and willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. But death is not what he looks forward to; rather life, life untrammeled, in its fullness. True he meditates much upon death, but it is the death of his Substitute, who "abolished death, and brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel." He looks back at Calvary, and sees death, his death, as he deserved to undergo it, borne by Christ; and now he looks, not at the tomb, but "steadfastly up into heaven " through the vail, which has been rent in twain. He waits, not for death, but for the Lord, who liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore, who will come in person and take all His redeemed ones up away from even bodily death. '' We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, .in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." Even the semblance of death shall not be tasted. This is the "blessed hope " (not an uncertain thing, but, as being future, something to be looked forward to) which the child of God is privileged now to enjoy.

"But," it is said, "Christians do die." Certainly, and as long as the time of Christ's patience and the long-suffering of God wait, they will continue to do so. But how soon all this may change! Who can say when the Lord will come for His own ? His own words are, " Surely I come quickly." If the adverb at the beginning of that brief sentence establishes the certainty of His coming, so the one at the close impresses us with the nearness of that coming. Not another saint may fall asleep, not another day may pass, before the "shout" shall be heard, and we shall be "clothed upon with our house which is from heaven."

And what a blessed hope this is! Can we conceive of any thing which could be added to it which would really increase its brightness ? If we know this to be true, let it be our aim to let our lives feel the power and manifest it.
But it is of this intermediate state that we would now speak, in the hope that a repetition of truths familiar perhaps to all, may soothe some grief-burdened heart, for the Lord has sorrowing people here, and few have lived on into maturity some years who have not felt the pang of parting from dear ones, and yearned for true comfort. How good it is that in the precious Word of God we have the amplest comfort. He who is "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort " meeting the mourner, and ready here to "wipe away all tears" for faith, as He will actually do it in the day of His power.

"Absent from the body" gives us the negative side, upon which we will first dwell a little. The body is the mortal, and the only mortal, part of man:'' your mortal body " reminds us of the word to Adam, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." He was dust as to his body, not as to the spirit which God breathed into him, and which made man a "living soul." Until sin came in, there was no hint that the body was mortal, and it would never have come under the power of death had man continued unfallen. Sin, and death by sin, is the order, reminding us of the terrible folly of man in departing from the living God,-a folly which God has overruled in grace, and brought in by redemption greater blessings than we lost in Eden. So when we speak of a mortal body, we are reminded of the sin that made the body mortal. This is the connection in the words quoted- "Let not sin reign in your mortal body." (Rom. 6:12.) To be absent, then, from the mortal body means to be absent from the presence of sin. Here we have one of the greatest blessings brought by death. To be sure, even now faith should so enter into the reality of Christ's death that we should "reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin." But when a child of God is absent from the body, he no longer reckons himself to be dead to sin; he literally is, and so is away from its presence. Apart from Christ's death, by which He "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," it is needless to say that the death of the child of God would give no deliverance. Through grace, the believer may and should enjoy deliverance from the power of sin in this life. But who is there who must not say with James, "In many things, we all offend "? and with Paul "buffet the body and bring it into subjection,"-by the Spirit mortify its deeds? But at death this is all changed. The body is left, and no longer needs to be watched and kept in subjection. The old nature which lurked in that body, "the flesh,'' named from its dwelling-place, is laid aside too, and the spirit is at length perfectly free from the power and the presence of sin. To the one who longs for likeness to God, to be absolutely conformed to the image of His Son, what joy does death bring! The world may look upon it with horror, but the believer can say, as one did, "How have I dreaded as an enemy this smiling friend! "

No more sin, no desire, or the least motion toward it; that is what the believer gets at death. As the shorter catechism says, "The souls of believers are at death made perfect in holiness;" and while we desire no creed to mold our faith, it is well to recognize the faith of those who wrote that sentence.

But absence from the body suggests other thoughts. The body is our link with this world-a world full of groans and sorrows. If the saint is to "rejoice in the Lord always," he is also sorrowing. God's fair world has become a place of signs. "The whole creation groaneth;" we, who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan too. Unless we blind our eyes and harden our hearts, there is enough misery here to make the heart ache from sheer pity. Then our individual sorrows-and the heart knoweth its own bitterness,-all these things are voiced in that word, " We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." To be absent from the body means to be free from these sorrows. It means to be free from the surroundings of earth and earth's circumstances.

But those who are absent from the body have left its infirmities and pains behind. It is sad to see the limitations which hamper so many-a frail body, oft-recurring pain and sickness, and the infirmities of old; age. To leave the body is to leave all these infirmities and pains; and while we should and do get good out of such trials, what a relief it is to be beyond the need and so beyond the fact of having them!

But we have been only looking at the negative side of death-at what we leave. We come now to dwell upon the positive side-at what we reach. It is summed up in one word-"Present with the Lord." That means every thing. '' In Thy presence is full-of joy." Death is a gloomy thing to those here, but to the one who departs it is fullness of joy. Stephen met death by stoning,-that was the earth-side view. He looked up into heaven and '' saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." That was the heaven-side view. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"-he is "absent from the body and at home with the Lord." What an exchange! the blessedness of the Lord's presence for the cursings and stones of the Jews. No wonder that he could say, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."

Do we know Christ ? Then we know something of the blessedness of being with Him. Redemption, as made known by the Spirit, fills the heart with peace and joy. With Christ, its fullness will be more deeply known. The person of the Lord, as known now, is most precious. With Him, He becomes better known, and therefore more deeply loved. The limits here are removed there, and the whole time is taken up with Him. If one hour of communion here is so sweet that the savor of it lingers, what shall we say of that uninterrupted fellowship with the Son-learning the depths of His love, the wonders of His grace ? If it seems a sort of blank to us, does not that tell how little we enjoy Him here ? Little wonder was it that Paul, whose whole heart went out in love to Christ, and his whole life in service, could say, "Having a desire to depart and be with, Christ, which is better." How such words as those silence at once the suggestion that death is unconsciousness, a sleep of the soul. Would it be far better for Paul, who enjoyed Christ as he did, in the midst of trial, to become unconscious, to be practically extinct ? Never. It was far better to die, because he would then be with the One he loved, and away from all else, at leisure to enjoy Him as he sought to enjoy Him here.

And now, as we realize the blessed portion of those that are asleep, can we not give God thanks that they are with the Lord, in heaven, for He is there and they are with Him ? As bereaved we mourn, but we arc not to sorrow "as others who have no hope." We can look at death and say, "O death, where is thy sting ?" Christ has taken away the sting, which is sin. We can look at the grave and say, "O grave, where is thy victory?" Christ has won the victory, and by His resurrection has left us an open grave with the way out. May not all God's sorrowing people learn to rejoice at the blessing which the sleeping saints enjoy ? And would not this spirit of joy and praise be as a tonic to enable them to pick up afresh the duties of this life, and to go on, with firmness and progress, in the path appointed. And it is only a very little while. The Lord Himself will soon come. There will be no more mourning then; but now is the time of trial and of opportunity, to suffer and to do for Him, who suffered and did so much for us.

" When the weary ones we love
Enter on their rest above;
When their words of love and cheer
Fall no longer on our ear;
Hush! be every murmur dumb,
It is only 'till He come.' "

" The land was not able to bear them"-Abraham and Lot. " Go from us; thou are mightier than we," said the Philistines to Isaac. " The land wherein they were strangers could not hold them, because of their cattle "-Esau and Jacob.

Why should that land which held without being burdened the teaming populations of David and Solomon's time be unable to support two men ? Doubtless, they did not do much in the way of cultivating the soil, and its natural yield of grass might be exhausted by the numerous number of cattle they kept. This is said to be so in the case of Jacob and Esau, and intimated in that of Abraham and Lot. But spiritually the meaning for us is plain. Abraham was the man of faith; Lot, the man of sight. Jacob, with all his follies, prized the birthright of God's blessing, while Esau despised the one and really did not care for the other. With Isaac the case is plain. There was, then, nothing in heart common between these men, and so their ways of necessity parted.

So it is to-day. The spiritual and carnal Christian can no more walk together than could Abraham and Lot. There will be abundant opportunity for this heart-divergence to crop out. One cause is as good as another. "How can two walk together except they be agreed ? " Here is the root of much schism among Christians. Some are spiritual and some walk as men.

Nor can the flesh and spirit be welded together, whether it be the rough self-will of Esau, or the professed obedience of the Philistine. One must give place to the other :which shall be master ?

But the land, thank God, will bear all who have the heart to live on it. Its hills and valleys will yield the " finest of the wheat," its very rocks give honey. If there are partings and separations, let us be sure the cause is in ourselves, not in the Christian position.

The Lord give us one heart to prove the fertility of the land He has given us to sustain all His people.

(Continued from p. 277.)

CONCLUSION.

I have now traced some of the features of the moral glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He represented man to God-man as he ought to be, and God rested in him.

This moral perfectness of the man Christ Jesus, and God's acceptance of Him, was signified by the meat-offering, that cake of fine flour, which was baked either in oven, pan, or frying-pan, with its oil and its frankincense. (Lev. 2:)

When the Lord Jesus was here, and thus manifested as man to God, God's delight in Him was ever expressing itself. He grew up before Him in human nature, and in the exhibition of all human virtues; and He needed nothing at any one moment to commend Him but Himself, just as He was. In His person and ways man was morally glorified, so that when the end, or perfection, of His course came, He could go "straightway" to God, as the sheaf of first-fruits of old was taken directly and immediately, just as it was, out of the field, needing no process to fit it for the presence and acceptance of God. (Lev. 23:10.) The title of Jesus to glory was a moral one. He had a moral right to be glorified; his title was in Himself. John 13:31, 32 is the blessed setting forth bf this in its due connection. " Now is the Son of Man glorified," the Lord there says, just as Judas had left the table; for that action of Judas was the sure precursor of the Lord's being taken by the Jews, and that was the sure precursor of His being put to death by the Gentiles. And the cross being the completeness and perfection of the full form of moral glory in Him, it was at this moment He utters these words, "Now is the Son of Man glorified." Then He adds, "and God is glorified in Him."

God was as perfectly glorified then as the Son of Man was, though the glory was another glory. The Son of Man was glorified then by His completing that full form of moral beauty which had been shining in Him all through His life. Nothing of it was then to be wanting, as nothing from the beginning up to that late hour had ever mingled with it that was unworthy of it. The hour was then at hand when it was to shine out in the very last ray that was to give it its full brightness. But God was also glorified then, because all that was of Him was either maintained or displayed. His rights were maintained, His goodness displayed. Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, were alike and equally either satisfied or gratified. God's truth, holiness, love, majesty, and all beside were magnified in a way, and illustrated in a light, beyond all that could ever have been known of them elsewhere. The cross, as one has said, is the moral wonder of the universe.

But then, again, the Lord adds, " If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself; and shall straightway glorify Him." This is His recognition of His own title to personal glory. He had already perfected the full form of moral glory through life and in death. He had also vindicated God's glory, as we have seen. Therefore it was but a righteous thing that He should now enter on His own personal glory. And this He did when He took His place in heaven, at the right hand of the majesty there, as in company with God Himself, and all that at once, or "straightway."

God's work as Creator had been quickly soiled in man's hand. Man had ruined himself; so that it is written, "God repented that he had made man." (Gen. 6:) A terrible change in the Divine mind since the day when God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good! (Gen. 1:) But in the Lord Jesus the Divine complacency in man was restored.

This was blessed! and the more acceptable, as we may say, from the previous repentance. It was more than first enjoyment, it was recovery after loss and disappointment; and that, too, in a way exceeding the first. And as the first man, upon his sin, had been put outside creation, as I may say, this second man (being, as He also was, "the Lord from heaven "), upon His glorifying of God, was seated at the head of creation, at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Jesus is in heaven as a glorified man because here on earth God had been glorified in Him as the obedient One in life and death. He is there, indeed, in other characters. Surely we know that. He is there as a Conqueror, as an Expectant, as the High Priest in the tabernacle which God has pitched, as our Forerunner, and as the Purger of our sins. But He is there also, in the highest heavens glorified, because in Him God had been here on earth glorified.

Life and glory were His by personal right and by moral title. One delights to dwell on such a truth, to repeat it again and again. He never forfeited the garden of Eden. Truly indeed did He walk outside it all His days, or amid the thorns and briers, the sorrows and privations, of a ruined world. But this He did in grace. He took such a condition upon Him; but He was not exposed to it. He was not, like Adam, like us all, on one side of the cherubim and the flaming sword, and the tree of life and the garden of Eden on the other. In His history, instead of angels keeping Him outside or beyond the gate, when He had gone through His temptation they come and minister to Him. For He stood where Adam failed and fell. Therefore, man as He was, verily and simply man, He was this distinguished man. God was glorified in Him, as in all beside He had been dishonored and disappointed.

In one sense, this perfectness of the Son of man, this moral perfectness, is all for us. It lends its savor to the blood which atones for our sins. It was as the cloud of incense which went in to the presence of God, together with the blood, on the day of atonement. (Lev. 16:)

But in another sense this perfection is too much for us. It is high; we cannot attain to it. It overwhelms the moral sense as far as we look at it in the recollection of what we ourselves are, while it fills us with admiration as far as we look at it as telling us what He is. The personal judicial glory, when displayed of old, was overwhelming. The most favored of the children of men could not stand before it, as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; and Peter and John experienced the same. And this moral glory, in like manner exposing us, is overwhelming.

Faith, however, is at home in the presence of it. The god of this world blinds the mind to the apprehension and joy of it; but faith welcomes it. Such are the histories of it here among men, In the presence of it Pharisees and Sadducees together asked for a sign from heaven. The mother, through vanity, mistakes it, and the brethren of the Lord through worldliness. (John 2:7.) Disciples themselves are under constant rebuke from it. The oil-olive beaten for this light was too pure for any; but it was ever burning in the sanctuary, or "before the Lord." The synagogue at Nazareth strikingly lets us learn the unpreparedness of man for it. They owned the gracious words which proceeded out of the Lord's lips ; they felt the power of them. But quickly a strong current of nature's corruption set in and withstood this movement in their hearts, and overcame it. God's humbled, self-emptied witness, in the midst of a proud, revolted world, was discovered; and this would not do for them. Let "Joseph's son " speak as He may, good words and comfortable words, He will not be accepted-He is a carpenter's son. (Luke 4:) It is wonderful-wonderful witness of the deep, inlaid corruption. Man has his amiabilities, his taste, his virtues, his sensibilities, as this scene at Nazareth, in Luke 4:, may tell us. The gracious words of Jesus raised a current of good feeling for a moment; but what was it all, and where was it all, when God tested it ? Ah, beloved, we may still say, in spite of this, our amiability and respectability, our taste and emotions, that in us (that is, in our flesh) "dwelleth no good thing ! "

But again, I say, faith is at home with Jesus. Can we, I ask, treat such a One with fear or suspicion? Can we doubt Him ? Could we have taken a distant place from Him who sat at the well with the woman of Sychar ? Did she herself take such a place ? Surely, beloved, we should seek intimacy
with Him. The disciples who companied with Him have to learn their lessons again and again. We know something of this. They had to make discovery of Him afresh, instead of enjoying Him as already discovered. In the fourteenth of Matthew they had to cry out, " Of a truth thou art the Son of God!" This was discovering Him afresh. Had their faith been simple, they would have slept in the boat with Him. What a scene it was, to their shame and His glory! They spoke insultingly or reproachfully to the Lord, as though He were indifferent to their danger:" Master, carest Thou not that we perish ? " He awoke at the sound of their voice, and at once set them in safety. But then, He rebukes them, not, however, for the injustice their hard words had done Him, but for their want of faith.

How perfect was this ! How perfect, surely, was everything; and each in its generation!-the human virtues, the fruits of the anointing that was on Him, and His divine glories. The natures in the one Person are unconfused; but the effulgence of the divine is chastened, the homeliness of the human is elevated. There is nothing like this, there could be nothing like this, in the whole creation. And yet the human was human, and the divine was divine. Jesus slept in the boat:He was man. Jesus quelled the winds and the waves :He was God.

This moral glory must shine. Other glories must give place till this is done. The Greeks, who had come to worship in Jerusalem at the feast, inquire after Jesus, desiring to see Him. This savored of the kingdom, or of the royal glory of the Messiah. It was a sample of that day when the nations shall come up to the city of the Jews to keep holy day, and when, as King in Zion, He shall be Lord of all and God of the whole earth.

But there was a secret deeper than this. It needs a juster sense of God's way than simply to be expecting a kingdom. The Pharisees needed that, when in Luke 17:they asked the Lord when the kingdom should appear. He had to tell them of another kingdom, which they did not apprehend-a kingdom within, a present kingdom, which had to be entered and known ere the glorious manifested kingdom could appear. The disciples needed it in Acts 1:, when they asked their Lord if He would at that time restore the kingdom to Israel. He had to tell them, also, of another thing ere the restoration could take place-that they were to be gifted by the Spirit for testimony to Him all the world over.

So here in John 12:The Lord lets us know that moral glory must precede the kingdom. He will surely shine in the glory of the throne by and by, and the Gentiles shall then come to Zion, and see the King in His beauty; but ere that could be, the moral glory must be displayed in all its fullness and unsulliedness. And this was His thought now, when the Gentiles had inquired after Him. "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." This was His moral glory, as we have said before, in John 13:31, 32. It had been shining all through His ways, from His birth hitherto; His death was to be the completeness of it; and therefore the hour was then at hand when it was to shine out in the last ray that was to form it and give it perfection. The Lord thus supplies or introduces on this occasion, as He did, as we have seen, in Luke 17:and in Acts 1:, the truth, the additional truth, which needs the richer, juster sense of God's ways to apprehend. The moral glory must be fully displayed ere Messiah can show Himself in royal glory to the ends of the earth.

It is, however, His, and His only. How infinitely distant from one's heart is any other thought! When the heavens opened, in Acts 10:, the sheet was seen descending ere Peter was commanded to have fellowship with it, or ere it ascended and was lost or hid again on high. The contents of it had to be cleansed, or sanctified. But when the heaven was opened, in Matt, 3:, Jesus on earth needed not to be taken up to be approved there, but voices and visions from on high sealed and attested Him just as He was. " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

And when the heavens were opened again, as in Matt, 27:, that is, when the vail of the temple was rent in twain, all was finished, nothing more was needed, the work of Jesus was sealed and attested just as it then was. An opened heaven at the beginning shone out in the full acceptance of His person; an opened heaven at the end shone out in full acceptance of His work.

And let me close in saying that it is blessed and happy, as well as part of our worship, to mark the characteristics of the Lord's way and ministry here on the earth, as I have been seeking in measure to do in this paper; for all that He did and said, all His service, whether in the substance or the style of it, is the witness of what He was, and He is the witness to us of what God is. And thus we reach God, the blessed One, through the paths of the Lord Jesus, in the pages of the evangelists. Every step of that way becomes important to us. All that He did and said was a real, truthful expression of Himself, as He Himself was a real, truthful expression of God. And if we can understand the character of His ministry, or read the moral glory that attaches to each moment and each particular of His walk and service here on earth, and so learn what He is, and thus learn what God is, we reach God, in certain and unclouded knowledge of Him, through the ordinary paths and activities of the life of this divine Son of man.

IN ITS APPLICATION TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION. (Daniel 5:)

[No apology can be needed for putting forth at this time a reprint of this tract, from the pen of a servant of the Lord now gone to be with the One who loved him, and whom he loved.

The tract was originally written to call attention to what was being made manifest of the world's tendencies at the Great Exhibition in London (1851). That the "World's Fair," now opened to. the public, is a great advance on the original needs no proof, and the principles and truths set forth in this tract are of increasing importance as the end draws near. No one doubts that the world has advanced with rapid strides since 1851:but in what as to real moral value? Certainly not in peace and order, but assuredly in the reverse of all this, and of all that is estimable.

The growling of the storm soon to burst upon a deceived world, when the Lamb in the midst of the throne takes the seven-sealed book of judgment out of the hand of the thrice-holy God, may almost be heard:whilst faith looks with increased longing for the One whose promise is, "Behold, I come quickly."

May the reader of these pages be able to say unfeignedly, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

If this tract is used of the Lord to help some of His beloved people, who may have been carried away by the infectious spirit of the age, to discern the path of separation that befits them, the object of its re-issue will be attained.-R. T. G.]

While Jeremiah was left at Jerusalem to witness the course of moral corruption there, and to warn of coming judgments, and while Ezekiel was among the remnant in the place of discipline or of righteousness on the river Chebar, Daniel is set among the Gentiles, even at Babylon, to learn the history and the ways of the Gentile, or the world.

We may see in this his first six chapters, which constitute the first part of the book. In chap. 1:we see the Gentile, or the world, set up. Then, in chap, 2:, we get the same system-the world, in its political career onward to the kingdom, figured in the great image, seen in all its parts, from its head of gold to its toes of clay-iron ; and judged, in the appointed hour, by the stone which becomes a mountain, to occupy the scene of power all the world over with an untransferable kingdom. Then, in the four following chapters, the stories of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius give us the moral course of the world. In Nebuchadnezzar, we get a persecuting power, connected with human religion or idolatry. The king sets up an image and demands the worship of it on pain of the fiery furnace. The righteous refuse and suffer. In Belshazzar, we get the easy, worldly, self-indulgent thing, with contempt of religion. The king makes a feast, worshiping all that which ministered to his pleasures. The righteous are utter strangers to it all. In Darius we get a persecuting power again, but it is in connection with self-exaltation. The king makes an interdict, that none are to be treated as God but himself, for so many days, on pain of the lion's den. The righteous again refuse and suffer.

These are plain and sure distinctions in the progress of Gentile iniquity. And it may strike us, I judge, very clearly that we are at present rather in the day of Belshazzar. Persecution and idol-service gave character to the preceding day, and persecution and the deification of man to the day which followed ; but all was easy indifference, with thorough satisfaction in the present things of the world, in the day of Belshazzar. Refusal and consequent suffering form the path or history of the righteous in the times of the idolatrous, persecuting Nebuchadnezzar, and of the self-exalting, persecuting Darius ; but in the times of Belshazzar, perfect and thorough separation is the place of the saints of God.

There is a voice for us in all this. Daniel is not seen at the feast. And there is one, though not in his strength yet much in his spirit, who is absent also-the queen, the king's mother. The king is ignorant of the man of God who was then in his dominions. He is also unmindful of the doings of God which had been in the same dominions in the days of his father. But the queen has recollections and knowledge of these things, and she is a stranger to his feast.

Is not the question, then, with us to be this :Who is the separated one now? Who is going to the king's feast ? or who, in the light of the Lord, is separated from it? The present is an easy, self-indulgent, worldly moment. The gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of wood, and of iron are praised. All the capabilities in the world to make a feast are produced, and displayed and gloried in. Social accommodation and social delights are the great object. Man's works, the fruit of his skill and the resources of his country, adorn and furnish the scene, and are the host of the feast, that which gathers and entertains. Man is providing the joy of this awful hour in the world's history-awful indeed, not in the judgments or sorrows which are upon it, but in the moral principles which are quickening it. The captivity of Zion was heedlessly forgotten by Belshazzar, and the vessels of God's temple were profaned. The operations of His hands were not considered, but the wine and the tabret were in his feast. So now ; the rejection of Christ is by common consent forgotten, that man may meet his fellow, greet him with a common joy and with a common welcome, because they are all of one earth, of the same world, of kindred flesh and blood ; and all God's claims on His elect and testimony against the world are thrown together, as what for a season must be passed by till the feast-day is kept.

Where, then, again I ask, is the separated one ? Where is Daniel? Where is the king's mother? The feast does not attract either of them, though they may be in different measures of strength. Daniel knew the character of it before the judgment of it was pronounced. He does not wait for the fingers of the man's hand to put him into his place in relation to it. He is not moved by the mysterious writing on the wall. Sudden destruction, as a thief in the night, does not come upon him. He and his companion, though "a weaker vessel," are, in the spirit of their minds, in the place from whence these fingers were sent-they were ''children of light and children of the day." The judgment upon the feast had no terror for them, for they were not at the feast. They had judged it already. Their separation was not sleep. " They that sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night." But they were no more indifferent to it than taking their pleasure at it. Their separation, therefore, as I said, was not sleep. In a divine sense they watched and were sober, (i Thess. 5:3.) In the separated place Daniel knew the judgment of God about it all, long before the writing on the wall announced it to the world. All this is full of meaning for us.

I am not going to say that the form of evil which Belshazzar's day presents is the worst. Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol before that day, and Darius set up himself after it. The fiery furnace was heated for the saints in the former reign, and the lion's den was open for them in the latter. The day of Belshazzar witnessed nothing of this. The abomination in the plain of Dura did not demand worship then, neither did the royal statute forbid worship toward Jerusalem then. But still there is something in Belshazzar himself, if not in his day, which especially provoked the Spirit of the Lord. Daniel can feel for Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar is brought to a right repentant mind, and the judgment of God is reversed. Daniel too can feel for Darius, and Darius is seen in humbled gracious meltings of soul, and we can all pity him-pity him when we see him unwittingly involved in results which a moment's vanity and easiness of nature had led to. But from us Belshazzar gets no kindly movement of heart, from the Spirit of God in Daniel nothing but stern rebuke, and from the hand of God nothing but swift destruction, the fingers on the wall announcing it, and the sword of the Median executing it. " In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain."

He was the easy man of the of the world. He despised all religious fear. What he worshiped was his pleasures, the gods of silver, of brass, and of gold, the vessels which could fill out his entertainments and make provision for his lusts. He did not summon the world to either his idol or himself, but to his board and to his holiday. Nebuchadnezzar makes an image, Darius a royal decree, Belshazzar a feast. But Jerusalem and her sorrows are forgotten, the temple and its furniture despised. The wonders which the God of Jerusalem and of the temple had freshly wrought in the land were all a dream or a fiction with him, and the very spoils of His house he can use in making merry with his friends.

This was easy worldliness-the heartless way of man who can forget God's wonders, and the rejection and humiliation of Christ. And all this is terrible. The harp, and the pipe, and the tabret are in such feasts; but the operations of God's hands are forgotten. Till now the vessels of God's house had been held in some fear and honor. But now they are profaned and made to serve the lusts of the king. God had ordained them to witness the separation of His priestly nation, and His own worship in the midst of His people; but the king makes them the instruments of his sport.

And what, I ask, is the effort to deck out the world, to enjoy it. and to boast of it, while Jesus is rejected by its citizens? Is it not a thing in kindred spirit with this? The rejection of Christ is forgotten, yea, despised-for that is gloried in and displayed which continues the word, "We will not have this Man to reign over us." Is not this somewhat of taking of the choice vessels of God's house, in the very day of their captivity, to make merry with them ?

The present moment may surely thus remind us of Belshazzar's feast. Gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, and of wood are praised ; the resources and capabilities of the world are displayed, thoughtless of its rejection of Christ. And are any of the captivity at the king's feast? Israel was captive together with the vessels of the temple. Would any of them be so thoughtless as to make merry with the king who was despising the spoils of that house ? Would any of the servants of the rejected nobleman take part with the citizens in setting forth the wonders of their blood-stained land? (See Luke 19:)

The mind turns with these thoughts to the present moment. It cannot refuse to give itself, in some sort and in some measure, to the subject of The Great Exhibition. It would not be fit that it should be indifferent to it-for it is no common sign of the time and ought to be morally judged.

It will be pleaded for. No doubt of it. It will be said that it is designed to encourage brotherhood among the nations, and to promote the great business of social comfort and happiness as wide as the human family. But, I ask, are these God's objects ? God has scattered the nations, and never proposes to gather them till He gathers them to Shiloh. God would have us strangers here, "content with such things as we have," without making it our business to increase or improve them. God would have us testify against the world in its present condition, and therefore neither flatter it nor reconcile it to itself, nor glory in its capabilities. The Exhibition is therefore in full collision with the mind of God. Christ exposes the world; the Exhibition displays it. Christ would alarm it, and call it to a sense of judgment; the Exhibition makes it on better terms with itself than ever.

It is indeed a mighty advance in all the apostate reprobate principles of man. Efforts of a like kind we may be familiar with, but they are commonplace in comparison with this. As prophets speak, touching advance in the ways of evil, this is indeed "adding drunkenness to thirst."

I regard all admiration of it as a step in the way to "wonder after the beast." That will be but a further expression of the same mind ; and how serious, if evangelical religion be sending its contributions to it, or becoming one of the exhibiters at it ! Deep must be the infatuation. To tell the world one day what it is in God's esteem, and the next day to become one of the wonderers after its resources and capacities ! Admiration like this savors of worship.

Like the old prophet at Bethel, when a saint is in a place or a position unwarranted by the call of God, the enemy will find easy occasion to use him. Still I own, when I think of it, it is to me wonderful that a Christian should find satisfaction in this thing. That it is an awful advance in the development of those evil principles which are to mark the day of Christendom's ripened iniquity, I have not the least doubt.

The Lord of old scattered the nations. (See Gen. 11:) This was judgment on a bold attempt of theirs, when they were of one speech and one language, to make themselves independent of God. And has He reversed that judgment? There is an appointed time when it shall be reversed. Jerusalem shall be a center, and Shiloh a gathering-object. The nations will flock to Zion, there to see the King in His beauty. And none of them there, we may say, shall appear before the Lord empty. The tributes of all the lands shall beautify the place of God's sanctuary. The fruits of Midian and of Ephah shall be there-gold and incense from Sheba, the flocks of Keclar, and the rams of Nebaioth, the glory of Lebanon, the forces of all the Gentiles. All shall flock there, like doves to their windows, and kings shall minister there. Gold, too, shall be for brass, silver for iron, brass for wood, and iron for stones. All shall be for glory and beauty in the earth then. But this is still future. This is for "the world to come," after the Redeemer has come out of Zion, and turned away ungodliness from Jacob. See Is. 59:and Rom. 11:

The reversing of the judgment of scattering at Babel is left for the kingdom of God at Jerusalem. He that scattered must gather. He is Lord of the nations. "The powers that be are ordained of God." It is His pleasure that they should be scattered nations still; for one universal monarchy is appointed of God for Jesus only-as it is written, " Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." " His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth."

The name of Jesus was, indeed, proposed as a gathering-object in the day of Pentecost. Tongues were then cloven, as they had been at Babel; but it was to reunite what had been already severed. But this proposal, like every other on God's part to man, was disappointed. The hard unbelieving heart did this. And what is man now proposing? He who refused God's proposal to gather to Jesus, in the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, is proposing to gather to himself. He will exalt himself as at Babel. He will be independent of God.' He will be like the Most High. The beast will issue his decree on pain of death, his mark will be received on the forehead, and all the world will wonder after him. (Rev. 13:) This is in the prospect of the world's history. He who will not let Christ be exalted will seek to exalt himself. And such an one is man.

Isaiah, anticipating in the Spirit the last days, warns the people of God against saying, "A confederacy," in common with the world around them. (Chap, 8:) And I ask myself and others, Do we, in deed and in faith, receive these notices from the prophets? Do we judge that man will thus exalt himself and confederate-thus gather round himself ? And if we treat these warnings of the character of the last days as divine, can we doubt, from all we see and hear, that man has already begun to practice his hand in kindred attempts, in efforts which shall issue in all this?

The facilities and the speed in linking the nations one with another is now well known. It is used and gloried in. And what is this " Great Exhibition " but another trying of his skill in forwarding the main leading purpose of man's heart? No doubt it suits the spirit which is moving all this to have it under the sanction of religion. When he can use it for his own ends, nothing suits the devil better. He would fain have had Christ exalt Himself under the sanction of Ps. 91:And again and again he would have acknowledged Christ had He allowed it, as the spirit of divination would have witnessed to Christ's servant had he received it. (Acts 16:) But this could not be. The beast, however, will have his false prophet. He will use religion for his own ends. But divine religion takes us only into God's ends ; and it teaches us this (with the authority of the real intrinsic holiness of such a principle):we can have no fellowship with that against which we are called to testify. (Eph. 5:2:)

Nor can we say that the judgment we form on this matter is a small or an indifferent thing. It is not so. The subject is well fitted to exercise the judgment of a saint of God. It is eminently so, I believe. His mind generally will be much affected by his sense of this thing and his decision respecting it. The mind can become dull; the eye gets dim betimes ; and if such a process as that be going on, the next attempt of the enemy finds us less prepared. And, I ask, is not all that dangerous, when delusions are multiplying as they are and as they will?

We are counseled to buy eye-salve of Christ, that we may see. That is something beyond or beside faith and confession of the gospel. Laodicea had the common faith, and in a sense boasted of it, but Laodicea wanted eye-salve. And sure I am that let this great shop of the world's ware expose what it may, that eye-salve is the very thing which will not-cannot be had there. It is the article which would detect the whole character of the place, and it could not, therefore, be had there. It is a palace. Man is not enthroned there as God, it is true. Things among the children of men are not quite ripe for that yet. It is not a temple where man sits, showing himself as God (2 Thess. 2:); but man's works are displayed there. Man's art is enthroned there, and man expects to be admired and wondered at there, and thousands enter it (as another has observed) in the spirit of doing homage to man. It is a mirror in which the world is reflected in a thousand attractive forms, and the unworldly, humbled, earth-rejected Jesus is forgotten. Jesus may be named there, it is true, but an unworldly Jesus is practically forgotten there.
It is, indeed, as I surely judge, solemnly, awfully significant. It is full of the spirit of the last days. This palace for man's productions to be gazed at is but a stage before the temple for man himself to sit in, and admiration of it is getting a generation ready, morally ready, to "wonder after the beast." One is amazed that any Christian can find the least satisfaction in it.

This Exhibition (for it calls itself by that significant name) in its way shows all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. It does not hide this. It professes to do this. Like John Bunyan's Vanity Fair, there is the Italian row, and the German row, and the English row. It has human skill and resources in all variety, and from all lands. It presents the kingdoms of the world, and "the glory of them." And who, I ask, was it that did this before ? The Spirit led the Son of God into " the wilderness "-a place of strangership and pilgrimage, but the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.

The world, according to the Scriptures of God, is a lost and a judged thing. It is incapable of recovery. The Word of God does not, in a single passage of it, warrant the thought that it can be advanced or cultivated for God. He has judged it-though in grace the judgment tarries, and the long-suffering of God is salvation. But the world is a system past all hope of recovery, till the judgment be executed. But confederacy is an attempt to fix the world in its present condition, to settle it, though it be in departure from God and in enmity against Christ. This was the thought at Babel of old.

Separation of His own out of the world is God's way now. And this separation is the deepest and most thorough judgment that could be passed upon the world. This is a more complete judgment of it than by the waters of the flood, or by the plagues of Egypt, or by the sword of Joshua. The withdrawal or separation of all that God owns bespeaks final thoughts about the world, and not merely a purifying of it from present corruptions, as by the waters of Noah, in order to put it on a fresh trial. The trial of it is over, the judgment of it is pronounced, and the delay is but for the salvation of the elect. The attitude of the Church,-that is, separation from the earth, and heavenly calling, tells us of the full moral condemnation of the course of things here. And thus the Church judges the world. Her position and calling does so.

The " servants " of the departed " nobleman " very well know that the country of the "citizens" has very great resources and very great capabilities ; and they know that in due season such will be both used and displayed. But they cannot allow this thought while that country is as it is now-stained with the blood of their rejected Master. The cry, "We will not have this man to reign over us," is ever in their ears. And with that cry from the land, can they, in company with the "citizens" who raised it and still keep it up (for the character of the world, as we have said from Scripture, is unalterably fixed), be occupied in investigating and producing the treasures of their country and the skill of its people, and glory in the thought of the common advancement?

They cannot, when alive to the character of the place where they are, and awake, as they should ever be, to the cry which followed the rejected Jesus as He left it- they cannot. The cup of the Lord's indignation is to go round the nations, and they must drink it. An awful reverse this will be from Belshazzar passing the wine among his courtiers and concubines in the cups of the Lord's house. And solemn it is in those nations feasting and praising the gods of gold, and of silver, of iron, of brass, and of wood, while such a handwriting as that is on the wall against them. If not on the walls of the palace, it is in the books of the prophets. (Ps. 75:; Jer. 25:)

Incorruption, I may say, cannot inherit corruption. The spotless Jesus cannot hold an unpurged dominion. The woman of Rev. 17:glorifies herself, and lives deliciously in the earth during that very time in which the judgment of God is awaiting it; but the bride of Rev. 21:does not become manifested in the earth till it has been cleansed and is ready, not for the judgment of the Lord, but for the presence of the glory.

There is infinite moral distance there. The world must be judged ere it can be adopted of God. The earth must be purified before it can be furnished and adorned for Him. This has been again and again transacted in the progress of the divine government. Noah, God's saint and representative, took the earth to rule and to enjoy it, but it had previously passed through the purifying of the flood. Israel, God's people and witnesses, took the land of Canaan to possess and enjoy it, but it had been judged by the sword of Joshua. And according to these types, the earth is to be cleansed ; out of the kingdom is to be taken all that offends and does iniquity ere Jesus will take the power.

Ornament and furniture well becomes it, for it is the Lord's footstool. Eden had not only its plants, and trees, and fruits, and flowers ; but its gold, its bdellium, and its onyx stones. Solomon, in typical days of glory, trafficked in all desirable riches. And the millennial Jerusalem will receive all the treasures of the provinces. (Is. 60:) But the present age is not millennial; the earth is not yet an extended Eden. Corruption is not judged; the things that offend and do iniquity are not taken away, nor is there any divine commission to that end. The field of tares is not to be cleansed now-it waits for the angels and the time of harvest. The saint submits to "the powers that be," knowing that "God" will stand in the congregation of them for judgment in due season. (Comp. Rom. 13:i with Ps. 82:1:)

It is despite of the holiness of God, we may therefore say, to be presenting this evil world in its ornaments and furniture, in its resources and capabilities, as this exhibition is doing. And it is also despite of the wrongs and sorrows of Christ. The citizens who have cast outside their city and country the blessed Son of God, are exhibiting what their country can produce, and what their hands can skillfully weave and fashion. I ask, could a servant of such a rejected Master aid and encourage such things ? Could he be a servant a moment beyond the time that he thus practically forgot his Lord's rejection here ? He could not. He might, indeed, be a useful member of society, and serve his generation in their generation well ; but a servant of Christ (properly speaking) he could not be if once he forgot the world's rejection of Christ ; and acceptance of the invitation of the citizens (see Luke 19:) to come and rejoice with them in the resources of their country and the skill of their people, would at once be such forgetfulness.

The sorrow and humbling of a saint is that he remembers the rejection of his Master so coldly, and acts on that great fact so poorly. But to have it estranged from the soul so as to consent to take part with the citizens from one end of the world to the other, in a great confederated effort to display the world as a wealthy and desirable place-to do this in full and hearty fellowship with all, on the ground of the common humanity, is confounding light and darkness, Christ and Belial. The language of the whole thing is this,-We will forget, at least for a season, the claims and sorrows of Jesus, and have a holiday with the world that has rejected Him.
Has so little "eye-salve" been bought of Christ as to leave the saints in such a blinded condition of soul as this? "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." When Daniel and his companions entered the place of the Gentiles, they carried one purpose of heart with them, that they would not defile themselves with the king's meat. (Dan. 1:8.) He knew not what this might cost him, but this was his purpose. He had bought this eye-salve of Christ, ere he stood among the uncircumcised. And in the strength of the Lord, he and his dear companions stood. The fiery furnace and the lion's den witness the victory of men strengthened by Christ; "nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us." And so at Belshazzar's feast. Daniel entered it as a conqueror, as he afterward entered the lion's den. He had no affinity with the feast-not a bit. He was, in the day of it, as we have seen, a separated man. But he was called to it, and he entered the banqueting hall as a conqueror. The king who was there promised to make him "the third ruler in the kingdom." " Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another," said the servant of Christ. He was as much a conqueror in the day of the feast, as he was in the day of the lion's den.

Noble attitude of a saint of God ! Could such a man have accepted an invitation to the feast? Morally impossible. And "the eye-salve" which Christ had supplied him with, disclosed its further virtues, as he stood in that palace of the world's enjoyments. There was nothing in the language of the writing on the wall beyond the astrologers of Babylon more than beyond Daniel. Not so much, I might say. At least the words were as familiar to a Chaldean as to a Hebrew. But the wise men of Babylon, the scribes of Belshazzar's court and kingdom were not equal to interpret them. They were morally incapacitated. A single eye to Christ alone can do so to this day-the " eye-salve." If we test a thing by any test but Christ, we shall misinterpret it. It will "appear fair and good and desirable, if we try it by its relationship to the welfare of society, or to the advancement of man and the world; but if we look at it in the light of a rejected Jesus, its bloom will be found to be corruption. Standing in the festive hall, Daniel traces the whole scene in Babylon at that hour in relation to God. He rehearses before Belshazzar God's way with Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar's way with God, and then Belshazzar's own hardness and infidel pride in defiance of Him who had wrought the wonders. This was Daniel's key to the writing-of course, I know, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But still this was the prophet's moral apprehension of the king's feast. He judged it in reference to God-and what could the end be, but awful and sudden destruction ? The writing must speak of judgment, though the lords and the captains, the wives and the concubines, sport themselves in the king's hall.

" Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see." It is blessed so to do, but it is hard. We judge of things in reference to ourselves, and not in reference to Christ. We think rather of the world's improvement than of his rejection. We talk of human capabilities rather than of human and incurable apostasy. We want the eye-salve, without which we cannot see-we cannot discover the feast, or read the writing on the wall.

The disciples wanted it on the Mount of Olives, as they looked on the temple. They saw the building,"but not with the eye of Christ, not as anointed with the eye-salve. He had seen it, and all that surrounded it, with the eye of God ; and costly as it was, and beautiful beyond comparison, He had written the judgment of it; yea, on the very wall He had written the judgment of "that beautiful house." "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, behold, your house is left unto you desolate." This was writing with the same divine authority which had sentenced Belshazzar and his feast. But the disciples still eyed the beauty of the stones, and Jesus., in patient grace, but because of their demand, and unanointed eye, had to re-write the doom of that place :"Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down."

Sad to tell of it then, sad to see it now, sad to know, in our own worldly hearts, the secret of all this darkness. We may be sorry to find it thus among disciples, though prepared to get it plentifully among the children of men. The kings of the earth, the merchants, and the mariners bewail the fall of Babylon, and we wonder not. They judged Babylon in reference to themselves-they had lived deliciously with her. How could they have eye-salve to know her, and to see her with the mind of heaven? God "remembered her iniquities," but they remembered her as one " wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness." They therefore bewail, when heaven rejoices. The lords at the feast tremble, when heaven traces its doom. But sad it is that saints should be admiring the "costliness" which the mind of heaven has already judged.

What words in our ears, beloved, are these!-what writings under our eyes ! Oh, for the anointing which Christ has for His saints ! Oh, for power in our souls to judge the king's feast, the Gentile's greatness, the world's advancement, the jubilee of Babylon, in the light of the rejection of the Son of God, in the hearing of that cry, " We will not have this Man to reign over us." Then let us ask ourselves, if we have a pulse of affection or allegiance to Jesus, can we glory in this present moment with all its costliness and pleasures? J. G. Bellett.

(Continued from page 116.)

And this is just the purpose of the whole book, to furnish such striking contrasts whereby the "new" is set off in its glories against the dark background of the "old," – rest against labor, hope against despair, song against groan ; and so the third verse puts this very explicitly, – "What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun ? " The wisest and the greatest of men is seeking for an answer to this question. And this verse is too important in its bearing on the whole book to permit our passing it without looking at that significant word "profit" a little closer. And here one feels the advantage of those helps that a gracious God has put into our hands in these days of special attack upon His revelation, whereby even the unlearned may, by a little diligence, arrive at the exact shade of meaning of a word. The word "profit," then, is, in the Hebrew, yihrohn, and is found in this exact form only in this book, where it is translated "profit," as here, or "excellency," as in chap. 2:13. The Septuagint translates it into a Greek one, meaning "advantage," or perhaps more literally, "that which remains over and above." In Eph. 3:20 it is rendered "exceeding abundantly above." Hence, we gather that our word intends to convey to it the question, "After life is over, after man has given his labor, his time, his powers, and his talents, what has he received in exchange that shall satisfy him for all that he has lost ? Do the pleasures obtained during life fully compensate for what is spent in obtaining them ? do they satisfy ? and do they remain to him as "profit" over and above that expenditure? In a word, what "under the sun " can satisfy the longing, thirsting, hungering heart of man, so that he can say, '' My heart is filled to overflowing, its restless longings are stilled, I have found a food that satisfies its hunger, a water that quenches its thirst " ? A question all-important, surely, and it will be well worth listening to the experience of this seeker, who is filled far above his fellows for finding this satisfactory good, if it can be found "under the sun."

First, then, the preacher, like a good workman, takes account of what material he has to work with. " Have I," he says, " any thing that others have not had, or can I hope to find any thing that has not been before?" At once he is struck with that "law of circuit" that is stamped on every thing:generation follows generation; but no new earth, that remains ever the same; the sun wheels ceaselessly in its one course; the winds circle from point to point, but whirl about to their starting-place; the waters, too, follow the same law, and keep up one unbroken circuit. Where can rest be found in such a scene ? Whilst there is unceasing change, nothing is new; it is but a repetition of what has been before, and which again soon passes, leaving the heart empty and hungry still. Again, then, let us use this dark background to throw forward another scene. See, even now, "above the sun" Him who is the Head and perfect Exponent of the creation called the new. Is there any law of constant unsatisfying circuit in Him? Nay, indeed, every sight we get of Him is new; each revelation of Himself perfectly satisfies, and yet awakens appetite for further views of Himself.

"No pause, no change those pleasures
Shall ever seek to know;
The drought that lulls our thirsting
But wakes that thirst anew."

Or, again, look at that blessed ''law of circuit" spoken of in another way by one who has indeed been enlightened by a light "above the sun " in every sense of the word, in 2 Cor. 9:It is not the circling of winds or waters, but of " grace " direct from the blessed God Himself. Mark the perfection stamped upon it both by its being a complete circle-never ending, but returning to its Source,-and by the numerical stamp of perfection upon it in its seven distinct parts (or movements) as shown by the sevenfold recurrence of the word "all," or "every,"(both coming from the same Greek word.

1. "God is able to make all grace abound unto you :" there is an inexhaustible source. We may come and come and come again, and never find that fountain lowered by all our drafts upon it. Sooner, far sooner, should the ocean be emptied by a tea-cup than infinite "power" and "love" impoverished by all that all His saints could draw from Him. All grace.

2. "That ye always." There is no moment when this circle of blessing need stop flowing. It is ever available. No moment-by day or night; in the quiet of the closet or in the activities of the day's duties; when in communion with friends or in the company of foes; when that grace is not available. At all times.

3. "Having all sufficiency"-perfect competence to meet just the present emergency. A sufficiency, let us mark, absolutely independent of nature's resources,-a sufficiency beautifully illustrated by '' unlearned and ignorant" Peter and John in the presence of the learned Sanhedrim. Let us rejoice and praise God as we trace these three glorious links in this endless chain of blessing. All sufficiency.

4. " In all things " (or "in every way "). It is no matter from what side the demand may come, this precious grace is there to meet it. Is it to deal with another troubled anxious soul, where human wisdom avails nothing ? Divine wisdom and tact shall be supplied. Courage if danger presents itself, or "all long-suffering with joyfulness" if affliction tear the heart. In all things.

5. " May abound to every good work." Now filled to the brim, and still connected with an inexhaustible supply, the vessel must overflow, and that on every side:no effort, no toil, no weariness, no drawing by mechanical means from a deep well; but the grace-filled heart, abiding (and that is the only condition) in complete dependence upon its God, naturally overflows on every side-to all good work.

6. " Being enriched in every tiling" (we omit the parenthesis, although full of its own divine beauty,) (or, " in every way.") This is in some sort a repetition of No. 5, but goes as far beyond it as the word " enriched" is fuller than the word "sufficient." The latter fills the vessel, as we have said, up to the brim; the former adds another drop, and over it flows. In view of these "exceeding great and precious promises," we may say,-

"Oh wherefore should we do ourselves this wrong
Or others, that we are not always strong?"

since we may be enriched in all things.

7. " To all bountifulness." This stream of grace is never to stagnate, or it will lose all its character of blessing, as the manna hoarded for a second day "bred worms, and stank." Thus every single Christian becomes a living channel of blessing to all around, and the circle is now completed, by once more returning to the point whence it started,- "Which causeth through us thanksgiving to God," and closes with no weary wail of "All things are full of labor," but joyful songs resound on every side, and at every motion of this circle of blessing ascend "thanksgiving to God." For just exactly the same full measure is seen in the thanksgiving ascending at the end as in the grace descending in the beginning. There it "abounded," filling the vessel full till it overflowed in the same measure, " abounding" in blessing to others who needed, and these forthwith pass on the stream in "abounding" thanksgiving to God. The apostle himself, as if he could not suffer himself to be excluded from the circle of blessing, adds his own note at the close with "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." And shall we not too, dear brother or sister now reading these lines, let our feeble voice be heard in this sweet harmony of praise ? Has not this contrast between the new song and the old groan, again we may ask, great value? F. C. J.

( To be continued.)

"Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." (Heb. 11:26.) " This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt front off you." (Josh. 5:9.)

As a young man, Moses had remarkably bright prospects from a worldly point of view. Of a despised race oppressed, and apparently doomed to destruction, he had been adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, and instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians; thus having every advantage that worldly wealth, wisdom, and position could give him. Nor were these things trifles. He who begins by despising allurements, often ends by succumbing to them.

But there came a time in his life when other motives began to have power with him. The seeds of truth, doubtless planted by a faithful mother during the time of his childhood, had sprung up, and he was not ashamed to call his brethren those despised and oppressed Israelites, whom, spite of their bondage, he doubtless recognized as the objects of God's favor, the subjects of His counsels of grace -His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Here he deliberately identified himself with those who were a reproach in the eyes of the Egyptians. To thus identify himself he had to give up his worldly prospects, to "refuse" them, as one at a later day could say, '' What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." But he had a true idea of the relative value of the things despised by the world, and quietly preferred them to the treasures in Egypt. Little difference did it make to him whether or not he might one day be king, his heart was set on God's blessings, and these, we are told here, were in and through Christ. The reproach, then, was not the reproach of Israel, but of Christ.

So for us to-day, there is a reproach in the eyes of the world connected with a faithful confession of Christ. It may be called by other names-it mostly is-but it is simply the reproach of Christ. It is the way He is regarded by the world. Have we, as Moses, learned fully to look at God's side ? He has highly exhalted Christ, delights in Him, has put all power and all glory in His hands. Through Him all blessings come-through Him alone. The day is fast coming when the world will see all this; but faith sees it now, and, in the light of it, esteems the reproach of Christ, the very thing the world sneers at, as more valuable than the best the world can give,- its honors, its riches, learning. Christ has been learned, and a true value put upon Him. Well it is for the soul, in days of worldliness like these, thus to appreciate and hold fast to what is despised with men.

Let us face it. If we will follow Christ, we will get some of His reproach. Is it dearer to us to be laughed at for His sake than to be bowed to by those who do not know or love Him? Nay, even those who are His, but "following afar off," may be the ones whose scorn we may have to meet, who will smile at our '' extreme views "or " peculiar actions." If Christ is precious to us, above all and every body, these reproaches will be welcome, even if painful. They will be more valuable to us that the rich things of earth.

But there is reproach of another kind. The reproach of Christ was that view of His people and cause by the Egyptians. The reproach of Egypt is God's view of that which savors of the land of death and judgment among His people. It is a reproach to remember the world. The circumstances under which the remark was made makes its meaning plain. The people had just set foot in the land, and were about to begin their work of conquest. But before they could strike a blow, a work among themselves was needed. During those weary forty years of wilderness wanderings they had failed to circumcise their children. So that the new generation which had grown up were in that respect not Israelites at all. Figuratively, circumcision was the application of the death of Christ to the person. It was entering into the significance of that death which has not only taken away judgment, but passed sentence of death upon the world as well. Until this is realized, the believer is to a certain extent conformed to the world; not to its vices necessarily, but to its thoughts, its ways. He will try to reform it, he will have his home in it. But let him realize that the cross has crucified the world to him and he will no longer be of it. And until this is the case, he is in no condition to enjoy heavenly truths. It is this which is a reproach in God's sight. It is the reproach of Egypt, being like the world.

If we are looking with the eyes of faith, God's eyes, we will esteem the reproach of Christ, but we will have rolled off the reproach of Egypt.

These three prepositions give us in the fullest way the place of the Son of God in relation to creation, so that every whisper of unbelief as to His divine dignity and glory must be hushed. "All things were created by Him." (Col. 1:16.) Here the source of all creation is given. It is divine, and Christ is the creator-therefore divine. It was in His own power that this was done; His self-existence and sufficiency are here asserted. This creation includes all beings and all worlds, things visible and invisible ; thrones, dominions, and powers. This is God.

"All things were created through Him." He was the divine instrument used in creation. God the Father and the Spirit were undoubtedly associated with the Sou in that work. The Son, however, was the executor of it all. "Without Him was not anything made that was made." Knowing His absolute divinity, we are in no danger now in learning His share in the work. He was not the highest of created beings, who was the mouthpiece of God; but God Himself.

"All things were created for Him." He who was once crucified, who is still rejected by the world, will one day be manifested as Lord over all. All creation will own Him then. The whole universe exists for Him.

And it is of this blessed, adorable One that we can say, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins," and "This is my beloved, and this is my friend." For He has become man, died, and risen again, that He might be that to us.

(Continued from page 173.) CHAP. II

The wise man, having found that wisdom brought with it but increased sorrow, turns to the other side-to all those pleasures that the flesh, as we speak, enjoys. Still, he gives us, as in chap, 1:, the result of his search before he describes it, "I said in my heart, ' Go to now ; I will prove thee [1:e., I will see if I cannot satisfy thee,] with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure:' and behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, 'it is mad;' and of mirth, 'what doeth it ?' " For he now has tried wine, the occupation of laying out of vineyards, gardens, parks, the forming of lakes, and the building of houses, all filled without stint, with every thing that sense could crave, or the soul of man could enjoy. The resources at His command are practically limitless and so he works on and rejoices in the labor, apparently with the idea that now the craving within can be satisfied, now he is on the road to rest. Soon he will look round on the result of all his work, and be able to say, "All is very good; I can now rest in the full enjoyment of my labor and be satisfied." But when he does reach the end, when every pleas-tire tried, every beauty of surrounding created, and he expects to eat the fruit of his work, instantly his mouth is filled with rottenness and decay. "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do ; and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit; and there was no profit tinder the sun." Thus he groans again:a groan that has been echoed and re-echoed all down the ages from every heart that has tried to fill the same void by the same means.

Ah! wise and glorious preacher, it is a large place them art seeking to fill. "Free and boundless its desires." Deeper, wider, broader than the whole world, which is at thy disposal to fill it. And them mayest well say, "What can the man do that cometh after the king ?" for them hadst the whole world and the glory of it at thy command in thy day, and did it enable thee to fill those "free and boundless desires"? No, indeed. After all is cast into that hungry pit, yawning and empty it is still. Look well on this picture, my soul; ponder it in the secret place of God's presence, and ask Him to write it indelibly on thy heart that thou forget it not. Then turn and listen to this sweet voice:" If any man thirst" (and what man does not ?) "let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water " Thirst not only quenched, but water to spare for other thirsting ones-the void not only filled, but running over with a constant flow of blessing. Who can express the glories of that contrast!

Pause, beloved reader; turn your eyes from the page and dwell on it in thy spirit a little. What a difference between "no profit under the sun" and " never thirst " !-a difference entirely clue simply to coming to Him-Jesus. Not a coming once and then departing from Him once more to try again the muddy, stagnant pools of this world:no, but to pitch our tents by the palm-trees and the springing wells of Christ's presence, and so to drink and drink and drink again of Him, the Rock that follows His people. But is this possible ? Is this not mere imaginative ecstasy, whilst practically such a state is not possible ? No, indeed ; for see that man, with all the same hungry longings of Solomon or any other child of Adam; having no wealth, outcast, and a wanderer without a home, but who has found something that has enabled him to say, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound:everywhere, and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."
What, then, is the necessary logical deduction from two such pictures but this:The Lord Jesus infinitely surpasses all the world in filling the hungry heart of man.

Look, oh my reader, whether thou be sinner or saint, to Him-to Him alone. F. C. J.

( To be continued.)

(Continued from p. 133.)

The Lord was ''poor, yet making many rich,"- "having nothing, and yet possessing all things." These high and wondrous conditions were exhibited in Him in ways that were and must have been peculiar-altogether His own. He would receive ministry from some godly women out of their substance, and yet minister to the need of all around Him out of the treasures of the fullness of the earth. He would feed thousands in desert places, and yet be Himself a hungered, waiting for the return of His disciples with victuals from a neighboring village. This is "having nothing, and yet possessing all things." But while thus poor, both needy and exposed, nothing that in the least savored of meanness is ever seen attaching to His condition. He never begs, though He have not a penny; for when He wanted to see one (not to use it for Himself), He had to ask to be shown it. He never runs away, though exposed, and His life jeopardized, as we speak, in the place where He was. He withdraws Himself, or passes by as hidden. And thus, again I may say, nothing mean, nothing unbecoming full personal dignity attaches to Him, though poverty and exposure were His lot every day.

Blessed and beautiful! Who could preserve under our eye such an object,-so perfect, so unblemished, so exquisitely, delicately pure, in all the minute and most ordinary details of human life ? Paul does not give us this. None could give it to us but Jesus, the God-Man. The peculiarities of His virtues in the midst of the ordinariness of His circumstances tell us of His person. It must be a peculiar person, it must be the divine Man, if I may so express Him, that could give us such peculiarities in such commonplace conditions. Paul does not give us any thing like it, again I say. There was great dignity and moral elevation about him, I know. If any one may be received as exhibiting that, let us agree that it was he. But his path is not that of Jesus;-he is in danger of his life, and he uses his nephew to protect him. Again, his friends let him down the wall of the town in a basket. I do not say he begs or asks for it, but he acknowledges money sent to him. I say not how Paul avowed himself a Pharisee in the mixed assembly in order to shelter himself, or how he spake evil of the high-priest that was judging him. Such conduct was morally wrong; and I am speaking here only of such cases as were (though not morally wrong,) below the full personal and moral dignity that marks the way of Christ. Nor is the flight into Egypt, as it is called, an exception in this characteristic of the Lord; for that journey was taken to fulfill prophecy, and under the authority of a divine oracle.

But all this is really, not only moral glory, but it is a moral wonder :marvelous how the pen that was held by a human hand could ever have delineated such beauties. We are to account for it, as has been observed before and by others, only by its being a truth a living reality. We are shut up to that blessed necessity. Still further, as we go on with this blessed truth, it is written, " Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." Our words should prove themselves as thus, always with grace, by ministering good to others-"grace to the hearers." This, however, will often be in the pungency of admonition or rebuke; and at times with decision or severity, even with indignation and zeal; and thus they will be "seasoned with salt," as the Scripture speaks. And having these fine qualities- being gracious and yet salted, they will bear witness that we know how to answer every man.
Among all other forms of it, the Lord Jesus illustrated this form of moral perfectness. He knew how to answer every man, as with words which were always to his soul's profit, whether men would hear or whether they would forbear; but at times seasoned, -nay, seasoned highly, with salt.

Thus, in answering inquiries, he did not so much purpose to satisfy them, as to reach the conscience or the condition of the inquirer.

In His silence, or refusal to answer at all, when He stood before the Jew or the Gentile at the end, before either the priests or Pilate or Herod, we can trace the same perfect fitness as we do in His words or answers; witnessing to God that at least One among the sons of men knew "a time to keep silence and a time to speak."

Great variety in His very tone and manner also presents itself in all this; and all this variety, minute as it was as well as great, was part of this fragrance before God. Sometimes His word was gentle, sometimes peremptory; sometimes he reasons, sometimes he rebukes at once, and sometimes conducts calm reasoning up to the heated point of solemn condemnation ; for it is the moral of the occasion He always weighs.

Matt. 15:has struck me as a chapter in which this perfection, in much of its various beauty and excellency, may be seen. In the course of it, the Lord is called to answer the Pharisees, the multitude, the poor afflicted stranger from the coasts of Tyre, and His own disciples, again and again, in their different exposure of either their stupidity or their selfishness; and we may notice His different style of rebuke and of reasoning,-of calm, patient teaching, and of faithful, wise, and gracious training of the soul:and we cannot but feel how fitting all this variety was to the place or occasion that called it forth. And such was the beauty and the fitness of His neither teaching nor learning, in Luke 2:, but only hearing and asking questions. To have taught then would not have been in season, a child as He was in the midst of His elders. To have learnt would not have been in full fidelity to the light, the eminent and bright light, which He knew He carried in Himself; for we may surely say of Him, "He was wiser than the ancients, and had more understanding than His teachers." I do not mean as God, but as One "filled with wisdom," as was then said of Him. But He knew, in the perfection of grace, how to use this fullness of wisdom, and He is therefore not presented to us by the evangelist in the midst of the doctors in the temple at the age of twelve either teaching or learning; but it is simply said of Him that He was hearing and asking questions. Strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God upon Him, is the description of Him then, as He grew up in tender years; and when a man, conversing in the world, His speech was always with grace, seasoned with salt, as of one who knew how to answer every man. What perfection and beauty suited to the different seasons of childhood and manhood! And further. We find Him, besides this, also in various other conditions. At times He is slighted and scorned, watched and hated by adversaries, retiring, as it were to save His life from their attempts and purposes. At times He is weak, followed only by the poorest of the people; wearied, too, and hungry and athirst, debtor to the service of some loving women, who felt as though they owed Him every thing. At times He is compassionating the multitude in all gentleness, or commanding with His disciples in their repasts or in their journeying, conversing with them as a man would with His friends. At times He is in strength and honor before us, doing wonders, letting out some rays of glory; and though in His person and circumstances nothing and nobody in the world-a carpenter's son, without learning or fortune, yet making a greater stir among men, and that, too, at times in the thoughts of the ruling ones on earth, than man ever made.
Childhood and manhood, and human life in all its variousness, thus give Him to us. Would that the heart could hold Him! There is a perfection in some of the minute features that tell of the divine hand that was delineating them. Awkward work would any penman, unkept, unguided by the Spirit, have made of certain occasions where these strokes and touches are seen. As when the Lord wanted to comment on the current money of the land, He asked to be shown it, and does not find it about Himself. Indeed, we may be sure He carried none of it. Thus the moral beauties of the action flowed from the moral perfection of His condition within.

He asked His disciples, in the hour of Gethsemane, to watch with Him; but He did not ask them to pray for Him. He would claim sympathy. He prized it in the hour of weakness and pressure, and would have the hearts of His companions bound to Him then. Such a desire was of the moral glory that formed the. human perfection that was in Him ; but while He felt this and did this, He could not ask them to stand as in the divine presence on His behalf. He would have them give themselves to Him, but He could not seek them to give themselves to God for Him. Thus He asked them, again I say, to watch with Him, but He did not ask them to pray for Him. When, shortly or immediately afterward, He linked praying and watching together, it was of themselves and for themselves He spoke, saying, " Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." Paul could say to his fellow-saints, "Ye also helping together by prayer to God for us:pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience." But such was not the language of Jesus. I need not say, it could not have been; but the pen that writes for us such a life and delineates for us such a character is held by the Spirit of God. None other than the Spirit could write thus.

He did good, and lent, hoping for nothing again. He gave, and His left hand did not know what His right hand was doing. Never, in one single instance, as I believe, did He claim either the person or the service of those whom He restored and delivered. He never made the deliverance He wrought a title to service. Jesus loved and healed and saved, looking for nothing again. He would not let Legion, the Gadarene, be with Him; the child at the foot of the mount He delivered back to His father; the daughter of Jairus He left in the bosom of her family; the widow's son at Nain He restores to His mother. He claims none of them. Does Christ give in order that He may receive again ? Does He not (perfect Master!) illustrate His own principle-"Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again"? The nature of grace is, to impart to others, not to enrich itself:and He came that in Him and His ways it might shine in all the exceeding riches and glory that belong to it. He found servants in this world, but He did not first heal them and then claim them. He called them and endowed them. They were the fruit of the energy of His Spirit, and of affections kindled in hearts constrained by His love. And sending them forth, He said to them, "Freely ye have received, freely give." Surely there is something beyond human conception in the delineation of such a character. One repeats that thought again and again. And very happy is it to add that it is in the very simplest forms this moral glory of the Lord shines forth at times,-such forms as are at once intelligible to all the perceptions and sympathies of the heart. Thus He never refused the feeblest faith, though He accepted and answered, and that too with delight, the approaches and demands of the boldest.

The strong faith which drew upon Him, without ceremony or apology, in full, immediate assurance was ever welcome to Him; while the timid soul that approached Him as one that was ashamed, and would excuse itself, was encouraged and blessed. His lips at once bore away from the heart of the poor leper the one only thing that hung over that heart as a cloud. '' Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean," said he. " I will:be thou clean," said Jesus. But immediately afterward the same lips uttered the fullness of the heart, when the clear, unquestioning faith of the Gentile centurion was witnessed, and when the bold, earnest faith of a family in Israel broke up the roof of the house where He was, that they might let down their sick one before Him.

When a weak faith appealed to the Lord, He granted the blessing it sought, but He rebuked the seeker. But even this rebuke is full of comfort to us; for it seems to say, "Why did you not make freer fuller, happier use of Me ? " Did we value the Giver as we do the gift,-the heart of Christ as well as His hand, this rebuke of weak faith would be just as welcome as the answer to it.

And if little faith be thus reproved, strong faith must be grateful. And therefore we have reason to know what a fine sight was under the eye of the Lord when, in that case already looked at, they broke up the roof of the house in order to reach Him. It was indeed, right sure I am, a grand spectacle for the eye of the divine and bounteous Jesus. His heart was entered by that action as surely as the house in Capernaum was entered by it. J. G. B.

( To be continued.)

(Continued from p. 35.)

The Lord illustrated that word that is among us, " In the world, but not of the world,"-a form of words which, I suppose, has been derived from what He Himself says in Jno. 17:15,-"I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil."He illustrates this condition all through His life; for He was ever in the world, active in the midst of its ignorance and misery, but never of it, as one that shared its hopes or projects, or breathed its spirit. But in Jno. 7:I believe He is eminently seen in this character. It was the time of the feast of tabernacles, the crowning joyous time in Israel, the antepast of the coming kingdom, the season of ingathering, when the people had only to remember that they had been in other days wanderers in a wilderness, and dwellers in a camp. His brethren propose to Him to take advantage of such a moment, when "all the world," as we speak, was at Jerusalem. They would have Him make Himself important,- make Himself, as we again speak,"a man of the world.""If thou do these things," they say, "show thyself to the world."He refused. His time had not then come to keep the feast of tabernacles. He will have His kingdom in the world, and be great to the end of the earth, when His day comes; but as yet He was on His way to the altar, and not to the throne. He will not go to the feast to be of the feast, though He will be in it; therefore, when He reaches the city at this time, we see Him in service there, not in honor,-not working miracles, as His brethren would have had Him, that He might gain the notice of men, but teaching others, and then hiding Himself under this:'' My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me."

Very peculiar and characteristic indeed all this is. And all this was some of the moral glory of the Man -the perfect Man-Jesus, in His relation to the world. He was a conqueror, a sufferer, and a benefactor,- in the world, but not of it. But with equal perfect-ness do we see Him at times distinguishing things, as well as exhibiting these beautiful combinations. Thus, in dealing with sorrow which lay outside, as I may express it, we see tenderness, the power that relieved; but in dealing with the trouble of disciples, we see faithfulness as well as tenderness. The leper in Matt. 8:is a stranger. He brings his sorrow to Christ, and gets healing at once. Disciples, in the same chapter, bring their sorrow also-their fears in the storm; but they get rebuke as well as relief. " Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith ? " He says to them. And yet the leper had but little faith, as well as the disciples. If they said, '' Lord, save us:we perish! " he said, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." But they are rebuked, while he is not, just because there was a different thing before the mind of the Lord, and justly so. It was simply sorrow in the one case; it was the soul as well as the sorrow in the other. Tenderness-unmixed tenderness was therefore His answer to the one; faithfulness must form part of the other. The different relationship to Him of disciples and strangers at once accounts for this, and may show us how perfectly He distinguished things that came very near each other but still were not the same. But further, as to this perfection. Though He Himself rebuke, He will not allow others lightly to do it. As in earlier days, Moses may be humbled by the Lord, but the Lord will not allow Miriam and Aaron to reproach him. (Num. 11:, 12:) Israel in the wilderness will be chastened again and again by the hand of God, but in the face of Balaam, or any other adversary, He will be as one that has not seen iniquity in His people, and will not suffer any enchantment to prevail against them. So the Lord Jesus will beautifully and strikingly step in between the two disciples and the rebuking ten (Matt. 20:); and though He send a word of warning and admonition to John the Baptist, as in secret (such a word as John's conscience alone might understand), He turns to the multitude to speak of John only with commendation and delight. And still further, as to this grace in distinguishing things that differ. Even in dealing with His disciples, there did come a moment when faithfulness can be observed no longer, and tenderness alone is to be exercised. I mean in the hour of parting, as we see in Jno. 14:, 16:It was then "too late to be faithful." The moment would not have admitted it. It was a time which the heart claimed as entirely belonging to itself. The education of the soul could not go on then. He opens fresh secrets to them, it is true,- secrets of the dearest and most intimate relationships, as between them and the Father; but there is nothing that is to be called rebuke. There is no such word as, "O ye of little faith! " or "How is it that ye do not understand ? " A word that may sound somewhat like that is only the discharging of a wound which the heart had suffered, that they might know the love He had for them. This was the sacredness of the sorrow of a moment of parting, in the perfect mind and affection of Jesus; and we practice it ourselves in some poor manner, so that we are at least able to enjoy and admire the full expression of it in Him. "There is a time to embrace," says the preacher, "and there is a time to refrain from embracing." This is a law in the statute-book of love, and Jesus observed it.

But again. He was not to be drawn into softness when the occasion demanded faithfulness, and yet He passed by many circumstances which human sensibilities would have resented, and which the human moral sense would have judged it well to resent. He would not gain His disciples after the poor way of amiable nature. Honey was excluded from the offerings made by fire, as well as leaven. The meat offering had none of it (Lev. 2:11); neither had Jesus, the true meat-offering. It was not the merely civil, amiable thing that the disciples got from their Master. It was not the courtesy that consults for the ease of another. He did not gratify, and yet He bound them to Him very closely; and this is power. There is always moral power when the confidence of another is gained without its being sought, for the heart has then become conscious of the reality of love. '' We all know," writes one, "how to distinguish between love and attention, and that there may be a great deal of the latter without any of the former. Some might say, Attention must win our confidence; but we know ourselves that nothing but love does." This is so true. Attention, if it be mere attention, is honey, and how much of this poor material is found with us! and we are disposed to think that it is all well, and perhaps we aim no higher than to purge out leaven, and fill the lump with honey. Let us be amiable,
perform our part well in the civil, courteous, well-ordered social scene, pleasing others, and doing what we can to keep people on good terms with themselves, then we are satisfied with ourselves, and others with us also. But is this service to God ? Is this a meat-offering ? Is this found as part of the moral glory of the perfect man ? Indeed, indeed it is not. We may naturally judge, I grant, that nothing could do it better or more effectually; but still it is one of the secrets of the sanctuary, that honey was not used to give a sweet savor to the offering.

Thus, in progress, in seasonableness, in combinations, and in distinctions, how perfect in moral glory and beauty were all the ways of the Son of Man!

The life of Jesus was the bright shining of a candle. It was such a lamp in the house of God as needed no golden tongs or snuff-dishes. It was ordered before the Lord continually, burning as from pure beaten oil. It was making manifest all that was around, exposing and reproving; but it ever held its own place uncondemned.

Whether challenged by disciples or adversaries, as the Lord was again and again, there is never an excusing of Himself. On one occasion, disciples complain, "Master, carest Thou not that we perish?" but He does not think of vindicating the sleep out of which this challenge awakes Him. On another occasion they object to Him, "The multitude throng Thee, and press Thee, and sayest Thou, 'Who touched Me ?' " But He does not need this inquiry, but acts upon the satisfaction of it. At another time, Martha says to Him, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died;" but He does not excuse His not having been there, nor His delaying for two days in the place where He was; but instructs Martha in the wondrous character which His delay had given to that hour.

What a glorious vindication of His delay that was! And thus it was on every like occasion,-whether challenged or rebuked, there is never the recalling of a word, nor the retracing of a step. Every tongue that rises in judgment against Him He condemns. The mother rebukes Him in Luke 2:; but instead of making good her charge, she has to listen to Him convicting the darkness and error of her thoughts. Peter takes upon him to admonish Him:"This be far from Thee, Lord:this shall not be unto Thee;" but Peter has to learn that it was Satan himself that in Peter prompted the admonition. The officer in the palace of the high-priest goes still further-correcting Him, and smiting Him on the cheek; but he is convicted of breaking the rules of judgment in the very face and place of judgment.

All this tells us of the way of the perfect Master. Appearances might have been against Him at times. Why did He sleep in the boat when winds and waves were raging ? Why did He loiter on the road when Jairus' daughter was dying ? or why did He tarry where He was when His friend Lazarus was sick in the distant village of Bethany ? But all this is but appearance, and that for a moment. We have heard of these ways of Jesus,-this sleep, this loitering, and this tarrying,-but we also see the end of Jesus, that all is perfect. Appearances were against the God of Job in patriarchal days. Messenger after messenger seemed too much, unrelenting, and inexorable; but the God of Job had not to excuse Himself, nor has the Jesus of the evangelists.

Therefore, when we look at the Lord Jesus as the lamp of the sanctuary, the light in the house of God, we find at once that the tongs and snuff-dishes cannot be used. They are discovered to have no counterpart in Him; consequently, they who undertook to challenge or rebuke Him when He was here had to go back rebuked and put to shame themselves. They were using the tongs or snuffers with a lamp which did not need them, and they only betrayed their folly; and the light of this lamp shone the brighter, not because the tongs had been used, but because it was able to give forth some fresh witness (which it did on every occasion) that it did not need them.

And from all these instances we have the happy lesson that we had better stand by, and let Jesus go on with His business. We may look and worship, but not meddle or interrupt, as all these were doing in their day,-enemies, kinsfolk, and even disciples. They could not improve this light that was shining; they had only to be gladdened by it, and walk in it, and not attempt to trim or order it. Let our eye be single, and we may be sure the candle of the Lord, set on the candlestick, will make the whole body full of light.

But I pass on. And I may further observe that as He did not excuse Himself to the judgment of man in the course of His ministry, as we have now seen, so in the hour of His weakness, when the powers of darkness were all against Him, He did not cast Himself on the pity of man. When He became the prisoner of the Jews and of the Gentiles, He did not entreat them or sue to them. No appeal to compassion, no pleading for life is heard. He had prayed to the Father in Gethsemane, but there is no seeking to move the Jewish high-priest or the Roman governor. All that He says to man in that hour, is to expose the sin with which man, whether Jew or Gentile, was going through that hour.

What a picture! Who could have conceived such an object! It must have been exhibited ere it was described, as has been long since observed by others. It was the perfect man, who once walked here in the fullness of moral glory, and whose reflections have been left by the Holy Ghost on the pages of the evangelists. And next to the simple, happy, earnest assurance of His personal love to ourselves, (the Lord increase it in our hearts!) nothing more helps us to desire to be with Him than this discovery of Himself. I have heard of one who, observing His bright and blessed ways in the four gospels, was filled with tears and affections, and was heard to cry out, "O that I were with Him!"

If one may speak for others, beloved, it is this we want, and it is this we covet. We know our need, but we can say, the Lord knows our desire.

The same preacher whom we quoted before says, "There is a time to keep and a time to cast away." (Eccles. 3:6.) The Lord Jesus both kept and cast away in the due season.

There is no waste in the services of the heart or the hand that worships God, be they as prodigal as they may. "All things come of Thee," says David to the Lord, "and of Thine own have we given Thee."

The cattle on a thousand hills are His, and the fullness of the earth. But Pharaoh treated Israel's proposal to worship God as idleness, and the disciples challenge the spending of three hundred pence on the body of Jesus as waste. But to give the Lord His own,-the honor or the sacrifice, the love of the heart, the labor of the hands, or the substance of the house,-is neither idleness nor waste. It is chief work to render to God.

But here I would linger for a moment or two. J. G. B.

(To be continued.)

(Continued from page 261.)
2. The Announcement of the King (Chap. 2:).

The magi are warned of God, in a dream, not to return to Herod; and they depart into their own country another way. Then Joseph is similarly warned of impending danger, and flees by divine direction, with the young child and his mother, into Egypt. There is no manifest display of power made. The angels that appeared to announce a Savior do not now reappear to guard the infant King. Everything marks that He has come to take no exceptional place in this way, as distinct from the common lot of men. Nay, it is a necessity of the work which He has come to do that He should stoop to this; and in subjection to these human conditions manifest His exaltation above fallen man. Prophecy, however, has marked Him out all through; and it is that it might be fulfilled that He goes down to Egypt.

But just here we have what calls for special examination. The prophecy to be fulfilled is that of Hosea (ch. 11:i):"Out of Egypt have I called my Son." But this, at first sight, does not seem to be a prophecy at all; and certainly not a prophecy of Christ. Any one looking at it would say it was simply a rebuke of Israel as a nation, for repaying with apostasy and Baal-worship the love which God had shown in their redemption of old. He had taken them out of their bondage and misery, and called them to adoption as His own family among the families of the earth. But how had they repaid it ? "As [the prophets] called them, so they went from them:they sacrificed to Baalam, and burned incense to graven images." This, of course, could only speak of Israel as a nation.

And yet the application to the Lord of the first verse is no mere application. It is not that such a thing took place now in relation to Him who was Son of God by a fuller title, to that which had taken place in regard to His "first-born" Israel. The manner of quotation is much too precise for that. Evidently there is here a far deeper view of prophecy than we are accustomed to. It is common to say that there is here an example of typical prophecy; but we must understand what we mean if we say this. For certainly it could be only in fragments of the national history that there could be any typical reference to the Lord; and what follows in the prophet indicates only entire and emphatic contrast, as we have seen. We must have, therefore, some guiding truth to enable us to distinguish, with any certainty, what is typical and what is not.

Now in Isaiah 49:we have such a principle:for of whom is it written, "Jehovah has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has He made mention of my name, . . . and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified " ? This, one would say, must be the nation; but immediately we hear a Voice that is not the nation's:"Then I said, I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work with my God."

Now notice the claim:"And now, saith Jehovah, that formed ME from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in Jehovah's eyes, and my God shall be my strength. And He said, It is a light thing that thou shouldst be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel:I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation unto the ends of the earth."

Here, to a Christian, there can be no doubt of the application. It is Christ alone who fulfills this. But thus He is also the true Servant, formed from the womb, and the Israel in whom God will be glorified. Here Christ and Israel are both identified and distinguished at the same time. Israel, that had failed utterly,- failed even in hearing this glorious Person when He came,- Israel comes to fulfill its destiny only in and through Christ, who comes of Israel; who is (according to the prophetic language) the lowly "Shoot" from the cut down "stem of Jesse," the "Branch" that should "grow out of his roots"; and upon whom, in full complacency, and in sevenfold power, "the Spirit of Jehovah " was to "rest." (Isa. 11:) In Him, the "Son born " to them, Israel nationally is yet to revive. His glory involves their blessing. He begins anew for God their history, purged of its failure and its shame, and thus the necessary application of such passages as that in Hosea, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son."

Yet how differently is it fulfilled in these two cases? For Him there could be no captivity, no "house of bondage." For them this had been the discipline needed, the furnace because of the dross that the Refiner must purge out. Typically, for us all, it speaks of the bondage to sin in our natural state, out of which a divine voice alone can call us. For Him, of all this there was nothing,- could be nothing. Egypt shelters, not ensnares, nor takes captive. He had no natural state to be delivered from. The world of Nature, had He desired it, would have yielded Him all it had. The Voice that called Him out of it, called Him but to the work for which He had come; and so the "favor" even "with man" (Luke 2:52) was exchanged for rejection, as also for one dread hour the "favor with God" was eclipsed in the darkness of abandonment, only to shine out, however, immediately, in the glory of the resurrection and return to heaven.

All, then, should be clear as to the application of Hosea. The next quotation in this chapter, that from Jeremiah, which speaks of Rachel's weeping over her dead, is introduced after a very different manner, then was fulfilled," not " that it might be,." This is really but an application. When Bethlehem mourned her babes slaughtered by Herod, then it was as if Rachel, from her grave close by, were repeating her lamentation. But Rachel must be comforted here also, in a deeper way than in the prophet. He had escaped, who by and by would freely offer Himself to redeem from the power of the grave, and bring back to a better life.

But the days of the Edomite were drawing to an end; and soon the angel of the Lord appeared once more in a dream to Joseph, with words that brought back those that set the face of Moses, the deliverer, toward the people to whom he was commissioned:"they are dead that sought the young child's life." But only one tyrant had succeeded another, so that they do not return to Judea, where Archelaus had begun his short but cruel reign, but into Galilee; and they came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. In this, too, prophecy was fulfilled,- not a specific one, but the tenor of the prophets generally:"He shall be called a Nazarene."

Galilee means "circle,"or "circuit"; and here was the place in which, though but for a short time, through the unbelief that rejected Him, Israel's lost blessings were to return more gloriously. It was called, as elsewhere stated, "Galilee of the Gentiles," because so full of Gentiles. There the ruin of the people, therefore, was most plainly to be seen; and thus it was the fitting place for grace to be shown. It would be most manifestly grace. So when the child returns, the land is as it were claimed once more – the only place in the New Testament where the expression is used – as "the land of Israel." Such it shall be yet, when it shall be owned as "Immanuel's land."

And this connects with what we had before; and that to which our attention is once again, and more distinctly called, in this summing up of various prophecies:" He shall be called a Nazarene. " This was, of course, a name actually given the Lord; and generally in scorn, from the place in which so large a proportion of His life on earth was spent. Nazareth was in no good repute, especially among the Pharisees and traditionalists. It had no memories, no history, was consecrated by no great names; and its own name-which seems to have been but a feminine form of netzer, a "sprout," or "shoot,"-may even refer to this. It was thus expressive of lowliness, if yet of life, and identical with the word in Isaiah 11:i, where Messiah is spoken of as the "rod" or "shoot out of the stem of Jesse"; and here His greatness and His lowliness are seen together.

The stem is cut down:it is better characterized as that of Jesse than of David; and thus the Son of David comes into no outward state or glory, but the opposite. Yet He comes to revive, and more than revive. He is the "righteous Branch" of Jeremiah (23:5, 33:15), and Zechariah's Branch, Jehovah's Servant, who builds the temple of Jehovah, and bears the glory (ch. 6:12). His stooping is in love and service,- even to death, because His work is resurrection. How great and wonderful is this lowliness, when once we penetrate his real character! – how necessary when once we have understood the need to relieve which He came!

Here, then, is the key to His whole position:for this Branch is to reign, and be a Priest upon His throne. Not Israel's burden only is He lifting, but our own. For Israel, in their long probation, in which they failed so utterly, were only the representatives of men,- of all men,- our's; and therefore ours also is the royal Savior. And this expression-"the Nazarene "-implies all this. Thus He is "called" this, from opposite sides, for opposite reasons. Those who would dishonor Him, those who would honor Him, here unite together. The cross is a death of shame; but it is His glory. Up in the glory of heaven, amid the universal homage there, stands "a Lamb as it had been slain." F. W. G.

Have it Thy way, dear Lord;
For long I sought but mine,
Yet craved Thy help and blessing in a walk
That neither came from nor yet led to Thee.
But years have rolled around,
And softening, chastening time has crushed
The impetuous self that ever sought its own;
And now the deepest longing of my heart Says, "
But Thy way.-have it Thy way,
Dear Lord."

Have it Thy way, dear Lord.
Be Thou the Author and the Finisher
Of all my works and walks and ways,
The inspiration of my every thought;
And let it ever be, Not I,
But Christ within, without-
No hope, nor aim, but Thou its single source,
Its origin and end. Thou canst but bless
Thine own ; and so I pray, " Have it Thy way,
Dear Lord."

(continued from page 84.)

How many hands have contributed to make up Scripture is a thing with which Scripture itself does not concern itself or occupy us. Of the writers of most of the historical books we have no real knowledge ; and if Moses compiled Genesis from existing records, such as are referred to in some of the later books, there would be nothing at all in this to stumble us. We are only concerned to know that where Moses is credited, in either Old or New Testament, with writing or speaking, – this, with all the rest, is absolutely true and trustworthy. But this is entirely contrary to Prof. Driver's canon, without which he thinks no satisfactory conclusions can be reached as to the Old Testament. Traditions, modified and colored by the historian, and interspersed with speeches fictitious to whatever extent one may desire, – this is what he conceives it to be.

The facts upon which the document-theory is founded are, as I have said, interesting where they are facts. Often they are not. The linguistic argument (or that from characteristic words.) has been well refuted by Vos,* and his book is accessible to all who desire it. *"Mosaic Origin of the Pentateuchal Codes." By Geerhardus Vos, N. Y.* The argument from discrepancies may be found, in part, there also. The few specimens already given from Driver are as forcible as most, and the readers of the present book can be at little loss to answer them. It is not difficult to see that the order of creation in the second chapter of Genesis is, so far as the plants and beasts are concerned, not an order at all ; that the specification of pairs of living creatures in God's first communication to Noah is in no wise inconsistent with an after-specification of sevens for beasts that were clean ; that Rebekah, just like one of ourselves, might easily have had a double motive for sending Jacob to Laban; while Esau's having been in Edom before Jacob's return to Canaan would not in the least affect the question of a later and final return thither. The double naming of Bethel and of Israel, glanced at in our notes (vol. 1:, p. 99) has a special significance, of which the higher criticism in general, being of the earth earthy, takes no account.

For any detailed reply to criticisms of this sort it would be impossible to find room here. The facility with which they can be made is as ensnaring to those who would gain a cheap reputation as it is condemnatory of the whole. There is probably no book that could not be cut up after the same fashion, and the smaller the fragments the more readily can it be done. A single verse, thus, in a section pronounced " Elohistic," if it has the name of Jehovah, proves itself to be from a " Jehovistic " source; and we have such dissections as this of Gen. 30:from Prof. Driver, where verses 1-3a, 6, 8, 17-20a, 20c-23, are given as Elohistic, so called from the use in it of " Elohim " (God), while the rest, including a fragment from the middle of the 20th verse, is Jehovistic !

Such attempts practiced upon any other book would find speedy and scornful relegation to the limbo of conceits that perish in their birth. Only the wondrous life of the book itself seems as if it kept alive the very enemies that seek its destruction. The interests that are involved beget an interest in the attack upon them ; and in a world which has held the cross, the carnal mind still shows itself as enmity against God. As has been said, no detail can be ventured upon here,-and in truth the detail would be terribly wearisome; but we may look a little at the broad features of what is proposed to us as the Bible of the future, so far as it affects what we have already had before us.
We are to have no longer a Pentateuch, nor any books of Moses. Moses' part in the laws of Israel is an undefined and ever-vanishing quantity. The extreme party of critics cannot, of course, allow Israel to be any exception to the law of development which ordains man to have struggled on and up from the level of his ape-like ancestors unaided by any revelation of God. Prof. Toy, of Harvard, outlines the " History of the Religion of Israel " after this manner :-

"A comparatively large law-book was written (Deuteronomy, about B.C. 622); and this, in accordance with the ideas of the times, which demanded the authority of ancient sages and lawgivers, was ascribed to Moses . . . After various law-books had been written, they were all gathered up, sifted, and edited about the time of Ezra (B.C. 450), as one book. This is substantially our present Law (Tom), or Pentateuch, (pp. 6, 7.)

' 'Nations do not easily change their gods; it is not likely that Moses could or would introduce a new deity. But as the Israelites believed that he had made some great change, it may be that through his means the worship of Yahwe [Jehovah] became more general- became, in fact, in a real sense, the national worship. This would not necessarily mean that no other deities were worshiped …. Still less would it mean that there was only one God,-that is, that all other pretended gods were nothing. This is what we believe, and what the later Israelites (about the time of the exile and on) believed; but David, and generations after him, thought that Kemnosh and Dagon and the rest were real gods, only not the gods of Israel. Exactly what Moses' belief was we do not know. (p. 24.)

"If we cannot suppose that the Pentateuch is correct history, then we do not know precisely what Moses did for his people . . . From all that we do know, we are led to believe that what Moses did was rather to organize the people, and give them an impulse in religion, than to frame any code of laws, or make any great change in their institutions."* *Quoted from Dr. Armstrong's "Nature and Revelation."*

The Harvard professor goes on to tell us that " we " know now that God did not give Israel the law at Sinai; but so long as we refuse that, he will allow us to believe that " the people, or a part of them, may have stayed there awhile." Moses' part in it all, he tells us, matters very little.

This is, of course, more than "down-grade:" it is near the bottom of the descent. Dr. Driver does not mean to land there. We do not always see where the road ends, and the mercy of God may prevent such a catastrophe; but there is, in fact, no practicable halting-place short of this. Between Dr. Toy and orthodoxy there is every degree of errancy, and the voices of the critics are not a little confused.

It is contended that they are becoming more harmonious; and this, no doubt, is true and to be expected. The stream would naturally wear for itself channels, within which it would he henceforth confined. Some errors would be too manifest to be upheld, and others be found inconsistent with the purpose they were used for. This unification of the critics, while it will enable their arguments to be more concisely dealt with, does not imply any bettering of their position from the Scripture stand-point:the fact is the reverse; the tendency of error is to gravitate, and consistency necessitates ever a more complete departure from the truth. Thus Kuenen and Wellhausen, who are not badly represented by Prof. Toy, give us the latest phase of the documentary hypothesis. And it is striking enough to find how largely Driver builds to-day upon their foundations.

Yet it is plain that even for him the distinction between Jehovistic and Elohistic documents, with which these criticisms began, is fading away, so that he has often had to consider the question, " Is it probable that there should have been two narratives of the patriarchal and Mosaic ages, independent, yet largely resembling each other, and that these narratives should have been combined together into a single whole at a relatively early period of the history of Israel? " He answers, indeed, though with some hesitancy, that he believes it to be a fact that there were, " and that in some part, even if not so frequently as some critics have supposed, the independent sources used by the compiler are still more or less clearly discernible."

The period of this compilation he gives as " approximately, in the eighth century B.C.," or about Hezekiah's time! But that only carries us a few steps in the construction of the Pentateuch.

Deuteronomy comes next, which critics believe to be the "book of the law" found by Hilkiah in Josiah's day; but "how much earlier than B.C. 621 it may be is more difficult to determine. The supposition that Hilkiah himself was concerned in the composition of it is not probable; for a book compiled by the high-priest could hardly fail "-God, of course, being left out,-"to emphasize the interests of the priestly body at Jerusalem, which Deuteronomy does not do. …. It is probable its composition is not later than the reign of Manasseh."

The real "priestly" narrative-which does, of course, look sharply after their interests,-came later still. It is supposed to have added largely to Genesis, considerably to Exodus, including all about the special priesthood, the entire book of Leviticus, and much of Numbers. It belongs " approximately, to the time of the Babylonish captivity "! And now, with Ezra's revision, the Pentateuch is complete.

But we must take notice, if we are to do justice to Dr. Driver's position, that he allows that there was a certain indefinable amount of tradition long before, and even, as we see, some written documents. The aggregate amount of these it is very hard to determine.

"Although, therefore, the Priests' Code assumed finally the shape in which we have it in the age subsequent to Ezekiel, it rests ultimately upon an ancient traditional basis, and many of the institutions prominent in it are recognized in various stages of their growth, by the earlier pre-exile literature, by Deuteronomy and by Ezekiel. The laws of P [the priestly code], even when they included later elements, were still referred to Moses,-no doubt because, in its basis and origin, Hebrew legislation was actually derived from him, and was only modified gradually."

This is how, it seems, the positive statements that "Moses spake" and "the Lord said to Moses" are to be interpreted. The issue is naturally such a romance as the following:-

"The institution which was among the last to reach a settled state, appears to have been the priesthood. Till the age of Deuteronomy "-which, we must remember, was that of Manasseh-" the right of exercising priestly offices must have been enjoyed by every member of the tribe of Levi; but this right on the part of the tribe generally is evidently not incompatible with the pre-eminence of a particular family (that of Aaron :cf. Deut. 10:6), which in the line of Zadok held the chief rank at the Central Sanctuary. After the abolition of the high places by Josiah, however, the central priesthood refused to acknowledge the right which (according to the law of Deuteronomy) the Levitical priests of the high places must have possessed. The action of the central priesthood was indorsed by Ezekiel (44:6 ff.):the priesthood, he declared, was, for the future, to be confined to the descendants of Zadok; the priests of the high places (or their descendants) were condemned by him to discharge subordinate offices, as menials in attendance upon the worshipers. As it proved, however, the event did not altogether accord with Ezekiel's declaration; the descendants of Ithamar succeeded in maintaining their right to officiate as priests by the side of the sons of Zadok (1 Chron. 24:4, etc.), but the action of the central priesthood under Josiah, and the sanction given to it by Ezekiel, combined, if not to create, yet to accentuate the distinction of ' priests ' and ' Levites.' It is possible that those parts of P which emphasize this distinction (Num. 1:-4:, etc.) are of later origin than the rest, and date from a time when-probably after a struggle with some of the disestablished Levitical priests-it was generally accepted." * * Driver, Intro. pp. 146, 147.*

Think of a poor soul trying to read between the lines of his Bible after this fashion ! or rather, of the revised one; for the present one, thank God, he cannot. Moses is thus "modified;" and God, who cannot be "modified," is left out,-except He is to be supposed to sanction this fraudulent speaking in His name! What is needed, to judge it all, is indeed rather conscience than learning, and here, it is comforting to think, the " babes " will not fare the worst.

Even the Pentateuch is not to be suffered to remain, and Moses being no longer credited with its authorship, the book of Joshua can be added to it, and the Pentateuch becomes a Hexateuch. Here too they can find a Jehovist and an Elohist, a priestly writer and a Deuteronomist. But it is no great wonder if, according to the old belief, Joshua himself were the writer,-that one so long in companionship with Moses, and familiar with the books of the law, should use similar expressions, and write to some extent in the same style. That the writer was, in fact, a contemporary of the conquest is shown by his use of " we," and by his statement that Rahab was still dwelling in Israel (chap. 5:1, 6; 6:25). Of course this can be as easily declared a fraud as the constant language of the Pentateuch itself. This can be denied also with equal ease,-and with this advantage, that we have the whole character of God against it.

But that the first five books are a real Pentateuch, we are able now to produce the structure of the Bible itself in proof. The five books of the Psalms are molded on the Mosaic five, so that the Jews have named them ' The Pentateuch of David.' And that this is not a mere fancy of the Jews, but the real key to the spiritual meaning that pervades them, will be manifest the more the more deeply we look into them:we cannot, of course, enter here upon the proof.

Again:taking away from the Kethubim the historical and prophetical books, we have a didactic series of five, at the head of which the Psalms are found; Job, Solomon's Song, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, completing another Pentateuch.

The Prophets, taking the minor twelve as one book (as was done of old), and Lamentations as an appendix to Jeremiah, fall, then, into another series of five-another Pentateuch. Nay, the historical books, as we have seen, fall into still another pentateuchal series; while the books of the New Testament easily divide into a similar one of Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles, Catholic Epistles, and Revelation. Thus the Pentateuch is the basis and model of the whole of Scripture.

Nor is this merely a form:on the contrary, the form but clothes and manifests the spirit that dwells in it. The spiritual meaning which the higher criticism ignores and would destroy, and which the apostle teaches us to find in the fullest way in the Old-Testament history,-which gives us the Now Testament in the Old, prophecy in history, the divine seal everywhere upon its perfection,-confirms all this, and glorifies it. According to it, Joshua is not a continuation of the first series, but the beginning of a second. It is a true Genesis of the after-history, and spiritually a new beginning, Deuteronomy having carried us beyond the wilderness, and, in principle, to the judgment-seat of Christ.

The numerical structure, of which this pentateuchal one is only a part, is indeed the key to the true higher criticism; only that one would not employ a term which implies the subjecting of the Word of God to the mere mind of fallen man. Faith's part it is to learn humbly from God, when once it realizes that it has to do with Him. While at the same time it purges the eye, not blinds it,-opens, not sets aside the understanding. Scripture itself, as the destructive criticism understands it, is not any more that which displays the Mind of all other mind, than is Nature under the withering blight of Darwinian evolution. " God in every thing" means wisdom in every thing. God thrust into the distance means the glorious Sun dwindled to a petty star. However much you may argue about its being in itself as bright as ever, it has no longer power to prevent the earth becoming a lifeless mass, whirled senselessly in a frozen orbit. The very law to which you may still vaunt its subjection is that which now surely condemns it to eternal darkness.

Against all this, the pentateuchal structure of the Bible utters emphatic protest. It is no mere arbitrary thing, but, like all that is divine, has a voice for us,-a voice which is of infinite sweetness and comfort also. For this number 5, which, as I have shown elsewhere,* is the rest-note of music, as well as the measure of its expansion, is that in which, as we have seen, man in his frailty is found in relation to the Almighty God. "*Spiritual Law in the Natural World," p. 76.* And while this implies responsibility on his part, and ways of divine government which may be to His creature "Dark with excessive bright,'' and may give him exercise most needful, and fill him with apprehension too, yet it is that in which alone all blessing is, and to which Christ, in the wondrous mystery of His person, gives only adequate expression. Not only the divine seal is thus put upon all Scripture, but Christ is Himself that seal, from first to last the one Name that Scripture utters,- the assurance to us of an infinite joy with which we may face the history of the past, the mystery of the future. The book is in the hands of the Lamb slain ; it is His; He is its interpreter and fulfillment both. With the chorus of the ages we say and sing, Worthy art Thou to take it! F. W. G.
(PAGES 113-140 MISSING)

Q. 2.-" In what respect does Acts correspond with Exodus?" J. H. H.

Ans.-In general, Exodus is the book of salvation of Israel from Egypt (answering to the significance of its number-2.) Acts is the history of the actual salvation of the people from Judaism and the law to Christianity. While the death and resurrection of our Lord, prefigured by the opening of the waters of the Red Sea, are not recorded in this book, their effects and benefits form the theme of the whole; beginning with the descent of the Holy Ghost, answering to the pillar of cloud and fire, who is the Guide and Power of the true Israel of God. The power of Judaism has become a world-power, and, linked with the Gentiles, forms a bondage of which Pharaoh's sway was a fitting illustration. It is not meant that every portion of the book will have an exact correspondence in the other, but that in general the themes are similar. No doubt, too, careful study will bring out more exact resemblances as Paul's conversion and ministry answering to the tabernacle and its service, while the deliverance from law, for the Gentile Christians in the fifteenth chapter would be rather a contrast to Israel's deliberate acceptance of law at Sinai.

-Sir:The writer is pleased to see that there is at least one great newspaper that has formed correct views of the " Parliament of Religions," and was not afraid to express them, as shown by an article in last Sunday's issue of THE SUN. Permit me to add that this hydra of religions, brought together at the earnest request of so called Christians, is not an evidence of growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ; but the contrary. It is manifestly a retrograde movement, and a falling away from "the faith once delivered to the saints." The blind leaders are turning away the hearts of the people from the truth, and they are being turned unto fables. They are even by word and conduct denying the foundation of all that is Christian, that is. the cross of Christ. For I speak advisedly when I say that the conditions of admission to this so-called Parliament of Religions are that the death of Jesus on the cross as a satisfaction to justice for the sins of the world should not be mentioned.

The offence of the cross has not ceased then, for we have the pitiable spectacle of men while professing to be Christians denying their Redeemer. The heathen and Mohammedan religions represented will not be slow to think that Christians themselves regard the vicarious atonement of Jesus as too foolish to be mentioned, and they will reason that Jesus is no more to the Christian than Buddha to the Buddhist or Mohammed to the Mohammedan. But if Jesus be no more than these or more than all other such, He was an imposter ; for He said He "came into the world that the world through Him might be saved." He said further, "I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh to the Father but by Me." "He that climbeth up any other way is a thief and a robber," and further, He was " the good Shepherd that layeth down His life for the sheep."

Then to Christians worthy of the name there is but one way. There is but " one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." Therefore they cannot fellowship with or compromise with any other system of religion ; but must reprove and enlighten them. S. O. Blunden.

987 Hancock Street, Brooklyn.

An Incident in the Life of Jehoshaphat. (2 Chron. 20:1-30.)

A Strange element of weakness mars the otherwise fine character of Jehoshaphat-a weakness yielded to, and thus proving a most effectual barrier to blessing. Beginning his reign with evident purpose of heart to walk in God's ways, he solidified the kingdom of Judah, and strengthened it both materially and spiritually. He sent out Levites and priests who instructed the people out of the law. He "waxed great exceedingly; and he built in Judah castles, and cities of store. And he had much business in the cities of Judah:and the men of war, mighty men of valor were in Jerusalem." The fear of God was upon the surrounding nations preventing them from attacking the king. Thus, though shorn of the glory of Solomon's day, when all Israel was one, it was again true there was '' neither adversary, nor evil occurrent."

With all quiet within and without, with no need to tempt him, Jehoshaphat joined affinity with Ahab, and opened the door for all the entangling alliances which were so disastrous during and after his reign; for to this union may be traced largely the subsequent idolatry of the royal house of Judah, while the murderess Athaliah and the vengeance of Jehu were alike inflictions for and results of this mixture of darkness with light.

He must go with king Ahab to war in face of the solemn warning of the only prophet who could or dared tell the truth-a prophet whom he himself had called for-and was only kept from the doom of the wicked king of Israel through God's mercy, reminding us of Lot's escape from Sodom. Later enterprises of a similar character were engaged in, showing that the root of weakness was never fully judged; and so this otherwise good and devoted king left a very crooked path for his successors to walk in.

For this reason too the matter before us is only an incident in his life. It did not give character to the whole, but stands out in contrast with a great part of it.

There can be no doubt that the combined attack of Moab and Ammon was a distinct chastening for his connection with Ahab. Until that time, the fear of God hindered the enmity of these nations. On his return from the campaign to Ramoth-gilead, he met with a solemn reproof from Jehu the son of Hanani, " Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord ? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord." (Chap. 19:2.) There is at the same time a word of approval for the measure of uprightness found in him, which, with continued faithfulness in the internal affairs of the kingdom, foreshadowed tender dealing even in the affliction. But nothing can avert that chastisement. How in all this we see the character of God manifest ! He must reprove unfaithfulness, but He is " not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name." (Heb. 6:10.) He does not love to write bitter things against us; He does love to record the good He can find. His holiness compels Him to send chastening, that we might be partakers of that holiness; but His love is ever ready to come to the succor of His people when chastened.

So the enemy comes in like a flood, and if Jehoshaphat wants war, he shall have it to the full. It was his own choosing. If we are in grievous trial, brought upon us through our unfaithfulness, let us not be surprised, still less let us complain. Let us rather learn from the man before us, for now he reads us a precious lesson.

" It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them others besides the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle." Moab and Ammon were the children of Lot's shame, marking the depth to which a child of God may fall who forsakes the separate place marked out by grace for faith. Their names describe and interpret them. Moab-"seed of a father;" Ben-Ammi "son of my people." They represent the fruits of self, acting upon and occupied with itself. An intenser self-or flesh, which is the same-is the result. So if Lot was a neutral, a trifler and loiterer in the enemy's country, these his offspring are the pronounced enemies, with nothing but evil in them. "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever." (Deut. 23:3.) If Jehoshaphat had acted as a neutral, he must feel the power of the fruits of neutralism. If we step aside and hold intercourse with God's enemies, we must feel the power of those " fleshly lusts which war against the soul; " of that "carnal mind which is enmity against God." Moab and Ammon then seem to represent more than mere outward enmity; they were related to Israel. So in our own history, there are spiritual foes outside of ourselves, and others as it were related to us-fruits of our own folly and unbelief. It is these who come up to overwhelm us when we have departed from that path of separation which is the only path of peace or power.

There were others joined with these, as Satan knows how and when to marshal his forces and to league even opposing interests against his one object of hatred. So that Jehoshaphat might have said, "They have consulted together with one consent :they are confederate against Thee:the tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites; of Moab and the Hagarenes:Gebal and Ammon and Amalek:they have holpen the children of Lot." (Ps. 83:5-8.) Our enemies rarely come single handed. The Corinthian saints were beset not merely by the pride of party strife, but by a carnality of walk and a looseness of doctrine that were simply appalling.

No wonder that in the face of such a host Jehoshaphat was filled with fear. But that fear drove him where prosperity it seems could not hold him, into the presence of God. "He set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah." " Pride goeth before destruction," and faith is seen in fear. " Noah moved with fear prepared an ark." It is no sign of faith to see one unexercised by the presence of spiritual foes, especially if brought upon him as a result of his own course. "Blessed is the man that feareth always." One of the saddest signs of the day is this lack of fear. The powers of darkness have well-nigh overwhelmed the professing church, but where is that fasting and seeking the Lord which we see in Jehoshaphat ? In place of that how often is the reverse seen-human expedients and self-complacency.

Gathered together and humbled before Him the men of Judah lay the whole case before God. They tell Him of His absolute power as Creator (5:6.) They remind Him of His covenant relationship with Israel and how He gave them the land (5:7.) They remind Him of the sanctuary where His name had been placed, and of the promise of "help from the sanctuary" in the "day of trouble," (10:8, 9.) The fact of the present attack is then laid before Him, and the prayer closes with these words-owning their helplessness, but holding fast to His power:-"We have no might against this great company that cometh against us:neither know we what to do:but our eyes are upon Thee." (5:12.)

How beautiful is this attitude of confessed weakness and ignorance! "All Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones and their wives, and their children." Utterly weak they are, but who' dare touch them ? They know not what to do, where to go ; but their cause is in other hands. "Be not afraid or dismayed by reason of this great multitude,"- they get an answer from God Himself through His servant-"for the battle is not yours but God's." They have but to go to meet the foe, and stand still and see God work for them, as at the Red Sea. And is not the same path of victory open for us? If in utter weakness, and ignorance of what to do, we but cast ourselves in complete self-abandonment upon God, how soon would we learn that He would undertake for us. He would meet our enemies and we would need but to "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord with us."

Do we believe these things? Will we act upon them ? Will you, child of God, well-nigh overwhelmed by the enemy, with no strength and at a loss which way to turn-will you, in confessed weakness, let God's power work for you ? Will you, feeble company of God's saints, that seem a target for Satan, with weakness within and scoffs without-will you stand before God and let your weakness speak for you? Oh! what a place of power is this ! Creature-resources are swept aside and the living God goes before His people. No wonder that a band of singers is put in the forefront of the battle. "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it and fled:Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan that thou wast driven back ?Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." (Ps. 114:)

God Himself-"The Lord is a man of war"-was the One who was to fight their battle and win their victory. In the majestic sixty-eighth psalm, we have very much the same ring of victory that we can well believe sounded in the hearts of Jehoshaphat's host. "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let them also that hate Him flee before Him . Sing unto God, sing praises to His name:extol Him that rideth upon the heavens by His name Jah, and rejoice before Him. . . Kings of armies did flee apace:and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. . . . The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after."

Two subjects formed the theme of the praises of the people-"the beauty of holiness," and "His
mercy endureth forever." The first celebrates what God is ; the second His acts toward His people. The beauty of holiness-in God it all centered:glimpses of it might be seen in His servants but its fulness and symmetry could only be found in Himself For us who know Him in His Son; who do not see His "back parts" as even Moses was only privileged to do; but who behold "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"-for us how much this beauty of holiness should mean. So too " His mercy endureth forever" means so much more for us than it could possibly for that company. For them it was a refrain that could be placed after the mention of each act of His power, from creation to the victories that put them in possession of their land. (Ps. 136:) For us it more particularly means the celebration of that redemption which found us lost, away from God and will not cease to act until we are placed in glory with Christ. Oh! how much does that mean for us-" His mercy endureth forever!" This then is the song with which we face the enemy, and in anticipation celebrate a victory yet to be won; in reality however already won-the person and the work of Christ. "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."

Is this the spirit in which we go forth for the conflicts which are pressed upon us ? Then victory is ours. How simple this is; to the world so simple as to be foolish; but to faith a blessed secret of power.

Let us remember that a sense of helplessness and ignorance preceded the song of praise. There was the renunciation of self-no thought of turning to Ahab's house or elsewhere. "Give us help from
trouble, for vain is the help of man." " Our eyes are upon Thee."

How complete the victory was! The patched up truce between hostile tribes was forgotten; and the hidden evil that lurked in all their hearts, ("hateful and hating one another ") turned their swords against one another, and God's people had only to see their enemies slaughtered without lifting an arm themselves. They only followed after to take the spoils. For such victories mean great spoil. If we are brought to the end of our strength and cast upon God and thus go to meet our enemy, we have won a victory that will yield great results; we will have indeed rich spoil. The experience gained, the reality of God's presence, the blessedness of depending upon Him-these and many other results will make our place of victory a valley of Berachah indeed-a valley of blessing. Fresh praises will burst from our hearts. We will settle clown to a quiet which none can disturb; it will be " He " that " giveth quietness."

Let us remember then, if we are utterly weak, if we know not which way to turn-these things, so far from depressing us, should, if used aright, give us confidence of victory. If they but lead us unto God it will be said of us that we were "out of weakness made strong."

My heart is bounding onward,
Home to the land I love;
Its distant vales and mountains
My wishful passions move:
Fain would my thirsting spirit
Its living freshness breathe,
And wearied steps find resting
Its hallowed shades beneath.

No soil of nature's evil,
No touch of man's rude hand,
Shall e'er disturb around us
That bright and peaceful land.
The charms that woo our senses
Shall be as pure as fair;
For all, while stealing o'er us,
Shall tell of Jesus there.

What light, when all its beaming
Shall own Him as its Sun !
What music, when its breathing
Shall bear His name along !
No pause, no change, those pleasures
Shall ever seek to know:
The drought that lulls our thirsting
But wakes that thirst anew.

F. G. Bellett.

" If ye had known what this meaneth, 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,'' ye would not have condemned the guiltless." (Matt. 12:7.)

The Lord does not here say, the guilty, yet He speaks of mercy.

The Pharisees were great sticklers for law, and thus professed to be the only ones who honored Moses, and God who gave it. They were orthodox enough, but there was one thing lacking-they had no hearts-no heart-movement toward God, and so no hearts for God's people; and this was an awful lack, was it not ?

Although we may not be Pharisees in the full sense, the same principles and the same condition of soul in a measure may possess us in our relations to one another. The cold letter of the Word kills now as then, and none more than those who themselves use it; so we too need to know what this means, " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." The Lord beautifully meets this hardness of their hearts, and justifies the poor of His flock by pressing upon their consciences (and bringing themselves in as witnesses), that it is lawful to do good at any time. For this, is needed a heart right toward God, and bowels of mercies toward men-a tender and compassionate heart. This will not leave out judgment, but it will show mercy. " I will sing of mercy and of judgment," said one who had learned something of this.

Our compassions-how easily, alas!-circle around ourselves, and plead for ourselves instead of others. We speak often of principles, too, and set to work to carry them out with hard and fast lines of Scripture, all clear and straight enough, but in the application of them, showing judgment is not tempered by mercy. " This ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone." There is no value in our taking "high ground," and talking about God and His claims however rightly, if there be lacking in us real heart-care for the least of His people. We cannot separate love to Christ from love to His people, and yet how much it is done!

It is easy to talk of love for brethren far off, and all the time be unable to live with the brethren at our door; of what account, then, is our talk ? '' for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God [or his brother] whom he hath not seen?" (i Jno. 4:20.)

And so, whether it be a question of the guiltless or the guilty, while we are bound to maintain the truth, it must be kept in even balance-as it ever was perfectly by the blessed Lord Himself-with mercy in the heart. The truth has no power when used as a whip for the backs of others-merely to beat and smite them, and thus drive them away, but, in the true love of the true Shepherd of the sheep, to do good with, and this is always lawful.

What a reaping for us it will be, even in the life that is, when "he who showed no mercy will have judgment without mercy "! How happy, on the other hand, to be able to enter into the joy and blessedness of that word, "And mercy glories over judgment." (Jas. 2:13.) The Lord graciously teach us more of it; for if we do not learn it, we too may condemn the guiltless. W. B. _______ d

[We gladly insert the following from the New York Sun on the Parliament of Religions now In session at the World's Fair, Chicago;-a well deserved rebuke, even from the editor of a newspaper.]

If the so-called Parliament of Religions at Chicago is for any other purpose than to be a sensational side show to the big Fair, it is a purely agnostic purpose. It is to destroy the old conviction that there is a single absolute true and perfect religion revealed from God, and to substitute for it the agnostic theory that no religious belief is more than an expression of the universal and ceaseless effort of men to discover the undiscoverable. It is that men's Gods are of their own making, and that they are improved and finally discarded according as the manufacturers grow in enlightenment.

How, then, can Christians consistently join in any such polytheistic symposium as that now proceeding at Chicago ? If Christianity is not the sole true and perfect religion, and if all others are not consequently false and pernicious, it is based on delusion. If it is not merely the best, but also the only religion whereby men can be saved, it is an imposture. If it contains only a part of the truth, sharing that priceless possession with many other religions, its source is not as it proclaims itself to be. Christianity is either the sole and complete revelation of divine truth from God Himself, and hence the only and absolute truth, or it is a fabrication of men, the more worthless because it seeks to bolster itself up by false pretenses. If God did not come down from heaven and take on the form of a man in order to show man the only way to salvation, thereby making all other religions false and profane, Christian theology is a sham :it is built on fiction.

That being so, Christianity cannot argue with other religions and compromise with them, accepting something and giving something. It can only say, This is the truth of God, uttered by God Himself, and there is no other religious truth possible. Accept it or reject it at the peril of your soul. God does not argue with men. He commands and they must obey :and Christianity is that divine command, or it is no more than a delusion and a superstition. If it is not divine and absolute, but uncertain human groping for truth like other religions, the story of the incarnation and the resurrection is a fable and the doctrine of the atonement is a myth.

How, then, can Christians come together with Buddhists, Brahmans, Mohammedans, Jews, and Zoroastrians to discuss their religion with them on equal terms? How can they treat them otherwise than as infidels who are the surer of damnation because they have seen the light of heaven and turned away from it?

In Chicago hospitality to all religions indicates agnostic indifference to them all.-(New York Sun.)

The action of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, held at Washington during the latter part of May, is of such importance that it well merits a notice in these pages. For the question raised was not one which affected the denomination as such, but the whole professing church. It was a question touching the very foundations of Christianity, and therefore the importance of the answer to that question reached out beyond the bounds of the denomination.

It should be a matter of unfeigned and hearty thanksgiving that so clear, unequivocal and decisive a result should have been reached. It was a contest where were ranged on the one side learning, influence, wealth and the prestige of a victory in the Presbytery of New York; on the other side was the conviction that the Word of God was more precious than the best man had to offer, and its integrity, all-sufficiency, and infallibility must be maintained at all costs.

The question came before the General Assembly in the form of an appeal from the minority of the Presbytery where Dr. Briggs had been tried and acquitted, largely with the help of those who, though differing from him, would for the sake of peace, retain him in the church. A very significant feature was the effort of Dr. Briggs to get the assembly to refuse to entertain this appeal. And this point was argued with all the subtlety of a lawyer. The reasons urged were purely technical, and even the adherents of the professor would be forced to admit that he did it merely to gain time. If the appeal were thrown out and the case sent back to the Synod, another year would be gained in which to sow diligently the seeds of infidelity broadcast in the church. But what can be said for the uprightness of one who would thus seek as a man of the world, while admitting the facts of the case-that he held and taught the doctrines as charged-to deliberately prevent, on technical ground, a decision being reached on them? But there was a determination on the part of many that this state of things should continue no longer; and while desiring to be perfectly fair to Professor Briggs they would yield no longer to delay. So the case was brought up for trial

Professor Briggs was charged with holding and teaching doctrines contrary to the standards of the Presbyterian Church and (what is far more important) to the word of God. These doctrines may be grouped under three general heads.

I. As to the Scriptures:he denied the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch ; that David wrote many of the psalms ascribed to him, or Isaiah the latter part of the prophecy called by his name. In short, he tore apart, mutilated and remodeled according to his own theory the greater part of the Old Testament. History, ordinances and commandments were in this way altered to suit his theory and the dates of the Mosaic writings, which according to him Moses never saw, changed to the time of Ezra.

Growing out of this mutilation of the form of Scripture was a denial of its verbal inspiration. Indeed this was a necessary conclusion from such premises. For his theory of authorship was formed on supposed conflicting statements in the books-one or both of which must have been incorrect. The Bible according to him was not infallible in all things -only, as the Romanists claim for the Pope, in matters of faith and practice. The jots and tittles were full of blemishes and errors, according to him; and Christ's words, that the Scriptures cannot be broken, were virtually contradicted.
It is needless to dwell on the effect of all this. It is infidelity pure and simple, no matter how concealed for the time by a seeming piety and desire for the truth. It begins with taking away the foundations of the faith, by denying that" all Scripture is given by inspiration of God." The evil done by the holders of such views cannot be estimated. Christ said of Moses, "He wrote of Me," these men say he did not-some one else wrote. Christ said, "but if ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my words? "-a question which might well be pressed home upon those who in the pride of higher criticism are fast becoming deniers of Christ; for it will come to that.

II The second doctrine was that which co-ordinated the Bible, reason and the Church as fountains of divine authority. Some men found God through the Bible and the doctrines of grace; others, differently constituted found him through the church, its authority and ordinances; (Cardinal Newman was given as an illustration of this class;) and others found God neither through the Bible nor through the church but through reason. Christ is left out. His words '' No man can come unto the Father but by Me," are not true. "Canst thou by searching find out God? " is answered in the affirmative, and indeed every landmark of Christianity is removed.

If Cardinal Newman found true peace in his soul it was through the Word of God, even if dimly seen, and not through the authority of the church of Rome. And so with every other man. We can readily understand how one who begins by invalidating Scripture can go on to associate with it, as of equal authority, the professing church and man's finite reason.

III. The third doctrine was that of progressive sanctification after death. Professor Briggs held that at death the work of sanctification, begun by regeneration, went on until it was completed at the resurrection. The close resemblance to the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory strikes one. Coupled with it he has, by misinterpreting the passage which speaks of Christ preaching to the spirits in prison, given some general idea that such men as Paul are now employed in the work of enlightening those who die not fully sanctified, and this work goes on to the resurrection ! We must ask, Does this man call such teaching Christianity? Where is the all-sufficient completely finished work of Christ? Where the blessed truth of regeneration, with its impartation of a pure -a divine life? Where the death of the old man by the cross? Ah where are any of the soul-emancipating truths if such teaching-a mere refined and cultured heathenism with some Christian names-is to be substituted for the Word of God? We readily admit that knowledge will increase and that there will be growth and progress to all eternity, but that is not what is meant by this teaching.

It was then for the assembly to decide whether one who held and taught such doctrines could be considered a Christian minister, a safe guide from those who contemplated entering the ministry. By an overwhelming vote they decided that he could not; and he was declared suspended. Let all who love God's truth rejoice that in days of looseness and worldliness there remains firmness enough to stand thus; that neither fears of disruption, nor the impressiveness of learning and wealth could make men forget their loyalty to Christ and His Word.

But, the question forces itself upon us,-if we have the inspired Word of God what are we going to do with it? Shall not the answer be, We will not merely stand for it, but we will search it as never before. We will test it and draw from its inexhaustible resources things new and old ? We will let its light shine and let it speak for itself before the world. Above all we will let it rule us. The Lord grant that those who have been faithful to stand for it, and all His dear people, may be able to give some such answer.

THE SPRING OF 1533.

(History of the Reformation. – Time of Calvin. Vol. in., p. 360.)

"When the day arrived, many persons went out of the city and quietly directed their steps toward D'Adda's garden, situated in a place called Pre L' Eveque, because the bishop had a house there. A table had been prepared in a room or in the open air. The believers, as they arrived, took their seats in silence on the rude benches, not without fear that the priests would get information of the furtive meeting. Guerin sat down in front of the table. Just at the moment (we are told)when the ceremony was to begin, the sun rose and illuminated with his first rays a scene more imposing in its simplicity than the mountains capped with everlasting snow, above which the star of day was beginning his course. The pious Guerin stood up, and after a prayer distributed the bread and wine, and all together praised the Lord. The communicants quitted D'Adda's garden full of gratitude toward God."

Geneva was soon to be a center of light; but first a storm of persecution, to close the long night of the tyranny of Rome, was to baptize the little flock.

("D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation."- Times of Calvin. Vol. 3:, p. 234.)

We are in the thick of the fight; the conflict is terrible; we are fighting man to man but the Lord giveth the victory. Take up the sword, set the helmet on your head, buckle on the breastplate, hang the shield to your loins, and being thus armed with the panoply of God, rush into the midst of the battle; hurl the darts, throw down the enemy on every side, and put all the army to flight. But, alas! instead of joining the soldiers of Christ, instead of rushing into the Lord's battles, you fear the cross, and the dangers that lie in wait for you. Preferring your own ease, you refuse to come to the assistance of your brethren. Is that the behavior of a Christian …. The holy Scriptures declare that the Lord will exact a severe reckoning for such cowardice . . . Beware lest you bury the talent you have received. Call to mind that you must give an account of all those souls whom tyranny holds captive in its gloomy dungeons. You can set the light before their eyes; you can deliver them from their chains. You must conjure them to throw themselves into the arms of Jesus Christ . . . Do not hesitate . . . Christ must be preferred to every thing. Do not trouble yourself about what your wife wishes or requires, but about what God asks and commands." April, 1531. " Loose him, and let him go." (Jno. 11:)

April, 1531.

We often hear the expression " heavenly."Well, no person can be "heavenly"unless he lives in heaven. The fact is, we all of us have too much the tendency to put off heaven until we die. We think of it as the place where God is, and where Christ is, and it is the resource for us when we leave this world, when we leave our bodies behind us. When we cannot live any longer here, we go to heaven. Or, it may be, if you advance a little upon that, when a person has every thing blighted and ruined down here, and there is not a single thing left, then he turns to heaven. It is like a person taking refuge from the storm, and when the storm is over, coming out again to enjoy the things around. Is that the case with you and me, beloved friends? That is the natural tendency of our hearts. We have very poorly, if at all in our souls, the thought of continuously abiding in that wonderful place where God is free to express Himself in all the infinite fullness of His love to us. He does not express Himself to us here. He gives us His care, His sympathy, His help, His cheer, His solace; He takes us by the hand, and leads us along the way, every step of the journey :but He does not express Himself to us here. He does there-that is the difference. That is what I feel, beloved friends, that we want, every one of us, in these days,-a more habitual dwelling in the house of the Lord. You may depend upon it, we should be a different kind of people altogether if we dwelt there. It is not visiting there, it is not running there for shelter out of the storm; but I will tell you what it is,-it is knowing it as home, with all the joys of home. Do you know what they are ? Home ! It is not being driven there through sheer necessity, but it is the attractiveness of it that draws us there. What do you know of the attractions of that blessed One who is up there? You see, it is not a doctrine, nor a theory; but it is a divine, living, adorable, blessed, transcendent Person for our affections. It is a Person who has an attractiveness peculiar to Himself, and one who throws this attractiveness, and blessedness, and beauty connected with Himself, around the affections of my heart. It is not, as I said, that I am driven by mere necessity from all the things that are round about me here, but I am attracted by the beauties and blessedness and glories of that scene where Christ is every thing to God, and where God delights to express Himself in all His fullness.

There is the spot I long more to dwell in, to live in, to abide in; that is the place I desire to know as my home, and that is the one thing the Psalmist speaks of here. To me, it is a beautiful instance of the expression of this divine life in a person, the life of God-" One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."

Now I see all this in its perfection in Christ as a man. We get it in that beautiful passage, " No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of Man "-who was in heaven. Is that it? No. "Who is in heaven." Take Him as a man (He was the mighty God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, as well)-as the perfect man, He who walked that magnificent, blessed, shining pathway, that we have traced out for us in the gospels, and which, by the Holy Ghost, we can read and think over and delight in. Was it not this continuous, blessed, wonderful communion, intercourse with all that belonged to that blessed place from whence He came, that so marked His way? As He said, '' I know whence I came, and whither I go." There was all that blessed distinctiveness and separateness about His walk here. Is there, in our measure, that about us? Are we like people who know whither we go ? Is that the thing which day by day is telling itself out in your business, in your home, in your intercourse one with another, in your families? What I am speaking of is a practical thing. It goes down into the most minute circumstances of our daily life. There is to be this blessed testimony stamped upon it, that "I dwell in the house of the Lord." What sort of people should we be if there were that distinctiveness about us, and divine satisfaction and rest! W. T. T.

The life of Jesus was the bright shining of a candle. It was such a lamp in the house of God as needed no golden tongs or snuff-dishes. It was ordered before the Lord continually, burning as from pure beaten oil. It was making manifest all that was around, exposing and reproving; but it ever held its own place uncondemned.

Whether challenged by disciples or adversaries, as the Lord was again and again, there is never an excusing of Himself. On one occasion, disciples complain, " Master, carest Thou not that we perish?" But He does not think of vindicating the sleep out of which this challenge awakes Him. On another occasion, they object to Him, "The multitude throng Thee, and sayest Thou, ' Who touched Me?' " But He does not need this inquiry, but acts upon the satisfaction of it. At another time, Martha says to "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." But He does not excuse His not having been there, nor His delaying for two days in the place where He was, but instructs Martha in the wondrous character which His delay had given to that hour. All this tells us of the way of the perfect Master. Appearances might have been against Him at times. Why did He sleep in the boat when the winds and waves were raging? Why did He loiter on the road when Jairus's daughter was dying ? or why did He tarry where He was when His friend Lazarus was sick in the distant village of Bethany? But all this is but appearance, and that for a moment. We have heard of these ways of Jesus,-this sleep, this loitering, and this tarrying, but we also see the end of Jesus, that all is perfect. Appearances were against the God of Job in patriarchal days. Messenger after messenger seemed too much, unrelenting, and inexorable; but the God of Job had not to excuse Himself, nor has the Jesus of the evangelists.

Therefore, when we look at the Lord Jesus as the lamp of the sanctuary-the light in the house of God, we find at once that the tongs and snuff-dishes cannot be used. They are discovered to have no counterpart in Him. Consequently, they who undertook to challenge or rebuke Him when He was here had to go back rebuked and put to shame themselves. They were using the tongs and snuffers with a lamp which did not need them, and they only betrayed their folly; and the light of this lamp shone the brighter, not because the tongs had been used, but because it was able to give forth some fresh witness (which it did on every occasion) that it did not need them.

I may further observe, that as He did not excuse Himself to the judgment of man in the course of His ministry, as we have now seen, so in the hour of His weakness, when the powers of darkness were all against Him, He did not cast Himself on the pity of man. When He became the prisoner of the Jews and of the Gentiles, He did not entreat them or sue to them. No appeal to compassion, no pleading for life is heard. He had prayed to the Father in Gethsemane, but there is no seeking to move the Jewish high-priest or the Roman governor.

I have heard of one who, observing His bright and blessed ways in the four gospels, was filled with tears and affections, and was heard to cry out, " Oh that I were with Him !"

If one may speak for others, beloved, it is this we want, and it is this we covet. We know our need, but we can say, the Lord knows our desire.-(From "Meditations on the Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ")

A RECORD OF THE SOUL’S PROGRESS, AND A WITNESS TO THE WORD.

Josh. 15:26-28.

Today we are in the presence of a most solemn thing. We see men who are professed teachers of the Word of God giving up the claim that it is really that. They allow that Scripture contains the word of God, but deny that it is the Word of God, or that its words are in every part from Him. That is what I believe and hold to, that every word is of Him. Of course, no one questions that there are mistakes in our translations, and even in the existing copies of the original. Neither translators nor those who copied from the old manuscripts were kept from the possibility of error in their work. But what is meant is that if we could get back to the original, and behind all the copies, we should find, absolutely flawless accuracy in every part:in that sense, I do assert that we have verbal inspiration; and that its cosmogony, history, geography, as well as spiritual truth, is, one as much as the other, perfect. As the Lord asserts for Himself, so may we for all Scripture, " If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not,, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ?" If Scripture fails in truthfulness just where it can be tested, how can it be worthy to be believed in matters where we cannot test it ?

I am not to-day going over any of the usual kind of evidence as to these points, however. God has given us, I believe, for these times in which it is so much needed, a new key to the interpretation of His Word, enabling us to realize its complete inspiration more perfectly than ever yet, and to get at its meaning more perfectly also. Mathematics we speak of as what at least is absolute truth. Now it is capable of the fullest proof that God has, by means of the symbolism of numbers, brought in mathematics as a witness to the certainty and fullness of His Word. He has given it, in short, everywhere, and even, as it would appear, in an almost microscopical way, a numerical structure, which certifies it by illuminating it. Thus, if there are five books of Moses, there is a reason why there should be just that number, and why each book should stand where it does in its numerical place,-a reason founded upon the meaning of the number itself in Scripture, and the agreement of that meaning with the character of the book itself.

Just so with the divisions of each book, and with the divisions of those divisions, until, in some places, it goes down to the very words themselves,-each true division manifests itself as that by the same agreement between the character of the division and the meaning of the number of its place. And this is what I hope to show you now:nine words are all my text; and I believe I can demonstrate to you that each of these words is perfectly in place,-that its place accords with its meaning,-that is, its number declares its nature, the whole combining to bring out of the words a spiritual significance which proves the whole to be divine ! And this I would gladly have subjected to the fullest and keenest criticism that can be given to it. I have no doubt whatever that it will stand it all; and that it will not only stand as a proof, not to be gainsaid, of the perfect inspiration of Scripture, but also as a witness that we may and must read our Bibles more closely than ever yet, and that so read, they have an infinite store of blessing for us, which may He use, as He would, for sanctification to our souls.

If we take up the book of Joshua, every one is aware that there are in it whole chapters which consist almost entirely of names,-the boundary-lines of tribes, the cities belonging to them, etc. What are we to think of these Chapters? what is their use? what spiritual significance have they? If you examine the commentaries, you will find literally nothing in the latter way. They will tell you where such or such a place is to be found or not to "be found. They will give you criticisms upon the text, linguistic or archaeological. But as for any thing that would speak to the heart of a child of God as of something from his Father to him :what, indeed, can you expect of it from a mere list of names?

It is a very serious question. For if indeed it be but a list of names,-if there be in it materials for history, geography,-anything else you please, but nothing spiritual, then why should there be the need of inspiration to record it? To admit this as fact is to give the deniers of verbal inspiration their best possible argument, and liberty to the destructionist critics to do all they please with what, if taken out of our Bibles, no one would regret or miss.

Well, you say, out of Judah's hundred and fifteen cities, bow many should we miss ? Yes, but whose fault is this ? Just having been through the whole, I can say, that with perhaps one doubtful exception, I know of none but Stand in their place, figures in a continuous picture or series of pictures, of the greatest beauty, and deepest significance from end to end. Take one away out of any of these, there would be a loss indeed; and this we shall see out of the nine names before us.

Only a list of names ? Look in the seventh of Hebrews, and see how much significance is to be found in a few names. " For this Melchisedek, 'king of righteousness,' priest of the Most High God, . . . first being by interpretation, ' king of righteousness,' and after that, ' king of Salem,' which is to say, 'king of peace.'" Notice how the apostle not only translates the names, but how he insists too upon the order :" first, ' King of righteousness,' and after that,' King of Salem,' which is,' King of peace;'"what a withering contempt would be poured upon us by our fine critics to-day if we dared to insist upon such importance of the order, " first " and " after that " ! and yet it can be justified most fully as having spiritual necessity. The Lord will in fact be " King of righteousness," acting in judgment to remove out of the way the evil, before He can become "King of Salem," and bring in peace. But if we were to go through Scripture like that, would it not give us everywhere plenty of matter for research ? Would it not make us feel that there was treasure under our feet in every spot we trod upon in Scripture, and show us perhaps, in result, that in just the most barren-seeming spots the mines are ? For, assuredly, here as in nature, not all the gold gleams upon the surface; and where it does so, it is witness to the richer veins that lie beneath. And Scripture searched in this way now, with honest, believing, patient industry, with what riches will it not repay us (after all that has been spent on it) to-day !

In this fifteenth of Joshua, the names of the cities of Judah fill a large part of the sixty-three verses. I am merely going to translate a few of them, and show how they read as Scripture puts them together. In such a book as " Pilgrim's Progress," the names are in English, and we are assured by simply reading them that they are intended to have spiritual significance. If we were Hebraists, we should find large quantities of Bible names just as simple as Bunyan's. " Melchisedek " is as clear to one who understands Hebrew, as "king of righteousness" is to us. I do not mean that every word will be as clear as that by any means; yet there is significance all through, and to be found. Vocabularies differ much; but the meaning need not be uncertain if we will attend to the help that God has given us to assure ourselves what is the true one.
A list of names standing separately merely, we might be in doubt about. Words thus apart, and forming no sentences, might have easily different meanings attaching to them. Grouped in sentences they ought to speak. If God's mind be in them they ought to speak what would be worthy of the mind of God. We shall find that this is what these names really do. They are grouped for us, and as so grouped have evident relation to one another, and form connected lines of thought. I have spoken of them as pictures, and so they are, with their meanings on their faces, as good pictures will have:some of the most beautiful in God's Word, I believe, are to be found in these names. I care very little for what commentators can tell me about them ; I care not very much whether they can find the ruins that stand for them to-day :but I do care very much to know that they have admonition, comfort, hope, for me to-day; and that God speaks in them still in His own blessed way effectively. May our hearts realize this now !

If we look at these cities of Judah, we shall find that they are divided first of all according to the character of the district to which they belong :first, the South ; then the vale, or rather, the lowland ; then the mountains ; then the wilderness. The cities of the south are numbered for us-29 :though there is a difficulty about this, which I cannot now enter into; 29 is really the number.

In this large group, we have smaller ones also, which may be discerned by the absence of the usual conjunction thus:"Kabzeel, and Eder, and Jagur, and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan,"-then comes the break,-" Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth, and Hazor-hadattah, and Kerioth-hezron, which is Hazor "-(so it ought to be read):there we find a second break. The third group is the one we are to look at, and is cut off in a similar manner from the following one.

In this group there is still implied a smaller division ; for 9 seems always to be in Scripture a 3 x 3, 3 multiplied by itself, and thus intensified. Our group is thus a third group, and a triple group of threes, and every name will have attached to it its appropriate number.

I need not say much now about the numbers. It is clear that we are only concerned with three of them, and it is enough for the present to remind ourselves that these have largely their significance from the Trinity, and 3 especially from the Spirit and His work.

The tribe of Judah represents the people of God as a worshiping people ; " Judah " means " praise; " " now will I praise the Lord," said Leah, when she had borne him. But the form of this praise is confession literally, " the fruit of the lips confessing His name." To confess what He has done, what He is, is His sufficient praise; and what the cities of the South speak of is the power of God in behalf of His people. The first group thus of electing love and care ; the second, of salvation ; the third, with which we have now to do, with the work of the Spirit.

We have three stages, then, of this, and three names in each stage. The first, we would naturally say, must be new birth, for there is no work of the Spirit in us before new birth; and so it is:the third name of the first three is Moladah, "birth." Third, being both the operation of the Spirit and a resurrection, or at least, a quickening out of death.

Can we know more precisely that such a birth is what is meant ? The Old Testament has not the phrase at all:can we be sure that we have here the thought? Yes, if we will look back at the word immediately preceding. It is the second name, and two is the number of sufficient testimony :" the testimony of two men is true," the Lord says, referring to Deuteronomy. The second word is Shema, "a report:" "faith cometh by hearing," says the apostle ; rather, "a report," " and the report by the word of God." But faith comes in only in new birth:where faith is, life is. Of those who receive Christ it is written, "To them gave He authority to become the children of God"-this is the full sense of the Greek,-"who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Shema, Moladah, give us, then, birth by the Spirit of God and divine testimony, the " report" of the gospel. Yet, strictly, to know that it is new birth we must go back to the first word of the three, which as yet we have omitted :it is Amam, " mother," or perhaps, " their mother." If we are to hear of new birth, we must first realize the old one, and its nature. For this purpose, " father" would be equivocal :God is our Father in new birth, and even by creation (the fall not being considered) we are "off-spring of God." But our mother, poor Eve, through her sin came into the world, and "how can he be clean," asks Job, "that is born of woman ?" Save by the special power of God, is the inevitable answer, none; not one.

Thus all is clear:not one of these names is redundant, -not one could be spared ; each adds a needed thought to the rest; each in its order, each fulfilling its numerical significance; the whole giving completely what is needed for the truth to be conveyed, and beyond that nothing. The first stage ends with the first spiritual work accomplished-new birth.

A momentous beginning ; and which makes sure the end. Eternal life has begun in the soul:we have become partakers of the divine nature ; God is our Father:in all this there can be no change. Yet is there still within us that which is not of God, nay, which is in opposition to Him. " If Christ be in you," says the apostle, "the body is dead because of sin." Of him in whom the Spirit of God is, it is said, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit; " and new birth, instead of being the end of conflict, is more truly the beginning of it. The seventh of Romans is the history of a soul born again, with the new desires and affections of a child of God, and yet having to cry, "the good that I would I do not; the evil that I would not, that I do :" a " body of death " lying upon the now living man which he cannot deal with nor throw off. It is to this which the second series introduces us ; this struggle and the deliverance which it recounts. The first word here is characteristic:it is-

" Hazar-gaddah," a compound word, meaning "an in closure of conflict." Why an inclosure ? Manifestly, an inclosure of conflict would be something shutting one up to this, like the amphitheater of old for the gladiator slave:and this is a bondage, a slavery:what is it that pens us up to this unutterable misery, and permits no escape ? What is it that gives power to the evil, not to the soul that seeks deliverance from it? The answer is simple, if the soul is simple:"the strength of sin is the law;" " sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me ; and that which was ordained to life I found to be unto death." And so all do find who honestly put themselves under it; for man being always the same, and God's principles the same, the experiment works out infallibly to the conclusion, no experiment that science knows can possibly be surer.

Christians, then, ought to be all perfectly agreed about this :it would seem so ; alas ! the fact is not as it would seem. Many, in terms, know nothing about this conflict, -deny it to be the experience of a converted man at all; many more contradict this with the assertion that it is the continual, proper experience of every Christian man. As to the law, the popular Christian conscience is shocked by the assertion that the " law is the strength of sin," and the popular faith is that Moses is the best friend to holiness, and that the rule of law is the only guarantee for conduct.

After all, can we be so sure about the experiment ? As sure as we can be about Scripture:for Scripture vouches for the result. And the different experiences can be explained only in this way, that the terms of the experiment have not been adhered to.

If we will keep to Scripture all is plain. The law is "holy, just, and good;" but it is not on that account the strength of holiness. There is no need to doubt the goodness of a plow, because no wheat will be produced by the plowing. The plow is most necessary in order to a harvest, but it is quite as necessary that the plow should depart when it has done its work. The reign of the plow, the constant use of it over the field, would be the surest way of destroying the harvest.

Nothing is plainer in Scripture than that the law and grace are entire opposites ; that the law is not of faith; that sin shall not have dominion over us, because we are not under the law, but under grace. Nothing is clearer in the apostle's experience than that " without the law, sin was dead ;" that he " was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and he died ; " that so in his experience, the law, which was ordained to life, he found to be unto death. Nothing is plainer than that he gives this experience as in no wise merely his own, but that on this very account we have become " dead to the law by the body of Christ, that we should be married to Another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God."

Observe well :this is no question of peace with God, or of works for justification. That question is taken up, and fully, elaborately answered in the third and fourth chapters of the same epistle. The seventh of Romans gives us the question so much agitating men's minds now, -finding, I fear, so little right settlement, because the statements here are so little listened to,-the question of holiness. It is a question of how sin shall not have dominion, and how we shall bring forth fruit unto God.

The dominion of law and of grace cannot be together :they are mutually destructive; or, to use the apostle's other figure, as surely as a wife cannot have two husbands at the same time, so the soul cannot be united to the law and to Christ together. But the law came first, and law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. How, then, can we be delivered ? By death, and by death alone:"Ye are become dead to the law." Not, the law is dead, but ye are. How? "By the body of Christ;" Christ as our Substitute having died for us, and died under the law's curse, "made a curse for us,"our connection with law as Christians is ended and over. We are free, and belong to Him who has delivered us:we are free to serve in newness of spirit,-to bring forth fruit to God.

The law, then, is for the Christian only Hazar-gaddah. It is an"inclosure of conflict,"-nothing could more truly define it. It is the amphitheater pf the slave, shut up to a most unequal struggle. "O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me?" is the cry of despair under it. But before we go on to deliverance, let us notice how the numbers confirm the interpretation here.

Hazar-gaddah is the first name in the second group :its numbers are therefore 2 and 1:But 2 is the number of law as a covenant r it has two parties, and here is the misery of it. God and man have each to fulfill their part. No fear for God ; but for man,-ah, who that knows him can trust him ? who that knows himself can trust himself ? And the number 2 is significantly also the number which speaks of difference, of division (it is the first number that divides), and so of conflict. As the number of the group, it confirms the thought that it is the truth as to the Law which occupies us.

And 1 is the number of rule; as an"ordinal, the first implies supremacy. The "rule of law" thus exactly suits the numbers, as it does the meaning of "Hazar-gaddah;" the rule of law means a shutting up to strife,-an "in-closure of conflict."

But how do we find deliverance practically ? This brings us to the second name ; and the number 2 has its good side as well as its bad. All the numbers have both. On the good side, it is the number of help. "Two are better than one," says the preacher, " for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow." (Eccl. 4:9, 10.) Thus in our language also, to "second" is to help. It is the Second Person of the Trinity who is the Saviour of men. The second book of Moses is Exodus, the book of redemption; and so one might go on.

How, then, do we find deliverance ? Not by any victory we can attain in the conflict. Not by any infusion of strength, by which God helps us to help ourselves. This cannot change the rule under which we are:we cannot struggle out from under law into grace. " Who shall deliver?" Why, Christ:there is none other:"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." What is the method of this deliverance ? It is-

" Heshmon," "quiet reckoning:" that is to say, "faith." Yes, deliverance from the power of sin is attained by faith ; holiness is realized by faith. So much is sure. But faith must have God's word to justify it, or it is not faith. What does this faith lay hold of, and find strength in ? for it finds none in itself, or it would not be faith. It is in Christ, and in His death as delivering me from law, in His life as my Representative before God, so that I am in Him, " accepted in the Beloved," not only my sins put away, but my self put away from before God, with all that upon which my eyes were just now fixed :" knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,"-really, "annulled," brought practically to nothing-"that henceforth we should not serve sin." (Rom. 6:6.)

This is God's method:"Heshmon," "quiet reckoning." "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (5:ii, R. V.) "Reckon yourselves to be dead :" reckon, not feel, or find; " reckon that your old man is dead," not because no evil stirs in you, but because Christ has died, and you have died with Him. Reckon in the work of the cross :you cannot feel the cross; take God's account of what it has done for you, and that you are " in Christ," a "man in Christ," identified with Christ where He is. Only faith can realize that!

Thus you will have, what comes next here, in the third place, under the resurrection number,- " Beth-pelet," "the house of escape." Yes, if you will take God's estimate of what you are, if you will accept Christ for all He is to you, then you will have the most blessed "escape " possible-an escape from yourself, an escape from self-occupation, from self-confidence and unprofitable lament over yourself, alike ; an escape into the liberty of occupation with Christ, of joy in Him, and power for holiness :for in occupation with Him, and in identifying yourself in faith with Him with whom God has identified you, you will find (if this be real) how the old things that held you lose their power, how the self-interest becomes His interests, how even the thought of your own holiness will have dropped, whether as a disturbing or a complacent thought. Christ Himself will be the Sun of glory, and what glory may get upon your face it will be but the glow of His brightness. " For we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3:18.) This is Beth-pelet, the "house of escape."It is home for the heart, an object for the affections, a place of rest and happiness, "quiet from the fear of evil."In His house He rules, and rules out disturbance. Winds and waves obeyed Him of old in the open boat in Galilee ; and the " house of escape " knows no tempest, no disturbance. Christ is Master:grace is the rule; love the sweet compelling power. To maintain this place, here there may be conflict; here the world will bring its attractions to draw you off; but run to your hiding-place – to this place whose door is ever open, where unchanging love has perpetual title to display itself to you :here is your refuge – refuge from yourself first of all – refuge from every wind that blows. Christ is Master, and with a sweet imperative infinitely beyond that of Moses, – " Master and Lord " of all.

Thus the second series ends; and again there is nothing in excess, nothing in defect. In this second series, note also that Christ is really as much in relation to it as in the first series it is the Father :children of the Father, in Christ before God, these have been the underlying truths respectively; though it is the Spirit's work which we are really following all through. F. W. G.

(Concluded in next number.)

The Sabbath question is their pet doctrine, and, ac-cording to their views, all Christians should keep the seventh day, according to the fourth commandment. Thus they put Christians back on Jewish ground, and set aside Christianity. The whole teaching of Seventh-Day Adventists is far more serious than people generally imagine. It is not a mere mistake as to a minor point of doctrine, but it is a system of doctrine which undermines the whole truth of Christianity, and puts its followers not only on Jewish ground, under law, and therefore under the curse (Gal. 3:10); but it leaves them without a Saviour (though they speak of Christ and His blood), for the Christ they speak of is not the Christ revealed in Scripture; He is for them, merely, the noblest Being in the universe save One. While, as we have seen, they have no atonement, and no present certainty of salvation. With them, eternal life is not a present but a future thing; and annihilation is the final doom of the impenitent. These, and other things which they teach, plainly show that it is a system which completely undermines Christianity,-one of the blinding and satanic delusions of the last days (i Tim. 3:i ; 2 Tim. 4:3, 4), from which may the good Lord deliver His people.

To turn, then, to the Sabbath. It is not a question of whether the Seventh day is the Sabbath or not. Unquestionably it is. And here, let me add, unhappily many good men have made grievous mistakes by contending that the seventh day has been changed to the first day of the week ; and the Adventist boldly challenges them to show one text from the Scriptures to prove it and they cannot do it.-Of course not. There is no such thing. Then, others lecture on " The Christian Sabbath," and quote history and the Fathers to show that the first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath, only to be again challenged and overthrown by the Adventist to the surprise of their audiences, the defeat of themselves, and the success of Adventism. It is all a total blunder; the seventh day is the Sabbath, and no other. God never changed it, and no one else ever can. The Jews still keep it, and Seventh-Day Adventists so far sail in the same boat. But the root of the whole question is not which is the proper day to keep, but, Are Christians under law, or not. This is the real question, which, when settled, settles the Sabbath question. If Christians are under law, then the seventh day, not a seventh day, but the seventh day alone-no other-must be kept, according to the fourth commandment. There is no escape. If, on the other hand, the Christian is not under law, then to command him to keep the Sabbath is to annul the gospel and deny Christianity.

We see at once that this raises the whole question as to what the Christian state and position is. Whether the Christian is in Adam, or in Christ?-in the flesh, or in the Spirit?-on the ground of responsibility to obtain blessing by keeping the law, or taken up and blessed on the ground of sovereign grace through faith, and therefore responsible to act consistently in the new relationship in which that grace has set him ?To set forth the truth in a Scriptural way, I shall have to unfold some of the teachings of the epistle to the Romans, as also that to the Galatians. I shall, however, do it as briefly as possible, and would press upon each Christian reader the necessity of carefully and prayerfully considering with his open Bible before him the truths here set forth.

In the epistle to the Romans, man, both Jew and Gentile, is shown to be " guilty before God." The Gentiles in chap. 1:18-32. Then the educated men-the philosophers, also Gentiles, in chap. 2:1-16. The Jews are next taken up in chap. 2:17 to 3:9 ; then the testimony of the Scriptures is given from the Psalms and the Prophets that all are guilty, so that " there is none righteous, no not one" (ver. 10-18). Thus "every mouth is stopped, and all the world guilty before God " (ver. 19).
Next, we have "the righteousness of God"seen in freely justifying men, proved to be ungodly and guilty sinners, because of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ (ver. 24, 25) ; faith being the principle on which that blessing is received, not works of any kind (chap. 4:4, 5). This is further seen by our attention being called to the difference between Abraham and us. He believed that God would give him a son(ver. 18); he believed the promise of God (ver. 20), and God reckoned him righteous(ver. 22). We believe an accomplished fact-that God has given us His Son, "delivered Him for our offenses, and raised Him again for our justification " (ver. 25).Not, He will do it; but He has done it, and righteousness is reckoned to all who believe (ver. 23, 24). The blessed results of the wonderful action on the part of God are seen in chap, 5:, and are the portion of all who have believed the gospel." Being justified by faith we have peace with God" (ver. i); so that the past is settled perfectly and permanently, and the believer has peace as to it. Next, as to the present, he has a perfect standing before God (ver. 2). Then as to the future, he rejoices in hope of the glory of God(ver. 2).Not only so, he glories in tribulation as he learns his lessons on the way home, the love of God being shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto him (ver. 3-5).And lastly, he is able even to joy in God Himself (ver. ii).Thus, the question of the believer's guilt is perfectly and permanently settled, and he is justified by God, and stands justified before God. But now comes another question. What about his state? He is a child of Adam and possesses an evil nature. Is what Scripture calls "in the flesh." (Rom. 8:9.) Is under the power of sin (chap. 6:20) and of law (chap, 7:i), and needing deliverance from these things. This, which God has provided for likewise in His grace as the portion of the believer, is next taught in this wonderful epistle. Not that these things are necessarily consecutive. They may all be concurrent. But the subjects are different and taught separately.

Having heard the word of truth, the gospel of his salvation, and having trusted in Christ; the believer is thereupon sealed with the Holy Ghost. (Eph. 1:13.)He is therefore in Christ, and Christ is in him. (Jno. 14. 20.) He is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. (Rom. 8:9, 10.)Now, Christ having died and risen after having glorified God about the question of sins and sin, He has now taken His place as Head of a new race, as Adam was the head of a fallen race. The condition, therefore, of the head is necessarily that of all who form the race. Adam's one act of disobedience constituted all his race sinners, and involves them in all the consequences of that act. (Rom. 5:12.)So Christ's one act of obedience unto death (Phil. 2:8) constitutes His race righteous, and makes them sharers in all the blessed results of His act. (Rom. 5:12-21.)

The question of guilt having been settled, and that of headship of race clearly set forth, the apostle proceeds to apply this last truth to the question of sin and law. God has, first of all, " condemned sin in the flesh." (Rom. 8:3.) "Our old man has been crucified with Him" (Christ). (Rom. 6:6.) Thus the evil nature in us has been dealt with by God, and condemned in the sacrifice of Christ. God will, therefore, have nothing more to say to it. It is still in us, and ready to act if we allow it, but this we must not do, and at death, or the coming of the Lord, we shall leave it behind forever. But, further, the believer can say he has died to sin. (Rom. 6:6.) This is true of him as in Christ, because Christ actually died to it on the cross, and the believer is now in Him. And he accepts this truth of being dead with Christ to sin, and practices it by reckoning himself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 6:ii), he finds a present deliverance from the power of sin (Rom. 6:14), and looks forward to the time when he shall be delivered from its very presence. (Rom. 8:23.)
In chap. 7:this is applied to the question of law. The apostle is there speaking to those who were under law (the Jews). The law was never given to Gentiles. (Ps. 147:19. 20; Rom. 2:14.) They were never under law, though they do put themselves under it now, and it thus becomes very useful to teach them what they are. He says, " I speak to those who know law (Jews), that law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth." (ver. 1:) Then he proceeds to show that the believer has died to law by the body of Christ, (ver. 4.) This he repeats in ver. 6. "But now we are delivered from the law, being dead to that wherein we were held (margin); that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." Then is the law dead and gone, as some affirm? No! Certainly not! Such a thought is not found in Scripture, and we would strenuously resist such an idea. " Is the law sin? God forbid." Do we then set the law aside? No, in no wise. Such a thing would be wickedness ! But in the person of our Substitute whom it condemned and crucified when in grace He took our place, it has set us aside, for we have died to it. And the grasping of this glorious emancipating truth which I shall still further prove, delivers forever from the folly and Judaism of Seventh-day Adventism.

Suppose a man commits murder:we know that the end of the law for murder is the end of the rope. Now, if the murderer is hanged, is the law set aside ? No ! It is vindicated !Its claims are established and vindicated in the fullest way by the death of the murderer, and it stands there in its full force the same as ever, forbidding the crime of murder, and pronouncing death as the penalty for committing it. Thus the law is not made void, but established in the way God justifies the believer. (Rom. 3:31.)The law said, "Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen." (Deut. 27:26.)This law is used by the apostle in Gal. 3:10, and also confirmed by the apostle James who writes, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, 'Do not commit adultery," said also, ' Do not kill.'Now, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." (Jas. 2:10, 11.) Were a man suspended over a precipice by a chain of ten links, and one were to break, it would be as fatal as though the whole ten had broken. If, therefore, the least infringement of the law is allowed, whether as to the fourth commandment or any of the ten, it is fatal, and puts the transgressor under the curse. Moreover, it is law, and men cannot play fast or loose with it as they please ; applying it to what they like, or taking such parts of it as they choose. It is law, and says and means, do or die. But the apostle Paul goes on to show that " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, ' Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.' " (Gal. 3:13.)

When the Judaizing teachers came down from Judea, and sought to bring the Christians again under law, and thus put a yoke upon their necks which neither their fathers nor they could bear" (Acts 15:1-10); (the very thing that Seventh-Day Adventists are endeavoring to do to-day); and even Peter and Barnabas were caught in the snare and carried away by it; Paul withstood them to the face. To him it was another gospel, and he uses the strongest language to denounce such conduct. They are troublers of the saints-perverters of the gospel-and though he himself, or an angel from heaven, or any man, preached any other gospel than that which he had already preached to them, let them be accursed. (Gal. 1:7-9.) How jealous he was for the simple but glorious gospel which he had given them. A gospel which gives the believer deliverance from the guilt of sin-deliverance from the power of sin-from law which is the strength of sin- and presently from the very presence of sin. How jealously we ought to guard this precious, emancipating gospel, and not allow it to be spoiled by the introduction again of that which we have been delivered from – the law ; whether it be in the form of Sabbath-keeping or in any other way; but " stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage." (Gal. 5:1:)

He then goes on to show them, that if they again put themselves under law after being justified by Christ on the principle of faith, they build again the things which they destroyed, and make themselves transgressors. (Gal. 2:15-18.)If they gave up law, to be justified on a different .principle, entirely on the principle of faith, how could they go back to it? If they were right in giving it up, they would clearly be wrong in going back to it, and would be transgressors. Moreover, he clenches this argument in the strongest manner by saying, "For I through law am dead to law."Not that I might be lawless and continue to live in sin, no! God forbid such a thought! But "that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ:nevertheless I live:yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:19,20.) How, then, could they be governed in any way by that to which they had died? Christ was now their life, and was to be their rule of life, (i Jno. 2:6; Col. 3:1-3; 2 Cor. 3:18.)

The story is told of a German who was drawn in the conscription, but whose friend took his place, fought, and was killed. After a time, there was another call for men, and the German was again drawn, but he pleaded, "I am dead."He was not actually dead, of course, but his substitute's death was counted as his, and thus he was freed forever from the military claims of his country. Thus it is with Christians; we have died with Christ, and are " dead to law," but not left to be lawless, but to live unto God. The law spent its full force on Christ as our Substitute when He stood in our place and died for us on the cross.

"The law was our schoolmaster up to (or until) Christ," we read ; " but after that faith is come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster."(Gal. 3:24, 25.)Could any thing be plainer than this :" We are no longer under the schoolmaster"-the law! "Law has dominion over a man so long as he liveth." (Rom. 7:1:)But the believer has died with Christ, and is therefore no longer under law. Is he therefore lawless ?God forbid !He is dead and risen with Christ, and stands on the resurrection-side of the grave of Jesus. He has a new life- eternal life (Jno. 5:24.); a new power-the Holy Ghost (Eph. 3:16) ; and a new object-Christ in glory.(2 Cor. 3:18.)He is new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) and the open grave of the Saviour separates him forever from Judaism and its bondage. The ministration of the law and the ministration of the Spirit are in contrast to each other (2 Cor. 3:); the one being a ministration of death and condemnation (mark this :the law which Adventists tell us we must keep is a ministration of death and condemnation); the other, being a ministration of life and righteousness. The one was characterized by the fading glory on the face of Moses, which God would not let them see; hence Moses was commanded to vail his face:the other, is characterized by the glory shining in the face:of Jesus Christ, never to pass away, and on which we are privileged to gaze. (2 Cor. 3:) Moreover, it is not the ceremonial law which Adventists admit has passed away; but it is that which " was written and engraved in stones" the ten commandments. Then, as we are occupied with Christ, without being under law and in bondage, "the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom. 8:4.) This, then, is the teaching of Scripture and shows conclusively that the believer is "not under law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:14.) He is dead to law. To insist, therefore, on his keeping the Sabbath as part of God's holy law is to make him debtor to do the whole law, to put him on Jewish ground, to treat him as in Adam, "in the flesh," on the ground of responsibility to obtain blessing, and thus bring him again into bondage. The Sab-bath had, and still has, its place for those under law; the believer has died and is in Christ; governed by a new believer; has a new object ; and the grace of God which covered him, teaches him how to live. (Titus 2:11-14.)

Ere closing, I would briefly glance at the place the Sabbath occupies in Scripture. It was God's rest. (Gen. But not one word is said about its being given to keep. He was the last work of God on the sixth He had as yet done no work and therefore needed no rest. To him it would be meaningless, in his innocence to tell him to rest from his labor. Yet Mrs. White tells us "it was kept by Adam in his innocence in holy Eden; by Adam, fallen, yet repentant, when he was driven from his happy estate. It was kept by all the patriarchs, from Abel to righteous Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob, etc.;" but without one particle of Scripture for her assertions. To say that the law was given to Adam is foolish. What place could the moral law have in innocence, and when as yet Adam and Eve were alone ? Then twenty-five hundred years or more elapsed before we hear another word about the seventh day. God's rest had been broken by sin, and He began to work again ; His first work being to make coats of skins for those who had broken His rest. (Gen. 3:21.)How gracious of God! Hence, the Lord Jesus said, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." (Jno. 5:17.) , So the first recorded Sabbath-God's rest, was A. very brief one, and became a type of one which is still future, and yet remains for the people of God. (Heb. 4:9.)

When next we hear of it, it is given to a redeemed people. (Ex. 16:29.)Then incorporated into the law. (Ex. 20:8-n.)Given as a sign that they were a sanctified people.(Ex. 31:13, 17; Ezek. 20:12.) Given to them because they were redeemed. (Deut. 5:12, 15.)It was a shadow of things to come. (Col. 2:16.)The Lord lay in the grave all the Sabbath day. The whole of that order of thing was set aside for the time being on the rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah by the Jews, until they see Him coming with clouds (Rev. 1:7) and shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matt, 23:39.) Judaism and its Sabbath-keeping is, therefore, set aside till that day when they shall hail their Messiah as their King. Then shall He reign over them, and they shall have their true rest, to which all their Sabbaths had pointed.

The Lord Jesus rose again on the first day of the week. The Jews murdered Him, and, after sealing Him in the tomb they kept their Sabbath. Their week ended with murder of the Son of God. The whole system of Judaism was set aside from that point-the rent vail being the witness of it. Then on the first day of the week He rose again, thus inaugurating a new order of things entirely and this day characterizes Christianity, as the seventh day, or Sabbath, characterized Judaism. Again, when seven Sabbaths had passed, on the fiftieth day (not. the forty-ninth, or the seventh Sabbath day), "when the day of Pentecost was fully come," the Holy Ghost descended. (Acts 2:1:) This is typified in Lev. 23:the wave-sheaf was waved on "the morrow after the "Sabbath " (ver. ii)-Christian resurrection. Then the two wave-loaves on the morrow after the seven Sab-(ver. 16,17)-Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came, and the Church had its commencement. The two wave-loaves-Jews and Gentiles presented to God. Then, again we have seven times seven Sabbaths of years, Sing over forty-nine years ; then on the fiftieth year, the jubilee trumpet was to sound, and things were to return to their original order again. (Lev. 25:)

How remarkable all this is! Christ did not rise on the Sabbath, but on the first day of the week. Pentecost, not on the forty-ninth day, which was the dd-Sabbath-day, but on the fiftieth day, which first day of the week. The Jubilee was not on the forty-ninth year, but the fiftieth year. All this shows that there is a new order of things, typified by the first day of the week, Pentecost, and the Jubilee year, and clearly the eternal state after the millennium, or the Sabbath-keeping on earth is over. In the apostle's he Jews still kept the Sabbath, and, as the people gathered together in the synagogues on that day, the apostles took the opportunity to preach the gospel to them, but they keep the first day of the week themselves as Christians, and met together on that day, to break bread. (Acts 20:7.) Thus the first day of the week speaks to the Christian of the victory and triumph of his Saviour, and was the day they met together to remember Him and show His death till He come, (i Cor. 11:23-26.) The reasonings of Adventists as to the time they did it, and how Paul must have walked a long distance across the country to Assos on the same day, and thus desecrated the day, is just a piece of nonsense, and supposes that Christians are under law to keep the first day of the week, as Jews and Adventists are to keep the Sabbath; and that Paul must not do what his Master told him to do on that clay. Scripture says it was on the first day of the week, and whether it was morn, noon, or night, it was on that day, and not the Sabbath, the disciples met to break bread.

The Sabbath was at the close of the week's toil- the seventh day-a day of rest after labor. In it, as we have seen, no work had to be done, not even a fire lighted. No work means no work. Not even the servant in the house, and no excuse is valid. It is do or die. This is Judaism and law as regards the Sabbath. The first day of the week is the commencement of the week and is devoted to the worship and service of Him who inaugurated a new order of things in resurrection. The grave of Christ stands between and separates Judaism from Christianity. The true sacrifice has been offered. (Heb. 10:5, 10.)The true Priest has sat down in the Sanctuary. (Heb. 8:i, 2.)The Aaronic priesthood has given place to that of the Lord Jesus Christ.(Heb. 8:12.)The Holy Ghost has come, sent by Christ since He went on high, and by one Spirit believers are baptized into one body, (i Cor. 12, 13.)The Church of God now exists, composed neither of Jews nor Gentiles, but believers out of both, saved; and baptized into one body. Thus, there are three classes of men now on earth, Jew, Gentile, and Church of God. (i Cor. 10:32.) The Lord appeared unto His disciples on the first clay of the week when they gathered together. (Jno. 20:19.) This gives us a picture of the Church period. John says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." (Rev. 1:10.) The disciples met together on that day to break bread. (Acts 20:7.) And on that day they were instructed to lay aside their collection, or offering, for the needy saints at Jerusalem. Thus, then, on that day, Christians met together, and do so still to commence the week by giving to God the praises of full hearts, made by Him at such a cost, and serve Him with gladness, in telling forth the riches of His grace made known in the gospel. Then we go forth to the labor and toil of the week, and whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do, do all to the glory of God. (i Cor. 10:31) "Let no man judge you, therefore, in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days ; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." (Col. 2:16, 17.) And "be not entangled in the yoke of bondage." (Gal. 5:1:) Do not give up Christianity with its liberty for Judaism and its bondage, under the antichristian teaching of Seventh-Day Adventists. W. E.