THE HISTORY OF THE AGE OF LAW Twenty years pass, and all the house of Israel are found lamenting after the Lord. The ark had not indeed remained long in the Philistines' hand, but had wrought its own deliverance apart from the people. It had returned, but not to Shiloh, its former abode, nor to the tabernacle, no more to receive it. Bethshemesh-a city of priests-to which it had first come, smitten for its irreverence, had had to yield it up to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained in retirement, kept by Eleazar "in the fields of the wood" (Ps. 132:6) until David brought it out (2 Sam. 6:2). All this time was marked thus as a time of disorder and disturbed relation between God and Israel.

This gap of time between Eli and David is bridged by the prophet Samuel, the real link between God and the people even during the reign of Saul. The prominence of the prophets was always a sign of disorder and decline among the people. It was an extraordinary agency, with no provision for succession or permanence at all; in this case, from the first, a note of preparation for the king (I Sam. 2:10), whom at last it anoints and makes way for.

Before the priesthood is set aside, Samuel is established as the prophet of the Lord; but through the unbelief of the people, twenty years pass, after the return of the ark, before the value of God's gift is realized. Then Israel gather for confession and prayer to God at Mizpeh, and Samuel judges them there. This brings up the Philistines; but the battle is now the Lord's, and Israel has but to pursue a smitten foe. The Philistine yoke is broken, and Samuel becomes the judge of Israel. We see the prophet here, as never before under the law, building his altars and offering to the Lord, the priesthood quite unrecognized.

But Samuel grows old, and his sons, whom he has associated with himself in the judgeship, walk not in his ways. The enemies of Israel begin again to gather strength. The unbelief of the people becomes manifest. They desire a king, explicitly to be like the nations, from whom God had separated them. Now He intended they should have a king. Moses had spoken of it, anticipating indeed their desire as expressed here (Deut. 17:14-20). Hannah had spoken of God's king to whom He would give strength. And to Eli, God had told, by His prophet, of His anointed one, before whom the faithful priest should walk (I Sam. 2:35). Self-will might here find its excuse, but nothing more. In fact, as they are forewarned by God through Samuel, the rule of a king among them, while it would bring them into a bondage hitherto unknown, would be the sign of God further removed from them-another step downward in the long descent they had been making. It does not affect this that under David and Solomon they were in fact freed from their enemies, and attained a worldly eminence such as they had not enjoyed till then. The characters of the kingdom as Samuel depicts them were none the less fully illustrated in these reigns; and the more the grandeur of the monarchy, the more even might the yoke press, the more the distance between king- and subject. But above all, God Himself, rejected as their King, dealt now with the people, not on the old familiar terms, but at a distance, through the king himself. Let David be rejected, and the show-bread, even if just sanctified, is but common bread (I Sam. 21:5).* *The passage is otherwise rendered in the Revised Version, and by other translators. The common version is, however, Justifiable, and I believe to be preferred, as see the Lord's use of this incident in connection with the Sabbath and His own rejection (Matt. 12:).*

That the king was here also the shadow of the King of God's kingdom in a coming day is true, but neither does it alter the significance of the fact literally. Faith here as elsewhere may find tokens of the coming day, and see also the justification of God's long-suffering then. None the less the links between God and His people were more and more being strained. And if this last endured longest of all, it was surely because it was the last:there was no other, and God's patience lingered.

Saul, the first king, though chosen by God, is given them as one after their own heart, as his name providentially signifies,-"the Asked." After being fully tested, he is set aside for the man after God's heart, David. And Saul, though the anointed of the Lord, is never recognized as the true link between the people and God. He is throughout dependent upon Samuel, who as he anoints him to his office announces also his rejection, and before his own death anoints his successor.

David is thus the first king fully owned,-with Solomon, the double type of Christ, the -Sufferer-Conqueror and the Prince of Peace. He brings the ark to Jerusalem, appoints the courses of the priests and the service of the Lord's house, for which he provides abundantly the material, and receives the pattern. His kingdom is greatly extended and his enemies are subdued, and Solomon builds and consecrates the house, with "neither adversary nor evil occurrent."

But "man being in honor abideth not:he is like the beasts that perish." And all this glory is like the flower of grass; it has scarcely blossomed before it begins to fade. The first love passes, and there is no indistinct threatening that the candlestick is under sentence to be removed. Solomon loves many strange women, and his heart is drawn after their idols. Adversaries are stirred up against him. He passes away, and a sudden rent tears ten out of the twelve tribes out of the hand of his son ; and in the fifth year only of his reign, Shishak sweeps down upon and spoils Jerusalem and the house of the Lord. Henceforth, in Israel, with the worship of the golden calves, it is one monotonous story of evil ever growing worse; in Judah, the descent stopped, indeed, again and again, by the intervention of divine grace acting in an Asa, a Jehoshaphat, a Hezekiah, a Josiah, but still with no recovery really. Blow after blow falls upon them; prophet after prophet warns and threatens in vain:at last, disintegration fully begins. The ten tribes are carried captive into Assyria; Judah, spared for a hundred and thirty years longer, is at last carried into Babylon.

The glory has before, this departed from the temple, which the king of Babylon plunders and destroys. The people are now (though not forever) disowned of God. The legal covenant, in fact, is over, although the dispensation of law cannot be said to have ceased. "The law and the prophets were until John." But the history of the people as such is closed, although a feeble remnant return from Babylon. But they return only to await in Messiah their Deliverer, amid the tokens of the ruin in which they have involved themselves. The glory does not return. The ark of the covenant, Jehovah's throne in the midst, is gone from their new temple. The Urim and Thummim, by which the Lord had communicated regularly with them in the past, is also gone. Prophets His mercy raises up to them for a brief time, and every one of them is a witness that the moral and spiritual condition is unchanged. This voice soon passes. The history of the favored people ends in blank and total, most significant silence. The throne of the earth is in the hands of the Gentiles. Israel's dominion is passed away; and those "times of the Gentiles" have begun in which we still are, and which continue until the kingdom of the Son of Man is introduced by His coming in the clouds of heaven.

But the significance of this change we must consider more at length.

An important period comes now to be considered; not itself forming part of these probationary ages, but having nevertheless the deepest significance in relation to these. The trial by law, it is evident, was the fullest and most detailed trial that man received; as it was the trial of the only religious system that ever was the fruit of man's mind simply. We have seen it in principle already in Cain-a mere natural man, of course; but with the believer also there are-thoughts of the natural mind which are no better. God, in the giving of law, does not yet reveal His own way of blessing, but adopts, for the sake of experiment, man's way; only supplying the needful conditions that the experiment may be fully made, and the issue such as may not at all be doubtful.

But in a case of this kind, special care would be needed also to guard against the mistake, so sure otherwise to happen, of confounding this adoption of man's way, for a certain purpose, with the acceptance of it by God as the true one, and His own thought. This in fact has happened, because unbelief in man can set aside the plainest testimonies that can be given; while the systems which set these aside necessarily, in proportion as they do so, deny the simple facts connected with the giving of the law, and which arc indeed part of a testimony which He has thus graven upon the history itself.

Thus those who affirm the law to be in any sense God's original thought have endeavored to prove, as it was needful to prove, its universality and its existence from the beginning in a fallen world. Its universality, for that which was God's way of blessing for man, could not be (according to His own design) shut up from the mass; its existence from the beginning, partly for the same reason, and partly because God's thought would surely be the one first announced by Him.

To establish its universality, they have had to distinguish between a written and an unwritten law; or, as they assume to call it from Scripture, a law written on the heart. What they mean is in fact conscience, an implicit law which every one has, while the ten commandments are only its explicit form, and as such given to Israel alone. In the same way they prove equally, as they think, its existence from the beginning.

Scripture refuses this, however, utterly. The "law written upon the heart" is only used of Israel's condition when finally converted to God. It is one of the blessings of the new covenant-"I will put My laws in their minds, and write them in their hearts; "words which prove conclusively that such a condition is not every man's natural one. While in the passage in Romans often quoted, where at first sight a similar term seems to be applied to the Gentiles, it is in reality a very different one:"Which show," says the apostle, "the work of the law written upon their hears"-not the law written, but its work written, as the original text declares without any question. The work of the law is conviction :conscience does this work in the one who has not the law, though far less completely:"By the law is the knowledge of sin;" and this knowledge conscience in measure gives to every one, and in that respect they, "having no law "(so the Revised Version correctly gives it), "are a law unto themselves." Had they a law, they would not be a law to themselves.

There is no escape from the plain statement of Scripture that the law written on the heart is conversion, and not the natural state; and that if it were, God could not promise to do it for those who already had it done in them. Positive, too, is the statement that the Gentiles have "no law." But beside all this, the introduction of law at the beginning in a fallen world is the subversion of the whole argument of the apostle (Gal. 3:17), that "the covenant, which was confirmed before of God in Christ [or rather "to Christ"], the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, could not disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect." For "though it be a man's covenant, if it be confirmed, no man disannulled or adds thereunto."

He here shows one of the meanings of this Abrahamic period preceding the dispensation of law. No less than four centuries does God require to put between the promise of grace to Abraham and his seed and the legal covenant between Himself and Israel, to prevent the one being confounded with or added to the other. And the importance of this will be seen, when we compare the real universality of the first with the restricted bearing of the second. "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed," God says to Abraham, speaking to him as the pattern man of faith, the "father of all them that believe." For "they which are of faith," says the apostle, "the same are the children of Abraham." And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would "justify the heathen [the nations] through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, ' In thee shall all nations be blessed.' So then," he adds, "they which be of faith are blessed with faithful [or rather, "believing"] Abraham."

Thus God had proclaimed, centuries before the law, that the Gentiles should be blessed upon the principle of faith. Even as, long after the law was given, He had declared by Habakkuk that "the just shall live by faith." "And," adds the apostle again, "the law is not of faith; but 'the man that doeth them shall live in them' "-an entirely different and conflicting principle.

Even thus far it is plain that as God's universal way of blessing, the gospel had possession of the field before the law came in at all. But God would make it more evident; and He confirms this covenant of promise (really) to Christ, when He afterward adds, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." This is of course the completion (and therefore confirmation) of the former promise; and its full significance is seen in connection with that offering up of Isaac, and receiving him back (in figure) from the dead, which so plainly find their antitype in Christ's sacrificial death and resurrection. The true Isaac is that One Seed, as the apostle points out, "to whom the promise was made." If "in thee" showed that the blessing was to be by faith, "in thy seed" reveals the object of faith, the Person and work through whom alone the blessing of all nations could in fact come.

Law is excluded from this covenant of promise. It has absolutely no place there. And what proves this, according to the apostle, is just the fact of its having been made and confirmed of God four hundred and thirty years before the Sinaitic. Even a man's covenant made and confirmed cannot be reopened to insert new conditions. How simply impossible, then, to acid the law as a condition to the covenant of grace !

Theological systems would come in here to assure us, however, that the law was written upon man's heart from the beginning, and thus upset altogether the apostle's reasoning. Instead of grace having priority of law, as he affirms, according to these, it is the law that has the priority. Either he or they, then, must be in error.

In the epistle to the Romans also he speaks of a time before law. "For until the law," he says, -or rather, "until law"-"sin was in the world." Law did not introduce it therefore, he means to say" but again they would correct him:according to them, there was no time "until"-that is, before law. And some would doubtless quote the next words of the apostle in proof:"But sin is not imputed where there is no law." The mistake is in supposing "imputing" here to be the same thing as elsewhere in the epistle; it is in reality a different word :"sin is not put in account" (as the different items of a bill,) is the true thought. "Sin is not put in account where there is no law ; nevertheless death reigned"-proving that sin was "imputed," from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." For Adam had"transgressed;" he had overstepped a positive law under which he was. "From Adam to Moses "is just the time of the most part of the Genesis history; it is the time until law, when sin was already in the world, but when it had not as yet this aggravation. The supposition-for it has been supposed-that infants are in question "from Adam to Moses," is scarcely deserving a refutation.

It is not true, then, that the law given at Sinai was only the explicit announcement of what had been implicitly in existence from the beginning; but on the contrary, law, as a principle of God's dealings in a fallen world, came in then. It is what He was forced into (to speak after the manner of men), rather than desired. Abel, in the world before the flood, declared what was His way from the beginning; and this Noah's altar proclaimed again as His, when those waters had scarcely dried from off the face of the new world.

In this prefatory period of which we are now speaking, the types of the law and its significance the apostle has taught us to find in Abraham's history. How suited their place there should be surely evident. Hagar is thus the "covenant from. the Mount Sinai, which genders to bondage," and every detail of her history is, I am assured, luminous in this way. That she is but handmaid to Sarah, the covenant of grace, every one owns, of course. Sarah's name is "Princess," for "grace reigns." Hagar is an Egyptian, child of fallen nature; and her name is "Fugitive," for, alas! the natural effort now is to get away from God. She is fleeing toward Egypt when the angel finds her at Lahai-roi; and when dismissed with her child in obedience to the divine command, again we find her gravitating toward Egypt. How plainly is it taught, thus, that the law is characterized by "the elements of the world," with which the apostle connects it in Galatians! As a principle, it is man's way, not God's; as specific commandment, holy, just, and good; and in His intent in giving it, surely worthy every way of Him. These things alter in no wise the fact that it is man's way-his experiment with himself-taken up by God, and worked out, in His own perfect manner, to a true result.

Thus it should be very plain why Hagar is first found by God in relation to Abram, manifestly his own shift, through little faith, to obtain the promised and desired fruit. Finding her thus, He appears to her at the well Lahai-roi, and sends her back to submit herself (mark) into her mistress's hands, and to allow the trial already begun to be fully wrought. But while He allows it, He does not leave the issue for a moment doubtful. The fruit of law is the natural fruit. Ishmael shall be born, but be only the "wild-ass man"-untamed, untamable flesh.

Abraham thus exhibits in his own history the lesson which afterward, for so many centuries, his posterity were set to learn. In his own person, he is the witness of sovereign, electing grace; called out of the darkness of heathenism, as Joshua reminds the men of his generation-"Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods." Here, "the God of glory appeared unto" him, and called him from country, kindred, and father's house, to be the special witness of His name and way.

Before Hagar appears in the history, God gives testimony to Abram, as a man righteous through faith; and it is instructive to see how the apostle, when he brings Abram before us as the pattern man of faith, passes over all the time of his connection with her as so much loss. "Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, 'So shall thy seed be' And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness,"

In the last words, the apostle seems to ignore the facts of history; for Abram's body was not yet dead when God said to him, "So shall thy seed be," and when his faith was first counted for righteousness. It was after this-probably some time after -that Ishmael was born; and he was thirteen years old at the time of which the epistle to the Romans speaks. All these fifteen years or more the apostle treats as so much lost time, to bring together the period in which he is first spoken of as having the righteousness of faith, and that when he received the covenant of circumcision as the "seal" of that righteousness. Circumcision means, as the same apostle elsewhere tells us, the "putting off of the body of the flesh;" and they are the "true circumcision" who have no confidence in the flesh." God Himself thus brings these two periods together; and circumcision is seen to be indeed, as the Lord says, "not of Moses." In its spiritual meaning, it is the fundamental opposite of law.

How fully in all this the character and purpose of this intermediate time comes out!_ Even the natural seed-Israel after the flesh-will find their blessing in the end from God according to the grace of the Abrahamic covenant, and not according to the Sinaitic, the only one according to which they have yet received the land. The Abrahamic covenant will thus be in very deed to them a "new covenant." Thus grace still as a nation holds them fast, as it ever has, for future blessing,-a blessing which, when it comes, will alone be the proper fulfillment of the "covenant of promise."

Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph give us, as types, yet further lessons. Isaac shows us the Seed through whom alone the blessing can come; Jacob, the immediate father of the twelve tribes, in both his character and history foreshadows theirs; and Joseph, rejected by his brethren, and yet at last received perforce as their Saviour and lord, shows in so plain a way their history in respect of One infinitely greater that it needs no insisting on. For our present purpose enough has been already said to prove how in this period prefatory to the law the law itself is guarded from misconception, and grace is declared God's way, and only way, of blessing for man. Even for Israel, God's covenant is the covenant of circumcision. Carnality and unbelief, stopping at the outside, may misread all this from first to last. If those misread it for whom has come the full and final revelation, "the vail is upon their hearts."

II. DISCIPLESHIP TO A REJECTED MASTER. (Chap. 6:-10:)
In the face of rejection, the Lord now sends out His disciples; chosen before, but now actually sent into the field of labor. This characterizes, I do not doubt, the second part of Mark. It gives us, first, in the sixth chapter, the features, for faith, of a world in which Christ has been rejected, but in which divine love manifests itself in none the less energy, while its ways suit themselves to the condition of things. Secondly, to the ninth verse of the eighth chapter, we have the religious opposition, which ignores man's true need, as well as the authority of God, in contrast with divine grace, which recognizes both. Thirdly, to chapter 9:8, we find the person of Christ confessed by faith, with the cross as present result, the glory the final one. Fourthly, to the end of the same chapter, lowliness and self-judgment are insisted on as the sole way of power and blessing. Lastly, in the tenth chapter, the original divine order in creation is restored, marriage cleared, and its fruits received and blessed, while the fall and need of salvation are maintained, and the principles of reward and rule with Christ announced.

I. (Chap, 6:)The activity of divine love in a scene of rejection.

(i) 6:1-13. Limited by unbelief, yet with full power for men, and seeking them. At the outset, we find the Lord rejected in His own 'country; spite of His mighty works, refused, because of the lowly, familiar way in which He appeared among them. The prophet is not without honor save in his own house. He recognizes this, yet marvels; hindered by their unbelief, can there do no mighty work:yet what they will let Him do He does; He lays His hand upon a few sick folk, and heals them. Still seeking them in patient grace, He goes round about the villages teaching.

It is in face of this unbelief He now sends out the twelve. " He who could not work mighty works, because His service was dependent on divine conditions, on which God could found and carry on His intercourse with men, in order to reveal Himself, now gives power to others over all unclean spirits, a power which is divine. Any can work miracles if God gives the power, but God alone can give it. They are to lack nothing, for Emmanuel was there; and to announce judgment if their message was rejected. Divine love had made Him entirely a dependent Servant; but the dependent Servant was God, present in grace and righteousness," * Synopsis, 3:212.

They who are sent forth are identified then with this gracious activity of divine love toward men; take up their Master's word, and manifest the power given them over the enemy.

(2) 6:14-29. The power of the world in opposition. But here the evangelist turns aside to exhibit the character of the world in opposition to the message of God. At Herod's court the Lord Himself appeared at another time, to find him only hardened by resistance to the present prick of conscience. The scene here is without Christ, in awful antagonism. But such is the rule of the "prince of this world" during the whole present time of long-suffering goodness, until the revelation of the Lord from heaven ends it. How easy to see here the real ruler is not Herod! How marvelous to find Satan using the conscience that would not bow to the word of truth and God, to make him bow to the mandate of a wicked woman against one he knows to be " a just man and a holy"! This, too, was-among the professing people of God, by one who swore to Him the oath by which the prophet died. Since then the powers of the world may be professedly Christian, and that only disguise, not hinder, the real rule of Satan.

(3) 6:30-45. Wilderness ministry. We now return to the Lord, who brings His disciples out into the wilderness for rest and refreshment. This is what still for us the wilderness is made to yield. But here, too, they find a multitude of needy ones, who, seeing them depart, have come out thither after Christ. The day will soon declare how much the wilderness has been the meeting-place between Christ and the souls He serves, and how the Church, in this her necessary place if she will company with Him, has been used for the communication of blessing . to those seeking Him. Little, it may seem, they have, but if God's grace be there, five loaves and two fishes feed five thousand men, while each of those distributing has his precious basket of fragments left,-more than what he began with. For true ministry does not exhaust the one who serves, but furnishes him, if (that is) it be received from Christ. Let us remember the command also to make men sit to eat; and that none that come but find a welcome him that cometh He in no wise casts out.

(4) 6:36-52. His way in the sea. What follows represents His care for His beloved people toiling across the sea, the wind contrary, (for Satan is the prince of the power of the air,) Himself absent:how He comes to them upon the sea, and they know Him not, but take Him to be a spirit, one . conquered of death, not conqueror; how He makes Himself known and is received into the ship, and then the wind ceases. Our general and our individual histories repeat this story often; and how often do we find, when the new trial comes, that we are no more prepared than formerly to recognize the One who comes to us, and when He makes Himself known, it is as great a wonder! Our hearts are, how often, hard and unbelieving as these disciples-indeed, more strangely so.

(5) 6:53-56. The final blessing. But at last the sea is passed, as when He joins us in the end it will be passed, and then the blessing comes, even for the earth, when it, like Gennesaret, shall " know" the One upon whom it all depends, and the blight upon the whole frame of things shall pass, with the spiritual sickness it attends and indicates. For us in His presence also, the former things shall have passed away.

2. (7:-8:9.)The religious opposition, and the grace that alone meets the need of man.

(i) 7:1-23.Human tradition against God and man. We have now the opposition of the religious leaders, always to be met under whatever different forms, until Christ comes. Human authority, first derived from the authority of the Word interpreted, soon and surely displaces the authority of God Himself; and superstition darkens and perverts the natural conscience. It is easier to wash the hands than to purify the heart, and, a priesthood having taken the place of God, their profit may be found in that which sets aside His glory. But man's true need is where all human help is powerless, in a heart from which nothing but evil comes.

(2) 7:24-30. The grace which meets man where no claim is possible. But then in God alone man's help is, and where no claim is possible at all. Of this the Syrophenician woman is the example. A Canaanite, of a race under the curse, and under the power of Satan in her daughter, she is not of the privileged family, but outside-a dog:man's true position whosoever he is. But he has only to take this, to find his sure resource in the grace of God, which cannot possibly fail the one who counts on it. So the woman finds, and from such need Christ cannot be hid.
(3) 7:31-37. The gift of hearing and of speech. But this is not all, nor the worst of man's condition. His deepest need is just that which leaves him without voice to cry, or ears to hear the word that comes to him. It is here we find the Lord oppressed with the state to which He ministers. This is indeed the fullness of grace, yet it is that of which every saved soul is the recipient. Here the election of grace is marked, the man being taken apart from the multitude when he receives healing. And this, it seems to me, connects this with the miracle that follows in which is emphasized-

(4) 8:1-9. The divine sufficiency of the provision made for man. We have a similar miracle indeed to that in the sixth chapter, but the numbers tell a different tale. It is now seven loaves, instead of five, and the baskets-large baskets, and not as before,-are seven also. Before, the numbers 5 and 12 point surely to the human instrumentality employed. Seven speaks rather of divine perfection, although still the grace of God employs men as instruments. This is the fitting close of what is the subject of this second section.

3. (8:lo-9:8.) The confession of Christ, leading to the cross in this world, and to the glory beyond.

(i) 8:10-13. The unbelieving Pharisees seek a sign. Again the section opens with the question of unbelief on the part of the leaders of the people. The Pharisees seek a sign from heaven-some wonder which would command the attention and secure the homage of men at large. The sign of the Son of Man in heaven will be this at last, but too late then. Their former religiousness had no need of the cross, and could not recognize the lowly self-humiliation to which divine love had stooped for men. But of necessity that love must keep its own way, and Christ must be a stumbling-block to those whose pride could not interpret grace. To such a generation no sign could be given.

(2) 8:14-26. The leaven of the Pharisees. But not only in enemies did these things work; the leaven of the Pharisees acted as hindrance to faith in the hearts of the disciples also, and the. Lord's warning words to them as to it only serve to bring it out. They prove themselves ignorant of the proper power and glory of Him in whom yet they sincerely believe. They see, but as through a vail, "men as trees." This condition is no doubt represented in the blind man at Bethesda. But the Lord does not leave incomplete that to which He has once put His hand, and at last the man is restored and sees every thing clearly.

(3) 8:27-30. Faith's confession. Save in those brought thus by personal need into contact with the Lord Jesus, there was nowhere any true faith, those who thought to do Him honor only equaled Him with John the Baptist, Elias, or some other prophet. For truly convicted souls, blessed be God ! there is but one Christ. Peter, divinely taught, then confesses Him. But for Israel, as for man / in nature, all was over therefore, and as Messiah, He charges them that they should tell no man of Him. Through depth's of suffering and distress the way lay open to higher glory,-the glory from which He had stooped, and to which He was to return with the joy for which He endured the cross.

(4) 8:31-38. The way of the cross. And now the Lord begins to speak openly of His rejection and death; and immediately the unbelief which can be so strangely mixed with faith begins to show itself in Peter. He "took Him, and began to rebuke Him"! but the Lord at once rebukes as of Satan Peter's opposition, and announces this cross of His as a pattern and principle for His disciples also. " Whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's," (observe how legality is swept away by the very terms,) "the same shall save it. . . . . Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

(5) 9:1-8. The glory at the end. The revelation of the glory closes, therefore, this section. Three-disciples are taken up into the mount of transfiguration to see the kingdom of God come with power. All the elements of the kingdom are in the scene, -the saint who has passed through death; the saint who, like another Enoch, was translated without seeing death; the saints on earth in natural bodies, yet with the glory openly revealed; the "bright cloud," the Shekinah, soon declared as the place of the Father's presence; but Jesus, the Son of Man, proclaimed once more, as at the beginning of His ministry, the Son of God, is the object before the eyes of the astonished disciples, who, if they for a moment put their lowly Master upon some sort of equality of footing with Moses and Elias, are at once warned by the voice from the " excellent glory," " This is My beloved Son; hear Him."

4. (9:9-50.)Lessons of the Path.

(i) 9:9-13. The lesson of resurrection from the dead. The Lord has already spoken of resurrection, but now He refers them to the time when the Son of Man should be risen from the dead as the time when the glory just, unvailed to them should be matter of public testimony and of common joy. But before this, the. Son of Man must suffer, as Elias, for that generation had already come and been cut off. Thus resurrection from the dead, at which they wonder now as a new thing announced, is indeed the foundation of the power and blessedness of Christianity. It is the witness of Christ's work accepted for us; it is that in which we too are risen with Him ; it is that which gives character to our walk through the world. These meanings are not here, nor could be yet, unfolded; but to us, they connect necessarily with what the Lord speaks of to His disciples.

(2) 9:14-29. The lesson of power to use power. On their descent from the mountain, they find a multitude gathered, and the scribes questioning with the other disciples. The power of Satan is manifesting itself unchecked by that which the Lord had intrusted to them. It is this that causes His exclamation, " O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?" Still there is resource 'in Himself. The only lack of power, as He assures the father of the afflicted child, is in the lack of faith. The devil is cast out; and the Lord, in answer to the question, " Why could not we cast Him out?" points out the root of failure to be in want of prayer and fasting. Dependence and self-denial is the secret of power, without which we do not practically possess what in fact is ours. We have seen, in the beginning of His ministry, the Lord Himself meeting Satan as the dependent One; how necessary, then, that His followers should do so!

(3) 9:30-37. The lesson of greatness. The Lord we find full of the cross and of resurrection; the disciples, shrinking from this, are occupied with and dispute about which of them should be the greatest. The Lord bids them understand that the desire to be first would put one last of all. He takes a child as His fitting representative, and assures them that whosoever receives one such little child in His name receives both Himself and His Father also. Self-seeking is surely the antipodes of greatness, as every conscience needs must own. And yet how far asunder are heart and conscience here!

(4) 9:38-41. A lesson on "not following us'' An important lesson comes next as to the largeness of heart by which alone we are competent for a narrow path. John answers the Lord, " Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us; and we forbad him, because he followeth not us." It is self in a subtle, religious way, none the less offensive upon that account. Think of devils being actually cast out in the name of Christ, and a disciple of His forbidding it! But liberality is not enjoined, as men enjoin, upon the ground of any uncertainty as to the path itself. They could not be-how could it be supposed they could be-uncertain of their own path. The Lord puts His answer upon different ground entirely. " No man can do a miracle in My name that can lightly speak evil of Me." In the midst of a world which rejects Christ, how simple and necessary should be the recognition of all that is of Him. It is the joy of the Spirit to take forth the precious from the vile, supposing there be the vile. And as to the Lord Himself, there is not a cup of water given to a disciple in His name but He will acknowledge it in due season.

(5) 9:42-50. Salting with fire. On the other hand, woe to him who causes to stumble one of Christ's little ones; and whatever in you causes you to stumble, cut it off:for every one shall be salted with the fire of divine holiness. If it be in this present life, the result will be holiness eternal; but if not, in Gehenna the flame of remorse will accompany the eternal fire which will subdue all opposition. " Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another."

5. (10:1-45.) The moral restitution of a fallen world.

(i) 10:1-12. The divine order of marriage restored. We find now the moral Order of the kingdom of God, in which the defects of the law (which made nothing perfect) are removed, and the institutions of God in creation are freed from the perversions of man, fallen and corrupt. In answer to the Pharisees, the Lord restores the primitive meaning of marriage, and forbids the divorce which Moses, for the hardness of their hearts, had allowed.

(2) 10:13-16. Children received and blessed. Children are next received and pronounced of the kingdom of God, while whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

(3) 10:17-27. The need of salvation affirmed. But if only as a little child can the kingdom be entered, the power of man to earn it in any shape is excluded. His goodness is set aside. Not the rich but the poor enter, and that by the very grace of God,-by salvation. Thus the natural amiability, which even drew out the regard of Jesus, when tested, proves only the more decisively the complete ruin of man. " There is none good but One, that is, God." The first-born of fallen man is Cain, "possession;" for the heart dropped away from Him who alone can satisfy it, seeks its good where death reigns over all, where all is vanity. Possessed of this, God is all the more shut out by it out of his heart, and " it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." But " who then can be saved?" asks the disciples. That is indeed what is needed-salvation; but that is entirely in the hands of God:"with men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible."

(4) 10:28-31. The principle of reward. Peter then begins to say to Him, " Lo, we have left all and followed Thee." The heart of a disciple is quite capable of turning the rewards of grace into earning, and so destroy their whole character. Divine love will in fact reward, but only what is done for Christ, not for the reward. "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or-lands, for My sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life." But then all depends upon the motive; and thus, in result, " many that are first shall be last, and the last first."

(5) 10:32-45. The kingdom of God no kingdom of the Gentiles. Again the Lord begins to put before them the cross. It was that which if they had known in its inner meaning, of necessity would have delivered them from the spirit they immediately manifest; for James and John come unto Him now seeking the places on the right hand and the left in His glory. The Lord puts to them the question of their ability to drink of the cup He was to drink, and be baptized with the baptism with which He would be baptized. They answer, though they had shrunk from it just before, that they are able. He replies that they shall do this, but that the places they seek are not His to give, except to those for whom they' are prepared of His Father. When the ten hear it, they are much displeased, for the same spirit really animates them all; and then the simple blessed truth is stated, so clear and necessary when made known, so impossible to conceive beforehand, that God's kingdom is not like a kingdom of the Gentiles-the places in it not such as would satisfy the pride and ambition of men. The highest there is He who as the " Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." The spirit of service is that which qualifies for a rule which is service still, the ministry of love which values the wealth that is in its hand as power to minister.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I. (Chap. 3:1-6.) The herald of the kingdom. It is striking that only in Matthew is John seen as proclaiming the kingdom. Outside of Jerusalem and her religious service, his place in the wilderness, in dress and food apart, he baptizes to repentance in the river of death, preparing the way of the Lord. The people return to him, not he to them.

II. (Ver. 7-12.) His testimony. In the Pharisees, religious pretension asserted itself among a people in spiritual ruin; in the Sadducees, open unbelief. To these, the leaders of the people, John declares the ax at the root of the fruitless tree. They must not claim to be Abraham's children,-for a Jew, the loss of all his privileges,-and God would nevertheless act in power to raise up children to Abraham, as it were out of the stones. The Lord before whom John went would baptize with the Holy Ghost, but also with the fire of judgment, and thoroughly purge Israel, His floor.

III. (Ver. 13-17.)The proclamation and anointing of the King. Then the Lord comes to take His place in death for those He finds there, not as one whose due it is, but to "fulfill righteousness."It is His pledging Himself to that more solemn " baptism " to which for the people of His love He must needs stoop. And He who could give an argument to the Father's love in thus laying down His life (Jno. 10:17) is thereupon owned by the Father as His Son, in whom He has found His delight, the Spirit as a dove anointing Him for His work. The bird of heaven, the bird of love and sorrow, in whose silver wings-for redemption brought Him down-is the sheen of the gold, the display of divine glory, is His fitting type.

IV. (Chap. 4:i-2:) His proving in the wilderness. Thus proclaimed and anointed, He is exposed to the tempter, led up of the Spirit, not of His own will. The Second Man, blessed contrast to the first, is tempted in a wilderness, not in a garden, fasts to meet the devil, for complete exposure, not, as others, to meet God. His forty days' proving, not fed with manna, but hungry, reveals Him perfect in the knowledge which in forty years of lessons Israel had failed to learn. He answers Satan out of Deuteronomy, in which the moral of their wanderings is declared, taking ever the place of man in dependence, out of which by the truth of His divine glory Satan would seduce Him.

The flesh, in Him sinless, is the first point of attack. Here is found, in One come into the world only to do God's will, no motive in the hunger of a forty days' fast to provoke a will to satisfy it. Man lives by the word of God, not bread; so He in dependent willlessness.

The second temptation is as Messiah, to whom the promise quoted confessedly belonged. But the devil mutilates it, for the blessed word of God could not in any honest usage be a means of temptation. He would lead the Lord aside from His " ways," to prove (as if He needed proof) that God was for Him. But if Israel had thus tried God, He, perfect in faith, could not do so.

Finally, and at once, all the kingdoms of the world are set before Him, by the sudden dazzle to throw Him, if possible, off His guard, if but for a moment, and seduce His heart from its allegiance to God. But here Satan has disclosed himself, and being disclosed, is defeated. He departs, and angels come and minister to the Conqueror.

V. (Chap. 4:12-7:) The principles of His kingdom.

(1) 4:12-25. The proclamation of the kingdom by the King. And now, according to Isaiah's prophecy, the light shines in Galilee. The King Himself proclaims the kingdom, gathers around Him those who are to be the heralds of it, and exhibits the power by which evil shall be banished from the earth under Messiah's sway.* *"The powers of the world to come " (Heb. 6:5):The word " powers " being one commonly used in the plural for miracles; and "the world to come," the regular phrase for Messiah's kingdom (upon earth).*

(2) 5:1-16. The character of the heirs of it. Thus manifesting His title to the kingdom, in the presence of the multitude He instructs His disciples in the characteristics of it. This is the " sermon on the mount." The kingdom here, we must remember, is that which the prophets of the Old Testament had announced, in which Jerusalem shall yet be, more gloriously than ever, "the city of the great King" (5:35), and "times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; " not as now, the kingdom in the time of His absence. Yet in principle the Lord's words apply to us often with more force on that account, as we may easily see, if we apprehend the difference of dispensation.

He begins with describing the character and blessedness of the heirs of the kingdom, a character formed by the hope of that they see not yet, as given in four beatitudes (10:3-6), and displaying the more specific divine lineaments which are found in all God's children, given in three (10:7-9). "Poor in spirit," because their heart is set upon what is beyond; "meek," as claiming nothing in the present (see Ps. 37:); "mourners," as their Lord was, in a world of sin and its attendant misery; "hungering after righteousness," as feeling the divorce between it and judgment now (see Ps. 94:15). These are the first four. The merciful and the pure (in heart, not externally merely,) answer in measure to the divine character as "love" and "light;" while the third and last of these final beatitudes shows the activity of these, and hence the "peacemakers shall be called the children of God."
Two beatitudes follow of those who incur the opposition of the world for their practical conduct and for their testimony. Persecuted for righteousness' sake, they are yet the " salt of the earth," and for Christ's sake, they are its light. They are to let that light (their testimony to Him,) shine before men, that they may thus see their good works, and glorify their Father.

(3) 5:17-48. The law maintained and perfected. Next, the law is maintained in its integrity, not a jot or tittle removed. It is to be written on Israel's heart according to the terms of the new covenant (Jer. 31:33). The Lord's "fulfilling" it means that He brings out the fullness of it. He applies it to the thoughts and intents of the hearts, and completes it by the repeal of what had been of old time suffered for the hardness of them. By the manifestation of love even to enemies they are to show themselves the sons of their Father in heaven.

(4) 6:1-18. Righteousness before the Father. Three special characters follow of a righteousness* which is to be before God, not men:alms, as practical righteousness manward; prayer, the evidence of dependence Godward; and fasting- mortification-selfward. *"Alms" (5:1) should be as in the margin, "righteousness."*

In the first case, it is important to note that mercy, from those who are the simple recipients of mercy, is simple righteousness (comp. 18:32, 33). And not only are deeds of mercy not to be blazoned before the world, but to be done as if were in unconsciousness to ourselves of their being- done (comp. 25:37-39).

In the second case, the prayer our Lord teaches the disciples is not in His name (Jno. 16:24), nor from the stand-point of Christianity. It could not yet be. But it is the perfection of prayer in the place in which they then stood. The thought of divine government runs through the whole, but the most complete subjection of heart to Him who is on the throne, who is the Father. The first petition is that that name may be hallowed; the second, that His kingdom come; the third, to which this necessarily leads, that His will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. How blessed the condition of soul in which such like desires seek foremost utterance before its own personal need! Then how simply and beautifully is this expressed! The owning of dependence, without desire to escape out of the place of it, looking for daily bread-no more. The sense of sin needing forgiveness from God, leading to the manifestation of a spirit of forgiveness toward others. Lastly, a sense of infirmity which deprecates trial and the evil it may elicit.

In the third case, fasting, it is well to remember the apostle's word to us, " If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Of this, fasting was the expression, though in a form of sorrow unsuited to the joy of the Bridegroom's presence (9:15). And it still remains as this expression in times of solemnity and trial and exercise of soul before God (chap. 17:21; Acts 13:2).

(5) 6:19-34. The eye and the object. Now the Lord goes deeper, and lays bare the heart, detected in that which governs it. As the eye is the inlet of light to the body, so faith to the soul. Here heaven contains our treasure, and our one Master is God. To admit another object means divided service (in which God is not really served at all,) and a darkened eye. On the other hand, as to all here, our Father's care leaves us without the need of care to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness alone.
(6) 7:1-12. Meting the measure we would receive, A principle of divine government is now insisted on. By the hands of men God metes men their own measure. Therefore beware of harsh judgments, and the measure you mete; while nevertheless you must not loosely abandon spiritual things (as men have the so-called "sacraments,") to those incapable of valuing them. So may you look for God to give you what to you shall be of value; and what you want to have done to you you must do.

(7) 7:13-29. Practical treading the path pressed, and building upon the Word. Finally, entering in is pressed, a practical treading the path, though narrow, and refused by the mass. False prophets would come also, deceiving souls. Mere lip-honor to Christ would avail nothing in the day which was coming to test all; nor any thing but such acquaintance with Himself as would be shown by practical building on His words. Here alone was true wisdom, as would then be fully proved.

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." (Eph. 2:17.)

It is well and commonly said that the simplicity the gospel is its difficulty with souls. God's ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. We do not know ourselves even, until of God reveals us to ourselves, and we elation as long as it is possible at all Hence repentance, 1:e., the bowing in I; the judgment which the Word has pro-d concerning us, is in God's order absolutely necessary to the reception of the gospel. It is not, and cannot be, as some in the present day would have it, " Believe the gospel and repent," but as we find the Lord Himself preaching it (Mark 1:15)-"Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Faith in the Word must thus, however, precede repentance, for only from faith can repentance flow; and as soon as faith is in the soul, its fruits begin to manifest themselves. Conversion is the turning of the man to God. Naturally, his dependence is upon himself and not upon God; and it is as his face is turned God ward his back is turned upon himself. Thus repentance, the soul's judgment of itself according to the Word, is never absent where faith is-comes as it were with it, and yet is the fruit of it.

But it is as the soul is thus turned from its self-confidence,-as it receives and bows to the judgment of God upon itself,-that the gospel becomes clear, suitable, necessary, and how precious! None could have imagined it ever. The greatness of our necessity is no argument in itself that God could come so far to meet it,-no revelation of the way by which it could be met; but the way being revealed, and the love of God declared in the gift of His Son, the knowledge of our necessity prepares us to apprehend and receive the joyful news of salvation, otherwise unintelligible and untrusted. It is then and thus it becomes simple. John the Baptist in this way comes with the baptism of repentance to prepare the way of the Lord; and the Lord Himself begins His ministry with a John-Baptist strain; and while Pharisees murmured at His grace, all the publicans and sinners drew near to hear Him.

The gospel, with all its freedom, is thus selective. There are tender arms of love for sinners:what could be freer? But the "sinners" that drew near, were they the whole mass of a guilty world? " The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost;" but out of a hundred in the wilderness, one sheep is lost, one sinner repents.

Yet the gospel is free, as the heart of God is gracious, and as the work of Christ is infinite in value. He has "made peace through the blood of His cross," and the gospel of peace is to be preached, not simply at large in the world, but individually " to every creature."The grace to all is emphasized to each. It makes no demand but for reception. It does not preach of effort to be put forth, or experiences to be learned, or attainment to be made. The story of man is ended with the cross; it is now the story of over-abounding grace that is being told out; and grace is not claim, but gift,-gift yours if only you will have it, with all its blessedness, which no apprehension or experience can ever reach to, "the unsearchable riches of Christ," the fullness of a " love, that passeth knowledge."

There are two aspects of the proclamation of peace which the gospel makes which I desire to consider now, and by the putting of which to-gather, some may find, that have not yet found, real apprehension and enjoyment of it in their These two aspects give us two things which greatest importance to keep together- the supremacy of God and the blessing of man. Condition of the world at every point subjection to God being thrown off. only through the grace of God is a return from condition practicable at all, and only by the power of the Spirit of God is it ever effected; but in no way which does not involve a return to the spirit of obedience could blessing for him be found. It is this that conscience insists on with us, and rightly; but if that be all, legality in some shape will become our vain resource. The gospel alone can really deliver us from our own ways, and, by a proper reconciliation, put us in the place of blessing.

When Israel of old went against a hostile city, they were to proclaim, according to the word of the Lord, peace unto it; and if it made answer of peace, and opened its gates, it became tributary and served. Here there was no original duty of service; but the world has revolted from a yoke obnoxious to it, and refused just obedience to the divine claim. They have turned every one to his own ways-so dear to pride, as that. How plainly do we see it in Israel's refusal of that law which by every tie of interest and gratitude bound them to One who had shown openly His power before their eyes, and in their behalf. Yet their history is little more than one of wanderings from Him. Nor is this even merely human fickleness. Those who served other gods were not thus fickle:"Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods? but My people have changed their glory unto that which doth not profit."

And when Christ came, after the rejection of a long series of God's messengers, as the last resource He had, and He sends His best-beloved, saying, "They will reverence My Son:" what was the answer? "This is the Heir:come, let us kill Him, and let us seize on His inheritance." Thus the cross was the final expression of long-manifested enmity, not on Israel's part only, but on that of the world:"Now is the judgment of this world," the Lord says; and " the friendship of this world is enmity against God." (Jas. 4:4.)

From the grave, in which man would fain have sealed Him up, He comes forth with all authority in heaven and earth His, and to take His seat at the right hand of God. "God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified," says the apostle, "both Lord and Christ."

He is Lord, and every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue confess that He is such; but He is Christ, a Saviour, and whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Into this judged and hostile world a message of peace is sent, antedating the sure day of coming judgment. God preaches peace by Jesus Christ, and where an " answer of peace " is returned, the soul owning in Him its rightful Lord, judgment is removed, and peace established as its proper possession.

Pause here, beloved reader, and ask yourself, have you in truth of heart owned this blessed One ? Is He to you, in more than name, " Master and Lord"? To repeat those titles formally, as do so many, is of course worse than worthless; but if in deed and in truth you have surrendered to Him, if you have confessed with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believed in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (Rom. 10:9).

Peace then is yours from God. His controversy with you is over. It is not a question of your feeling about it, although He tells you of it, that you may enjoy it without suspicion, that no contrary thought may arise in your heart. Give Him full credit for what He has said, who could not possibly deceive you, and then you will realize it as peace within your heart, unchallengeably and inalienably yours; for " whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
The world is divided into two hostile camps. Neutrality is not possible to any. "He that is not with Me is against Me." And this of course must be real:it is not profession but confession that is called for; and belief with the heart and confession with the mouth the apostle links together; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. If, then, you have truthfully accepted Christ as your Lord, He will be your Saviour also. Peace is proclaimed in His name, that if you return an " answer of peace," submitting yourself to Him, you may know on God's part that His controversy with you is over, and be practically at peace in your own soul.

But observe, that while these are the terms upon which peace is yours, and you have positively nothing more to do than to throw down your arms and surrender to Christ to have this wonderful mercy shown you, yet on God's part much was needed to be done in order that He, might righteously be able to assume this attitude toward you. This peace proffered had first to be made; and it is made:He hath " made peace through the blood of His cross." That which for us is free, involved for Him this wonderful sacrifice. On man's part, the cross was the very height of desperate rebellion ; on His own, " No man taketh My life from Me," He says, " but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again:this commandment have I received of My Father." Judgment is pronounced upon the world for what is man's act; but for that which is His own in it, not judgment but divine grace to man flows out. "Therefore doth My Father love Me because I lay down My life, that 1 might take it again." By One dying a sinner's death, a work of infinite value is accomplished which not only God can accept, but in which He finds the fullest delight. No place but His own right hand for Him who has done this work can express worthily His delight in it; and this flows out once more in the welcome every returning prodigal receives. Who that believes that it is the fruit of Christ’s work that he receives can wonder at the freeness or the greatness of the gift bestowed ? And the work of the cross, for whom was it ? death and curse, for whom did the Holy One take these?

The character of this work makes it humility as well as faith to own that for us He died. The value of it is our title to all the wealth that Scripture reveals as the portion of the believer. Faith in it is the destruction of legality in our approach to God. " Christ is the end of the law for righteousness" to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that doeth these things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise:Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven ? (that is, to bring down Christ from above;) or who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)"-And this is the work needed, if work is to be done! What a rebuke of the thought that by legal effort aught can be attained! Don't think of bringing Christ down to do once more His blessed work! or of raising Him from the dead, after His work accomplished! It needs not, blessed be God! it is already, and once for all, done.-" But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy heart and in thy mouth; (that is, the word of faith which we preach:) that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

It is to the call of grace, then, that we are bidden to surrender. The throne to which we bow is a throne of grace; and herein is its sweet effectual compulsion found; hence is its power to mold our lives by engaging our affections, and winning our hearts to the God whom it displays. " We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation. The fruit we are to produce springs from the seed of the gospel, necessarily first received in order to produce it.

Peace is proclaimed:to enemies, that they may bow and so receive it; to those no longer enemies, "that they may enjoy the assurance of what is theirs, but theirs through the work of Another, dying even for His enemies. " Peace I leave with you " were the words which anticipated the work of the cross; "Peace be unto you," the words with which He returned from the dead; and then showed them His hands and His side, the wound of that conflict by which the rest of victory is assured to us. How sweetly sovereign the manner in which He thus makes over the fruit of His work to His beloved people! It is the relation in which they stand eternally with God; stable as the value of that by which it has been made:"being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

It is proclaimed to you, beloved reader, whoever you are :reconciliation on the basis of Christ's accepted work, if only on your part you will be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20). It is no question whether He will be reconciled to you, but only if you will be to Him. If your heart can say, How glad would I be-how thankful to accept this! you need have no doubt whatever of this happiness being yours. Peace He publishes to you through the work of His Son, and it is for you to say whether there shall be peace. If you accept His terms,-if you bow indeed to the Lord Jesus Christ,-if you will be reconciled, then God is at peace with you, and Christ is your peace:He has made it by the blood of His cross; made it for sinners, for enemies, that you may be no more such, but reconciled to God through the death of His Son. How dear and tender a pledge of what is in His heart toward you-" For God hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him "!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matthew has seven main divisions, which again are subdivided into a number of sections.

I.* THE KING (CHAP. i, 2:)

* The figures appended to these sections, whether the larger or smaller ones, are always given as significant, according to the principles already established from the Word. It is not to be expected that their significance will in general be dwelt upon. They are given to be tested by those whose habit it is to test by the only standard all that is presented to them. Let ray readers remember the apostle's words as to all Christians:" Ye have an unction from the holy One, and need not that any man teach you,"- 1:e., are not dependent upon the teacher as an authority.*

I. (Chap. 1:) His title proved. The first chapter reveals to us the titles and glories of the King. The genealogy is placed first, for it is the Son of David and of Abraham who is to be before us. But this is but as the outer court of the temple; His true glory is that He is Immanuel, " God with us." The genealogy is no doubt Joseph's-the legal one, His title naturally. Joseph, not Mary, is prominent in these chapters, and carefully reminded of his royal birth. That it is the legal genealogy, only makes the more "impressive its containing (just in the undeniable part too, for any one claiming to be king in Israel,) the four women's names mentioned in it. All are probably, -most, certainly, Gentiles. And in each case their connection with the Lord's descent brings out some striking feature of the gospel. Tamar's sin connects her; Rahab's faith; for Ruth, the law is set aside; while Bathsheba, specially mentioned as Uriah's wife, shows us a believer's sin unable to set aside the purposes of God toward him. Thus the Lord is shown as the true Seed of Abraham.

And this is a specimen of Matthew's way of stating the gospel, in the vailed style of the Old Testament, from which of course all this is taken.

Thus far the genealogy, marking out the Son of David according to the flesh. The three divisions of the genealogy (5:17) show us, first, how God had elevated Jacob's seed into a kingdom; secondly, how they had declined into utter ruin; thirdly, God's bringing back a people to wait in ruin and darkness, without a history, Him by whom alone all could be restored.

But now we are made to know (10:18-25), in the game wondrous Person, the One " without genealogy" (Heb. 7:3, Gr.); born, as we are new-born, of the Holy Ghost, the predicted Son of a virgin, Immanuel, God with us. Such is Heaven's King, who to fulfill His divine title must be Jesus,-a Saviour. Thus we have full introduction to Him already in all the characters in which this gospel presents Him to us.

II. (Chap, 2:) The second chapter intimates at once His history. The Gentile magi, come up to do homage to the " King of the Jews," find His capital city first ignorant, then troubled by the news. They can designate Him scripturally enough as God's Shepherd-King for His Israel, out of Bethlehem, the " house of bread." But the Edomite is in the place of power, and the Edomite hatred, unchecked and against God, fulfills His word in judgment upon the guilt) people. Bethlehem that had no welcome for her Saviour, finds none from the destroyer now. He who is cast out in fact by Israel herself, departs from the guilty people.
The Gentiles meanwhile have worshiped and presented their gifts, " gold and frankincense and myrrh," significant gifts, no doubt, whether those who offered them were conscious of it or not. Gold is the symbol of divine glory; frankincense, of the precious humanity whose trial by fire only brought forth the odor of a sweet smell, acceptable to God; while the myrrh, used, in embalming, speaks of the death by which He was to save His people from their sins.

Gone down into Egypt, the Lord assumes the place of the true "Israel" (Isa. 49:3, 4), and begins again the history of the people from the beginning, as their Representative for the eye and heart of God. In this way Hosea's words apply to Him (11:i). Out of it God calls Him into the "land of Israel," (the only place in the New Testament where it is called so,) that, because it is indeed Immanuel's land (Isa. 8:8).

But He comes back to Galilee,* where, still according to Isaiah's prophecy (9:i, 2), the light breaks forth, for " Galilee of the Gentiles" is the place where, the ruin of the people being manifest, God can come in with help. *"Galilee" means "circuit." Is it because here the lost blessings return ? Certainly none of these Scripture-names without significance.* There, then, He abides, "in a city called Nazareth," the place of all others but of which comes no good. He is "sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Is God known, loved, and trusted? If He be, the heart will delight in the most absolute, dependence upon Him.

I. THE PRINCIPLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the case of " the church in Smyrna " (10:8-11), they had begun the downward course; but the Lord had come in most graciously, and arrested the decay by tribulation. I say most graciously, for one goes wonderfully quickly down hill unless a strong hand stop us.

The souls were in tribulation, poverty, and persecution, and how does the Lord reveal Himself? As the One whom nothing can touch, not all the clouds and storms, the difficulties and trials, affect (like the sun, bright before the storm and after it,) "the FIRST and the last." (5:8.)

" Yes," it may be said, " this is true of Him; but then, the storm rolls over us, and threatens to overwhelm:we have no power against it." But He reveals Himself not only as "the First and the Last"-the One therefore on whom we may lean for eternal strength,-but also as " He which was dead, and is alive." He says, as it were, " I have gone through it all:I have entered into the weakness of man, and undergone all the power that could come against it, all the trials even unto death,-! have entered into every thing, for I have died, and yet I am alive."

There is nothing that the Lord has not gone through:death is the last effort of Satan's power; it ends there for the sinner as well as for the saint. The unconverted even are out of Satan's power when they die; if they die in their sins, of course they come under the judgment of God, but Satan has no power in hell. He may have pre-eminence in misery, but no power there (his reigning is some poet's dream; it is here he reigns, and that by means of the pride and vanity, the evil passions and idleness, of men); he is "the ruler of the darkness of this world," not of the next.

But whatever may be the extent of power which he seeks now to exercise against the children of God, the Lord says, " I have been under it-I have been dead." Therefore it is impossible for us to be in any circumstance of difficulty or of trial through which Jesus has not been. He has met the power of Satan there, and yet He is alive. And now He "is alive for evermore," not only to sustain us while passing through the storm, .but to feel for, to sympathize, as having experienced more than all the heaviness of the circumstances in which we are. He can pity with the utmost tenderness, for He came into the very center of our misery.

There were all sorts of opposition to the faithful in this church, but what does the Lord say to them? " Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer." (5:10.) It is the constant effort of Satan to produce in us fear and discouragement when passing through trial; but the Lord says, "Fear none of those things." In like manner the Philippians are told to be "in nothing terrified by their adversaries;" again, in Peter we read, " Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled."Our wisdom is ever to rest confidently in Him who is "the First and the Last," who rises up in as great power at the end as at the beginning. The Lord does not say to this church, " I will save you from suffering," for suffering was needful in order to prevent it from tumbling headlong into decay; just as Israel was obliged, in consequence of its sin, to go a long way round the desert; and yet the Lord says, as it were, to some among them who were faithful, " Do not be the least uneasy."So here His word is, "Fear none Of those things which thou shalt suffer."

In the beginning of the failure in " the churches " the promise to " the overcomer " in the midst of the decay was, that he should eat, insecurity and peace, of the "tree of life;" so again here, in a time of especial suffering and trial, there is held out, as a stimulus (to the new man of course), a recompense of reward. If they lost every thing, they should gain every thing. The Lord's own voice encourages-" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that" hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."He may be hurt, of the first death, but not of the second-the only real exclusion from the presence of God.-(Coll. Writ, of J.N.D.-Practical.)

ETERNAL LIFE, AS POSSESSED BY THE BELIEVER IN ALL DISPENSATIONS.

The question of a correspondent as to the consistency, the assertion that Old-Testament saints had me with our Lord's words in John 17:3, is one raised by many at the present moment, and de-a fuller reply, therefore, than otherwise would be. at all necessary. It is one capable of a clear and scriptural answer; and it is only a matter of astonishment that so many, well taught in the Word, should be so little clear. But first, what exactly is meant by " eternal life " ? The answer awakens the deepest gratitude and adoration in the heart of a believer:it is divine life ; the life in the fullest sense eternal, existing from eternity to eternity in God Himself. It is the communication of this life which makes all who receive it, not children of God by adoption merely, but children of God by birth-by life, and nature.

Of so wondrous and blessed a fact so many of these have so little apprehension, that it will be necessary to produce scripture to vindicate such a statement from the appearance of presumption of the most daring kind. God's thoughts are not as our thoughts, and the riches of His grace toward us are far beyond any possible prior conceptions of our own. The truth is plainly declared by the apostle that "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."But how in Him? Scripture answers:in Him, as what belonged to Himself ever,- His own life! Thus, "in Him"-the Word-"was life; and the life was the light of men " (Jno. 1:4); "for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us" (i Jno. 1:2). And thus as possessors of the life which is in His Son, we are "in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ" (i Jno. 5:20).

Thus it is plain how low and gross and incomplete is the thought that eternal life is mere eternal existence, or immortal life, as so many are saying, or even eternal, happy, and holy existence, as is the common thought. It is divine life, eternal in a sense no other is. Christ is our life, and now raised from the dead, His work accomplished, is the " last Adam," the life-giving Head to a " new creation," to which he who is in Christ already belongs (i Cor. 15:45, 47 ; 2 Cor. 5:17).

As really as we get our natural life from the first Adam, so really do we get a supernatural new life from Christ the last Adam. The divine-human Personality of the new-creation Head explains how the life that links us with the new creation links us at the same time to God in a higher and more blessed way than any creaturehood as such could give. " For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one:for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." (Heb. 2:II)

Eternal life and life in the Son are thus different terms only for that divine life, as being partakers of which we are children of God. And life in the Son expresses the double fact that only through the Son, the Mediator, could the life be ever ours; and also that as possessing it, we possess it not independently or in separation from its source. As another has said, " It is not an emanation from [God], a something given out from Him, as life was breathed into Adam at the first; but on the contrary, the believer is taken into communion (joint-participation) of the life, as it continues to dwell in the Fountain-head itself."

This, then, is eternal life, which we have as born (and from the first moment, therefore, that we are born) of God. If new birth then was from the beginning of God's dealings in grace with men on earth, then the Old-Testament saints were necessarily partakers of eternal life, of life in the Son, as we are.

But to this some oppose the Lord's definition of eternal life in John 17:3 :" This is life eternal, that they might know Thee,"-the Father-" the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." " How could this," they ask, " be true of saints before Christ's coming ? Had they this knowledge of the Father and Son, which is the New-Testament revelation?"

The answer to this may be given without any difficulty or hesitation:they had not. Does this, then, settle the point in question ? Surely it would be hasty to imagine this in view of consequences so serious as must follow.

For if the Old-Testament saints had not eternal life, new birth must have been with them a very different and an infinitely lower thing than it is with us.. Nay, they could not have been, in the sense in which we are called so, children of God at all! What life had they then? and when did true eternal life begin to be in men ? When Christ came and faith received Him first? or when He rose from the dead, having accomplished His work ?

Not, certainly, the latter, for it would exclude the people of whom the Lord affirms it to be true, in the very prayer in which these words are found. " I have manifested Thy name," He says, " unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world :Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me, and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee; and they have believed that Thou didst send Me" (10:6-8). Here, the knowledge which the Lord declares to be eternal life He declares that His disciples already had,-had therefore eternal life before redemption was yet accomplished.

They were, as far as the life essentially was concerned, still what Old-Testament saints were, nor do the Lord's word simply any thing else, although Old-Testament saints could not have had the knowledge He speaks of. It is a mode of speech with which we are perfectly familiar, to speak of a thing in its full and proper development I as if it were alone the thing. A babe, if you distinguish it from other creatures, is a man; but we rightly reserve the name in ordinary parlance for the being come to maturity and manifesting the powers of a man. In the babe, you do not yet see what the man is. I say, man is the highest creature of God on earth, both for mental and physical endowments. Is not that true ?Surely. Is the babe, then, a man ?We must answer both ways really.- Yes and no !

Apply this to the passage before us, and it is simplicity itself. If we think of eternal-1:e., divine-life, what does this imply but divine acquaintanceship,-the knowledge of God ? If we think of life in the Son, what but acquaintance with the Father? But the life gives not the knowledge:it gives the capacity for it. Manhood, the possession of human nature, gives not the knowledge pf a man, but the capacity for acquirement. The knowledge must be ministered from without; and so must the knowledge of God. The knowledge ministered of the Father and the Son alone gives the life its true character; displays it; shows what it is. " This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."

Christ has "brought life and incorruption to light by the gospel." We may surely say, not only objectively revealed it to us, but subjectively also revealed it in us. And the two things are connected. The hindrances to growth and development which the darkness of the dispensation imposed are removed ; the true character of the life within us is manifested. And yet even to us Scripture speaks of it as, in a sense, a future thing:" In the. world to come, everlasting life" (Luke 18:30); so, "He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal" (Jno. 12:25); so, "Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (Rom. 6:22).Thus, while it is a possession, it is still a hope; and exactly as the character of it as now possessed is being taken to deny its possession of old, so is the hope of it taken by some to deny a present possession:with just as much and as little truth in the one case as the other. We possess it now, yet in a sense have it not but wait to enter upon it as a future thing. And so, precisely, the Old-Testament saints had it essentially, yet in its true character waited for it as a thing yet to be entered upon. Now, as revealed, it is revealed in its true character in connection with Him in whom already it has found its perfect display, and in us brings it out also in its reality. Yet we still hope for it as if we had it not, although we have it and know we have it. In the full reality of what it is, eternity alone can declare it to us.

I would add, while not intending to enter into it at large, that the word " life " is used in various senses both in Scripture and elsewhere. There are even two words in the Greek to express on the one hand the life in us, (which is ψvχη)and on the other, the practical, displayed life (which is ζωή). This applies only to natural life, but the same distinction exists really as to the spiritual. The displayed life is that of which the Lord speaks in the verse in question.

I would add also, with regard to the views of another that have been appealed to in this connection, that they are entirely misjudged. Certain passages, whose meaning has not been really weighed, have been quoted from the " Examination of the ' Thoughts on the Apocalypse' " (Coll. Writ.,_ Proph., vol. iii, pp. 39-42, n.), as where he speaks of it as a "fundamentally false principle" that "if life be there, inasmuch as it is always of God, or divine life, it is always essentially the same, whatever official distinctions there may be as to dispensation." He replies, "The difference is very great indeed as to man. It is every thing as to his present affections, as to his life. Because God puts forth power-power, too, which works in man through faith, according to the display He makes of Himself. And therefore the whole life, in its working, in its recognition of God, is formed on this dispensational display….Because all this is what faith ought to act upon, and the life which we live in the flesh we live by faith, for 'the just shall live by faith.'Hence," he adds, "the Lord does not hesitate to say, 'This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.'That could not have been the life of those before. Had they, then, not life? Nay, but it could not be stated in that way-their life was not that; and to undo these differences is to make a life without affections, character, responsibility,-in a word, without faith. You cannot do it, for to us to believe is to live."

It is surely plain that here it is the practical life which is in question. He owns fully that it is divine life in all; in its practical character as a life of faith, different, according to the revelation of God, which faith "receives. This is clear enough; but at p. 554 of the same volume he is still more explicit." And if it be said, But were they not quickened with the life that was in Christ ? No doubt they were."" He [Mr. N.] holds now that there was the same life essentially in all of them [heavenly and earthly saints]. With this I fully agree"

And this is all that has ever been contended for.

A Letter to a Friend.

BELOVED BROTHER, –

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am, my beloved brother,

Affectionately, in Christ,

F. W. G.

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

The Gospels are plainly the Genesis of the New Testament. They furnish the great facts of our Lord's life, death, resurrection, and ascension, upon which all Christianity is built. The coming of the Holy Ghost as a fact is not found; but it is promised, and its significance in large measure made known. The Church also, in one character of it, is prophetically announced.

The four gospels have each (with all other books of Scripture,) their characteristic differences, but the first three are more widely separated from the fourth than from each other; on which account they are often called the " synoptic" gospels, as giving a similar view of the history they narrate. There are thus two clear divisions, .the fourth gospel being not a fourth according to its spiritual meaning, but the full Christian gospel in contrast with the rest. .All, I need not say however, have their necessary place; each bringing out some perfection which otherwise would be lacking in the general picture. The divine numbers (3 and i) are stamped on the two divisions.

Four views of the Lord's person and work are found in the gospels, and in connection with each aspect presented, the presentation of perhaps all other truth has characteristic and important differences.

The order of the books is doubtless also providentially given, and is most probably that in which they were written. Matthew is the evident link with the Old Testament, which it cites continually, and with which its subject and character correspond; while John is as evidently that which opens out the deepest and fullest glories of the Lord's person, as well as the highest character of His work. Mark, again, comes nearest to Matthew, plainly; while Luke, with all his differences, opens the way to John.

If our view of the application of the Scripture-language of numerals be at all correct, we should expect Matthew to speak of divine sovereignty; Mark, of divine interference in grace for us; Luke, of our being brought to God. We shall not find these expectations disappoint us.

Matthew begins with the Lord's legal genealogy, which proves Him to be Son of David, heir to the throne in Israel. But He is also announced as Son of Abraham, through whom the blessing of all nations is to come, and here the introduction of four women's names, significantly all Gentiles, prove His title spiritually. But the throne of Israel is Jehovah's throne; the coming kingdom, heaven's kingdom:the blessing for Jew or Gentile requires salvation to be wrought for both; and so immediately we are assured that He who is come is Immanuel-" God with us," and Jesus, because He should save His people from their sins.

In this threefold character, then, Matthew presents Him, the last not developed as in John, but underlying the others. His first title is what is first insisted on. He is come to His own. When they do not receive Him, the kingdom passes in the meantime to the Gentiles, His Son-of-Abraham title is made good; always, however, with a prophecy of blessing and fulfillment of promise to Israel in the time to come. The first two chapters in this way give us the character of the book. Israel's King is hailed by Gentiles while rejected by His own. Jerusalem is alarmed, the Magi worship, the Lord takes in Egypt the place of rejection, yet there begins again for God the nation's history, the secret of that remarkable quotation of Hosea, " Out of Egypt have I called My Son." It is on this representation by Another all their blessing depends.

The King and kingdom are thus the characteristic thoughts in Matthew, its link, plainly, with the Old Testament. Two and thirty times its distinctive-phrase is found-"the kingdom of heaven." God is on the throne; and though made known as Father, nearness of intimacy there is not with Him. The work of salvation is intimated, but as to be accomplished.. There is no present joy of it as yet. Discipleship, and its responsibility in walk and life, are emphasized; but the outflow of the heart of God does not awaken man's heart in response as yet it will. Over all these is a certain restraint and reserve. Forgiveness of sins is governmental, and may be revoked (18:34). The shadow of law has not yet given place. Only when we reach the cross we find the intimation of a blessing which the other gospels go on to develop. The aspect of the cross in Matthew we shall consider later.

Mark's gospel, which seems in some respects almost an abridgment of Matthew, is nevertheless, in the view of His person, in entire contrast. He is at the very outset declared to be the "Son of God," but this to give its character to the lowly service in which throughout He is found. The "kingdom of God" we have still, but now never "of Christ" or "of the Son of Man."Save as accusation on the cross, He is never even " King of the Jews."His title of "Lord" is very seldom taken. But He is the Son of God in service, with divine power and riches in His hand, serving in love; which requires nothing but power to entitle it to serve. There need be, and is, therefore, no genealogy. The earnestness of His service is marked by the frequency of the word " immediately." Half of all the occurrences throughout the New Testament of the Greek word which this translates are found in this gospel. The singleness of His service is seen in His knowing nothing of His Master's business save that which is given Him to communicate (13:32).The tenderness of it in all the smaller features of His ministry:how "He was moved with compassion;" how He was "grieved with the hardness of their hearts;" how He touched one, lifted up another; how " He marveled because of their unbelief."Here too, as in Luke, the ascension is given as the fitting close to His path of humiliation,-"the right hand of God;" even then His service being unceasing as His love, so that we read, "And they went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."

But in Mark, as in Matthew, there is not yet the nearness to God we shall find in the next gospel. The Father is mentioned as such but five times, and "your Father," only in one place (11:25, 26). Not the children's but the servant's place is here, although it is recognized that the servants are children. Governmental responsibilities and rewards are before us as in Matthew, but there, of disciples, each for himself subject; here, of laborers for the accomplishment of divine purposes:ministers, after the pattern of Him who, as " Son of Man, came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." The shadow that lies upon both these gospels is revealed, as soon as we look at the cross, where in each the Lord's cry is found, " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"The fourfold view of the cross which the Gospels present, it is now long since that I have endeavored to show to be that of the early chapters of Leviticus. There, omitting the meat-offering, which is not sacrificial, we have just four sacrificial offerings. Two of these, the burnt and peace-offerings, are "for sweet savor:"the peace-offering, that which speaks of peace and communion with God; the burnt-offering, of the perfection of the work itself to God. Luke and John,. I have no doubt at all, give us respectively the peace and the burnt-offerings:of this, by and by. But in the two other,-the sin and trespass-offerings,-the judgment of sin is the side dwelt upon, the necessary result of divine holiness, but not that which is sweet savor to Him. In the trespass-offering, sin as injury rather,- whether as regards God or man; in the sin-offering, sin as sin. The one has to be repaired; the other, expiated.

Which, then, does Matthew present? and which, Mark? I have been accustomed to take Matthew as the sin-, Mark as the trespass-offering; latterly, with some doubt, indeed, but still not such as to make me alter the judgment which had been long formed. I am now convinced that this is wrong, however, and that it should be reversed. Matthew, I am now clear, represents the trespass and Mark the sin-offering.

The difficulty lies mainly in this, that in the type, the sin-offering alone is that which shows us the full judgment of sin in the outside place in which the victim is burnt upon the ground. But both gospels show our blessed Lord in this outside place:the cry of forsaken sorrow is as much in one as in the other. There is perhaps no such thing in Scripture as a mere repetition of the same thought; and this, while a perfection of the Word itself, is a difficulty in the interpretation of it. What has pressed upon me of late is this, that the trespass-offering (as I have elsewhere said,) is a question of divine government; the sin-offering, of the divine nature. Now Matthew we know to be the gospel which speaks of government. We see too in this why the trespass-offering can put on the aspect of the sin-offering; because the claim of divine government requires the display of the holiness of the divine nature.

In Matthew we find the double answer of God to the work of Christ. Having gone for us into the outside darkness, it is dispelled:the vail of the temple is rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The glory of God can shine out:the way in to God is opened for man.

But the Lord gives up His spirit also:the double portion of man is death and judgment. Judgment He takes first, and, having exhausted this, dies:the answer to this is seen in the resurrection of many of those who slept, who after His own resurrection go into the holy city and appear unto many. Now death is the stamp of divine government upon the fallen creature, as the cup of wrath is the necessary outflow of His holiness against sin. Matthew and Mark both give the rending of the vail, but Matthew alone the resurrection of the saints. This shows again that Matthew gives the governmental view of the cross, the trespass-offering.

There is another indication in the fact that in Mark the grace which is the result of the cross is not only fuller–"the gospel to every creature" preached with the signs of the enemy's work overcome, and the effects of man's judgment at Babel overruled,–but also it is grace unmixed. Compare in this way Psalm 22:with Psalm 69:So in – Mark there is no prophetic Aceldama, no " His blood be upon us and on our children," no judgment even of the traitor. " Who is to be judged," as another has well asked, " for God's laying our sin on His beloved Son?" In the governmental gospel these things have their right and necessary place, and their omission would be as much a defect in Matthew as it is a perfection in Mark.

Again, even the threefold witness to the Lord in the traitor who betrayed Him, the judge who gave Him up, and of Heaven in the dream of Pilate's wife seems to me now more in accord with the governmental trespass-offering than with the sin. Mark entirely omits them, and by what it omits as well as what it brings forward thus concentrates our attention on the one point of that forsaking of God which is the essential feature of the sin-offering.
In Luke we find the manhood of the Lord emphasized, as His deity is in John. Thus His genealogy is traced from Adam, not merely from Abraham. Not only His birth is dwelt on, but His childhood also; and how He grows in wisdom and in stature. His prayers are noticed where in the other gospels they are omitted, as at His baptism and at His transfiguration. So, His being " full of the Holy Ghost." Seldom is He the Son of David here; and Mary has the prominence in the early history which in Matthew belongs to Joseph.

Taking thus a place among men as Man, it is no wonder that angels tell, not simply of God's "good will toward," but rather of His "good pleasure in men," for so it should be read. And accordingly the peace-offering aspect of the work of Christ is what Luke's gospel gives. God and man meet together and are at one, as in that characteristic fifteenth -chapter, in which all the mind of Heaven displays itself in joy in the recovery of what was lost,-"joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth,"-joy which reflects itself in the heart of that repentant sinner, and fills the mouth of the dumb with song.

Thus Luke opens with a burst of melody. Elizabeth, Mary, Zacharias, the angels, the shepherds, Simeon, Anna, are all praising; and the burden of their song is what the former gospels had nothing of-a present Saviour and a realized salvation. So in the synagogue at Nazareth, the opening of the Lord's ministry is the declaration of present grace to heal and save,-the acceptable year of the Lord proclaimed as come. Again, in the seventh chapter, the forgiveness of a sinner of the city; in the tenth, the parable of the Samaritan; in the eighteenth, of the Pharisee and publican; in the nineteenth, the story of Zacchaeus,-all speak the same language. But the cross, as we might expect, has preeminently this peace-offering character. There is no cry of one forsaken any more. It is not even "My God," but "Father." The shadow may be over the land, but no more on the soul of Him who in peace is interceding for His murderers, and opening paradise to a poor sinner at His side.

Thus peace, grace, remission, salvation, are all (as compared with the former gospels,) characteristic of the present one. The blessing is there for man, made over to him, filling his heart with joy and praise. Compare, in Matthew, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," with Luke's " Blessed are ye poor;" or the words at the institution of the supper in Matthew and Mark, " This is My blood, shed for many" with those in Luke, " This is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you."

And now John's gospel comes to complete the picture, and fill the whole scene with the glory of the Only Begotten, God manifest in the flesh. Man is seen to be dead utterly. The Light come into the world fully manifests its condition. Hence the law given by Moses, useless here, is only contrasted with the grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. Judaism, whose principle was law, is over also-its privileges and its responsibilities. The very language of a Jew is treated as a foreign tongue, and translated into Gentile language, the common speech of men. For we start in this gospel with the fact of that rejection of Christ which the former ones had proved. The world, made by Him, was ignorant of its Maker. This, Luke has shown. His own, to whom He had come, received Him not:this is Matthew. All this made it a scene in which God indeed could work, but He alone. Thus the fact and meaning of new birth are what we find in John, and alone of all the gospels:here it meets us at the threshold. Men must Be born of God. The Life must not only shine in the world, but quicken souls, that they may see and rejoice in it. So quickened, there ensues another thing:children of God as born of Him, they are given the place of children, and the Spirit of His Son takes His place within them. Hence the apprehension of the revelation made to them by One declaring Him whom none as yet had seen, but who now declares Him as in His bosom, the Only Begotten of the Father.

Hence Christ is here the Word, God and with God, Eternal Life, and who, if made flesh, becomes in the world the Light of it. He is Quickener of the dead, Baptizer with the Holy Ghost, the true Witness, that we may have fellowship with Him.

Then, as to the aspect of His work, it is the Burnt-Offering, the type of the perfections for the heart of God of that in which we are accepted. His own witness is given that the work He came to do is finished. The blood and water show the result for man, and the Spirit also testifies, because the Spirit is truth.

In John there is no transfiguration, and no vail rent at the cross. The reason is apparent-that the glory has been shining out all through, and not exceptionally:not glory conferred on Him as Son of Man, but the glory of full Godhead.

God delights in those who appreciate and enjoy the provisions of His love-those who find their joy in Himself.

God sees us, thinks of us, speaks about us, acts toward us, according to what He . Himself has made us and wrought for us.

Is it the real purpose of your soul to get on, to advance in the divine life, to grow in personal holiness? Then beware how you continue, for a single hour, in contact with what soils your hands and wounds your conscience,:grieves the Holy Ghost and mars your communion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NUN.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The mighty called to give glory to the Mightier, sitting upon the water-floods, and King forever, and who gives strength and peace to His people. A psalm of David.

Give unto Jehovah, ye sons of the mighty, give to Jehovah glory and strength.

2. Give unto Jehovah the glory of His name; worship Jehovah in the beauty of holiness.

3. The voice of Jehovah is on the waters; the God* of glory thundereth; Jehovah is on the great waters.

4. The voice of Jehovah is with power; the voice of Jehovah is with majesty.

5. The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars:yea, Jehovah breaketh up the cedars of Lebanon.

6. He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young aurochs.

7. The voice of Jehovah cleaveth the flames of fire.

8. The voice of Jehovah shaketh the wilderness; Jehovah shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.

9. The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to labor, and strippeth the forests; and in His temple, all of it speaketh of glory.

10. Jehovah sitteth upon the flood; yea, Jehovah sitteth King forever.

11. Jehovah giveth strength unto His people; Jehovah will bless His people with peace.

There is in man, as man, – as the creature of God, – a "moral sense," as it is called; a faculty of perception of moral quality in whatever comes into the field of view. This, of course, was his before the fall; indeed, without it, a fall would not have been possible. He would have been a mere beast, for which it is impossible to be im-moral, just because it is unmoral, with no capacity of moral perception or reflection at all. Such a being could not fall. " Man that is in honor, and understandeth not," – here spoken clearly; not of rational, but of moral discernment, – "is like the beasts that perish " (Ps. 49:20). That is the character of the beast, then. Had man gained by the fall a moral sense, it would have been really, in the phrase of a modern infidel, a "fall upward;" it would have brought him into a higher condition than that in which he was created.

When God said of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, " Thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," this was surely not to be understood by Adam as a mere consequence which would follow a certain course, a mere appeal to self-love, and no more ! Had it been so, and he had merely understood it as an alternative proposed to him, he might have chosen the alternative, however fatal, yet without sin. But in this case "thou shalt not "could not have been said:the prohibition would have sunk into mere advice. Sin could not then have been, nor possible fall. The innocence in which man "stood,-as made "upright" (Eccl. 7:29),-was not the immaturity of a babe which we call such. To confound the reality of innocence in upright Adam with the shadow of it only in the fallen creature would be to accuse the Creator and make the record of the fall an unintelligible mystery.

What, then, does the knowledge of good and evil, as acquired in the fall, imply ? For it is of this that the very name of the prohibited tree speaks; it is this that the serpent proposes, "Ye shall be as God,* knowing good and evil;" and if is this that the divine word after the fall assures us had resulted:"the man is become as one of Us, knowing good and evil."*"Elohim,"which may be, indeed, "God" or "gods," but the latter would be surely as yet too unmasked evil to be in the devil's mouth. The former is confirmed by the words " as one of Us " afterward*. What, then, is this knowledge? It is, as all the inspired Word is, put before us to understand, and it will be a gain to us to understand it.

When the prohibition was first given, it is plain it was in a scene where God had pronounced every thing, without exception, which He had created, "very good." Evil there was not any where then to be perceived. The faculty of perception did not, of course, create the object to be perceived. Evil there yet was none. I do not mean that angels had not fallen. The whole history assures one that they had. But that did not necessarily introduce it into the world. This was, with all in it, very good; and as such was committed into the hands of man its head. Upon his obedience the condition of all within this realm of his depended. Save through him, evil could not enter; for the presence of the devil in the serpent was not an entrance in the sense in which I speak of it. Man himself alone could really bring it in.

It may be asked, however, Did not the prohibition itself suppose (and so imply the knowledge of) evil as possible, at least? To us, alas! it does; and here, indeed, is the great difficulty for us:how can we put ourselves back into that lost estate of innocence, so as to form any right conception of it at all? Prohibition to us, alas! awakens at once the thought of possible disobedience, and in the fallen nature the lust of it. But Adam had no lust; and no conception as yet of possible disobedience. This need not imply any mental or moral feebleness, but as to the latter (taking all into account), the very opposite.

To know good and evil means simply to discern the difference between these two; but for this to be, the two must be together within the field of vision. It was just the perfection of Adam's world that in it there was none, and in himself none. He could abide in good, and enjoy it, without thought of its opposite; a state for us difficult of conception, no doubt, but not impossible to conceive. Gratitude he could have and feel, without thought of ingratitude; believe, praise, love, and adore he could, without realizing even the possibility of the opposite of these, and with a moral nature which could yet recognize them immediately they were presented.

The history of the fall confirms this. The serpent's first approach is by a question, which under the form of a question of fact, suggests a moral one:" Yea, [is it so] that God hath said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" But to entertain a moral question as to God is fatal. Implicit confidence in God is gone, and evil is already there known in the soul of her who entertains the question. The woman's answer already shows the consequence of this. " Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, and ye shall not touch it, lest ye die." Here, in her mind the prohibited tree had displaced the tree of life, the prohibition, increased to harshness in the manner of it, is weakened in the certainty of its attending penalty. God's love and truth are obscured in her doubting soul; and the devil can say, "Surely ye shall not die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat of it your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil."

Here it should be plain that faith in God, receiving all at His hand, prohibition and all, as good alike, would have foiled the enemy, and remained master of the field. By faith, from the first, and of necessity, man stood. All dispensations are, in this, alike. The evil that gained entrance into the world began as unbelief in the woman's soul, and this having speedily ripened into the positive transgression, conscience awoke,-the inward eyes were opened:they knew evil in contrast with good,- knew it in themselves, and their actions show plainly that they did so:"they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves aprons."

The evil that had come in was in themselves alone, for of moral evil man alone is capable. And thus the moral perception in man is become a judgment of good and evil in himself, and of himself in view of it:and this is conscience. There is always in it a reference to one's self.* *As may be seen in such conscience of sin sages as Hebrews 10:2, where " no more conscience of sins'.' means no more apprehension of them as standing against us; and 10:22 similarly, "sprinkled from an evil conscience," one that brings us in guilty. So Acts 24:16-" a conscience void of offense."* It is always, as it were, testifying to our nakedness. It is the inheritance of fallen Adam's children, to whom innocence is no longer possible :a watch set upon us by God as under His just suspicion. It is the knowledge of good:and evil as found in one who has obtained it by disobedience.

Yet how the grace of God to man shines out already here! " The man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil." How significant in its connection with that eternal purpose which was even then, when these words were spoken, beginning to be declared! A return to innocence was indeed '"impossible, but holiness might yet be, if divine love willed. And thus out of the ruin of the first a new-creation yet more glorious was indeed to spring. ( To be continued.)

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

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

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

Trust in the Lord, answered by Him in whom the heart trusted, so that it rejoices in and celebrates Him.

[A psalm] of David.

Unto Thee I cry, Jehovah, my rock! be not silent to me:lest, if Thou be silent to me, I be like them that go down to the pit.

2. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto Thee; when I lift up my hands toward Thy holy oracle.

3. Draw me not away with the wicked, and with workers of vanity, speaking peace with their neighbors, while evil is in their hearts.

4. Give them according to their works, and according to the evil of their practicings:give them according to the works of their hands, render to them their recompense.

5. Because they discern not the works of Jehovah, nor the operations of His hands, He shall break them down and not build them up.

6. Blessed be Jehovah, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications.

7. Jehovah, my strength and my shield! in Him I trusted and am helped; and my heart exulteth, and with my song will I celebrate Him.

8. Jehovah is strength for such; and the stronghold of salvation for His Anointed is He.

9. Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance; shepherd them, and bear them forever.

Text.-(8) "Such:" lit., "them."

It is very consolatory to the heart of the poor weary pilgrim to be assured that every stage of his wilderness journey is marked out by the infinite love and unerring wisdom of God. He is leading His people by a right way home to Himself; and there is not a single circumstance in their lot, or a single ingredient in their cup, which is not carefully ordered by Himself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What does Christ think? This is the question. Not, What does So-and-so say? but What does Christ in heaven think, who is patiently following with His loving eyes (which are yet as flames of fire) all our thoughts and ways? What does He think of our present attitude, both with regard to Himself, one another, and our fellow-Christians ? Oh, brother, whoever you are, listen to what Christ will tell you of His thoughts about it all, and remember His word,' Follow thou Me.' "

The next psalm of atonement we find in the last section of the second book. And here, whatever difficulty of interpretation may attach to it otherwise, there is nothing to dim the assurance that the sixty-ninth psalm gives us the trespass-offering. The very word for sins-" My sins are not hid from Thee"-should be rather "trespasses." While -the restitution character of the trespass-offering comes out with unmistakable plainness in the fourth verse,-" Then I restored that which I took not away." In the words of the eleventh verse we may discern with little more difficulty the ram of the trespass-offering. The difficulties of the psalm belong rather to its exposition, which I am not attempting here. With this brief notice, therefore, we may pass on to the final psalm.

This is the hundred and second, whose place in connection with the book to which it belongs is full of interest. The fourth book speaks, as the fourth book of Moses does, of the world as the scene of man's strangership through sin. Its first psalm, the ninetieth, shows him thus; his link with eternal blessedness snapped with his link with God. It is a strain of the wilderness, a lament over that generation of men who because of their unbelief died there, and who thus could be used as a fit exemplification of the general condition. The Lord, man's dwelling-place, has been forgotten. He who brought man from the dust bids him return to it. Sin and God's righteous anger explain' this terrible anomaly. "Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance; for all our days are passed away in Thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told." The psalm concludes with a prayer:"Re-turn, O Lord, how long? and let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants;" but no ground is given for such repentance till we come to the following psalm.

And here we have, not the first man, but the second ; and in plain contrast to the first:Man has forgotten the name of his God:how clearly this comes out in Moses' question at the bush!- "And Moses said unto God,' Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say unto me, What is His name? what shall I say?' " (Ex. 3:3.)

But this lost name of God is the key to man's condition. It reveals him as a wanderer (how far!) from the Father's house, " without God in the world; without, therefore, a hiding-place from the forces of nature now in league for his destruction! How wonderful that " a Man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,"-a Man, but the " Second Man "! It is He who, abiding in the secret place of the Most High, shall lodge under the shadow of the Almighty; He who in the path of faith takes Jehovah for His refuge and fortress, His God, in whom He trusts. Here is One who, at least for Himself, can claim fully the divine protection-an unfailing, perfect Man.

But how does this avail for men ? God's name revealed is "Jehovah;" and "Jehovah" is " the God of redemption"-the name under which He intervened to redeem His people of old. Redemption, too, by power is seen in the following psalms. Jehovah's throne is established upon earth; the wicked are destroyed; the righteous flourish. The earth also is set upon a permanent ground of blessing-" The world also is established, that it cannot be moved." Jehovah comes (96:-100:) to His restored creation; which claps its hands, rejoicing in His presence.

This closes the first half of the book, but the fullness of the blessing is not yet told out, nor the ground of it. This, redemption not by power but by purchase, and at the hands of the Kinsman-Redeemer, can alone disclose.

In the hundred and first psalm we find accordingly once more the Second Man, into whose hands now the earth is put, King of Israel evidently, but with another name and a wider title soon to be declared. For in the hundred and second psalm, not only Zion's time of blessing is come, but tor the earth also to be blessed, "when the peoples are gathered together, and the kings also, to serve the Lord."

But all this blessing waits upon One who in the meanwhile is seen, not only in human weakness, but under the wrath of God. Alone in the presence of His enemies, His heart smitten and withered like grass; and why? "Because of Thine indignation and wrath; for Thou hast lifted Me up and cast Me down."

But how then is the blessing to come, if Israel's King, the Second Man, upon whom all depends, is cut off under the wrath of God ? "He weakened My strength in the way; He shortened My days. I said, 'O My God, take Me not away in the midst of My days:Thy years are throughout all generations.' "

What, then, is the answer to this prayer? It is the amazing declaration as to this humbled One:-

"Of old hast Thou laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands:they shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed:but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end."

Thus Creator and Redeemer are the same wondrous Person:Jehovah, whose throne is set up upon earth, is that very Second Man into whose hands the restored earth is given; and this, and the blessings resulting from it, the hundred and third and hundred and fourth psalms celebrate. This weakness of man is the power and grace of God for man's salvation. God's name is in, deed decisively declared, and man finds his happy hiding-place in God Himself, never to be. a wanderer again.

How fit a conclusion to the picture of atonement which the Psalms, and indeed the whole of the Old Testament, present! May our joyful adoration grow in equal pace with our apprehension of them.