Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of My 'God, and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God; and I will write upon him My new name."(Rev. 3:11,12.).

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

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

To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly." (Jno. 10:10.)

I.

These words make an evident distinction between two conditions of life,-alike the fruit of the incarnation and the cross. It is my desire to show, as fully and plainly as possible, this distinction, which is in fact between life as possessed by the saints of old and as possessed in the present dispensation:one life, in conditions very different; one life, always dependent upon the Lord's coming and work; the conditions differing as the work was only prospective or now actually accomplished.

The manifestation of the life itself is the fruit of the " Word of life " having actually come into the world. In Him it first shone in the world, the light of it. In His gospel He has for others now "brought life and incorruption to light." It was there before, but hidden; not only, as it still is, to unbelief, but hidden to faith itself. There was, there is, in Old-Testament scriptures, no revelation of it. It is vain to expect to find it there, therefore; and as vain to argue that it did not exist because we do not find it there. We do not find there that they had been born again, and yet " except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." They were never able to take the place of children of God, and yet we know that children of God they were (Gal. 4:1-6). And these two things are closely and inseparably connected together, and with the possession of life itself,-are involved in it; and their possession, while yet unmanifested, involves that of life also; while the present manifestation of these three things, in contrast with their former hidden condition, already begins to disclose the real character of what is meant by " abundant" life.

Born of God,-children of God,–they were. We may start with this as a plain and admitted truth. Our Lord declares as to this that while "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," "that which is born of the Spirit is" no less "spirit." The flesh communicates its own nature; the Spirit, its own. This is, of course, no exclusive privilege of Christianity, and our Lord is not so applying it. "Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye"-ye Jews, as declared by Ezekiel's prophecy (36:25-27), -"Ye must be born again." But while Ezekiel prophesies of new birth thus, true to the character of the Old Testament, he does not announce the divine element in it, as the Lord does. He alone affirms the communication of the divine nature in new birth,-"that which is born ,of the Spirit" to be "spirit," as truly as "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Now, that which before was true is manifested, as we have seen; and this is the eternal life itself as received by man,-divine life:"eternal" in the full sense of what has no more a beginning than it has an end. The "spirit" life, communicated by the Spirit of God, is nothing less or lower than divine.

It is thus, indeed, alone that men become children of God. The natural relationship is no more real than is the spiritual, of which it is the type. We are not merely adopted into His family, as strangers, but born into it, born (or begotten, the 6eov,) of God. This language of the Word must not be taken in a mere vague way. We are accustomed to use such terms loosely, and Scripture itself sanctions that use. Jabal is the father of all such as dwell in tents, and Jubal of such as handle the harp and pipe. Abraham is the father of all them that believe; and the apostle could say to the Corinthians that in Christ Jesus he had begotten them through the gospel. By many, new birth is confounded with its effects, and a change of heart (that is, of feelings, affections, disposition,) is supposed to be the whole thing. The process is thus taken to be merely one of persuasion,-a work upon man, not a real communication to him. The reality of new birth is missed; it becomes a figure of speech merely. Eternal life becomes only a vivid term for an immortal heavenly existence, ours now in hope more or less assured, but actually only hereafter. All the terms by which Scripture would depict and emphasize the wonder of this divine work, as "new birth," "quickening from the dead," " a new creation," pale into colorless phantoms which cannot be fixed or defined. And with many who are familiar enough with and use the term "eternal life," and who speak of it as a present possession, it is merely a practical life we live. They utterly ignore what in natural things they could not fail to remember-that there must be also a life by which we live, the life which in new birth we receive, and that by which alone we become the children of God.

It is this upon which the Lord insists in His account of what new birth is. Born of water and Spirit, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. There is a real communication of a divine nature from Him by whom we are thus begotten; and thus, when He goes on to declare the present truth, that " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life" He is not contrasting this and new birth, but only giving the latter its true significance. The vail is here removed which had so long been over it. The Lord, Himself the Life eternal, manifests the life.

No other spiritual life was there ever:"In Him was life " (Jno. 1:4); not " eternal life " simply, but "life" There was no other. So He declares, when now a Man come into the world, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you;" not no " eternal life " merely, but no life at all. True spiritual life for man and eternal life are never distinguished, much less contrasted; but (as here) identified. " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you:this on the one side. Now on the other, " He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life." Eternal life, or no life:so the Lord Himself declares.

But this applies (it may be objected) only to the present time. That is quite true as to John 6:53, 54. What as to John 1:4? "In Him was life" applies, surely, to all the past. Was it in Him as a repository of blessing uncommunicated until He personally appeared? Was life from some other source communicated in the meantime? Assuredly the words mean that all spiritual life there ever was was in Him, and in Him alone. " Life was in Him:" not this life or that life, but " life."

The life communicated by the Spirit we have seen to be divine life,-" spirit," from the Spirit. But this, then, was the life in Him, necessarily,- divine life. In Him especially, as the foreordained Mediator, the Word, the Revealer of the Father's mind. Before He was the Man Christ Jesus in actual accomplishment, He was yet the Man of the divine counsels; and before the fulfillment of His blessed work, even from the beginning, the fruits of that work were bestowed upon and tasted by the sons of men. If it could not have been so, what blessing could have been theirs? If it could have been, why not then the life that was in Him? But indeed we are assured of its being so. By the fact that they were born again,-by the fact that they were children of God,-we are assured that divine life was theirs, and in no other way could it be theirs than in the Son.

Is this reasoning merely,-inference? I am not afraid of inference. I am assured that those who continually object to it in others use it themselves freely, and rightly use it. What else enables us to interpret parable or type? What else gives us the application of any Scripture-principle to any case before us? Take Scripture, and how many lines will you read of it without coming upon some use -some sanction therefore,-of reasoning? Who reasoned with the Pharisees and Herodians about Caesar's image? with the Sadducees about the resurrection? with them all about David's Son being David's Lord? Who is it says to men, in His condescending grace. " Come, and let us reason together"? Of course, we may abuse all this, as what else may we not? But the remedy is not in denying us one of the faculties which God in His goodness has bestowed upon us, but in insisting that inferences in divine things shall be inferences from Scripture, and clear, not doubtful inferences.

"God hath given to us eternal life," says the apostle; "and this life is in His Son." It is only to say, then, what the Word says, to say that eternal life is in the Son. But we have seen that there is no life for us now certainly but eternal life. It is this life we receive, then, in new birth. Was it different with the saints of old ? Scripture says that ever "life was in Him." Before it was communicated at all, and when it was communicated. The spiritual life communicated in new birth is thus life in Him,-that is, eternal or divine life:it is this alone by which we become the children of God.

The possession of eternal life is not, then, affected by any dispensational difference. Always, "life was in Him;" always, " that which was born of the Spirit was spirit;" always, those who were born of God were children of God. This, then, assures us that eternal life was theirs. When the Lord says, " I am come that they might have life,," He declares simply "life" to be for any the result of His coming; but this, as many other of these results, could be bestowed before He came, and was. Otherwise we must deny them not only to have had eternal life, but life at all; for it is of life simply He speaks, distinguishing it from life abundantly. He came that men might have the one as well as the other,-" that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly." If, therefore, from such words you deny that the saints of old had eternal life, you must go further, and deny that they had any spiritual life at all,-you must deny they were born again at all. In all this, you are not only " reasoning" but reasoning against the plain Word of itself.

Life for fallen man is the fruit of Christ's coming and work. Had the Old-Testament saints a life that was not that? Surely that would strike at all necessity for atonement. None would, surely, contend for men possessing life apart from this; but why could they not, then, possess eternal life, although necessarily that they might have it the Lord must come?

Manifested it was not, until he who is the life came. It was possessed, but possessed in the midst of hindrances of the most effectual kind to question of the condition of the life, not of the life itself. The babe does to "manifest" what the man is, yet it has the life and nature of the man.* *To urge "Which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us," as if it meant that the life was only in heaven before its manifestation, is surely a mistake. "With the Father:is not a question of locality, but of nearness of intimacy and communion; and thus it leads to what the apostle would bring us into by faith in the revelation,"communion with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ."*

In the Son, then, come into the world, the eternal life was first and fully manifested. It was seen in Him in that knowledge of and communion with the Father, which was in Him perfect and never clouded for a moment. And by Him it was revealed as the portion of those who in faith received Him; for now that He had come, there was no faith that did not receive Him. He that believed on the Son had eternal life; and he that believed not the Son should not see life, but the wrath of God abode upon him.

Thus eternal life now declared to men was necessarily connected with faith in Him. Nor, observe, did it wait for redemption to be accomplished. " The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." Thus already He was quickening dead souls with the life in Himself; and in His prayer to the Father in which He declares that " this is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent," He declares also that this knowledge they already had:"They have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me."

Clearly and unmistakably, then, does Scripture assure us that eternal life men already had before the Lord died and fulfilled His atoning work. Nay, it was even already being exhibited in its true character, already men knew the Father and the Son. Yet this was not yet, however, the life in its full" abundance." Its character was exhibited as a life of divine acquaintanceship and communion. But for this communion to be enjoyed aright, it needed to be freed from many great and terrible hindrances; the cross had to be accomplished, the resurrection from the dead the answer on God's part to the claim of righteousness there made good, that now as risen with Christ we might be possessors of a life triumphant over death, and ,5 justified from all that had brought in death, in a recognized place of nearness to God unknown before.

II.

So far, we have been following exclusively the line of truth which is given us by the apostle John. He speaks in general of the family of God, of new birth, and eternal life; of relationship, and communion by the Holy Ghost; not generally of standing and position. These last are Paul's special themes, whose gospel is the fullest presentation of the work of Christ and its efficacy for us that we have in Scripture. An illustration of the difference between the two apostles, in close connection with our present subject, is in their respective use of the words " child " and "son." John uses " child " only; Paul, both, but more frequently the latter, while adoption*"-putting in the place of sons,-is exclusively used by him of all the New-Testament writers. *Teknon is child by natural descent; adoption, uiothesia, placing as son. In the Authorized Version, Rom. 9:26, Gal 3:26, Eph. 1:5, Heb. 12:5, "children" should be "sons;" and in Jno. 1:12, Phil. 51:15, Jno. 3:1, 2, " sons" should be " children.* " This last word shows plainly the distinction. A " son " may be that by adoption; a "child," only by birth. The one speaks of relationship; the other, of place and privilege. Thus, " because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Had he said "children," it would have brought in the Old-Testament saints. So the Spirit is the Spirit of adoption; yet. He " bears witness with our spirit that we are [not sons merely, but] the children of God."

But while Paul it is who brings out distinctly the effect of the work of Christ in establishing us in our place with God, there are points in which the doctrine of John approaches closely to that of Paul. Thus, in the fifth chapter, a world spiritually dead is awaiting judgment; but the Son of God comes into it, the One into whose hand judgment

is committed; and he that heareth His voice lives:he shall not come into judgment; he is passed from death unto life (24, 25). Here, quickening, possession of eternal life, brings at once outside the whole sphere of judgment. " Life and standing are inseparable," as another has said.

This prepares the way for the doctrine of the eleventh chapter, where for the first time we hear of a present power of resurrection. " I am the resurrection and the life:he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die." Martha was thinking of a far-off resurrection. The Lord brings before her Himself as One in whom life was to be found already in resurrection,-not life and resurrection, but resurrection and life. Thus, while as to the past the Old-Testament saint, the dead believer, had to go through death, and find resurrection afterward, "at the last day,"- the living believer in Him had not death to pass through. Receiving life in resurrection, death was already behind him, met by Another, not for him to meet.

Now here, while the Lord proclaims Himself for all the one only life, (applying this blessed text to all believers, dead or living,) He speaks of it as now possessed in a new condition,-a power and fullness hitherto unknown. But this supposes His coming in the flesh, and His death, although He does not yet state this. In the next chapter He does:" Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Life must come out of death, must be resurrection life in result for all, however different may be the application in the meantime.

This, as I have said, connects closely with Paul's doctrine. Freedom from judgment, and the power of death; and this connected with the Lord's death in absolute necessity. Paul also speaks of quickening out of death, and resurrection,-"quickened together with Him," "raised up with Him" (Col. 2:13 ; 3:I; Eph. 2:4, 5).

Now this is an advance upon the doctrine of Romans, with which it unites, however, in complete harmony. Nor is the aspect even so different as it may seem. Colossians, as it is well known, combines the " dead with Christ," " buried with Christ" of Romans with the "quickened with Christ," " raised up with Christ," of Ephesians. And surely there is no incongruity. The man first seen in Romans as a living responsible sinner, a man in the flesh, is not left until we see him as "alive in Christ,"-identified with Him, that is, in life. But this is a true life which he possesses himself; not independently, indeed, but in dependence on Another. He is alive in a life which identifies him with the Head of a new race, a new creation. It is true the term is not in Romans, but the Head is seen, the One of whom the first Adam was the figure (5:14). Ephesians gives us the full truth of new creation,-"created in Christ Jesus" (2:10). Thus the two epistles unite; Romans introducing us into that of which Ephesians completes the presentation.

"Alive,"-truly alive,-and alive in Christ, identified in life with Him,-who cannot see that from hence " quickening together with Him" receives its full and simple interpretation? Our life as in the last Adam, in the condition in which we now receive it, began when Christ our Representative and Head was quickened from the death in which for us He lay. We are identified with Him in that life of His (a life actually received and enjoyed by us) which began there. The life is eternal, divine life, which as that never began, but which began then to be for us in a Man, risen from the dead. This shows how fully and simply the truth in Romans unites with that in Ephesians. The one completes the other. Possessors of life in Him, we are quickened together with Him.

This again shows how, in the language I have quoted from another, " life and standing are inseparable." Necessarily, as identified with Him who has done for us His blessed work, its value attaches to us, and attaches to us from the first moment of our possession of it. Alive in Christ, we are dead with Christ; alive in Christ, we are justified in Christ; we shall not come into judgment, we are passed from death unto life.

Thus, if we are not to make systems of our own, as we are surely not, there is a harmony of truth, (because it is one, and God's truth,) which we may be permitted without suspicion of irreverence to trace, and which should awaken in us the deepest adoration. How different from any patchwork of our own is God's truth when we behold it thus in His Word!

But we are not only " quickened together with Christ," we are "raised up together," and this brings us to the full reality of the life which we now partake of. Quickening, although out of the, dead, is not yet resurrection. The apostle, in Colossians 2:12, 13, gives us the difference in the contrast which he draws. "Buried with Him," "raised up with Him;" "dead," ".quickened." Death is in contrast with life; burial, with resurrection. For burial, there must be already death. We take a dead man, and we say, " He is a dead man; he must not remain among living men." So we bury him; put the dead in the place of the dead. . Resurrection is the converse of that:a man is quickened among the dead; he is alive, he must not remain among the dead, he is brought by resurrection into the place of the living.

In quickening, then, is effected the deep internal change with which all begins, a change of condition; in resurrection is effected a corresponding external change, a change of position. Alive in Christ, we possess a risen, life,-a life in the liberty and reality of its enjoyment, a life freed from the shackles of death. All question of sin and of flesh, of act and nature, has been settled forever by Him who has for us met all, died and risen from the dead, and in whom we now live, identified with Him in all the value of that death of His. Hence, we are not only, as all saints from the beginning were, children of God:we are children in the place of children, sons, as no saints before were; we have life, as all had, but we have it abundantly, as they had not; we have, as they, the nature, but we have also the place as well as the nature. And not only are we sons, but because we are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

This is life abundantly:life, not only in the Son -divine life,-but in the Son become Christ, a Man, come up in the power and value of a work accomplished for us, which attaches now to the life communicated and possessed in Him. The Old-Testament saints had life, but not yet the justification now attaching to it, not yet the recognition of the place with God which it implies; not yet the knowledge of the Father and the Son; not yet the Spirit of adoption, the power of the blessed life. How great the difference is this! Yet it is one, not of nature, but condition simply. It is the same life, but now " abundantly." May our hearts adoringly lay hold, ever with deepening wonder and delight, of this abundance.

" Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; because they have not wholly followed Me; save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun ; for they have wholly followed the Lord." (Num. 32:11, 12.)

Two men, out of all that came out of Egypt in full-grown manhood-two men, and only two, beloved reader, entered Canaan. Out of about six hundred thousand men, two only! How startling is this fact! It is "eleven days' journey," as we are carefully told, "from Horeb," to which they had safely come, "by the way of Mount Seir, unto Kadeshbarnea" on the border of the land (Deut. i- 2); and what was but eleven days' journey cost them forty years, and (save two persons) the whole host of adult males. What a disastrous issue of an expedition which began so triumphantly! What was the cause of this? Did the wisdom fail that planned for them? or the power that sheltered them? or the love that cared for them? Not one of these. With an almighty, all-sufficient Leader, who in fact accompanied them every step of the way to their journey's end, this was yet the result to that whole generation. What could be the reason? It is given us with unmistakable plainness in the words at the head of this paper:they did not wholly follow the Lord.

Now " these things," the apostle says, " happened unto them for types; they are written for our admonition" (i Cor. 10:11). In what way? perhaps you ask; for if we are Christians, is it not certain, -has not divine grace,-have not the work of Christ and the Word of God assured us,-that we shall get to heaven at last? Assuredly, if you are Christ's:I do not desire to encourage a moment's doubt,-that is, a moment's unbelief,-on that score. Doubt as to this, never secures holiness, nor does aught but hinder it. It may produce plenty of tormenting fear, and the fruit of that fear may be abundance of slavish work, for self really, and not for God; but faith worketh by love; and other than by faith it is "impossible to please God."

Why, then, does the apostle warn Christians as to this?

First, because, alas! in the gravest of all matters terrible mistakes are not seldom made. The faith that is really in Christ makes none. He cannot fail; and true faith is in Him, in His Person and work alone. But there are souls whose confidence (little or much as it may be) is in themselves as Christians rather than in Christ, on the ground of orthodoxy, of their good life, of some experience gone through in the past, of even their undisturbed self-satisfaction in the present. How many of these, without the possession of eternal life, die in the wilderness! Yet it is not my purpose to speak of these just now. In the rest who are really Christ's, the temptations, trials, experiences of the way, work on to what would be oftentimes, save for divine grace, spiritual shipwreck. With how many who once started well do we now find a sad lack of vigor, of progress, a weariness in the way, nay, a decay and decrepitude, in which their life is passing and perhaps may end! Alas! if the question be of following the Lord fully, what proportion would the Caleb’s and Joshua’s of any generation bear to the rest? It is a very practical question for us all. May God in His grace give it edge for our consciences while for a few moments we consider it.

What it is to follow wholly there is no need of many words to explain. It is probable that in the case of most of those of whom I have just spoken, they would acknowledge that they hardly did do this. They might try to justify themselves by a general confession of failure in which they would take in the large mass of Christians with themselves ; and if that were any right satisfaction, they would, it is to be feared, have abundant cause to be satisfied. The generation in the wilderness had .this kind of satisfaction, in a much greater degree. They might have said, and had divine warrant for it, that not three men among them were doing this. It did not save them from condemnation for I it, nor enable them to escape the righteous consequence. Nor will the same plea fare any better at the present time.

Eternal life may be secure indeed, and heaven be theirs at last. Effort of their own could not secure these, failure in this cannot deprive of them. Alas! for those who can use such an argument to go on with the less earnestness and decision! Present loss, and eternal too, there surely will be; for grace has never ordained that there shall not be reaping for the sowing, whatever the sowing be. And here I am not speaking in any wise of what is usually called sin. I am not supposing unrighteous or immoral conduct as between man and man. Terrible it is to think how quiet the conscience can be in such a case, leaving God almost out, or easily satisfying itself with a certain halfhearted service, as a man might put some of his loose pennies into His contribution-box.

I am supposing only a state in which one would own perhaps, without a thought of real self-judgment for it, that he was not where once he had been with God; that first love was no longer there. In this state, other things will have usurped that first, supreme place in the affections that He has lost. This we will be slower in acknowledging to ourselves, no doubt; but the practical life will tell, if we are honest with Ourselves, that the world has now the place, perhaps under the name of "duties," which once Christ had.

Can it be wondered that where once this is the case the whole character of the life is changed, and we find ourselves shut out (as to power of enjoyment) of what is our own ? Israel, tested at Kadeshbarnea, refused to go into the land to which God had destined them, and for that were condemned to learn what the wilderness, which they had chosen "instead, really was. How many of God's people are there thus occupied with that which in the occupation only brings fresh barrenness into the soul, and yet smitten with an inability to divorce themselves from it, and to return to that in which they confess all blessing is. So they go on sowing for continual sad harvests till (suddenly, it may be) they wake up to face a loss irremediable.

Barnabas, a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, exhorted the disciples that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord. How simple, yet how needed, and how pregnant an exhortation! If we cleave to a living Lord, we shall unfailingly go forward. And how safely, how joyfully, in those green pastures where the good Shepherd ever leads His sheep! Our fear, as well our love, may well keep us close to His almighty arm who says, " I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any one pluck them out of My hand."

Would we knew more of that intimacy with a living Lord which shines out so in the history of the Acts. To Paul it seems no strange thing to have the Lord stand by him in the night, and say, " Fear not, Paul." And Ananias without confusion talks familiarly to that dear Master of his of how he had heard about this persecutor, Saul. Are these days in the dim distance? But the heart that seeks our intimacy is unchanged, and the quick ears of faith may still hear deep in the inmost soul a Voice which the whole being owns in adoration. Oh were we free from all other things for Him, as but few are, how would it fill our lives, and bless them! How would the eternal life, already ours, develop in us! for " this is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."

That acceptance with God must precede a walk with God is a thing so evident that it should not need a moment's insisting on. To walk with God, one must first be with Him; to be with Him, one must first have come to Him,-have sought Him out, and found Him; for, alas! naturally, with Him we are not. A breach has taken; place between God and His creatures; and in the far-off country in which man is, both what He is and that He is can be debated questions:" He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that seek Him out."

The way of acceptance, Abel has already declared to us. That way, as it alone meets the need of a truly convicted soul, so it discovers God to the soul. Henceforth, He is known, and as known, rejoiced in, loved, and worshiped. Henceforth, the world, once so dark and empty, is lighted, cheered, and peopled by His presence. Henceforth, our walk is to be characterized as a walk with God.

How marvelously does Scripture present in these three brief words the whole practical life of faith! Into how many volumes may they be-nay, have they been, expanded, without exhausting their significance! The moral character, the spirit, the power, the joy, the triumph, of such a life are all here indicated. Take any other feature, how utterly defective would it be! And this is the statement as to Enoch to which the apostle refers apparently as the " testimony that he pleased God." What indeed pleases the love that seeks us, so much as the heart's answer of practical delight in Him intimated in such a walk! Let us consider it in some main features, then, and the Lord give us an understanding heart! Enoch, translated that he should not see death,-Enoch, caught away before the flood in which the old world perished,- and of whom is recorded the first, far-off prediction of the coming of the Lord,-is surely, as many have seen, the type of that Church which, in contrast with Jewish saints as such, is not removed from the earth by death, but caught away alive "to meet the Lord in the air." To us who are expecting Him, therefore, Enoch should be an example, appealing to us in the strongest way. In his days, indeed, we read of but one Enoch. In ours, in the full brightness of a revelation such as has been vouchsafed to us, how many should there be!

And yet the first characteristic of a walk with God is that it is in a certain sense necessarily alone. On this it is needful continually to insist. It is that which passes in secret between the soul and God that gives it its character for Him, and measures, so to speak, what the life is. Faith, even in the midst of a crowd, individualizes-isolates us. On the "white stone" of approval the name written- the name by which He knows us,-speaks of some, thing secret between our souls and Him:" a new name written, which no man knoweth, save he who receiveth it." When His glory is revealed to us, it makes us in such sense His as He can share with no other. In the deepest exercises, the most ecstatic joys, we must be alone. And the path of faith is ever that in which His word comes to us alone. "What shall this man do?" if asked, as we are prone to ask it, as if it affected our own course in any wise, must be met by the rebuke of the Lord, as in the case of Peter:"What is that to thee? follow thou Me."

A walk with God of necessity means for us one only Master. In the presence of God, could there be even a second ? Every heart that knows it will say at once, Impossible! The yoke of discipleship, easy as indeed it is, is in this respect imperative:he that forsakes not all that he hath cannot be Christ's disciple. This implies a path not only individual, but at all costs individual; the maintenance of one will only, which we are responsible to learn, too, from Himself. How great a matter is this individuality, when in it is involved the whole question of Christ's authority over us,-of a true, divine path!

If the walk be with God, the moral character of it is of course guaranteed. By which, it surely is not meant that the assumption of being with God is to be allowed to justify whatever may seem inconsistent in it; but contrariwise, that unrighteousness and evil in the path negative its being of God necessarily. This should be too simple to need saying, yet in fact the application seems often strangely difficult to make. The first thing, before faith and love, which the apostle exhorts Timothy to follow, is "righteousness:" "Follow righteousness, faith, love." It is the first, and if you will, the lesser thing, but the only way by which the greater can be reached, and the road traveled by the pure in heart.

Righteousness levels the road ; faith determines its direction; love is faith's goal; for if it works by love, it is on that account toward love that it works. And let us remember, we do not know the road by the people who walk on it, but by its own characters; and the pure in heart, by their walking on the road.

Again, therefore, a walk with God determines our associations. How strangely significant is the inability of Christians often even to understand this! If one's walk is really with God, does it not necessarily follow that only those who walk with Him are to walk with us? Are we not otherwise seeking impiously to make Him walk with the evil that He hates? It is impossible. His own words are express:" Come out from among them, and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and "- thus, and not otherwise,-" I will receive you, and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

These, then, are tests as to the walk with God. How many, alas! do they disqualify! yet who that knows the blessed One to whom we have been brought can think without astonishment and dismay of the people bought with the precious blood of Christ bartering the joy of communion for the world that cast Him out; and turning their dear-earned service into the enemy's advantage? "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider."

But "Enoch walked with God." Let us look a little more closely at what is implied in this, for as yet we have only looked at it from the outside, as it were, and seen more what attaches to it than what it is in itself.

In the first place, then, it means, relationship with a living Person.

Now, of relationship in the Christian sense Enoch knew nothing. He was one of those who, although children, had not yet the place of children. He had not the Spirit of adoption, could not cry, Abba, Father, knew not of the fullness of salvation now preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; and yet the word of God is express, he walked with God. Noah too is said to have walked with God ; and Abraham is called by God Himself His " friend." Enoch was in relationship with One who as a living Person walked with him. And God and he were agreed; for " how can two walk together, except they be agreed?" It is a great thing to be with God as one agreed with Him. Do we all who know redemption, and the child's place with God,-know yet much of what it is to walk thus with Him ?

For, therefore, this is not to cry, Abba, Father, to pray to Him and be heard, to receive from His blessed hand:all these there may be, and no walk with Him at all. It is quite another thing to walk from day to day as of one mind with Him, in known accord. This is a life of wonderful joy and power and dignity:to be at one with His interests upon the earth, and maintain them in practical devoted-ness of intelligent service. How many among Christians even can speak much from actual knowledge of such a life ? With a large number, salvation-nay, even their own salvation, is the important matter:a personal interest absorbs by far the greatest part of their attention. With how many, indeed, a steady pursuit of their own blessing is their avowed principle, which they suppose will suffice to justify any course of conduct! Spiritually, they do not imagine it to be what the apostle would reprove,-that they "seek their own, not the thirds of Jesus Christ."

How many, again, have no very distinct thought at all of any thing beyond what they feebly call their "duty;" in itself, no doubt, a word which embraces all that it is possible for any to do, and immensely more than any one ever does, for " When ye have done all," says the Lord, " say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it is our duty to do." And "if any one knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." We can never, then, by any possibility, get beyond duty, and the word is one full of power and sweetness, when it stands for the debt so impossible to cancel, so sweet ever to owe-to Him who has bought us for His own with the shedding of His precious blood. But in truth, how little it often stands for,-a cold, fancied measurement of the immeasurable, a pacifying of conscience with nothing very particularly wrong, where yet nothing either is right! It would surely be impossible to bring a walk with God under the idea merely of duty. Duty to walk with Him!

The first requisite of such a walk is surely that we appreciate it. Think of who it is that invites us to living companionship with Himself! Can a cold-hearted half-response suit the blessed Person who seeks us for Himself? If the answer on our part be not frank and sincere, must not all the vigor of the life be lost? What He wants is heart, not service,-He whom all things gladly serve!

And yet appreciation can only be shown in surrender of will and life to Him. We can walk with Him on no other terms than that He shall be master; and in this there is nothing dreadful, nothing but what, if indeed we know Him, we must know to be as good as it is necessary. "His commandments are not grievous." Do we need that to be argued out? The blessedness of eternity is stated in just such a brief sentence as that " God is all in all."And this is perfect order, holiness, happiness, all in one. Yet we look at the cross, and we shrink. Into what depths, we think, may it be His will to lead us. Marah lies with its bitter waters at the very entrance of a road which is all the way through the desert. True, but it was sweetened Marah; "and there He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them, and said, 'If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and wilt keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have put upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee.'"How sweet a promise that true obedience should be the way of blessing and of good; that as Marah did, things that seemed contrary should change into their opposites for them-bitter to sweet, and sorrow to joy!"And who is he that shall harm you," asks the apostle, if ye be followers of that which is good?"

He anticipates an objection here:" But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye;" and," if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye" Such sufferings he will not put down among sorrows. Would Paul have given a doleful account of the road h%traveled ? Those who look at it from outside may think it hard; but do we, any of us, ever think of pitying Paul? Do you pity Israel at sweetened Marah?

Suffer we shall, no doubt, for who can escape? The only question is, are we to suffer on the path with God, where suffering itself has its joy and fruit, or suffer for sin and without Him? Is it not strange indeed that for the child of God there should be a moment's hesitation ?

A walk with God means oneness of mind with Him. True, we have to be taught it; for naturally, His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. Yet how precious the lesson, day by day, to learn by fresh and wonderful discoveries the perfection of those ways and thoughts! To be taught of His Word and guided by His eye, while carried, too, in what grace, in the arms of His strength:" they go from strength to strength" therefore,-no wonder! Carried on to final victory, sure from the first; where dependence means, not discouragement, but rest.

How far-seeing an Enoch thus could be we know by the record which Jude gives us:"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, ' The Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.' " How keen the eye of faith exercised by the iniquity around as it looks over the intervening centuries to that consummation for which still we wait! You may say, That was prophecy; but we should do wrong, nevertheless, to separate the prophetic office from the soul of the prophet. There might be a Balaam, no doubt, whom the wisdom of God might use for its own purposes:of such I do not speak. Elijah, the man of God, jealous, as he says to Him Himself, for Him, the man whose effectual fervent prayer availed much, though he were of like passions with ourselves, as James pointedly reminds us,-such is the model of the Lord's prophets. Of these it could be said, " Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets." How blessed the place of those who have chosen their path with God ever! For Enoch, it ended in heaven without seeing death; and so with Elijah. "By faith" says our passage in the Hebrews, "Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated Him:for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Surely it was not to the dispraise of others that they went to heaven by a very different road. It pleased God thus to give testimony to Enoch; to others in very varied ways:but it was a blessed end of a path as blessed, the seal upon a life upon which no shadow of death passes. Flow simple and beautiful,-a walk with God here, passing as without necessity of change into a walk with Him in joy forever. And we who wait for such a transition as was Enoch's, should we not make it our care to walk with Him now even as Enoch did? ( To be continued, D. V.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Half forgetting their deliverance by the mighty God,

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

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

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

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

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

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

But the glory of His presence lighting up the scene.

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

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

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

" With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love." (Eph. 4:2.)

"Surely there was great need that the prisoner of the Lord should put these qualities first, before those whom he besought 'to. walk worthy' of their vocation, and to ' keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.'

Can any say it is a distinguishing feature amongst us now? Are we to whom the third verse is so precious ignoring the force of the second? Is there not a quiet self-assertion, a tone of superiority, often shown in speaking to other Christians, that only betrays to them, and to our Lord, how far we are in heart from the spirit of the apostle? We find that his ministry (who was gifted and honored above all others,) was marked by 'humility of mind' (Acts 20:19). Is ours?

We find the Lord was 'lowly in heart' Are we?

He 'humbled Himself.' Is ' this mind' in us?

Have we put on ' as the elect of God, humbleness of mind' ?

Are we all of us ' clothed with humility' ?

It is greatly to be feared that such a spirit, such a state, is becoming rare amongst us. Time was when the ruin of all was so felt that our only position was in the dust. But the truth of the one body,' accepted in the head instead of searching the conscience, has ' puffed up' instead of humbling those who thus hold it. How painful must it be to Christ, who loves and yearns over His whole Church, that those whom, in His grace, He has called around Himself to feel and own its utter ruin on earth should carry a high head, a self-satisfied air, and be' exalted' by the very greatness of His love! Is not this indeed in principle the Laodicean brand?

May God give us to shun and dread spiritual pride (that subtle vice) in every shape and form, and enable us to show true brokenness of spirit, that His dear children around may see that there is a little company in their midst whose hearts deeply feel the ruin of all dear to Christ in this scene.

Surely, beloved brethren, He is allowing things to take such a course, even in our midst, that we have nothing left but shame and confusion of face, our only relief being to look upon His glory, that which nothing shall ever dim or mar.

The more Thy glories strike mine eyes,
The humbler I shall lie;
Thus while I sink, my joys shall rise
Immeasurably high."

My purpose is, if the Lord enable me, to reach the Old Testament by way of the New, reversing thus the order in which our Bibles present them to us. The object I have in this is simply that we may first of all have before us what is best known to us; in which the principles already now put forth may be best tested, both as to their truth and practical value. But to begin with, let us look at the Old and New Testaments in their character as God's twofold witness to men. And here we see at once how thorough is the contrast they present to one another, and how thus they the more completely and surely testify to the various wisdom of their blessed Author.

Taken by itself, the Old Testament, however plainly bearing the divine imprint, is stamped, at the same time, with the characters of narrowness and imperfection. "The law made nothing perfect" is the inspired comment upon it. As the introduction to the full "perfection!' (Heb. 6:i) of Christianity, it was necessarily so. Even as to its moral standard our Lord could say, "Moses for the hardness of your heart gave you this precept; " and in contrast with what was said to them of old time, present His own commandments as the full-ness of the law.* *" I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. 5:17):which means "to complete," "give the fullness of."* Nor was man's conscience satisfied, nor his heart set at rest, nor grace manifested, nor God declared. The Old Testament looks forward to the coming of One who alone could accomplish this,-without whom it could not be. Its contrast with the New Testament is its witness to it. In matter, style, and even language is this contrast found.

Let us first look at that which would first strike any one who held the original in his hand-the language.

Difference of language began at Babel. The tongues of fire at Pentecost declared, as others have remarked, the grace which was now surmounting the effects of man's sin. The language of the Old Testament is Hebrew;* of the New, Greek, – or, as the Jew might have called it, Gentile. *Ezra 4:8-6:18, 7:12-26, Jer. x 11, Dan. 2:4-7:28, are in what is ordinarily called Chaldee; in Scripture, Syrian, or Aramaic. And this, like Greek, is a Gentile language, used for a special purpose in each place. But I cannot enter upon it here*."Greek" and "Gentile" are, in the New Testament itself, synonymous terms. God was now going outside the narrow limits of Judaism, to those who had no promise or claim. The apostle Paul is thus at once the apostle of the Gentiles, and the minister of the gospel in the fullest character of it.

This use of the Greek is clearly seen in the first chapter of John's gospel,-that in which, all through, we find Judaism set aside-where the words "Rabbi," "Messiah," "Cephas," are all significantly interpreted for Gentile use. A Jew could not for a moment doubt the significance of the fact of a revelation from God in the Greek language.

But the language of the Gentile world-power it was not. Greece had for some time already passed away as the representative of that before the New Testament was written. Not the mighty, as such, does the gospel call. The Scripture-characteristic of the Greeks the apostle gives us where, speaking too of the ministry of the gospel, to them, he says, "The Greeks seek after wisdom." So late in the history of the world, they were seeking still,-had not found, but sought. And on this, in the same passage, he lays special emphasis:"When in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe." The Greeks were they in whom this character of the world's trial had reached its appointed, necessary end in the discovery of utter ruin. With them, culture had done its best when, amid the myriad deities of Athens, Paul could yet preach a God unknown. There God's wisdom met and displaced in grace to men the proved vanity of human wisdom.

But the use of Greek had also another significance. The revelation now to be made required for its conveyance to men all the power of human speech. In the Greek, the providence of God had formed a language able to express as no other could, with the most delicate precision, all the possibilities of human thought. God was going to speak no longer from the distance, or with reserve, but fully, intimately, of all that was in His heart. The simplicity of Hebrew, as all scholars know, favors a certain ambiguity, which is one of the great difficulties in the translation of the Old Testament. The translator must be in measure the interpreter also. He must, to some considerable extent at least, find elsewhere the key with which he unlocks its treasures.* *And this is true in measure of the New Testament, and of the Greek also. It is he who knows nest, and is most penetrated with, the truth of Scripture who will be able best to penetrate its meaning. Great scholars may nevertheless be utterly incompetent as translators because they know not in their own souls the divine realities with which they deal. Yet the comparative estimate of the two languages as given above remains unaffected.* But Greek is known for its faculty of clear and full expression. And this answers exactly to the different character of the communications which are given in these languages. The New Testament open, luminous, sun-like, with the glory of God revealed there; and which when we bring to the Old Testament, its lineaments become defined, and shine with a new expression.

For the medium of divine revelation, it is no wonder if every natural language should be inadequate, however, and in this respect Greek is no exception. The classic speech, with all its beauty, needs the creative breath of God to inspire it for His use. Its natural poverty betrays the bankruptcy of moral ruin unto which man is fallen. Christianity had to transform, mold, adapt, supplement, impregnate, to make, after all, a fitting instrument for that which in its inner essence was "spirit and life" for the recipient of it.

If we look at the style of these two parts of God's one Word, we shall find a corresponding difference. In the Old Testament we have history, prophecy, and those psalm-books, full of the exercises, experiences, and sorrows of human life. These indeed, poured out before God, find their answer from Him, and are mingled with strains of most fervent adoration. The New Testament begins with the record of one Life, in contrast with all else,-Life, indeed, the light of men,-of one
death, by which alone the Life could be communicated as light in the soul of man. The history after this is the history of the power and effect of this, the springing up of the corn of wheat which has fallen into the ground and died, that it might not abide alone. Then we have epistles, the tender, familiar ministry to the redeemed of the Spirit of Christ now come. Lastly, one book of prophecy plants us where we in the light of eternity and of the cross may read the .history of the Church and of the world on to its consummation in eternal life or no less eternal judgment.

In the letter of it, the Old Testament is the heritage of a nation; the New, of a family. The first is the word of God enthroned, the Eternal, the Almighty; the second, the word of the Father, whom the Son has manifested to those in the place and endowed with the Spirit of sonship. Here the throne is not removed, but clouds and darkness are no longer about it; or if they remain, faith pierces through them to the presence of the unchanged, unchangeable God. Exercises and experiences there yet may be; but for him who has learned the open secret of Christianity, their character is henceforth altered. Man-the flesh-is known:object simply of divine judgment, but of a judgment for faith passed, and beyond which he stands in the untroubled peace which Christ has made. The cross has unvailed at the same time God and man, and it has brought us to God. In this sense, exercise is over.

The world too is passed away, and there is no preacher-king to lament over it. It is crucified in the cross, and we glory in that in which it is crucified to us. The writers of the New Testament are no longer the leaders of nations, kings, and great ones of the earth. The later prophets already show us God choosing men of another class; and here we find manifest God's call of the poor. Even the towns and villages chosen to have revealed in them the light from heaven are those which for the most part have otherwise no name or history ; and Jerusalem itself is only an apparent exception to this. It is John, mainly, who speaks of the Lord's sojourn there; and he is the one, of all the evangelists, who most insists upon the doing away of Judaism. His chapters are but a series of pictures in which the Jewish rites and ordinances are only the background upon which to display the glory of Him who has taken the place of all the shadows of the past dispensation. In Rome, the capital of the world, the apostle of the Gentiles finds a prison; and from that Roman prison the word of God, which is not bound, goes forth with the sweetest, fullest disclosures of divine grace ever made to man.

But let us look more closely still at the difference in matter between these two parts of that one blessed whole, the Word of God. The word "'Testament" should be rather (according to the usual meaning of διαθηκη, which it translates) " Covenant" as a glance at 2 Corinthians 3:will show. Israel's covenant, written upon the tables of stone, was the old covenant, with which the apostle contrasts that which he ministers:"Who hath made us competent ministers of the new covenant, not of letter, but of spirit." It is from such passages that the appellation has arisen for the books which contain this ministry, while, in contrast, the books of Scripture previously written are the books of the old covenant-that is, of the law.

We must guard against a common misapprehension here. The apostle expressly says, in Romans 9:3, that to Israel,-his "kindred after the flesh," which excludes all possibility of spiritualizing,- belong the covenants; not the old covenant merely, but all of them. And in Hebrews 8:he quotes Jeremiah's prophecy, which in plain terms declares the new covenant to be made, in a day still future, with Israel and with Judah,-words which again absolutely refuse any so-called spiritualization. It is all-important for our souls to deal uprightly with the Word of God; and it would seem impossible to read the passage in Jeremiah, and its context, without owning that to Israel it belongs. What, then, of our part in the new covenant? for the passage in Corinthians affirms with equal clearness that we have one.

The answer is to be found in the character of the new covenant and its blessings. The ministry of it is a ministration of life, of righteousness, and of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6, 9),-in a word, of all that a guilty soul needs, and that grace alone can bestow. But if grace, then, bestows this, and. upon those, therefore, without claim or merit, it may bestow it when and where it will. Israel, nationally, has rejected Christ, and remains for the present shut 'up in unbelief. The new covenant will yet be theirs, for God has declared it; but meanwhile, He is pleased to minister its blessings freely to faith any where. Who can deny His right? Thus, then, they are ours; but I may add that more also than new-covenant blessings are ours; and that when the apostle speaks of Christian ministers as "stewards of the mysteries of God," he speaks of what is not to be found in the new covenant at all. The new-covenant character of absolute grace indeed attaches to them all; but that grace to us abounds over all promised blessings. But the time to speak of this will be found more fittingly a little further on.

The books of the old covenant were, without controversy, addressed to Israel, a nation in the flesh, with whom it pleased God in a special way to connect Himself as their God. With His purpose in so doing we are not now concerned, but with the fact alone. " You only have I known of all the families of the earth," He says by Amos (3:2); "I am a Father to Israel," by Jeremiah (31:9). And in a passage in the New Testament already referred to, the apostle of the Gentiles himself distinctly affirms that to them belong " the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises." The last is a decisive word as to the interpretation, of Old-Testament prophets, which accordingly show us, ever in the forefront of the picture of predicted blessing for the earth, the people who, if now "enemies as touching the gospel," are none the less still "beloved for the fathers' sakes, because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." (Rom. 11:28, 29.)

The prophetic outlook is of blessing for the earth, ' which the one book of New-Testament prophecy supplements with the heavenly portion for the heavenly people to whom it is given. The heavenly city here replaces the earthly:the Morning Star is the closing promise of the New-Testament prophecy, as the Sun of Righteousness is of the Old. But the renewed earth shines as the reflection and type of the opened heavens, and the paradise of God exhibits the fullness of that to which the garden dressed by God's hand for man at first points across the whole interval. The wonderful series of types indeed link the Old Testament with a clasp, impossible to be sundered, to their fulfillment in the New. Of all these Christ is the key; to Him all ages minister; the old creation passes to give Him place; of the new He is the foundation and the Head alike; from the glory from which He descended to the cross, from eternity to eternity, He fills all things.

III. THE LORD’S SERVICE PERFECTED IN SUFFERING AND DEATH (Chap. 10:46-16:)
The closing verse of the last section is the one which opens the following one. The Son of Man is now' about to complete His earthly ministry by the giving of His life a ransom for many. The divisions here are in general simple:first, from chap. 10:46-xiii, we have the doom upon the people, which He Himself is going to take, to deliver them from ; then, chap, xiv, xv, He stoops under the necessary judgment of sin, bearing it in His own body on the tree; and then, as in the other gospels, resurrection becomes the public witness of acceptance (chap. 16:).

I. (10:46-13:) Judgment and Deliverance.

(i) 10:46-11:26. The Lord's entry into Jerusalem. In each of the three synoptic gospels it is at Jericho, and with the healing of the blind man, that the story of the Lord's final sufferings begins. Bartimaeus is, so to speak, the herald who announces to the people the character of the kingdom which they are invited to receive. Here, for the first time in the gospel, the Lord is appealed to as Son of David, and answers the appeal. Power is put forth in his behalf, and faith makes him whole. Alas! in the nation at large there is none.

We next find the Lord entering the city according to Zechariah's prophecy. The multitude hail Him who cometh in the name of the Lord, but not as in the future they will from their heart do so. The Lord enters the temple, simply looks around upon all things, and departs. It is striking that no overt act of rejection is recorded as yet. It is not the national or dispensational question, but one much deeper. He then pronounces judgment on the fruitless fig-tree. True, the time of figs was not yet, but the leaves professed to the eye what was not justified to the hand that tested it.

Once more in the temple, He denounces the shameless traffic which polluted the house of God; and in the morning the disciples find the fig-tree dried up by the roots. The Lord uses this to strengthen their faith in God.

(2) 11:27-12:The judgment of the people. The leaders of the people now question His authority. He convicts them by a counter-question as to John's baptism, and then in a parable exposes their refusal of the divine claim, and of Him in whom it was presented to them. Yet how vain, as well as causeless, was this enmity! It was already written that " the stone which the builders rejected " was to " become the head of the corner."

The only result is another attack, concealed with the most consummate hypocrisy, of the Herodians and Pharisees together. The Herodians found their gain in what was their shame, while the Pharisees resisted what was the punishment for their sins. God was on both sides alike forgotten. The holy wisdom of the answer confounded their serpent-cunning:" Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

The infidelity of the Sadducees is next rebuked by the unexpected witness of that part of Scripture which alone they acknowledged:" I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," was said when the patriarchs had long been to men dead. Yet this word of Moses exhibited God still as owning relationship to them, who therefore to Him lived. The Lord bases His argument for resurrection upon the fact of a separate state. The Sadducees, as consistent materialists, denied both.

Thus is man told out,-infidel, worldling, or under whatever form of religion, still at heart a rebel to God's rightful claim. The first of all the commandments was, "Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God," and yet men had difficulty in realizing the comparative importance of this compared with "all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices." He who discerned it is pronounced by the Lord Himself as " not far from the kingdom of God."

And if the law was clear, so were the prophets. The Christ who was to be David's Son is owned by David himself to be his Lord, and set by God at His own right hand. But the secret of unbelief is in the lust of place and power and gain and reputation; while with Him who quietly watched and weighed men's actions, two mites in faith and self-denial given to God were of more value than a myriad costly gifts.

Such was, such is, man; and being such, redemption can only be for him through the cross. The Son of Man must be lifted up.

(3) 13:The second coming " apart from sin unto salvation!' But before that is shown us, we have, as in Matthew and Luke both, the Lord's announcement of His coming the second time, not as one having to say to sin any longer, but in power and glory, for the full deliverance of His own in Israel, oppressed at once by the unbelief and wickedness of the people, and the calamities which this entails. It is plain that the character of the gospel is observed here as elsewhere, and that it is with disciples as such that the Lord is occupied, throughout. On the other hand, Israel is exclusively in sight. The references to Christianity and to the Gentiles which are found in both Matthew and Luke are entirely omitted here.

2. (xiv, 15:) Judgment borne (the basis of deliverance.

(i) 14:1-52. The cup in view. In Mark's relation of the last supper, the Lord's sovereignty over circumstances is not dwelt on, as in Matthew, while His foresight of them is much more so. In Matthew and Mark both, the cup He is about to take is more simply in view than in the other gospels, which speak more of the fruits of it. Here, if the shadow is deeper, the surrender is absolute; and it is beautiful to notice that it is in these two gospels alone that the hymn is mentioned which they sing before they go out to the mount of Olives. From the darkest shadow the fullest praise! In both, also, in striking relief of the present sorrow is the anticipation of the new wine to be drunk with His own in the kingdom of God. In the garden, we have the trial of a perfect will, which could not but abhor the awful doom of sin, yet could not but accept a Father's will, even to the drinking of such a cup. This was the pure linen garment with which alone the priest could go into the holiest. How wonderful the light which the absolute Light must needs carry with Him in the darkest place-nay, which there would shine out in fullest luster ! Only He could be " made sin " who Himself knew none. " He is there as a man- glad to have His disciples watch with Him, glad to isolate Himself, and pour out His heart into the bosom of His Father, in the dependent condition of a man who prays. What a spectacle!"

" All forsake Him and flee; for who beside Himself could follow this path to the end? One young man indeed sought to go further; but as soon as the officers laid hold upon him, seizing his linen garment, he fled and left it in their hands. Apart from the power of the Holy Ghost, the farther one ventures into the path in which the power of the world and of death is found, the greater the shame with which one escapes, if God permit escape." (Synopsis.)

(2) 14:53-15:15.The cup taken. Before the high-priest the Lord is condemned for His own true testimony, the false witnesses being able to do nothing but manifest their mutual contradiction. Jesus is distinctly refused as Son of God, though the Son of God could alone redeem; but of their own need they know no more than of His glory. Peter makes evident that none can follow Him now, breaking down before the accusations of a maid and vindicating himself with oaths and curses from the suspicion of knowing Him whom to know is eternal life. The crow of the cock alone awakes him to his sin and shame, but to the grace of the Lord which had anticipated and provided for all, and he is brought to repentance.

Before Pilate, the account of what takes place is briefer than in any other gospel. The charge itself is scarcely distinct even, for the question is here of another kind. The people's choice of Barabbas, on the other hand, instigated by the priests, is clear and decisive. They refuse the Prince of Life, and desire a murderer to be granted to them. The state of man is every way made plain, and for this, a willing sufferer, Jesus dies.

(3) 15:16-47. The cup drunk. The only thing that remains, therefore, is the cross itself. First, in mere causeless brutality, He is mocked by the soldiers, then led out to be crucified, another bearing His cross, whom the Lord well remembers in his sons, Alexander and Rufus, known men afterward in the Church. Then the usual stupefying drink is offered and refused. He had come expressly (blessed Lord!) to suffer; might have had twelve legions of angels and have gone to the Father, and would not. Then they crucify Him, casting lots upon His garments; and the scripture is fulfilled which saith, " He was numbered with the transgressors." We have very exactly the scene of the twenty-second psalm, all other sufferings only bringing into prominence that great suffering which alone interprets the darkness-the being forsaken of God. He expires, and the vail of the temple is rent in the midst. The Gentile centurion owns Him as the Son of God. And now, His work accomplished, the ministry of His own begins once more, and the rich man's new tomb receives its brief-tarrying Guest. The peculiar character of Mark's relation has been already dwelt upon.

3. (16:) Resurrection, the acceptance of the work of atonement.

(i) 16:1-8. The re-establishment of the connection between the Lord and the poor of the flock in Israel, a remnant who by and by become the nation. The conclusion of Mark's gospel divides manifestly into two parts; a fact which criticism has laid hold of to deny the authenticity of the last part. In truth, they are widely different, the Lord being in these verses, if we may so say, in Old-Testament connection, in the following ones in New. In these first verses He is not actually seen at all, but is promised to appear to them in Galilee, a place constantly connected with the blessing for Israel in the latter days. To this it no doubt points-a blessing in reserve, its foundation already laid.
(2) 16:9-20. The Lord in New-Testament connection. announces the results of His atonement. In the second part, faith in testimony is insisted on, for ours is the greater blessedness of those who have not seen but believed. The gospel is sent out to every creature, and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. The signs that follow are tokens of Satan's power subdued; the division introduced by disobedience among men removed in grace; the serpent's bite, the poison of sin, annulled ; the power of death, too, canceled; and the blessing received to be communicated to others.

Finally, as the guarantee of all, fit answer to the humiliation into which, though it be His glory too, He has come down, "the Lord therefore, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." But He is not divorced thus from the service which He loves; and the gospel ends in character as it began:"And they went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We can no more separate repentance, faith, and life in their beginning in the soul than we can make a division in time between a footfall and the track that is left. The track was made by the footfall; so repentance is a sign of faith and life, and an immediate accompaniment of these:for "the entrance of Thy Word [which is faith] giveth light," and the light must show me what I am-a sinner, which is repentance. And by the same Word I am born again,-that is, have life. How long it may be ere the soul is clear in its apprehensions is another thing. Quickened is made alive-born again, and there can not be life from God, divine life in the soul, without activity of the new life toward God. There could not be, therefore, life without repentance (however much the repentance may be deepened afterward,) any more than repentance without life. There may be conviction and exercises, and the will yet unbroken, but that is not conversion; it is not life, not repentance, not faith,-like the prodigal pinched by famine, but not yet broken-not yet come to himself. When he is, he says, " I perish:" that is repentance; and " How many hired servants of my father's have .bread enough and to spare!" that is faith. And he turns to go to his father's house; he is converted. That is,'conversion, life, repentance, and faith are different features (though this is an inadequate term) of what begins in the soul by the entrance of the Word. The soul is quickened by the Word, which is light; and could; not enter without producing repentance.

Some further Notes on the Day of Atonement, (Lev. 16:)

The letter of a correspondent raises question concerning some points of the interpretation of the day of atonement given, vol. 2:pp. 241-255, as well as regards the doctrine taught in this, which for the sake of others I feel it needful to answer publicly. The letter itself is too long for insertion, but I shall quote it as fully as may be necessary to bring out what is in question.

"The very fact of there being one lot for the Lord and another for His people speaks to us of the Lord having His lot in that work and of His people having theirs. What then was the Lord's lot ? Was it nothing more than Christ becoming a substitute for sinners-that is, His taking the sinner's place, and hearing the sinner's load of guilt? . . . Was it not the full, complete, eternal glorifying of God according to His nature and every attribute ? Was this nothing more than substitution ? Is it of substitution as such that the Lord's lot speaks? Why then another lot for the people ? "

I have already fully answered the last question. The scape-goat gives us the special application of the Lord's work to the people of Israel in the last days. In the offering for the priests, under which we come, there is no scape-bullock; a fact which its having been " long since remarked by others," (as our correspondent observes,) does not surely deprive of significance. It shows that the sins of the priestly family are as completely borne and borne away by the bullock for a sin-offering as those of the people by the scape-goat. If this be not so, then they arc not borne away. If it be so, then the goat which is Jehovah's lot, and which is expressly offered for a sin-offering (5:9) must be equally capable of such an application. What else is the universal meaning of a sin-offering, but an offering for people's sins? What else, if not a substitutionary sacrifice ?

But surely it is easy to see that does not destroy its significance as the "Lord's lot" in contrast with the scape-goat, in which simply the effect for the people is marked out, and there is no proper sacrifice at all! How could so simple and necessary a distinction fail to strike any careful reader? Nor does the fact of substitution being found in the sin-offering hinder, surely, its having the Godward aspect which as propitiation it necessarily has. It is, as I have shown, what the nature of God quires (as distinct from His moral government) presented to Him. Thus alone can it " reconcile the holy place But the glorifying of God in its full character I must , maintain is brought out rather by the bullock for the priest than the goat for the people. Our correspondent says of this,-

"May not the fact of there being a bullock for Aaron and his house teach us that none of the various families or classes . . . of God's redeemed enter bo fully into God's thoughts and estimate of the work of His Son as those whom Aaron and his house typify? Is not value the thought presented in the bullock? "

But surely the meaning of the bullock is perfectly well ascertained. The apostle gives us the key in i Corinthians 9:9, 10, and it seems (after the manner of Scripture) very uniformly maintained. That of the goat Matthew 25:33 gives, in perfect harmony with what we have seen as to the offerings. The contrast between the two is full of significance in the case before us; while the fact that both apply to the same blessed work should prevent the fear, which seems to lurk under these criticisms, that there is thus any lowering of the character of this. If the goat, the Lord's lot, speaks of propitiation, so must (at least equally) the bullock for the priesthood. And why should not the character of the latter be higher than that of the former? Is it not of necessity that it should be so?

Now as to the extent of propitiation and substitution :- "How can substitution have a universal aspect if He is not a. substitute for all? ' He is the Substitute of His people' (p. 254). Quite so:but they were His people before He bore their sins. He bore their sins because they were His. Yon will call this limited atonement; and so it would be if atonement and substitution were the same thing. You assume, not prove, that they are.''

That they are equal in extent (not the "same thing") in the type before us needs little examination to perceive ; and wherever a sin-offering was offered, it was the same thing. Whatever proof to the contrary may be adduced from elsewhere, it will not be found here. If we take the type before us, it is as simple as possible that the atonement, the propitiation, was as limited as the substitution was ; it was for the priests and people of Israel. On the other hand if a Gentile came in and was circumcised, he came among those for whom the substitution was made and availed. Propitiation did not avail for those outside. Both he substitution and the propitiation were thus available for all that desired to come,-had so far a universal aspect alike ; were, in effect, limited alike. What difficulty is there here?"But they were His people before He bore their sins:He bore their sins because they were His."

True; but the confusion lies in the thought of an exactly defined number-in bringing in the truth of election into a place to which it does not belong. Of course election is of a definite number ; but the provision made in atonement is not merely for the elect. It is the provision of a substitute, not for a definite number of individuals, but for a certain class. There is no better word to define what is meant.

The substitution of the Lord in death and under judgment for His people is of course effectual for them, and is the way in which He bare our sins. I apprehend that here lies the root of the misapprehension in our correspondent's mind, as in many others, that he thinks of such a measurement of the, exact due of these sins as there will be in the day of judgment-so much suffering for so much sin,-and so many sins being thus accounted for, and no more, these and no others must be remitted. Were another to be saved, it would have been, necessary in this way for the Lord to suffer more! Now this is in entire opposition to Scripture, which asserts, as in the trespass-offering (where the offense is thus actually measured as against the government of God) that there is in fact an overpayment The sacrifice is not of measured but of measureless value. Only in this way could it be said, "a propitiation for the sins of the whole world." No more suffering would be needed for the actual salvation of all men; and the treasure of divine grace is thus really without limit.
Yet He did not bear the sins of all men, or become a substitute for the world, as I have again and again said, but for a people who, while they may be indefinitely numerous, are still His people. I need not therefore reply to what is urged, that "if substitution is not for a limited number, then it is for all; and, according your own argument, all must be saved."We have only to define this " limit" and this "all," to see the mistake "If substitution is not for a limited number [a number limited to just so many millions], then it is for all the world]:"-this does not follow ; for the number may be limited another way, namely, to those who will accept" the Substitute, without a rigid exact number being at all implied.

It is not necessary therefore to limit the provision made by the actual number brought in by a grace whose sovereignty I believe as simply and fully as my correspondent can. I have no thought of disputing the truth and necessity of election; but what I deny absolutely is that in fact provision is made only for the elect. The sufficiency of the atonement for all must be a real one to make the general call founded upon it sincere.

The quotation from page 254, that" Christ's resurrection is the justification of all for whom He died," is misunderstood by being separated from its context. It is of substitution I am there speaking, and this is surely true with regard to all those for whom as their Substitute He died. "Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again :our justification." The letter before me seems to ignore this altogether.-

"Romans iii, 4:show God's grace to be the source, Christ's blood the basis, and faith in us the principle of justification. We are justified when we believe, and not before, though the work that justifies us was done eighteen hundred years ago, and our sins borne then."

The resurrection of Christ is here left out, and yet that is the sentence of justification, or what do the words "raised again for our justification" mean? No doubt our correspondent cannot comprehend "our justification " by Christ's resurrection in view of our justification when we believe. What he is contending against is the key to the understanding of any seeming incongruity. Our justification as a class was given in the one case, our justification individually is when by faith we come into this class-among the people for whom the substitutions:) sacrifice has been accepted.

The first question that seems needful to ask is, What is assembly -action? There is no doubt, or should be none, that the Lord has given to even two or three gathered to His name the power to act in a certain sphere and within certain limits, and that to resist such action, where scripturally taken, would be to resist the authority of the Lord Himself. In subjection and self-will are here, as ever, most serious for the soul of him who displays them. The assembly is not a set of people gathered by their own wills, or governed by rules enacted by mutual agreement, and which may be canceled in the same way as made. In it the Lord's will must have supremacy alone, the Word of God being its expression alone, and the Spirit of God its sole interpreter. When the decision of an assembly fulfills these conditions, then alas for the man whose pride and independency would set-it aside! On the other hand, where its decision does not fulfill them, then it violates its own character, and humility is shown, not in accepting, but refusing this.

But what is assembly-action? This is of first importance to consider. I assume here the knowledge of what the assembly is, and of course it is the local assembly of which we are speaking,- those who are the members of the body of Christ in a given place, or the "two or three" who alone may be actually gathered as that. This- action, it is very simple to understand, is the action of those gathered,-ideally, of all gathered, in intelligent agreement with one another.

That this is the perfect ideal should need no discussion. If, for instance, one of those coming together were not consulted,-were left out,-it would no longer be the assembly. But more than this, if the consent of one or more of these were brought about by other means or inducements than the apprehension of Scripture and its application to the facts of the case, it is plain they would still be practically outside. For the decision of an assembly, if rightly so, is not merely an agreement that such a thing shall be, but also that it ought to be,-in accordance with the mind of the Lord, and in subjection to His word.

How solemn, for those who pronounce it, therefore, is the decision of an assembly! Let us pause here for a brief word of application, before we proceed further. It is strange and sad how readily the most simple results of obvious truths escape us. It is clear that the woman, whatever practical restriction the Word may enjoin as to her public part in the assembly, yet belongs to it as fully as does the man. No action of the men alone (whether formally or virtually such) is the action of the assembly. The conscience of the woman is to be respected exactly as is the man's; for her obedience to the Lord is as necessary as is his. But on this account, the woman is to be made acquainted with what is in question as much as is the man. Nothing can relieve us of our individual responsibility in that in which we are to act for God, and no one can, therefore, devolve his individual responsibility upon another, or upon any number of others:not the wife upon her husband, for instance, or the child upon his parent. Each one of us must give an account of himself to God; and any interference, whether by constraint or neglect, with the claim of God upon another is really and only sin, whatever the plea.

This does not at all set aside the value of "guides" in this as in every other matter. Guidance supposes the intelligence and conscience both in exercise; and assisted, not suppressed. As another has said, " It is not the seeing leading the blind, but the seeing leading the seeing" Thus none can dispute, surely, the use of brothers' meetings for preparing a matter for the assembly so that confusion may be avoided, and a godly judgment more easily attained. But this has need to be closely watched lest officialism and clerisy come in by this door, and the decision be virtually made here, only to be announced for formal approbation afterward. Such a meeting has no claim of right, but is only a matter of wisdom-of expediency. Those meeting in it are servants of the assembly, not its lords; to be respected and honored for their service; as lords, to be peremptorily rejected and refused. How easily here may custom grow into claim! Dangers beset us every where, and helps" readily become hindrances. The assumption of brothers' meetings has been so great as to throw doubt even upon their expediency, however undeniably useful in their place they may be. At least, authority from Scripture they have none.

The first requisite for assembly-action, then, is, that it should be really the assembly that acts. God would have neither unexercised consciences nor violated consciences. To secure this, patience and forbearance toward one another have to be displayed, and no decision come to while one honest-hearted person remains unconvinced. Slow work this, some will object; but what if it entail much more waiting upon God, more tender care of each other, than we have been accustomed to; is it not better to reach slowly a decision in which all concur than to sow the seed of future self-accusation, dissension, and doubt among brethren ? May not the slowness of some be a needed guard against the haste of others,-a most real help against rash and ill-considered judgment? Does not the endeavor to keep the unity of' the Spirit, too, necessitate this? Can we really claim the authority of the Lord for that which is the result of pressure put upon the weak, the timid, the ignorant-nay, even of the unconcern of the indifferent? Alas! we may; but will He that is holy, He that is true, confirm with His authority the fruit of disregard for His own precepts, and carelessness for His people?

I am aware that 2 Corinthians 2:6 is pleaded, where the punishment of the man put away from among them is said to have been "inflicted of many," or " of the greater part." It has been hence pressed that a majority had Scripture-ground for giving their judgment as that of the whole. It has been also pressed that the point to be reached is the Lord's mind, which not even unanimity, much less" a majority, could secure. This last is evidently true, and upsets the other. The decision of the majority cannot be taken as necessarily the Lord's mind, for the majority in an assembly may not be the most spiritual, or the secret of the Lord with them. As a matter of fact, at Corinth, the apostle was in doubt about many, (chap. 12:21,) and could not speak of the action of the assembly as being in truth of heart the action of all; although this by no means shows that all had not outwardly consented to it. To plead this for a decision by majority would surely be all wrong. On the other hand, a unanimous judgment may be wrong also:there is no infallibility of the assembly. And it is the Lord's mind that is to be sought and found. The question is, are any number, few or many, entitled to act as having the Lord's mind, because of their own conviction of having it, apart from the concurrence of the assembly as a whole?

The thing is plain, that if any number assume to be the assembly, they deny the claim of those who dissent from them to be of the assembly at all. Practically, they cut them off. And in so doing, they must be prepared to establish to their brethren elsewhere the claim they make; not simply the Tightness of their decision on the point in question, but of this cutting off of those who dissent. They cannot justify this by the Tightness of their decision as such. The question is, why did they disregard the consciences of the rest? why is the unity of the Spirit violated? or, on which side really is the responsibility for the breach?

But now, supposing the action to be unanimous, how far and in what cases are all assemblies bound by it? how far is it authoritative for all who will be subject to the Lord?

Now of course if an assembly go beyond the limits of its authority, it has none; nay, is itself in insubjection, and to be resisted and rebuked, not listened to. If it undertake to decree doctrines, or bring in principles in opposition to the Word, the conscience of the weakest babe is under obligation to refuse such action altogether. Of principles we are bound to judge. Here, the whole church, and every believer in it, are to be subject to the Word of God alone. Every act of discipline, though it were in an assembly at the end of the earth, requires to be so tested. The maintenance of false principles destroys the claim of any action in which they are found to be valid before God or man. "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven " applies not here. We are in no wise in this case to " hear the church," but the Scriptures, which alone are " able to furnish thoroughly unto all good works."

But again, the Lord's words cannot avail to show that an unrighteous judgment is bound in heaven. The plain principles of truth and righteousness are never, and can never be, violated in any path of duty. If grace reigns through righteousness, does not set it aside, how much less can an act of judgment set aside righteousness, and yet God require my subjection to it! Of course, I must be very sure of my steps here, and that my own judgment is just of the case before me. In a conflict of views, humility will in general go right, where pride is certain in some way to go wrong. The point we are upon is not the manner of dealing with evil, but the very simple principle that the authority of the Lord can never be pleaded to make me bow to it. That is impossible. I can never do it without defilement and dishonor to the Lord, whose holy name it is blasphemy to connect with the upholding of sin.

An assembly-action, then, if the assembly be not (as it is not) infallible, must be judged of as every human act is. If there is in it no unscriptural principle, then in most cases we are bound to accept it, not as infallible in any wise, but as an assembly act. The body is one, and what they have done we have done. We do not affirm it to be righteous, and it is capable of being recalled and repented of, if shown to be unrighteous. Questions of fact can in general only be settled there where the matter judged occurred. It is manifestly impossible to carry it round the world for fresh decision in any place where question may be raised. Such a course would prevent any thing being ever settled, would transform every assembly into a court of appeal in every case that may arise, and load every gathering with the burdens of all. Moreover, it would set gatherings at issue with one another throughout the world, and destroy all practical unity whatever. For the act of another assembly is our act, and if it be not according to God, the remedy is not to set up another against it, but to reverse and repent of what has been wrongly done. There, where the wrong is, it should be righted, and in this way every gathering should be open to listen to and weigh any godly representation from another gathering. Has it not been from a straining of the words, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven," that an assembly-act has been so much looked upon as practically irreversible, and that such a thing as the repentance of an assembly is hardly recognized?

The thought leads plainly to an implication of infallibility in the judgment which the Lord (it is supposed) maintains, and this, in turn, leads to practical carelessness in judging. How can they repent of what they say, with unintentional blasphemy, is bound in heaven? And what a millstone upon the assembly must be such unrepented sins. No wonder they should be easily taken in any snare of Satan afterward, who have thus far yielded already to him!

Let the real responsibility of assemblies be recognized, and the duty of public recall and repentance insisted on for what is done amiss, and in this the Lord will be really honored, and His authority maintained, and there will be blessing accordingly. But this high-church pretension is but the haughty spirit that precedes a fall.

On the other hand, independent action is division begun, and this is only justified in the last extreme, when otherwise we should be ourselves involved in evil against which protest is no longer of avail. We must be sure also that God has really put a matter into our hands for judgment, before we undertake to be the judges; else it is no wonder if we err grievously. If evil be plain, God would never involve us hopelessly in complicity with it, although patience and lowliness will be absolutely necessary in any right course. In the presence of evil, to be in lowliness and self-judgment before God is above all things requisite. In fleshliness we cannot rightly deal with flesh. We must " put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

The principle should be plain, that we recognize the act of any two or three gathered to the Lord's name as our act, save only if obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ require otherwise. If that act involve unscriptural principles, we are bound to refuse it; and if evil can be shown in the act itself, apart from this, remonstrance and protest are called for while they may avail, and only in the last resort can there be rightly a contrary judgment given elsewhere. In this case, separation from evil has necessitated division, and that which necessitates it for ourselves must justify it to our brethren.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Midst the darkness, storm, and sorrow,
One bright gleam I see :
Well I know the blessed morrow,
Christ will come for me.

Midst the light and peace and glory
Of the Father's home,
Christ for me is watching, waiting-
Waiting till I come.

Long the blessed Guide has led me
By the desert road ;
Now I see the golden towers-
City of my God.

There, amidst the love and glory,
He is waiting yet;
On His hands a name is graven
He can ne'er forget.

There, amidst the songs of heaven,
Sweeter to His ear
Is the footfall through the desert,
Ever drawing near.

There, made ready, are the mansions,
Glorious, bright, and fair;
But the Bride the Father gave Him
Still is wanting there.

Who is this who comes to meet me
On the desert way,
As the Morning Star, foretelling
God's unclouded day ?

He it is who came to win me
On the cross of shame;
In His glory, well I know Him,
Evermore the same.

Oh, the blessed joy of meeting,
All the desert past!
Oh, the wondrous words of greeting
He shall speak at last!
He and I together entering
Those bright courts above;
He and I together sharing
All the Father's love.

Where no shade nor stain can enter,
Nor the gold be dim,-
In that holiness unsullied
I shall walk with Him.

Meet companion then for Jesus,
From Him, for Him made;
Glory of God's grace forever
There in me displayed.

He who in His hour of sorrow
Bore the curse alone;
I who through the lonely desert
Trod where He had gone.

He and I in that bright glory
One deep joy shall share;-
Mine, to be forever with Him ;
His, that I am there.

T. McK.

"Whenever we get into trial, we may feel confident that, with the trial, there is an issue, and all we need is a broken will, and a single eye to see it."

1 John.

'Twas not in worlds of light above
That God made known His way of love;
'Twas not in scenes unsullied, bright,
That He revealed that God is light:
'Twas not amidst the ambient air,
'Midst glowing suns, or moonlight fair,
Nor where the myriad creatures creep
Who move amidst the untrampled deep.

'Twas not in Eden's garden fair,
Where all was good for man to share;
Whence sprang each tree to please the eye,
To lend its shade, its fruit supply,
Where Nature, in her tenderest ways,
Diffused her joys in myriad rays:
Not all creation's glories bright
Could tell that God is love, is light.

Not there came forth the light divine,
Not there did God's full purpose shine,
Not there did He who dwelt above
Reveal Himself as light and love;
But in those scenes of ceaseless shame,
Where sin still burned unholy flame,
Where in its fierce and fiery breath
Man wasted, moth-like unto death.

There Jesus came-the incarnate One-
God's peerless, perfect, lowly Son,
Where 'midst sorrow, sin, and shame
He showed His Father's holy name.
His life shone there in purest light,
As light 'midst darkness, burning bright,
Then crowned by death His life of love
To bring man up to God above.

T.McK.

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

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

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

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

In the thirteenth chapter of John we find the Lord full of the thought of going to the Father:"Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hand, and that He was come from God and went to God;" and "knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." Full of these thoughts and of this love, He expresses the desire of His heart in their behalf in an action the significance of which they were afterward to apprehend. According to His own words at the time, it represented what was necessary that they should have " part with Him " (5:8),-that is, communion. Part in Him they had already; part with Him was to be maintained and insured by that which He signified in this wonder of lowly condescension upon His part, when " He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded."

Water-washing in its spiritual reality is " by the Word," as the apostle tells us (Eph. 5:26). Hence the significance of this action is simple for us. The Word of God must have its power over our life and walk, that we may be able to enjoy the intimacy with Him to which He has called us. Grace can never dispense with the necessity of this, but enables us for it:" grace and truth have come by Jesus Christ." Thus only is our deliverance in full reality accomplished:our hearts brought back to God, now as never before known, our feet to walk with Him in the liberty of His blessed will.

But what we want to realize in this picture before us is, that it is He Himself in whose hand the water and towel are. The Word itself, apart from His living presence, will have no real efficacy. He must apply it to us:" If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me." Our feet must be in His hand, yielded to Him. It is not at all that we are to judge our ways according to our apprehension of the Word and its requirements, but He must interpret and apply the Word. We must be with Him about it; and if with Him, then seeking no compromise, but that He tell us all the truth:He, Master and Lord of all; and we, absolutely and implicitly subject to Him.

In what unupbraiding grace-yea, in what tenderness of a perfect and holy love He will do all this, let the narrative here assure us. And we all, have we not known the chastened joy of moments such as these, when, searched out in His presence, we realized the faithfulness of so great a Friend, and felt how His love was claiming and cleansing and delivering us for Himself? Surely every Christian heart has known these. But we want to be given up wholly to this soliciting of divine grace; and what would not be the blessing of it!

The action of the thirteenth of John is not the remedy for declension or failure merely, and we shall lose immensely if we limit it to this. It is rather the perpetual provision for daily need. We want day by day to be in quiet retirement thus with Him, opening our hearts to the light as the flower opens its petals to the sun. " He that doeth truth cometh to the light." It is thus the life that is ours unfolds and declares itself. Faith becomes mature, and love contemplates and embraces its object. Alas! the superficiality and lightness of the times are seen in the little apprehension of the need even of this:little retirement, little examination of one's ways before God, little intimacy with Him. Surely we want to be reminded of the words of the apostle, "Holding faith and a good conscience, which some hiving put away, have made shipwreck concerning faith."

4.-THE CHURCH AND THE INDIVIDUAL.

The maintenance of conscience being thus of such necessity to the whole spiritual life of the believer, it deserves now to be considered how it is to be accomplished amid the complication with the duties of relationships in which we stand to one another. It is evident how often here individual responsibility is forgotten and individual conscience given up, as it is thought; in necessary . sacrifice to the consciences, or even to the want of conscience on the part of those with whom we are associated, whether by our own wills or by God's, in Church-relationship. How then does Scripture speak as to this? How is our individuality to be preserved in harmony with such place and connection ?

And here the question cannot be ignored or escaped from, Is Church-relationship a matter of one's own will, or God's? It is rightly of God's only. The Church is Christ's body; membership in that, the only membership that Scripture owns. No doubt it is a day of confusion, and the Church as a practical gathering together of the members as such is not to be found. We have now sects in which these are scattered, and by which they are scattered. Still it is practicable for those who own only the body of Christ to gather together in this character; and such a gathering cannot be a sect. Nor is this unimportant to the point before us, for if man's will be allowed in the very first place to define the circle and the terms' of our association with others, it will be of necessity admitted a certain place in all that connects itself with this; and how large a place who shall say?

The Word of God is given thoroughly to furnish us unto all good works, and certainly could not omit such a matter as this. Simple enough, too, it all is:our circle, that of all God's saints; the terms of our association, mutual subjection to our Head and Lord. Here there can be no bondage and no compromise:the exercise Of conscience and freedom for it are alike secured.

With a circle less or other than this, the terms must be a human creed, confession, formulary, compact of some sort. Conscience is then bound to the confession,-1:e., not to the Word of God as such, even were the confession wholly scriptural. Thus even the scripturalness of the creed does not give the conscience its rightful fealty. But if it be unscriptural, then the conscience is bound as much to maintain the error as the truth; and where practical laxity in this respect may be winked at, this (as laxity) is scarce more favorable to real godliness of walk.

Where, with the code adopted, a governing body regulates as to ministry, etc., appointing sphere of work and character of service, and where between minister and people the common stipendiary engagement of the day exists, the conscience is more and more fettered and perverted. The simple being before God becomes impossible. I grant that Scripture being supposed to sanction this system enables a good conscience to be retained. Yet the results of it will be found, in proportion to the real exercise of this before God, in constant embarrassment and perplexity; until, there being no end, at last the yoke is wearily acquiesced in without effort to escape.

The blessedness of truth is that it brings to God, and establishes in the holy liberty of His presence. Thus, how simple and blessed is the thought of Scripture, " As every man hath received the gift, so let him minister the same, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God"! To serve with whatever I have is my privilege; and that is my duty also. I dare go to no one to ask for leave to serve, or to have my sphere of service defined to me. All this must be ascertained between my Master and myself, and He will recognize my service and sustain me in it. Here, faith is necessary at every step, and a good conscience necessary to faith.

Wherever ecclesiasticism comes in, the individual conscience is oppressed or ignored. And this is quite as true of its republican as of its aristocratic or monarchial forms. God's Church is none of these:it is a pure theocracy. No head but Christ, no authority save His Word, no power save that of His Spirit. Alas! it is no wonder that for aught but faith this should be confusion. And wherever faith is not in exercise, confusion will in fact soon be found. God values no mere external order where it is not the product of His Spirit; and where mere external order is, the action of the Spirit may be first of all to break this up. This often causes His work to be in suspicion even among Christians. For practical faith and exercised consciences are after all how little to be found among, the people of God! It is complained of as a strange and terrible thing if, according to His word, the truth of Christ divides the members of a family. But in fact how little is this seen, compared with what would be if souls were real! Too commonly, and as a matter of course, the power of nature is more exhibited in a time of testing than the power of the Spirit or the Word. Wives go with husbands, children with parents, friends with friends, assemblies as a whole, swayed by the power of some master-spirit, move submissively hither and thither, be the direction right or wrong. But in God's path really nothing but faith is found. Lot was no Abraham when he walked with Abraham. And thus God allows often sifting to go on, and more breaking up to come, when we were fain to hope all was now set right and we, were past the need of it.

But for faith there is no path but God's, be it smooth or rough:its roughness is better than the smoothest that could be found elsewhere. The blow of the flail is only blessing to God's wheat, and stormy wind fulfills but His word; the north wind, no less than the south, causes the spices of His garden to flow out. What has been the path of His people ever? Where is the truth that does not first bring conflict? And when this ceases, and it is received without this, it will be found to be received as tradition, not properly as truth at all.

The importance of maintaining the individuality of conscience cannot, then, be insisted on too strongly. We can never rightly devolve its guidance upon any man or set of men, upon any leaders however gifted, upon any unanimity of the church or churches. God has claim to be heard, apart from all this, and is ready to make His voice heard in my soul. The maintenance of conscience means the maintenance of His sole supremacy; and to give up my conscience to another is to worship Him in His deputy. But He has none; and the attempt is real and essential idolatry; while to . give up conscience for the sake of peace is to choose peace with Satan and with Him conflict.

The truth, not conscience, is authoritative for the soul; but the conscience is the recipient and the guard of the truth.

In the Psalms we have some of the most wonderful unfoldings of the cross in its inner meaning that Scripture furnishes. It is striking that whereas in the gospel narratives themselves it is mostly the external sufferings, of the Lord which occupy us, in the Psalms the divine Sufferer utters freely His heart out. The one cry of abandonment which does indeed expose its mystery, and which Matthew and Mark record, finds its full interpretation only in that twenty-second psalm, the language of which it borrows, and to which it thus guides our thoughts. And here we find, under a vail, if we may so say, the vail removed. As the priests, able to enter within the tabernacle, could behold the glories of it, so we whom faith brings within, can listen to the very heart of Christ outpoured, and see earth's failed foundations laid afresh and for eternity by One standing where no other could stand but He. Typically given, according to the Old-Testament character, unbelief may doubt or deny the revelation. It is to faith that God reveals Himself; Christ, dumb before His accusers, displays to His disciples His true glory. There arc five psalms which we shall briefly at in connection with our subject, and which give us different aspects of the cross. Three of these-the twentieth, twenty-second, and fortieth are in the first book; the sixty-ninth is in the second; the hundred and second in the fifth book. I have elsewhere shown the way in which these five books of the Psalms identify themselves respectively with the five books of Moses. Here it will be seen how the Genesis-book,-the book, as we may say, of the divine counsels, maintains its character in the way in which it opens up to us the work of Christ:in the twentieth psalm, as victory over evil; in the twenty-second, as meeting the requirement of the divine nature as against sin ; in the fortieth, of that which, like the sweet-savor offerings, shows the infinite moral perfection which delights in God, and in which He delights.

The twentieth psalm begins then, where the story of grace began in Eden, with the announcement of the cross as victory over the enemy. The way in which it is introduced is perfect as all else. The first book (psalms 1:-41:) divides into three parts; in the first of which we find, as connected with the sufferings and deliverance of His people, Christ rejected (ps. 2:) and glorified (8:). His people are always here Israel, and in the second part (ps. 9:-15:), their sufferings in the last-day crisis, out of which they are finally delivered, are detailed. In this second part Christ is not found la the third (ps. 16:-41:), we have Him in a new character which, penetrating to the heart of the subject, explains and perfects the whole counsel of God. He is seen amongst the people in the lowly grace of perfect manhood, for God, for man, redeemer from misery as and because from sin. The sixteenth psalm thus shows Him in the place of dependence and trial, God His one portion and sufficiency in that path that passes through death itself into the joy of His immediate presence:the path of life through death, for us henceforth open.

Thus the seventeenth psalm shows how He can now associate others with Himself; giving the righteous through the only righteous One their ground of appeal to God. While the eighteenth psalm speaks of His victory over all His enemies, a victory which involves others with whom He is pleased to associate Himself.

The next three psalms show, on the part of His people, the faith which attaches them to Him. In the nineteenth psalm, first of all, setting its seal to God's other testimonies of creation and the law, but to rest only with full satisfaction and delight (in the two following psalms) in Him who is alone their kinsman-redeemer. While psalm 22:completes the picture by adding to the knowledge of redemption by power that of redemption by purchase, "not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

The twentieth psalm is in other respects a remarkable one, but, as far as we have now to. do with it, is of very simple character. The anointed (or Messiah), king of Israel, is seen in distress and difficulty in the presence of his enemies (compare 21:8, 11). It is conflict on account of others; and the name of the God of Jacob-1:e., of grace toward sinners, is appealed to in his behalf. From the sanctuary in Israel, and out of Zion, seat of electing- love, the help is to come. It is connected with the establishment and triumph of the people Plainly, and Messiah's offerings and burnt sacrifice secure this. Hence, in his deliverance they rejoice aloud, and in the name of this God set up their banners. Jehovah, their covenant-God, saves, and to the king also (to Messiah Himself) they call. The next psalm enlarges upon this deliverance and victory.

The twenty-second psalm now unfolds the reality of the sacrifice upon which all is based. It is the well-known psalm of atonement, so solemn and so dear to the Christian heart. It is the sin-offering, -the requirement, as 1 have elsewhere said, of the divine nature. The forsaking- of God is the necessary result of the holy One being made sin.

This is what is throughout put in contrast with all other sufferings. All felt as they arc, and no indifference to any,–the bodily anguish, the shame, the heartless wickedness of the assailants,-yet the one agony which outweighs all the rest is this forsaking of God. " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? far from helping Me, from the words of My roaring? O My God, I cry in the day-time, and Thou nearest not, and in the night-season, and am not silent!" "Be not far from Me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help." "But be not Thou far from Me, O Lord:O My strength, haste Thee to help Me! "

This forsaking is also carefully distinguished from any thing that a righteous man ever suffered. "Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them:they looked unto Thee, and were delivered; they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man." Yet a long line of martyrs witness to us that, as to deliverance simply from the hands of enemies, multitudes have cried and not been delivered, the sufferings through which they passed only proving that they were not forsaken, but on the contrary maintained and enabled for whatever they passed through by a power manifesting itself thus the more. How many before and since have roved Paul's experience, "Persecuted, but not forsaken"! None of these patient sufferers, precious and acceptable as their patience was to God, touched even the border of the darkness of the cross, when the cry of the holy One found no response.

What to Him that desertion was, He Himself alone could know. "Thou art He that took Me out of the womb; Thou didst make me hope even upon My mother's breasts; I was cast upon Thee from the womb; Thou art My God even from My mother's belly." To us, born in sin and shapen in iniquity, to whom estrangement from God is the natural condition, and who, even when by grace redeemed, can so readily slip out of communion with God, how little is it possible to realize the agony of this condition! With us, too, when out of communion, it implies a state which prevents realization. The spiritual sense is blunted, the spiritual affections are not in play; and if even in this state sorrows and troubles surprise us which make us feel vainly after Him, the consequences of the terrible loss are sure to overshadow and obscure the spiritual loss itself; while at the most the darkness that can envelop one who has ever known God is the darkness of a clouded sun compared with a night of total absence in the case of Him who was made sin for us.

Alone in human weakness, with every element of bitterness in the dreadful cup which was His to drink-He could ask, as none among men be-could, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" yet proclaim at the same time the holiness of Him who had forsaken Him. "But Thou art holy:dwelling amid the praises of Israel." Is not here, in fact, the reason of this forsaking, that the holy One would dwell amid the praises of a redeemed people? That worship could never be but for the cross. He must be" in the outside place of darkness, that we might be, children of light, in the light with God.

The consequence is, that after He has been brought into the dust of death, and is heard from the horns of the unicorns, the blessing that flows out answers in perfect contrast to the suffering endured. The Son of God, as the fruit of His own abandonment, communicates to now-acknowledged "brethren" the Father's name. He who was in that unique, solitary place, praises in the midst of the congregation which He gathers, and whose praise He leads. Yea, "the meek shall eat and be satisfied :they that fear the Lord shall praise Him the heart of the redeemed shall taste the joy of eternal life (26). To the ends of the earth, and to perpetual generations, the wave of blessing spreads,-joy out of sorrow, praise out of desertion, light out of darkness, life out of death; the subjection of adoring worshipers to a Saviour-God, and His righteousness declared in the accomplishment of this great salvation.

Thus ends the wondrous twenty-second psalm, of which atonement in its central feature-He who knew no sin made sin-is the theme throughout. Any full exposition is not here within our scope. But it is the foundation of all true blessing to understand it; its words will give the deep tones to our praise forever.

A number of psalms follow which give us, in various character, the exercises and experiences which find their answer in, or are the fruit of this blessed work. At the close of the book are two psalms which give, by way of conclusion, as it were, the moral of the whole. The heart of Christ is shown in its innermost depths, His life in its one principle, in the fortieth psalm. In the forty-first the heart of man is seen in relation to Him who has come into the place of poverty and reproach for – into a humiliation so low that unbelief can misconceive and discredit His true glory.

The fortieth psalm is significant in its very number, which is that of perfect probation; and here again we find the Lord in those sufferings which were the trial of His perfection, and which brought out the sweet savor of His blessed sacrifice, here put in contrast with all other sacrifices.

In the twenty-second psalm we have seen the Lord taking the sinner's place, that God might dwell among the praises of His redeemed; here we see what was in His heart God ward who did so. It is the perfect Man, with ears which never needed the anointing of blood to consecrate them to God; who, marked out in the book of God's counsels from the beginning, now comes forth simply, as none else, to do the will of God; His law within His heart. " By which will," says the apostle, "we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." This perfect devotedness He manifested there where, in the sharpest and most terrible-contrast to it, He cries, "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon Me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more in number than the hairs of My head; therefore My heart faileth Me."Yet, says He, " I waited patiently for the Lord;" even in the "miry clay" of that "pit of destruction."

Plainly this is the psalm of burnt-offering,'though the sacrifice represented take the place of all the-other offerings. Indeed it is quite in character that it should be so. The burnt-offering was the "continual burnt-offering," as that which was emphatically a sweet savor to God. The sin-offering is what the necessity of man craves and obtains; so with the trespass, and so with the peace-offering; but the burnt-offering, as it goes wholly up to God, expresses that which is the object of His unceasing delight. Thus, when no other sacrifice was there at all, the burnt-offering kept its place upon the altar, which from it, indeed, received its name; for this blessed work it is in which the moral glory of His person (which is what the altar speaks of) shines out most fully.

Here, accordingly, it is not the outside place that His cry expresses, but the "iniquities" which, as taking them upon Him, He could call " Mine:" this was the miry clay of the pit into which He who came to do God's will had descended. This, therefore, is the character of suffering most suited to display, as a dark background, that personal glory. Unbelief might indeed take such confession to justify its rejection of the holy One, while faith, adoring, finds in it its eternal blessing. And this is the key to the psalm which follows this.

The epistle to the Colossians has for its key-note the ninth and tenth verses of the second chapter-"In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him." It is the fullness of Christ for the Christian. The first chapter gives us the first part of this, which it anticipates:" For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him."The second and third chapters show our completeness in Him:His death for us delivering us from our natural portion; His resurrection bringing us into our portion now with God. In the first chapter, the work of atonement is represented as for the reconciliation of heaven and earth, as well as having accomplished the reconciliation of all believers:"And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,-by Him, I say, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven. And you, that were some time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight."

This doctrine of reconciliation is important as showing how far the need and value of the cross extend. In Romans already there is the statement that " when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son;" but here it extends much more widely, and has to do, not merely with persons even, but with things-all things, both in heaven and in earth. There are no persons in heaven to be brought back by the work of Christ, " for verily He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold "(Heb. ii:16, Gr.). It is not, therefore, of persons that the apostle is speaking here, but of the frame-work of things put out of joint, as it were, through sin, as far as sin has reached, and which the work of Christ was needed to set right.

In this application of reconciliation two things are plain:first, that it is not merely a moral effect on man that is intended by it, (although this moral effect there is, and it is a great truth too;) and secondly, that it was in the nature of God Himself that the deepest need of atonement lay. Going on to Ephesians, we find the apostle speaking of "the redemption of the purchased possession" (1:14); and in Hebrews 9:12, saying, "It was necessary, therefore, that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." Here, the heavenly things, then, are spoken of as purchased, purified, reconciled, redeemed. In whose eyes were they, then, impure? Clearly, in His to whom alone all true sacrifice was ever offered. It was the nature of God which required atonement, His holiness that needed satisfaction in it. In a deeper sense than probably Eliphaz knew could it be said, "The heavens are not clean in His sight" (Job 15:15). The work of Christ enables Him to lay hold upon all that with which sin has been connected, and restore to more than all its pristine beauty and excellency. How unspeakable is the value of that work which not only does this, but actually glorifies Him in filling the heavenly places with those redeemed from the fall, and made the very " righteousness of God in Christ."

As for Christians, they are already reconciled through the work of Christ:"You…hath He reconciled."It is done, although not yet are all the fruits reaped of this. Already are we before God in Christ, " accepted in the Beloved," waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body, to put us in" our place every way, in the very image of the heavenly. Reconciliation on bur part necessarily includes the change-from enmity, the natural state, to love, as here and in Romans both:" When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son;" "You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled." The moral effect is what is needed as to vis. The power of the display of the love which has so wonderfully met our whole necessity brings our hearts back to God. Love wins love:" we love Him because He first loved us." Hence, for this effect, the freeness and fullness of the gospel are essential. " 'Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him most?''I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.' ' Thou hast rightly judged.' "Question of the love that calls forth my love is fatal to this effect. I must be delivered from the necessity of seeking my own things, in order to live, not unto myself, but unto Him who died for me and rose again. This, the apostle tells us, was the secret of his life, such as we know it was:" The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

Reconciliation was needed thus on our part, and in order that it might be, the death of Christ must meet the demand of divine righteousness; but on this very account it is never said in Scripture, as it is so often in human creeds, that God is reconciled by the work of Christ. He had not changed, but we. God had never enmity to the work of His hands, however fallen away from Him. He had not, then, to be reconciled; and so, even where the reconciliation is of things, not persons, it is still these that are said to be reconciled, as we have seen. As to man, reconciliation is pressed upon him on the ground of Christ's work:"We pray, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God; for He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

The second part of Colossians gives, as I have said, the effect of the work of Christ for us, bringing in His resurrection and life beyond death as giving us our new place in the efficacy of it with God. We have "dead with Christ," "buried with Christ," almost exactly as in the second part of Romans, our death being called here "the circumcision of Christ," or Christian circumcision. While the "alive in Christ" of Romans is here carried back to its commencement in our being "quickened together with Christ."Our life in Him is thus seen, from its first moment, to be the result of atonement. The blotting out of legal ordinances, which were contrary to us, and the spoiling of principalities and powers, are connected also with His work. Risen with Him, we are in spirit to be outside the scene we are passing through,-to " seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."

Ephesians, as is well known, carries us one step beyond this. We are not only risen, but ascended, " made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here, "with" can no longer be said, as is evident. We are not actually, but as yet only represented, there:it is " the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places."

This is individual, of course. And though, as in Colossians, "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace," yet the meeting our responsibility in grace is not the special subject of Ephesians, but the new creation which we are made in Christ, and this in its heavenly character the epistle sets before us. It is not within our scope just now to enter upon this. In connection with it, the effect of the cross is spoken of as breaking down the middle wall of partition between both Jew and Gentile, both man and God. This middle wall of partition is the law, which the apostle calls, therefore, by a strong figure, the "enmity," and its abolition, our peace and reconciliation:"Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."There is nothing here but what is simple enough, and needs no comment. Nor does Ephesians present us with any further development of the doctrine of atonement.

The texts we have had before us naturally connect themselves with one already quoted in connection with them, but to which we must give now more particular attention. It is 2 Corinthians 5:21. The whole passage runs thus:"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as" though God did beseech by us, we pray in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

Notice, first, there is no statement here of the world having been reconciled. It is of the attitude which God took in Christ come into the world, of which the apostle is speaking. What Christ was doing when here, he says, we are doing as His representatives, "in His stead," now He is no longer here. But that attitude is of beseeching men to be reconciled,-not telling them they are. In this way God was not imputing their trespasses to them, inviting them to draw nigh to Him, not forbidding access.

Now this same liberty of access is proclaimed, but the ground of it is an already accomplished work:"He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." The main feature of atonement is here very clearly given; and the force is made plainer by the contrast of words and thought. In the same sense was Christ made sin for us as that in which we are made righteousness; and as the sin was the sin of man, so the righteousness is the righteousness of God. Moreover, as it was not in Himself that He was made sin, for He knew none; so not in ourselves are we made divine righteousness, but in Him. The antithesis in all this no one can doubt to be designed; and it makes evident the meaning of the whole. Christ who knew no sin was identified with it upon the cross; we as the fruit of His work, in our place in Him, are identified with the righteousness of God. In Him dying upon the tree is seen the sin of man; but the righteousness of God is seen, wonderful to say, in sinners being accepted in the Beloved.

But you may say, Is not the righteousness of God seen also in the cross? Surely it is; and so the third of Romans states:" Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness;" but in what respect? "That He might be righteous, justifying"-pronouncing righteous-"him which believeth in Jesus." That we might be in Him, it was necessary that He should be made sin for us; the righteousness of God no less could satisfy. That we are in Him declares therefore the cross God's method of salvation-affirms that righteousness, now our shelter and defense, " the righteousness of God over all them that believe." With this, then, we are identified forever:forever we shall display it, as we shall " the exceeding riches of His grace."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"In order to a satisfactory result when one person has to explain any thing to another, it is
chiefly necessary that the person to whom the explanation is offered should really and sincerely try to understand what the other would express.

It is very desirable that the explainer should use such words and such manner as shall best express his mind; but, though he spake never so clearly, if the other is listening without that real desire to understand, language will always afford to a disputer opportunities of raising, questions, and of misrepresenting assertions, and of so confounding (as the disputer thinks) the other, but really he himself is the confounded one; for the other still knows what his own meaning is, though he may be grieved at his failure to lead his friend to understand it and profit by it, while the disputer has missed what perhaps might have been a real increase of wisdom or knowledge to him, and certainly what would have been an opportunity of manly, friendly, and wise intercourse and exchange of ideas.'

There surely is wisdom in these observations, and we Christians would do well to lay them to heart. Is it saying too much to assert that there is amongst us a lack of that patient waiting, both on God and each other, that would result in mutual edification and happy communion ? ' Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another:and the Lord hearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name.' (Mal. 3:16.) What a contrast this scripture presents to the case described in the above observations!"

A Lecture, at Plainfield, N. J., on Monday evening, August 4, 1884.

"Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village ; and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said, ' Lord dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her, therefore, that she help me.' And Jesus answered and said unto her, ' Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'" (Luke 10:38-42.)

As you know, beloved friends, there was genuine faith in both these women. " Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Martha had not only received the Lord into her house, but she had received Him into her heart; there is no kind of doubt about that. The very character here in which we find her was not merely her natural character. She was busy about One that she loved. She was busy about One whose glory she recognized, at least in measure. She was busy in serving Him; and there were very few, beloved friends, in that land and time, that cared to serve Him. He was One who had not where to lay His head,-One who was despised and rejected of men -the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; men hid, as it were, their faces from Him ; He was despised, and they esteemed Him not.

Martha had faith-genuine faith, as Mary had,- faith that thought of Him truly, as at least One who had come far to serve her, One whom she owned as the Christ of God come into the world. Martha was busy in her care for such an One; and that is the solemn lesson. With all this love in her heart, and with all this real faith in His person,- that faith which made her one of the very few in Israel that recognized Him at all,-that with all that, she could be so far wrong as we see her wrong,-that with all that, she could be put in disparaging contrast with Mary her sister,-Mary who did nothing,-Mary who simply sat at His feet to hear His word. The Lord takes her up to signify His entire approbation as to where she was and what she was. He has a reproof for Martha's service, but has only approbation for Mary's simply sitting at His feet.

His words are very striking ; '' Thou art careful," He says to Martha;-''Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things." Beloved friends, if you are busy about many things, you will not only be busy, but troubled. Martha, we read, "was cumbered with much serving;" and she was not only "encumbered," but "troubled;" -it weighed upon her. It was very busy service; but it weighed upon her,-weighed her down. Beloved, if you have service that weighs you clown, look to it-see well why it is. Plainly; that very character would put you along with Martha here. She was cumbered with much serving. She goes to the Lord with her complaint. Mary might help her; Mary has left her to serve alone. She wants Him to use His authority with Mary. She says, "Dost not Thou care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her, therefore, that she help me." She began with seeking to help the Lord as it were, and she ends with complaining that she cannot get help herself. She wants to serve the Lord, but she turns round at last and wants to get Mary to serve her. The Lord's words are what we are to think about to-night:"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her;" "But one thing is needful"-only "one thing." To what a little point would that diminish all care if we realized it:only "one thing"! How many distractions would our hearts be free from if we only recognized and bowed to the truth of the Lord's words. Only "one thing"! Do you honestly think it, beloved friends? There are a great many needs in this busy world:there are a great many duties that, you have, and that Christians think they have to society, to their neighbors, and what not. The Lord here would bring our hearts from every thing simply to one, and that one, to sit at His feet and hear His word! Don't you feel as if that would leave service out altogether? How is it possible that only one thing is needful, and Mary had chosen that very part, when there are so many things to do? Are we to leave out service to the Lord?–what does it mean? Beloved, this:That the thing which is to be our care is that we receive from Christ; and if we receive,-if we are receiving, beloved friends, service, and every thing else, may take care for itself. Mark, I do not mean that you won't serve. You will – you will. But I say this:that if your care is not for service, but to be receiving from Him, you will find that "one thing" which the Lord speaks of embraces all the rest.

What God wants from us is receptiveness,-He wants in us capacity to receive. You remember what He says Himself in the seventh chapter of John, when men were busy with their feast of tabernacles before the time,-busy with their empty show of something which after all left the heart just where it was, or, rather, emptier than ever. The Lord stands up just upon that great day of the feast:the great day of the feast is when the hollowness conies out the most. And in that "great day of the feast," when men have shown how little they can do to secure the happiness they have been seeking, the Lord stands up and says, " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37, 38.) Beloved, there is not any thing there, you see-there is not any thing about these busy Martha-cares-this busy Martha-service; there is not a bit about it-not a bit about it. "You take care," the Lord says, "to receive of Me. Come and drink; and he that believeth on Me, [faith being that receptive character in the soul,-"he that believeth on Me,] out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

Well, now, can it be so simple? Have we not got a great deal more to do than believe on Christ? Why, how many of us, beloved friends, are believing on Christ? Thank God, a good many here. And how many could say-how many could realize at all that out of their bellies are flowing rivers of living water? Mark what a beautiful thing,- that out of the innermost of man's nature-the part that craves-the part that is the natural man's god in his fallen condition, the fullness flows. "Their god is their belly," says the apostle in Corinthians:that is to say, that man having fallen from God- fallen from the apprehension of a love that satisfies, and got to be a mere questioner of it, has got into self-care-into labor-into lust. God did not put him into such a place as that. God did not put him into a place where he must care; God put him into a garden; did not think that even the very world which He had created was good enough for the man of His choice, but took up one special part of it, planted it with trees of the choicest kind, made every thing that should gratify his eyes-his heart, and put him there in the midst of that garden, beloved friends; to enjoy the favor of God, and receive from His hands. And that is all.

Well, you say, was there nothing else? had he nothing to do? No ; he had to refrain from doing, -he had not to take of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There was no labor that God required of him. He was the favorite of Heaven-the last, newest creature; he was put there in a marked way as a dependent one, the most dependent, I believe, of all God's creatures. He was put there into a paradise watched by and cared for by God Himself, all his necessities made but the means of God's care for him being manifested. He was essentially a dependent creature. The angels had fallen before this, as we know, and God had made man a creature like the angels-an immortal spirit,-one who was, as it were, His child-His offspring by creation. I say, God put this spirit which He had made into a body, with which it was to be linked, and upon which it was in a certain respect to be even dependent. You know how dependent we are upon our bodies. don't mean that Adam was in the same way that we are. He was not. I don't mean to say that there could be in Adam any tendency to death, or any thing of that sort-the condition which we arc in as fallen. Surely not. But he had necessities, he had to subsist by food, he was dependent upon the senses for his communication with the world, in which he was to subsist, not independently, but maintained by food. The angels fell by pride. God, by all this, was hiding pride from man. He was teaching him dependence; caring for him, at the same time, in a way that made that dependence no trouble to him. If He made him a needy creature, He made all these things avenues by which he could be filled with satisfaction and delight. How blessed and wonderful that! God has joined those two things together from the very beginning; making man dependent upon Himself, and making that dependence no trouble-no distress, but a means of realizing the loving care of his Maker and Preserver every day and hour.

And, beloved, you know how man fell. A beast seduced him. God would not allow him to be tempted by a higher being,-one in that character. Of course, we know it was Satan who seduced him. But God would not allow him to come in any angel-shape-as one higher than man. And that makes very significant what you find in the second of Genesis, that God made Adam look at all the beasts which He had made, and give them names. He made him give them names as having knowledge of them. And looking them through and through, Adam knew that there was not one that could be found that could be a help for him. He was the master of the beast; they were all put under his hand, and he was the lord of them. Then God made woman, and gave her to be the help for him that he needed. But, beloved, it was by a beast man fell. God would not suffer him to be tempted but by a beast. He should have no excuse. He should not be able to say really that he was beguiled by one whom he could suppose had superior knowledge. He gave place to one who was below him, lost his superiority over the beasts themselves, and the blessed realization of what God was having vanished from him, he was sent out of paradise into the world outside, now to prove for himself what his own hands could do for him.

"God hath made man upright," says the preacher, " but he has sought out many inventions ;" and men are proud of it,-they are proud of their inventions. I have often said, How is it, beloved friends, that man has to have these inventions? Men say that "necessity is the mother of invention." It is required to invent to meet men's necessities now. But, beloved, how did man need those, inventions? They are the sign of the fall. Outside of paradise, and fallen away from God, he lusts. His belly is his god,-he craves. He is a creature made for eternity; he has, as the preacher says again; "eternity in his heart." That expression in Ecclesiastics 3:II-"the world his heart"-should be "eternity. With eternity in his heart, man tries to satisfy himself with the poor things of time. What is it that baffles all his wisdom ? He has no possible invention that can enable him to do away with death, or to meet judgment, He is a creature, formed for eternity, trying to satisfy himself with a world that passes from him, and ignorant of God. The first knowledge that we find after the fall is of his nakedness, and the first invention an apron to cover his nakedness. And so he has gone on.

Now Christ comes into the scene after this fallen and wretched creature,-comes into the midst of men such as you and I are. And he says, with the fullest knowledge of man's condition, " Whosoever is athirst, let him come unto Me, and drink;" he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."The place of want, beloved friends, is the belly-the-very thing that compels man to toil for satisfaction. The Lord says that he shall be so full-so satisfied, that out of that craving heart of man-out of his belly, no longer craving, but satisfied-shall flow " rivers of living water," Do you believe it, beloved friends?-do you believe it? If rivers of living water flow out of you, this means both testimony and service, surely. It implies real ministry to others, and that God is to get His own from you in the world. Surely it does. But if this is to be true of you, what are the means by which it is to be accomplished? You are to come and drink; you are to come and receive from Him as Mary did, and you shall find that in this one thing needful all other things are contained. Even amid a ruined world paradise is returned again for him who takes this place at Jesus' feet,-this place of happy dependence to which there is no lack, eternally secured to one that finds it. " Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her " How sweet and wonderful is that! Do you believe it? I am sure most Christians do not believe it at all. I am afraid, beloved friends, that there are scarcely any of us that in our hearts do fully believe it. If you say you do, where then are these "rivers of living water"? Why don't they flow? What is wanting? Ah! faith in it is wanting. There is so little of it. You see, the fullness is His, it is not ours. People have the idea that grace in a man is a sort of thing that God puts as it were a seed into the soul, and it is to grow and grow and grow, and develop there into more, so that he has consciously more and more. That is not it at all. Surely I do not mean to say that a man is not born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, and that as so born he does not grow. Surely he does; but that is another thing. From the very beginning of growth this ought to be true of us. Beloved, the blessedness we speak of is to be found in that which God has already given to us, if we are Christians,-that which the apostle witnesses in the second chapter of the epistle to the Colossians-in that verse of which we have often been speaking together as the key of the epistle. "In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are filled up in Him." Now, if that is really so, you see your competence at once. God has given you your place, your part, in Him already; and think, beloved friends, that in One in whom is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Him we are filled up! Faith has got to recognize this; faith has got to make it practical, not to make the thing true. It is true; but we have to recognize it to find the proper truth of it.

Let us remember, too, that the Voice that spoke in the feast of tabernacles did not address itself to any inner circle of privilege. It was in the world He spoke. In it still, therefore, He is speaking to every weary, unsatisfied heart. Now, I appeal to you, if there are any of you who have such. The Lord invites you, beloved friends. You say, perhaps, Well, I am afraid I don't realize my sin enough. Come to Him, then; for He is exalted to be a Prince and Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins. Come to Him. He invites men convicted of sin; but He invites them also in another character,–as thirsty and weary ones. Like Martha here-occupied with their own efforts in one kind or another-He invites them to come to Him. Whatever they are and whoever they are-not a soul but is welcome, thoroughly welcome, to Him. Alas! we are all Martha’s, (not, of course, in faith,) but apt to be busy with much serving; and the last thing which we naturally think of is to come to the Lord, to find satisfaction in Him alone. Ah! is not that true of some person here? You think, If He is such a glorious Person, He must be served. If He is such a glorious Person, would He come down from heaven to earth to be served by you? Was it not more adequate faith in Mary, saying, as it were, " If He had wanted service, He would not ask for it from such poor incompetent, hands as mine." "The less is blessed of the better."It is not more blessed to receive, but " it is more blessed to give than to receive."And are you trying, beloved friends, to serve Christ? Take care you are not trying to be "the better," and to make Him "the less."Are you trying to serve Him, when He had to come down from heaven to earth to serve you? Mary says "If He has come to serve me, I will let Him do it" She is down at His feet:He says she has chosen that good part. Do you choose the "good part," and you shall have it forever.

What is the secret, beloved friends, of all the dishonor done to Him (alas!) by His people? I'll tell you,-the one thing, the secret of it is, that they are not where Mary was,-they arc not in the place of real occupation with Himself. That is what the Lord wants. He has come all this weary way to attract our hearts to Himself. He wants us to receive out of His fullness,-He wants us simply to receive. Not to get us to say, after a little while, "I must be doing something now." He wants us to receive-to receive-to RECEIVE. If it is only receiving from Christ, every other responsibility will be met easily,-not by effort, but met of necessity. This will come after your own soul is fully satisfied; for the vessel must be filled itself before it can properly flow over. It is not from a vessel that is partly full that you expect an overflow. You must sit at His feet until you are filled yourself,-that is the first thing. And when filled yourself, don't think that you require effort then. Beloved, as surely as you are filled yourself, out of your belly shall flow "rivers of living water."

Alas! alas! pride is so natural to us. Man has followed Satan in that way. He would be as God. Man would still take that place, and make God his debtor. How can God be gracious? How can God give, and give, for nothing in return?-how can that possibly be? And, beloved, if there are those here who have these weary, restless, sinful, unsatisfied hearts, how hard it is for you to learn that He would make over to you, positively and definitely, His fullness! That is what He does.

You have only to receive ; only to take the place at His feet:He will pour out His grace. I would press this as from first to last the blessed truth. It is He who applies-who appropriates to the soul all the fullness of His grace, all the value of His work.

You remember, in the third chapter of Zechariah, how Joshua the high-priest is represented there, the very picture of a sinner clothed with his sins before the angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. There is not a word spoken by Joshua, nor a question asked of him. There is none to ask. Convicted sinner as he is, the only question is, what has God for a convicted sinner? People get into the presence of God in their sins. Many think, indeed, that they have to put away their sins and then get into the presence of God. No; nobody gets into the presence of God except in his sins, and then he is as dumb as Joshua is. The angel of the Lord says to Satan, " The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee:is no! this a brand plucked out of the fire?" And what does He say then? He says to those that stand by, "Take away his filthy garments from him;" and then He turns to the poor sinner himself, and, to make it plain to him and to us, He leaves the language of type and shadow, and to him He says, not "I have caused" thy filthy garments "to pass from thee," but " I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee." It looks like a New-Testament revelation ; so clear, so full is the grace announced. Poor souls that trouble themselves about their acceptance, how glad they would be to have such a voice! And yet it is for them,-written for them, the unchanging word of the unchangeable God. Does the angel tell Joshua to appropriate this grace? No; He says, "Take away the filthy garments take them from him," and He says to him, not even Can you believe that your iniquity is gone? or that My grace is great enough? but, in His own free and royal way, " I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee."He who speaks without repentance, and never withdraws His words, says, " Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." That is how Christ ministers to one that comes to Him. Is there a soul here that needs that? Christ definitely assures you of the forgiveness of your sins. He does not say, Now, appropriate this; but He says, I appropriate it to you, and it is yours." If we confess our sins," says the apostle,-what then? Joshua stands with those sins confessed upon him;-those sins covered him in the presence of God, and what is the result? He found God Himself acting in his behalf. It is God that appropriates the value of Christ's work to the soul. It is God that says, by the Spirit, to men, not You must do so and so, but I-I, it you confess your sins-if you simply take that place,- I am faithful and just to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, (1 Jno. 1:9.)

Beloved, it is an immense thing to be clear as to that,-it is an immense thing to be able to give souls such assurance. Like the spies to-Rahab- "Our life for yours." Those are grand words. She, as it were, says, " What can you tell me from God? Give me a true token." ''Our life for yours." Oh to be able to comfort souls in that way,-to give them the positive assurance from God-those souls that would gladly accept salvation, but are busy with their acceptance of it! Oh to be able to give them a " true token " that Christ has so died for sinners,–that when you take that place as sinners before God, that blood is the true token of salvation yours, yours, YOURS!

And as we begin, so we go on. Would that we did! but I mean in God's thought. As we begin, so we go on. We get out of His gracious handout of His fullness, first, our acceptance with God, -that which satisfied our souls-peace and rest in His presence. But oh, beloved, is it there we stop? Are we to acquire holiness in a different way from that in which we get righteousness and peace? No, surely; just as we find Christ for righteousness, so surely we do for sanctification and all else.

We have got to receive it at His feet, to look into His blessed face, to learn of His love to rejoice in Himself; and that is true sanctification. If that is so, Christ sanctifies. Occupation with Christ is what makes our lives what they should be,-transforms our lives-transforms our very faces. Occupied with Him, looking into His face, we are changed into His image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. It is in company with Himself we find "that good part "which Mary had chosen, in "part with Him."

And as with sanctification, so with service. Oh that we may have that kind of service which will not separate us from Him-the service that flows freely almost unconsciously, from the joy of His presence, and of the service which He renders us! Beloved, we are continually exalting ourselves, and He has to abase us. How strange and sad it is that so much of our lives we cause Him to fight against us instead of for us! Because He would have us in the place of blessing, He has to put us down, down, down,-our efforts at holiness, our attempts at service, in order that He may put us in the place He has for us. How slow are we to receive in its full reality the grace that requires not, but gives,-that delights to give,-that only seeks to have objects for it; the grace that, simply as we receive it, we find, not only fullness for ourselves, but that which makes our lives full also for others. May we all learn it more simply, the power and value, not of our efforts, but of Christ Himself.
It is the "one thing" I want to say to you tonight. Don't you think it is enough? If Christ says, "But one thing is needful," what is more needful than simply to learn that "one thing"? He came not to be served-to be ministered unto, but to minister to others, yea, to give His life a ransom for many. Let Him serve, in the greatness of His love; and we shall find, not only practical fullness for daily need, but all that He is told out to us.

Whoever you arc, there is no one to ask the question, when you come to Him, whether you are fit for His presence. He has no guard to His presence-chamber to ask whether you have got a right to be there. He does not want you to be kept off. Sin is no barrier even, because in the cross of Christ grace has triumphed, aye, over the worst sin that man could possibly commit; as the. hymn says,-

"The very spear that pierced His side Drew forth the blood to save."

Beloved, wherever you are, whatever you arc, no soul so far from Him but I invite you to Christ to-night. There is not merely no guard to His presence-chamber to keep you out, there is the public proclamation that you are welcome there. The King's door stands open, His table is for you, beloved friends. And His presence, Lord of all, come down in grace, that His fullness may be available for us, that we may find in Him, out of His fullness, "grace upon grace."

Now, I don't want to say any thing else tonight; but "one thing is needful," and we may shut up our books.

That " one thing needful" is occupation with Christ-to sit at His feet and learn of Him. So then, if we want to serve Him, the only possible way is to receive from Him first till our hearts are so full that we cannot hold it any longer. When the vessel is once filled, all the power of the spring pours over. The overflow is not measured by the capacity of the vessel, but by the power of the spring. Think of that, beloved friends. Think of our testimony in the world being the testimony of the divine fullness,-not the measure of what we are, but the measure, so to speak, of what He is. The one thing needful for us is that our whole souls should be satisfied with Himself; and to be occupied is to be satisfied.

God give us more practically, everyone, to know and prove it in His grace.