But upon the ground of responsibility merely men are lost. Hence the texts upon which Arminianism relies have to do with the world at large, with the provision made in grace for these, and the divine appeals to and dealings with them. An important class of texts, however, even with regard to these, they overlook or explain away, while they infer wrongly from their general texts as to the actual salvation of those saved. Calvinism, on the other hand, when it treats of actual salvation, is almost wholly right. Scripture and conscience agree here in their witness to its truth, and the opposition made is compelled to be mainly upon another ground, namely, the supposed bearing of this upon the case of the lost. Here the Arminian is upon his own ground, and if the Calvinist follow him here, he loses the strength he but now had, and Scripture and conscience turn against him.

Let us take up first the texts upon which the Arminian relies, and see how far they lead us, before we speak of those which may seem more to suit our present subject.

In the first place, then, God's love to the world is manifested in the cross. " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." It is not allowable to narrow this down to a love simply to the elect, as has been only too often done. It is true that the elect are all originally of the world, and that thus He loves them when dead in trespasses and sins, and for His great love quickens them (Eph. 2:4). But we cannot limit His love here to this:it is out of keeping with the "whosoever" which follows. Moreover the " world " cannot fairly be interpreted as less than the whole of it, if we believe in the transparent honesty and accuracy of Scripture. God's love to the world, then, is so deep and wonderful that it can only be measured by the gift of His Son. We dare not refuse to credit fully what is so solemnly assured.

But this being so, it settles decisively the meaning of Christ's death being for all. " For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all;" "a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world:" these and many similar passages assure without any doubt of full and sufficient provision for all made in the atonement.

Upon this ground, and to give express utterance to what is in the heart of God, the gospel is bidden to be proclaimed to "every creature." Men are assured that God "willeth not the death of a sinner," but that on the contrary He "will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." These testimonies are simple, and they deny that there can be any contrary decree of God hindering the salvation of any. The Redeemer's words as He wept over Jerusalem assure us that it is man's contrary will that resists God's will-" How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not!"

But this will of man itself, what shall we make of it? Is there not after all in it, define it as we may, some mysterious power which, spite of the fall, spite of the corruption of nature, should yet respond to these invitations, these pleadings of divine grace? It is clear that final condemnation is not for any sin of another, nor yet for any depravity of nature derived from him, but for men's own sins. They are treated not simply as a race, but individualized. And thus the apostle teaches that the whole world is brought in guilty before God. Conscience bears witness in the same way of these individual sins, and refuses to put them down simply to the account of nature. Eternal judgment according to the "deeds done" by each man "in the body," a judgment which of course will recognize all diversity of circumstance, knowledge or ignorance of the Master's will, will proclaim a personal difference to which "few" or "many stripes" will answer. All this is the antipodes of a mere necessary development of a common nature, alike therefore under like conditions. Freedom, in some real sense, is recognized by us all, whatever our creed, as necessary to responsibility, although it is true that we may freely deprive ourselves of freedom, and be accountable for this. There is a confessed mystery here, which no one can pretend to solve; but Scripture and conscience unite to assure us that man's guilt is truly his own, and that all those tender pleadings, admonitions, reasonings of God with man have in them a real suitability to men in general, and are no vain show.

Man's will is no mere inheritance from his fathers as his " nature " is; it is something which is in Scripture and in conscience held as his own personal, righteous accountability. It constitutes him, we may say, a person, a man; and to men God ever addresses Himself; as fallen creatures, born in sin and shapen in iniquity, "by nature children of wrath," yet always and none the less proper subjects of appeal; if destroyed finally, then self-destroyed.

So the Spirit of God is represented as striving with them,-with those who nevertheless to the last " resist the Holy Ghost." It is of no special consequence whether we can show or not the manner of this striving; it is enough that the word of God speaks of it as that,-that it is that. All this shows something very different from a simple condemnation merely, and giving up by God of all but the elect; and whatever it prove as to man at large, something more is meant than simply to demonstrate his ruin and helplessness, by that too which increases his condemnation. On the contrary, when the law has proved man's unrighteousness, and the cross that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, still in this very cross is it manifested that "God so loved the world that He gave His Son," and the gospel goes out addressed to every creature.

Thus far we must needs go, then, with the Arminians, and the truth of predestination does not conflict with this in any way. We have here simply to inquire what is, and we can affirm that Omniscient Goodness willed it so to be,-from eternity so willed it; did not of course desire or work the evil, but ordained to suffer it, and in this sense that it should be. The mystery of evil being thus suffered we accept,-do not explain, or suppose it possible to be explained. As a fact, we know it is, and know too that God is, and that He is against the evil. Scripture is of course in no wise responsible for it, while it gives us, not an explanation, but such a revelation of God Himself, and in view of it, that we can, have perfect faith in Him, and leave it unexplained. The cross has glorified Him in every attribute more wonderfully as to sin than this could raise suspicion; while it demonstrates that not mere power could deal with evil, the victory must be that of goodness, and in suffering.

Christ dying for .the world, the testimony of God's love to men at large, is no vain thing because in fact all are not saved by it. It demonstrates to us that infinite goodness from which men have to break away:that, of which He has sworn, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way and live:turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 33:II.)

Men die because of their own will, not of God's will; yet they die. And men crudely ask of God's omnipotence why He cannot convert them all. But omnipotence itself must needs be limited by His other attributes. What Infinite Wisdom can do I must be myself infinitely wise to know.

Let it suffice us that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," and that full provision has thus been made for that return of all to God to which they are besought. The result, it is for man himself to decide.

But now as to this result, what? Is it uncertain? Are we to conclude that because, if a man die, he wills himself to die, that therefore if he live, it is by his own will also? We may not argue so; for here too God has spoken, and the conscience of His saints responds ever really to what He says.

" He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not; He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Was this rejection universal? No; some received Him. What, then, of these? " But to as many as received Him, to them gave He right (see margin) to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name ; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (Jno. 1:10-13.)

Nothing can possibly be more decisive. And this plainly covers the whole ground. It is not, of course, that the will of man is not implied in the reception of Christ, for reception is surely not in this case unwilling, but rather that, as the apostle tells the Philippians, " it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do "–" both the willing and the working "-"of His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13.)

Every description of this new birth ascribes it in the fullest to divine and sovereign power. The very idea of "birth" implies it, for who is aught but passive in his own birth ? It is also quickening from the dead, and " as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." (Jno. 5:21.) It is a new creation; "for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." (Eph. 2:10.) And this defines the character of what is therefore truly effectual calling:"Whom He predestinated, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified."

This sovereign, gratuitous work in man, done in accordance with that eternal counsel which all things work out, defines clearly for us what is election. It means the gracious interference of divine love in behalf of those who, no different from others, dead in the same sins, instead of being given up to perish, are given to Christ to be the fruit of His blessed work, "that He might be the first-born among many brethren." It is love, and only love, righteously and in perfect goodness manifested in salvation only, and of those worthy of damnation. To charge upon it the damnation of the lost is blasphemy, however unconscious, of that in which the whole heart of God is pouring itself out. If others remain obdurate in pride and careless unbelief, and going on to destruction, while we, justified by faith, and having peace with God, rejoice in hope of the glory of God, is it because we are better than they? What Christian heart can believe this? No; it is because "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." No man has found his true level who has not come down there, and only there do we find the full and impregnable assurance of perfect and enduring peace. " Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" A love that found us with nothing, to indue us with all, is a love that has in it no element of change.
" For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,"-what possible cause of harm is there that is neither a thing present nor to come?-" nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The expectation of faith fully answered. The King of Israel is delivered, crowned, and glorified:His hand finds out all His enemies; wickedness is destroyed out of the earth, and the godly rejoice. To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

A King rejoiceth in Thy strength, Jehovah; and in Thy salvation how greatly doth He exult!

2. The desire of His heart Thou hast given
Him, and hast not withholden the request of His lips. Selah.

3. For Thou anticipatest Him with blessings of prosperity; Thou settest upon His head a crown of pure gold.

4. He asked life of Thee; Thou hast given it Him:length of days forever and aye.

5. Great is His glory in Thy salvation:honor and majesty Thou dost put upon Him.

6. For Thou settest Him in blessings for aye:Thou dost gladden Him with joy in Thy presence.

7. For the King trusteth in Jehovah, and in the mercy of the Highest He shall not be moved.

8. Thy hand shall find out all Thine enemies:Thy right hand find out all that hate Thee.

9. Thou wilt set them as a fiery oven in the time of Thy presence; Jehovah shall swallow them up in His anger, and the fire shall devour them.

10. Their fruit shalt Thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the sons of men.

11. For they spread evil over Thee:they have devised a plot they are not able to effect.

12. For Thou makest them turn their back:against their face Thou makest ready Thy bowstrings.

13. Be Thou exalted, Jehovah, in Thine own strength! [so] will we sing and praise Thy might.

"Behold a pilgrim journeying on,
Through the maze of earth;
His staff his prop to lean upon,-
Unknown his place of birth;
Ask whence the smiles you see him wear:-
"The secret of the Lord" is there!

Behold the traveler on his way,
Eyeing each scene around;
Deaf to each voice that bids him stay,-
East speeding o'er the ground;
Ask what his errand is-and where:-
"The secret of the Lord" is there!

View him beset by beasts of prey,-
Aloof from human aid;
See, at his feet they prostrate lay!-
How was the conquest made?
And why no look of fright or care?
"The secret of the Lord" is there!

Behold him weary, sick, and poor,
Yet pressing onward still;
Each trial patiently endure,
And gain each toilsome hill;
Bid him his source of strength declare:
"The secret of the Lord" is there!

Tell him the few he used to meet,-
Dearer than aught below,-
Have gathered up their wearied feet,
And quitted life's frail show;
Ask whence his calm and chastened air:-
"The secret of the Lord" is there!

Go, see him on the dying bed,-
Witness his gasping breath;
He talks of blond on Calvary shed,
And says, " How sweet is death!"
Bestows his blessing, mounts-oh, where
"The secret of the Lord" is there!

Our path through the desert is strewed with countless mercies, and yet let but a cloud the size of a man's hand appear on the horizon, and we at once forget the rich mercies of the past, in view of this single cloud, which, after all, may only "break in blessing's on our head."

The Inspired Use of Numerals

The inspiration of Scripture it is not my purpose to argue here. Every Christian must in some sense admit it, and as a different thing wholly from any thing to be found in whatever product of the human mind merely. Inspiration is the result of a direct operation of the divine mind upon the human:"holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Pet. 1:21.)

How far this divine influence extends has been, and is, alas! at the present day, much in question. As with Him to whom its testimony is, its human form hides from many its true glory. The apostle's claim for himself and others, if admitted, cannot be restricted to them, and is of verbal inspiration:" Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth " (i Cor. 2:13). And in fact nothing less than this would secure the truthful presentation of the " things " themselves. Every lame imperfect word would communicate necessarily its own imperfection to the thought conveyed, and an element of possible inaccuracy,-therefore of doubt,-would pervade the whole of Scripture, to an extent quite incalculable.

But, as I have said, it is not now my purpose to argue this. That which I have before me depends upon, and if it can be shown, demonstrates the absolute perfection of the whole word of God, putting the divine seal upon the whole and every part of it; while it furnishes a most important guide to its true division, and so to its right interpretation.

The present divisions are, it is known, mainly arbitrary, and of comparatively recent date; and, while having for certain purposes an evident convenience, are often a real hindrance to a proper understanding. The arrangement of the books too is various in different collections, little importance attaching to it in the minds of most, that of the Old Testament especially among its Jewish guardians being (where not guided by the chronology) capricious and unsatisfactory. Their number was made to agree with that of the letters of the alphabet; and many have been the speculations as to lost books whose names even have been appealed to as furnished by the books which yet remain. And similar thoughts have been entertained even as to the New Testament.

The views I have been led to, (and of the truth of which my readers need have no doubt, if they will follow me patiently in the investigation of them,) attach meaning and importance to every thing,-to number, arrangement and connection with each other; while they guide also as to the internal structure of the books individually. Of course I do not pretend in the detail of this to have attained either completeness or entire accuracy, but a good beginning I do not doubt the Lord in His goodness has enabled me to make, and enough to establish without any question the accuracy of the principles.

The first of these is the significance of numbers in Scripture, and their application in this significance to every thing here-books, divisions of books, chapters, verses,-always supposing, of course, that these are something more than men's conjectures or devices for reference. But in order to show this, we must first examine this significance, and prove it; and the task is lighter, inasmuch as those up to twelve are all that seem to require it, the higher ones being characterized as compounds of these, as even some of these are of those still lower.

Their significance in general is admitted by those who have looked with any care into the typical system of the word. But those who doubt may best have their doubts dispelled by such an inquiry as we are now to make into their individual meaning. Real consistency here is no mean evidence of truth; but when there is not only this internally, but new force, fullness, and beauty are given by this consistent meaning to the Scriptures themselves, we need not hesitate to see in it the design of infinite wisdom, as well as the seal of a perfection minute enough to be readily overlooked, but when discovered, only awakening the more our wonder and delight by its minuteness.

Ought we even to allow that it is to be " readily overlooked" ? It has been and yet surely only carelessness and unbelief could overlook it. Take the structure of the alphabetic psalms, or that- less familiar to the English reader,-of the book of Lamentations:who that had any right apprehension of the word of God could escape from the conclusion that if the Spirit of God were pleased to write an acrostic, it could not be from conformity to the prettinesses of an artificial style? It is man who has adopted it rather, and made of it a mere exercise of ingenuity, and belittled a meaning deeper than he could see; whereas God would by the singularity rather attract us to search further into what must, if it be His, be worthy of Him. Why in the ninth and tenth psalms, which are together an acrostic, is this alphabetic structure invaded as it were by some conflicting element, and for the time lost, disorder conquering order, but which returns again to be undisturbed thereafter to the close? Why in the hundred and nineteenth, on the contrary, is there the most perfect symmetry throughout, and each letter heading each of eight verses to the close of the alphabet and of the psalm? Why, again, in Lamentations is it just the third section (or chapter, which in this case rightly represents the sections,) which multiplies by three the simple alphabetic structure of the first and second? Surely there is a design here into which we shall do well to look; for God has surprises of love every-where awaiting the faith that honors Him. And in all this we shall make but little way if we are not skilled in the use of numerals as Scripture employs them.

I shall give now the meanings of these, as I have more than once given them, only desiring to insist that these must be definitely ascertained, or there will be no definite result in using them. Of some, there are very different meanings current, upon which I shall not enter however, nor need to enter as I think; it being enough to establish clearly that which I believe to be the true one, and which all subsequent use will tend to confirm.

The number one will be seen without much difficulty to stand for unity and supremacy. It is the number of God; not in His fullness, but as Sovereign Master of the whole scene of His creation. The first elementary truth is that God must be God. The first book, Genesis, thus represents Him as the Almighty-El Shaddai, the All-sufficient; sovereign in counsel, almighty in execution.

Two speaks primarily of not-oneness, which may develop into contradiction, enmity, but also on the other hand into fellowship, essential agreement and mutual confirmation. Hence it is the number of competent testimony, as Deuteronomy 19:15 ; " The testimony of two men is true," says our Lord. There are " two tables of the testimony " for Israel; two testaments into which the word of God is divided; "two witnesses" to Israel in the last days in the book of Revelation. The second Person of the Trinity is the "true Witness" and the "Word of God;" the second book of Scripture, Exodus, is the book of redemption, the great subject of testimony among men. But the thought of enmity, of the enemy, will often be found under this number, by no means necessarily displacing the other thought. Where Christ is, the opposite of Satan will be, and redemption is from his power.

Three is the number of Persons in the Godhead; therefore of divine fullness and completeness, as well as manifestation; for the One God (unknown in His proper character when known only as that) is unvailed to us in these three Persons:Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thus the third Person is also the Revealer, the Teacher of all things. And the third book of Scripture, Leviticus, leads us into the sanctuary as priests, to learn there what suits His presence. So too, because God manifests Himself in resurrection from the dead, coming in where all hope from man is absolutely gone, the third day is the day of Christ's resurrection, and the number is very frequently connected with this forth-putting of divine power, whether in physical or spiritual resurrection. And thus it is that "witness," overabundant, more than competent and in fact divine, is also found in this number (i Jno. 5:6-9).

Four is the number of the "four corners of the earth " or the " four winds of heaven." It is the is the world -number, looking at the world as a scene of those various and conflicting influences which make it the place of trial and probation for man exposed to these. He is taken on every side, surveyed and exposed-looked at from every point of view. The four gospels, I doubt not, give in this way the Lord so tried, but for Him making manifest His perfection only. And it is evident how the fourth book of Scripture, Numbers,-Israel's probation in the wilderness,-gives just this side of things.

Five is the human number, the stamp of man as a "living soul," connected by his five senses with the scene around. The books which are distinctly man's utterance in the Old Testament are five in number, from Job to Solomon's Songs, while the book of Psalms is in the Hebrew divided again into five books. These give us the full tale of human exercises, experience, and emotion, as the prophets speak on the other hand from God to man. The fifth book of Scripture, Deuteronomy, is as distinctly the people's book as Numbers is that of the Levites and Leviticus the priests. The thought of responsibility which some would press in connection with this number, and that of weakness, as others, have both their place in this larger definition, but incidently only, while the number ten, which is a multiple of five, is that which gives responsibility properly.

Six is the number of man's work-day week, without a Sabbath; and, as this, may be of good or evil significance, although inclining much more, alas! to the latter. The number of the beast, 666, six in continually higher powers, man's vain effort to reach the divine, stamps him with utter profanity.

The number seven adds the Sabbath to the week, and this is the stamp of perfection put upon it, as God rested the seventh day, His week being now accomplished and pronounced very good. These first seven days are thus the key-note to the use of the number; and as the week itself figures a spiritual week in individuals, and also in the earth dispensationally, there seems a corresponding largeness of application here. It is even used with reference to evil as complete and ripe for judgment, its eternal doom. The number of the day of God's rest applied in this way to good and evil alike is unspeakably solemn. And akin to this seems its division often into 4 and 3, the world-number and that of divine manifestation side by side-the evil and the good going on side by side; evil not hindering the good, nor itself changed from what it ever is, yet God manifesting Himself in all, and therefore glorifying Himself in all. (To be continued.)

Begins the application of the truths now brought out to the need of the saints. Confession of sins, and looking for pardon for Jehovah's names sake ; for goodness and uprightness unite in Him, and therefore sinners, humbled and confiding in Him, He will teach in the way.

[A psalm] of David.

ALEPH
Unto Thee, Jehovah, do I lift up my soul.

beth
2. O my God, in Thee have I trusted; let me not be ashamed! let not mine enemies exult over me:

GIMEL
3. Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed; let them be ashamed who deal falsely without cause.

DALETH
4. Show me Thy ways, Jehovah; teach me Thy paths.

HE
5. Guide me in Thy truth and teach me, for Thou art the God of my salvation:on Thee do I wait all the day long.

ZAIN.
6. Remember, Jehovah, Thy tender compassions and Thy mercies, for they are from everlasting.

cheth.
7. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my revoltings:according to Thy mercy remember me for Thy goodness' sake, Jehovah.

TETH
8. Good and upright is Jehovah; therefore will He direct sinners in the way.

JOD.
9. The humble will He guide in judgment, and the humble will He teach His way.
CAPH.
10. All Jehovah's paths are mercy and truth, toward those who observe His covenant and His testimonies.

LAMED.
11. For Thy name's sake, Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

MEM.
12. What man is he that feareth Jehovah? him shall He direct in the way He chooseth.

NUN.
13. His soul shall abide in good, and his seed shall possess the earth.

SAMECH.
14. The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear Him; and His covenant, to show it to them.

AYIN.
15. Mine eyes are constantly toward Jehovah, for He shall bring my feet out of the net.

PE.
16. Turn Thee unto me, and be gracious to me; for I am solitary and afflicted.

TSADDI.
17. The distresses of my heart are increased:O bring Thou me out of my troubles.

RESH.
18. Look on mine affliction and toil, and take away all my sins.

19. Look on mine enemies, for they are multiplied ; and they hate me with violent hatred.

SCHIN.
20. Keep my soul, and deliver me:let me not be ashamed, for in Thee have I taken refuge.

TAU.
21. Integrity and uprightness shall preserve me, for I wait on Thee.

22. Redeem Israel, O God, put of all her distresses! ____

Christ beheld and owned in the day of His sorrow, offering in their behalf. To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

Jehovah answer Thee in the day of distress:the name of the God of Jacob set Thee on high!

2. Send Thee help from the sanctuary, and uphold Thee out of Zion!

3. Remember all Thy offerings, and accept Thy burnt sacrifice. Selah.

4. Give Thee after Thy heart, and fulfill all Thy counsel!

5. We will joy aloud in Thy salvation, and in the name of our God will we set up our banners:Jehovah shall fulfill all Thy requests.

6. Now know I that Jehovah it is who saveth His Anointed, with the saving power of His right hand.

7. Some of chariots, and some of horses; but we will make mention of the name of Jehovah our God,

8. They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright.

9. Save, Jehovah; let the King hear us when we call!

Notes.-(i) "The name of the God of Jacob:" Jacob's God is the God of grace whose " name " Christ's work declares and magnifies. Hence it involves the exaltation of Him who has done the work.

(2) Looked at as a work accomplished for Israel, out of Zion the help comes.

(9) Not only Jehovah, but the King also, delivered, becomes the Deliverer.

He [the Lord] is the first-born of all creation:this is a relative name, not one of date with regard to time. It is said of Solomon, " I will make him My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth." Thus the Creator, when He takes a place in creation, is necessarily its Head. He has not yet made good His rights, because in grace He would accomplish redemption. We are speaking of His rights-rights which faith recognizes. He is then the image of the invisible God ; and, when He takes His place in it, the first-born of all creation. The reason of this is worthy of our attention-simple, yet marvelous:He created it. It was in the person of the Son that God acted, when by His power He created all things, whether in heaven or in the earth, visible and invisible. All that is great and exalted is but the work of His hand ; all has been created by Him (the Son) and for Him. Thus, when He takes possession of it, He takes it as His inheritance by right. Wonderful truth, that He who has redeemed us, who made Himself man- one of us-in order to do so, is the Creator! But such is the truth.-(Synopsis.)

"Why do believers go so heavily through the wilderness, going through the sand, and their feet sinking so heavily down in it? It is because they do not see that their acceptance with God is as perfect as that of Christ; God seeing all the beauty of Christ – upon them, and they will be presented by Christ to God, glorified with all His glory. I am on my road to glory, able to sing songs in the night."

A man's acts are always the truest index of his desires and purposes. Hence, if I find a professing Christian neglecting his Bible, yet finding abundance of time, yea, some of his choicest hours, for the newspaper, I can be at no loss to decide as to the true condition of his soul, I am sure he cannot be spiritual-cannot be feeding upon, living for, or witnessing to Christ.

The Individual Application.-In the individual ap-plication the lesson of Jacob's life is, as we have already seen, the fruitfulness of that holy discipline which Beth-el, the house of God, implies, and which out of such material as a Jacob can bring forth a vessel of exquisite workmanship to His praise. Here the literal history unites with the typical to develop a picture of the deepest interest to us. May He who only can, give us true blessing from it.

First, as a preface to the setting aside of Esau, we are told of his marriage, at forty years old, at once to two Canaanitish wives. This is the natural sequel of a profanity which could esteem his birth right at the value of a mess of pottage. These "forty years" are a significant hint to us of completed probation. In his two wives, married at once, he refuses at once the example and counsel of his father, and by his union with Canaanitish women disregards the divine sentence, and shows unmistakably the innermost recesses of the heart. It is a sign of the times that so little is thought of the character of man's associations. In truth, nothing gives us our character so much. To say of Enoch, or of Noah, that "he walked with God," describes the man fully in the fewest words; voluntary association with His enemies, can it consist with any proper desire after such a walk? Esau's Canaanitish wives set him finally aside from the blessing which the next chapter shows us becoming Jacob's.

On the other hand, crookedness and deceit are found in Jacob, the vices which belong to feebleness where there is no due counteracting power, of faith. Faith, which alone is wisdom and foresight, waits upon God and makes no haste. It walks erect and openly in the shelter of His presence secure of the accomplishment of His will, which alone it seeks, while cunning and craft blunder in the darkness. Jacob's deceit is not that which procures him the blessing:it procures him nothing but twenty years of toil and sorrow, of banishment from his father's house, and subjection to the will of others. The blessing could not be Esau's. Was Isaac or Esau more than God that they could alter His purpose? or did He need Jacob's feeble hand to uphold His throne? Alas! he is neither the first nor the last who has acted as if it were so. And this is what restlessness and impatience mean, -either some lust of the heart we must secure whether He will or no, or some doubt whether God be God:-rank unbelief or rank self-will; and these are near companions. How far off was Jacob yet from El-Beth-el!

True, there was strong temptation,-a mother's voice, the voice of affection and authority, to urge him on; the coveted blessing just slipping, as it seemed, away:but in the case of one with God, all this would only have made plain the power of God to keep a soul that confides in Him. With Him, no difficulties avail against us; it is not inherent strength or wisdom which avails in our behalf. The whole question is, Are we with Him ?

Jacob feebly opposes his mother's solicitation, but not in the name of God or of truth. He dreads getting a curse instead of blessing,-"-seeming a deceiver," rather than being one. He makes the whole question one of expediency, not of righteousness, hence has no power at all, or rather is already fallen. His mother boldly assumes the responsibility, and he has nothing more to oppose.

Once gained, he soon learns boldness; he can not only assure his father, once and again, that he is Esau, but dares to say that God has brought him what Rebekah's hands have prepared. What is holiness in us but the fruit of the shining of God's face upon us? If our faces are turned away, how soon does all the rabble of evil stalk abroad in the darkness! " The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." (Eph. 5:9, true reading.)

Yet Jacob obtains the blessing, surely from grace alone, and not from his evil works; and Isaac, dim-sighted spiritually more than physically here, wakes up to find how far nature has misled him, and to own the righteousness of a stronger will than his own. Esau sees nothing but Jacob and his father.

He who has now got the blessing is still totally without ability to trust God for the fulfillment of it. Rebekah's voice again is heard, urging him to flee from his brother's wrath, and Isaac is wrought upon to send him to Padan-Aram, to take a wife from Laban's daughters. It is now that solitary, a wanderer and a fugitive, he arrives at Beth-el, and here for the first time God appears to him.

Already the chastening of God's hand was upon him, and heavily he must have felt it as he lay upon the hill that night at Luz. Under the pressure of it, he was now to have the interpretation as the holy discipline of divine love. He must stoop his neck to the yoke, and accept the fruit of his own ways; God can assure him of no escape from that:but in and through it all the blessing that is his shall be attained. He will be with him to accomplish His faithful word, and bring him back from all his wanderings into the land which he is now leaving. He sees the angels of God passing between heaven and earth in constant ministration to the heir of promise, for He whom they serve is Abraham's God.

Here all is perfect grace, for grace alone delivers from the dominion of sin. Holiness is the necessary rule of God's house, but to be in God's house supposes relationship,-nearness. Jacob's matters, wonderful to say, are God's own care. What a remedy for Jacob's self-seeking anxiety is in all this! Had he learnt the lesson, how much evil would have been spared him! how soon and how differently might Peniel have been reached! But it is evident he enters little into the spirit of this divine communication. He calls the place indeed Beth-el, God's house, and the gate of heaven, but he is oppressed with fear, rather than comforted. The magnificence of the promise which has just been made him shrinks into mere bread and raiment, and his father's house again in peace, and he answers with a legal vow, in which what he will do is all too manifest. So he goes on his journey to find in Laban's house what is more congenial yet than God's, and to learn slowly there by experience what faith might have learnt as speedily as surely, without the sorrow.

In all this Jacob is our type; for if he were responsible to receive and walk in the power of a grace so plainly revealed, how much more we who have received a revelation which is to Jacob's as noon to twilight! To us the God of Abraham and of Isaac is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him our Father. For us the house of God is found on earth, all the fullness of God dwelling bodily in the Man Christ Jesus; and the promise, "1 will dwell in them and walk in them," being fulfilled to us also, as individually and collectively indwelt by the Holy Ghost. For us the throne of God is revealed as a throne of grace,-grace reigning through righteousness; our Saviour, Christ our Lord. How should all this purge out of our souls the leaven of subtilty and self-will, and conform us wholly to the will of God! " His commandments are not grievous," says the apostle:what say our souls? Practically, as day by day His will is declared, is it the conviction of our hearts, and what our lives manifest, that His yoke is easy and His burden light?

In fact it is more:it is the only true and practical rest for the soul, and the test of how far our hearts have been brought back to God. "Faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone." " Whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him." It is divine love which, sown in the heart, produces in the life the necessary fruit of service. Faith is the heart's response; service, the life's. Nor can the one be very much below the measure of the other.

Grace is that which, in the knowledge of it, delivers from our own will and ways. We cannot, blessed be God, carry it too far or rejoice in it too fully. He whose life is unfruitful testifies (whatever his lips affirm) how little he has known of it, not that he has carried it too far, or abandoned himself to it too entirely. That is impossible. "Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace."

Israel's return to the spirit of obedience to the law, which will historically precede their recognition of Messiah. They here own God in creation, Jehovah in the law; and the latter as enlightening and rejoicing the soul. They own also, as convicted by it, how little they can understand the evil of their own hearts and lives, and are cast upon God for help in helplessness.

To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse telleth the work of His hands.

2. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night whispereth knowledge.

3. It is not speech nor words, whose voice cannot be heard.

4. Their line is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the habitable [world]. In them hath He placed for the sun a tent;

5. And he is as a bridegroom coming forth of his chamber:he rejoiceth as a strong man to run [his] course.

6. His going forth is from the end of the heavens, and his circuit unto the end of them; and nothing is hid from the heat thereof,

7. The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul:the testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple.

8. The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart:the commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes.

9. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever:the judgments of Jehovah are truth, they are righteous altogether.

10. More desirable are they than gold, even than much fine gold:sweeter also than honey, even the droppings of the combs.

11. By them also is Thy servant warned:in keeping of them the reward is great.

12. Who understandeth his errors? free me from things hidden [from me].

13. Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous [sins]; let them not have dominion over me:then shall I be perfect; I shall be innocent from the great revolt.

14. Let the utterance of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before Thee; Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer!

Text.-(2) " Whispereth :" literally, "breatheth."

(4) "Line:" the Sept. read "sound," and this the apostle quotes in Romans 10:(II) ''Reward:" literally, ''end."

We now come to the types of redemption, the recognized theme of the book of Exodus. That it is related to atonement in the most intimate way is evident; for if atonement is by blood, so is redemption. They are nevertheless different thoughts; and their difference, as well as their relation to each other needs to be considered.

Redemption implies purchase-price in some way paid, as the Greek words for it especially show;* although it is far removed from mere purchase, with which it is, in many minds, as in some creeds, confounded. *Lutrosis and apolutrosis, and the verb lutroo, all from lutron a ransom price; with exagorazo, to buy out.* Two things are implied beyond purchase:deliverance from alien possession, and that as an object of special interest to the redeemer. Even where the redemption is by power, as often in Scripture, it is implied that there is cost, if only of labor, effort, or peril incurred. We see at once that the first promise is a promise of redemption:the woman's Seed the Redeemer; the redemption itself by power from the serpent; the bruised heel the personal cost incurred. Yet this bruised heel, as has been shown, is, in another aspect of it, atonement; and the word kopher, in Hebrew, stands for both. The atonement is the ransom-the price of redemption. The difference between the two thoughts is plainly this:that atonement has in view the divine righteousness; redemption, the divine pity and love :atonement has respect to guilt; redemption, to degradation and misery. But the two connect here, that in the provision of atonement is seen the love of the Redeemer; in the nature of the ransom, the righteousness of the Judge, become thus the Justifier. Atonement and ransom are two different aspects of the same blessed work. Thus it is evident why the epistle to the Romans, which dwells on the reality of atonement, has for its key-note the righteousness of God; while we are " justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Chap. 3:24.)

In the book of redemption, then, we would expect to find atonement a central figure, as indeed we do; and yet not to find so much its intrinsic character dwelt upon as its delivering power for those in whose behalf it is accomplished ;-that is to say, its manward rather than its Godward aspect. And this is how, exactly, the passover and the deliverance at the Red Sea present it to us. We must wait for Leviticus to realize in the sanctuary with God its full character for Him. Peace and deliverance must be first known and enjoyed before we are competent, and " at leisure from ourselves," to enjoy the manifestation.

Another thing that will help our apprehension of the types before us is to connect them with the epistle to the Romans, in which we find their real interpretation. Most evidently, the theme of Romans is the gospel salvation; and this also the types of Exodus show forth. In both, the deliverance is in two parts, or stages,-the first part having respect to the judgment of God; the second, to the bondage of one who reigns unto death. In the first, moreover, it is the blood that shelters; in the second, a passage through death (which the sea figures) by which we escape from the captivity in which we were enslaved.

The detail is of surpassing interest; and though a tale often told, it will bear retelling. Our present object requires the main points at least to be brought out, as we shall find in it a material development of the doctrine of atonement, as far as concerns its application to the need of the soul.

We must remember, as we consider them, that these are types of experience,-of realization and attainment,-as the salvation which the gospel brings is a known and enjoyed blessing,"the righteousness of God revealed to faith." The knowledge of shelter under the blood of the Lamb may long precede the knowledge of a new ground before God in Christ gone up from the dead to His place in the heavens. Blessed be God, the possession of the place does not depend upon the apprehension of it:it is ours before we can apprehend it to be ours. But let us remember, then, that we have here an order of apprehension which does not involve a corresponding order of possession.

Taking, now, Romans to interpret to us Exodus, Egypt is the world of nature, in which our standing is " in the flesh," and in which sin reigns over us unto death, as Pharaoh over Israel. It is a condition not realized as bondage until God works in the soul, but then an increasingly bitter one. Then the "law of sin" becomes a "law of death" also, and the soul groans for deliverance:this deliverance God's hand can alone accomplish.

And God's way is not as our way, nor His thought as our thought. Our way is, by the strength He gives, to deliver ourselves from the law of sin within us, and then to meet God, not as sinners, but as saints, and to find Him for us thus, accepting through Christ our imperfect obedience, and putting away our failures for His sake:God's way is to deliver us Himself, not by our own efforts blest of Him, but, first, meeting us as sinners and justifying us as ungodly by Christ's death for such.

Israel remain, subject to their old master, and not the first step taken of a walk with God, until they have learned that the judgment of God under which they lie in common with the Egyptians themselves is over, and they are safe,-saved by the blood of the lamb. The first passover is kept in Egypt, their journey not yet begun; but they eat it with girded loins and shod feet and ready staves, for that night they are to begin to go out.

They go out with judgment passed over and behind them; for us the wrath to come anticipated by faith and met in the cross, as we have already seen illustrated in the eight saved in the ark from the judgment of the flood. Israel start, "justified " instrumentally "by faith"-the faith by which they took refuge under the sheltered blood; "justified" effectively "by blood," which God saw, and passed over their houses. The blood declared the death inflicted upon the substitute:a penalty which in its very nature (as we have already seen) set the one for whom it was undergone outside the sphere of natural responsibility for evermore. Therefore says the apostle, " Much more, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."

For the death threatened we here find plainly judicial; a death which, if it end not the existence of the one under it, (as with man it does not,) involves in the shadow of it all that after-state. Such indeed had death been in its real nature, apart from the mercy of God from the beginning; yet in fact the first death on earth had been that of one pronounced righteous-"righteous Abel." Here, and in the flood, it was a death impossible to be confounded with this,-a strictly penal death. And this taken, the shadow of it also is removed. This too the "blood" implies:blood shed, not in martyrdom, as Abel's, but by direct command of God, in exaction of penalty. How surely, then, "being now justified by His blood" insures our being " saved from wrath through Him "! All is settled,-completely, finally settled, according to the type here and the apostle's argument, when we begin to start on our path with God.

Settled forever Godward, but not yet are we outside the enemy's jurisdiction. But his power is apparently broken, and God Himself is with us. From this point, and before the sea is reached, "the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:He took not away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people."

This complete settlement is given to their apprehension in the feeding upon the lamb within the house. It is such an obvious type, that it needs no insisting on. Death here, as had been permitted, significantly, since the flood, becomes the food of life. But it is marked in this case, that the lamb must be, " not sodden in water," (or rather, boiled)

But the passage through the sea does not land us in Canaan, as the doctrine of Romans does not put us in the heavenly places. We must for this add Joshua to Exodus, and Ephesians to Romans. We thus find that the passage through the flood has been divided into two for us, each part expanded and amplified, that we may the better view it. Here we pass over much of this, for our object is one precious truth, central indeed in doctrine, as the fact in divine history. May its contemplation grave it upon our hearts so as to enable us to say with the apostle, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

"If Christ were to save me from the world and from Satan and not from self, what should I do? I have a self-will of my own. Christ must save us from self, and that is why we often get falls. Peter had a good opinion of himself, and the Lord let him alone. David was allowed to go down into the depths of evil, that he might learn how unlike he was to David's Lord. If any one knows Christ, he will know Christ's willingness to save from self; he will be able to say, 'Ah, there is One up there who if He has to break my heart to pieces in order to break self, will yet keep me unto that day.'"

Is it right that a believer should be a politician? This is the question before us. And to treat the matter clearly, let me state some points that belong to such a character, if they are not the very conception of it.

I understand, then, by a politician, one who takes a considerable and constant interest in the civil government of his own country, and of the world at large. He praises the rulers when he thinks they deserve it, and condemns them when, as he believes, they govern amiss. He lifts up his voice against injustice, fraud, deception, corruption, restraints on liberty. He will resist what is evil as far as he may by law. He exercises every civil privilege to which he is entitled to influence the government of his country. If opportunity were offered, he would take office and power in the world, and exercise it for his fellow-citizens' benefit.

I. How, then, can we tell whether this is right in a believer or not? By looking to Jesus as our pattern. His life is recorded to this end-" leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps." (i Pet. 2:21.) Every thing He did was pleasing to His Father. " I do always those things that please Him" (Jno. 8:29:Matt. 17:5); and, since every perfection was found in Jesus, whatever He did not do or sanction is not pleasing to God.

Was Jesus, then, a politician? Did He take any interest in the political government of His country? Did He pass judgment on the persons or measures of the civil rulers of Palestine? Did He stand up for the politically oppressed, and rebuke the political oppressor? Did He exercise authority of any kind in civil matters?

1. His conduct is the very reverse of the politician's. Had He been one, His political feelings must have been peculiarly drawn out by the circumstances of the day. In His days the last shadow of Jewish liberty departed, and His country was oppressed beneath the iron gauntlet of Rome. Such a state of things would have thrilled and agitated to its core the breast of the independent citizen, the lover of liberty. In the gospels we only gather the political changes of the land from the most distant hints of the narrative.

2. When occasions occur on which, if politics be right for the Christian, the Saviour must, have declared Himself, He uniformly puts them aside. One of His hearers beseeches Him to engage his brother to divide an inheritance with him. (Luke 12:13.) Here the politician would have shown himself. Jesus refuses to listen to the matter, or exercise even the lowly power of an arbitrator. " Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you?" If the Christian's duty is to take the office of judge or divider, Jesus ought to have taken it as our perfect example of what is right; but He thrusts away with a firm hand the political element of the question, and only warns the disciples against covetousness.

3. John the Baptist, His own forerunner, the greatest of women born, is slain through the arts of an adulterous princess, and by the orders of an ungodly king. How does Jesus meet the event? Does He lift up His voice against the oppressor and murderer? No, John is imprisoned, but Jesus speaks not of the injustice; he is murdered, but He utters no cry. against the cruelty or tyranny of Herod. John's " disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart." (Matt. 14:10-13.) The case is solemnly announced to Him by John's own followers. As pointedly He is silent. The Saviour was no politician.

4. Take another incident. " There were present at that season some that told Him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." (Luke 13:1:) A politician would have been on fire at this national outrage. Religious antipathies met with political. Here was a field whereon to inveigh against Roman cruelty, and to rouse the Jews against a tyranny that trampled on the true religion. A pagan profaning with bloody hands the worship of the true God! What would the politicians of our day have said had a party of the queen's troops fired into a dissenting chapel while they were at worship, and shot some dead while on their knees? Would not the politician account it almost treason to be calm ?

What is Jesus' reply? "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The politics of the question are wholly passed by; the moral and spiritual views of the matter is alone regarded. This is an especial-a most decisive case. Doubtless it made the blood of every native Jew boil with rage; but Jesus drops no word of indignation against the governor's crime, nor applauds the as martyrs for their country. Jesus, no politician.

5. The politician must maintain his civil rights, (he would tell you) for his own sake, authority not to overstep its just aries. An unjust demand upon his purse in the way of tax he would esteem himself bound to resist. But how does Jesus act in such a case? The demand of the tribute-money is made upon Him. (Matt. 17:24.) He proves His exemption, but He works a miracle to pay the demand.

6. A question is raised by His countrymen, and referred for His decision-" whether it was lawful to give tribute to the Roman emperor or not." This critical question must have drawn out the politician. Involved in it lay the right of the Romans to rule Judea, and impose taxes at their will. The oppressions of the governor were before His eyes. The Caesar that swayed the scepter was profligate, cruel, a murderer. Yet He bids the Jews pay tribute even to an idolator, and though the emperor might apply the money to the support of idolatry.

Jesus, then, was not a politician. Am I a disciple of His? Neither, then, am I to be one. " It is enough for the disciple that lie be as his master." If Jesus did not intermeddle in civil government, it is because such conduct would not be pleasing to God. Jesus neither acted politically Himself nor sanctioned it in others. To be engaged in politics, therefore, either as an actor or speaker, is no part of my duty as a Christian, else the character of Jesus is not perfect. But His perfection is my pattern; and therefore it becomes me to refuse, as pointedly as He did, to mingle in politics; for this is my calling-to be not of the world, even as Jesus was not of the world. (Jno. 17:19.)

II. But did not Paul plead his Roman citizenship when they were about to scourge him? Did he not, when his life was in danger, appeal unto Caesar? True; and the Christian is permitted, therefore, when on his trial, to plead the provisions afforded by the law to save himself from death or injurious treatment. But neither of these points form part of the character of the politician, such as we have described him.

Take the strongest case. Paul and Silas are dragged by interested men before the rulers of Philippi. The magistrates, without any form of trial, scourge them and thrust them into prison. (Acts 16:19-24.) What would a politician have done in such a case? Would he not have thought it due to his Roman citizenship to carry the cause to Rome, and to make an example of these tyrannous magistrates, that all throughout the empire might know that the rights of a citizen were not to be trampled on? Does Paul do so? No. He requires, indeed, that the magistrates should not dismiss them privately, but come themselves and set them free. But he exacts no apology; he lays no information against them. This would have been to act the politician, and this he docs not do.

III. Many of the principles put forth in the epistles decide the present question.

I. What is the Christian's position? He is a "stranger and pilgrim upon earth." (Heb. 11:13-16; I Pet. 2:11.) Then lie has neither inclination, right, nor title to political power. By profession he surrenders it. Who may take part in the government of a country? Natives only-not strangers. What has an Englishman living in France to do with the government of France ? But he is, moreover, a pilgrim, and therefore has less reason still. If a stranger may not interfere in the policy of a foreign country, much less one who is not even residing in it, but merely passing through it on his way to another land. To meddle with politics, then, is to put off our character as strangers and pilgrims.

2. To take up the politician's character blinds the Christian as to his true place before God, and mars the testimony which he ought to give to the world. The witness of the Holy Spirit to the world (which, therefore, the believer is to take up and manifest by his word and life) is, that the world is sinful, because it believes not on Jesus, and that it is under condemnation, together with its prince, only spared from day to day by the patience of a long-suffering God. (Jno. 16:) The Christian is to testify that the Lord Jesus is coming to execute upon it the due vengeance for its iniquity, and that therefore it becomes all to flee from the midst of it to Christ. All who do thus flee to Christ become part of His flock-the Church, which is not of the world, but gathered out from it.

If, then, the Christian readily surrender the world's good things-pleasures, privileges, title,- he lives as becomes the child of faith, and, like Noah, condemns the world. Lot, escaping out of Sodom with nothing but his staff, bore a strong testimony that he believed that the wrath of God was about to descend on it. But how would the force of that testimony have been broken, if he had gone back into the city to purchase a house there? or had Noah, after declaring that in a year the flood would destroy the earth, bought an estate, would not the world have seen the inconsistency at a glance? Would not men have said, " Noah himself does not believe his own message. Why, then, should we credit it? If he believed that the flood were so near, would he buy, and plant, and build?" Apply this, Christians, to politics.

3. At this point the prophetic question comes in. They who think that the Christian should act as the citizen of the world, imagine also (and this fresh error is necessary to render them consistent,) that the world is becoming better, and that in the happier times that are approaching the gospel will, by virtue of the means now employed, prove triumphant every where. Is this the truth? What saith the Scripture? What is the motto of our dispensation ? " Many are called, but few are chosen" "God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name." (Acts 15:14.) And what is the close of it? "In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits." (i Tim. 4:1:) In the last days perilous times shall come" (2 Tim. 3:1:) When the world "shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape." (i Thess. 5:3.) The world is evil, then, and will be evil when the Saviour returns-will be caught in its iniquity, and smitten with His destroying judgments.

4. But if he may not rightfully use his political privileges as the private citizen, much less may he take office in the world. But it is said, "What! are not Christians the fittest persons to hold power? No:they are of all the most unfit, for they have a Master to serve whose laws are quite opposed in principle to those of the world, and the magistrate must execute the world's laws, as being the world's servant. The law of the world, when at its highest perfection, is strict justice. But Christ has to His disciples repealed this, and taught us mercy as our rule. (Matt. 5:38-48.) Could any worldly government act out the sermon on the mount? When one of its citizens had been assaulted and robbed, could it dismiss the convicted robber, because the Saviour commands us not to resist, or to avenge evil? Its principle is, "Punish according to the offense," and by that it abides. If so, the Christian (if he understands his place,) cannot be a judge or wield the power of the world's law. He is commanded, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." (Matt. 7:I.)

As he stands himself on mercy before God, mercy is to be his rule toward man. Judgment now is to him judgment "before the time." (i Cor. 4:5.) God challenges vengeance as His own. " Vengeance is Mine" it is not, therefore, His saints' office. But the magistrate is " a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." (Rom. 13:4.) He, then, who sees this can never consistently touch the civil sword. The saints shall indeed one day "judge the world" (i Cor. 6:2); but now, because we are the sons of God, " the world knoweth us not, even as it knew Him not." (i Jno. 3:1:)

5. The same thing might be shown from Paul's rebuke of law-suits; for these seem matters of necessity almost, as men are apt to account them. How much more, then, would he have rebuked the seeking the world's privileges or honors? Paul had to counsel the believers in the world's loftiest, imperial city. He had to indite directions to those who lived amidst the perpetual strife for consulships, praetorships, quaestorships, and every kind of honor. Were the Christians, then, to engage in the struggle? "Mind not high things; but condescend to men of low estate." (Rom. 12:16.) Is not this decisive?

The epistles show the Christian is to conduct himself as a husband, a father, a master, a subject; but no rules are given to him as a magistrate or citizen. What must we infer, then? That God does not recognize Christians as acting for Him in either of these two conditions. The politician rebukes the real or supposed misgovernors of his country. The Christian is to " speak evil of no man, to be no brawler, but gentle." He is not to despise government or speak evil of dignities, or to bring against them railing accusation. (2 Pet. 2:10, ii ; Jude.) He is to "show all meekness unto all men." The politician's motto is, "Agitate! agitate! agitate! " the Christian's, "that ye STUDY to be quiet, and to do your own business." (i Thess. 4:11.)

6. To the extent that the Christian is a politician, his heart is engaged with the things of the world; a new thorn is planted in his breast to choke the good seed and make it unfruitful; a new weight is hung about his neck to hinder him in his race. To the extent that he is a politician, he comes under the censure passed upon the false prophets,-"They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them." (i Jno. 4:5.) He is a soldier of Christ, who, contrary to his Captain's will and pleasure, is "entangling himself with the affairs of this life" (2 Tim. 2:3, 4.) It is the Christian's condemnation to be living like others. How surpassingly strong is that word, " Are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (i Cor. 3:3.)

Look to the practical results of this doctrine. Are political Christians the most heavenly-minded, useful, gentle patterns of their Lord? or have not the love and zeal of the Nonconformists sadly declined since they have come forward to take a prominent part in the world's strifes and partizan-ships? Do they not confess that the work of the Lord has not prospered ? This is one of the reasons. They have descended to the world's level, and have drunk into its spirit.

Let me exhort the believer, then, to surrender all interference in politics. " Let the dead bury their dead." Your concern is the kingdom of God; your city, the one to come; your citizenship, in heaven. 'Refrain from the world's politics, for Jesus was no politician. Refrain, else you mar your witness to the world, that it is evil and lying under judgment. Are you not a stranger and pilgrim? Then meddle not with that world which you left.

The world is ripening for judgment, and all your efforts cannot improve it in God's sight. Gather out from its doomed streets as many as you can, but leave the city alone. Lot cannot mend Sodom; but Sodom can-nay, will-corrupt Lot. (A reprint from an old tract.)

Q. 23.-What is the teaching of Ecclesiastes 11:3–" In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be" ? for what gees before and follows after makes a difficulty as to the way in which it is generally understood.

A. The words seem to me to speak plainly of the irrevocable character of the divine decrees, which cannot be altered, and from which there is no escape. This is in keeping with the preceding verse-the " evil that shall be upon the earth:" it is as irrevocable as unforeseen. Blessing and doom,-the rain-fall and the tree-fall are equally and entirely in the hands of God. This must not provoke a timidity which would stop all labor (5:4), but one must go on trusting in Him who "worketh all" after the counsel of His own will.

Q. 24.-In Rom. 2:7, in what sense is eternal life spoken of?

A. As often, as something we enter into at the end of our course. Chapter 6:22 thus speaks of it:"Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." Grace it is that sets and maintains us in the way of holiness to reach this end. The apostle's language in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, which has caused perplexity to many, is simple enough when we remember this. Eternal life being in us, as it is when we are born again, is another thing not to be confounded with this, of which of course it is in no wise contradictory. These are truths of quite a different order:the one belongs to divine grace; the other, to divine government.

Q. 25.-What is the difference between the circumcision being justified by faith and the uncircumcision through faith ?

A. By faith gives the principle upon which God is acting:He is justifying the Jew by faith; but then if a Gentile have faith, is He not the God of the Gentile also ? Surely He is. Then it results that the Gentile also will be justified by the faith he has.

The theme of Leviticus is sanctification. Exodus closes with the tabernacle set up and the glory of the Lord filling the place of His habitation. Leviticus begins with the Lord speaking to Moses thence. His presence is in grace, but in holiness:"Holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, forever." Holiness in grace is what sanctification implies.

First of all, then, as we open the book, we find given by God Himself the full details of those sacrifices which are the various aspects of that one Sacrifice in the power of which we are sanctified, or set apart to God. There are five, divided into two classes very distinct in character, according as they are or are not " sweet-savor offerings."

The term we have already had in connection with Noah's sacrifice. The burnt-offering, meat-offering (so called), and peace-offering are all said to be " for a sweet savor unto the Lord." The sin and trespass-offerings (which are quite distinct from one another moreover), are not that, although expressly guarded from disparagement, as " most holy." (Chap. vi, 17.) These last are indeed the special witnesses of divine holiness as against sin, while the former speaks more of the perfection of the offering on its own account. Judgment is God's strange act; in the self-surrender of One come to do His will in an obedience reaching to and tested by the death of the cross, God can have fullest and most emphatic delight.

It is evident that the burnt-offering has a very special place in the divinely appointed ritual of sacrifice. It not only comes first in order here, but in a certain sense is the basis of all the rest. The meat-offering is often spoken of as an appendage of it:" the burnt-offering and its meat-offering " (as Lev. 23:13, 18; Num. 28:28, 31; 29:3, 6,9, etc.). The peace-offering is burnt upon it (Lev. 3:3.). The altar, again, is especially styled " The altar of burnt-offering" (ch. 4:7, 10, 18, 25, etc.); and on it, night and morning, the "continual" burnt-offering was offered:God would keep ever before Himself what was so precious to Him.

The very name of it speaks really of that:it is literally "the offering that ascends"-goes up to God. All the offerings did, of course; but of them all, this is the one that does:as of all the offerings consumed on the altar this is the only one that is entirely burnt,-the " whole burnt-offering." It is especially God's side of sacrifice, as (of the sweet-savor offerings) the peace-offering was man's side. Yet, on the other hand, it was the offering "for acceptance," as that verse should read which we have in our common version as " He shall offer it of his own voluntary will." It should be, " He shall offer it for his acceptance." The measure of our acceptance is not simply that sin is put away:it is all the preciousness to God of that perfect "obedience unto death" by which sin is put away. This by itself would show us that the peculiar acceptability of sacrifice to God is what the burnt-offering expresses.

But this implies that, voluntariness of character which, spite of the mistranslation already noticed, is clearly to be found in it. This attaches, indeed, to all the sweet-savor offerings, as it could not to the sin and trespass. But here the perfect self-surrender of Him who says, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God," is tested in the substitutionary victim-place. The offering is flayed and cut into [not pieces merely, but] its pieces:all is fully and orderly exposed. Then, head, fat, inwards, legs, the fire tries all, and sends all in sweet savor up to God.
This testing by fire we must carefully distinguish from what is by some confounded with it- the judgment due to sin. It has thus been said that while every offering did not set forth death, every one (as the meat-offering, and the similar offering of fine flour, permitted to the extremely poor for a sin-offering,) did set forth that of judgment. Older expositors have inferred from it that the Lord suffered for our sins after death. The whole thought is entire misconception, which would introduce confusion into the meaning of all the offerings. Consistency would then surely require that even the burning of the incense should typify judgment also; but who would not perceive the incongruity? The meat-offering would also be true atonement. The sin-offering burnt outside the camp and upon the ground, the true figure of judgment borne, would be indistinguishable from the burnt-offering here. The distinction between the sweet-savor offerings and the rest, carefully made in these chapters, could not be sustained; and judgment of sin would be declared a sweet smell to God. Moreover, the answer by fire, as on God's part the token of acceptance of the sacrifice, which we find again and again in the after-history, would connect strangely with the thought of judgment upon sin. In a word, if any thing is clear in these types almost, it is so that the altar-fire must have another meaning.

Now, it is admitted that fire is the common figure of judgment; yet when it is said, "The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is," we have another thought from that of wrath. " Our God is a consuming fire,"-not, surely, of wrath to those who can truly say, "Our God,"-but of holiness, yea, jealous holiness. It is this that implies of necessity His wrath against sin:it is no mere governmental display, but the result of His own nature-of what He in Himself is. But this holiness the Lord met indeed (as seen in all sacrifice) in the place of sin, and therefore of the wrath due to sin. All death-all blood shed in this way therefore was in atonement. Of the burnt-offering it is especially said, "It shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him." And of all blood connected with the altar it is said, " I have given it upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." (Lev. 17:11.) But while this is true of all sacrifice therefore, it is a very different thing to assert that judgment as distinguished from death is found in every offering, even where death was not and could not be. On the contrary, it may be maintained that death as the great public mark of divine judgment was what was kept prominently before the eyes of men in a dispensation which appealed to sight and sense, as all did more or less until the Christian. But then the judgment in this was not the judgment after death, but only the shadow of it:it was not judgment as distinct from death, surely. The blood was the atonement, so the law said; not the altar-fire which consumed the victim.

How different, the thought of wrath consuming its object, and of holiness exploring that which, exposed perfectly to its jealous searching, yielded nothing but sweet savor-"savor of rest"! Here the circumstances of the trial only enhance the perfection found. In human weakness and extremity, where divine power exposed, not sheltered, or sustained and capacitated for suffering, not rendered less; where upon One racked with bodily suffering fell the reproaches of those who in Him reproached God,-the taunts and mockings of heartless wickedness, taunting Him with His love; where the God whom He had known as none else, His all in the absolute dependence of a faith which realized human helplessness and necessity in all its terrors, in the utter loneliness and darkness from which all divine light had withdrawn:-there it was that the fire brought out nothing but sweet savor. Every part fully exposed and searched out,-" head, inwards, legs,"-mind and heart; spirit, soul, and all the issues of these in word and work and way,-all furnished that for God which abides perpetually before Him in unchanged and infinite delight. "Accepted in the Beloved," this delight it is in which we too abide.

Preceding the offering upon the altar was what was common to all these sacrifices-the laying of the offerer's hand upon the victim, and the necessary death and sprinkling of the blood. All these must be considered in their relation to the whole.

The "laying on of hands" we find in various connections both in the Old Testament and the New. It is given an important place in that summing up of the fundamental principles of Judaism, -the " word of the beginning of Christ"* (Heb. 6:I, marg.)-from which the apostle exhorts the Hebrew converts to go on to " perfection "-the full thing which Christianity alone declared. *Not, as in the text, " the principles of the doctrine of Christ," which surely we could not be called to " leave."* The fundamental points or"foundation of Judaism he declares to be such truths as "repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, a resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment." Four central and solemn truths these, but the real Christian "foundation," Christ come and dead and risen, is not among them. Consequently, as the apostle urges throughout the epistle, there was in Judaism no real "purging of the conscience from dead works," such as the blood of Christ gives, no perfecting of the worshiper for the presence of god, and now way of access into His presence. (Chap. ix, 10:) What then took the place of these for a believer, in the old dispensation now passed away? In view of resurrection and eternal judgment, what had he to assure his soul? The words I omitted just now from the statement of Jewish principles supply us with the answer. He had " a teaching of baptisms,* and of laying on of hands,"of those baptisms, namely, which in the ninth chapter (5:10.) The apostle puts in contrast with that work of Christ of which they were indeed the shadow, and only the shadow. *Baptismon didaches,-" teaching," rather than "doctrine." The difference is, that " doctrine " would intimate that the explanation of the baptisms was given, which was not:Christianity alone gives the "doctrine," as the apostle does in chapter 9:Again, it is really " baptisms," be confounded either with Christian baptism, or even John's, which are always Baptismata, not Baptismoi.* In place of Christian assurance in the knowledge of the one completed work of atonement, he had forgiveness of individual sins by sacrifices continually needing repetition. How immense the difference! Out of which, alas! the enemy of souls has cheated the mass of Christians, replacing the " perfection," which God has declared, by sacramental absolutions, or repeated applications of the blood of Christ, -the old Jewish doctrine in a Christian dress.

Here, then, as a central part of Judaism, the "laying on of hands" had its place. It was the designation* of the offering as the sacrificial substitute of him who offered it. *The actual solemn appointment. The transference of sin was implied in these cases, just because it was a substitutionary victim that was marked out; but no transfer of any kind was necessarily shown in the act itself. I cannot enter upon the question of its meaning in the New Testament, which would lead me too far from what is before us. But I believe it every where expresses the same thing.* Its importance lay in this, that it expressed thus the faith of the offerer for his own part. It said, " This is my offering." On the day of atonement, the high-priest in the same act said this for the people at large; but in these, each for himself said it Faith must be this individual self-appropriating thing, although I do not mean by that what many would take from it, and what is taught by many.

When, in the vision of Zechariah the prophet, the high-priest Joshua, as the representative of guilty Israel, stood in filthy garments before the angel of the Lord, " He answered and spake unto those that stood before Him, saying, ' Take away his filthy garments from him.'" But that was not enough. " And unto him He said, ' Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee.'" (Chap. 3:4.) How beautiful this direct assurance from God's own lips! translated, too, out of the language of type and figure into the plainest possible words, that it may be fully understood. Just so in every case for solid peace must there be this direct assurance to the soul. It is God who appropriates the work of Christ to us:not indeed, in spoken words now, but in written ones. But when, then, does the Word of God thus appropriate Christ to us? This very scene may give the answer. It is when we repent.

Should I not rather say, "when we believe"? That would be quite true, of course. Surely it is true that he that believeth on Christ hath everlasting life. Yet there are those (and not a few) who stumble here, and say, "O yes, if I were sure that I believed!" And objectors urge, "Your faith that believers have eternal life Scripture justifies, but where is the word to say that you are a believer? This is your own thought merely, and you may be mistaken."

So I drop right down upon this:"Christ died for sinners." That surely is Scripture, and you will not say, I am not a sinner, or that I have not Scripture for that! Here, then, I have solid ground under my feet; here the everlasting arms hold me fast. And this Is repentance, when I take home to myself the sentence of God upon myself, and thus join the company of lost ones, whom (in contrast with those "just persons who need no repentance") the Shepherd goes after till He finds and saves. Search as you will, you will find no other representative of the " sinner that repenteth" but the " sheep that was lost." (Luke 15:) To such lost ones, " clothed in filthy garments,"the Lord says still, even by the mouth of Zechariah, "I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee." Our appropriation here is but the apprehension of what He has done.

But if I urge "Christ died for sinners" in my own behalf, I have, as it were, my hands upon the head of the victim; and thus it is that my acceptance is declared to me. People confound this sometimes with what Isaiah says,-"The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all;" but the hand of the offerer could not by any possibility be Jehovah's hand. And I can, however long ago the precious Sacrifice has been offered, by faith consent to it as offered for me. Without this there can be no acceptance, no salvation. It is here that the position of the one who denies atonement is so unspeakably solemn.

The death of the victim follows at the offerer's hands:priestly work has not yet begun. " And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord." It is thus emphasized that the death of Christ was our act;* not as being morally one with those who slew Him, (although that is surely true, and most important in its place,) but by our sin necessitating His death on account of it:" the Son of Man must be lifted up."*I cannot see that the offerer here represents Christ, and therefore as laying down His own life. It seems an unsuited act to represent this. The offerer when laying on his hands on the victim just before cannot , represent Him, moreover:nor where he offers "for his acceptance."* It is " before the Lord," as showing that the necessity on the other side was a divine one, proceeding from the holiness of the divine nature.

Thus the " blood that maketh atonement for the soul" is now provided. "And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tent of meeting." This sprinkling of the blood is in testimony of the work accomplished, and for the eye of God, as much as that passover-blood of which He declared, " When I see the blood, I will pass over you." If the blood it is that maketh atonement for the soul, that blood is of necessity presented to God, as the atonement was made to Him. It is not here put upon the person, and we have not yet got to consider that; but wherever put, the blood is for God. And indeed it is the assurance of that which gives it power, as the apostle says in Hebrews, to "purge the conscience from dead works to serve [or"worship"] the living God." Thus " the heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience." (Chap. 9:14; 10:22.) It is faith's apprehension of the efficacy of that perfect work.

After the blood-sprinkling comes the flaying of the offering, the skin of which, as we learn afterward (ch. 7:8), belongs to the priest that offers it. Christ is evidently the One typified by this sacrificing priest, and so we learn whose hand it is bestows that by which the shame of our nakedness is forever put away. It is the skin of the burnt-offering, not the sin-offering. It is not true that Christ's death merely puts away our sins:it furnishes (though not alone, as we may see hereafter,) the "best robe" for the Father's house. "Raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father," the place which as man He takes is the divine estimate of that "obedience unto death" of which He says, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father." (Jno. 10:17, 18.) This is
the true burnt-offering aspect of the cross-the full. sweet savor. But the place He takes as man He takes for men. This gives us the measure of our acceptance in the Beloved, by which our nakedness is indeed covered, and its shame removed.

The burnt-offering having been flayed, is divided into its parts; all exposed to the light of heaven, then to the altar-flame. The word for burning even is not the word for ordinary burning, but for fuming as with incense:all goes up, not as the smoke of judgment, but as pure sweet savor.

It remains but to speak of the grades of the burnt-offering, and with this of the different animals that are used. Of these the bullock, the highest, without doubt is the type of the laborer for God (i Cor. 9:9, 10.); Christ was the perfect Servant, the character in which Isaiah 53:especially presented Him.

The sheep speaks of meek surrender to the divine will, a more negative thought in some sense; yet it is the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." Here too it is the male sheep, which gives the more positive character of devotedness, as appears in the " ram of consecration," in the eighth chapter.

The goat is the type of the Sin-bearer as such, as our Lord's classification of sheep and goats would surely intimate. Hence it is the sin-offering for the ruler and common Israelite as well as for the whole nation on the day of atonement.

The turtle-dove and pigeon, birds of heaven both, naturally represent the Lord as come from thence. The type is brought out in great distinctness where in the cleansing of the leper the bird offered dies in a vessel of earth over running (living) water:a precious figure of that humanity full of the Spirit in which a Divine Being gained capacity to suffer.

The dove is the bird of love and sorrow:most suited associations of thought with a heavenly stranger whom love to God and man has brought into a world of sin. The pigeon-the rock-pigeon, with its nest (like the coney) there,-is as suited a thought of One come down to a strange path of faith.
All these are blessed types of our Lord in various perfections. They are connected with higher or lower grades of offering, not as in themselves of necessity conveying higher or lower thoughts. The lowest grade here is that of the birds, surely not the lowest thought of Christ's person,-rather the contrary. The reason is one which can be easily understood. Does not the very glory of His Godhead prevent many realizing the perfection of His manhood ? Do not many bring in the thought of the "bird," as it were, without the "vessel of earth" in which alone it could die? And the changes in the ritual here are quite accordant with this. The bird is not divided to the same extent as the bullock or the sheep:the internal perfection is not in the same way seen. There is little blood, too, for the altar; and there is no skin for the priest. * *The feathers are not rejected, as in our version:the margin is better.* Is it not the necessary result where the Lord's manhood is dimly realized? Thank God that this is still a sweet-savor offering to Him! What He finds in Christ is not measured by what we find, nor our acceptance by our apprehension of it. And these lower grades bring out our thoughts. Still we lose by their poverty. May He graciously bring His beloved people, even here, more to the knowledge of His own.

Q. 9.-Does Romans 7:8-11 give the experience of an unconverted man, whose conscience has, however, been awakened in presence of the law ?

A. No, but rather the experience which is worked out in detail from the fourteenth verse. We only learn what death is after we have come to live.

Q. 10.-Will you explain Romans 8:10 ?

A "The body is dead is dead because of sin:" does not receive the spiritual life which the man himself does. Faith and sense (the body), as tendencies, are opposed; faith having to do with things unseen. This life of faith which the Spirit produces and sustains is the only thing which produces practical righteousness, or is really, therefore, "life."

Q. 11.-John 6:56?

A. "Dwelleth in Me, and I in him" is the same expression as chap. 15:4,5, and applied by the Lord to Himself and the Father (ch. 14:10.). If the branch abides in the vine really, the sap, which is the vine in its living power (comp. 1 Jno. 3:15.), abides in the branch. This vital participation in Christ manifests itself actively as a life of dependence and communion, in which Christ is the sustenance of the soul; and Christ dead for us, His flesh and His blood apart.

Q. 12.-Leviticus 7:26, 27?

A. The prohibition of eating blood is explained in chap. 17:10-12 to be because it is the practical life of all flesh, given on the altar in atonement. God was thus to be owned as the sole and sovereign Disposer of it, and as the One who had provided ill grace the forfeit incurred by man. The decision in Acts 15:29 shows that we are bound by the terms of the Noachian covenant. Spiritually, we do drink the blood; entering by faith into the value of the atonement.

Q. 13.-In John 3:8, have we how a man is born again, or what? A. First, that he is born by the sovereign power of God, uncontrollable as the wind; secondly, that there is evidence-fruit of the Spirit,-as of where the wind is. " So " is every one that is born of the Spirit-1:e., this is the way with him.

Q. 14.-In 1 Timothy 2:15, is the " salvation " here deliverance from death ?

A. " She shall be delivered in the hour of her trial:that which bears the stamp of judgment shall be an occasion of the mercy and succor of God." (Synopsis.)

15.-The anointing with oil in James 5:14 is certainly not medical treatment, but a type and sign of the presence and power of the Spirit to heal.

An alphabetic psalm, the letters Vau and Kuph being omitted, while the number of verses is preserved.

Remarks.-Confession of sin is here for the first time explicitly, in suited connection with God acting for His name's sake, to display His grace. Comp. Psalm 20:i :the name of Jacob's God was in fact Jehovah, and under this He delivers His people (Ex. 3:) " Good," He takes up sinners, and " upright," guides them in His ways. The psalm is greatly in advance of all former experience-psalms.

"And Peter answered Him and said, ' Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee upon the waters.'And He said, ' Come.' And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the waters to go to Jesus." (Matt. 14:28, 29.)

The individuality of the path is what I would press upon our souls just now. How strikingly it is presented! This solitary man, amid boisterous winds and waves, forsaking the protection of the boat and the company of the other disciples, and inviting the word which bids him to a path at once so difficult and so resourceless. We often speak of a walk of faith. It is well to look steadily at such a picture as this, and to ask ourselves, have we ever realized it in our own experience? does it present really what corresponds in its features (even though more deeply drawn,) to the path as we know it?

Solitary;-but he had before him as the end of his path the gracious and glorious presence of Him who had called him, and for sustaining power the word which in its call was a promise for all difficulties that could be. If in the meanwhile he had lost the. company of others, every step on this road would make the Presence before him more bright and lustrous; and, at the end at least, even those now separated from would be restored. Was there not abundant compensation in the meantime? Would there not be an overpayment of joy at the end ?

I would press, I again say, the individuality of it. As we look back upon the examples of faith which God has given us in His own record, how they shine separately and independently out from "surrounding darkness! How seldom are they set even in clusters! Enoch, in that walk with God which death never shadowed; Noah, with his family, sole survivors of a judgment wrecked world; Abraham, with whom even Lot is a mere contrast. They stand out from the dark background as men not formed by their circumstances, no mere natural outgrowth from that in the midst of which we find them, but plants of the Lord's planting, maintaining themselves where no power but His could avail to keep them, north wind, as well as south, making the spices of His garden to flow out. In all these the individuality of the path is manifest. Lot is a warning as to the opposite course, of unmistakable significance. A walk with God means necessarily independence of men,-even of the saints; while if it is with God, it will be marked by unfeigned lowliness, and absence of mere eccentricity and self-will.

In the scene to which I am now referring, this solitary man, in that individual path in which nothing but divine power could for a moment sustain him, is the representative, as is evident, of the Church at large. The saints of the present time are as a body called to go forth to meet the Bridegroom, leaving the "boat" of Judaism, a provision for nature, not for faith. "The law is not of faith." To faith, God alone is necessary and sufficient, and other helps would be helps to do (so far) without Him :hindrances to faith therefore, really. Practically, it was a Jewish remnant that the Lord left when He went on high, and to a Jewish remnant we know He will return again, we in the meantime being called to meet Him and return with Him. This company Peter, not only here, but elsewhere, represents.

At first sight this may seem to take from the individual aspect. The path is the Church's path, and belongs to the whole, not merely to individuals:and that is so far true. In fact, as a company it has perhaps never walked in it; most certainly not for centuries:and Scripture-prescient as the Word of God must be-announced beforehand what history has since recorded. If then the Church has failed, is the Christian to accept for himself this failure? or is not individuality forced the more upon him,-a good which divine sovereignty thus brings out of the evil? But in truth it never was intended that the walk of a Christian should be different in principle or on a lower level than that which characterized faith in former generations. We were not meant to seek Lot-like companionship with one another, but Abraham-like with God. He is "the father of all them that believe." If Peter here, then, represent a company, it can only be a company of such as walk, each for him-self, with God:a course which would indeed secure the most blessed companionship. Communion with one another can only be the result of communion with the Father and with the Son.

In this way how striking is the path of this lone man!-a path that terminates only in the presence of the Lord, and on which every step in advance brings nearer to Him! Various as in some true sense our paths must be, it is this that alone gives them their common Christian character; it is this that makes us pilgrims; nay, as the inspired Word presents it, racers:our goal outside the world; our object-that which rules us-heavenly. If it be not thus with us, we are immeasurably below those of a dispensation darkness itself compared with ours, who nevertheless by their lives "declared plainly" that they sought a better country. And for this reason God was not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.

This path of faith is one in which we may show, with Peter, not the greatness of our faith, but the littleness of it. It will never really make much of us. Do we seek it? The glory of Christ is what lies before and beckons us; for our weakness, if there be rebuke, it is only that of a perfect love. Not, Wherefore didst thou presume? but, "Wherefore didst thou doubt?" And with that, the outstretched hand of human sympathy and of divine support. Is it enough, dear fellow-Christian? Is there not for all the difficulties of the way an overabundant recompense? And the end-who shall declare its blessedness?

Yet let us remember that it is to one who invites his Lord's invitation to such a path that it really opens. The " Come " of Christ is an answer to him who says, "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee upon the waters! " The word for the path is the answer alone to the heart for the path. And what to Him is the joy of such desire so expressed? Let ours go forth, if any have not yet, with such a cry:"Lord, if it be upon the waters I must come, and that path it is which alone leads to Thee, then bid me come to Thee, blest, gracious Master, even upon the water!"

The book of Numbers gives us the history of the wilderness, the testing of the people by the trials and difficulties to which they are exposed, their failure as so tested, and the triumphant grace of Him whose love and whose resources for His people cannot fail, and whose word is pledged to bring them through. The ordinance of the red heifer gives us the effects of atonement, not in forgiveness, but in the purification of the people from uncleanness, and this in a special form, which had its peculiar significance in relation to the wilderness.

For the wilderness is, of course, the world as the place of our pilgrimage,-a place where every thing about us echoes the divine voice, " Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest:because it is polluted." The seal of its condition in this respect is death, in which the life universally forfeited is removed and man given up wholly to the corruption, which has already been inwardly his state.

Death marks the world as a wilderness before God, and for him therefore who has the mind of God; it is a scene of death out of which we have escaped as dead with Christ, and partakers of eternal life in Him beyond it, and separation from which is an absolute necessity to real holiness. " Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this:To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world." (Jas. 1:27.)

The remedy for defilement is here typically put before us. It is not in a new sacrifice, nor in the shedding of that blood without which is no remission. It is in the application of that which speaks of a sacrifice once for all completed, of wrath exhausted and gone, the ashes alone remaining to testify of the complete consumption of the victim. In this way the red heifer, in opposition to the many sacrifices constantly being offered, represents alone among legal ordinances the abiding efficacy of that which has been offered "once for all."

The victim is here a female,-a type of which I have already spoken. It is passivity, subjection, willlessness, which we may see in the Lord in Gethsemane, whose " cup" was in fact drunk afterward upon the cross; a red heifer, as the ram-skins of the tabernacle were dyed red, to show how far this willless obedience in Him went. "Without spot or blemish:"-with neither defect nor deformity; and "upon which never came yoke,"-not simply sin's, but any, for a yoke is an instrument to enforce subjection, which in Him could not be. At the same time when He was saying, "Not My will, but Thine, be done," He might have had twelve legions of angels and gone to the Father, but would not:His was the perfection of a willless will.

And how suited all this to express the perfection of the obedience unto death, by which our disobedience was met and removed, and which is to be fruitful in us as well as for us, in separating us from the lawlessness and lusts which characterize us as fallen creatures!

The heifer is brought forth without the camp and slain, like any sin-offering, even the blood being burned, except what is used in the sevenfold sprinkling before the tent of meeting, where the people went to meet with God. And into the midst of the burning of the heifer were cast cedar-wood and hyssop-types of all nature, from the highest to the lowest (i Kings 4:33), and scarlet- of the glory of the world:" if any man be in Christ, it is new creation," and by the cross is severed his connection with the old.
A man that was clean then gathered up the ashes of the heifer, and they were laid up in a clean place outside the camp, to be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel, for a water of separation, a purification for sin.

A person denied with the dead remained unclean for seven days; on the third day and on the seventh he was to be sprinkled with it,-running water being put to it in a vessel,-and on the seventh day at even he should be clean. The sprinkling on the third day was all-important:"if he purify hot himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean."

The reference to death as the stamp upon the old creation makes all this clear. The third day is the resurrection day, deliverance from death; the eighth,-first day of the new week,-speaks of new creation. One cleansed by the evening of the seventh day was brought in fact to the eighth:only by deliverance from the old creation could he be really clean; but into this resurrection,-the resurrection of Christ,-is the necessary introduction :therefore the insisting upon the third day.

Only in the power of resurrection could death become a means of purification for the soul. We cannot be in any true sense dead to the world except in the power of a life which is ours beyond it. But thus resurrection is not the revival of the old, but that which links us with the new creation. This is the united teaching of this third and seventh-day sprinklings. The power of the Holy Ghost (running, or "living," water) applies to the soul the death of the cross, that death in which for us the old world ended under judgment, to set us free from all the seductive power of things through which we pass,-free for the enjoyment ours outside it. The world is but the lace of the empty cross, and He who once filled it is now entered for us into the Father's house, our Forerunner. This is purification of heart for him who realizes it; power for true self-judgment, and deliverance from the corruption that is in the world through lust.

This is " water-washing by the word." The sacrifice is not again offered, nor the blood afresh sprinkled for him who is thus to be cleansed. Neither acceptance nor relationship are here in question, although just as " without holiness, no man shall see the Lord," so "he that purifieth not himself shall be cut off from Israel."

The lesson as far as atonement is concerned seems just this dependence of purification on it. The water as well as the blood comes out of the side of a dead Christ, with whom we too are dead. How shall we that are dead live any longer in that to which we are dead ?

We have now completed the types of atonement ; before our glance at the Old-Testament doctrine is complete, we have still to consider the prophets and the psalms.

The final issue:Jehovah the King of glory; the earth is His, and into His holy hill the righteous enter.

A psalm of David.

The earth is Jehovah's, and the fullness there-of; the habitable earth, and they that dwell therein.

2. For it is He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it above the floods.

3. Who shall ascend to the hill of Jehovah? and who shall stand in His holy place?

4. The man clean of hands and pure of heart, who hath not lifted up his soul to falsehood, nor sworn deceitfully.

5. He shall receive blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

6. This is the generation of those that seek Him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

7. Lift up your heads, ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
8. Who is this King of glory ? Jehovah, strong and mighty; Jehovah, mighty in war.

9. Lift up your heads, ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall
come in.

10. Who is He, this King of glory? Jehovah of Hosts, He is the King of glory.

The "mourning" here is not about this or that thing specially; still less is it over our own sins and failures. We have such, no doubt, to mourn over; but the Lord's words here seem to indicate something much more than even the "godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of." Such sorrow will no doubt be found in the one who possesses the character above named, but that is very different from giving to it any such meaning as " Blessed are the penitent." No doubt there is blessedness in being such.

But the Lord never mourned in such a fashion, clearly, and He was a mourner throughout His life-"a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" and I may say that the thing that fitted Him to know that sorrow, which He did so well know, was the very fact that He could not know any thing like penitence. Knowing no sin,-having nothing in Himself to mourn over,-He had fellowship with God unbroken and unclouded. He came from God,-went to God,-was in the world solely as the doer of His Father's will, the seeker of His Father's glory; in this to learn the whole extent of the ruin into which man had fallen, and bring help to one who had "destroyed himself." What a scene for the Son of God to come into, upon such an errand ! that He had no where to lay His head,-that men denied, blasphemed, and crucified Him;-that was the manifestation of that lost condition which the death of the cross alone could reach. He bore it all in sorrow and in suffering in His soul all His life through, as at the cross He bore its penalty. Nay, " Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Not a thing that He relieved but He felt it, and felt it as the fruit of the sin which had blasted a creation once so fair. That sin itself, to Him who could detect it in its most hidden shapes, and read it in the very heart,-aye, in the hearts of those who followed Him most nearly,-what a constant cause of terrible suffering it must have been we can little, (alas!) any of us, understand.

Are they not "blessed" who can mourn with Him? To judge sin, in a certain way, is very easy. The world itself can do so:every one can judge it when it is his neighbor's and not his own. On the other hand, to treat it lightly is just as easy, and a thing, too, which we often cover with the precious but abused name of " grace; " but to mourn-to weep in secret places over it-to bear it as a burden only to be relieved by casting it on God,-that is what is " blessed." indeed, for it is Christlike. It is what true and divine love alone is capable of. It is what unites the real judgment of evil with long-suffering patience. It is one most real and necessary part of fellowship with God,-a God so holy that He who knew no sin must be made sin for our salvation,–a God so gracious as to give His own beloved Son that we might be saved.

Turn where you will in such a scene as this, and how shall we, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, not "groan within ourselves"? The world going on to judgment, the Church sunk down almost to the level of the world, the truth every-where corrupted or opposed or neglected; where are our hearts if we are not mourners? But if heaviness endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning- yea, with "the Bright and Morning Star." We sorrow not without hope. Soon shall the day break and the shadows fade away. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

We cannot but feel deeply for our children growing up in such an atmosphere as that which at present surrounds us, and which will become yet darker and darker. We long to see more earnestness on the part of Christians in seeking to store the minds of the young with the precious and soul-saving knowledge of the Word of God. The child Josiah and the child Timothy should incite us to greater diligence in the instruction of the young, whether in the bosom of the family, in the Sunday-school, or in any way we can reach them. It will not do for us to fold our arms and say, " When God's time comes our children will be converted; and till then, our efforts are useless." This is a fatal mistake. " God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Heb. 11:) He blesses our prayerful efforts in the instruction of our children. And further, who can estimate the blessing of being early led in the right way and having the character formed amid holy influences and the mind stored with what is true and pure and lovely? On the other hand, who will undertake to set forth the evil consequences of allowing our children to grow up in ignorance of divine things? Who can portray the evils of a polluted imagination-of a mind stored with vanity, folly, and falsehood-of a heart familiarized, from infancy, with scenes of moral degradation? We do not hesitate to say that Christians incur very heavy and awful responsibility in allowing the enemy to preoccupy the minds of their children at the very period when they are most plastic and susceptible.

True, there must be the quickening power of the Holy Ghost. It is as true of the children of Christians as of any other, that they "must be born again." We all understand this; but does this fact touch the question of our responsibility in reference to our children ? is it to cripple our energies or hinder our earnest efforts? Assuredly not. We are called upon, by every argument, divine and human, to shield our precious little ones from every evil influence, and to train them in that which is holy and good.-(Ibid.)

"In the heart of London city,
Mid the dwellings of the poor,
These bright golden words, were uttered :-
' I have Christ! what want I more?

By a lonely dying woman,
Stretched upon a garret-floor,
Having not one earthly comfort,-
'I have Christ! what want I more?'

He who heard them, ran to fetch her
Something from the world's great store;
It was needless-died she, saying,
' I have Christ ! what want I more?'
But her words will live forever ;
I repeat them o'er and o'er;
God delights to hear me saying,
'I have Christ! what want I more?'"

We have to get rid of the bad; and what is strange, the more good we get, the more bad we have to get rid of.

As long as the Lord Jesus was here, He was a solitary Man upon earth; but now He, being raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, forms a new class of men of the same order as Himself; and every believer is of this same class.

The problem for the believer is to live Christ in His body on earth. Nothing explains truth like practice.

When I hear a person say, I do not see the harm of it, I answer, It is just because you have not learned enough good. And that is why a worldly saint will go through the world the easiest, and also do himself the least harm by going through it. It is only the worldly man who can say, I do not find it does me any harm.

The man who knows most of Christ, is always the one who is the most apprehensive of Satan.

The body is the place in which all the evil has been done; but now the Lord says, I have redeemed it; it must now be My place-My garden ; it has been growing all the weeds that Satan could plant in it, but now it must grow flowers for Me.

I do not believe there is any moment of more ecstatic delight to the soul than the one in which it finds that God's place for it is its own. It is a moment of unspeakable delight; it has reached the climax of every thing, and it knows that it is there. It is a wonderful moment; but, I say, woe betide the person who is satisfied with stopping at it! What the Lord warns them about, on their getting into the land, is their state in it.

The present result:brought back from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant, the great Shepherd of the sheep tends them with divine love and care, leading them in paths of righteousness, prosperity, and peace.

A psalm of David.

Jehovah is my Shepherd:I shall not want.

2. He maketh me lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside quiet waters.

3. He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

4. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil:for
Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

5. Thou spreadest a table for me in the presence of my enemies:Thou hast made fat my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in Jehovah's house to length of days.

Text.-(3) " Restoreth :" in the sense of " renewing, refreshing."

The remedy for care which the Lord proposes to His people in these verses is a twofold one. And we must take the two parts together. The failure which so many Christians-for I speak only to such now; no other person ought to be free from care, because Christ gives rest to those who have come to Him alone-the failure, then, that so many Christians experience as to this, is because they disjoin what the Lord has joined together.

Are there not some who read this who have found Christ, and to whom His blood has spoken peace as far as their consciences are concerned, whose hearts nevertheless have a burden of care that prevents true and proper "rest"? Why is it, beloved ? Ought not the one that has known Jesus to have found in Him a remedy as much for care as for fear,-for restlessness as for guilt,-for the troubles of this life as well as for the judgment to come? Surely it ought to be so. And why is not?

The answer I have already given. People would, with strange and willful disregard of the Lord's words, talk of their circumstances, as if they furnished the answer,-as if it were impossible for the Lord Himself to keep heart and mind at rest in the midst of their own peculiar surroundings! But what unbelief is shown in this! and what dishonor is done to Him by it! Whereas all the difficulties and trials of the way are but really the occasions for the display of the unfailing resources and the unchanging grace of Him who unwearyingly watches over and cares for His own.

And here is just the first thing to consider. He does care. The love that gave Jesus up for us upon the cross is not exhausted even by "that, but just proved inexhaustible. "He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Hun up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Yes, says this blessed Exponent of His Father's heart, "even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." What you would not care to do for yourselves He has done; yea, what you scarcely care to have done for you He has done! Oh to realize in its full power that wondrous and sweet assurance! Do we think of the hairs that fall from our head? He does. Well, if Almighty Love cares thus for me, what a remedy for care on my part. Why should I be uneasy-I who with all my taking thought can never add one cubit to my stature, nor even make one hair "white or black? Blessed be His name, He who has given me a place before Himself in all the value and beauty of His own blessed Son has so dearly bought Himself title to pour out His love on me that surely He must delight to do it. And I, so blessed and cared for, how should I wrong Him, my Father and my God, by a single doubt as to the result!

Thus the soul enters into its rest. It is the real healing of the breach in Eden, the real " escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Pet. 1:4.) For what is "lust" but the heart of man, away from its only place of rest in the unquestioning consciousness of the goodness and love of God, seeking its own things, because it must care for itself it none care for it? Thus our Lord's words rebuke our distrustful care about what to eat and drink and to be clothed with,-" For after these things do the Gentiles seek." Are we to be still " even as the nations who know not God " ?

But there is another thing connected with this. I believe many a soul would say, " Well, I know all this; but still, somehow it has not its proper power with me at all. I know it is foolish and wrong, and yet I am anxious and troubled for all that." Now then, beloved, suffer a plain, straightforward question:Are you "seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness"? are you, truthfully and honestly, out and out for God and His glory? That is the indispensable other ingredient in this remedy for care. God has been saying to you, His saved one, "I will take care for you; I will leave you without the need of one single uneasy thought; I will attend to all that concerns your interests, and I give you the privilege of undistracted occupation with your own things above and with My interests below."

You want "purpose of heart" in this, or you cannot know what freedom from care is. Can the world ? If you are bent upon making money, or upon "getting on" in the world in any way, you know you cannot count upon Him to be with you in it. Hence anxiety and care come in at once. And what wonder? Of course all the assurances of a love even as infinite as His are thrown away upon you, while you are not seeking to live to Him, but to yourself.

And you are weary. You have a restless, because a divided heart. Your worldly plans do not give satisfaction, but a bad conscience; and when you would turn to God, you find little satisfaction either, because you have a bad conscience. You are wasting your few moments here, heaping up sorrow for yourself under the sure government of One who has already assured us that "he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." There may not be any thing outwardly evil in your life, but the question is, what is it that your heart really turns to for its proper joy ? can you ask God Himself, " Whom have I in heaven but Thee?" and can you say to Him, "And there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee"? Are you willing to have Him-His word " search and try you, and see well if there be any way of wickedness in you"? It may be but, as you would say, some "little thing;" but you may let Satan cheat you out of all your proper rest and joy by just "some little thing."

" There be many that say, ' Who will show us any good?' Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." (Ps. 4:6, 7.)

In contemplating the present condition of the professing church, we may discern two very distinct classes. In the first place, there are those who are seeking unity on false grounds; and secondly, those who are seeking it on the ground laid down in the New Testament. This latter is distinctly a spiritual, living, divine unity, and stands out in vivid contrast with all the forms of unity which man has attempted, whether it be national, ecclesiastical, ceremonial, or doctrinal. The Church of God is not a nation, not an ecclesiastical or political system; it is a body united to its divine Head in heaven; by the presence of the Holy Ghost. This is what it was, and this is what it is. " There is one body and one Spirit." This remains unalterably true. It holds good now just as much as when the inspired apostle penned Ephesians 4:Hence any thing that tends to interfere with or mar this truth must be wrong, and we are bound to stand apart from it and testify against it. To seek to unite Christians on any other ground than the unity of the body, is manifestly opposed to the revealed mind of God. It may seem very attractive, very desirable, very reasonable, right, and expedient; but it is contrary to God, and this should be enough for us. God's Word speaks only of the unity of the body and the unity of the Spirit. It recognizes no other unity; neither should we.

The Church of God is one, though consisting of many members. It is not local, or geographical; it is corporate. All the members have a double responsibility;-they are responsible to the Head, and they are responsible to one another. It is utterly impossible to ignore this responsibility. Men may seek to shirk it; they may deny it; they may assert their individual rights, and act according to their own reason, judgment, or will; but they cannot get rid of the responsibility founded upon the fact of the one compact body. They have to do with the Head in heaven and with the members on earth. They stand in this double relationship-they were incorporated there into by the Holy Ghost, and to deny it is to deny their very spiritual existence. It is founded in life, formed by the Spirit, and taught and maintained in the holy Scriptures. There is no such thing as independency. Christians cannot view themselves as mere individuals-as isolated atoms. " We are members one of another." This is as true as that " we are justified by faith." No doubt there is a sense in which we are individual:we are individual in our repentance, individual in our faith, individual in our justification, individual in our walk with God and in our service to Christ, individual in our rewards for service (for each one shall get a white stone, and a new name engraved thereon known only to himself). All this is quite true, but it in no wise touches the other grand practical truth of our union with the Head above and with each and all of the members below.

And we would here call the reader's attention to two very distinct lines of truth flowing out of two distinct titles of our blessed Lord, namely, Headship and Lordship. He is Head of His body the Church, and He is Lord of all-Lord of each. Now, when we think of Christ as Lord, we are reminded of our individual responsibility to Him, in the wide range of service to which He, in His sovereignty, has graciously called us. Our reference must be to Him in all things. All our actings, all our movements, all our arrangements, must be placed under the commanding influence of that weighty sentence (often, alas! lightly spoken and penned), " If the Lord will." And, moreover, no one has any right to thrust himself in between the conscience of a servant and the commandment of his Lord. All this is divinely true, and of the very highest importance. The Lordship of Christ is a truth the value of which cannot possibly be overestimated.

But we must bear in mind that Christ is Head as well as Lord. He is Head of a body as well as Lord of individuals. These things must not be confounded We are not to hold the truth of Christ's Lordship in such a way as to interfere with the truth of His Headship. If we merely think of Christ as Lord, and ourselves as individuals responsible to Him, then we shall ignore His Headship, and lose sight of our responsibility to every member of that body of which He is Head. We must jealously watch against this. We can m a look at ourselves as isolated independent atoms:we think of Christ as Head, then we must think of all His members, and this opens up a wide range of practical truth. We have holy duties to discharge to our fellow-members as well as to our Lord and Master, and we may rest assured that no one walking in communion with Christ can ever lose sight of the grand fact of his relationship to every member of His body.-(In "Life and Times of Josiah")
C.H.M.

The Individual Application.-In the individual application certain broad features of Joseph's life are easy to be read, and these are all that I am able with confidence to speak of. It is plain how different in character is the suffering through which he passes to that of Jacob. Jacob's is disciplinary, the result, under God's government, of the evil of his own ways; Joseph, on the contrary, suffering for righteousness, the predestined path to glory:"if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him."

Child of old age is Joseph:how slowly, alas! the fruits of the new nature appear in us! Even for the saint, how true that " that which is first is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual"! Moreover, in the world through which we pass, all is hostile to the development of that which is of God. " He that separateth himself from evil maketh himself a prey ;" and separation from evil is a fundamental principle of the divine nature. Hence persecution for righteousness, not only from the world, but even at the hands of those who, chosen out of the world, are still practicing conformity with its ways. Nay, one's brethren are, alas! often in this case more hostile than the very world itself, just because their consciences are more awake to a testimony which condemns themselves. And indeed how few are there among the children of God who are thoroughly, and at all costs, subject to His Word! How many of all creeds, even the highest, whose code is liberty for self-will within certain wider or narrower limits! Thus, within the circle of professed Christian fellowship, how much real opposition which must be met by those who are Joseph’s, " adding," after the apostle's manner, disciples of the cross! Their path is individual, solitary often, save only for the God with whom they walk, and indeed because they have chosen to walk with Him. Yet it is thus a path of deepest, fullest blessing.

Rejected by his brethren, rejected by the world, Joseph carries with him the wisdom which interprets the scene around him, while master, too, of the circumstances by which he seems to be mastered. All things necessarily serve the One who is with him ever under all appearances, content Himself to find through seeming defeat His sure, eternal victory. Through all, he is preparing for the place where at last both his brethren are restored to him and also the world shall be his own:when Christ reigns, (of which we have been tracing the figures here,) His saints shall reign with Him.

Of this latter part, for the fullness of which we must wait to be with Him, we have nevertheless our anticipative foretastes. Even now, as the apostle tells us, the world is ours, long as it may be before we learn our spiritual supremacy over it. The word of life and of salvation is surely also ours as it was Joseph's, and it is ours to win to ourselves out of the world those who shall be in spiritual relationship to us also. This some would find as a type in Jacob's history, where it seems out of relation to the whole character and meaning of his life. It is Joseph rather, I believe, in whom we find this.

But while features of resemblance there necessarily are between the life of Christ as manifested thus in His people, and Him in whom alone it has been perfectly seen, yet the details, as remarked already, carry us continually away from the disciple to the Lord. This is surely designed and full of instruction for us. Is it not true that just so far as these features are developed in us it is the result of occupation with Christ Himself? "We all with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit." In preparation for the scene of His actual presence, He thus as we advance in spiritual life becomes the object upon which our gaze fastens. It is not we that live, but Christ liveth in us. He abides in our hearts by faith. We "grow in grace" as we grow "in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Thus, as the Nazarite's course ended, he came to the door of the tent of meeting to offer to God the various offerings in the value of which-not of his vows performed-he found acceptance with God; and there, thus standing, his hands were filled with the heave-shoulder of the ram, and the unleavened cakes of the meat-offering. Christ in the perfection of His blessed life, Christ alone upholding all things by the power of that in which in unique, matchless devotedness He glorified God, the Christ in whom we are accepted, fills, and for eternity is to fill and occupy, us only.

The subjective types of Genesis closing in the objective is thus not a defect, nor (I believe) a thought due to mere obscurity of vision as to what is presented here. It is to the " fathers " the apostle says, as characteristic of them, " Ye have known Him that is from the beginning." And there he closes. There Genesis closes too, with the vision of the glory of the Lord, suffering and exalted, the government laid upon His shoulder, the true Zaphnath-paaneah, revealer of the secrets of His Father's heart, Bridegroom of His Gentile Bride, Saviour of the world. Where He fills the eye and occupies the heart, all else finds its just place and completest harmony ; communion with the Father is the portion of the soul, the power of the living Spirit realized. And here what limit of attainment is imposed, save that which we may impose? The study of these Genesis-pictures will have done nothing for us, if it does not invite our hearts more than ever into the King's banqueting-house, where the everlasting arms inclose and uphold us, and "His banner" over us is "love."