QUES. 1.-Does not Gal. 3:28 put woman on the level with man?-meaning that they can do the same things that man does, as to preaching, ruling, etc. ? Have there not been noble examples of women taking part both in Church and State?

ANS.-Not at all. Gal. 3:is not occupied with the order of God in Church or State, but with a new creation out of the old-how natural men become children of God. How we become children of God from our fallen, natural condition, is a vastly different thing from the government of God in His family.

As lorn of God, and belonging thus to the New Creation, there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female ; for we are all one in Christ Jesus. We belong no more to earth, where such distinctions exist, but to heaven, where they exist no more.

We are yet on earth, however, and we are God's house on the earth, in which He has His own government, to suit Himself, to display His character, and to test our obedience, which is more grateful to Him than anything else. See 1 Sam. 15:22.

In that government of His house here on earth He still recognizes bond and free (1 Tim. 6:1), male and female (1 Tim. 2:8-10); and He plainly denies the woman the place of public teacher or ruler in it (1 Tim. 2:11, 12). We have nothing here to do with the State ; but in the Church, if any woman has ever acquired a place of teacher or ruler, it has been in disobedience to God.

This forbidden place does not, of course, shut out woman from service in the house of God, as other scriptures abundantly show; but no true service of hers will ever trespass against the plain in-junction cited.

QUES. 2.-Explain Gen. 3:22.

ANS.-Man, through the fall, having now acquired the knowledge of good and evil,-and in that respect become like God, who, of course, knows all,-is in another respect utterly unlike Him :he is unable now to do the good and to refuse the evil. That knowledge has made him the slave of sin. Partaking of the tree of life in this condition would have made redemption impossible. He would have had to live for ever in that fallen state; for the tree of life would have imparted perpetual life to his body.

This tree of life is, however, we doubt not, the figure also of our Lord Jesus Christ, seen again in Rev. 22:2. He has died for our sins, has been raised again for our justification; and eating of Him therefore gives as eternal life now, and the redemption of our body when He returns from heaven.

QUES. 3.-Are "the children of the Kingdom" in Matt. 8:12 the same as the unbelieving world?

ANS.-No. They get the same end as the world, but much more severe; for they are those who have had divine privileges and have not valued them. They have never judged sin in themselves, though they may have judged it severely enough in others. They have never, therefore, appropriated God's remedy. They have known all about it, but have never possessed it-never really known Him, who came to seek and to save that which was lost. What a multitude are in this condition now! May God yet arouse them out of their slumbers.

QUES. 4.-Does the "gospel of the Kingdom" in Matt. 24:14 belong to our dispensation, or to the next?

ANS.-To the next, as nearly the whole of this chapter is alone applicable. It is the preparation of a people for the Lord Jesus to rule over, here on the earth, when He returns; even as Paul's gospel (Rom. 16:25, 26) is, in the present time, the preparation of a people for the Lord in heaven.