I SAMUEL AND 1, 2, and 3 JOHN.

First Samuel is the record of three men, Samuel, Saul, and David. They are typical characters, and set forth three great principles, which explain the entire history of God's kingdom on earth.

1. God's grace in man's ruin is figured in Samuel (1:-7:). No doubt we have here a type of the dispensations from Adam to the giving of the law. The prophet, child of Hannah ("grace"), symbolizes the gracious working of God's Word and Spirit in a "barren" scene (1:-2:10). Sad are the conditions amid which Samuel ministers (2:11-36). Eli, a priest in the judge's seat, but without power for communion or for judging evil, represents man's failure in his created place of nearness to God and rulership over the earth. His children, apostate priests and sons of Belial, picture the world's religious history from Adam to Noah. Samuel warns of judgment to come (3:1-18), as the Spirit testified before the flood; Samuel also suggesting the work of grace in the remnant of that day (3:19-4:i).

The lesson of the Philistine triumph (4:) is the lesson of the flood. Dagon-worshipers prevail, the ark, God's throne of grace, going into captivity. So did "the way of Cain " bring on the deluge, in which mercy seemed to pass away. Natural religion, which pretends to offer God "good works" from a fallen creature, ends thus:it but reveals man's unfitness, earning wrath instead of grace. The flood cut off Adam's race, as the Philistine victory smote Eli's house; yet in one case Noah was spared, as in the other a grandson was born to Eli. Seeing simply a natural descendant of Adam or Eli, spared for a time, we can but call him Ichabod:man's race may be prolonged, but "the glory is departed." But viewing Noah and Ichabod as types of a " Second man," who rises out of the death and judgment of the first, there is a gleam of hope, a prophecy that the ark will return, and God again act in grace.

The ark in Philistine hands suggests the idolatrous period after the flood, as its return suggests the grace which took up Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (5:-7:i). Dagon's triumph is his overthrow. Does "natural religion " call down wrath ? Thank God, for the stroke of judgment which sweeps away the "first man" in whom grace can establish nothing, to make room for the " Second man," through whom blessing comes! Abraham was blessed in grace, on the basis of promises in Christ. Thus the ark returned from captivity.

Twenty years of lamentation (7:2-4) recall Israel's discipline in Egypt, as Jehovah's defeat of the Philistines (7:5-17), delivering His people on the basis of the lamb of burnt-offering, and in the grace Samuel typifies, recalls the deliverance from Egyptian bondage.

2. The blessing in fallen hands is the lesson of Saul (8:-15:). It is a picture of the dispensation from Sinai to the Cross. God taught Israel a way of escape from judgment through the paschal lamb, delivered them at the Red Sea, led them by His word and Spirit, fed them with manna, and quenched their thirst; yet at Sinai they despised His grace, preferring a law under which they hoped to "earn" His blessing. This experiment, of the religious " first man" under law, is pictured in Saul. Samuel's judgeship represents Jehovah's Word, ruling the people according to the principles of the throne of grace. But alas, they do not want this, but a religious system like that of the nations. Let God vacate His earthly throne, and place upon it the "first man" with his "good works"! This is the demand, and God accedes to it. He gives them a king "in His anger." If the "first man" can prove his title to rule, God will establish him upon the throne. Moreover, He gives His Word, as a guide. Israel had the law, as Saul has the word of the prophet. But the sad story is soon told:Israel broke the law, as Saul disobeys the prophet!

We must not pause over the various items of Saul's failure. Besides the many individual lessons of these chapters, there is a continuous type of Israel's history under law. It ends in Saul's utter failure to judge Agag, the Amalekite (15:), who pictures the will of the flesh. Here Samuel, representing the energy of grace, comes forward and executes the enemy. It is a picture of the cross of Christ, which not alone "crucifies" the "first man " on account of his incorrigible wickedness (Agag), but also exposes the " impotence " of all man's religious pretense under law (Saul). As rejected grace, in the person of Samuel, steps in at last to smite the evil which wretched Saul had failed to overcome, so do we read that " what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and a Sin-offering," did-"condemned the sin in the flesh " (Rom. 8:3).

3. The blessing in the hands of the Second Man is figured in David (16:-31:). The acting of grace is a beautiful thing. Samuel, rejected, anointed Saul; as it was really grace that gave the law, in order to cure man of his delusion about himself. When Saul failed, Samuel anointed David, as grace provided the Saviour and the Cross at the close of the legal dispensation. David, bringing bread, wine, and a kid to Saul, and banishing the evil spirit with his harp (16:), is a type of the ministry to Israel of Him who had power over demons, and brought the bread of God, the wine of the Spirit's joy, and the kid of His own sacrifice. The conquest of Goliath pictures the Cross which delivers from the power of Satan (17:).

The religious man, Saul, persecutes David, as the religious "first man," spite of his pretense of law-keeping, has ever been the rejecter of the Cross, of the gospel, and of the grace of God, to the present day. Thus the rest of our book pictures the present dispensation, during which Christ is rejected,-rejected not alone by an unbelieving world, but also by the " religious " world, now seated upon the throne of power, as Saul was. Jonathan, who truly loved David, yet clung to the fortunes of Saul's house, symbolizes those true saints of God who remain entangled among the abominations of Christendom, without the courage to go forth unto Christ without the camp, bearing His reproach and sharing His rejection. But the outcasts who share Adullam's cave with David, the outcast king, become " heroes " through association with him, and represent the saints of God who have turned their backs upon mere " religion," to follow and serve our Lord Jesus Christ according to His Word. May His love constrain us to desire this place with Him, as we study the details of this most precious part of Scripture!

The three epistles of John give the practical sanctification of the truth, needed for our sojourn down here, where a system of false and heartless Christian profession surrounds us on every side, i John gives the positive side of the truth, in which we are to abide, while 2 John warns against the danger of laxity, on the one hand, as 3 John warns against Nicolaitanism and self-will on the other.

A grand fundamental of Christianity is the truth that God is light, and that this true light is now shining (i John 1:-2:ii). This excludes the darkness, and its ways, whether it professes to be the light or not. All true Christians are in the light, even as God is. This does not mean that they have never sinned, or that they are without a sinful nature; quite the contrary; but it means that they confess the truth about their condition, and that a faithful and just God has therefore forgiven all their sins, on the basis of the death of His Son, the Saviour they are trusting. They are not to practice sin; but if they should fall into it, Christ remains their Advocate, the propitiation for their sins.

Christians grow, and are guarded from all errors and evil, by abiding in the truth, which God's Word reveals, and God's Spirit teaches (2:12-27).

The rest of i John is occupied with the practical manifestation, in righteousness and love, of the divine life and nature in those who are born of God, in contrast with that which is of the flesh and the devil. All this deserves our most careful study and meditation.

2 John warns us against a false charity, which masquerades under the guise of Christian love. Love, truly, is of God; but the unholy toleration of evil, out of a pretended love of brethren, is most foreign to His holy nature. Divine love is according to truth. Righteousness and truth are required of Christians; and if one professed to be a follower of Christ, yet brought not the doctrine of Christ, the elect lady was not to receive him into her house, nor even to greet him as a Christian. We also have here the important principle, that the least degree of fellowship with such a person, such even as the giving of a Christian greeting, makes one a partaker of his evil deeds. Holiness becomes God's house, and His children!

3 John warns against the opposite extreme, of pride and self-will which, acting in the selfish determination to have the pre-eminence, may even go so far as to put down and reject godly Christians, thus destroying true Christian fellowship. Even the apostle was himself rejected by such pretension. In contrast with this evil, seen in Diotrephes, we have the beautiful example of Gains, whose, "love" was "borne witness of" before the church, while yet his brethren also testified of " the truth " that was in him, and of his walk in the truth ! Beautiful balance of truth and affection, of light and of love ! May this perfection of the divine character more and more be wrought in us ! F. A.