A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE EPISTLE OF JUDE.

(Continued from page 44.)

But now we have something else:"Keeping yourselves in the love of God." Our attitude is to be one of continual vigilance. We are to be careful that no foreign element, or wedge of the enemy, gets in which in the least degree will rob us of the blessed apprehension of God's love. Keeping ourselves in that love is the sentinel's post; like him, we must be vigilant to allow no intrusion within the circle of communion and fellowship with the Father and the Son-our continual entrance into and enjoyment of the feast of love that God has spread for us in Christ.

And now the end of the conflict. We are "awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life "-the sure end, the glorious victory, we are going on to. It is the battle's victory won for us, inasmuch as it is the crowning of every hope, for the truth of which we have fought, with blessed and glorious accomplishment. No warrior has ever fought a battle with a greater and fuller measure of assurance of the victory to attend his arms than we are privileged to do as warriors for the truth of God.

It is certain, because He has promised. We await with certain expectation the bugle-note. It soon will sound, our Leader's command be heard, and we rise to enter with Him into our promised inheritance.

Does the opponent of the truth scornfully say we leave the battlefield in undisputed possession of the enemy ? Be it so. We leave it for our God to take up the conflict along different lines, and in an offensive manner, while we are to come back with our glorious Leader to final conquest. "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints to execute judgment." But not that alone, but also to deliver a groaning creation from the thraldom of Satan and the power of evil.

We have now what characterizes our warfare, or the operations of it:"And some, who dispute, correct ; and some save, snatching them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." (J. N. D., foot-note.) It is dispute in the sense that Satan did with Michael; and such we are to correct, that is all. We contend in that way for the faith. A disputer is clearly an enemy in the sense here spoken of; with such an one, we simply defend what he attacks.

Those whom we are to save, I apprehend, are those whom we may find of our own rank to have fallen in some measure under the power of the enemy's assault. For the recovery of such we are to actively contend, delivering them from whatever they may have become entangled with, hating the evil thing with which we find them ensnared-the garment spotted by the flesh.

The introduction of the flesh is an important point. With those for whose deliverance we are to contend, we shall always find that the root of the evil which has ensnared them is in the flesh. We have seen that those to whom the apostle traces apostasy and evil are men who set themselves apart; natural, not having the Spirit, therefore of the flesh, and living in it. Those who come under their power in any measure must become defiled by the activity of the flesh, since it is in such power the error is wielded. The garment, the evil thing in which they have been investing themselves, we are to turn from with hatred, while we are to deliver them from the consequences of their error.

We close with a note of triumph in the midst of all the circumstances which we have been looking at. The way and the end come before us. Our note of praise is "to Him that is able to keep us from stumbling." No need of fear, though the road be rough and rocky; we are sure to learn by the very rugged-ness of the path while we have the blessed sustaining strength of a Hand that will ever lead us, ever hold us up and keep the feet from falling. He is working in us by the same mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead; and by this power He keeps us.

What assurance, then, to know that this is the power that ensures the full accomplishment of the end to be attained! And this we have expressed for us in what follows:'' And to set you with exultation blameless before His glory." Sinners saved by grace set in the glory of God! And when the heart is led up to the anticipation of this, the result, as it will be also in that day when the anticipation has become a fully accomplished reality, is the ascription of praise:" To the only God and Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might and authority from before the whole age (or course of time), and now, and to all the ages, Amen." (J. N. D.)

It is to God as our Saviour that this prayer is given, but through Christ because it is He that has made God this for us. This brings in at once the way in which He has been glorified in the work of Christ. If He purpose to redeem, it must not be simply from the consequences of sin, but also the bringing in of infinitely higher blessing and glory than could have ever been if sin had never entered. This the work of Christ has fully accomplished.

Now to Him indeed, through the purpose of whose will being fulfilled this has been made possible, belongs every attribute; while it is by this perfect redemption demonstrated that they of right are His, and, furthermore, have been His from before the course of time, that is, in the past eternity, and now, the present course of time, and to all ages-the eternity to come. J. B. Jr.