There is a constant tendency to follow, in our reading of the Word of God, certain lines of teaching:those most easily discerned by us, or that have most impressed themselves upon our minds and hearts perhaps ; and these, engrossing the attention at the expense of others, become the limit of our spiritual horizon. How many Christians of years standing are still where they where when perhaps they began to live to God- only that where this is the case, the old truths will have lost their freshness and real interest for the soul. Theology comes in to develop this tendency, and to limit the pasture of the flock of God often in such a way as to keep believers always babes in the faith, instead of proper growth being attained to full manhood. But the loss and damage to the soul is immense; and for the lack of knowing the distinct and definite teaching of the Word, souls are exposed to the blighting effect of the " winds of doctrine," which are so many and so various. How well does Rome know the advantage to her that is gained by keeping souls in ignorance of the Word of God, of which she proposes to be the sole interpreter! but may we not with an open Bible, and perhaps keeping up the daily reading of it, yet be much in the dark as to the teaching of the Spirit of God concerning the greater part of what its blessed pages contain ? How many souls would have to acknowledge this to be their state, and that they have little intelligence of the scope of the Word, or of the plan so perfect and harmonious which it contains, which God in His infinite wisdom is working out in this world of sin, and which He is pleased to communicate to His beloved people by the Spirit and through the Word !

All truth is so linked together that you cannot leave out-one part without marring or losing something else ; whilst here, surely, it must be ever true that "we know in part, and prophesy in part," awaiting the time of full and perfect knowledge when we shall see face to face the One who died for us, and of whose glory all truth is but a ray.

The key to the dispensational lines of truth is, of course, prophecy :a subject many consider too deep for them, and from which others are frightened by the rash speculations of those who, not content with humbly and reverently searching the Word, proving all things, and holding fast that which is good, have set out to be prophets themselves, or who, for lack of light on certain points of importance, have perhaps overlooked dispensational distinctions, and so gone quite astray. It may be the fruit of traditional teaching with many an upright soul, which perhaps has missed the mind of God through receiving from man, and not having learned to cease from the creature, and trust only in the living God. How few have really been brought to that, and have to do with God directly about what they hold, so that even if it is truth they have on any point, it is held but weakly, so that they are not able " to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in them!

There is no portion of truth which is so neglected by the mass of believers as prophecy. Yet we are told it is "a light that shineth in a dark place," and that we do well to take heed to it. Do we not, then, do ill to neglect it? Would God advise the study of that which was hurtful or dangerous ? In a dark place is it not dangerous to go without the light ? So God has told us that it is a light shining in a dark place. But so many are taken up with human advancement and progress that they do not any more consider the world a dark place ; it is regarded as growing more and more enlightened. For such, I need not say the light shines in vain ; they are in spirit identified with the progress of the age; they have not yet learned the lesson of the cross, nor can they say with Paul, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yes, perhaps many would answer, I can glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; it is that by which pardon and justification are procured me. Well, so be it; this is surely matter for thankfulness truthfully to own that. But it is not this that Paul says here; he adds, " By which the world is crucified to me and I to the world." This is another story, surely,-a step beyond the other, and an important one indeed-important in the practical side of Christianity. It puts the cross between us and the world which has rejected and still rejects the Son of God. It puts us on God's side of it, as sharing in the rejection of His Son, and as sharing too, through grace, in the love which prompted Him to give that Son, and that still is holding back the wrath so long and well deserved, that the message of grace may be preached, and God's servants may still, in Christ's stead, be beseeching man to be reconciled to God. But it shows the world as lying in the wicked one, as enslaved by sin and Satan, though passing on insensibly to its doom, asleep in false security. The Christian's path is through the world to the glory of Christ as a stranger and a pilgrim. How many, alas ! are deceived by morality and religious profession, all which Nicodemus had when the Lord Jesus said to him that night, "You must be born again."

But if my reader is a believer, and it is for such this is written, I entreat him or her to consider if the greater part of the Word is not really locked up from sight, and beyond its history, perhaps, and the truths of the gospel necessary to be known for salvation, hardly any thing of its wonderful and blessed contents is understood. Beyond the Sunday-school lesson, perhaps, the interest in it is small, just because the soul has not been laid hold of by the precious things which need to be searched for as for hidden treasure,-treasure compared with which all that the world has is not worth considering, because it is "the unsearchable riches of Christ,"-an expression often quoted, but little understood.

For the present, then, I press upon my reader the great fact that the subject of the Bible is Christ, the Son of God; that the burden of the prophets is "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." The first is past, and the last, it may be, near at hand ; but the One who has been crucified will surely come to reign. Let him remember, in view of the prevailing opposition or indifference to the coming of Christ again, that at His first coming such blindness had fallen upon the professed people of God-the Jews-that they rejected and crucified Him, thus fulfilling the very scriptures they were ignorant of; so too to-day, how many are sharing in the unbelief which has substituted something else for the coming of the Lord! How many are saying, "My Lord delayeth His coming"-the mark of an evil servant; and besides all this, how scoffers abound, saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?" Men will be saying, " Peace, peace, when sudden destruction cometh upon them . . . and they shall not escape."

Do the armed hosts of Europe look like progress? does the present strife between labor and capital augur well for the future ? do the corrupt practices in trade; the increasing crime; the ascendency of the Jesuits, which is increasing rapidly; and the blindness of politicians to the growing menace to their boasted liberties, assure us of peace ? Assuredly not! And if it be said that the world is now open to missionary effort as never before, yet this, too, does not promise the world's conversion, but exactly fulfills the word of Christ, who said, " This gospel of the kingdom must first be preached among all nations for a witness, and then shall the end come." All this fulfills His word as every thing must, for He knows the end from the beginning. In succeeding papers, God willing, some points will be looked at with a view to present this truth for the consideration of the Lord's people, with the assurance that it is a subject full of blessing for those who are simple and upright in heart, and who, casting aside human sophistry and reasonings, have learned in faith to take God at His word, and if blessing for them of glory to Him who always links together His own glory and His beloved people's welfare. R.T.G.