Answers To Correspondents

QUES. 7.-Is it scriptural to have a box, in which voluntary offerings may be made, displayed at the meeting for the breaking of bread ?

The scriptures that have governed us are 1 Cor. 16 :1-3; 2 Cor. 9 :1-5; Ex. 35 :4, etc. ; 2 Chron. 24 :8-14 ; Mark 12 :41-44. From 1 Cor. 16 it would seem that the "laying by" was to be done at home, and brought together as occasion arose. The same is true in 2 Cor. 9. In Ex. 35 and 2 Chron. 24 there was also a specific purpose. In Mark 12 it seems as if it might have been to meet current expenses.

We have no such expenses, though we have had a box until a brother came into our midst who objects to it.

ANS.-Other scriptures might be added to show that your practice of having a box was according to God, but those you mention are quite sufficient. . The "laying by" in Corinthians could, of course, only be done at home; but why "on the first day of the week " ? Was it not because it was their assembling day, and the time therefore to bring together what they had laid by?

In Exodus and Chronicles there was truly "a specific purpose " for their contributions, but is there any lack at any time of specific purposes for our contributions now ? We believe that a Christian assembly which has the interests of Christ at heart will never lack an abundance of such purposes, and will need no expenses of its own to dispose of all it has the ability to lay by.

Evangelists, pastors and teachers are laboring incessantly to build up the walls of God's house, to repair the breaches which the enemy is ever making, to sanctify and adorn it by the truth; and every Christian assembly has both the privilege and the responsibility to further this by its contributions. It would he guilty selfishness-would it not?-if it ministered only to such as minister to it directly.

But possibly the brother who objects links the collection with the idea of begging-a thing so prevalent now in connection with the things of God. It is not so in Scripture. Our Lord never begged, nor His disciples but they who loved Him put their contributions in the bag that was connected with Him. They knew His glory, and that He was not dependent on them :they gave, therefore, as an act of worship-of homage paid to their Lord. So Heb. 13:16 puts it, linking it with the preceding verse. When thus we have learned to put our contribution in that box as an act of homage to our Lord, there will be no difficulty in associating it with sacred things. Nothing, perhaps, tests more the state of our souls than how and what we place in the Lord's box.

QUES. 8.-What is the " mystery " spoken of in Col. 1:27?

ANS.-The context shows that it refers to the body of Christ, " which is the Church," mentioned in ver. 24. Ver. 26 says it had " been hid from ages and from generations "; that is, it had never been revealed before. It is not only a New Testament revelation, but in the New Testament it is found only in the writings of the apostle Paul, who in ver. 25 declares himself to be its minister "according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil (complete) the word of God."

Eph. 5:25-33 gives additional light. ln ver. 32 "Christ and the Church" is called "a great mystery." It is called mystery because it is the letting out of a secret of unfathomable depth, pent up in the heart of God as a precious treasure until the proper time had come to make it known; by which grace, in its most marvelous form, and the manifold wisdom of God appear :by it, too, the fulness of God's great plan and purpose is revealed; there is nothing more to be added, for all is out; besides, it is illustrated in creation by a mysterious thing too, for why was woman created out of a piece of man's very bosom, so as to make the man say, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:she shall be called Isha because she was taken out of Ish"? The mates to other creatures had not been so produced.

As Adam and Eve came last in creation, and complete it, and are placed in rule over all,-everything, in fact, having been made in view of them,-so Christ aud the Church in the new creation.

Read, also, Eph. 3 :1-11, where again this blessed " mystery " is mentioned as being revealed "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God." The angels themselves know God as never before through the revelation of this mystery.

May we value the unspeakable grace of being made not only children of God, but also members of the body of Christ. It is a grace dispensed only between the time of our Lord's going away back to heaven and His return from heaven.

QUES. 9.-Was man created on the sixth day, as is mentioned in Gen. 1:26, 27 ; or was it only after the seventh day, as mentioned in chap. 2 :7 and vers. 21-24?

ANS.-Chap. 1:26-31 leaves no possible doubt of the creation of man on the sixth day. What is mentioned in chap. 2 is nothing more than the detail in the manner of their creation. We do that ourselves constantly, and of necessity, in relating facts or treating of any subject. We go on with the main thing, then return afterward to take up details.