As He prayed. "When he prayed." We are told in Luke 9:29, concerning the transfiguration of our Lord, that "as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering." Reading this in the light of Phil. 2:5-11, how exceedingly instructive and suggestive to us ! All self-abasement, all true acknowledgment in man of his dependence on God, is sure to be answered by corresponding glory.

We are also told of Job, in ver. 10 of his last chapter, that " the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. " He had been very angry with his friends; and not without cause. But with or without cause, the spirit of anger is not the spirit of prayer. Now they are sent to him that he may make intercession for them. It is a test. A man must really forgive to be able to make such intercession for offenders as God can hear. When Job can do this the Lord turns his captivity ; that is, He removes all that had been oppressive to him, and blesses him afresh, and more.

How instructive and suggestive, again, this is to us! For who is he, that is a child of God, and especially if he be in earnest to be fruitful, that does not know more or less of Job's experience ?

Cain, Balaam, Core. The New refers to them repeatedly. Jude 11 brings them together for a final warning. How important that we should understand it well, and heed it!

"The way of Cain" is his manner of approach to God. He puts upon his altar the fruit of his labor, for His acceptance. There is no blood, no death, in that. There is no confession of sin, and guilt, and condemnation. He is, in his own esteem, a worthy man, and he comes to God as such. He is refused therefore, for no man can stand before God in his own righteousness. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God " (Rom. 3:23).

"The error of Balaam" is using the service of God for a mercenary end. He is after "reward"- after getting, not giving. He is using his prophet-place for selfish ends. This may do in man's service, but in God's it leads to disaster. Moses was in a prophet-place too. How did he use it ? What did he gain by it for himself ? He first leaves all rest and comfort behind, to serve God's people for forty years, through suffering, reproach, insult-to serve in the same spirit of grace and love in which God had taken up Israel. Moses was not only in a prophet-place; he was a true prophet. Apart from the joy of being the servant of the God of heaven, all he got here was a grave on Nebo. His reward is in another world. And is it not so at all times ? " The gospel is preached to the poor " was one of the proofs Jesus gave to John of His being sent of God. It was not so with Balaam. He aches for a place of honor here, and for rewards here, at the hands of men. He beats around the word of God therefore. It had been plain enough, "Thou shalt not go with them." But his heart is lured by what is to be had, and though he dare not trespass too flagrantly at first, yet he ends in misleading the people of God to reach the object of his pride and of his covetousness. This is dreadful.

Yet there is worse-"the gainsaying of Core." This is apostasy-an open revolt against what God has set up. He had provided Moses to be Israel's savior, and Aaron to be His priest among them. Core and his associates refuse any longer to recognize this. They declare themselves and all the congregation to be the equals of Moses and Aaron. There is to be no more superiority nor authority anywhere. When that comes to pass, the sovereign God must yield, or He must destroy. He never can, , never will yield, blessed be His name! So He destroys, as the glory of His throne and the welfare of all demand.

What a lesson for us Christians in all this ! Has not the Cain-doctrine of self-righteousness ever been the plague of the Church ? Was not the epistle to the Galatians written to combat it ? Was not Paul in constant conflict with it ? Did not Luther struggle to bring deliverance from it ? Is not every fresh movement of the Spirit of God soon again spoiled by its return ? It has been all along, and is to-day, the bitter foe of Christ and of His Church.

Then, did not the Church soon become a deeply-coveted flock by the ever-abounding Balaams ? Was there ever any lack of men who love to be somebody at any price, and to live upon the industry of others ? -to do anything rather than work with their hands to earn their bread ? What a fat place the Church was going to be for them when they could establish themselves in it! They would, be willing to invent any doctrine or practice, to degrade the people to anything, if only this secured the wealth and the honors which they sought. How could the institution of the Clergy, the rise of the Pope, of Joe Smith, of Mrs. Eddy, with a host of others, ever have been but for this ?

Finally, what is the " New Theology," the " Higher Criticism," of our day, but "the gainsaying of Core " ? Moses as savior of Israel represents Christ as Saviour of the Church. He "loved the Church, and gave Himself for it" (Eph. 5:25). Aaron represents Christ's priesthood. "We have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb 8:i, 2). What is all this "new" teaching (if such babble can be called teaching) but the daring of proud men to degrade Christ to their own level, that they may exalt themselves ? They humanize Him in such a fashion as to deify themselves; and, alas, the crowd loves it, and follows them. Here is "the Rev. Dr. Robert McDonald, pastor of the Washington Avenue Baptist Church, Brooklyn," having found "new truth" in the philosophy and psychology (a supposed improvement on "Christian Science ") of "Dr. Worcester and Dr. McComb of the Emmanuel Protestant Episcopal Church in Boston." His gospel therefore is now to consist chiefly of "health talks." How welcome to the multitude, who hate anything that might disturb conscience! There is the rector of St. George's in Montreal, who has discovered a "gospel of the hereafter" which is far in advance, and far more to the taste of sinful men, than that of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have always supposed that when our Lord said, "No man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the. Son of Man which is in heaven," He was teaching us that none but Him could give a true witness of the hereafter. But these wise men know better than He. If not, they can follow the reported mind of Bishop Potter, that "it is quite impossible to realize what the meaning of Scripture really is unless there be a turning into modern terms which are at once vivid and clear "-that is, they can darken everything by putting new meanings to old terms, so that nothing means what it says.

What then ? " Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment" upon it all. That time draws near. Let all concerned, therefore, be wide awake, and stand aloof, lest they be engulfed in the same ruin. "As it was in the days of Noah " so will it soon be again, with the same results.