(Continued from page 993, and concluded.)

The Cross may be next viewed in its bearing on the great, the eternal future; and this both as to persons and things.

It is the basis of all that for which saints are hoping. The liberty of glory, as well as the liberty of grace, will be through the Cross. Says the apostle, "If we believe,"-seeing that-"we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him" (i Thess. 4:14). In the next chapter His death alone is presented as the basis of hope. He exhorts believers to "put on for a helmet the hope of salvation; for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him." He has mentioned in the previous chapter those who sleep, or have died in the Lord, and also those who are awake, or alive, at His coming; and in the passage just given he teaches that Christ died for us, that whether awake of asleep -that is, whether found among the righteous dead or the righteous living when the Lord returns-we shall be raised or changed, and "so shall we ever be with the Lord."

But while the Cross is thus the basis of all blessedness forever to believers, it will be the very opposite to unbelievers. They will be held responsible for rejecting Christ, as well as for their other sins. "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace ? " Though this passage has a special application, yet it supplies us with the fact that the unsaved will have to give an account to God for despising and rejecting His Son; yea, even for neglecting the great salvation procured by the shedding of His precious blood. He will say, in effect, " I sent My Son into the world to seek and save the lost:how did you treat Him ?" They may say, "We kept His birthday :Christmas was a great day with us." The reply might be, "You thus own that He was born into the world; where is He ? What have you done with Him ? where is He ? " They will have to own that they killed Him and cast Him out of their world. We read that the blood of Jesus "speaketh better things than the blood of Abel." It does, for it was shed for the remission of sins. Peace with God is offered through that blood; but if it be slighted, then, in the end, it will speak the same thing as Abel's blood, only it will speak more loudly, and God will hear, and avenge the blood of His Son on His enemies. While the Cross will be the theme of praise and thanksgiving in the regions of bliss forever, it will be a dark fact forever in the regions of the lost. "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

The Cross not only affects persons, but things. The apostle informs us that "by Him (the Son) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth. . . . And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things, . . . whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven" (Col. r :16-20). Thus it would seem that the things to be reconciled through the blood of the Cross are coextensive with the things which were created. In writing to the Hebrews he says that the first testament, or covenant, was not dedicated without blood; that "Moses took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, . . . and sprinkled both the book and all the people. . . . Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these " (Heb. 9:18-23). Thus not only were the people sprinkled with blood, but the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. The tabernacle, with its accompaniments, formed "the patterns of things in the heavens," and these were purified by the blood of calves and goats; but "the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these"; that is, with the blood of the all-comprehensive sacrifice of Christ.

In the second chapter of the same epistle, where the writer is teaching that "all things" are to be put under Christ, we see that His death affects things as well as persons. In the 9th verse we have the words, in the Authorized Version, "That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." But there is nothing in the original answering to the word "man."; and the word rendered "every" is in the neuter gender. So the word supplied might correctly be thing. While we are assured in Scripture that God laid on His blessed Son the iniquity of us all, yet, in the passage under consideration, that for which He tasted death is so stated as specially to embrace things. So that it might be correctly rendered, " So that by the grace of God He should taste death for every thing." Mr. Darby thus translates it. This accords with what we have already given from the epistle to the Colossians.

The same apostle, in his epistle to the Ephesians, tells us when all this will be carried out in power. In stating the divine purpose in the matter, he says, " That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ," that is, head up all things under Him, "both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; … in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. … in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession" (Eph. i :10-14). The purchase was made on the cross, the price paid, but redemption by power is yet to come, when the "joint-heirs with Christ" will "inherit all things."

Thus, in view of the Cross, God can not only take up us pour sinners, and present us faultless in His presence, but He can pick up the blighted creation, the heavens and the earth, and wipe away the curse, the sin, the stain, and restore all things to vastly more than their original beauty, glory, and blessedness, never more to be defaced by sin or visited by the powers of evil; for those powers will be in " everlasting fire prepared for them," and " God will be all in all." Who would not desire to have a part in this bright scene? "He that overcometh shall inherit all things."

Finally, the Cross may be looked at in the practical influence it should have on believers. One cannot read the New Testament, and especially the apostolic epistles, without seeing that the Cross, with its bright results, is the great incentive to holiness and devotedness of life. I give a sample or two. Says the apostle Paul, "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again." In another place, after treating of believers as being "dead to sin," through Christ having "died to sin," he says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." The apostle Peter, writing to believers, says, "As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation ; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy . . . forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Much more might be given from the word of God, but this should suffice.

Yes, the Cross most loudly calls for holiness and devotedness. While it says, " Go in peace," it says, '' Sin no more." While it says, '' Be happy," it says, "Be holy." As we look to that blessed One who hung on the cross as our Saviour, so we are to be in submission to Him as our Lord and Master. Oh, who can think of Him in His dying agonies, and have one thought of going on in sin, or of withholding any part of the heart or life from Him ? Beloved, let us be out and out for Him. He is worthy. " He suffered without the gate" that He might sanctify us with His own blood. " Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach ; for here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come."

The Lord grant that we may enter so fully into the deep meaning of the Cross, or dying, of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body! waiting for the moment when He who is our life will come, and we shall be manifested with Him in glory. R. H .