"Sorrow upon Sorrow." Phil. 2:27.

The dear servant of Christ, in his Roman dungeon, counted it "mercy," and his being saved from having "sorrow upon sorrow," that his loved "brother and companion in labor, and fellow-soldier," Epaphroditus, had been safely brought through a dangerous illness.

God has not seen fit to deal so with us recently. But a few weeks ago He called home our brother F. H. Jeannin. He had but just put on the harness, and it was yet to be proved how he would wear it in a path which is devoid of human praise, and where there is nothing to allure human ambitions. He was not allowed to prove it.

Now, just as we go to press, the news reaches us that the Lord has taken to Himself our brother E. Acomb. He had but just returned home from a long and laborious season of ministry. He died in the harness in which he had patiently, faithfully served for many years. Rich in experience, piety, knowledge, he was so well equipped for the service of our Lord that, at His taking him away from us, one can but fall at His feet in wonder and sorrow. Do we murmur ? Nay, nay! He who loved the Church enough to give Himself for it cannot err in love or in wisdom in taking His servant home. But we mourn our loss. We weep with the afflicted people of God whom he served, comforted, and edified. We weep too with his sorrowing wife and children. We pray that the sorrow may produce all the good which a God of love surely intends for all concerned in such a trial.

The articles from our brother's pen in this magazine have been a blessing to many. Several are yet in our hands awaiting publication, and will, D. V., appear in due time.

The Cross.

Blessed be God, what I am is no longer in question. The throne of gory – "great white throne" where every shade of evil will be detected and judged-can reveal nothing new of what is in me, can detect nothing that has not been detected by the Cross and put away by it. At the cross, God said, This is the fruit and the end of all your sins, from your first breath on earth to your last; not one of them can ever be brought against you; there, they are righteously put away, forgiven, and forgotten. Not only so, but there too what you are in Adam-fit only for wrath, and death, and judgment-is ended forever before Me Your "old man" has been crucified there. All the sin within you, which you justly hate, is as truly gone from My sight as all the sins you have committed.

Oh wondrous Cross! revealing all sin and putting it away-darkness and woe to Him who hung there, but light and peace to me; death and judgment His, but life and righteousness mine; distance and forsaking His, but nearness and acceptance mine. O Jesus, Saviour, if already here Thy cross so justly endears Thee to the heart, and makes Thee its supreme Object, what will it be when we know as we are known! How blest must they be who are no more in the strife here, but are present with Thee! What a day will Thy coming again usher in!-the eternal day of joyful reaping the fruit of that dreadful night of sorrow.

"The word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. 1:9.
John tells us in this passage that he was "in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." Again in chapter 6 :9 he says, " I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held."

Having knowledge of the word of God is not all, therefore ; and preaching that blessed Word is not all, needful and important as it is. The testimony of Jesus Christ goes further:it includes the effect of the Word in myself and in the Church. It takes in the character which truth is intended to form in us, and the path it marks out for our feet; for truth is no mere theory, no barren philosophy, but such a revelation of the living God as necessitates a practical course suited to what He is.

All they of Asia, though turned away from Paul, would no doubt have claimed that they preached the word of God as well as he, and perhaps with much greater natural abilities, yet they were no longer with him in the testimony of our Lord. He exhorts even his beloved son in the faith, and devoted fellow-worker, not to be ashamed of that testimony (2 Tim. i:8). The truth practiced has more reproach than the truth preached. Many will allow it to be preached, in a measure at least, who would rebel at once against its practice.

A Divine Constitution.

The constitutionality of the Church is no more by "the continuity of the Lord's table" than by "apostolic succession."It is, in the power of the Holy Ghost by holding the Head (Christ), from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God" (Col. 2:19).

Assumption, trickery, hypocrisy, will not be wanting in the maintenance of the first two systems; truth, holiness, love, will mark the other, as indeed they mark every divine institution and principle.