(Continued from p.25.)

(3) THE OLD GATE.

What an atmosphere of rest seems to envelop one as we think of the " old gate "-the One who said, " I am the door:by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture "; and He changes not; He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever."

"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls" (Jer. 6:16).

Jehoiada repairs this gate, his name meaning, "Jehovah knows"; the son of Paseah, whose name means "halting," or " vacillating."

When we first entered, we entered as sinners. He opened His arms and took us in, "knowing" us through and through; He picked us up for blessing, and He is able to accomplish His purpose. He has not wearied, has not been disappointed in us, although we may have been disappointed in ourselves and in one another at our "haltings" and "vacillatings"; but "Jehovah knows," knows the end from the beginning, and He has not changed; so we can repair the "old gate "; but for this we need the assistance of Meshullam, whose name means, "reconciled"; the son of Besodeiah, "in Jah's secret." "Reconciled" and "in Jah's secret"! Surely to attempt to repair the "old gate" without these would be building with bricks-instead of living stones-and untempered mortar. Again, we say,
what an atmosphere of rest surrounds the old gate! Is the reader of these lines reconciled to God ?-

" A sinner reconciled through blood:
This, this indeed is peace."

"The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear Him."

(4) This brings us to the

VALLEY GATE.

We have been on the mountain top with Him whom "we have known from the beginning." Now we must come down into the valley of practical experience in the world. The low place becomes us as we think of what we are naturally, and as we consider what our ways have been since we knew the
Lord.

Nehemiah, as he went out by night to view the dilapidated wall, went out '' by the gate of the valley," and returned by the same gate (chap. 2:13, 15). This is as it should be. As he surveyed the ruin, and remembered that the people had brought it upon themselves by their ungodly ways, the valley gate would naturally be the gate at which he would begin and end his survey.

But Hanun repairs this gate, and his name means, "favored" (1:e., "shown grace"); assisted by "the inhabitants of Zanoah"-"to cast off." What serious lessons are for us here! On the one hand, "by the grace of God I am what I am "; and on the other, we see the cross, as that which alone gives capacity to walk through this valley of death's shadow; the cross, as the mark of what the world thinks of us, and what the world is to us (Gal. 6:14).

(5) THE DUNG GATE

This appears to be lower still than the valley gate. "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that He may set him with princes" (Ps. 113:7, 8). How often we fancy that we have learned our lesson of humility, and are walking softly, when suddenly some trial confronts us and knocks us down. One cannot be knocked down when he is down.

How hardly is this low level reached! perhaps because the "thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate " (ver. 13) is so seldom repaired.

The number of the gate is instructive, imparting a Deuteronomic character to it, 1:e., a backward look, in His presence, at our origin and course, and a forward look at the time when He will '' set us among His princes."

Only in His presence do we get a proper estimate of ourselves. Job got a true estimate of himself when he said, "But now mine eye seeth Thee:wherefore I abhor myself" (Job 42:5, 6).

Isaiah got a true estimate of himself when he exclaimed, "Mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts" (Isa. 6:5).

John the same, in Rev. i:17:"And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead."

To see ourselves as under the searchlight of God, We should class ourselves with the malefactors crucified with our Lord in Matt. 27:44. " The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same. in His teeth"; and again, with one of them, in Luke 23:40-43:" Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? and we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds:but this Man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." The beggar is raised from the dunghill, and set among princes.

The dung gate is the gate by which we entered, any way, however feebly it may be realized by us. May we plod on diligently, with sword and trowel, upon the thousand cubits, until it is reached, remembering that it is here God finds His princes, working under the name Malchiah, "my King is Jah," son of Rechab, "a charioteer." The latter suggests the warrior-spirit, as well as the racer, while "the ruler of part of Beth-haccerem " suggests the rest and joy soon coming; Beth-haccerem meaning, "the house of the vineyard."

(6) THE GATE OF THE FOUNTAIN.

"Fountain," or "spring," suggests refreshment, as the number of the gate suggests victory, mastery.

This gate is distinguished from the rest by being the only gate said to have been "covered."

In Num. 19:15 every uncovered vessel which was, in a tent where death was unclean. In i Cor. 11:10 the covering upon the woman's head is the sign of power, because the sign of subjection.

Samson with the sign of his Nazariteship removed was as weak as any other man. Why? "Jehovah had departed from him" (Judges 16:20). Man, when he reaches the extreme limit of his development as man, has for his number 666, one short in every dimension-worthless therefore-and all because he did not own subjection to Him who alone has strength.

The fountain gate then is covered. This secures it from contamination by outside influences, and, since it is the source of supply for God's sheep, insures their healthy condition, insures victory.

What an immensely important lesson is here for Christians to-day as to what we hear and what we read! Our Lord said-and He said it because He needed to say it-" Take heed what ye hear." And He also said, "Take heed how ye hear." Oh that in all our reading and in all our hearing the covering may be upon the spring, in token of subjection to our Lord, testing everything by His holy Word; for how much teaching is abroad to-day beguiling the unwary and leading astray the simple, which would have no power whatever were the '' fountain gate " but "covered."

Shallun-"they spoiled them"-is the repairer of this gate; and the meaning of his name is sufficient suggestion for the covering of the gate; and he is the son of Colhozeh-"all-seer." We shall find our wisdom in owning subjection to the One who sees the end from the beginning, and who will be eyes for us if we will. He is also "the ruler of part of Mizpah "-"watch-tower." When He is allowed to be eyes for us, we are at once upon an eminence whence every danger can be rightly seen and guarded against.

We must not forget that if this covered gate keeps out certain things, it also brings us into very desirable company, such as '' the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David "-things which it is out of our province to enlarge upon here; but if, as some authorities think, Shallun should be Shallum, "recompense," or "requital," then we see how amply recompensed we are for whatever the "covering" may exclude. Compare, as to this, Mark 10:29, 30.

(7) THE WATER GATE.

This, with the three following gates, is not said here to have been repaired; they are mentioned in other connections.

Water is commonly a symbol of the word of God, as, e.g., "that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word " (Eph. 5:26); "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God " (John 3:5), comparing this with i Peter i:23, we see that this also refers to the word of God.

This water gate, then, would not need repairing, since it '' liveth and abideth forever." Many prominent theological tinkers appear to think it needs repairing, adapting to twentieth-century advancement, etc.; but what it needs is dwelling beside- '' over against."

" Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi," after he was bereft of his father, and God blessed him (Gen. 25). Lahai-roi means, "to the living One, seeing me."

Here the Nethinim dwelt in Ophel, "over against the water gate." The Nethinim are "the given ones," reminding us of the "given ones" named in Eph. 4:7-16. The ascended One has sent down "given ones,' "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry."

Not for the perfecting of a certain class of His people, but "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come," etc.; hence the need of these " given ones " dwelling in Ophel, 1:e., '' the elevated place " over '' against the water gate," since it is the truth they are to hold in love (and " Thy word is truth, "John 17:17), in order to grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, the Christ. Only in this way can the people of God be kept from being "infants, tossed and carried about by every wind of doctrine in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to the systematizing of error " (lit). These "given ones" also "confronted the sunrising, and the tower that lieth out," or, literally, "and the watch-tower of the going forth." How beautiful and consistent is this!

The "sunrising" suggests the coming of the Lord, while Ophel is "the heavenlies" where Christians are raised up and seated together in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6); and "the watch-tower of the going forth" is just the hope of being caught up to meet Him in the air (i Thess. 4:17).

Truly this '' water gate " fills its numerical place of perfection and rest; and this is further exemplified as we note the other references to it after the completion of the wall (chap. 8:1, 3, 16, and 12:37).

(8) THE HORSE GATE.

References to the horse in Scripture are not often to his credit, but more frequently are in connection with pride and departure from God. The wicked Athaliah was slain at the horse gate (2 Kings 11:16; 2 Chron, 23:15). Here it is not said to have been repaired, but is mentioned merely as a limit from above which the priests repaired, "everyone over against his house." In Jer. 31:40 it is also spoken of as a boundary, "unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord."

But that is to be in the day when on the bells of the horses will be inscribed, "Holiness unto the Lord" (Zech. 14:20); the day when He will reign whose right it is; and that is doubtless what is suggested by the number of the gate-a new order of things.

(9) THE EAST GATE.

We are not told exactly that this gate was repaired, and we must not go beyond what is written. Perhaps it did not need repairing. It is literally '' the gate of the sunrising "; so that the thought of hope is stamped upon it. " But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings" (Mal. 4:2).
The number 9 appears to have the same thought in it. When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to him, changed his name, and "gave him the covenant of circumcision," having promised the "Seed" (Gen. 17; Acts 7:8).

So here we have a covenant which is distinctly a promise ("for this word is of promise," Rom. 9:9, lit.); and on the strength of it circumcision, which is condemnation of the flesh.

The east gate, then, would seem to stand for "the patience of hope," in the certainty of what is coming. Shemaiah is the keeper, and his name means, "heard of Jehovah "; and he is son of Shechaniah- "the dwelling of Jah." One need not enlarge upon the beautiful fitness of these names with the number of the gate, and its name. Abraham "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." " If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it" (Rom. 8:25).

(10) THE GATE MIPHKAD.

Miphkad means "mustering," or "appointment," and looks on to the day of accounts.

This gate is not said to have been repaired:it could not well be so said, but Malchiah-" my King is Jah"-repairs "over against" it; and this is as it should be. Those who are recognizing Jesus as Lord will be " gold-beaters," beating out the "things concerning Himself" and this will necessarily put them, in spirit, in the " place of the Nethinim," which, as we have seen, is the heavenlies, and in the company of " the merchants," 1:e., those who trade in the precious things named in Eph. 4 and Phil. 4:8.

The gate Miphkad is number ten, and the number ten is the number of man's responsibility-the full measure of it.

The very idea of the wall is responsibility, as we have seen; and now we have reached the last gate, the gate which emphasizes it, and in view of "that day," with its "well done " to those who have earned it, and with all its incentives to diligence, having in place each of these ten gates, a day which cannot be far off.

That Malchiah repaired "to the going up of the corner " may very likely refer to that sudden and secret rapture which, like the sudden upward dart and rapid flight of the migratory bird, takes him to his home. J. B. J.