QUES. 14.-Would you kindly explain 1 Tim. 2:15; also 1 Pet. 4:1-3?

ANS.-(1) In 1 Tim. 2 :8-10 the apostle has been giving directions concerning the relative behavior of men and of yeomen in the House of God. To explain the reason for the directions there given, he refers to the creation and to the fall, -which naturally brings to mind the sore penalty put upon the woman for her part in the transgression (Gen. 3:16) ; and according to the character of Christianity to those in affliction, he gives her the comforting promise that she will be "saved in childbearing (brought safely through her danger and sorrow) if they continue in faith and love and holiness with sobriety." What a comfort for godly motherhood ! For what could give more pain to a godly mother than to think that, in the pains of giving birth to children, she was under the displeasure of God. This promise removes all such fear, and gives her holy courage, while the sentence of God is nevertheless carried out.

(2) The passage in 1 Pet. 4:1-3 refers to what Christ passed through here as He encountered "the contradiction of sinners against Himself." He suffered from sin as He met it, as He also suffered for it on the cross in atonement. We (Christians) also suffer from sin when we have come to Christ and apprehend our salvation by His cross. The man who practices sin does not suffer from sin, but enjoys it; but we who know what sin has cost our Saviour to atone for it, do not practice it any more-though, if unguarded, we may yet fall into it; we resist it, and this resistance produces suffering in us too, though in a very feeble way to what it was in our Saviour, for sin is in us as well as around us.

Refusing sin makes us sufferers in this sinful world. It also constrains us to go against the current of this world. Therefore every faithful Christian is a sufferer here, and will be until the Lord comes and takes us where sin is no more.

QUES. 15.-What is the meaning of the expression "Condemned sin in the flesh " in Rom. 8:3? Some here teach that "sin could not have been condemned in the body of Jesus if it had not existed there." It sounds badly, and I would be glad of what help you can give.

ANS.-Persons who thus suggest the existence of sin in our Lord grievously dishonor Him. They not only violate specific declarations of Scripture, such as 1 John 3:5, " Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin," but it violates the whole tenor of Scripture concerning Christ. All the sacrifices offered upon Jehovah's altar according to the law, were to be "without blemish " (Exod. la :5 ; Lev. 1:3 ; 4:3, etc., etc.); and not only outwardly so, but the victim was " flayed " (skinned) and divided in two, exposing all, without and within, under the eye of God for His acceptance. If any trace of sin could have been found in Christ's person or life we would have no Saviour ; for one who is himself under condemnation cannot deliver others in the same condition. But God, whose holy eye saw in Christ only absolute perfection, declaring of Him, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased "(Matt. 3:17), "hath made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). Thus upon Christ as our Substitute God poured His full judgment, not only of our sins, but also of the sin which is in us, in which we are born, " sin in the flesh "-the tree which produces the sins. He condemned it there, and so "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus " (Rom. 8:1). " Sin in the flesh," and the "sins of the flesh "-everything that could hinder God's purpose to identify the people of faith with His Son-is removed. As they were by nature in Adam a sinful family, so by the new nature, received in new birth, they are now in Christ and Christ in them-a holy, spiritual family.

It is the blessed power of this new life in Him that is called "the law of the Spirit" (ver. 2), and which, when truly apprehended, gives full deliverance to our souls, and sweetest communion with God. It is the eternal life from Jesus flowing into His own, including them all in one bundle of life with Himself.

QUES. 16.-Please give a word on Hebrew 6:4. It seems that if they were partakers of the Holy Ghost, they could be saved and then lost again.

ANS.-Your question is already in measure answered in our previous No., Hay Help and Food (Ques. 11). Let us say again, however, that John 10:27-29; 5:24; Rom. 8:38, 39 are plain statements which need no interpretation, which any one can understand, and which, if they belong to the word of God, cannot possibly be contradicted by any other part of the word of God. Cling to them in your soul as a tree clings to earth by its roots ; and gradually, as you grow in grace and in knowledge, all other scriptures will fall into line, even the most difficult. Being "partakers of the Holy Ghost" does not necessarily imply the being indwelt by Him. One could easily be a partaker of a man's hospitality with all the comforts of his house without being a child of his-yea, even while being his enemy. It would be awful guilt, even as seen in this chapter and in the tenth ; but while it is a solemn warning, to the child of God as well as to all others, showing the effect of professing Christ and then denying Him (as "Higher Criticism," alas, and other antichrists do), it cannot be applied to God's true children, as verse 9 shows.