(Continued from page 216.)

And so God showed His wrath on Pharaoh and his hosts-on "vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." He wrought miracle after miracle to manifest to the poor enslaved Israelites that He was indeed Jehovah. The gods of Egypt were mocked once and again; and when the dreadful plague of vermin covered man and beast, the priests of Egypt (whose custom it was to shave and wash themselves daily with scrupulous care, else they were not fit to minister in the temple before their gods) were set at nought.

Manifestly there was a power at work superior to any and all of their gods-a power which mocked them all, and rendered their priests unfit to approach them. " This is the finger of God " (Ex. 8:19) was the unwilling admission of these workers of magic. And not simply "the finger of God," but His almighty arm was to be made bare in wrath against Egypt; and so having "endured with much long-suffering these vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction," He overthrew Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea.

It has been said that the mummy of the Pharaoh of the Exodus has been found in Egypt, and from this an attempt has been made to discredit the Scriptures which declare that Pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea. Psalm 136 :15 plainly declares that the Lord overthrew pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, As others have pointed out, the finding of his mummy in Egypt, if it be a fact, is in nowise contradictory to his having been drowned in the sea, for it is written, " Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore" (Ex. 14:30).

What could be more probable, if Pharaoh was among the "dead upon the seashore," than that his body would be honored by the people, and duly embalmed. Are not some of our own prominent men, who were drowned in the awful "Titanic" disaster, their bodies having been recovered, buried in their own family vaults ? The eagerness of unbelief to discredit Scripture may overreach itself.

But if there are "vessels of wrath," there are also "vessels of mercy," the suited objects upon whom God might make known the "riches of His glory." "Vessels of mercy"-those who, in the extremity of their need and helplessness before God had, on the one hand, turned from the proud self-righteousness of the Jew, and on the other, from the open wickedness and idolatry of the Gentile-those to whom the gospel had come "not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." Those vessels, emptied of self-sufficiency, and so ready to receive mercy, are being prepared of God for glory, and in the ages to come they shall be to the "praise of His glory" who trusted in Christ during the period of Israel's rejection of Him. Wrath and destruction for the haughty and unbelieving; mercy and glory for the penitent who receive God's glad tidings.

Thus, those Jews connected with the unbelieving nation, had become " Lo Ammi" (not my people); those turning to Christ had become "My people"; and the Gentiles having turned to God from idols, had become the " children of the living God."

The apostle's appeal to Scripture is beyond gainsaying. Isaiah had plainly proclaimed that irrespective of how numerous the children of Israel might be, only a remnant should be saved; and also, had it not been for the mercy of the Lord of Hosts they would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah-utterly obliterated.

What shall we say, then ? That is, What is the meaning of all this ? It means, " That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore ? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone :as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence; and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed " (Rom. 9:30-33). The poor Jew, refusing to recognize (despite his position as under a foreign yoke on account of his sin) the uselessness of seeking righteousness by works of law, found in Him who came to seek and to save the lost, only a stumbling stone. For, blinded to his own condition before God, proud in his Pharasaic self-righteousness (looking for Messiah as One who would come as a warrior-king to put honor upon him and drive the Roman from the land), could only stumble over Him who was "meek and lowly in heart," and could only find in Him a "rock of offence," who came "not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." The Pharisee might be ashamed of One so contrary to his own carnal conception of Messiah; but "whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed." In that day, when the words of the prophet to the rejecters of Messiah will be fulfilled, they shall then be covered with shame :" Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish :for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you " (Acts 13:41).

Those who despise Him now shall wonder when they behold in Him their God, who would have been their Saviour but for their unbelief. Alas, whilst they wonder, they perish under the awful sentence of their doom coming from Love's reluctant lips:"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." The Gentile, who had no "law of righteousness," but was festering in the open sore of his corruption and idolatry, attracted by the unconditional grace of the gospel, in believing found that righteousness which is by faith.

What a spectacle for the apostle to behold, and what a burden for his heart to bear-his poor brethren, blinded and astray, "Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us ; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved " (i Thess. 2 :15, 16). Whereto shall he turn his eyes, and where shall he ease his burdened heart? He turns his eyes to God, and pours out his heart to Him who alone is sufficient for these things:"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved."

The heart's desire leads to prayer that the desire may be met by God Himself. And how much like Israel is the condition of Christendom to-day- self-complacent and self-righteous, and yet blinded and astray. What is my heart's desire towards the great religious multitude of the present time? And, reader, what is yours ? Can we say, in the fear of God, My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved ? May God grant it to be unfeignedly so.

The apostle could "bear them record that they had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge;" and this was manifested in that "they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." They did not know how righteous God is, and so they could hope that the patchwork of their human efforts might somehow be made acceptable to Him. Therefore when the Baptist came with the sentence of God upon a guilty nation, "The axe is laid at the root of the trees" (Matt. 3:10), it was after the fertilizing of mercy and the pruning of law had alike been without avail. The whole tree must be brought down to the dust of death. "And all the people that heard Him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized of John."

Those "vessels of mercy" accepted the sentence of God upon their guilty souls. They declared God righteous in the pronouncing of the sentence of judgment upon them. " But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves"; in refusing to be baptized of John, they went about to establish their own righteousness. Alas, it is possible to have a zeal for God which neither takes into account one's own true condition nor yet His righteousness.

The apostle now brings in that which is of first importance-that in rejecting righteousness on the principle of faith, they were giving up that which Moses had pointed out as the only hope of the nation in the closing days of their extremity, and in combating the gospel going out to the Gentiles they were ignoring the plainest utterances of the prophets. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth."* *This passage is sometimes misquoted, "Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth." It is surely true that "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law," and that He has "redeemed us from law " as a principle of obedience to God. But we have now sonship, arid the Spirit of His Son is in our hearts, and in the power of this "the righteousness of the law [the righteous requirement of the law] is fulfilled in us." Thus it is manifest that Christ is not and could not be the '' end of the law to every one that believeth." But He is, thank God, " the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."* He that believes has renounced all hope of a righteousness by the law. "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is by the law, That the man that doeth these things shall live by them"-shall live in virtue of having done "all things that are written in the book of the law." But the fact that men died showed that they had not "continued in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them."

"But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise; Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven ? (that is, to bring Christ down from above), or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." This whole passage, with the exception of its two supplementary clauses ("That is, to bring down Christ from above "; and, " That is, to bring up Christ again from the deep," or, "from the abyss") is cited from Deut. 30:12-14, and speaks of the secret things which belong unto the Lord (Deut. 29:29). The things of the law belonged to Israel and to Israel's children, and therein lay their responsibility. But when scattered and peeled among the nations in the latter days, and brought to realize through bitter and sore experiences that righteousness comes not through the deeds of the law, they are not to ask, Who shall bring Messiah down from heaven; or, Who shall bring Him up again from the dead ? Brought to realize that their hope is in their Messiah, when bewildered and perplexed, God comes to their rescue and "circumcises their heart" (Deut. 30:6), and makes good to them the truth that the "righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." He will put that word in their mouth and their heart which will bring to them the righteousness which is by faith. But that word upon which the ultimate salvation of the nation hangs, "That," says the apostle, "is the word of faith which we preach:that if with thy mouth thou shalt confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." He whom they had esteemed as "stricken, smitten of God and afflicted" (esteemed Him as an impostor), they will confess as Lord.

The Lord will put His laws in their hearts then, and in their minds He will write them, and with the heart they will believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth shall they confess unto salvation. So then, for the nation in its extremity in the latter days it will not be a question of bringing Christ down from heaven; nor yet, if He should come and die for that nation, of raising Him from the dead, but of confessing that Jesus whom they rejected as a blasphemer, and crucified as a malefactor, is the Christ. Thus the gospel concerning Him who died and rose again, which they so bitterly opposed was, in the reception of it, their only hope of righteousness. G. MacKenzie.

(To be continued.)