Many young believers have difficulties as to the meaning and application of certain passages of Scripture, which I desire to consider with them.

Let me first recall a very simple principle, mentioned in the writings of a beloved servant of the Lord, which was a very great help to me as a young Christian. It is this :"No one passage of Scripture can possibly contradict another." The principle is a self-evident one when we bear in mind that all Scripture is divinely inspired.

Further, it cannot be too clearly laid down and insisted upon that the believer's acceptance before God, or his eternal security, as it is often put, depends entirely upon the work of Christ. God brought Israel out of Egypt, but it was that He might bring them in to Canaan. Rehearsing Jehovah's ways with His people, Moses says :

"And He brought us out from thence (Egypt) that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers " (Deut. 6 :23).

It is deeply interesting to notice that when Israel pitched in the plains of Moab by Jericho, that is to say, when they were just about to enter their promised inheritance, and Satan, through Balak, would bar the way to their entering, Balaam is made to testify that "God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Hath He said, and shall He not do it ? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good ? " (Num. 23 :19). Jehovah had to say to His people many times that they were a "stiff-necked" people, but He will not allow the enemy to curse them or bar their entrance into Canaan. On the contrary, He makes Balaam, the enemy's agent, to say, " He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel " (Num. 23 :21). Marvelous grace! Nothing in their conduct could alter God's purpose toward them. He had brought them out; He would bring them in.

The believer has been brought out from a bondage greater than that of Egypt. He has been delivered from the authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. i :13). He has seen all his sins borne by Jesus on the cross, and He has also seen God raising Him from among the dead as the witness and pledge of His acceptance of and satisfaction with the work there accomplished. The result is that the question of sin has been settled for the believer, who now stands accepted before God in all the blessed value and efficacy of that perfect work-according to God's estimate of its value.

We are apt to stop here, but God's purpose in taking us up in His grace is to conform us to the image of His Son :

" For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Rom. 8 :29, 30).

We have no difficulty in seeing that we have been " called " and " justified," but it may be asked, How can we be said to be "glorified," seeing we are still down here ? It is true that it is not yet an accomplished fact, but when it is seen that it is the purpose of God which is in question, faith knows it is as good as done. I cannot urge the young believer too earnestly to study this part of God's book; the result will be of the greatest blessing and comfort to their souls.

" Things future nor things that are now,
Nor all things below nor above,
Can make Him His purpose forego,
Or sever our souls from His love."

Let us turn now to those scriptures I referred to at the beginning:

1. "He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved" (Matt. 24 :13).

This passage evidently refers to Israel's time of tribulation yet to come. At the close of the previous chapter, the Lord had left the temple, which then became an empty house, and has remained so ever since. In this 24th chapter the Lord tells His disciples of the terrible time of trial which will come upon the nation of Israel because of its rejection of Him. In this coming period of greatest trial iniquity shall abound, and the love of many wax cold; but those who shall look up to, and count upon Jehovah, shall be preserved through it-they shall not deny Him-how otherwise could they endure the fiery trial?

Referring to this period, Jeremiah says, "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it ".(Jer. 30 :7). The present period of grace is over then ; and the time of Jacob's trouble is in view.

I would ask the reader's attention to ver. 15 of Matt. 24 :"When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee," etc. Now it is certain that this abomination, causing desolation (that is, the image of the Beast set up in the holy place), is yet future. Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and the temple destroyed only forty years after our Lord had spoken these words; and Israel was broken and set aside for their rejection of Christ, to this day. The proclamation of God's grace has been to the Gentiles since, and is still going out. But after the Church is taken home, God will resume His dealings with Israel, and the events of Matt. 24 will then take place. The disciples to whom our Lord was speaking, are looked at as part of the same people who will be true to Him in that day. Hence He says, " When ye, therefore, shall see," etc. The present period (the Church period) does not come into view in the prophecy of this chapter, and the words of ver. 13 therefore do not really apply to the believer of this day.

2. "If ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain " (i Cor. 15 :2).

It may be asked, Can a true Christian believe in vain ? Well, what is the special point of this chapter? The chapter itself furnishes the answer:" Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead ?" (ver. 12). How serious this was is seen from the following verse:" But if there be no resurrection of the dead then is Christ not risen." An appalling result indeed !

Further, "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ:whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished" (vers. 14-18).

The gospel which the Corinthians had "received," and by which they had been "saved," was that " Christ died for our sins . . . and rose again according to the Scriptures" (vers. 3, 4).

If there were no resurrection of the dead, if Christ were not raised, what did their belief avail them? Nothing. They had believed "in vain," or to no purpose. But the apostle emphatically says:"But now is Christ risen from the dead " (ver. 20). That being the case, no one who receives the gospel can possibly believe in vain.

3. "If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel" (Col. i:23).

In this epistle the Christian is viewed as having a " hope laid up for him in heaven." Now it is one thing to be viewed as in Christ before God, and thus in complete acceptance before Him, but quite another thing to be viewed as crossing the wilderness-what the world has become to the Christian. It is in this time of testing that the true and the false are manifested. It is here that the " Ifs" come in. The wilderness tests everyone, but the Christian is cast upon a faithful God, and is kept:

"And we to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The spirits departed to heaven."

"I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man (any one, not even the devil) pluck them out of my hand " (John 10 :28). " He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgment), but is passed from death unto life" (John 5 :24). There is no "if" in these scriptures. If some passage seems to cast a doubt upon our final security, we may conclude that the difficulty arises from our lack of understanding. Let me again emphasize that no scripture can possibly contradict another.

4. "If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end" (Heb. 3 :14).

Remember that the epistle to the Hebrews was written to Jews who had professed to accept Christ. They had been brought up in Judaism, which had been set up of God, and had thus a great hold on their hearts. But the whole system came to an end when Christ (in whom all the types of the Old Testament were fulfilled) arose from among the dead, and was received into glory. The nation, too, as God's acknowledged people, was set aside when they put Christ on the cross. To go back to Judaism, then, was to reject the completed sacrifice of Christ, by which atonement for sin was made, once and forever, and never needs to be repeated. Under Judaism sacrifices were offered year by year continually-which could never take away sins, as they were but types of the true Sacrifice made once for all.

It may be asked, What is meant by "The beginning of our confidence ? " We answer, It is Christ and His atoning work on the cross. Not to hold that fast was sad proof that there never was real faith in that soul. No true believer could give it up.

5. "Let us therefore fear . . . Let us labor therefore" (Heb. 4:i, ")

In this chapter the believer is viewed as going on to the rest of God, which is yet to come. Will he arrive there ? Undoubtedly, if he be a true believer; for it is said inverse 3, "We which have believed do enter into rest;" that is, the believer shall enter .into that rest of God-not those who draw back through unbelief. Verse 6 says that "some must enter therein." Who are these? Clearly those who believe-who continue in the faith. The true believer profits by the warnings of God's Word ; the mere professor falls by the way.

6. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance" (Heb. 6 :4-6).

I would call attention to what the Spirit of God says, in verse 9 :" But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." Thus it is clear that the privileges spoken of in vers. 4-6 might not accompany salvation. And, to "fall away'," in Hebrews, is not the same thing as a child of God falling into sin. For the latter (sad though it be) there is provision. " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous" (i John 2 :i). The advocacy of Christ leads the soul to confession and restoration of communion interrupted by the sin. But "falling away," in Hebrews, is apostasy-a definite giving up of the whole profession of Christ; for such there is no recovery. In such a case it would show that there never was any real faith present.

7. "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries" (Heb. 10 :26, 27).

Under the Mosaic law there was no provision whatever for wilful sins; the guilty person was to be stoned. Here, sinning wilfully is connected with treading under foot the Son of God, and counting the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy (or common) thing. It may here be explained that sanctification by blood, in Hebrews, is outward-not the same thing as the sanctification of the Spirit, spoken of in i Pet. i :2. No true believer can ever be regarded by God as an adversary.

The key to this passage, and to the epistle, we might say, is in vers. 38, 39 of this chapter:"Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe, to the saving of the soul."

Here we have two classes :those who draw back to perdition and those who continue in the faith, to the saving of the soul. Let this distinction be apprehended, and the admittedly difficult passages in this most instructive epistle cease to create difficulty."