QUES. 1.-If you can give me light on the following, you will confer a favor.

If leaven is universally evil, as I believe it is, how can the Lord order it used in the meal-offering of Pentecost? (Lev. 23 :15-21.) To say with Scofield that the wave loaves typify the Church, and that in the Church there is still evil, does not touch my question. Why does the Lord order what is intrinsically evil as a symbol in His worship?

ANS.-Leaven is not " intrinsically evil." The apostle says, "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself " (Rom. 14 :14). Leaven is simply fermentation-a natural law in God's economy, and " the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all Ms works" (Ps. 145:17).

But as a type, leaven pictures well the effect of the root-sin in man-pride and its attendant corruption which Satan introduced at the Fall. Therefore with all sacrifices (which in various aspects typify our Lord Jesus) leaven was strictly excluded (Lev. 2:11). The "two loaves . . . baked with leaven " (Lev. 23:17) were waved before the Lord, but could not be put upon the altar. They can but represent the people of God (of both the old and new dispensations, it would seem-two loaves),the fruits of Christ's resurrection, and accepted before God " in the Beloved." They are well-pleasing to Him as sanctified in Christ. At the same time, the evil nature in them is recognized in the loaves being baked with leaven. Note, not active leaven, but baked. Confessing sin is judging it. Thus "baked," God righteously accepts us on the ground of the atonement by the sacrifice of Christ.

There can be no question that the feast of first-fruits in Lev. 23 pictures to us what we have in Acts, chap. 2. The resurrection of Christ, fifty days before, was the divine declaration of atonement made and the sacrifice accepted. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, our Lord being glorified in heaven, He sends the Holy Spirit upon His own here, as the seal of their acceptance before God. They are the wave loaves, baked with leaven, presented and accepted in the B loved before God.

QUES. 2.–I would like to have your opinion on the Scripture which speaks of the centurion and his sick servant in Matt. 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. In Matthew our Lord speaks to the centurion, and in Luke He speaks to the centurion's servants.

Can yon give me any light on this scripture?

ANS.-Luke gives the narrative in detail, as usual in that Gospel ; whilst in Matthew (which is primarily addressed to the Jews) the Holy Spirit seems to direct the attention to the centurion's faith alone, taking no notice of the haughty self-righteous Jews who bring the first message with their own, "He is worthy for whom thou shouldst do this, for he loveth our nation, and he hath built ms a synagogue"-all recorded in Luke. All this is brushed off in Matthew. All "go-betweens" are omitted. The Roman centurion's messages are given as by himself present, prominently bringing out his deep humility and faith. We often do this. A message is sent, and the record of it is, I or we, said so and so- leaving out the messengers altogether. Thus, in Matthew, the Holy Spirit seems to cast a slight upon the self-important messengers by not mentioning them at all. " Those that walk in pride, He is able to abase."

QUES. 3.-In a magazine issued by one of our publishers I read the following:"There is not one passage of Scripture which says or teaches that the Antichrist demands worship for himself."

Is this so? Is it not opposed to what has been taught and received among us as truth ?

ANS.-Yes, it is opposed to what has been taught among us. Yet it is to Scripture we must turn as the ground of our faith. In 1 John 2:22 we read that the Antichrist shall " deny the Father and the Son," 1:e., denies God as revealed in Christianity-he shall be a complete apostate. Compare this with what is said of "the man of sin" in 2 Thess. 2 :3, 4. He is called "the son of perdition" (like Judas). He exalts himself in the place of Deity (denies the Father and the Son) and sits as God in God's temple (at Jerusalem). Is not this a demand for worship ? Thus, can there be any reasonable doubt that the Antichrist of 1 John 2 and "the man of sin," " the son of perdition " of 2 Thess. 2 are one and the same person ?-"the Wicked one" to be revealed in his time. See also .Daniel 11:36; Rev. 13 :11; Jno. 5:43 as to this same person, and his end in Rev. 19 :20.

QUES. 4.-There has been a little discussion among us as to the correct understanding of Hebrews 2 :14. In what way or extent has Satan "the power of death?" (imperio da morte, " empire of death," as it is in our Portuguese version). Can Satan kill at his pleasure? Does the passage refer to physical death in the lake of fire?

ANS.- No ; Satan has not the power to inflict death on whom he will. This is in God's hands, as Moses says, in psalm 90 :3, " Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men ; " and in Rev. 1 :18 our Lord Jesus says, "Behold, I am alive forevermore, and have the keys of death and of hades."' When God permitted Satan to afflict Job, it was with this restriction, "Only, save his life "-Satan is not permitted to touch Job's life.

Heb. 2 speaks of the destruction, or annulment of Satan's power to keep man in bondage through fear of death. By subtlety, Satan brought man into sin and under God's sentence of death (Gen. 2 :17); and he has used this to keep man in dread as if God were his enemy. How often even children of God are tormented with this fear. But Christ has annulled it for all who receive Him, as 1 Cor. 15 :56, 57 says :"The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." So completely has the death of Christ for us removed the terror of death that the very word " death " is changed to "sleep " for the saint. "Having said this he (Stephen) fell asleep" (Acts 7 :60). " Even so them also which sleep in Jesus (or, are put to sleep by Jesus) will God bring with Him " (1 Thess 4 :14).

As to the "second death," it is absolutely in God's power. The lake of fire is the second death (Rev. 20 :14), and Satan himself will be cast into it (Rev. 20 :10).