QUES. . 23-Will you please explain as fully as convenient 1 John 3:4-7? A friend here used that as an argument, that if we sinned we were lost, and had to he saved again. I will be thankful for help.

ANS.-It is a strange use of this passage which your friend is making in the face of verse 6. It says, "Whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him." If such a person has never seen nor known Christ, how can they be "saved again" ?

The whole passage is a contrast between believers and unbelievers. The grace told out in verses 1 and 2 produces (more or less vividly) in all who are of faith, the mind of verse 3. If one has not that mind he is no Christian at all. He is yet lawless- insubject to God-as a correct rendering of verse 4 teaches. A true Christian is not so, as all the world knows ; he abides in Christ ; he lives no more in sin as other men do ; if he fails to carry out the holiness he loves, he mourns over it. The unconverted sin with pleasure ; they have not seen Christ nor known Him. If it be said that a true Christian never fails from the high and holy standard which he pursues, why then is Christ now the "Advocate" of His failing people, as chap. 2 :1 of this same epistle teaches us ?

QUES. 24.-Can it be said that sin and death still reign since Christ has come into the world? Please answer for my own benefit, also for that of others.

ANS.-There are two creations going on ; the one which circles around Adam, the other around Christ. In the first, sin and death still reign; in the other, "grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

QUES. 25.-Col. 1 :6 says, "Which [the Gospel] is come unto you as it is in all the world," and Col. 1 :23, "Which [the Gospel] was preached to every creature which is under heaven.'' That seems to imply that the gospel had then been preached to every creature which is under heaven. How do you understand that?

ANS.-Just as it reads. We believe there is abundant evidence of it too. Even China had been so well evangelized that its government in the fifth century came near adopting Christianity as, its religion, and Africa was not a whit behind. If it be asked how darkness has covered the earth again so much, the warning to the church of Ephesus (Rev. 2 :5) answers it:" Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works ; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

In Europe itself all know about "the dark ages" brought about by Popish idolatry and superstition-the corruption of Christianity -and but for the work of God's grace in the reformation what but heathen darkness would cover it now, as is found where Popery has had full sway.

QUES. 26.-1 Cor. 8 :11, "And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?" The word here translated "perish" is the same in Greek, I think, though different in form, that is so translated in John 3:16, " should not perish," and in John 10 :28, "shall never perish." The passage seems to imply that one brother may cause another to perish. How are we to understand that ?
ANS.-If I cannot deny myself in such an unimportant matter as that of eating, for the sake of a weak brother's conscience, I prove myself unconcerned about his welfare, and ready to see him perish. Of course the Lord Jesus, the good Shepherd, will never let one of His sheep perish. He has said so, and His word cannot be broken, but as far as my actions can have effect, I cause my brother to perish. This is what knowledge without love does-Love says, " Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend" (1 Cor. 8:13).

QUES. 27.-How do you prove that the canon of Scripture is closed ? I have heard something from St. Paul's writings cited to prove it. But if St. Paul meant the canon was closed when he wrote that, it would cut out those portions of the New Testament written after Paul's time.

ANS.-Col. 1 :25, 26 settles the matter. "Whereof [the Church] I was made minister, according to the dispensation of God, which was given me to you-ward, to complete the word of God, [even] the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, but now hath been manifested to His saints."

No doubt some of the books of the New Testament were written after Paul's time, but there is no further revelation of God's purposes in them. The revelation which God has given to man was completed by that great mystery-Christ and the Church-the climax and finish of redemption – work, as Adam and Eve were the climax and finish of creation-works. To Paul, the last of the apostles, was given this finishing revelation, whatever details or summing up of events may have been written after this.

QUES. 28.-Do not the apostles, at times at least, seem to have believed that Christ would return in their lifetime, or very shortly, even as men reckon things? If so, do they not seem to have made a mistake ?

ANS.-It is evident throughout the writings of the Apostles that they looked for the Lord's return in their day. The hope of the twelve was His return to take the kingdom-the Jewish hope. Acts 1:6 proves this. The Lord's word to Peter as to his end when he got old seems to stand in the way of this expectation, hut their expectation was not like ours-that of the Church. Acts 3 :19-23 clearly shows that they knew it depended on the nation's repentance for its fulfilment. As the nation got farther and farther away, this hope must have grown farther and farther away too, in nowise disappointing to Peter who, by the Lord's prophecy, would expect a delay in Israel's hope.

It is later on, when Peter has already grown old, and might be martyred any day, that the hope of the Church is given by Paul. From the moment this is given, no event stands in the way of the expectation of the Lord's return.1 Thess. 4 :15-17 may occur at any time, as all Christians were taught by Paul. Prom 2 Pet. 1 :16-21 it is evident Peter was perceiving the hope of the Church, difficult as it was for Jewish hearts to allow any other hope to supersede theirs. This incessant expectation is not of course to put us on tip-toe, as fanaticism would have it, as if such a thing as the great harvest promised to Paul at Corinth would stand in the way of it. Not at all. But it is to be the thing before the soul, to form and fashion the heart and character of the Church. She is a stranger here, ready to go."Whether it be that part of it which is now in heaven, they are waiting there for the Lord's return to complete His grace in them, and bring on the marriage-supper of the Lamb; or whether it be the other part on earth, toiling still in the great conflict while waiting for the same thing, the whole Church is put in a waiting, expectant attitude. An unexpecting Church is a Church which has become an adulteress-a friend of the world; and what is true of the Church as a whole is true of the individual as well.