(Concluded from page 329, vol. of 1911.)

THE ETERNAL ESTATE OF THE NEW CREATION

CHAP. 2.

This chapter divides into three parts. First, verses 1-3, the rest of the seventh day. It could not be otherwise. When Christ has put down all enemies and reigns supreme, God rests, and all creation rests. In verses 4-7 we get the relation of man to the new scene of blessing; and in the third part (verses 8-25) we have the blessing itself.

Toiling through this scene, what a cheering hope it is for the soul to look on to the rest of God which is yet to be ushered in, and which all creation will share. But how could this be unless God were " all in all" ? How could God rest, how could creation rest, while one unruly spirit remains at large? But when He is all in all; when, as "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and, because of this, also "the Father of every family, whether in heaven or earth," He can exercise that blessed relationship without interference, what a scene of rest it will be!-nothing more for ever and ever to mar the enjoyment of that blessed relation between Him and all His own! From verse 4 to the end we have in type what is to characterize the eternal day. First, we see God planning and working in view of what He is going to bring in. Man is not there, but God is doing all in view of him and of the creation to come in with him. The word "generation" tells of family descent-the link between the Begetter and the begotten. " The heavens and the earth " standing in this relation to the Lord God, how sure it is that all creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and be brought into the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:21).

In verse 7 the man comes in-figure of Him as the One to whom the Father hath given to have life in Himself (John 5 :26), even as the Father has it- the Source from which all others derive it. He is the perpetual Fountain of it.

In Adam God breathed "the breath of life," and he became progenitor of all his race. In Christ is the eternal life, and He imparts it to all His race. A suggestion is here too of man's triune being-a body of dust, which links him to the earth; a soul, the link with the lower creatures; a spirit, the link with God. To take up this form the blessed Son of God came down, that He might lift all "the seed of Abraham " into His own glory for all eternity.

The sources of ministry and blessing are next spread out. The garden is the special place to be occupied by the man and his consort. It is "eastward." The glory of God is usually, in Scripture, linked with the east. It is "in Eden" (delight). What a scene of delight for God and man when Christ and the Church, His bride, are set forever in "the paradise of God"! How much "the garden" appears in the language of the bride in the Song of Songs! There too is the fullest provision for every faculty and desire. In the midst, forming the center of blessing, is the tree of life. Christ is ever the center, on earth or in heaven, if our relations with God are right. Then the government of God expressed in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then the river and its four heads-the fulness of the Spirit's ministry in that day, and which will be universal. Blessed ministry, that shall flow throughout eternity, ever refreshing us with the same blessed things with which He refreshes us now, only in fulness then-nothing more in us to hinder His ministry !

The man is put into the garden "to dress it and to keep it." Blessed Saviour! He will abide throughout all eternity the perpetual minister to all creation, ever engaged in the service of love, tending God's garden, and caring for it. No failure then, as with Adam. If God could trust Him for the dreadful work of our redemption, He can also in the safekeeping of everything. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not to be eaten. It is eaten now because of disobedience. Then there will be no more sin. That tree will then be only a reminder of our past history. Salvation known and enjoyed now has not delivered us from eating of it:therefore our need of discipline and walking in the spirit of self-judgment that become partakers of His holiness. In the eternal state this will be ended; we will have reached what God has predestinated us unto-like His Son.

In the closing part of the chapter we come to that which, after the purpose and manifold wisdom of God, is dearest and nearest of all to Christ, as well as the expression of the richest grace of God. He has made all the creatures of the earth and the heaven to come to the man to be named. They take their place under him. But among them all there is none fitted to be his companion. For this the death-sleep, as in special relation to a suited help meet, must come in. "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." A special work is here. Eve is not made as Adam. She is not made directly from "the dust of the ground." She is taken out of Adam. She is "builded " (marg.) out of a piece of him, so that he can say, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." And this is what is necessary to illustrate the formation of the Church, and her special relation to Christ. Thus the Church is made the complement of Him who nevertheless fills all in all. He is the Head over all to the Church, and she shares the glory of His Headship.

The one special book of the Scriptures devoted to this subject is the epistle to the Ephesians. Counsel, grace, love, oneness, shine out nowhere as in this wonderful epistle. May we drink deeply there, that we may enter abundantly into God's present work, and our ways be governed by it!

J. B.