In the 7th chapter of Acts, Stephen filled with the Spirit calls the Jewish council's attention to their history, beginning first with God's sovereign grace in the call of Abram out from the idolatry of his country, and kindred, saying, "Get thee out of thy. country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee." Then Stephen rehearses the whole history of the nation down to the days of Solomon. He goes no further, for the corruption and idolatry that came in during Solomon's reign was morally the end of things for the nation, though God bore with them down to the death of Christ, and even after-yes, was bearing with them still in sending them this message through Stephen. The death of that man of God by their hands was the fulfilment of Luke 19:14, where the Nobleman's citizens sent a message after him, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us." That is, virtually, what Israel said, when they cast out Stephen.

What Stephen says as to Moses (as a striking type of Christ) is most instructive:"Cast out to the end that he might not live," in God's providence he is brought up in the family of the king; but when for the sake of his poor and afflicted brethren he exposes himself to the vengeance of the Egyptians, he is despised and refused by Ms own people. This is just what was repeated in the coming of Christ:"Because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, they fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that He should be slain."

Nearly half of Stephen's earnest appeal is taken up with the treatment which Moses received from the fathers of the generation whom he was addressing. The Spirit of God presses upon them that they were no better than they. "As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers."

We have no reason to suppose that the professing Church has been or is any better than was Israel in their unbelief and rejection of their God-sent Redeemer. The devil has shifted his cards, but it is the same devilish purpose all through. He is ever leading men to "resist the Holy Spirit." To-day this is largely done by corrupting the truth, introducing philosophy and man's proud unbelief into the tenets of the Church. We are told that we must be abreast of the times; that it will not do to stagnate in the same views as those held by well-intentioned but misled men of the first century. We must own that they were ignorant of much that science has since revealed, and therefore were not so much to blame for views belonging to those "dark ages," but which we, with all the modern light that has come in, cannot agree with.

Thus Satan has his men of "brilliant minds," to work his ends; but the believer says with the apostle, "We are not ignorant of his devices," which the title, "That old serpent," suggests-he is too wise, in fact, for even the leaders of this world's thoughts, seeing he has them so thoroughly under his hand:as it is written, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

But not only is this so:God too has ordained that those who are wise in their own conceits should be given up to the darkness which they love, for the Lord Jesus says, "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight" (Matt. 11:25).

The world, even the religious world, has been in hostility to God and to His Son from the days of Cain. (Comp. Matt. 23:35 with Rev. 18:24). The form, or outward features, of that hostility may and do change, but the essential or underlying principles which constitute it what it is, remain the same throughout history. Some main features of that hatred of the truth, first manifested in Cain, and continuing to this day are these:

1st. The denial of the "Fall," 1:e., that man is not a fallen, ruined sinner. Cain assumed this position, for he claimed ability to approach God on the ground of nature, with no confession of sin. His offering clearly indicates this. He "brought of the fruits of the ground an offering unto the Lord." To him the ground was not cursed for man's sake, and in his eyes the offering was entirely acceptable. His worship would be good and acceptable, providing the basis of it be a just one; but the fact that God had ordained substitutionary sacrifice as the only ground of approach to Himself, gave the lie to Cain's position. It showed that arrogant unbelief was behind his act, besides rejecting the grace of God which the sacrifice displayed.* *The Hebrew word in Gen. 4:7 translated "sin" ("sin lieth at the door") may be rendered as well "sin-offering"; it evidently should be so rendered here; "a sin-offering lieth at the door"-such as Abel brought for his acceptance with God.-[Ed.*

2nd. His denial of being constitutionally a sinner involved, as already suggested, the denial of atonement; this, therefore, is purposely absent from his system of worship, and of all those who follow in his steps (Jude 11).

3rd. If there be no need for atonement, there is no need for a divine Saviour to make atonement:hence Cain, as shown by his creed, evidently rejected God's promise of a divine human Deliverer, as given to his parents (Gen. 3:15).

Those who now reject Christ's deity, His sinless birth a? the "Seed of the woman," and His atoning death, stand in the same position as Cain. If Christ be not Divine in the unique sense of the word, He could not make atonement for sin; and if man is not fallen, it is not needed. The absence of these things from many cults to-day brand them as what they are-of Cain's religion.

4th. If man be an unfallen creature, and by reason of this is a "child of God," then he has a right to live and enjoy life to the full. But Cain will not allow those who are not of his creed the right to live; he rises up and slays Abel. And Abel, by his approaching God through sacrifice, utterly condemned Cain's religious system. Cain's ire is aroused by God's favor resting on his despised brother, and he will get rid of him even by murder!

It is not the present policy of Cain's school to indulge in violence. Corruption, rather, is the order of the day; but Satan, "the prince of this world," has the same end in view. It matters little to him whether he destroys by violence or by corruption. The world-system, founded by Cain, under Satan's skillful leadership, builds- its cities, cultivates the arts and sciences, adorns the earth, and through inventions and discoveries makes itself as comfortable a "dweller on the earth" as possible, forgetting, or ignoring, that man is under the sentence of death.

5th. We are not surprised that Cain and his class complain of the punishment apportioned to them as being unjust:"My punishment is greater than I can bear." What is that punishment? It is banishment from God, and under His frown. Death is the "wages of sin," and "vagabondage" seems to be the result of refusing the provision that God in grace made for sinners. But if Cam refused the grace of God, he also refuses His righteous sentence. "We do not believe in a God of wrath:ours ii a God of love," say those of Cain's religion in the present day. Nevertheless the whole posterity of Cain perished when God visited the earth in wrath in the time of the flood. Scripture asks the solemn question, "What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel?"

The truth remains, spite of all the enemy's efforts to destroy or to annul it:"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that -whosoever believeth in HIM should not perish, but have everlasting life." The inference here is plain and unmistakable. There is but one avenue of escape from perishing. To refuse that, is to perish surely, and eternally. Wm. Huss