I would dwell a little here on the two fundamental aspects of the Cross, as the basis of our worship, and of our discipleship. The one is the basis of our peace with God and worship; the other expresses our position toward the world.

If as a convicted sinner I look at the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, I behold in it the everlasting foundation of my peace. I see sin judged and put away by it for all them that believe.

I see God to be, in very deed, "for me," and that, moreover, in the very condition in which my convicted conscience tells me I am. The Cross unfolds God as the sinner's Friend-it reveals Him in that most wondrous character, as the Righteous Justifier of the ungodly sinner. Creation never could do this:providence never could do this. Therein I see God's power, His majesty, and His wisdom. But what if all these divine attributes should be ranged against me? Looked at in themselves, abstractedly, they would be so, for I am a sinner; and power, majesty, and wisdom, could not put away my sin, nor justify God in receiving me.

The introduction of the Cross, however, changes the aspect of things entirely. There I find God dealing with sin in such a manner as to glorify Himself infinitely. There I see the magnificent display and perfect harmony of all the divine attributes. I see love, and such love as captivates and assures my heart, and weans it, in proportion as I realize it, from every other object. I see wisdom, and such wisdom as baffles devils and astonishes angels. I see power, and such power as bears down all opposition. I see holiness, and such holiness as repulses sin to the very furthest point of the moral universe, and gives the most intense expression of God's abhorrence thereof that could possibly be given. I see grace, and such grace as sets the sinner in the very presence of God-yea, puts him into His bosom. Where could I see all these things but in the Cross? Nowhere else! The Blessed One against whom we had sinned making atonement for our sins by the sacrifice of Himself! Ah, reader, this is the glory of the gospel, the glory of Christianity. Look and search through all the religions of the world-the religions of man-and you will look in vain for any such thought, or anything approaching to it!

Look where you please, and you cannot find aught that so blessedly combines those two great realities, namely, "glory to God in the highest," and "on earth peace."

"O God, the thought was Thine!
Thine only it could be-
Fruit of the wisdom, love divine,
Peculiar unto Thee.
For, sure, no other mind,
For thoughts so bold, so free,
Greatness or strength, could ever find,
Thine only it could be!"-[Ed.

How precious, therefore, is the Cross, in this its first phase, as the basis of the sinner's peace, the basis of his worship, and the basis of his eternal relationship with the God thus so blessedly and gloriously revealed! How precious to God, as furnishing Him with a righteous ground on which to go in the full display of all His matchless perfections, and in His most gracious dealings with the sinner! So precious is it to God, that, as a recent writer has well remarked, "All that He has said-all that He has done, from the very beginning, indicates that it was ever uppermost in His heart. And no wonder! His dear and well-beloved Son was to hang there, between heaven and earth, the object of all the shame and suffering that men and devils could heap upon Him, because He loved to do His Father's will, and redeem the children of His grace. It will be the grand center of attraction, as the fullest expression of His love, throughout eternity."

But now, as the basis of our practical discipleship and testimony, the Cross demands our most profound consideration. In this aspect of it, I need hardly say, it is as perfect as in the former. The same Cross which connects me with God, has separated me from the world. A dead man is done with the world; and hence, the believer, having died in Christ, is done with the world; and, having risen with Christ, is connected with God in the power of a new life-a new nature. Being thus inseparably linked with Christ, he, of necessity, participates in His acceptance with God, and in His rejection by the world. The two things go together. The former makes him a worshiper and a citizen in heaven; the latter makes him a witness and a stranger on earth. That brings him inside the veil:this puts him outside the camp. The one is as perfect as the other. If the Cross has come between me and my sins, it has just as really come between me and the world. In the former case, it puts me into the place of peace with God; in the latter, it puts me into the place of separation from the world, 1:e., from a moral point of view; though, in another sense, it makes me the patient, humble witness of that precious, unfathomable, eternal grace which is set forth in the Cross.

Now the believer should clearly understand, and rightly distinguish between, both the above aspects of the Cross of Christ. He should not profess to enjoy the one, while refusing to enter into the other. If his ear is open to hear Christ's voice within the vail, it should be open also to hear His voice outside the camp-if he enters into the atonement which the Cross has accomplished, he should also realize the rejection which it necessarily involves. The former flows out of the part which God had in the Cross; the latter, out of the part which man had therein. It is our happy privilege, not only to be done with our sins, but to be done with the world also. All this is involved in the doctrine of the Cross. Well, therefore, might the apostle say, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Paul looked upon the world as a thing which has been nailed to the cross; and the world, in having crucified Christ, had crucified all who belonged to Him. Hence there is a double crucifixion, as regards the believer and the world; and were this fully entered into, it would prove the utter impossibility of ever amalgamating the two. Beloved reader, let us deeply, honestly, and prayerfully ponder these things; and may the Holy Spirit give us the ability to enter into the full practical power of both these aspects of the cross of Christ. As to obedience to God's call, the history of Abraham furnishes us with lessons of greatest value. "The God of glory" had appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, his native country, and said to him, "Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred.. .and I will bless thee;" but burdened with such as God had not included in his call to Abraham, caused his stop in Haran. We are not told how long Abraham tarried at Haran; yet God graciously waited on His servant until, freed from nature's clog, he could fully obey His command. There was, however, no accommodation of that command to the circumstances of nature. This would never do. God loves His servants too well to deprive them of the full blessedness of entire obedience. There was no fresh revelation to Abraham's soul during the time of his sojourn in Haran. It is well to note this. We must act up to the light already communicated, and then God will give us more. "To him that hath shall more be given"-this is God's principle. Still, we must remember that God will never drag us along the path of true-hearted discipleship. This would greatly lack the moral excellency which characterizes all the ways of God. He does not drag, but draw, us along the path which leads to ineffable blessedness in Himself; and if we do not see that it is for our real advantage to break through all the barriers of nature, in order to respond to God's call, we forsake our own mercies. But, alas! our hearts little enter into this. We begin to calculate about the sacrifices, the hindrances, and the difficulties, instead of bounding along the path, in eagerness of soul, as knowing and loving the One whose call has sounded in our ears. C. H. M.