BY JOHN BLOORE

(The reader should always turn to the Bible and read the passages referred to.)

QUES. 13.-At the passover leavened bread was forbidden in Israel. Are we right in concluding therefore that at the last supper leavened bread was absent, and that the Lord's supper was instituted with unleavened bread? Was it right and fitting that it should be so? Should we remember the Lord with a loaf of baker's bread with a yeast-rising basis? What is a right course to follow?

ANS.-"It is very likely that, the Lord's Supper being instituted at the close of the passover feast, where no leavened bread was allowed, our Lord used that which was at hand, the unleavened bread of the passover. We must remember, however, that for us, being no longer under Judaism, the significance of literal leaven in our daily use is entirely of the past. The point to note is that bread was used-the ordinary food of man. Our blessed Lord gave up His body unto death in order that He might be the food of His people. In taking, at the Lord's table, that which ordinarily is our food, we do not raise the question at all whether it is leavened or unleavened. It is Christ Himself whom we remember and who is typified in the bread which we break."-From Help and Food, Vol. 21, p. 166.

It may be added that we are in the liberty of grace, and this is emphasized with regard to the Lord's Supper by the absence of such regulations as characterized the Passover and other feasts of the Levitical order-regulations fitting to the system of things then instituted as typical, as the shadow, of that substance which we now have in Christ. For us the lesson of the unleavened bread is intimated in 1 Cor. 5:7, 8. The application is moral and spiritual. It has nothing to say as to the material bread of which we partake at the Supper. Again the difference which grace brings is seen in that while the Passover was a yearly feast of remembrance, the word as to the Supper is, "As often as ye shall eat." The law made the former a set time of yearly occurrence, grace makes the latter (with the precious affections and communion which belong to it) that which we may enjoy as often as we wish, and certainly not less frequently than the first day of every week (Acts 20:7). Here there is liberty under the Spirit, not bondage to established order, demand, or hour, as under law. So we find the liberty of grace manifest in the absence of minute regulations regarding what is material or physical in connection with this holy feast. "It is good that the heart be confirmed with grace, not meats" (Heb. 13:9, New Trans.).

QUES. 14.-What is the meaning of Luke 16:9?

ANS.-"The mammon of unrighteousness" refers to the material things of this life, the things in our hands to use, or whatever is intrusted to us as the servant of another. As a general principle, this applies to man as a responsible creature to whom the Creator has committed a portion of His goods.

To make to ourselves "friends" of this mammon is to so use what we have had entrusted to us, that when we "fail," 1:e., die, it may be found to our benefit and blessing in our "everlasting habitations." This was not the case with the rich man in this same chapter. He had so used his riches that they were found as an enemy, not a friend.

If men despise the goodness of God which should lead them to repentance and use the blessings and opportunities He gives only as a means of self-gratification and sin they but treasure up wrath for themselves. Compare Rom. 2:4-6.

This verse gives us a general principle, and it is always applicable. As being such, the Christian comes under it also. The grace of God does not set aside His government, and the believer is responsible to make such use of earthly things that they shall meet him as friends in the day of account, otherwise he will suffer loss. "Thus to use what is so commonly as to be characteristically the 'mammon of unrighteousness' is not unrighteous, but faithfulness in that which is Another's; and although it be in 'that which is least,' as such earthly things must be, yet even as that it may test and manifest the character with regard to what is the 'true riches.' A man's piety cannot be measured by his charities; but on the other hand, it cannot exist without them, 'for faith without works is dead'"-(Numerical Bible).

ANS.-Verse 12 declares the universality of sin and death. Verse 13 states that though God had not given a law to man from Adam until Moses, so that sin was not put to account, that is, charged up in specific items, as covetousness, false witness, adultery, etc., so that such acts were seen to be transgression, the positive breaking of the bounds set by God, yet sin was in the world-for "sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4, New Trans.), man's following of his own will – and the proof is that "death reigned from Adam until Moses," for "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). This was true even though those who thus lived in sin had no law, and so did not sin according to the likeness of Adam's transgression, for he had a law given to keep, but broke through its command; thus his sin had the form of transgression, which form did not apply to the sinning of other men from him until Moses, seeing that no law was given. But the moral consequences of Adam's transgression were passed on to the race of men in that they were found sinners and death reigned. In this headship he stands as the figure of Him who is to come-Christ, who is the Head of a new race to which is communicated the blessings resulting from His one act of obedience, just as in Adam's case the results of his offence passed to all men. John Bloore