AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.

PART VI.(Chap, 17:-19:4.)-Continued. BABYLON AND HER OVERTHROW.

The eighteenth chapter gives the judgment from the divine side. The question has been naturally
raised, Is it another judgment ? There is nothing here about beast or horns,-nothing of man's intervention at all,-and there are signs apparently of another and deeper woe than human hands could inflict. It is this last which is most conclusive in the way of argument, and we shall examine it in its place.

Another angel descends out of heaven, having great authority:and the earth is lighted with his glory. Earth is indeed now to be lighted, and with a glory which is not of earth. Babylon is denounced as fallen,-not destroyed, as is plain by what follows, but given up to a condition which is a spiritual desolation, worse than the physical one of Babylon of old under which she has long lain, and from which the terms seem derived. She has become the dwelling-place of demons-"knowing ones;" Satan's, underlings, with the knowledge of many centuries of acquaintance with fallen men, and serpent-craft to use their knowledge; a "hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird." The parable of the mustard-seed comes necessarily to mind; and without confining the words here to that, it is amazing to see how deliberately filthy and impure Rome's system is. She binds her clergy to celibacy, forces them to pollute their minds with the study of every kind of wickedness, and then by her confessional system teaches them to pour this out into the minds of those to whom she at once gives them access and power over them in the name of religion itself!

What has brought a professing Christian body into so terrible a condition as this bespeaks ? We are answered here by reference once more to her spiritual fornication with the nations and with the kings of the earth, and to the profit which those make, who engage in her religious traffic. As worldly power is before all things her aim, and she has heaven to barter in return for it, the nations easily fall under her sway, and are intoxicated with the "wine of the fury"-the madness-"of her fornication." First of all, it is the masses at which she aims, and only as an expedient to secure these the better, with the kings of the earth. Thus she can pose as democratic among democrats, and as the protector of popular rights as against princes. In feudal times, the church alone could fuse into herself all conditions of men, turning the true and free equality of Christians into that which linked all together into vassalage to herself; and so the power grew which was power to debase herself to continually greater depths of evil. Simoniac to the finger-ends, with her it is a settled thing that the " gift of God can be purchased with money." And with her multiplicity of merchandise, which is put here in catalogue, there will naturally be an abundant harvest for brokers. With these, who live by her, she increases her ranks of zealous followers. "

Another voice now sounds from heaven,-"Come forth from her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues; for her sins have heaped themselves to heaven, and God hath remembered "her unrighteousnesses."

Even in Babylon, and thus late, therefore, there are in her who are the people of God. But they are to separation. Rome is a false system which yet retains what is saving truth. Souls may be saved in it, but the truth it holds cannot save the false system in which it is found. Truth cannot save the error men would ally with it, nor error destroy the truth. There are children of God, alas! that "suffer Jezebel," but Jezebel's true children are another matter:" I will kill them with when the death " is God's emphatic word. The testing-time comes the roads that seemed to lie together are found to and then the necessity of separation comes. and error cannot lead to the same place, and he that pursues the road to the end will find what is at the end.

"Recompense to her as she recompensed; according to her works, double to her double :as she hath glorified herself, and lived luxuriously, so much torment sorrow give her. For she said in her heart, I sit a en, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore in one day shall her plagues come on her,-death and sorrow and famine; and she shall be burned up with fire:for strong is the Lord God who hath judged her." The government of God is equal-handed, and for it the day of retribution cannot be lacking. " God hath remembered" Babylon at last. In truth, He never lost sight of her for a moment. But the wheels of His chariot seem often slow in turning, and there is purpose in it :"I gave her space to repent," He says pitifully:but pity is not weakness,-nay, it is the consciousness of strength that may make one slow. There is no possibility of escape. No height or depth can hide from Him the object of His search:-no greatness, no littleness. The day of reckoning comes at last, and not an item will be dropped from the account.

Then follows the wail of the kings of the earth for her, while they stand off in fear for the calamity that is come upon her, more sentimental than the selfish cry of the merchants, whose business with regard to her has slipped out of their hands. And then comes the detail of it, article by article,-all the luxuries of life, each of which has its price, and ending with "slaves, and souls of men." If one had skill to run through the catalogue here, he would doubtless find that each had its meaning ; but we cannot attempt this now. The end of the traffic is at hand, and the Canaanite is to be cast out of the house of the Lord.

The lament of so many classes shows by how many links Rome has attached men to herself. Her vaunted unity is large enough to include the most various adaptations to the character of men. From the smoothest and most luxurious life to the hardest and most ascetic, she can provide for all grades, and leave room for large diversities of doctrine also. The suppleness of Jesuitism is only that of her trained athletes, and the elasticity of its ethics is only that of the subtlest ethereal distillation of her spirit. But though she may have allurements even for the people of God, she has yet no link with heaven; and while men are lamenting upon earth, heaven is bidden to rejoice above, because God is judging her with the judgment that saints and apostles and prophets have pronounced upon her.

Finally, and reminding us of the prophetic action as to her prototype, "a strong angel took up a great mill-stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, ' Thus with a mighty fall . shall Babylon the great city be cast down, and shall be found no more at all.' " And then comes the extreme announcement of her desolation. Not merely shall her merchandise be no more, there shall be no sign of life at all, no pleasant sound, no mechanic's craft, no menial work, no light of lamp, no voice of bridegroom or of bride; and then the reason of her doom is again given :"For thy merchants were the princes of the earth; for with thy sorcery were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth."

Interpretation is hardly needed in all this. The detail of judgment seems intended rather to fix the attention and give us serious consideration of what God judges at last in this unsparing way. Surely it is needed now, when Christian men are being taken with the wiles of one who in a day of conflict and uncertainty can hold out to them a rest which is not Christ's rest; who in the midst of defection from the faith can be the champion of orthodoxy while shutting up the word of life from men; who can be all. things to all men, not to save, but to destroy them :at such a time, how great a need is there for pondering her doom as the word of prophecy declares it, and the joy of heaven over the downfall of the sorceress at last. Heaven indeed is full of joy and gratulation and worship:"After these things, I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ' Halleluiah ! salvation and honor and glory and power belong to our God ; for true and righteous are his judgments ; for He hath judged the great harlot which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." And a second time they say, ' Halleluiah !' And her smoke goeth up forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped God, saying, 'Amen :halleluiah !' "

We may now briefly discuss the question of how far there is indication here of a divine judgment, apart from what is inflicted by the wild beast and its horns. These, we have read, " shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her up with fire." 'In the present chapter, we have again, "And she shall be burned up with fire; for strong is the Lord God who hath judged her." The kings of the earth "wail over her when they look upon the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment." And so with the merchants and the mariners. And finally we read, " Her smoke goeth up forever and ever." Nothing in all this forces us to think of a special divine judgment outside of what is inflicted by human instruments, except the last. The last statement, I judge, does. It cannot but recall to our minds what is said of the worshipers of the beast and false prophet in the fourteenth chapter, where the same words are used ; but this is not a judgment on earth at all:could indeed "her smoke goeth up forever and ever" be said of any earthly judgment? The words used are such as imply strict eternity:no earthly judgment can endure in this way; and the language does not permit the idea that the persistency is only that of the effects. No, it is eternity ratifying the judgment of time, as it surely will do; and it is only when we have taken our place, as it were, amid the throng in heaven, that this is seen.

But thus, then, we seem to have here no positive declaration of any judgment of Babylon on earth, save by the hands of the last head of western empire and his kings. Yet the eighteenth chapter, we have still to re-member, says nothing of these kings:all is from God absolutely, and at least they are not considered. It has been also suggested that it is the "city" rather than the woman (the ecclesiastical system) that is before us in this. chapter; but much cannot be insisted on as to this, seeing that the identification of the woman with the city is plainly stated in the last verse of the previous one, and also that the terms even here suppose their identity. On the other side, there is in fact no absolute identity; nor is it difficult to think of the destruction of the religious system without its involving at all that of the city; nor, again, would one even suppose that the imperial head, with his subordinates, would utterly destroy the ancient seat of his own empire. Here a divine judgment, strictly and only that, taking up and enforcing the human one as of God, becomes at least a natural thought, and worthy of consideration.

Outside of the book of Revelation, Scripture is in full harmony with this. The millennial earth, as we may have occasion to see again, when we come to speak more of it, is certainly to have witnesses of this kind to the righteous judgment of God upon the objects of it. In it, as it were, heaven and hell are both to be represented before the eyes of men, that they may be fully warned of the wrath to come. During the present time, it is objected, there is not sufficient witness; in the millennium, therefore, there shall be no room left for doubt. Therefore while the cloud and fire rest as of old, but with wider stretch, as of sheltering wings, over Jerusalem (Isa. 4:5, 6; comp. Matt. 23:37), we have, on the other side, the open witness of the judgment upon transgressors which the Lord Himself renders as a type of the deeper judgment beyond. (Isa. 66:23, 24, comp. Mark 9:) Beside this, Edom remains desolate, and, to come near to what is before us, Babylon also, (Isa. 13:20; 34:9, 10.) How suitable that Rome, the seat of a power far worse and of far longer continuance should be so visited ! Such a judgment would fill out the prophecy most fully and exactly. What a picture of eternal judgment is that of Idumea, in that "year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion " ! "And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever." Rome is the great Edom as it is the great Babylon, and it would be really strange if there were not to be in her case a similar recompense. Barnes quotes from a traveler in Italy in 1850 what is only a striking confirmation of the story told by all who with eyes open have visited the country:"I behold everywhere, in Rome, near Rome, and through the whole region from Rome to Naples, the most astounding proofs, not merely of the possibility, but the probability, that the whole region of central Italy will one day be destroyed by such a catastrophe. The soil of Rome is tufa, with a volcanic subterranean action going on. At Naples, the boiling sulphur is to be seen bubbling near the surface of the earth. When I drew a stick along the ground, the sulphurous smoke followed the indentation. . . . The entire country and district is volcanic. It is saturated with beds of sulphur and the substrata of destruction. It seems as certainly prepared for the flames as the wood and coal on the hearth are prepared for the taper which shall kindle the fire to consume them. The divine hand alone seems to me to hold the fire in check by a miracle as great as that which protected the cities of the plain till the righteous Lot had made his escape to the mountains."

That Rome's doom will be as thus indicated, we may well believe. And it is in awful suitability that she that has kindled so often the fire for God's saints should thus be herself a monumental fire of His vengeance in the day in which He visits for these things! F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.

PART VI. (Chap. 17:-19:10.) BABYLON AND HER OVERTHROW.

Babylon is already announced as fallen in the fourteenth chapter, and as judged of God under the seventh vial ; but we have not yet seen what Babylon is, and we are not to be left to any uncertainty:she has figured too largely in human history, and is too significant a lesson every way, to be passed over in so brief a manner. We are therefore now to be taught the " mystery of the woman."

For she is a mystery ; not like the Babylon of old, the plain and straightforward enemy of the people of God :she is an enigma, a riddle, so hard to read that numbers of God's people in every age have taken her, harlot as she is, for the chaste spouse of the Lamb. Yet here for all ages the riddle has been solved for those who are close enough to God to understand it. And the figure is gaudy enough to attract all eyes to her-seeking even to do so. Let us look with care into what is before us in these chapters, in which the woman is evidently the central object, the beast on which she is sitting being only viewed in its relation to her.

It is one of the angels of the vials who exhibits her to the apostle, and his words naturally show us what she is characteristically as the object of divine judgment. As described by him, she is " the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication."

As brought into sharp contrast with the beast that carries her, we see that she is a woman, has the human form, as the beast has not. A beast knows not God; and in Daniel we have found the Gentile power losing the human appearance which it has in the king's dream to take the bestial, as in the vision of the prophet. In Nebuchadnezzar personally we see what causes the change;-that it is pride of heart which forgets dependence upon God. The woman, on the other hand, professedly owns God, and moreover, as a woman, takes the place of subjection to the man,-in the symbol here, to Christ. When she is removed by judgment; the true bride is seen, to whom she is in contrast, and not (as so many think) to the woman of the twelfth chapter, who is mother, not bride, of Christ, and represents Israel.

But the woman here is a harlot, in guilty relation with the kings of the earth. Her lure is manifestly ambition, the desire of power on earth, the refusal of the cross of Christ,-the place of rejection ; and the wine-the intoxication-of her fornication makes drunk the "dwellers upon earth." These we have already seen to be a class of persons who with a higher profession have their hearts on earthly things. (Phil. 3:19:; Rev. 3:10; 11:10; 13:8.) These naturally drink in the poison of her doctrine.

To see her, John is carried away, however, into the wilderness; for the earth is that, and all the efforts of those who fain would do so cannot redeem it from this. There he sees the woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy ; easily identified as the beast of previous visions by its seven heads and ten horns.

The beast is in a subjection to the woman which we should not expect. It is the imperial power, but in a position contrary to its nature as imperial, in this harmonizing with the interpretation of the angel afterward,- the " beast that was, and is not." In some sort it is ; in some sort it is not; and this we have to remember, as we think of its heads and horns. If the beast "is not," necessarily its heads and horns are not. These are for identification, not as if they were existing while the woman is being carried by it. In fact, she is now its head, and reigns over its body, over the mass that was and that will be again the empire, but now " is not."

What are we to say of the scarlet color and the names of blasphemy? Are they prospective, like the horns? The latter seems so, evidently, and therefore it is more consistent to suppose the former also. The difficulty of which may be relieved somewhat by the evident fact, that of these seven heads, only one exists at a time, as we see by the angel's words:the seven seen at once are again for identification, not as existing simultaneously. The scarlet color is that which typifies earthly glory which is simply that :the beast's reign has no link with heaven. That it is full of names, not merely words, of blasphemy, speaks of the assumption of titles which are divine, and therefore blasphemous to assume. Altogether we see that it is the beast of the future that is presented here, but which could not really exist while carrying the woman. She could not exist in this relation to him, he being the beast that he is, and thus the expression is fully justified, -really alone explains the matter-the "beast that is not, and will be."

There is clearly an identification of a certain kind all through. While the woman reigns, that over which she reigns is still in nature but the beast that was, and that after her reign will again be. There is no fundamental change all through. The Romanized nations controlled by Rome are curbed, not changed. And breaking from the curb, as did revolutionary France at the close of the last century, the wild beast fangs and teeth at once display themselves.

But we are now called to the consideration of the woman, who, as reigning as the professed spouse of Christ over what was once the Roman empire, is clearly seen to be what, as a system, we still call Rome :" that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth ; " which did so even in John's time, although to him appearing in a garb so strange that when he sees her he wonders with a great wonder.

She is appareled in purple and scarlet, for she claims spiritual as well as earthly authority, and these are colors which Rome, as we know, affects, God thus allowing her even to the outward eye to assume the livery of her picture in Revelation. She is decked too with gold and precious stones and pearls, figures of really divine and spiritual truths, which, however, she only outwardly adorns herself with, and indeed uses to make more enticing the cup of her intoxication :" having a golden cup in her hand," says the apostle, " full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications." Now we have her name ; " And upon her forehead was a name written, ' Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.' "

Her name is Mystery, yet it is written in her forehead. Her character is plain if only you can read it. If you are pure, you may soon know that she is not. If you are true, you may quite easily detect her falsehood. In lands where she bears sway, as represented in this picture, she has managed to divorce morality from religion, that all the world knows the width of the breach. Her priests are used to convey the sacraments, and one need not look at the hands too closely that do so needful a work. In truth it is an affair of the hands, with the magic of a little breath, by means of which the most sinful of His creatures can create the God that made him, and easily new create another mortal like himself. This is a great mystery, which she herself conceives as "sacrament," and you may see this clearly on her forehead then. It is the trick of her trade, which without it could not exist. With it, a little oil and water and spittle become of marvelous efficacy, a capital stock at least out of which at the smallest cost the church creates riches and power, and much that has unquestionable value in her eyes.

"Babylon the great" means "confusion the great." Greater confusion there cannot be than that which confounds matter and spirit, creature and Creator, makes water to wash the soul, and brings the flesh of the Lord in heaven to feed literally with it men on earth. Yet to this is the larger part of Christendom captive, feeding on ashes, turned aside by a deceived heart, and they cannot deliver their souls, nor say, " Is there not a lie in my right hand ?" (Is. 44:20.)

Nay, this frightful system has scattered wide the seed of its false doctrine, and the harlot mother has daughters like herself:she is the "mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." Solemn words from the Spirit of truth, which may well search many hearts in systems that seem severed far from Rome, as well as those that more openly approach her. Who dare, with these awful scriptures before them, speak smooth things as to the enormities of Rome? To be protestant is indeed in itself no sign of acceptance with God, but not to be protestant is certainly not to be with God in a most important matter. This Roman Babylon is not, moreover, some future form that is to be, though it may develop into worse yet than we have seen. "It is that which has been (in the paradox-al language which yet is so lively a representation of the truth) seated upon the beast while the beast " is not." It is Popery as we know it and have to do with it; and woe to kings and rulers who truckle to it, or (again in the bold Scripture words) commit fornication with it! " Come out from her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues !"

" And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus ; and when I saw her," says the apostle, " I wondered with a great wonder."

Romish apologists have been forced by the evidence to admit that it is Rome that is pictured here; but they say, and some Protestant interpreters have joined them in it, that it is pagan Rome. But how little cause of wonder to John in his Patmos banishment, that the heathen world should persecute the saints ! That this same Rome, professing Christianity, should do it, this would be indeed a marvel. With us it is simple matter of history, and we have ceased to wonder; while, alas ! it is true that many to-day no longer remember, and many more think we have no business to remember, the persecutor of old. It was the temper of those cruel times of old, many urge :nineteenth century civilization has tamed the tiger, and Rome now loves her enemies, as the Christian should. But abundant testimony shows how false is this assertion. Here, just before her judgment, the apostle pronounces her condemnation for the murder of God's saints still unrepented of. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

AS CONTAINED IN DR. SANDAY’S LECTURES ON "THE ORACLES OF GOD."

2. The Human Element in the Bible.-Continued.

"It may be asked, then," he says, " independently of any I critical inquiries, Where can we draw the line, and say, 'Hitherto, and no further." ? We admit that the Bible has shared the fate of other books in its subsequent history. May it not also have shared the fate of other books in the circumstances
of its origin ?"

Surely it is impossible to argue from the one to the other. Are we to refuse to believe in the miracle of creation because natural law, as men say, rules in what has been created day by clay ? Must the Bible be written upon paper that cannot tear, or with ink that cannot be blotted, or all its copies be sealed manifestly with the seal of heaven, in order that we may believe in its absolute divinity? Christ was the "Word made flesh; "yet was He in the world with no visible exemption from the lot of other men, with no halo of divine glory to fence Him off from the persecution, the misrepresentation, the unbelief, the misunderstanding, of those around Him.

But we see how easily, if faith fails at one point, it will be forced to yield at every one. Satan knows the value of but one concession, and will not hesitate to press it to the full result. So Dr. Sanday :-

"We admit that the writers spoke and wrote in the language of their contemporaries,-with many at least of the same faults of style and diction, with some at least of the same defects of knowledge. But if with some, why not also with others? They were not perfectly acquainted with the facts of science :is it certain that they would be more perfectly acquainted with the facts of history?"

It is absurd to put questions of language side by side with questions of truth and accuracy. The Galilean dialect may serve the divine purpose, just as well as what they spoke at Jerusalem, and Hellenistic Greek convey the truth as accurately as that of Plato or Demosthenes. But even defects of knowledge may be readily owned in Moses or the apostles. We need not suppose the one to be "perfectly acquainted with the facts of science" in order to have written Gen. 1:aright; or either of them to be "perfectly acquainted with the facts of history." They needed, and they had, divine superintendence and guidance everywhere, and that where they knew, as well as where they did not know. Moses may have known very well Melchisedek's ancestry, the day of his birth and the day of his death, and he certainly did not know that to have put these into his narrative would have spoiled the apostle's argument more than fifteen centuries afterward. Yet it would, in fact, have done so none the less, as we see the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews (chap. 7:3) building upon these omissions.

But these "defects of knowledge" which Dr. Sanday is determined that we shall "admit," and as to which he emphatically denies that we know where to draw the line, if allowed, as he supposes, to appear in Scripture, would raise questions indeed. The cross and the resurrection are "facts of history;" have they come to us from the hands of ill-informed writers? And the nativity; as to which, they must have got their knowledge from others,- and indeed Luke tells us so, while he in no wise specifies his informants! All this probably put together after the fashion that the professor believes to have been the mode in which the Bible has been evolved,-that is the correct term to-day,-evolved for us. Here is the process :-

" In the secular writings of antiquity, there are many phenomena which are not in exact accordance with the literary practice of our own day. A later writer will incorporate the work of an older writer, often with but slight alteration. The annals that are transmitted from age to age receive gradual accretions in their course, and there is often no external mark to show where the older matter ends and the new begins. Institutions which are well established in one age are assumed to go back to an earlier age than can really be claimed for them. Certain great names stand out in the history round which stray documents and stray incidents appear to crystallize. When a group of writings is collected together, the name which stands at the head of the group is held to cover every member of it. And in like manner laws and customs which grow up by slow degrees are referred to some one great lawgiver who was the first to formulate the leading provisions of the code with which the are associated. There is no deception about it. It is the same sort of process that we see going on every day where oral tradition is at work. Wherever some notable character has passed over the stage, in after-time things come to be set clown to him with which he has no real connection. We must throw ourselves back into an age when writing is the exception and hearsay the rule. There comes a time when regular histories are written; but before that, tradition has been at work molding and combining the facts which history records."

So much for the credibility of the Bible. It is a patchwork of old with new, where only our great critics can distinguish the one from the other. All the evils of oral tradition which we had fondly imagined Scripture had been expressly given to preserve us from are found in that very Scripture. And in order that we may not resent this imputation of fiction or forgery, as contradictory to the whole character of purity and truthfulness which shines out everywhere in the Bible, we are gravely assured that there is "no deception about it"! though it must be confessed we have been deceived. We have merely forgotten to "throw ourselves back" into an uncritical age, when pious frauds were no frauds, or at least no harm, and we must not make harm of them.

" The body of proof is weighty, and cannot easily be rejected. Why should it be rejected ? The grounds, when we come to think of it, are mainly those of our own imagination."

And Dr. Sanday repeats his misapplied text as perfectly convincing, that "we have this treasure in earthen vessels," and fortifies it with another-that God's ways are not as our ways. Then, growing bolder, he observes,

"We can imagine the Bible in some of its accessories more perfect than it is-what we at least might think more perfect. But if it had been so, it could never have been in such close contact with human nature. Its message could never have come home to us so fresh and warm as it does. As it is, it speaks to the heart, and it does so because, according to a fine saying in the Talmud, it speaks in the tongue of the children of men." (!!)

Kind critics ! we have been ungrateful, as men indeed have so often been to their best benefactors! But how good it is to have an interpreter such as Dean Ireland's professor to explain this to us ! Who could have thought, simple as it is when you really believe it, that the " mis-takes of Moses," or the mistakes of others for him, the patchwork and pious frauds of his successors, shall make Scripture fresher and warmer to the heart than if all were proved true and perfect! Here, surely, we have a triumph over infidelity such as we could not have dared to imagine. Christian and unbeliever may now go on side by side, emulating each other in joyful discovery of the blunders of inspiration by means of which the fresh-ness and warmth of its message will be continually increased !

A note at the end of the lecture adds more confusion. it is intended to show "the gradual nature of the steps| which lead up from questions of what is called the lower criticism (which deals with the text,) to questions of the higher criticism (which deals with authorship, etc.), and the difficulty of drawing a hard and fast line between them." But there is really no difficulty, and his examples:prove none. The trustworthiness of a text is one thing ; the trustworthiness of the original, when plainly shown to be that, is quite another. No one pretends that the first. chapter of Genesis is not genuine; but there are unhappily many who treat it none the less as untrustworthy, as unscientific. Let the Lord's words be believed, that! "Scripture cannot be broken," and the disputation as to what is Scripture will be very little serious. But indeed the proofs also upon which the higher criticism relies little serious also :they are made to seem much only by! quantity being made to stand for quality; what is serious in them is but the unbelief of which they are the real and incontestable proof. F. W. G.

It is instructive to notice, in the case of Elisha and Elijah, and the case of Ruth and Naomi, as well as that of Abraham and Isaac, a phrase used by the Holy Spirit. "And they two went on,"or "both together," in the case of Abraham and Isaac. It pictures to us the devoted disciple and his Leader. No others are before us. These are the actors-others are but onlookers, or (as Orpahs) left behind. It presents to us, beautifully and affectingly, the path of the true disciple, alone with Christ. The disciple himself thinks only of his Master. The onlooker beholds, as it were, just the two-the disciple and the other-Christ, of whom the disciple bears witness. Others may remain at the foot of the hill, like Abraham's young men, or, like the fifty sons of the prophets, may stand to view "afar off," but "the two" went on.

Notice that the words "they two" are first used in the case of Elijah and Elisha when their faces are turned toward the Jordan (in 2 Kings 2:6). Elisha had followed his leader from Gilgal to Bethel, and from Bethel to Jericho, and had left the sons of the prophets behind; and now only the Jordan of death was before them, and immediately and for the first time the words are used "and they two went on." The difference is at once manifest between religious routine and real power. It was the same with Abraham and Isaac, and also with Ruth in following Naomi. Death was faced, and there was the leaving behind all that would naturally be clung to, through confidence in the one that was obeyed or followed.

"And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off ; and they two stood by Jordan. Here is a test and a witness for God. There is neither halting nor haste. They face the difficulty before all. It was the same with Israel centuries before. "And Joshua rose early in the morning, and they removed from Shittim (no doubt significant) and came to Jordan-he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. That was the other side of Jordan, just opposite where the prophets stood. The prophets were going by the way of death-the death of the cross in figure, outside the land, "without the camp." And here, the others (the fifty) stopped short. They cluster together. We like company and numbers and popularity, without giving up religion. "They two" looked lonely. The others were looking at them. They were "a spectacle to angels and to men,"-the two, the leader and the follower. It was at such a pass that Peter shrank :" Far be it from Thee, Lord ; this shall not be unto Thee." Peter was still among the fifty. He savored, not the things that were of God, but those that were of men. " For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it."

Elijah and the Lord went outside the land for the same reason, because the nation was not in it according to God. The Lord went outside it and all its religion by the cross, and we are to go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. Then only can we return to our old circumstances as Elisha came back through the Jordan to his-in the power of God, we as risen with Christ.

Let us abhor that would make us compromise. It will be an infinite loss.

"And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground."

The follower was as safe as his leader. The channel was made bare. They passed by where the twelve stones had been placed five hundred years before by Joshua, when the ark was borne by the priests who "stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan." But these two are now going in the opposite direction ; and only two ! No army-not a nation, with an array of priests and warriors and the ark as of old. That was a type of how God's people are brought into their inheritance, and how we are dead and risen with Christ; but in this case (that of Elisha and Elijah) we have a different lesson, namely, the confession that God's people have failed in their witness, and the one who would be faithful to Christ must act now for himself, not waiting for his dearest friends or religious companions ; he must give up seeking the approval of the religious world, with its routine to promote self-complacency and hinder self-judgment; he must cross the Jordan,-he must put the cross between himself and all that is merely religious without Christ. What a test is here ! who is sufficient to bear it ? How troublesome to have to test by the Word all we are attached to !-so troublesome that the common thing with Christians is to refuse to be troubled about it. The reproach is too much, or the world has so blinded them that they have little or no exercise about bearing their cross and following Christ.

And now they have crossed the Jordan, and "they still went on and talked." It was solemn and joyous converse. The cross has been taken up, and the bliss of communion is being enjoyed-the reward of victory. We know well what they talked about-" the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." (i Pet. 1:11) They were beyond Jordan now, as the Lord was in Luke 24:, with His two companions when He talked with them and said, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory ?" It was the same on the mount of transfiguration-they spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem, that event of all events when the passing the Jordan would be forever fulfilled. There Elijah is again before us, and the cross is the shame. Brethren, may we follow the Lord for ourselves. It is a matter between one's own soul and Him. Alone with Christ is the Christian's pathway; the only way of true fellowship if with others.
E. S. L.

Fierce and frequent are the conflicts
Of Thy warriors, O our God;
But how sweet to know that Jesus
Every step the way hath trod.
Jesus, Captain of salvation,
Thou our battle-field hast tried;
Fear we not the foes of darkness,
Thou our armor hast supplied.

Thou art with us, thou art for us,
Thou hast 'gainst the tempter stood.
Thou our feebleness canst pity,-
Yea, and help, when none else could.
Many a silent conflict wages,
Fierce and oft within the breast
Of some silent saint who seemeth
Most of all to be at rest.

From the depth of every trial,
May our hearts still rest in Thee.
[Peace amid the fiercest fighting-
Calm upon the roughest sea.]
In the heat of hardest battle,
Look to Thee for victory.
Find the weapons of our warfare,
Saviour, all supplied in Thee.

H. McD.

Plainfield.

When will the sighing be over?
When will the groaning be done ?
When will the sorrow and weeping,
And all of earth's trials be gone ?

When will the sinning and failing?
When will the wanderings cease ?
When will the strife and division,
And all roots of bitterness cease ?

When will God's saints be united ?
When will their schisms all cease?
When will their love flow unhindered
In rivers of unruffled peace?

When will the deep "tribulations"
When will "afflictions" be gone?
When will the parting and dying
And sadness and anguish be done?

When will "our hope" be obtained ?
When will "our faith" merge in sight?
When will the living " be changed " ?
And dead saints raised into light ?

When Jesus our Lord shall return,
The things that are not shall then be.
The things that are now shall have vanished
When "caught up" His glory to see.

Then let us keep "watching" and "praying,"
And " waiting" that glory to share, "
Be steadfast" whilst on earth staying,
For Him we'll soon "meet in the air."

J. W. M.

So. Boston, May 26, 1892.

The great mistake made by many Christians with regard to prayer is that they only bring what they consider important matters to God, and attempt to manage smaller concerns themselves. This is really unbelief and self-confidence; for it is doubting His interest in us, and forgetting that word which says, "Without Me ye can do nothing." If we do not bring our little concerns to God, we attempt to bear them ourselves, only to prove our utter helplessness. Many a stumble has come about in this way. Then, too, we too often make the distinction between temporal and spiritual affairs, thinking the latter are proper subjects for prayer, not the former. If we do not bring our temporal affairs into God's presence, we fail to get His mind on them, and too often in this way let self-will have its way. For the root of all prayer is, "Thy will be done." If it is not God's will, it could not but be for our injury to have our prayers answered.

Are all our prayers answered ?

Yes, in God's way. The most perfect and earnest prayer-that in Gethsemane-was answered, but the cup was not removed. Paul thrice prayed that the thorn in the flesh might be removed, and had an answer which left the thorn, but along with it a word which sweetened the trial,-''My grace is sufficient for thee."

Do we watch for answers to prayer?

Elijah did, and was not disappointed. How needful this is-asking, and then waiting, and looking for the answer. This honors God. Nor must we forget another most important part of prayer-thanksgiving. Do we take our mercies without a word of thanks? How this must grieve our God ! How selfish it makes us !

Lastly, for what are we praying most?

Is it for greater practical likeness to Christ, fuller knowledge of self and of Him, a deeper insight into His Word? These, surely, are the great subjects . which should engage much of our time in prayer both for our-and others.

God reminds us at every meal of Christ as the food of the soul. Meat tells us of death by which we live ; bread (the "corn of wheat"), of resurrection; water, of Christ, the living source of refreshment, as of life.

Every thing is based upon atonement. So Israel was taught, and so we are taught, in Lev. 17:" What man soever there be of the house of Israel that killeth an ox or lamb or goat in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, blood shall be imputed unto that man." It was to be offered for a peace-offering to the Lord.

How beautiful the every-day life of the Israelite ! Much more, how beautiful the every-day life of the Christian ! for that great Peace-Offering has been made by the blood of the cross, and upon that new and holy ground we eat and drink and live. What we eat and drink, the clothes we wear, the air we breathe, the light and sunshine we enjoy, the couch we rest on, the sleep that revives us, the house that shelters us,-all are different object-lessons telling us of Christ.

It was nothing but sin for an Israelite to partake of the beef he had killed, unless he had first offered of it to the Lord. Every part of his life was linked with and had its meaning as part of the life of a worshiper of Jehovah, who had redeemed him to Himself, for His own glory, leading him "by the hand" (Jer. 31:32), providing every thing for him. All this is a type of us. May the truth in its manifold teachings in the Word, and in created things, sanctify us, and fill us with reverence. If we
cultivate a spirit of worship, we shall be filled with joy in the common things of life. Read Lev. 17:" How blessed would it be for us if nature's real lessons were known and laid to heart after this manner continually, and our common every-day lives thus lifted into higher meaning! Thus would God make Christ to be ever before our eyes, and fellowship with Him to be confirmed and strengthened,-the things seen and temporal to minister to the things unseen and eternal.

"As a provision against the wandering heart after other gods also, there is in all this deep significance. In truth, it is the unoccupied part of our lives, whatever in them is not positively consecrated to God, that betrays us to the enemy. We need to realize that, in an enemy's country as we are,-and no? only so, but on a daily battle-field,- there can be no neutral ground. Whatever, as well as whosoever, is not for Christ is against Him. There is no place where sin will not gain advantage over us except the presence of God." (Numerical Bible, Lev. 17:) E. S. L.

More literally, the expression might be rendered, " Buying up the opportunity ; " as the merchant, looking out for bargains, buys up every thing that promises profit. In the ordinary sense of the words, we can never redeem the time. Time once passed is gone forever, only to meet us with its record at the judgment-seat of Christ. We can never make it up if it has been misspent or wasted. Each hour carries its own responsibilities, and can never be made to atone for former wasted ones. Lost opportunities ! – what a solemn theme ! Wasted time ! Well may we pause at the close of another year, and think on the swift-flowing stream which has swept past us never to return, and ask ourselves how we have spent it. Humbling, no doubt, will it be to many of us to dwell on the past, but wholesome too if we take to heart the lessons it teaches, and learn from past follies to buy up present opportunities.

Opportunities are manifold, and each moment carries with it an opportunity. In general, they may be divided into two classes, given to us respectively in the two passages where the same expression is used. "See, then, that ye walk circumspectly; not as fools, but as wise ; redeeming the time, because the days are evil." (Eph. 5:15, 16.) "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." (Col. 4:5, 6.) The first of these passages gives us more particularly the opportunities which relate to ourselves-personal; the second, those which link us with others-relative.

We live in evil times. The whole tendency is away from God, and it is only too easy for us, if unwary, to be carried along with the stream. Hence the exhortation " See that ye walk circumspectly," or carefully. We absorb easily the flavor of our surroundings; let us, then, be careful. The days are evil:God is not known, loved, or honored. But though the clays are evil, they are none the less crowded with opportunities. There is the open page of God's precious Word ever ready to reward the diligent seeker; the throne of grace invites to believing prayer; while there is not a circumstance or event of our lives but affords golden opportunities to learn, to do, or to bear. And how fleeting these opportunities are !The quiet time for reading and prayer, if not availed of, gives place to the turmoil of every-day life. The solicitation of temptation, to evil thought or word or deed, soon passes into actual sin, or gives place to something else,-in either case, leaving a scar upon the soul, unless the opportunity is availed of to resist it in the energy of faith. The merchant eagerly seizes upon every bargain which will profit him; let us too learn to make use of the opportunities which crowd upon us. Naturally, we look for the great events of our lives, and usually wait in vain. Our lives are made up of little things, and unless we make use of these, we will have nothing.

In Colossians, it is our relation to our neighbor which is contemplated, particularly " those who are without." Man is a social being, made for intercourse with his fellows. Conversion does not alter our natural constitution and tendencies, nor is this to be desired. Separation from the world is in spirit, not in contact." I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil." We are thrown with men of the world, on every hand; in business and travel, intentionally and accidentally; we are visited by strangers, are accosted on the street, asked the way or the time. Do we realize that we in this way have thousands of opportunities for speaking to men of Christ ? and are we buying up these opportunities, making use of them? Many of these opportunities come but once; we cross a man's path, and may never see him again. We are not saying that every one we meet can be spoken to, or that a tract should be thrust upon persons, without seeking guidance. There may be very much legality in such work, bringing one into bondage instead of ministering joy. But the fact remains that we are brought into contact with persons daily, and have many opportunities for influencing them. " Walk in wisdom toward them that are without." Alas ! how often does folly rather than wisdom characterize Christians in their intercourse with those that are without ! The unprofitable conversation,-frivolous remarks, levity, worldliness,-too often is heard rather than speech with grace, seasoned with the salt of truth, pungent and painful though it may be. Do we realize the lost condition of those that are without? Did we but think that we would never in this life see again such, would our last words be of this world, or would we not seek for an opening to speak for God and their immortal souls-at least, would we not be praying for them ? Surely we have a responsibility in all this which we cannot shun, -nay, if the love of Christ constrains us, we will not desire to shun it.

Nor need we confine this responsibility in speech to our intercourse with the unsaved. There are countless opportunities of helping one another by a word of advice, or the mutual edification which comes from talking over the things in God's Word. But if we follow the usual course, and allow the things of sense to absorb our talk,-or worse, if criticism, backbiting, and railing are indulged in, we lose an opportunity never to be recovered.

All this is plain enough, and familiar to us all ; we all assent to it, but a little reminder may not be out of place. If there is aroused a spirit of self-examination, of prayerful desire to avail ourselves of the opportunities afforded us, the admonition of these verses will not be in vain.

But how, in brief, can we be ready to buy up the opportunity ? By being right in heart. If the heart is in communion with Christ,_if His Word fills and occupies our minds, we will almost involuntarily avail ourselves of openings. It is easy to tell sinners of a precious Saviour if our own hearts are overflowing with His love ; easy to have a suited word for all-sinners or saints,-a word in grace seasoned with salt, if we imitate Him whose ear was ever open to learn from God, and who therefore knew "how to speak a word in season to him that is weary."

David did not begin his reign at Jerusalem, but in the ancient and historic city of Hebron, whose origin dated back before that of Egypt's mighty city (Num. 13:22). If cities in Scripture are significant both from their names (as Bethel, Gilgal, etc.,) and from their associations (as Beersheba, Samaria, etc.), we may expect to find in the one where David was anointed additional light, both from the meaning of its name and the associations connected with it. As has been lately noticed by another, "Hebron" means "communion," and it was situated in Judah ("praise"). David, as we know, was a type of Christ, here at Hebron about to be recognized publicly as the king whom God had appointed. That appointment had taken place long before, when Samuel, guided by God, poured the oil upon the head of Jesse's youngest son. But he was recognized by none as the king so long as he remained in the house of Saul; only when driven out from his presence, and finding shelter in the cave of Adullam, did he gather to himself that little company who saw in him their king. "Adullam"- "rights of the people"-what a significant name as compared with "Laodicea," its Greek equivalent! In the latter, it is the synonym for lukewarmness and self-sufficiency,-Christ outside, apparently unheeded by those who have enough without Him ; in the former, it reminds us of a rejected Christ, and His people outside with Him. In Laodicea, we have the rights of the people sought and maintained by themselves ; in Adullam, the rights of the people, but only in connection with the rights of David. Without Christ, our rights, our excellences, only render us unfit for God's presence ; but merging all in His, having none of our own, we share, not merely His rejection, but His glory. Only a few were with David in Adullam, -men of valor and of faith,-whose names are kept for us, and some of their deeds. But we come now to Hebron, the place of general acknowledgment. Its name and location, we have seen, are significant. Communion, based on a flowing forth in praise ; praise, because we see with God's eyes-this is where Christ is recognized. He does not care for that cold acknowledgment of His rights which comes from an intellect convinced, but with heart unsubdued. It is in fellowship with the Father, and in the spirit of joyful praise, that we will give Him the true place claimed by God's counsels for Him, and "crown Him Lord of all."

But if the meaning and location of the city are significant, none the less so are its associations. It was, as we have said, an ancient place, reminding us, as another has remarked, of the deep roots of that spiritual life and communion which, as it antedates the best this world can give as to its origin, will also outlast it. Here it was that Abraham had his home and spread his tent, content to be a pilgrim in what had been promised him, and to call nothing his own save what spoke of death, apparently the end of all his hopes. But though a stranger dwelling in tents, he finds another Stranger, who is willing to be entertained by him, and who promises all blessings to him who is as good as dead. The recognition of Christ as Lord of all is in proportion as we realize, with Abraham, our strangership here. The tomb of that which is natural is a fitting place for the proper recognition of Him who can never die. Hebron was Caleb's inheritance. He seemed to have set his heart on it when he went with the twelve men to spy out the land, and all the forty years' wanderings in the wilderness could not obliterate it from his memory, nor the presence of the giants check his faith. God had promised it to him, and he "counted Him faithful that had promised." (Num. 13:22; Josh. 14:) Caleb is the man of faith-faith which lasts, and which overcomes. It is such men that recognize and own Christ as Lord. Hebron reminds us of this. But it was also one of the cities of refuge (Josh. 20:7), reminding us of Him who first sheltered us from wrath before we could recognize Him as Lord. Thus we see the place where Israel gathered to turn the kingdom to David was one fertile in suggestion of truths, both from the significance of its name and from the associations connected with it.

But let us see the subject in the light which applies directly to ourselves. God has glorified His Son Jesus, whom He had appointed heir of all things. He does not wait for us to give our poor sanction to what He has done. Jesus is " crowned with glory and honor." But He does permit us to see this, to own it, and to rejoice in it. In that sense, we can share in turning the kingdom to Him, in giving Him "the glory due unto His name." To recognize Him as Lord, however, implies subjection to Him. Not one of those who came to David at Hebron to acknowledge his rights but realized that by that very acknowledgment he placed himself in subjection to the king. We talk. about Jesus seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high ; we sing,-

"O Jesus, Lord, 'tis joy to know
Thy path is o'er of shame and woe;"

may we have grace to show, by the chastened spirit, in true subjection to Him, that we have been to Hebron, telling us of refuge, communion in praise, strangership, and that our hearts have owned Him whom God has crowned as our Lord to serve.

For, as we well know, there is no contradiction between the highest joy and the deepest subjection. He who has clearest views of a glorified Christ will show it in his life. Paul saw Him, and with the knowledge of Him exalted, and the joy of that knowledge filling his heart, could go forth any where, to meet bonds, imprisonment, or death for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Let us, then, come to Hebron to see Him whom man has rejected, but whom God has placed at His own right hand.

"Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh." (i Chron. 11:1:) The One on the throne is " not ashamed to call us brethren." He came down from glory to link Himself with us as man, not only by incarnation, but most effectually, and for our salvation, by His death. He is now in the glory as a man, who feels with us, who says of us, "He who sanctifieth, and those who are sanctified, are all of one." Faith recognizes this, and without boasting, without presumption, sees in the exalted Joseph a kinsman, and claims the relationship. It is one of the marvels of grace,-one of God's wondrous thoughts, to associate poor sinners from the dunghill, made meet by blood, with His spotless, glorified Son, and yet not to degrade Him in our thoughts, nor let us forget who and whence we are. Next, the people allude to the deliverances and victories wrought by David. We too can do the same. Christ has conquered, and conquered for us, snatched us from Satan's grasp, delivered us from bondage. Faith owns this, and on these grounds owns His rights as Lord, gladly bows to Him. Calvary and the throne are two successive steps in the eyes of His people-and the throne because of Calvary.

So we see the people flocking to Hebron with one object-to exalt David. As we look at them tribe by tribe, their numbers and accouterments and qualifications, we can learn many things for our own help, and see how that word, "I am glorified in them," can even here in some measure be fulfilled.

First comes Judah-David's own tribe, with shield and spear,-six thousand, eight hundred men. The smallness of this number is doubtless to be accounted for by the fact that already large numbers from that tribe had identified themselves with him. It is significant, however, that so many had up to this time been as strangers to the son of Jesse. " Neither did His brethren believe on Him." Often those nearest as to privilege are slowest to avail themselves of that privilege. "The first shall be last." Even when it is not a question of salvation, but of wholehearted surrender to Christ, how often are those who have been longest Christians, or enjoyed greater light, far behind the new convert or unlettered child of God. Are we, beloved brethren, among these laggards of Judah? These many years, have we known the Lord as Saviour? have we been to Hebron, and there fully seen what He is, and bowed in our inmost souls to Him and His rule ? But if late, they come at last, and doubtless bring great joy to David's heart, as all the Lord's own who, spite of delay, at last fully bow to Him give Him joy. These men come armed, with shield and spear. "The shield of faith, wherewith we quench all the fiery darts of the wicked :" this is the weapon of defense, to be used when attacked, as the spear is the weapon of offense, to be used in attacking the enemy. Our blessed Lord is pleased, not only to accept the homage of our hearts, but the service of our hands. He would have us "endure hardness, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." To be good soldiers, we must be armed both for protection and assault. The enemies of Christ are our enemies. They are ever ready to assault Him. The infidel, the false professor, the secularist:we must be ready to meet these assaults with the shield of faith-faith instructed by and built upon the Word of God. "This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith." But it is not enough to resist and to parry blows, we must be ready to assault the enemy, and to drive him out. Many strongholds are held by the enemy. He often will not take the initiative, hence the spear is needful.

Simeon comes next; and if from the fact that he had no well-defined boundaries we might think he lacked in positiveness of character, we at least find here no lack of it. His men are mighty men of valor. Next to faith comes courage (2 Pet. 1:5). One may have armor both offensive and defensive, and yet be a poor soldier from lack of courage. " The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." (Ps. 78:9.) How often was this exemplified in the history of Israel! It was not, after all, the weapons, but the heart behind them :-Shamgar's ox-goad would do if Shamgar's courage wielded it. We live in a day of vacillation, of compromise. We need the courage of the truth to proclaim it, to stand by it at all hazard. When Joshua was about to lead Israel into the land, the oft-repeated admonition was, "Be strong, and of good courage." How could they meet those hosts without courage ? and how can we meet the mightier powers of evil if we have not true valor,-not heedless rashness, which thinks not of danger till overwhelmed, but the firm, bold, uncompromising stand for the Lord. Let us take courage too from the fact that feeble Simeon supplies the mighty men of valor. We may be naturally feeble,-our past record may have been poor, but Hebron makes great changes.

Priests and Levites are never wanting when Christ has His true place. Service and worship, each in its proper place, and through proper channels, will always then be found.

In Benjamin's three thousand, we see a triumph of grace. All their natural feelings and prejudices allied them with Saul, and after his death, with his family. But the enmity has gone, prejudice has subsided, and here are the men to confess David. We too, like Benjamin, have known other lords,-can say with that one who was also " of the tribe of Benjamin," that we were blasphemers, injurious, persecutors, and yet, like him, have learned in some measure to say, " But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ."
Ephraim supplies a large contingent of mighty men of valor. Of old, this tribe had furnished the leader in Joshua, and later, it was the center of that jealousy which culminated in the disruption of the kingdom,-a jealousy which cropped out in the times of the judges once and again. But here, the enmity of Ephraim has departed- a foretaste of the time when it will really depart, as, gathered about the true David, they will vie with Judah in fighting the common enemy-not their brethren. These were famous men too; but how good to see them gathering to David !-just as it gives one joy to see the gifted, the wealthy, or the learned laying all their gifts, their reputation, at the feet of Jesus.

Manasseh is not far behind his younger brother in numbers; and of these eighteen thousand, we have the interesting mention that they were "expressed by name." We are units after all; and in all the innumerable company of the redeemed, there is not one whose name is not in the " Lamb's book of life." " I have called thee by name." Then, since He knows me, let me live as under His eye, as though there were none but me.

Issacher sent but two hundred. But two things change this small delegation into a very weighty one;-they represented all their tribe, and they had knowledge of the time's, and knew what Israel ought to do. Representation in secular or ecclesiastical politics is generally only such in name, and many might think there was no such thing as truly representing others. Here, however, we see it, and the reason is plain,-they had the same object as all their brethren-to make David king. When Christ Himself is our object and the object of our brethren, then we can truly represent them, act for them ; then the judgment of the few becomes that of the many,-the decision of one assembly, that of all. But another important principle is to be noted about these two hundred men,-they were leaders. Clerisy is one extreme ; a failure to recognize divine gifts, the other. No man or men has authority over us as being " lords over God's heritage ;" but we are bound to " know those that are over us in the Lord and admonish us, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." In the epistle to the Hebrews, where Christ displaces angels, lawgivers, sacrifices, priests,-the saints are told to "remember," "obey," and "salute" their guides. And every right-feeling Christian will recognize the force of this, and will see in the gift, not the man, but the Lord the Giver, and obey, not the man, but the Lord. On the other hand, the true spirit of leadership is humility. The true leader is like Christ, and only in so far as he is, can he be followed. The moment one begins to presume on his position, on his gift or past record, and expect to be recognized, he is no longer a leader, but the reverse. It is when the man has but one object- to glorify Christ-and is truly in subjection to Him, can say, "I am less than the least of all saints," that he is fit to occupy the place and use the gifts the Lord has given him. These men had knowledge of the times, and knew what Israel ought to do; and oh, how much such men are needed now,-men who understand the difficult times in which we are, and who can in no uncertain way point out the true path for Christ's scattered and wandering sheep. There are such, but, alas! in the heat of controversy, the confusion ever increasing, we are apt to miss what they would tell us.

Zebulon, apparently obscure, when the test comes, throws fifty thousand men into the field, well accoutered, and expert in war. It would be interesting to take up the various instruments of war, and see their significance, -the sword for hand-to-hand conflict, the bow for long range; the javelin, the spear, and all the rest doubtless have their special meaning. But though so many, these men of Zebulon are not a mob ; they keep rank; each fills his proper place, and all act in unison. It is this which gives beauty to military maneuvers, and adds effectiveness to large numbers of men. Individuality is one side, fellowship the other. There is no such thing as saints acting oppositely if they have the same motives and the same light. The apostle, in speaking of his fellow-servants who had gone to Corinth (2 Cor. 12:), says, "Walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps." With one animating spirit, there could be but one path. Let us remember this; and though it is humbling to us to own it, see in the divergent paths of God's people, not the liberty of the Spirit, but the self-will of the flesh. But how can we keep rank ? One object before us, one guide, and, self judged, waiting on the Spirit, who will, as in the time of Pentecost, make all we say or do "with one accord."

Naphtali shows us the place of leaders again.

Dan and Asher, and the tribes across the river, swell the numbers of those who are flocking to Hebron. Oh, to see something answering to all this to-day!

Now we see the results. There is great feasting. For David will not see those who are true to him suffer hunger. We, alas ! too often put our needs first and the glory of Christ last. We are selfish, and even in our study of the Word, or service, are perhaps thinking of the benefit to ourselves, rather than the honor done to the Lord. Put Him first, and how soon feasting follows! And with feasting comes joy-the blessed outflow of hearts that have an object, and filled unto all the fullness of God. Lord, gather Thy people to Thyself, occupy them with Thyself. We will not lack then in food or joy.

(Num. 7:)

In reading this very long chapter, the question naturally is asked, Why is there so much apparently needless space given to offerings the same in every particular in the case of each of the twelve princes ? The simple facts might have been stated in one twelfth the space, and not one item have been omitted. But we well know that here as everywhere else all is perfect; and if we have eyes to see, the very repetitions-never in God's Word " vain repetitions,"-convey to us lessons in a way more striking and forcible than could have been done by any other means.

The position of this chapter is note worthy. In the first chapter of the book, we have Israel ranged around the tabernacle in due order,-each tribe numbered and associated with its appropriate companions; next, we have the evil excluded from the camp; then, positive consecration, in the Nazarite ; finally, as the crown upon it all, the consecrated offerings of the twelve princes. All this has much that is simple in its application to ourselves. The proper center is Christ; round Him, in God's eyes, even if we fail to manifest it before the world, we are gathered. Each one numbered,-not one forgotten or left out." He calleth His own sheep by name"-none so insignificant as to be needless. Each, too, is in his proper position, associated with those to whom he ministers and from whom he receives that which is lacking in each-thus tempered together, " fitly framed together," no part lacking, the " whole body maketh increase unto the edifying of itself in love."Equally simple and important is the exclusion of defilement,-whether defiled persons, as in i Cor. 5:, or defiled things, as in Col. 3:, i Pet. 2:Resulting from this putting off the deeds of the old man is the full consecration, in a threefold measure, of the Nazarite, who shows us what the separation of Christ was,-" For their sakes I sanctify Myself," which is the example for us, " that they also might be sanctified through the truth."Now comes the presentation of offerings, acceptable and well pleasing, because in their proper position, springing out of proper relationships and conditions of heart.

The material of the offerings, whether of utensils or sacrifices, spoke of Christ. The bowls and chargers were of silver-the white metal of redemption,-in itself suggesting both the price paid and the effect wrought. This was the first part of the offering of each prince. God begins with redemption :it is for Him the ground upon which He can have to do with us in grace. He would have us remember this, and in our approaches to Him to have the same thoughts. These silver utensils were filled with fine flour mingled with oil. The flour reminds us of Him who as a perfect man walked here for God. Subjected to the grinding force of circumstances and trials, it only the more clearly manifested the fine flour of a perfect humanity. The oil mingled with the flour speaks of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit who was with Him, in Him from the moment of His conception. Here, then, we have the person of Christ. The gold was typical of divine glory, and so of Him who perfectly glorified God in what He was and what he did. He was the brightness-the effulgence of His glory, the express image of the character, the imprint of His person." I have glorified Thee on the earth."Fitly following the silver of redemption and the meal of His perfect humanity is this gold which tells how perfectly God was manifested and glorified. The incense was, to God, fragrant of Christ, all of whose garments smell of myrrh and cassia and aloes. " This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."God has found His delight in Him."His name is as ointment poured forth."Let us ever remember that Christ is inexpressibly dear to God. And how beautifully appropriate is it that the gold of divine glory should contain the incense of a precious Christ! It is so all through. When we see God's glory manifested, we will find the sweet savor of Christ present. Whether we look back at creation,-nay, before that (Prov. 8:), or at the incarnation, or up into those regions where all is gold, we will find that this gold-this manifestation of glory is, as it were, the receptacle for sweet incense, the means of presenting to us the value of Christ in God's eyes. Next come the sacrifices, beginning with the burnt-offering. " One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the first year."Unity seems to be suggested here, in the one, diversity in the three kinds of animals. There is but one burnt-offering; it is enough, and it is complete. The bullock, the animal of strength and service, shows us Christ in the perfection of His strength, in the full submission of His service, yielding Himself up wholly to God in death. The ram speaks of consecration-that obedience unto death which could stop at nothing short of that full measure of devotion. The lamb, again, reminds us of that meekness which could say, " Not as I will, but as Thou wilt." Blessed Lord !All, all was laid willingly upon the altar. " I delight to do Thy will " was the language of Thy heart; as the bullock in perfect strength, the ram in devotedness, the lamb in meekness, Thou didst lay down Thy life for God's glory !

For the sin-offering, there is but the single kid of the goats. One there must be, or the view of Christ's work would be incomplete; more than one was not needed, for here the single thought of judgment against sin, borne fully, was presented. There is no multiplication of the sin-offering. It was not a sweet savor unto God, it was a solemn reminder of our sins, and of penalty borne and debt paid; but this thought, while present, does not dominate God's view of Christ, nor should it our worship of Him.

Lastly come the peace-offerings, beginning with two, which would seem to remind us of God and man-food for both,-and then three series of fives-God with man perfectly manifested. What variety is here ! The ox, as we have seen, means service, strength. God calls us to share with Him in that view of Christ's work which is for us as well as for Him. " Five rams " gives us our share in
a devotedness which, while it was to God, was for us. The goats are not here sin-offerings, but sweet savors to God, yet of those animals which were ordinarily used for sin-offerings. He who was made sin for us was also most perfectly well pleasing to God-never more so than when made sin. He is also our food. How these twos and fives and threes tell us that God would have us " eat,- yea, drink abundantly"! The peace-offerings are not limited-their very numbers tell us this. "God with us " is the only measure of communion.

Such, imperfectly, is the character of these offerings of the twelve princes. Have we not seen, in going over them, why God could repeat each offering over in full at each presentation ? Christ is the subject, and He never becomes tedious to the Father. He dwells with delight upon each aspect of the Lord's person and work. He lingers over their descriptions, He goes back to them with fresh delight. He makes no general summary including all, but enters with keen delight into each detail.

Does not all this speak to our conscience and heart? If God thus protracts the enumeration of the oft-repeated excellencies of His Beloved, shall we not learn to imitate Him, and never grow weary of dwelling upon them and of speaking of them to one another. It is unfamiliarity with the subject which leads one soon to weary of it. The enthusiast never tires of thinking of what absorbs him,-the painter, his art,-the merchant, his business. So let it be with us. Let us learn, from those eighty-nine verses, to be such enthusiasts in regard to our blessed Lord,-so absorbed with Him, that we can truly say, "Jesus, of Thee we ne'er would tire."

Notice, too, that these princes have in their offerings a point of resemblance. Differing in name, each one significant of some special truth needed by their tribe; differing in tribe, each one with special weakness needing special grace ; they meet in a common point, and that is Christ. Here the need, whatever it may be, has been fully met:the grace, whatever it may be, is "the grace that is in Christ Jesus." They are linked together, and covered over, as it were, by their offerings. How simple the lesson ! Around Christ, occupied with Him, all His people find all their needs met, and themselves knit together by that which occupies them.

But, lastly, in this twelve fold repetition of the offerings, we see how God regards individual devotedness. The offering of each one is noted by itself. This shows us that we are individuals. Our service, our trials, our worship, is viewed separately, and "in that day," "every man shall have praise of God."

Within the vail! my blood-bought home!
Jesus is seated there,-
With Him I sit; His work is done;
By faith His rest I share.
In Him I died; in Him I rose;
In Him, ascended too, I sit within " the heavenlies,"
In God the Father's view.

He resteth now to show Himself
For me before the throne :
Not without blood He entered there,
Most precious blood, "His own!"
That blood redemption finished shows,
Sin "purged" and "put away,"
Else the sin-bearing Lamb could ne'er
His blood to God display.

My sins and guilt are in God's thought
Buried in Jesus' grave;
A worshiper once purged, by faith
A conscience free I have.
And should defilement by the way
Hinder my access free, '
Twould cast dishonor on the blood
Within the vail for me.

But I confess as all 'forgiven
Whatever from nature flows;
Judged aud condemned in Jesus' flesh,-
The blood its failure shows.
And would I rest within the vail
Unmoved, in God's own peace,
From confidence in aught that's mine
I evermore must cease.

Within the vail He's hidden now,
And now from human view
My " life is hid with Christ in God,"
My risen life, and true.
That life is His creation new:
" Christ in me," saith the word,
Eternal life !It cannot sin,
Because 'tis born of God.
My place of prayer! no more afar
From earth to heaven I cry,
But whisper in the Father's ear
Through Him who brought me nigh.
God hears the Spirit's pleading voice,
He knows the Spirit's mind,
And I in it the earnest have
Of what I see and find.

Within the vail! A royal priest-
Through Christ my lips may raise
Continually, as incense sweet,
Their sacrifice of praise.
A worshiper in spirit there,
My soul delighteth much
With God to rest, and feast on Christ:
"The Father seeketh such."

And, coming from my secret place
Beneath Jehovah's wings,
My happy spirit longs to tell
Of all these precious things
To those who know no light of life,
No home with Christ in God,
And of the way within the vail
Opened by Jesus' blood.

For soon from out the holy place
Our great High-Priest shall come,
To bless His waiting Bride, the Church,
And take her to His home.
And when in glory He appears,
His " wife" the Lamb will own ; "
Forever with" and "like" her Lord,
With her He shares His throne.

Q. 1.-" I should like light on Heb. 6:and 10:These two chapters seem to many minds to come against the truth of Jno. 10:28. I do not believe the Holy Spirit would allow that; but I am not clear, and cannot therefore give evidence to others that the Holy Spirit does not contradict Himself. Can you help me ?"

Ans.-"Concerning the question in your letter lately received, let me first say that as in creation, which is the work of God, not one thing contradicts another, however different it may be, so in revelation, which is the Word of God, not one passage contradicts another, whatever difference there may be between the subjects treated.

"Thus in John the subject especially treated is Eternal Life, introducing Christ Himself as that in the beginning of the book; then how it is imparted in chap. 3:; a case given in chap, 4:, with effects following; then further on, fuller details as to the grace that ministers it despite the thieves and robbers, who would gladly hinder it, the eternal security of those to whom He has given it, etc., etc.

"In Hebrews, it is quite another thing. It is a development of what Christianity is as contrasted with Judaism, and a warning as to the consequence of giving up the former to return to the latter. Its present application would be to the vast profession we call Christendom, a great portion of which gives little or no sign of being real.

"They are all alike-the real and the unreal-'partakers of the Holy Ghost;' not, of course, that He dwells in them all, but in the sense that Judas partook of all the blessings in the company of Christ just the same as the other apostles, and yet he was all the time ' a thief and ' a devil.'

"In Matt. 13:20, 21, we read of a class which 'heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he no root in himself, but dureth for a while,' etc.; so in Hebrews such are mentioned as having 'tasted the good word of God.'

"In Matt. 7:21-23, some can say (and the Lord does not contradict them), 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name ? and in Thy name have cast out devils ? and in Thy name done many wonderful works ?' This would seem indeed abounding and final proof that they were children of God, but it is not, and the Lord answers them, 'I never knew you.' Of those who are His real sheep He says, 'I know them.' But they are not sheep, whatever miraculous powers they had, and in Hebrews such are mentioned as having tasted 'the powers of the world to come.' All these things may be, and yet the persons to whom they apply be unsaved, and therefore without ' the fruits which accompany salvation.'

" Again, in Hebrews there is no forgiveness for ' sin,' because ' sin' there is not the immoral doing of the flesh, but apostasy. It is the repetition of Rom. 1:21, with this immense difference, that in Romans it is God as Creator; here, it is God as Redeemer. Thus as the sheep in John are saved once and forever, the apostates in Hebrews are irretrievably lost, inasmuch as God has nothing else for man after the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That known and apostatized from leaves nothing but certain damnation. It is closely allied with the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and the 'higher critics' of the present day are hastening multitudes with themselves into this terrible sin. At every step now you meet with men who, while they continue in the so-called orthodox bodies, will tell you that they ' no longer believe' in those doctrines of atonement and the judgment of sin in which they once professed to believe. Of such, Hebrews says, 'For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.' (Chap. 10:26-29.)

"Mark too that in Hebrews sanctification is never by the Spirit, for that is inward, and marks the sheep. It is by the blood:that is outward only, and marks, therefore, every professing person. One cannot be wrought into by the Holy Ghost without being a child of God, and such have ever been and ever will be ' kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.' (1 Pet. 1:5.) But a man may have the most perfect creed possible, and fight hard for it too, yet finally be lost.

" But I think I have said enough on the subject. It has been, since I knew the Lord, one of many exercises of soul. It has therefore enlarged the heart, and extended the view of God's wonderful ways, and the end of this is worship in spirit and in truth. What exposes unreality stirs up and thereby the more establishes and strengthens reality." P. J. L.

Q. 2.-"In Acts 16:30, 'What must I do to be saved,' does the question indicate that the man was on legal ground ? " J. V.D.

Ans.-We should say, no. It is the cry of an awakened soul. He sees his danger, he wants to be rescued from the power of God, an exhibition of which he has just seen, and to which he realizes he is exposed. It is not a cool theological question, like that of the Pharisees in Jno. 6:2, but like the awakened cry of those convicted by the Spirit under Peter's preaching at Pentecost,-"Men and brethren, what shall we do ? (Acts 2:37.) At the same time the anxious one little dreams of the fullness of the precious answer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Nothing to do, for all has been done.

Q. 3.-"In studying the second chapter of John's gospel, we find in the latter part of the eleventh verse, ' And His disciples believed on Him;' then again in the twenty-third verse, 'Many believed in His name when they saw His miracles;' and in the twenty-fourth verse, 'But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men.' Please show the thought conveyed." J. E. M.

Ans.-The word used is the same in all three verses-"Believe" or "trust." Jesus manifested forth His glory by changing the water into wine at Cana. The result was, His disciples believed on Him. Their faith was established. This is, true faith. Next, the multitudes believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did. This was evidently an intellectual faith,-their judgment was convinced, and in a certain way they sincerely believed in His name; but there had been no plowing up of heart, no awakening of conscience, no conviction of sin. New birth was needed, as brought out in the next chapter, in the interview with Nicodemus, who was evidently one of these intellectual believers; for he knew that Jesus was a teacher come from God,-knew it by the miracles He did (Jno. 3:2). The result is, that such an intellectual faith cannot tempt Him. He does not commit or trust Himself to them. He knew what was in man, and that those who to-day thus in a mere intellectual way believed in Him would the next day turn their backs on Him, and the next would cry out, "Crucify him!" . But if He thus is reserved toward mere intellectual believers, how different is He toward those who, like His disciples, truly believe! If we believe in Him, He believes in us :if we trust Him, He trusts us. How beautifully this is seen in His last interview with them before His death! He opens the secrets of His heart to them- " Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; bat I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." (Jno. 15:15.) He takes them into His closet and lets, them hear His prayer to the Father-such a prayer! Nor has He changed. He still commits Himself to trust those who have trusted Him. His interests, His honor, are in our hands- left there by Him. What a proof of His confidence! and how have we answered this confidence ?

Q. 4.-"Kindly explain the word 'driveth' which occurs in Mark 1:12. Is it the same in the original as Matt. 4:1, Luke 4:1?" " J.P. M.

Ans.-Three words are used in these three passages, correctly translated in our common version-"Led up," "driveth," "led," in Matthew, Mark, and Luke respectively. There seems but little difference between Matthew and Luke (in Matthew, "Led up from Jordan into the wilderness"). Both indicate the accompanying of the Spirit. In Mark, it is "driving"-the same word as in Jno. 2:15, where He drove the dealers out of the temple. It need not be said that there is no contradiction in these:both the driving and drawing of the Spirit were true in Him, and in us. There is the impulse, a constraint, as in Paul- "Necessity is laid upon me" (1 Cor. 9:16), not at all inconsistent with " I will very gladly spend and be spent for you." (2 Cor. 12:15.) May it be ours ever to yield to both the driving and the drawing of the Spirit, as He did who was perfect in all.

Q. 14.-"Please explain Matt. 5:8. Are there any ‘pure in heart.’ "

Ans.-Yes. That is the character of those who will see God. "Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord." The verse is true in the same way as 1 Jno. 3:9-" Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin."As born of God, he does not; bring into view the flesh, and he does when he fulfills its lusts. So with purity of heart; it is the broad line which separates God's children from the men of the world. But the flesh is there too, and to be watched-fleshly lusts to be abstained from. Coming
down to individual cases, surely the most spiritual will not claim for himself heart-purity in the sense generally understood-complete holiness. Above all, there is no such thing as a change of the natural heart." A new heart will I give unto you." The old remains there, a witness of what we were, and ever ready to assert itself in power again.

EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.

PART VII. (Chap. 19:5-22:) THE CONSUMMATION.

Marriage of the Lamb.(Chap. 19:5-10.)

The harlot is now judged. The judgment of the I whole earth is at hand. Before it comes, we are permitted a brief vision of heavenly things, and to see the heirs of the kingdom now ready to be established in their place with Him who is about to be revealed. A voice, sounds from the throne:"Give praise to our God, all ye His servants,-ye that fear Him, small and great." It is not, of course, a simple exhortation to what in heaven can need no prompting, but a preparation of hearts for that which shall furnish fresh material for it. The response of the multitude shows what it is:"Halleluiah! for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth." The power that was always His He is now going to put forth. Judgment is to return to righteousness. Man's day is at an end, with all the confusion that his will has wrought. The day of the Lord is come, to abase that which is high and exalt that which is low, and restore the foundations of truth and righteousness.

The false church that would have antedated the day of power, and reigned without her Lord, has been already dealt with ; and now the way is clear to display the true Bride." The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." But the Church has been some time since caught up to meet the Lord :how is it that only now she is " ready " ?In the application of the blood of Christ, and the reception of the best robe, fit for the Father's house assuredly, if any could be, she was then quite ready. Likeness to her Lord was completed when the glorified bodies of the saints were assumed, and they were caught up in the air. The eyes from which nothing could be hid have already looked upon her, and pronounced her faultless:"Thou art all fair, My love:there is no spot in thee." What, then, can be wanting to hinder the marriage? A matter of divine government, not of divine acceptance; and this is the book of divine government. Earth's story has to be rehearsed, the account given, the verdict rendered, as to all " deeds done in the body." Every question that could be raised must find its settlement:the light must penetrate through and through, and leave no part dark. We must enter eternity with lessons all learnt, and God fully glorified about the whole course of our history.

What follows explains fully this matter of readiness :" And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." We see by the language that it is grace that is manifest in this award. We learn by a verse in the last chapter how grace has manifested itself:" Blessed are they that have washed their robes (R. V.), that they might have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city." But what could wash deeds already done? Plainly no reformation, no " water-washing by the Word." (Eph. 5:26.) The deed done cannot be undone ; and no well-doing for the future can blot out the record of it. What, then, can wash such garments ? Revelation itself, though speaking of another company, has already given us the knowledge of this:"They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Chap. 7:14.) Thus the value of that precious blood is found with us to the end of time, and in how many ways of various blessing,! It is not, then, the best robe for the Father's house:that robe never needs washing. It is for the kingdom, for the world, in the governmental ways of God with men, that this fine linen is granted to the saints. Yet they take their place in it at the marriage supper of the Lamb; for Christ's love it is that satisfies itself with the recognition and reward of all that has been done for love of Him. This is what finds reward; and thus the hireling principle is set aside.

"And he saith unto me, 'Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" Blessed indeed are they that are bidden now ! Alas ! they may despise the invitation. But how blessed are they who, when that day comes, are found among the bidden ones ! I leave for the present the question of who exactly make up the company of those that form the Bride; but the Bride assuredly sits at the marriage supper, and the plural here is what one could alone expect in such an exclamation as this. There seems, therefore, no ground in such an expression for distinguishing separate companies as the Bride and the "friends of the Bridegroom." The latter expression is used by the Baptist in a very different application, as assuredly he had no thought of any bride save Israel.

"And he saith unto me, 'These are the true words of God.'" Of such blessedness, it would seem, even the heart of the apostle needed confirmation. Then, as if overcome by the rapture of the vision, "I fell down at his feet," says John, "to worship him. And he saith unto me, 'See thou do it not:I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus :worship God :for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'"

All prophecy owns thus and honors Jesus as its subject. All that own Him, the highest only the most earnestly, refuse other honor than that of being servants together of His will and grace. How our hearts need to be enlarged to take in His supreme glory ! and how ready are we in some way, if not in this, to share the glory which is His alone with some creature merely! Rome's coarse forms of worship to saints and angels is only a grosser form of what we are often doing, and for which rebuke will in some way come; for God is jealous of any impairment of His rights, and we of necessity put ourselves in opposition to the whole course of nature as we derogate from these. " Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

Judgment of the Living at the Appearing of Christ.

(Chap. 19:11-21.)

The prophecy pauses not further now to dilate upon the blessing. There is needed work to be done before we can enter upon this; and the work is the "strange work" of judgment. The vision that follows is as simple as can be to understand, if there are no thoughts of our own previously in the mind to obscure and make it difficult. And this is the way in which constantly Scripture is obscured.

Revelation, as the closing book of the inspired Word, supposes indeed acquaintance with what has preceded it, and the links with other prophecy are here especially abundant. The kingdom of Christ is the final theme of the Old Testament, upon which all prophetic lines converge; and the judgment which introduces it is over and over again set before us. The appearing of the Lord, and His personal presence to execute this, are also so insisted on, that nothing but the infatuation of other hopes could prevail to hide it from men's eyes. In the New Testament, the same things face us continually. As we are not considering it for the first time here, it will be sufficient to examine what is in the passage before us, with whatever connection it may have with other scriptures, needful to bring out fully the meaning of it.

Heaven is seen opened, the prophet's stand-point being therefore now on earth, and a white horse appears, the familiar figure of war and victory. It is upon the Rider that our eyes are fixed. He is called " Faithful and True " _known manifestly to be that-and in righteousness He judges and wars:His warring is but itself a judgment. For this, His eyes penetrate as a flame of fire; nothing escapes them. Many diadems-the sign of absolute authority-are on His head. And worthily, for His name in its full reality-name expressing (as always in Scripture) nature-is an incommunicable one, beyond the knowledge of finite creatures. But His vesture is dipped in blood, for already many enemies have fallen before Him. And His name is called-has been and is, as the language implies,-"The Word of God." The gospel of John shows us that in creation already He was acting as that; and now in judgment He is no less so.

Is this revealed name any thing else than His incommunicable one ? It would seem not. The thought would appear to be in direct refutation of the skeptical denial of the knowledge of the Infinite One as possible to man. We cannot know infinity, but we can know the One who is infinite,-yea, know Him to be infinite:know His name, and not know His name. The Infinite One, moreover, Christ is declared here to be,-no inferior God, but the Highest.

In the power of this, He now comes forth ; the armies that are in heaven following their white-horsed Leader, themselves also upon white horses, sharers with Him in the conflict and the victory, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. It is this fine linen which we have just seen as granted to the Bride, and which needed the blood of the Lamb to make it white. It is therefore undoubtedly the same company here as there, only here seen in a new aspect, even as the Lord Himself is seen in a new one. It is communion with Himself that is implied in this change of character. What He is occupied with, they are occupied with; what is His mind is their mind:so, blessed be God, it will be entirely then. None then will be ignorant of His will; none indifferent or half-hearted as to it. Alas ! now to how much of it are even the many willingly strangers ! and it is this willing ignorance that is so invincible :for all else there is a perfect remedy in the Word of God; but what for a back turned upon that Word ?

The Lord comes then, and all the saints with Him. How impossible to think of a providential coming merely here ! "When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear,"says the apostle, "then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4.) " Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world ?" he asks elsewhere. Judgment is now impending:"out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He may smite the nations." So Isaiah:"He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked." (Chap, 11:4.) It needs but a word from Him to cause their destruction ; while it is judgment no less according to His Word :it is that long and oft threatened, slow to come, but at last coming in the full measure of the denunciation. Patience is not repentance.

" And He shall rule them with an iron rod "-" shepherd " them, to use a scarcely English expression. This is, of course, the fulfillment of the prophecy of the second psalm, and decides against the still retained "break them " of the Revised Version. It is the shepherd's rod^this rod of iron, used in behalf of the flock:as He says in Isaiah again, " The day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come; and I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold :therefore Mine own arm brought salvation unto Me, and My fury, it upheld Me." (Chap. 63:4,5.) This is distinctly in answer to the question, therefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat?" and to which He answers, " I have trodden the wine-press alone." Here also "He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."

Would it be believed that commentators have referred this to the cross, and the Lord's own sufferings there ? And yet it is so; though the iron rod, with which the treading of the wine-press is associated in this place, is something that is promised to the overcomer in Thyatira (chap. 2:27)-" To him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, even as I received of My Father." We have but with an honest mind to put a few texts together after this manner, and all difficulty disappears.

"And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written-' King of kings and Lord of lords."

Now, in terrible contrast to the invitation lately given to the marriage supper of the Lamb, an angel standing in the sun bids the birds of the heaven to the "great supper of God," to feast upon earth's proudest and all their following. Immediately after which the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies are seen gathered together to make war against Him who sits upon the horse, and against His army. We are no doubt to interpret this according to the Lord's words to Saul of Tarsus,-" Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ?" But we have seen the idol thrust into Jehovah's, temple, and know well that Israel's persecutors rage openly against Israel's God. They are taken thus banded in rebellion, and judgment sweeps them down ; the beast and the false prophet that wrought miracles before him (the antichristian second beast of the thirteenth chapter) being exempted from the common death, only to be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, where at the end of the thousand years of the saints' reign with Christ we find them still.

The vision is so clear in meaning, that it really has no need of an interpreter; and we should remember this as to a vision, that it is not necessarily even symbolic, though symbols may have their place in it, as here with the white horses of that before us, while the horses whose flesh the birds eat are not at all so. The "beast and the kings of the earth" furnish us with the same juxtaposition of figure and fact, the figure not at all hindering the general literality of fact. In these prophecies of coming judgment, the mercy of God would not permit too thick a vail over the solemn truth. This is the end to which the world is hastening now, and God is proportionally taking off the vail from the eyes upon which it has been lying, that there may be a more urgent note of warning given as it draws nigh. "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear !" F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

The Philistines were not a scourge, a chastisement sent from without; they dwelt in Israel's own territory, in the land of promise. Undoubtedly, before this, other nations, whom the faithlessness of the people had left in the midst of Canaan, had been a snare to them, leading them to intermarriage with idolaters, and to the worship of false gods ; and Jehovah had given them up into the hands of their enemies. But now those who had been suffered to remain in the conquered land assumed dominion over Israel. Here, then, that which can give victory and peace to the heirs of promise is the strength imparted of separation from all that belongs to the natural man, and entire consecration to God, as far as it is realized. . This Nazariteship is spiritual power, or rather that which characterizes it when the enemy is within the land. For Samson judged Israel during the dominion of the Philistines. (Judges 15:20.) Afterward Samuel, Saul, and, above all, David entirely changed the state of things.

" When the Canaanite-when the power of the enemy reigns in the land, Nazariteship alone can give power to one who is faithful. It is a secret unknown to the man of the world. Christ exemplified it in its perfection. Evil reigned amongst the people. The walk of Christ was a walk apart-separate from evil. He was one of the people, but, like Levi (Deut. 33:9), He was not of them. He was a Nazarite. But we must distinguish with respect to this. Morally, Christ was as separate from sinners while on earth as He is now; but outwardly He was in their midst; and, as the witness and expression of grace, He was spiritually in their midst also. Since His resurrection He is completely separate from sinners. The world sees Him not, and will see Him no more save in judgment. It is in this last position, and as having put on this character of entire separation from the world, that the assembly, that Christians, are in connection with Him. Such a High-Priest became us. The assembly retains its strength, Christians retain their strength, so far only as they abide in this state of complete separation which the world does not understand, and in which it cannot participate. Human joy and sociability have no part in it; divine joy and the power of the Holy Ghost are there.

The life of our adorable Saviour was a life of gravity, always grave and generally straitened (not in Himself, for His heart was a springing well of love, but because of the evil that pressed Him on every side):I speak of His life and of His own heart. With regard to others, His death opened the flood-gates, in order that the full tide of love might flow over poor sinners. Nevertheless, whatever may have been the Lord's habitual separateness He could say, with reference to His disciples, "These things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves."It was the best of wishes:divine joy instead of human joy. The day will come when these two joys shall be united, when He will again drink wine, though in a new way, with His people in the kingdom of His Father; and all will be His people. But at present this cannot be ; evil reigns in the world. It reigned in Israel, where there ought to have been righteousness. It reigns in Christendom, where holiness and grace should be manifested in all their beauty. The separation unto God of which we have been speaking, is under these circumstances the only means of enjoying the strength of God. It is the essential position of the assembly. If it has failed in it, it has ceased to manifest the essential character of its Head, in connection with itself, " separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; " it is but a false witness, a proof among the Philistines that Dagon is stronger than God:if is a blind prisoner.

Nevertheless it is remarkable that whenever the world draws away by its allurements that which God has separated from it to Himself, this brings down the judgment of God upon the world and leads to its ruin. Look at Sarah in the house of Pharaoh, and, in this instance, Samson, blind and a prisoner in the hands of the Philistines; and again also, Sarah in the house of Abimelech, although God, on account of the integrity of his heart, did but chasten the latter.

The Nazarite, then, represents Christ such as He was here below in fact and by necessity, and also such as He now is completely and in full right, seated on the right hand of God in heaven-hidden in God, where our life is hid in Him. The Nazarite represents the assembly or an individual Christian, so far as the one and the other are separated from the world and devoted to God, and keep the secret of this separation. This is the assembly's position, the only one which God recognizes. The assembly, being united to Christ, who is separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens, cannot be His in any other manner. It may be unfaithful to it, but this is the standing given it with Christ. It can be recognized in no other. Samson represents to us also the tendency of the assembly and of Christians to fall away from this position -a tendency which does not always produce the same amount of evil fruit, but which causes the inward and practical neglect of Nazariteship, and soon leads to entire loss of strength, so that the assembly gives itself up to the world. God may still use it, may glorify Himself through the havoc it makes in the enemy's land (which ought to be its own); He may even preserve it from the sin to which the slippery path it treads would lead it; but
the state of mind which brought it there tends to yet lower downfalls.

God makes use of Samson's marriage with a Philistine woman to punish that people. Still, in the freshness of his strength, his heart with Jehovah, and moved by the Holy Ghost, Samson acts in the might of this strength in the midst of the enemies he has raised up against him ; and, in point of fact, he never marries this Philistine woman.

I have said that God used this circumstance. It is thus He may use this spiritual strength of the assembly so long as in heart it cleaves to Him, although its walk may not be faithful or such as He can approve. For it is evident that Samson's marriage with a daughter of Timnath was a positive sin, a flagrant infringement of Jehovah's ordinances, which is in nowise justified by the blessing which the Lord bestowed upon him when wronged by the Philistines. It was not in his marriage he found blessing, but quite the contrary.

Accordingly, Samson has not Israel with him in the conflicts occasioned by his marriage :the Spirit of God does not act upon the people as He did in the case of Gideon, of Jephthah, or Barak. Moreover, where Nazariteship is in question, opposition must be expected from the people of God. A Nazarite is raised up in their midst because they are no longer themselves thus separated unto God. And this being the case, they are without strength, and will allow the world to rule over them, provided that outward peace is left them; and they would not have any one act in faith, because this disquiets the world, and incites it against them. "Knowest thou not," said Israel, "that the Philistines are rulers over us!" Even while acknowledging Samson as one of themselves, the Israelites desire to give up to the Philistines in order to maintain peace.

But in the part of Samson's life now before us there are some details which require more attention. His marriage was a sin ; but the separation of God's people had no longer that measure of practical application which the mind of God had assigned it. The fact itself was inexcusable, because it had its origin in the will of Samson, and he had not sought counsel from God ; but, owing to the influence of circumstances, he was not conscious at that time of the evil he was committing, and God allowed him to seek peace and friendship with the Canaanite world (that is to say, the world within the inclosure of God's people), instead of making war against them ; so that, as to the Philistines, Samson had right on his side in the contentions which followed. Before his marriage, Samson had slain the lion, and found honey in its carcase. He had strength from God while walking in his integrity.

This is the " riddle'' the secret of God's people. The lion has no strength against one who belongs to Christ; Christ has destroyed the strength of him that had the power of death. By the might of the Spirit of Christ our warfare is victory, and honey flows therefrom. But this is carried on in the secret of communion with the Lord. David maintained this place better in the simplicity of duty; Samson did not keep himself from these connections with the world to which the conditions of the people easily led. This is always a Christians danger.

But, whatever may be their ignorance, if the children of God make any alliance with the world, and thus pursue a line of conduct opposed to their true character, they will assuredly find disappointment. They do not keep themselves apart for God ; they do not keep their secret with God, a secret which is only known in communion with Himself. Their wisdom is lost; the world becomes worse than before, and the world despises them, and goes on its own way regardless of their indignation at its behavior toward them.

What had Samson to do there? His own will is in exercise, and takes its share in the use of that strength which God had given him (like Moses when he slew the Egyptian).We also carry a little of the world with us when, being children of God, we have mingled with it. But God makes use of this to separate us forcibly and thoroughly from it, making union impossible by setting us in direct conflict with the world, even in those very things which had formed our connection with it. " We had better have remained apart."But it is necessary that God should thus deal with us, when this union with the world becomes an habitual and a tolerated thing in the church.(In this union, when it takes place between the world and true Christians, or those at least who profess the truth, the world always rules ; when, on the contrary, it is with the hierarchy that the world is connected, it is then a superstitious hierarchy that rules, for it is necessary in order to restrain the will of man by religious bonds adapted to the flesh).

The most outrageous circumstances pass unnoticed. Think of a Nazarite married to a Philistine ! God must break off such a union as this by causing enmities and hostilities to arise, since there is no intelligence of that moral nearness to God which separates from the world and gives that quietness of spirit which, finding its strength in God, can overcome and drive away the enemy, when God leads into conflict by the plain revelation of His will.

But if we are linked with the world, it will always have dominion over us :we have no right to resist the claims of relationship which we ourselves have formed. We may draw nigh to the world, because the flesh is in us. The world cannot really draw nigh to the children of God, because it has only its own fallen and sinful nature. The approximation is all on our side, and always in evil, whatever the appearance may be. To bear testimony in the midst of the world is another thing. We cannot, therefore, plead the secret of the Lord, the intimate relationship of God's people to Himself, and the feelings they produce ; for the secret and the strength of the Lord are exclusively the right and the strength of His redeemed people. How could this be told to his Philistine wife? What influence would the exclusive privileges of God's people have over one who is not of their number? How can we speak of these privileges when we disown them by the very relationship in which we stand ?

We disown them by imparting this secret, for we then cease to be separated and consecrated to God, and to confide in Him as we can do in no other. This experience should have preserved Samson for the future from a similar step. But in many respects experience is useless in the things of God, "because we need faith at the moment; for it is God Himself whom we need."

Nevertheless,. Samson here still retains his strength. The sovereign will of God is fulfilled in this matter in spite of very serious faults, which resulted from the general state of things in which Samson participated. Once in the battle-field, he exhibits the strength of Jehovah, who was with him; and, in answer to his cry, Jehovah supplies him with water for his thirst. (Judges 15:)

It is here that this general history of Samson ends. We have seen that the people of God, his brethren, were against him-the general rule in such a case. " It is the history of the power of the Spirit of Christ exercised in Nazariteship, in separation from the world unto God; but in the midst of a condition entirely opposed to this separation, and in which he who is upheld by the power of this Spirit, finding himself again in his habitual sphere, is always in danger of being unfaithful; and so much the more so (unless he lives very near to God in the repose of obedience) from his consciousness of strength."

Christ exhibited the perfection of a heavenly walk under similar circumstances. We see that no one understood the source of His power or His authority. He must have given up all hope of satisfying men with respect to the principles by which He was guided. They must have been like Him to comprehend Him, and then they would not have needed to be convinced. To walk before God, and leave His justification with God, was all that could be done. He silenced His enemies by the well-known principles of God and of all good conscience; but He could not reveal the secret between Him and the Father -the element of His life and the spring of all His actions. If the truth came out, when Satan pushed things so far that nothing else could be said, His enemies treated Him as a blasphemer, and He openly denounced them as the children of Satan. We find this particularly in John's gospel; but at that time, Jesus held no longer the same relationship to the people,-indeed, from the beginning of this gospel, they are treated as rejected, and the person of the Son of God is brought forward.

From the commencement" of His ministry, He maintains the place of an obedient servant, not entering on public service until called of God, after having taken the lowest place in John's baptism. This was the point at issue when He was tempted in the wilderness. The tempter endeavored to make Him come out of His place as the obedient man, because He was the Son of God. But the strong man was bound there; to remain in obedience is the only way to bind the adversary. Christ ever walked in this perfect separation of the inner man, in communion with His Father, and entire dependence upon Him in obedience, without a single moment of self-will. Therefore was He the most gracious and accessible of men :we observe in His ways a tenderness and a kindness never seen in man; yet we always feel that He was a stranger, not that He came to be a stranger in His relationship with men, bat that which lay deepest in His own heart that which constituted His very nature, and consequently guided His work by virtue of His communion with the Father, was entirely foreign to all that influences man.

This spirit of self-denial, entire renunciation of His own will, obedience, and dependence upon His Father, is seen throughout the life of Jesus. After John's baptism, He was praying when He received the Holy Ghost. Before calling the apostles, He spent the whole of the night in prayer. After the miracle of feeding the five thousand with five loaves, He went up into a mountain apart to pray. If the request is made to sit on His right hand and on His left in His kingdom, it is not His to give, but to them for whom it is prepared of His Father. In His agony of Gethsemane, His expectation and dread of death is all laid before His Father; and the cup which His Father has given Him, shall He not drink it? The effect is, that all is calm before men. He is the Nazarite, separate from men by His entire communion with His Father, and by the obedience of a Son who had no other will than to fulfill the good pleasure of His Father. It was His meat to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work.

But it was when man would not receive Him, and there was no longer any relationship whatever between man and God, that Jesus fully assumed His Nazarite character,-separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. It is Christ in heaven who is the true Nazarite, and who, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, has sent Him forth upon His disciples, in order
that, by the power of the Holy Ghost, they might maintain the same position on the earth through communion with Him and with His Father; walking in the separate-ness of this communion, and capable, therefore, of using this power with a divine intelligence that enlightens and sustains the obedience for which they are set apart unto the glory of Christ, and for His service."If ye abide in Me," said He to His disciples, "and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be clone unto you."

They were not of the world, even as He was not of the world. The assembly which was formed of His disciples should walk as separated from the world, and set apart unto Himself in a heavenly life.

" Christ is, then, the antitype of Samson's history, as to the principle it contains. But its detail proves that this principle of strength has been intrusted to those who were, alas! but too capable of failing in communion and obedience, and thus of losing its enjoyment.

Samson sins again through his intercourse with "the daughter of a strange god;" he connects himself again with women of the Philistines, amongst whom his father's house and the tribe of Dan were placed. But he retains his strength until the influence of these connections becomes so great that he reveals the secret of his strength in God. His heart, far from God, places that confidence in a Philistine which should have existed only between his soul and God. (Chap, 16:)

To possess and keep a secret proves intimacy with a friend; but the secret of God, the possession of His confidence, is the highest of all privileges; to betray it to a stranger, be he who he may, is to despise the precious position in which His grace has placed us; it is to lose it. What have the enemies of God to do with the secrets of God ? It was thus that Samson gave himself up to his enemies; all attempts were powerless against him so long as he maintained his Nazariteship. This separation once lost, although Samson was apparently as strong, and his exterior as goodly as before, yet Jehovah was no longer with him :" I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that Jehovah was departed from him."
We can scarcely imagine a greater folly than that of confiding his secret to Delilah, after having so many times been seized by the Philistines at the moment she awoke him. And thus it is with the assembly; when it yields itself to the world, it loses all its wisdom, even that which is common to man. Poor Samson ! his strength may be restored, but he has lost his sight forever.

But who has ever hardened himself against the Lord and prospered ?

If the unfaithfulness of the assembly has given the world power over it, the world has, on the other hand, assailed the rights of God by corrupting the assembly, and therefore brings down judgment upon itself at the moment of its greatest triumph,-a judgment which, if it puts an end to the existence as well as to the misery of the Nazarite, destroys at the same time, in one common ruin, the whole glory of the world. J. N. D.

The blood of the paschal lamb was to be shed to furnish a shelter from death for the people of God "in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation." (Phil. 2:15.)But the shed blood collected in a basin could do no good while there. It must be applied elsewhere. The blood shed was for the people. But to be of any avail they must sprinkle it with hyssop on the lintel and door-posts of their houses. (5:22.) So the simple shedding of Christ's blood avails naught for those who only hear of it and pass it by as nothing to them. Its application also is necessary, for each to be sheltered by it.

But what is the precise significance of the sprinkling with hyssop? Let us compare other Scriptures:"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." (Ps. 51:7.) " And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel :and a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water and sprinkle it upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave :and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and upon the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even."(Num. 19:17-19.) "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God." " When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people. . . . Moreover, he sprinkled likewise with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood ; and without shedding of blood is no remission." (Heb. 9:13, 14, 19, 21, 22.)

Hence, we gather the significance of blood-sprinkling with hyssop to be cleansing from sin. From i Cor. 5:7, we know that the passover lamb of Egypt typified Jesus as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. (Jno. 1:29.)

Israel's start for the land God had reserved for His people had to be made from the spot where the terrible judgment of death passed over them as cleansed from all sin. And Jno. 1:7, says, " The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin."

The hyssop was that with "which the blood was applied as cleansing them. The blood in the basin did no purifying while there. " Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood."

So we see that the hyssop bush points forward to faith, laying hold of Christ's blood for our sins. That is, if we have faith, or believe, that He has shed His precious blood for our sins, as He has, then we have applied the blood, and are sheltered by it. Oh, how blessed !

And now we see the mistake of those who think that because His blood was shed for all, therefore all will be saved. The Lamb in Egypt might have been slain might -might have shed just as much blood without its doing the people any good, if the blood had been left in the basin. Only when struck on to the door-posts aud lintel with the bunch of hyssop, did it prevent death entering. So we are saved only through faith. E. C. W.

2 Cor. 4:17,18.

We wept-'t was Nature wept,-but Faith
Can pierce beyond the gloom of death,
And in yon world so fair and bright
Behold thee in refulgent light!
We miss thee here, yet Faith would rather
Know thou art with thy heavenly Father.
Nature sees the body dead-
Faith beholds the spirit fled ;
Nature stops at Jordan's tide-
Faith beholds the other side ;
That but hears farewell and sighs,
This thy welcome in the skies;
Nature mourns a cruel blow-
Faith assures it is not so ;
Nature never sees thee more-
Faith but sees thee gone before :
Nature tells a dismal story-
Faith has visions full of glory ;
Nature views the change with sadness-
Faith contemplates it with gladness ;
Nature murmurs-
Faith gives meekness, "
Strength is perfected in weakness."
Nature writhes, and hates the rod;
Faith looks up, and blesses God.
Sense looks downward-Faith above;
That sees harshness-this sees love.
Oh, let Faith victorious be-
Let it reign triumphantly !
But thou art gone ! not lost, but flown ;
Shall I, then, ask thee back, my own?
Back-and leave thy spirit's brightness?
Back-and leave thy robes of whiteness ?
Back-and leave the Lamb who feeds thee ?
Back-from founts to which He leads thee?
Back-and leave thy heavenly Father?
Back-to earth and sin ?-Nay, rather
Would I live in solitude !
I would not ask thee if I could,
But patient wait the high decree
That calls my spirit home to thee !
[The above lines were found inside the cover of an old Bible, which had evidently been well used, and on the fly-leaf of which were the following words:"This Bible once belonged to my beloved sister, Mary Fannie, who fell asleep in Jesus Jan. 27th, 1865. And when this frail tent of earth loosens, and shrinks, and falls, may I pass from it as Peter from his prison, wakened by an angel, to find myself standing, in a trance of joy, on the street of the new Jerusalem! "]

I said, " I will be a reaper, and toil with all my might,
For the laborers are few, though the harvest is so white."
So I took my sharpened sickle and sought the ripened grain;
I took in my hand my sickle-God took it out again.

I saw that in fields beyond me the corn was in the blade,
But the weeds were thickly choking. I took my hoe and spade,
And said,"I'll dig for the Master, and how the corn will
grow! "
But the Master came behind me and quickly answered, "No! "

I said, " I will be a sower, and scatter tiny seed:
Sowing is as sweet as reaping, and quite as much a need."
So I took the yellow kernels to drop as I should go-
The Master gathered them again as fast as I could sow.

Then I said, "I know, dear Master, how little is my skill;
It is wise I should not garner and well I should not till;
I will walk behind another, and hold the homely plow."
" I have those to tread the furrow," He answered, " Go not thou."

So I took my burnished sickle and hung it again to rust,
And my hoe and spade and basket, to gather mold and dust;
I left the earthly furrow for another's feet to tread,
And said, " To the hungry reapers I'll carry drink and bread;

For surely no sweeter service I need to ask or seek That to strengthen with refreshment the weary and the weak." I filled my cup at the fountain, I cut my loaf in twain, Looked in the face of the Master and knew it was in vain.

"Oh, Master! " I murmured, weeping, "I may not work for
Thee !
Thou desirest not my service!" He whispered, "Thou shalt see."
Then my arms He gently folded, my feet securely bound,
And laid me down all helpless upon the parched ground.

Then my eyes I closed in silence and hushed my eager breath,
For I thought He had brought me into the dust of death;
But, as I lay in the darkness, anew to me He spoke,
And out of a fervered slumber I dreamily awoke.

And awoke to find beside me a reaper wounded sore,
With never a hand to soothe him or stay the flowing gore;
I drew from my cup of water and laved his burning brow
I staunched the tide of crimson and smiled for service now.

"Child," said the loving Master, " sigh not for the open field,
For here in the lonely shadows rich service canst thou yield "
And all day long till the evening work unto me He brought,
Looked tenderly on my fetters and blessed me as I wrought.

I whispered the word of courage, I sang of hope and cheer,
I told of the Lord's forgiveness, I dried the contrite tear
And many a heavy burden I might not even share
I lifted unto the Master on outstretched arms of prayer

And I think when night has fallen and the harvest all is stored,
There'll be little sheaves in garner, known only to the Lord,
Of the gleanings that He gathered unto a captive's feet;
I think the captive's harvest-joy may be of all most sweet.

(Selected.)

The spirit of Christianity includes all that is beautiful or good in the life and conduct. The polish of the world's manners is but an imitation of that true courtesy which should characterize the Christian. It is to be feared that too little is thought of that care in our in our conduct toward one another. The love and joy of the spirit will lead us to have a care for the feelings of others. This can be applied in a multitude of ways. It will show itself in that regard for others, a respectful listening to what they may say, a carefulness not to wound or offend. One may say he has a blunt way, and means no harm. It is not well thus to excuse one's self. A weak brother or sister may be stumbled by that blunt way; one not in communion might be driven off by it. We need to remember this in the heat of controversy. Sharp things are said, which only wound, and do not please God. Let us be courteous. Let us be careful how we contradict one another. How easy it is to accuse of untruthfulness in heat, when we cannot believe that to be the case when we quietly think over the matter ! Then, too, we should show proper regard in speaking to one another, especially to those who might feel such a neglect. Does not the apostle tell the saints to greet one another ? But it is needless to enumerate. In all our intercourse, we are in constant need of that gracious thoughtfulness perfectly consistent with quiet dignity, which helps and cheers all with whom we meet.

All this is not legality, nor outward form :" friendly minded" is the word for "courtesy." Right thoughts, right feelings, a true love, will produce a courtesy impossible to be imitated by the worldling, however polished he may be,-a courtesy common alike to all, even the naturally unrefined, because it has its roots in the renewed heart. In this, as in all else, let us remember that our God would have us givers, not receivers. We are not to wait until others act courteously toward us. Let us show courtesy, looking for nothing in return, and how soon will we find ourselves being treated in the same manner!

" In all things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."

From the mount of victory-
Oh, take care!
Steep is the descent, and rough-
Oh, beware!
Many a child of God hath tripped,-
Through unwatchfulness hath slipped,
And of blessing hath been stripped
Unaware.

When the conquest hath been won,
And the roar
Of the battle-fierce and strong-
Is no more,
Think not on the victory,
But of Him who fought for thee,-
Bearing, on the accursed tree,
Sorrow sore.

Thou art but a broken vase
In the hand
Of the Mightiest Conqueror
In the land.
Thou hast but to wait and see,
With thine armor girt on thee,
How the blessed Lord for thee
Takes His stand.

Take no credit to thyself,
Foolish one,
If in battle or in race
Thou hast won.
Give the glory to His name
Who, thy lost soul to reclaim,
Suffered scorn and death and shame,-
God's own Son.

H. McD.

Naphtali was the son of Bilhah, Rachel's bondmaid, through whom she sought to be fruitful. His name was given to show the spirit of rivalry there was between Rachel and Lean, and the struggle not to be excelled by her more fortunate sister. "With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister and prevailed ; and she called his name Naphtali." Emulation, struggle, bondmaid-of these we are reminded in Naphtali. Naturally, we do not wish to be excelled by others, and in spiritual attainments pride has its place as well as elsewhere. "Which should be greatest" was the subject of contention among our Lord's disciples-it did not cease with them. In this emulation there is the struggle, so different from "the peaceable fruits of righteousness." Effort speaks of human strength, of human resources. The law is that which is called upon for aid when natures strength is used. Nature never calls upon grace. So it is to her bondmaid that Rachel turns rather than to God, and through her Naphtali is born. In him, then, we have the natural man, born of the bondmaid, the law; and how significant is his name ! A wrestler. Nature can only struggle, the law produces not peace, but wrestling. With all her boasting, Rachel's child was the son of a bondmaid. And all man's boastings of the fruits of his efforts and struggles is only a confession that he is under bondage. Such was Naphtali by birth-by nature, a wrestler, -a stranger to peace-a child of bondage-at least such he was typically considered.

"Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words." (Gen. 49:21.) Instead of bondage and struggle, Jacob sees in Naphtali liberty and peace. Great as the contrast was with the literal Naphtali, how much greater is it in the case of the believer. He is no longer looked at according to his birth, a child of bondage ; but "according to his blessing." (Gen. xlix 28.) The blessing of grace has altered all for us. But these blessings are " in Christ " (Eph. 1:3), and He is the true Naphtali. Bound to the cross for our sins, He meets their full penalty and with the words, "it is finished" upon His lips, yields up His spirit. He is laid in the grave, redemption fully accomplished, unless indeed He is held in the bands of death. But it was not possible that He could be holden of them. The stone is rolled away, the hind, pursued by the unrelenting hatred of man and Satan, wounded unto death, is loosed, the "hind of the morning" (Ps. 22:, title), and comes forth, forever free from the power of death. And what goodly words does He give! " Mary "-personal recognition of His redeemed (" My beloved is mine, and I am His"); " My brethren "-association of His own with Him in resurrection, the fruit of the corn of wheat; " Peace be unto you"-the assurance of a relationship established on the ground of His death, which can never be set aside. Such are some of the goodly words given by our risen Lord,-Naphtali, the hind let loose ; and all the full and varied revelations of the Holy Ghost are but more of these "goodly words." So we see Christ risen, and hear Him ; but in Him we see ourselves, "risen with Christ." If He has been let loose, so have we. "Thou hast loosed my bands," is now our language. Sin no more condemns, the law cannot bind. Sin no more controls, and Satan and the world are like the amazed and helpless soldiers at the open tomb. These things have no power to hold us, we are forever free-" the snare is broken and we are escaped." What "goodly words" of praise and thanksgiving should now be given forth by us ! The heart set free-can the lips be silent? Surely not. Stones might well speak our shame did we remain silent. Testimony too follows. Goodly words of gospel to poor sinners; wholesome words of truth to a self-satisfied world.

The liberty wherewith Christ makes us free is thus in fullest contrast to the bondage of nature and the useless wrestlings and struggles of man under law. But there is not merely liberty-there is rest. " O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the Lord ; possess thou the west and the south." (Deut. 33:23.) The wrestler is now at last satisfied. " Satisfied with favor "- God's favor, which is better than life ; that favor shown in His " unspeakable gift." Can we enumerate all that goes with this favor? Can we ever exhaust all the fullness of. that blessing of the Lord which indeed " maketh rich and He addeth no sorrow with it"? We can only, like David, sit before the Lord, and praise Him. There is not a need but has been met, not a craving of the renewed soul but has been provided for-more than provided for. " It. is enough." Naphtali can hold no more, his wrestlings are over. Have we journeyed from Naphtali in nature to Naphtali in grace ? Are we in the enjoyment of all that has been made ours? If so, there is still room for progress:"Possess thou the west and the south"-the salt sea, and desert south being but new fields for yielding more and more of "marrow and fatness."

Let us cease from all creature efforts, let us see our full liberty in a risen Lord, and let us be satisfied with the full favor in which we stand, and thus make daily progress.

There are some very profitable and comforting I thoughts in the eleventh chapter of Ecclesiastes. Take the first verse, "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." To the natural man casting bread upon the restless expanse of water seems very foolish indeed, and at times we may say that is the end of it all; but the man of faith knows that it shall be found "after many days." And how often in these days one may think, "it seems to be of no use speaking to those around us." Even so it does " seem," but, "thou shalt find it after many days." If we see no results we are apt to be discouraged, but our Father knows all about us ; He knows the effect it would have upon us if we saw all the results. Knowing a little of our poor hearts we can realize how often it might puff us up to see results. But He will honor His own Word, and whatsoever speaks of His dear Son, and as for us, "the day shall declare it." Then, indeed, we shall see results and receive the reward. What joy it will be then to receive His commendation ! Sow on in hope, my brethren, and let it be done from a true heart, true to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ May all our service be done out of love for Himself!

" He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." Let us look not at the things which are seen. If we look for encouragement in circumstances, we will also find discouragement there, but we need to find our encouragement in the living God. Then, though all around seem in ruins, and a hardness seems to have come over man's hearts, we will not be cast down, but will sow the precious seed, the living Word of the living God. We know that His Word will accomplish that whereunto He sends it. Often do we realize how powerless our words are, and
that only the word of our God can find an entrance. Most blessed it is too to realize this, for then we will press His Word home, and the entrance of that shall give light. Let there be more of this amongst us-using "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."

"In the morning sow thy seed, and in evening withhold not thine hand :for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." May we "be instant in season, out of season." At times we may feel more hopeful in speaking to some, than when speaking to others ; but " thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that." In the parable of the sower we see that the seed falls in some places on good" and in some on stony ground, but note, the sower did his work, and sowed on all alike. So let us take the lesson home to ourselves and sow in faithfulness to God, leaving results to Him. We know that our labor is not in vain "in the Lord." True service can only flow from love to our Lord Jesus.

If our hearts are filled with His love there will be little need to trouble about lack of service ; the one will be the result of the other. There are hungry souls around Us, hungering for the bread of life. Nothing can satisfy them but that for which they long. Shall we not pray earnestly for deeper love for the person of our Lord Jesus Christ ? Much truth and knowledge we have, but knowledge in itself puffeth up. What we need more at this time than all else, is deep true love for our Lord Jesus Christ. Surely He will give this, and after He has given it will bring us in contact with needy souls, and give us the message. The time is short, "the night is far spent and the clay is at hand." In the little while remaining before He comes may we be very humble.

Our hearts can go out to Himself without reserve ; not so with the things of the world :we must watch, be on guard. But no need of this toward our Lord Jesus. With fullest confidence and love we can let our hearts go out to Him in praise and adoration. What love indeed is His ! It passeth knowledge ; yet in a measure we do know it. With longing, yearning hearts we cry, Lord, give Thy people more love for Thyself, that we may find our all in Thee. Amen. J. G. T.

Oakland, Cal.

"And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul." (Ps. 106:15.) "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." (Ps. 37:4.)

Pray without ceasing," says the apostle ; " Ask, and it shall be given unto you," says our Lord ; and the impulse of the new-born soul is to pray. One of the tests of a new life is, " Behold he prayeth."Our God delights to hear prayer and to answer it. Surely in His heart there is no thought but for our blessing; but for that very reason His dealings with us vary according to the state of soul, and our real necessities. He certainly would not give us any thing to harm us ; and when we ask for what would injure us, He knows how refuse. But there may be a condition of soul where refusal does not touch the conscience; where the will instead of being subdued, is only made the more stubborn by refusal. Then it is that divine wisdom may grant the request, in order that the one who will not learn to trust God in His way, may find the folly of his own. It was thus with Israel in the case alluded to in the passage be-fore us. God has undertaken to deliver them, and to bring them into the "good land and large."He had provided suited food for them in their journey, in the manna, which, as it lay all about the camp each morning, silently bore witness to the love and care of One who never slumbered nor slept. But they never realized the privilege of being so cared for, and so take their case in their own hand. They ask for quails and quails they must have. Their longings for the food which perishes was so great that it eclipsed every thing else. Such a people could not be benefitted by a refusal They would not learn except by tasting the bitter fruit of their own lusts.

At first, they might have been tempted to boast in the answer to prayer. Is not answered prayer always a proof of divine favor and special good-will? But there was no gratitude, no sense of humility, no asking, "Who am I?" They had carried their point, and now proceeded to gratify to the full the desires which had demanded this gratification. They became the more alienated from God by His very mercies. This was the leanness which came into their souls-the natural result of self-will uncontrolled. It never checks itself, never is satisfied with any possession of good, but craves and craves, and the granting of each new craving but results in still further alienation and leanness; unless, indeed, through mercy, the eyes are opened to see where we are. So Kibroth-hattaavas speaks to us most seriously, warning us against "asking amiss," lest that leanness come on us, which, unless delivered from, is but the precursor of dealings in severity.

Lot looked over to Sodom's plains with the same longings that Israel had for the quails, and the mountain cave where his light went out in obscure darkness, is his grave of lust. He wished for himself and got what he wanted, but the leanness in his soul resulting from gaining his point, stands out to-day in all its clearness for our warning. And how many Lots since that day can bear witness to this truth, " He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul" ! Could Lot have dreamed as he looked with such longing over these pleasant plains that they lead directly to that lonely mountain cave, we can well believe he would have drawn back in horror. And yet they were but the way and the end of a self-will which craves indulgence and will take no refusal. Beloved, is the personal application difficult ? Let us beware of this subtle working in our hearts, lest blight and sorrow come upon us to teach us.

But let us hasten from these sad things to look a little at the sweet assurance of the other verse :" Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart." At a glance we see the difference. In the former case self was the center and all revolved about it, everything must contribute to self-gratification, and, as we said, when one is bound to have his own way, God allows it. Here, how different! we are in another atmosphere. God is the center, about whom all revolves. His interests are the important ones, His good pleasure, His glory. Self is subordinated and out of sight-God fills the horizon.

But there is more. "Delight thyself in the Lord. He rejoices over us, wonderful that it can be, and wishes us not merely to be absorbed, occupied with Him, but to delight in Him. He wishes no compulsory attachment- He draws free hearts, and attaches them to Himself by the sweet constraint of love. It is the glory of redemption that it does this, wins the heart, as well as enlightens and arouses the conscience. Mere sense of duty will sooner or later say, "Thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends." The elder brother admits, with all his correctness in service, there was no joy in it, and he seems to fail to see how there can be joy in the father's house. How different the language of One who always delighted in His Father. " In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore,"-language to be taken up and repeated by lips of faith in all places and at all times. " God my exceeding joy," says David; "We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ," says Paul. When joy goes declension soon follows. But what an object for our delight! Well may we ask,-

" Where shall our wondering souls begin ? "

We need never be at a loss for fresh delights. His Person, His works, His attributes, counsels, His Son, and the vast plan of redemption, the depths of His love- surely here we have themes to charm and delight the soul.

Delighting in Him, our desires are secondary and ever subject to His will. But if we almost forget them, He does not. " He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." No fear that riches or prosperity will lead astray. Abraham places God first, delights in Him, only to prove that the blessing of the Lord was his-" He maketh rich, and ' He addeth no sorrow with it."

Even as to spiritual blessings, this truth applies. If we are asking for gifts, or even for holiness for ourselves, we will find that whatever apparent attainments we make, instead of ripening and mellowing us, do the reverse. The holiness is in name only, contributing to self-complacency, not God-likeness. On the other hand, let God be delighted in and the desire of the heart to be like Him is granted; we grow like Him, by being occupied with Him, and holiness results.

Dear brethren, have we desires ? Longings it may be for temporal things, or for blessings on others; for greater power in the assemblies of His people ; for simpler and clearer testimony before the world ? Let us learn to delight in Him more, for His own sake, and He will give us the desires of our heart.

" For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you ward." (2 Cor. 1:12.).

" For we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ." (2 Cor. 2:17.)

In the judgment of the world, what is commonly known as sincerity is supposed to cover a multitude of sins. How frequently we hear it asserted that it makes little difference what a man believes provided he is sincere in that belief. The Jew, the Mohammedan, the Romanist, the very infidel himself, is in this way admitted into the ranks of that religious respectability where the test for all is sincerity. Thus the world. But God does not reason in this way. Saul of Tarsus was a most sincere man, but the intensity of his convictions only identified him the more closely with those who were "the enemies of the cross of Christ." A man may sincerely believe he is on the right road, but if he is mistaken, his sincerity will not prevent his going astray. If this is true in the things of every-day life, it is equally so in the far more important matters of eternity and our spiritual concerns generally. The word translated "sincerity" in the verses quoted at the head of this paper suggests a deeper and truer meaning than mere personal honesty, subjective certainty. It means "sunlight-judgment"–a judgment arrived at, not in the dark of our hearts, but in the light of God's own presence. It is not mere honesty, though it includes that. A light has been shed on the matter, and the truth about it revealed, and according to that light, that truth, a judgment has been reached, a decision made, according to which the person acts. We are now on higher ground than that of what is ordinarily called " sincerity,"-a ground to which none, however honest in a subjective sense they may be, can be admitted except those who are also in the sunlight. " God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This is the sunlight-judgment which gives true sincerity.

Let us look a moment at the quality of this light. It is from God. " God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." In this light, there can be no calling evil good or good evil,-all is estimated aright. But it is not a cold light; it is "in the face of Jesus Christ"-of Him who manifested the love and grace of God as well as His holiness. Hence it is a light which does not merely convict, but which touches the heart of the one manifested, and makes him realize that while a holiness which hates sin has shown him his true condition, a love which passeth knowledge yearns over him. The sin is hated, the evil way is abhorred, but the sinner is loved, and feels the constraining power, of that love drawing him into paths of truth. It is most important to note this. He who knows God apart from Christ does not know Him at all. The saint who gets light from God must get it as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ, or he will not get it aright, and will fail to be guided aright. The qualities, then, of this sunlight-judgment are truth and grace,-truth tempered by grace, grace in accordance with truth.

The first verse applies this sincerity to the walk of the apostle-"We have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you ward."What characterized his daily life was that it could be judged in the light of God's presence. He did not go blindly ahead following his own inclinations, as many do, meaning well, as people say, but not pausing to ask whether he was seeking God's will or his own. Still less did he follow the wisdom of , the world. Worldly maxims, worldly examples, are too often followed by the child of God, the result being worldly conformity. Not so Paul. The sunlight-judgment of God was his test, the light in which his path was chosen. Can we say the same as to ourselves, beloved brethren ? Where do we get light for our path? Is the eye single, the heart simple ?Surely sincerity with us should be the same as with Paul. But this is heart-searching work. It means that I do what I see to be right,-that I do not give mere assent to it-patronize the truth, as it were, but that I can look God in the face and say, " Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts."

Let us pause here, and ask ourselves seriously one question-a solemn one. It is this :Do we not well to hesitate to appeal to God as to our motives, our desires, etc.? He who knows his own heart best knows most of its deceitfulness, and he whose motives are simplest for God's glory will be slowest to appeal to Him. There is something which makes one shrink from hastily or thoughtlessly or too frequently appealing to God for sincerity of motives or truthfulness of statements. Let us let the holy sunlight of God's presence shine into our hearts, and much of self-interest and base motives will be discovered, so that the most devoted will be conscious of feeling with the apostle when he said, " I know nothing against myself, yet am I not hereby justified." He will realize that lurking beyond his discernment are possibilities for evil which he cannot trust. He will therefore be humble, self will be kept in the background, and Christ will be exalted.

But if this is heart-searching work, it is needful work, yielding most blessed results. Apply this sunlight-judgment to our thoughts, our desires, or to our private and family life. Will things be detected by it which our friends or brethren fail to see ? The result may be humbling, but how blessed the fruits !-greater carefulness, increased sense of weakness and dependence, more prayer, and less boasting and high thoughts, Apply it to our worship, our prayers and praises; we need not fear that the holy fear will mar or hinder the true spirit of worship. Nor, of course, are we to be legal. The true sunlight prevents all legality,-takes us out of the presence of man and puts us into the presence of the God of all grace.

Why should not we be able to use this verse like the apostle did ? We have the same grace, the same exhaust-less strength to draw upon. We too might thus walk in and out among the saints and be "ensamples to the flock." The Lord grant it increasingly for us all. The time is short; evil is on the increase; the fear of God seems to be more and more a thing but little realized. May our God arouse us to this humble, quiet, holy testimony as we go about,-this godly sincerity in our ways.

But this sincerity characterized the teachings of the apostle as well as his walk :" We are not as many which corrupt the Word of God,"-that is, adulterate it, as an inn keeper would his wines. We live in a time of adulteration-of mixture of the false with the true; the leaven has been introduced into the three measures of meal. We have lived to see men calling themselves servants of Christ stand up and deny His sacrificial atonement, the infallible inspiration of God's Word, the certainty and eternity of the doom of the wicked ; indeed, scarcely a truth is left by them, so thoroughly have they adulterated God's Word. This is not confined to a few; many, those who are looked up to as lights and guides, are engaged in this awful work, and it is our duty to cry out, however feebly, against it. For we have a great responsibility here. The time seems to be fast coming when what are called evangelical denominations (unless God grant faithfulness to purge out the wicked teachers,) can no longer be considered that, and when jealousy for God's honor will require a care in receiving to the Lord's table those who, by remaining identified with them, sanction their adulteration of God's Word ; indeed, there are, no doubt, cases now where the work of exclusion should begin. If we wink at the adulterator, we become partaker of his deeds, we ourselves are corrupters of the Word of God.

How differently this faithful servant of God acted ! Whether dealing with saint or sinner, whether a savor of life unto life or of death unto death, he will preserve the integrity of that Word with which he had been intrusted. No subtle opiate is introduced to soothe the careless sinner into slumber, or take the edge off some wholesome rebuke for the saint. He is in God's presence, and in that sunlight all that he speaks will be tested. He had to speak words which broke the heart of those who heard

him, and his own as well; but nothing would induce him to introduce error, or tone down the truth. For there are two ways of adulterating a thing. We may put poison in it-positive error, or we may simply dilute it and make it powerless in that way. True sincerity prevents either. Truth will not let us bring in error, nor will grace allow us to soften down the demands of truth. It renders such adulteration needless, because "My grace is sufficient for thee." The light in the eighth of John is just as strong as that which shone from Sinai in the lightning and divine display. The poor sinful woman is not brought into any twilight, but she is brought into the presence of grace. We need much to learn what grace is.

Let us, then, learn more what it is to speak, to teach, in true sincerity; not only refusing error, but seeing that we let God's truth have its full strength. How much this means ! In our preaching, our teaching, our administration of warning or correction in discipline,-all is to be done according to this same sunlight-judgment. May we not well say, " Who is sufficient for these things ? " and answer the question too-" All our sufficiency is of God " ? May we have more true sincerity in our walk and in our words. We would be weighty men and women.

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.

PART VI. (Chap, 17:-19:10.)-Continued. BABYLON AND HER OVERTHROW.

The angel now explains the mystery, and begins with I the beast. "The beast that was and is not" is clearly from the point of view of the vision,* as has been said. *This is contrary, however, to the view taken of it when considering the thirteenth chapter. But the difficulty of the "beast that is not" and the " one is," spoken of the heads of the beast, seems in this way to find a better solution. The paragraph as to this in the former place may therefore be considered canceled.* The rule of the woman necessarily destroys beast-character, while it lasts. But the beast will awake from its long sleep:it is "about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition." This coming up out of the abyss, however, as has been elsewhere said, does not seem to be merely the revival of the empire:the key of the abyss in the hands of the fallen star under the fifth trumpet, and the angel of the abyss being the person who by the two languages of his name is the "destroyer" of both Jew and Gentile, would lead us to believe that there was in it the working of satanic power. This is strengthened by the connection of this ascent with the "going into perdition " of that which comes up.

The previous revival under the seventh head would thus be passed over; and the prophecy hastens on to what is most important, the beast pictured here being identified in fact, in the prophecy itself, with its own eighth head. (5:2:) That it has only seven, as seen in the vision, is not against this if the seventh and eighth heads are the same person.

The unhappy "dwellers upon the earth" wonder at this revival, whose names have not from the foundation of the world been written in the book of the Lamb slain. Divine grace is that alone which makes any to differ; and of this we are reminded here. The power that works in the revival of the beast is plainly beyond that of man; and how many in the present day seem to take for granted that what is more than human power must be divine. This is the essence of the "strong delusion" which God sends upon those who have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. Powers and signs and lying wonders confirm the imperial last head in his pretension; and that they are "lying" means, not that they are mere juggling and imposition, but that they are made to foster lies. They shall wonder, "seeing how that the beast was and is not and shall be present [again]."

And "here is the mind that hath wisdom,"-the divine secret for an understanding heart. First, as to the woman:"The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth."Surely there need not be much doubt about the application of this; although some would apply it to a new Babylon yet to be built on the Euphrates, others would make the interpreting word "mountains" to be still a figure of something else. They might easily build Babylon again, that is merely looking at things from a human stand-point; but how could it be said of this new city that "in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all the slain upon the earth"? That Rome was the seven-hilled city is familiar to every school-boy; and its being a " geographical" mark need not make it unsuited to be one, as Lange believes. It makes it plain, as God would have it surely for His saints whose blood it would shed, and who would need the comfort of knowing that He was against this "Mother and Mistress of churches," with all her effrontery and the crowd that followed her.

God has even, if one might say so, gone out of the way to give a needed plain mark of identification. For it is not easy as a symbol to understand how the heads of the beast should be the seat of the woman. But this does not make it harder for identification, while it seems to illustrate the more the tender thought of God for His people, of which the tokens can never be too many, and in a place like this, of what special value !

But the heads are also seven kings,-consecutive, not contemporaneous rulers; for five had already fallen, one was, and another was yet to come, only to exist for a short time, the beast himself being the final one. Five forms of government have been given by the historians as preceding the imperial in Rome, this last being evidently the existing one in the apostle's day. "One is" we must take as applying to the apostle's day ; for at the time of the vision the beast itself "is not," as we have ' seen. The only other time present would be the time in which the apostle lived himself.

The imperial head came to an end necessarily when the empire as a whole broke up under the attacks of the barbarians; and to make, as Barnes and others do, the exarch of Ravenna the seventh head of the world-empire is either to overlook the plain terms of the prophecy, or else to pervert the simple facts of history. The exarchate lasted about two hundred years, which Barnes considers (comparatively) but a "short time ; " and the papacy he considers the eighth head. This falls with the exarchate; for the papacy would then be but the seventh, and nothing would correspond.

The seventh head began, according to Elliott, when Diocletian, already emperor, assumed the diadem,-the symbol of despotic sovereignty after the eastern fashion; and he quotes Gibbon's words, that, " like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered the founder of a new empire." But if this were the seventh head, there was a gap between it and the papacy; and this must have been the time when the beast "was not." This is better in some respects than Barnes, and may be really an anticipative fulfillment, such as we find in the "historical" interpretation generally. But it fails when we come to apply it consistently all through, as where Elliott has to make the burning of the woman with fire by the ten horns to be merely the devastation of the city and the Campagna prior to their giving power to the beast, whereas it is really effected by the beast and the horns together, and is the complete end of the ecclesiastical system which the woman represents. It would be manifestly incongruous to suppose the papacy to hate and consume the Roman church.

The scheme of prophecy involved in all this, if taken whole, would destroy entirely the interpretation of Revelation which has been given in these papers, and is negatived by all the considerations that substantiate this. I do not propose, therefore, to go more fully into it. When the papacy ruled the empire, it had ceased to be in a proper sense, the empire, and then it was that according to the chapter before us, the beast "was not."The true bestial character could not co-exist with even the profession of Christianity.

The beast is necessarily, therefore, secular, not ecclesiastical. When the secular empire fell, the beast was not; though in that contradictory condition the woman might ride it. Since that fall there has been no revival, and therefore as yet no seventh head. The seventh head is constituted that, as I believe, by the union of ten portions of the divided territory to give him power; and the preponderance of Russia in Europe might easily bring about a coalition of this kind. The new imperial head lasts but a short time, is smitten with the sword, possibly degraded to the condition of a " little horn," is revived by the dreadful power of Satan acting through the anti-christian second beast of the thirteenth chapter, assumes the blasphemous character in which we have already seen him, and thus goes into perdition at the appearing of the Lord.

This is the beast, as Revelation contemplates him generally, identified with the eighth head, but who is of the seventh, in fact, the seventh, which had the wound by the sword, yet lived. Thus seen, all the passages seem to harmonize,-a harmony which is the main argument for the truth of such an interpretation of them.

" And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and give their power and authority unto the beast." Alas! they are united against God and against His Christ:" These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings ; and they that are with Him, called, and chosen, and faithful."

Here we have anticipated the conflict of the nineteenth chapter. These that are with Christ are His redeemed people, as is plain. Angels might be " chosen and faithful," but only men are "called;" and when He comes forth as a warrior out of heaven, they, as " the armies that were in heaven, follow Him." The rod of iron which He has Himself is given to His people, and the closing scene in the conflict with evil sees them in active and earnest sympathy with Him.

The waters where the harlot sat are next interpreted as peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues." With another meaning and intent than where it is spoken of Israel, "her seed is in many waters." Her influence is wide-reaching and powerful; but it is brought to an end:"and the ten horns which thou sawest and the beast;"- so, and not "upon the beast." all authorities give it now- "these shall hate the harlot, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her up with fire." That surely is not a temporary infliction, but a full end ; and beast and horns unite in it. She has trampled upon men, and, according to the law of divine retribution, it is done to her. This has been partially seen many times in the history of Rome, and the end of the last century was a dreadful warning of what is soon to come more terribly still upon her. The very profession of Christianity which she in time past used for purposes of gain and power over men will no doubt, by the same retributive law, become at last the mill-stone round her neck forever. And no eye will pity her. For it is God who has "put into their hearts to do His will, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished."

How good to know amid all that day of terror that God is supreme above all, in all, the devices of His enemies ! Still " He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of it He restraineth." And this is the time which will most fully demonstrate this. It is the day of the Lord upon all the pride of man to bring it low. It is the day when every refuge of lies shall be swept away, and all the vanity of his thoughts shall be exposed. " The idols He shall utterly abolish." Yea, those who have been their slaves shall fling them to the moles and to the bats. " And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Then the way is prepared for blessing, wide in proportion to the judgment which has introduced it. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

"And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, 'Command the children of Israel and say unto them, My offering and My bread for My sacrifice made by fire for a sweet savor unto Me shall ye observe to offer unto Me in their due season.'" (Num. 28:1-2.

A deeply interesting and most precious portion of scripture is before us here, one which reveals to us in a remarkable way the gracious and tender character of God's manner of dealing with His children.

The inmost desires of His own heart are also told out ; indeed, it is His portion that is specially considered here:"A savor of My rest," He is pleased to call it (see margin). " My food " (the word here rendered " bread," is the Hebrew "lechem" commonly translated food) . . . "shall ye observe to offer unto Me." This is wonderful, truly ; that He of whom it is written, " The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," should ask His creatures to offer Him food !

What does it mean ?

The food here spoken of is unquestionably the Lord Jesus in the many and varied aspects of the " One Offering," the burnt-offering being by far the most prominent, as a perusal of this and the following chapter will show.

In the burnt offering, we have just what the language of our text indicates, God's food, His portion in the offering of Christ, what the Son was in all His intrinsic worth and loveliness to the Father, obedient unto death.

The believer's ability to offer this offering is necessarily measured by his apprehension of Christ in such capacity. He who is content to know Christ only so far as himself and his interests are concerned, never enters into and appreciates this wondrous offering. He has, if we may so speak, but half a Christ. But he who will "follow on to know the Lord," and, with the apostle, "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus," such an one often delights the heart of God with the sweet savor of the burnt-offering.

But the question naturally arises, 'Why should "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ " desire us to point out to Him the matchless beauty and infinite and varied perfections of His beloved Son whom He has known from all eternity?' Just this:God is so delighted with Christ that He wants some to share His joy, some who are able to converse, so to speak, with Him about the deepest and sweetest and richest things concerning His Son ; some to whom He can reveal "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" that are hid in Him.

Our "new man " is made after the image of Him that created him, and we know how we crave fellowship in the things nearest our hearts, and often do we see the same desire manifested in the Lord Jesus as He walked among men-the manifestation of God.

In Mark 9:30, we find Him endeavoring, as He walks by the way, to have fellowship with His disciples concerning His sufferings, soon to be accomplished. Doubtless the shadow of the cross at times lay dark upon His soul, and the sympathy of earthly friends would have made His path much brighter. But what do we find ? " They understood not that saying and were afraid to ask Him. And He came to Capernaum, and being in the house He asked them, "What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?" But they held their peace, for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be greatest. And so the Son of God must bear his grief alone! " His " friends " were too much occupied with themselves and their interests to weep with Him who wept. But He does not reprove them ; in patient grace He concerns Himself with their dispute and solves their question. He had many things to say unto them, but they could not bear them yet.

How often was He thus wounded in the house of his friends, and easily can we understand how refreshing to His hungry heart was Mary's willingness to sit at His feet and hear His word.

"Whom," exclaims the prophet, "shall He teach knowledge, and whom shall He make to understand the hearing? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts." Again and again our God expresses His desire that we should "know" (e.g., see Eph. 3:10-19; Col. 1:9, 27; Heb. 5:2:14), but He cannot reveal to us " the deep things of God" while we are yet babes, simply because we could not understand them. And as if to tempt us to "Grow in grace and in the knowledge our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," He asks us to "offer "to Him. Himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Thus He gives to him who offers the more blessed place. Who could conceive of a more gracious way of winning our heart's affection and leading us into closer intimacy with Himself ? A way well worthy of our God who in His mercy makes it as easy as possible for man to receive His grace, often stooping to take the place of servant rather than of benefactor. (See Matt. 20:25-28.)

Though Christ is God's free gift to all His children, yet there is a sense in which He must be won by them. (Phil, 3:8-" that I may win Christ."). Just as the whole land of Canaan had been given to the children of Israel. (Num. 27:13.) Yet it remained true that only what the sole of their foot trod upon was theirs. (Josh. 1:3.) Their title to the land was clear, for Jehovah had given the deed, but the Canaanites still dwelt in the land, and only as they were driven out could Israel enter upon the practical possession their inheritance. In our land too the Canaanite dwells. Satan and his hosts inhabit the heavenly places, and warfare must be waged with them if we would " win Christ." (Eph. 6:ii, 12.)

Well they know the Son of God, as the gospels frequently bear witness, (e.g., Mark 1:23-27; 3:ii; 5:7; Luke 4:33, 34 ) Perhaps before their fall they had enjoyed intimate fellowship with Him, but now, in their enmity and hatred of Him and His, they would fain blind our eyes to His surpassing loveliness, well knowing that had we but open eyes to see Him as He is, " all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" could not turn us from pursuing after Him.

Let us "arise, that we may go up against them, for we have seen the land ; and, behold, it is very good. And are ye still? Be not slothful to go and to enter to possess the land." The victory is surely ours, for "if God be for us, who can be against us."

Not until Israel possessed and dwelt in the land could they bring an offering of the fruit of the land- unto Jehovah. (Deut. 26:1-27.) Nor can we offer to our God His food until we have in some measure " learned Christ."
The last clause of the Scripture we are considering is of great importance, "In their due season."

This necessitates fellowship with God to enable one to discern what manner of food He desires and when He desires it. Let us illustrate again from the life of Jesus. In the fourth of John we find Him at the well of Samaria "wearied with His journey," and thirsty. " Give Me to drink," He says to the despised Samaritan woman. And she gave Him a more satisfying draught than she knew as she heard and believed His words, and let Him reveal Himself to her. To Him it was " a savor of My rest ; " and He tells His astonished disciples, " I have meat to eat that ye know not of." " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." (God rested when He finished the work of creation, and Jesus rested when He accomplished this work.)

Again, in Luke 12:36, He is in the Pharisee's house. And behold a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and did anoint them with the ointment." The Pharisee had made Him a feast, but he had entirely mistaken the kind of food acceptable to Him, but the woman had offered Him a " portion of meat in due season."

When Jesus endured the agony of the garden of Gethsemane, " There appeared unto Him an angel from heaven strengthening Him." Perhaps had the disciples kept the watch with Him, instead of sleeping, they might have been privileged to be His ministers, but they neither discerned His need nor the "due season."

Jesus is in the glory now, but He is " the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." He still longs to have us enter into His thoughts, His mind, His ways. Perhaps to-day, when it really seems to us that we are "too busy," He wants us to come apart and rest, while He expounds unto us " things concerning Himself." G. M. R.

Because the king of Egypt said,"The river is mine, I have made it," judgment was pronounced."It shall be the basest of kingdoms ; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations." (Ezek. 29:9-15.)And so it has come to pass.

Because the heart of the prince of Tyre was " lifted up" and he said, " I am a god," he was brought down to the pit. " I will scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets . . . for I have spoken it saith the Lord God." (Ezek. xxviii, 26:)

"The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and a shadowing shroud, and of high stature. . . . Therefore, thus saith the Lord God; because thou hast lifted up thyself in height . . . and his heart is lifted up in his height … I have driven him out for his wickedness … to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height." (Ezek. 31:)

As the king of Babylon walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon, he spoke and said, "Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty." In "the same hour" God spoke to him, "the kingdom is departed from, thee," and he was driven out from men and eat grass like an ox. At the end of the days, he "lifted up his eyes to heaven," and his understanding returned to him, and he blessed the Most High. A beast looks downward. When the king looked upward, to heaven, he was restored ; he came to himself, like the prodigal son. He was no longer an idolater, but a worshiper; he praised and honored Him that liveth forever. " Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment, and those that walk in pride He is able to abase." (Dan. 4:37.)

Thus we see the fall of these empires came through pride, and that pride will bring judgment upon all nations and establishments at last. When the Lord comes we find in Is. 2:, "Enter into the rock (hid themselves in the rocks, Rev. 6:15,) and hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Notice the terms that are heaped together in this and following verses:"lofty looks"- "haughtiness" – "proud and lofty"-"lifted up"– "cedars of Lebanon"-"oaks of Bashan "-"high mountains"-"high tower"-"hills that are lifted up." This is God's announcement of man's condition at the second coming of Christ to reign over the earth.

To some who were choosing the best places at an entertainment the Lord uses almost the words of the king of Babylon, "For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased." (Luke 14:)

Are we aware that in seeking honor from one another in a small company, or at any time, we are on the road that led to Nebuchadnezzar's humiliating abasement ?

Humility is the only road to honor. The Lord is our example.

How impressive the connection between secret thoughts of the heart and far-reaching results :" Is not this great Babylon that I have built" has its end in this,-"Babylon the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited ; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation :neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there :neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and (ostriches) shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there, and jackals shall cry to one another in their places, and wild dogs in the pleasant castles." " I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." (Is. 13:)

Survey the ruin of Tyre-a place bare like the top of a rock (Ezek. 26:4), and link it with Tyre's pride and exulting over Jerusalem's distress; and contemplate Egypt's condition-the basest of kingdom's, and connect this with the thought "The river is mine, I have made it." The proud thought indulged was the seed and root of centuries of humiliation. "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."

He who " humbled Himself" has been "received up into glory," His word is, "follow thou Me." E.S.L.

While Season like a Levite waits
Where priest and people meet,
Faith by a new and living way
Hath reached the Mercy-Seat.

While Season hath but barely said
That earth can not give rest,
Faith, like a weary dove, hath fled
Unto the Saviour's breast.

The incident recorded in Matt. 14:13-21 and its parallel passage, Mark 6:32-44, affords us a fine illustration of the truth that " we are laborers together with God."

Much people had followed Jesus into the desert place where He had taken His disciples to " rest awhile." And, as ever, He was ready to serve them,-"He healed their sick" and " began to teach them many things."

"And when the day was far spent," the disciples, no doubt thinking Jesus had surely done enough for the people, come and ask Him to "send them away," that they might go into the villages and buy themselves food. The saw the need of the people, knew they were faint and hungry, but it did not seem to enter their minds that Jesus could meet that need as well as any other. But Jesus was "moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd;" and, true to His character as a Shepherd, He would not let them depart until their every need had been met, and they could say with David, " The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." More than that, He would waken His disciples to the fact that they, by His grace, were able to be " workers together with Him" in feeding the multitude ; so He says, " Give ye them to eat." They straightway doubt their ability to do as He bids with their limited supply, and ask, " Shall we go and buy two hundred penny-worth of bread, and give them to eat? " Jesus, answering, asks them, ''How many loaves have ye? go and see."

Dear children of God, the multitude who are "coming and going" in our path to-'day are as hungry and faint as those who followed Jesus then ; for the time has come when there is " a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." And the question comes home to each of us, "How many loaves have ye? go and see."

The believer who knows only the gospel by which he is saved,-' how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures," has at least one loaf, and he need not fear that it is not enough to supply the demand; it is sufficient for the need of a famishing world-He " tasted death for every man," and He has made us " ambassadors for Christ," " and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."

Have we not, then, all of us who have believed, a life-giving loaf to give a perishing world ?Our own faith in the message we deliver is ample qualification for such ministry, as the apostle writes to the Corinthians, "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak"He who has made us ambassadors, and given us the message, will hold us responsible for its delivery. May we, then, heed the word, " Give ye them to eat," remembering the while that we are not " sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament."

But apart from the world who need to hear the gospel of the grace of God, there is a hungry throng of God's own people who need to be fed, and we will do well to " go and see " if we have not some loaves wherewith to feed them. We do not speak only of those who give their whole time to the "work of the ministry," or those to whom we look as teachers and pastors, but of every child of God; for the body is to be "fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal (or, to mutually profit)." And again it is written, "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." So no saint is without something to minister to the rest of the family. Each of us is a steward of more or less of God's precious Word ; as it is written, " Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." Whatever of truth the Holy Spirit has led us into, to that extent we are stewards; "moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful."

It is so natural for us to be like the disciples,-slow to use what we have, because we think it is only a little- just a crumb, compared with the need we see. But let us not judge too hastily ; if it be a portion of God's Word, however small it may seem in our eyes, it is inexhaustible. Its "seed is in itself," and it will multiply. We need never fear to honor the smallest portion of God's Word by speaking it to another ; for Himself says, "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and causeth it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth."

And this last clause reminds us of the next injunction of Jesus in our narrative. The disciples having searched, and told Him the number of their loaves, He said, "Bring them hither to Me" Apart from Him, they could do nothing. It was in His hands that the loaves multiplied, and straight from Him, through the disciples only as a channel, that the hungry ones were fed.

And so it should be with all our ministry-whatever food we receive from the Scriptures, it is our happy privilege to take it to Him, and commune with Him about it; and we may rest assured that, after such communion, He will sooner or later send us forth with our loaf increased a hundredfold. And He having thus blessed and broken our loaf, our labor shall not be in vain as we carry the message to hungry and thirsty ones; for from Him, the Head, " all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God."

Another happy result of their bringing the loaves to Jesus we must not fail to note.

" And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, He looked up to heaven and blessed." It filled His heart with joy and thanksgiving to know that His disciples had a supply, however limited, to disperse abroad; and do we not rightly judge that He is as glad to-day when His children "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary " ? And when we speak " often one to another," like those of old who "feared the Lord," have we not good reason to hope that He still "hearkens," and notes it in His "book of remembrance"? The disciples were not the least profited on that occasion through the loaves and fishes which they bestowed upon others, for they furnished a means whereby Jesus could reveal Himself to them as One who could indeed " furnish a table in the wilderness "-One whose resources were infinite, and thus He often reveals Himself afresh to us through some word we are ministering to another. Thus He rewarded the two at Emmaus as they proffered their loaf to Him, supposing Him to be a stranger,-"He was known of them in breaking of bread."
Jesus had taken His disciples into the desert place to "rest awhile." To human eyes they had found only a long day's labor, stretching away out into the evening ; but they had taken His yoke upon them, "and learned of Him, and had they not surely found rest unto their souls ? G. M. R.