In View of Questions Which Have Been Lately Raised.

2.WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THE WRITTEN WORD.

Makings must have come to a pass indeed, when I with Christians such as those for whom I am writing, one has to dwell upon – still more, defend-the value of the written Word. That which has been to us all the revelation of all the truth which we possess (and it is by the truth we are sanctified); that which alone brings into communion with the mind of God; that which, as inspired of God-"God-breathed "-furnishes the man of God to all good works;- how needless, how unutterably foolish it must appear, to tell any one who owes his all to it, the value of the written word of God!

Is this what those are thinking who, to one's utter astonishment to-day are letting pass without word of audible comment (that has had power, at least, to come across the breadth of the Atlantic) statements that would seem as if they should rouse to indignation impossible to be repressed every soul divinely taught as to what Scripture is? There is only one way besides in which this silence is comprehensible to me. Perhaps by some strange obliquity of mind words have lost for me their proper meaning, and I have failed to understand what I have had before me. If it be so, still let me state this figment of my imagination, and meet it as if it were a reality. How good it would be to get a strong knock-down reply from some one somewhere, to dispel for ever this delusion of mine, and assure me that I was dreaming! Why does not some one in pity to me, who, I think, have no evil intent, but a real longing over souls who seem drifting away from truth whither they know not, prick this bubble for me, and give relief to more than myself from as uncomfortable a nightmare of the imagination (if it be that) as for long has visited them?

The delusion which I am combating (whether mine or that of others) begins with fair speeches about Scripture (always written characteristically with a small "s") as being authoritative and the written word of God. It blurs this, however, immediately by saying, it is more the record of it than the thing itself. I suppose every higher critic of the decent kind would say as much. It warns us, for all that (as I have never known the decent critic do), enforcing this too by personal example, that one can study much, and that a Bible student is not much all; which means, of course, that the study of the Bible does not count for much. In fact, we are told, the method of learning truth by Scripture was not God's original plan at all:if the Church of God had remained in its first estate, we would not have wanted the Scriptures. The mind of God which is in the Scriptures would have been livingly expressed in the Church without them ; and that was the divine idea! A very important thought, as some one remarks, if true; and very important, of course, to know if it be true:for by it the whole Old Testament is practically discounted and set aside for us.

But how, then, without the Word, was the Church to become the "living expression" of the mind of God? Here a leaf is taken from an old book which is not Scripture, but which many will recognize. The truth is in the Church. The apostles had it and communicated it; Paul to Timothy; Timothy to faithful men, who were to teach others. Here are four generations:Paul; Timothy; faithful men; others:that is the way the truth was to be transmitted. It is the way which the church of Rome hold to-day; and the technical name for it is "Tradition."
But it failed! Yes; somehow it failed. Rome may be excusable here in believing that God's plan could not fail; but it could and did. Have you not observed that it is in the second epistle to Timothy, not the first, that Paul speaks of the Scriptures in that well known eulogy? That was when failure had fully set in; and then it was that the Scriptures came to be so important!

But at any rate, one would say, the method of teaching by Scripture is that by which we come into the truth today; and all that one can say of it in this respect today is fully justified! Ah, but we must not seize that comfort yet, or all that has been said just now must go for little. No, the old method has not been given up like that. The Church is still the method as before; only supplemented by Scripture because of the failure that has come in. It is a kind of humiliation to have to send the Bible to the heathen, and it is no good sending Bibles, if there are not preachers. People do not learn exactly from Scripture, but from the Spirit of truth; and if you say, "Granted that it is always by the Spirit of truth that any true work is done in the soul at all, but do you say that God will not use the Bible to a man's soul without a preacher?" well, it is difficult to put, it that way, because God is sovereign; in a day of decay and ruin, He may speak through an ass's mouth; but how shall they hear without a preacher? The divine way, undoubtedly, is preaching.

All as glibly said, as unquestioningly taken, even to the gross irreverence of putting the words of God alongside of the miracle of a speaking ass! Is it then a mistake of the apostle that they are "able to make wise unto salvation?" Well, that is asked and answered, if- any one is wise enough to interpret the answer:that "the man of God wants to be furnished with the Scriptures because of their disciplinary value"!-the relevancy of which I confess I do not understand; nor do I think that the apostle's words need any explanation. Why should we not inscribe them in every Bible sent to the heathen as an all-sufficient justification?

But how then with regard to the truth as ministered to the believer? Well, in general, in the early days, we are told that they had to take things on trust. The Old Testament did not give the truth of Christianity; and the New Testament was not written till the Church's decline, of course; otherwise, the whole system taught here would be subverted. The safeguard people had is said to be (what again is somewhat difficult to understand) that "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; " words which are. certainly found in Scripture, though scarcely in that connection. However, now that failure is come in, and Scripture as the resource in view of it, it is of the utmost importance to prove all things. Here the Bereans are commended to us as a model for imitation; somewhat in forgetfulness that this example comes to us from before the failure of the Church, and when it is supposed that another method was in order; yet it seems that they had Scriptures in their hands which they searched to some purpose. Only it is assured us that what they heard they first received; and only searched the Scriptures to get confirmation! A severe critic might say, perhaps, to see what mistakes they might have made in receiving it! Our day is an evil day; and God has given us the Scripture that we may have a standard of truth. Scripture is the limit; and though you don't exactly learn from Scripture (and indeed it is legality to want chapter and verse for doctrine) yet the more familiar people are with it the better:because a man's mind is thus continually pulled up in its tendency to go beyond the limit!

Thus for the outside world Scripture is not to be reckoned on for the conversion of souls. God may use it for that, because He is sovereign, and might be pleased to use the speech of an ass; while for the flock of Christ it is as it were a tether, to prevent their natural tendency to stray! You are right to search it for confirmation of what you hear; only you are to receive this first, and search afterwards. Even then remembering that it is legal to want chapter and verse for doctrines, and that it is possible to study the authority too much!

It would be perfectly natural to say that must be a caricature of anybody's teaching. My comfort is that, at least, those who think so cannot have received it themselves. If they can find no one who has, or who knows of its existence, that would only show to me how few take in what they read; perhaps even while they applaud it. However, let us make it an occasion for examining what is the use and value of the written Word.

Only think of it as that!-the written word of God! a word prepared for us as the outcome of past ages which have contributed, age after age, their quota to the full result; the whole, in every line and word of it, "God-breathed,"-the quickening breath of the Spirit in it!-from the heart of God to the heart of man! The more we look into it, the more in faith we credit it with a divine message and meaning, the more it responds and opens,-the more it draws and wins us to itself. Had I my life to live over again, I would study it more, not less, drink it in, live in it, have it my meditation all the day long. Where else shall I find the Voice of Him who seeks me for Himself? Can any one tell me where? Fancy one telling me that the use of Scripture is in its being a "limit" to my poor human thoughts; when it is that which, as far as may be, leads me out into the limitless,-into the "deep things of God"!Here are the things that the Spirit searches-the Spirit, wonderful to say, in me!-and which, having set before me the infinite, leads me into the measureless delight of exploring my inheritance! How many people, handing down to me with flawless accuracy, the traditional truth, could replace for me the scriptures of prophets and apostles which God has put into my hands, with their tale which they are never weary of telling,- which I can read and re-read, carry into my room, set down before me, pray over and look again,- listen to in the quiet of His Presence who is in them and with them, till the music of their chime begins in my soul, soothing, quickening, harmonizing, subduing all my nature to them! If I owe my possession of them to the failure of the Church, then blessed is that failure which, under God, has secured me so priceless a result. I speak soberly and deliberately while I say, that not the presence of the whole of the apostles with the Church to-day could replace for us the loss of Scripture. Could they all together give us one truth more than God has seen good to give us in it? Did they communicate, in fact, one truth besides, which we have lost? More than that, is it certain that they even knew all that was in their own communications? still more, can we believe that they knew all that all other inspired writers had communicated from the beginning? Have we one shred of truth, or of interpretation of Scripture even, which has come down to us by this so much lauded tradition, that any one can show us, much less show us value in to-day? What can we glean from apostolic " fathers "? Has not God been pleased to make a clean, broad mark of absolute limitation between Scripture and all else that went before or followed it, so that it should shine out to us in its own peerless character to-day? What has God given us through all the centuries since, which is more than a development from it,-a bit of the treasure from this exhaustless treasure-house ?

I do not expect, then, with whatever amount of prayer or meditation, to obtain from my poor thoughts, which have indeed to be kept in order so, one thing which directly or indirectly has not come to me from the Word. Nor can I think of anything higher for myself or any other, than to be an expositor of this glorious Word. Tell me, then how I can study it too much? You need not tell me that I can pray too little:Alas, I know that well.
I suppose, we have nothing to assure us how early in Christian times the Gospel of Matthew may have been written. It is pre-eminently, as all are aware, the Jewish Gospel; as the church in Jerusalem was for some time a Jewish remnant, and little more. Luke shows us at the end of his Gospel what special pains the Risen Saviour took to ground His disciples from the beginning in the Old Testament, and its relation to the New. Here their feet always stood firm; and the example of the Bereans a good while afterwards makes plain to what good use it could be put by those who had not had the advantage of such instruction. When they had thus assured conviction as to the trustworthiness of those through whom they had received the knowledge of the Saviour, and the pledge and witness of the Holy Spirit, there was of course abundant warrant for their reception through a channel so certified, of those additional communications which God was pleased to give. But notice here that the very slowness with which we know such communications came, gave the fullest opportunity to incorporate them one by one with all that they had known before; the scattering of the truth abroad being itself gradual, so as to carry better together the whole body of disciples. The more we reflect upon all this, the more we shall realize how fully from the beginning of Christianity the Lord grounded His people upon the written Word; and that this was no after-plan when the Church had fallen. Such thoughts may catch those who do not study Scripture too much; and alas, there are plenty of them. They are the mere vagaries of a dreaming mind, to which the word of God is not even a "limit."

We have no need to undervalue the preacher, because of the efficacy of the Word. I would emphasize it more, indeed, than all this system does. Instead of saying for instance, that God does not use us instrumentally as effecting anything, Scripture assures us that men can "so speak" that others shall believe (Acts 14:i). It makes the character of the speaking effective in the production of the result. But there is another reason for "how shall they hear without a preacher? " without dishonoring Scripture to furnish one; and that is serious and sad enough. It is that men, alas, have to be pursued by the grace that seeks them and the living voice of the preacher is the most effectual mean sin this way. Wisdom has to cry aloud, and utter her voice in the corners of the streets. "Go out into the highways and the hedges, and compel them to come in!"Scripture had always been, while necessarily safeguarded by the barrier-wall thrown around Israel, yet placed in the very center of the chief civilizations of the old world, and on the highways of commerce. Had men desired the treasures of it, they were readily accessible, and there was no prohibition of their acquirement; but they manifested no desire. And in the midst of Christendom today, with the completed Word in our hands, what would we do without that publication of it in various ways, by which it is forced upon the notice of the unwilling-hearted? That does not in the least affect the power existing in the Scriptures to make men wise unto salvation which they assuredly have-a power which is being proved continually.

We have spoken, perhaps, enough of the Bereans, and their readiness to receive the word preached to them. No doubt that there is in the truth always an inherent acceptability to an earnest mind. But the belief of it is distinctly put here after that searching of the Scriptures which they are praised for, not before it. Think of the consequences of a principle such as is advocated, of receiving first, before proving! when the proving will surely follow with a laggard and indifferent step; and during the delay how many falsehoods may spring out of one error received, which may not be destroyed, even when they have lost their attachment to the root from which they sprang! How would such a principle account for the rapid and wide spread of a movement like that which we are now contemplating, in which the captivating brilliancy of many new ideas may with the ready aid of the emotions sweep the traveler off his feet too far away for any present recovery. A voyage of exploration always has its charm; and to be told that you need not know whither you are going, but may give yourself up to the guidance of one who seems so impressively confident of his ability to carry you safely, is a luxury in itself. Certainly you make progress:everything moves. By and by you can take your bearings and see where you have arrived. You can return by the way you have come, if in the end you are not satisfied. But have you gaged then the strength of the stream that is bearing you on it? F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

In this matter-of-fact, rational period, it is more especially needful for those professing to be separated unto the Lord Jesus to bear in mind the fleetingness of time, and the seriousness of eternity. Temporal things loom large. Competition for a livelihood is often severe ; friends prove changeable and those we expect godly prove otherwise. False creeds abound, sin is glossed over, and the love of many waxes cold. And more especially does there seem a tendency to luxury. By that is not meant necessarily extra high living, but a settling down, satisfied with the comforts of the world that tend to set the affections on things below and not to follow the Lord Jesus in "that He pleased not Himself." This trying to please oneself and not regarding the feelings and thoughts of others is shown by that roughness, bluntness, and selfishness which do not glorify our God, and which are certainly not the mind of Christ. The root of this is in minding earthly things. When death draws near, and eternity comes in view, how paltry are the things of time; yet there is only a thread between us and eternity. Our life is but a vapor that vanishes quickly away. Over every house, over every meeting-room, and above all, over our heart should be constantly inscribed-eternity ! eternity!

This looking at the things unseen should effect an alteration in our whole business as well as private life. Our work or labor should be performed with eternity written over it. While others are laboring with this world as their goal, it is ours to prove our heavenly citizenship by separation from the world's ways and means, even though it bring, as it will, the world's laughter and money loss.

We should seriously examine ourselves, and find out if we are seeking our own ends in life, and resolutely determine by the grace of God that for us to live shall be Christ.

But this spirit of freedom from the world and consciousness of eternity can only be obtained by personal communion with our blessed Saviour. Only as we are often in His presence, only as we meditate on His dying love, only as we are conscious of His being with us moment by moment, shall we look at the things not seen, which are eternal.

How difficult sometimes it seems to realize what it means, and yet how near it is continually being shown to be. This year with its terrible record of sudden catastrophes and loss of life-the sudden precipitation into eternity of hundreds of people-ought . to act as an incentive for all believers to live more and more as seeing Him who is invisible.

We must show to the world by our conduct, that our life that is hid with Christ in God is just as real -nay, far more so – as the life that is earthly :by that I mean that with us eternal things are real
issues and exert a real influence over our life, just as carnal things that can be seen are real to the unbeliever.

What a testimony to the power of a personal God is a holy life ! Education, culture, refinement, and training all fail completely to make a man holy. It requires nothing less than the power of God to make a saint. What a proof to a dying, unbelieving and scoffing world of His reality.

What a testimony to the blood of the Lord Jesus ! For nothing less than a realization of all sin forgiven and an entrance into the heavenlies effected, could give such peace and joy here, and hope for the future.

And what a witness to the keeping power of the Spirit of God, who alone amidst the deceitfulness of sin could keep the believer looking unto Jesus and show him the mind of His Lord; who in the darkest hour can bring a ray of light, can smooth the rough paths, and enable the believer to say, "Thy will be done," after the fiercest trial.

It is our privilege then to be living epistles, known and read of all men, and to follow in the steps of Him whose meat and drink was to do His Father's will.

It is our duty to point sinners to the Lamb of God who alone taketh away sin, and who only can enable the soul to escape the fearful eternal doom which will be pronounced after the shadows of time have given way to the realities of eternity. S. J. P.

He was, when He arose, as when He died. The light of the rainbow of promise, which shone out from His cross, proclaiming no more judgment storm for His sheltered ones, glowed still with the light of God's everlasting love, and, although to those of us (Peter was of us, John was of us), who gazed, new tints of resurrection glory mingled and blended with the divine light of the past, He was still our Jesus, our Lord. At times these tints so shone before us, that as we gazed, we knew Him not; and yet they caused our hearts to burn within us, until, breaking through the cerements of glory which wrapped Him round, a turn of the Kaleidoscope of Love revealed Him who had walked and talked and labored and loved with us, in the days gone by, and we worshiped. And it is sweet to our hearts to think of those days, and to talk together of how He was made known unto us.

Those two, who walked the road to Emmaus, must have wondered indeed at the Wondrous Expositor of God's word, who joined Himself to them, but it was in the familiar act of breaking bread that He was made known. How this speaks to us. How it says, This is He who once said, "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst." This was no doctrine with Him.

The longing of His heart brought Him there. He could not stay away. Before the grave, He had raised the dead, He had cleansed the lepers, He had healed the sick, but that disciple whom Jesus loved delights to proclaim Him, God, sitting at the table of Lazarus, or gathering His disciples within the house and at the table. Never more God than then! And yet how it melts the heart, to remember that this God, the God "over His own house," was once a stranger with nowhere to lay His head. Sin, strife, selfishness,-these are they that rend the home in pieces. Love, light, goodness,-these are the sweet bonds that unite all that know Him, and their source is in Himself. Do we wonder, then, that He was made known unto them in the breaking of the bread?

Turn to the twenty-first chapter of John and read the story written there. Notice the words closely. When the miraculous drought of fishes startles the disciples, John says to Peter, "It is the Lord," and Peter hurries to shore, but as soon as Jesus pronounces the words, "Come and dine," he who had seen, whose eyes had gazed upon, whose hands had handled of the Word of Life, breaks out into those sweet words, as if this were the climax, outshining all miracle:"And none of the disciples dust ask Him, Who art Thou ? knowing that it was the Lord." O blessed Early Riser and Daily Toiler and Late Retirer, Thine own resurrection hands have made the fire and spread the feast, and as we ponder it, we remember, too, that on the night of Thy deep sorrow Thou didst break the bread and hand it to us as most powerful reminder of Thee; and portrayed in it and symbolized by it and shining through it, Thy precious body and blood whisper to us of the time, when in the midst of the elders, ever in the midst, Jesus, our God of home, (the Breaker of bread), shall gather round Himself, the Church of God, the Lamb's wife. Thus the act by which He made Himself known to the two at Emmaus, and by which we remember Him, is of such character as if, in the longing of His heart, He would say to us, "The broken body and the blood herein symbolized were all to provide you a home whither I go to meet you." Amen! F. C. G.

QUES. 15.-Please explain Rom. 8:11, "He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." Is this quickening present or future, as in 1 Cor. 15:54?

ANS.-Without doubt the quickening refers to the future. In no sense is the body spoken of as now quickened. If it were, there would be no need of the resurrection. ''The body is dead because of sin," it is the spirit which is alone life. But the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the pledge of the resurrection or quickening of the mortal body. The Spirit is spoken of as ''The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead," and it is by, or rather on account of, the presence of the Spirit now dwelling in the believer that his mortal body will be quickened. The body of the saint, in itself, differs in nothing from that of the sinner, save that it has been purchased, and in the power of the Spirit the believer can now present it a living sacrifice to God, yielding his members as instruments of righteousness. But we groan being burdened, " waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body." Therefore to claim resurrection life for the body now would be to declare that the resurrection is past, and if this were the case, the believer could not die. Without doubt the application of this doctrine to the subject of bodily healing has misled many, and is a grave error. Paul had the life of Jesus manifest in his mortal flesh (2 Cor. 4:10, 11), but that is the exact reverse of resurrection life for the body; it was the excellency of a power not inherent in him, and working out through what was subject to death and weakness and decay. "Alway delivered unto death" does not speak of the throb of resurrection life, but it does give an opportunity for the exhibition of the power of Christ to rest upon the feeblest instrument.

QUES. 16.-Does Phil. 3:21 refer exclusively to the change of the living at Christ's coming, or to the resurrection of the dead in Christ also? Is identification involved, or do the saints have new bodies apart from identity? (1 Cor. 15:36-38).

ANS.-We might say that death is not contemplated for the Christian, so that a special revelation was given to comfort as to those who had fallen asleep, to show that they would in no wise be losers as compared with the living (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Therefore while the form of the verse speaks only of those whose bodies of humiliation will be changed, its spirit would assure us that the sleeping saints will be included. The corruptible, the dead, will put on incorruption, and the mortal, the living, will put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:50-53). As to the identity, there can be no question, for our Lord, the first-fruits, has established that. ''To every seed his own body "shows the identity, while "God giveth it a body as it has pleased Him " shows how far the resurrection body will transcend this body of humiliation.

QUES. 17.-Why is the manna called the Mighty's meat?

ANS.-"Bread of the Mighty" is the proper rendering of Ps. 78:25, and seems to suggest the omnipotence of the One who was providing for Israel and the sustaining character of the food supplied to them in the wilderness. Of course, it is all typical of Him who is the true bread of God, the bread which gives life, Christ the sustainer of His people all through their pilgrimage.

QUES. 13.-"And at that time thy people shall be delivered every one of them that is found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan. 12:1, 2). Does not the latter sentence refer to Israel's restoration, and not to the resurrection of the body? In Rom. 11:Israel's restoration is called ''life from the dead"; so also in Ezek. 37:May it not be said, ''Many of them that sleep, etc.," because some of Israel will be already awake?

ANS.-It seems evident that it is not a literal but a national resurrection that is here spoken of. The passages referred to by our correspondent would confirm this. We would rather think the "many" referred to the mass of the nation, almost equivalent to all, the nation as a whole, and not to the remnant, which would seem to be among those who awake.

And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle, and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle "(Gen. 13:7). Whosoever engages in strife shows that he is on low ground, spiritually. The subject of the strife here is the cattle possessed by these men. It was the cattle that made Lot decide for the plains of Sodom, well watered and fertile. Temporal interests are right and proper. ' "If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel" (or unbeliever). A man of the world has natural affection, and will provide for his own, just as sinners love those that love them. It would indeed be a reproach if a Christian man showed less love and care for those near to him than a worldling did.

One then should labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that hath need. But temporal interests must be watched lest they draw the hearts from the things of Christ. How often have God's people been led into strife through temporal affairs, or, worse yet, been lured toward Sodom. We are living in an age of speculation. Men wish to make a competence rapidly and easily, and are drawn into the whirl, excitement, and worse, of the world's ways. Like Lot, they are drawn into Sodom. Ah! too often have peace of conscience and joy of heart been bartered for this world's cattle. "But they that will be (are determined to be) rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts" (i Tim. 6:9, 10).

God blesses a man's labor, and may give even riches. The thing to guard against is that absorption, which draws the soul away from Christ and His interests:A lean soul is a bad companion at any
price.

"Thy servants have cattle " (Num. 32:4). The tribes of Reuben and Gad urged this as a reason for remaining on the east side of Jordan. They came short, practically, of their high calling. Pharaoh had tried to induce Moses to leave the cattle in Egypt, which would answer to a man leaving his business in the world, not subject to the word of God. Pharaoh did not succeed, but selfish interest did keep these tribes from their rightful place.

Are we, any of God's saints, held from going in to possess our full portion in Christ? What interest can dispute Christ's place in our hearts?

The east side of Jordan may not be Sodom, spiritual wickedness, but it is not the heavenly place which God has appointed for our chief enjoyment. We need not fear that He will fail to give us all needed earthly good, but we do need to fear lest our absorption with these things hinder us from the path of faith, and enjoyment of heavenly things.

We are not to be ascetic, nor foolish, but we are to be whole-hearted for our blessed Lord.

The woman of Samaria told the truth when she said Jacob and his cattle drank from the same well. Every earthly spring is like that; we drink it in common with the world; it cannot quench the soul's cravings. " Whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again."

The tribe of Manasseh, as has been shown, (See the Numerical Bible) had a portion on both sides of the River. Forgetting the things that are behind, and pressing on to what is before, we really get the good of heavenly things and all of earth that we need. The Lord teach us to be like Manasseh. May Christ, our blessed Lord, be first in our hearts and thoughts, and He will see to the cattle also. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

It is written when our Lord ascended up on high He gave gifts unto men, " He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-13), expressing thus in those love gifts to His people, His love and care as the Good and Great Shepherd of His sheep. We will dwell for a space upon one of those gifts especially, that of the pastor, and his work. These love gifts were intended by Him to be with us till the end (Eph. 4:13).

When this dispensation runs its course, and the Church, the body of Christ, is completed, and the saints caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, service such as those gifts render now will be required no more. Yet as we look around us the great need rises up before the mind, and not one of those should we undervalue. As we move among the careless masses of the day, the cry goes up from many hearts for the Lord to raise up more evangelists, or if they are among us for the Lord to lay upon their hearts as a heavy burden their work, and send them forth among men to awaken the careless, set free the anxious, and win precious souls for the Lord Jesus. This truly is blessed work to be engaged in, work that is well pleasing to the Lord of life and glory.

But again, as we move among the various classes of the redeemed of the Lord, the desire also goes up to the throne of grace to see developed among His people the pastoral gift. Many of the people of God are destroyed for lack of knowledge and care. The gift of pastor is mainly for the people of God, though he may possibly also possess that of preacher and teacher. His work therefore as a necessity is more a hidden work and one that the public are less cognizant of, and therefore recognized mainly by the people of God among whom he labors. This in itself requires faith of another order from that of an evangelist; the fruit also is of another kind, and, as in all work, the heart needs patience in it and to wait upon the great Head of the Church till that day to see the fruit. We know the righteous Lord, who loveth righteousness, will pass nothing by done in His name. The work of each is before Him and as under His eye each is to serve, in that part of the field where the work of each lies. To one He entrusts the work of saving, to another cultivating and tilling and watering at times, and to others that of reaping, etc. Yet this matters not with the laborers, it is all the Master's planning. A careful reading of Rom. 12:; i Cor. 12:and Eph. 4:clears up these things for all who follow the word of truth.

The pastor now we will seek to follow. We believe the Lord, ever true in His care for His own, does not fail here. He gives the gifts, yet there seems everywhere the need and the lack of pastors. What is the reason, we might well ask, beloved. May it lead us to more serious inquiry. Is it not true that the gifts are still here? Yet lack of exercise of heart, and care for His interests keeps many from exercising this gift, and doing the work, and thus meet the crying need of the day. Let none think that it is only those who are wholly given up to the service of the Lord that can be termed pastors.

And may there not be a reason among the people of God themselves, in their lack of appreciation of such a blessed work? We believe such a work ought to be followed with the prayers and sympathies and also fellowship of God's people as much as that of the evangelist who occupies perhaps a more prominent place, especially before the public. We repeat, beloved, the crying need among the people of God, is the pastoral work, and that of teaching. The spirit of the day, if we are not kept in grace, lays hold upon the people of God and it is then very easy to depart from the spirit of Philadelphia to that of Laodicea "rich and increased in goods with need of nothing."

The Lord give His people exercise everywhere as to the great need of pastors and pastoral work, and cause the cry to rise from many hearts, Are we exercising the true pastoral care we ought ? Such passages as Jer. 3:15; 23:1-4; Ezek. 34:1-23, are profitable to study in this connection.

Now we will turn and trace out that pastoral care as seen in the model pastor of the apostolic age- Paul. He had the care of all the churches lying as a heavy burden upon his heart. In this connection it could be truly said, he was "a man after God's own heart."

An apostle he was, a preacher, and teacher also, yet he was nothing behind in his pastoral care and labor, as his labor in the Acts and Epistles fully demonstrates. We believe his first great missionary journey from Antioch (Acts 13:14, 26) was as an evangelist, yet after the dispute was settled at Jerusalem (chap. 15:) which tended to hinder this blessed work of grace, see the pastoral care of the apostle, " Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do." This desire was prompted by a heart that loved the people of God and because they were such-loved to see them, and know of their welfare ; and this love of Christ, the Head of the Church, which filled the apostle's heart, found its delight in moving among them and serving them for Christ's sake.

Next, we will turn to his written ministry under the guiding of the Holy Spirit, and see how at every stage of the journey in his service as teacher, the pastoral heart is manifest, and his care for the true spiritual welfare of what was to the Lord as dear as the apple of His eye, His redeemed and beloved people.

The first in order is, "To all that be at Rome, beloved of God, called saints" (Gk.). "Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers." The apostle had never as yet visited the capital of the great Roman Empire, had never been privileged to sit with the saints in that city around the Lord's table, never privileged to bow in prayer nor minister the precious things of Christ, nor to sound out the gospel of glory within their hearing. Individuals among them he had seen in other places, and knew them. Yet he thought of them all, he loved them, they were dear to him, because dear to Christ, whom Paul knew so well, loved, and served with true devotion. From this first chapter also we learn he bore them upon his heart continually in prayer (ver. 9). Is not this where all true pastoral care begins,-to pray for the saints? Let us all lay this part of the pastoral exercise and service more to heart, to pray for the people of God.

Again he adds, "I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye maybe established" (ver. ii). This is a true pastoral desire; he longed to see their faces, to minister to them of the rich bounty bestowed upon him by the great Head of the Church, and to feed them with knowledge and understanding, a true pastoral desire (Jer. 3:15).

In this epistle (chap. 15:14) we learn the true condition of the saints at Rome. There was the need of the various lines of teaching as developed in the epistle in chaps. i-11:and the exhortations and care enjoined in chaps. xii-16:Yet he could add, " I myself also am persuaded of you my brethren, that ye are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another." Yet the apostle longed to see them, and also preach the gospel, and so have fruit to show there as among other Gentiles also.

The next in order are his epistles to the Corinthians. In this place (in sad contrast to those at Rome), serious evils had developed among them unchecked and unjudged, and the whole epistle expresses the pastoral care for that assembly, formed through the apostle's labors. To visit them under those circumstances would be no joy nor pleasure, yet we see his care for them. He wrote this letter calculated to set them right before God, and he adds here, "But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will." "What will ye? shall I come to you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness" (chap. 4:19-21). How changed his language! how different! Yet from the same pen and prompted by the same pastoral heart, with a love many waters could not quench.

Why this change? were they not the people of God as well as those to whom he wrote in the former epistle ? Surely they were, as the second verse informs us, yet their condition, their walk, and practice were far different; hence they needed to be dealt with in a different way, he needed to pen an epistle with different words, a different line of ministry. Yet it was love and the care the apostle had for the people of God which led him to write both. Note the epistle well; the various evils which were manifest there and yet unjudged, all those things were too serious for the apostle to pass over lightly; he points them all out most carefully, and while he said he would come to them he desired one thing before he came, repentance and self-judgment.

Titus was sent to relieve the apostle's mind (2 Cor. 8:16, 17; 12:18), for day and night he labored in prayer for their deliverance. Titus, no doubt, was kept longer than the apostle had anticipated. He had great suspense at Troas insomuch that he could not pursue his gospel work, because there he met not Titus, and so he leaves this open gospel door behind him, and sails across the water to meet Titus in Macedonia (2 Cor. 2:12, 13; the map is a help here, to follow the journey of the apostle as well as that of Titus). In Macedonia he finds Titus, and good tidings are communicated concerning the saints at Corinth, and Paul is relieved and comforted. The model pastor's spirit is refreshed and strengthened.

If Paul had been compelled to go to Corinth with those evils still unjudged, he would have had to use the rod. This would have been a great grief for him. But now they having cleared themselves, he would go in love and minister the precious things of Christ so as to lead them on in the ways of the Lord. Two prominent lessons we glean from these two epistles to the Corinthians. In the first epistle, faithfulness and righteousness in dealing with the evils mentioned, love prompting him to act. These evils were not simply hearsay, they were well known. The apostle had full proof and they were not yet judged by them. For all this, God, in righteousness, desired brokenness, and self-judgment, and so did Paul.

Next, in the second epistle, when the apostle found there was the brokenness the Lord desired, how lovely to see the grace that reigns so supremely in his heart. Now it can flow out. This truly was grace reigning through righteousness, a principle ever true in the ways of God. The Lord keep us and hold us ever as a testimony as this model pastor was.

We would further note, in the apostle's care, he wrote the first epistle condemning the evils permitted. Next he desired Apollos to go there with other brethren, perhaps Titus, and another brother (i Cor. 16:10, 12; 2 Cor. 12:18). But, in this desire for them to go, it would be simply as servants to help to deliver the Corinthians from the evils, and in no wise to have fellowship with them while these evils were there, and unjudged. To go among evils, no matter how serious, to deliver the Lord's dear people, while refusing fellowship, might in many cases be right. This is left for the individual servant to decide. Apollos felt it a difficult work, and would not go; Titus felt free, and was helpful, and found the first epistle had been used of God. Hence, none, neither Paul, Apollos, Titus, nor any other brethren, were required to have fellowship with the Corinthians while these evils were there. Nor yet did the apostle desire Apollos to do so, but as a servant to minister at this critical time. This must always be distinguished. Service is one thing:fellowship is quite another. This is the lesson we would learn from the apostle's desire for others to go there; a lesson which ought to be plain to all. A. E. B.

(To be continued.)

(Continued from page 252.)

God is merciful and full of pity; He loves His creatures, however fallen; and He longs to save men from the corruption and darkness which engulf them. Therefore the world is not condemned merely because it is lost, but because it is not willing to be saved-honestly! The condemnation is not that the world is in gross darkness, but that it deliberately chooses to remain in this darkness, after Light is mercifully sent to it. Hear the sad words of the Saviour Himself:

" For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved. He that believeth in Him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation:that Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness, rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God " (John 3:17-21).

Why was it that the Lord of Glory, coming into the world which His hands had made, in love and grace and tender pity, as a Man among men, was crucified by His creatures, under the charge of being a criminal, unfit to live among them? It was because '' men loved darkness, rather than light, because their deeds were evil"! His life among us was itself an exposure of the lives of all others, and in His words He told the truth about us, exposing our hearts as God sees them. This was His only crime; for this He was crucified! True, He told the truth in love and sweet compassion, holding up the mirror to us in order that we might realize our need and accept salvation at His hands. For while the mere presence of such an One in the world necessarily manifested all things here, yet He testified that He had come not to condemn, but to save. And thus not cold and merciless "truth" alone, exposing us to hopeless condemnation, but "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ " (John 1:17)! But yet the truth, in the purest grace, we will not have, and even man's indifferent laws and standard of justice were outraged by us in order that He Who is "the truth" might be got rid of!

Since the murder of Jesus of Nazareth, the world is under the condemnation of having killed the only Man in the world's history Who was fit to live! is guilty of having visited the criminal's doom upon the only One born of woman Who was not, by nature and by practice, a criminal! This is the cruel answer of the human heart to Him Who simply ventured to tell the necessary truth to those He loved, and came to save! And do not say that it is not the answer of your heart, dear reader, simply because you did not have the opportunity to actually imbrue your hands in His blood! Satan could have stirred up your sinful heart just as easily as he did the hearts of the murderers of Jesus. The capacity of one heart is the capacity of all, for '' As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man " (Prov. 27:19); while this capacity of each human heart for evil God alone can estimate:"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:who can know it? I the Lord search the heart" (Jer. 17:9, 10).

But there is a present test of this matter, my reader? What is your present attitude toward the Light? Have you accepted Jesus' testimony that you are a lost sinner, only fit for judgment in your natural state, and have you trusted your soul to Him, that you might be fitted for eternal happiness? Or do you with all your respectability, love darkness rather than light, because your deeds, too, are evil?

For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, -" God . . . manifest in the flesh " (i Tim. 3:16), – is this Light that has come into the world, to save all who will come to it, and thus necessarily condemning all who refuse it! The Word of God, one of the Persons of the Godhead (through Whom, as become Man, all the Fulness of the Godhead has shown out in a perfect Humanity), He has fully revealed amidst the darkness of earth what God is,-all that man is being thus also delineated, by vivid contrast. This is the Light! "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; "and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" "in Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men " (John 1:i, 14, 4).

This great phenomenon of the ages,-the appearance in the world of the only perfect Man it has ever seen, the lowly and tender-hearted Jesus of Nazareth,-was nothing less than the. revelation of the Almighty Himself, the Creator Who framed the universe, in humble Manhood! "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made " (John 1:3), God's purpose
was ever fixed, as His love was set, upon man,-the creature whom He had destined to be His friend and companion! Therefore as Man, the great Lover of men Himself drew near, to woo and to redeem the objects of His Divine affections. In assuming humanity He became the manifestation of that Eternal Life that had existed in God without a beginning. For when He took part in. flesh and blood, God, Who had always lived as God, beyond our ken, now lived the life of God before our eyes, as Man.

This Life of God, shining out in the career of a Man, is the "Light of men," the "Light of the world"! And thus we have "The light of the knowledge of the glory of God [God's moral glory,- the sublime perfection of His nature and character, displayed in words and acts] in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6)! From the face of Jesus,- the face of a Man,-the Light of what God is, in blended holiness and tenderness, now shines toward all men, and into the hearts of all who open their hearts to receive the blessed, healing revelation!

How is it with you, dear reader? Has this Light shined into your heart? or are you under the condemnation of having rejected the God Who has thus revealed Himself, because you are not willing to face the truth about yourself in the presence even of the love which seeks but to heal you? If the latter be your case then, in spite of the many theories of unbelief with which you may be attempting to reassure yourself, know this from God's Word:If you will not permit the Light to unmask you now, in tender, saving grace, He Who is that Light, as your Judge, must inevitably unmask you in the day of judgment, stripping you naked in condemnation, in the presence of the whole universe, to your eternal undoing! But now, in boundless love and pity, He beseeches you to trust Him and be reconciled to Him, so as not to force Him to such an alternative. Have you closed with this offer? Or do you tempt your God?

Thus the advent of Jesus in this world of sinners was the coming of God Himself, in humble guise, to live the Life of God in humanity, illuminating the darkness. That the Almighty should assume manhood was predicted by the prophets. In foretelling that the promised Ruler in Israel was to be born in Bethlehem, Micah (5:2) declared He would be the One "Whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting." In Zechariah 12:10, Jehovah says, " They shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced." Jehovah could not be " pierced," except He assumed creaturehood. And Isaiah testifies most unequivocally:"The Lord Himself shall give you a sign:Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,"-that it to say, " God with us "; " For unto us a Child is born, unto us a. Son is given ; and the government shall be upon His shoulders; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace" (Isa. 7:14; 9:6).

None other than "the Mighty God" Himself, the " Father of Eternity," was revealing Himself in the meek and lowly Jesus. Therefore the life and death of this Man, Who was God also, is henceforth the only Standard of perfection,-the Light by which all other things are judged. My unsaved reader, do you wish to begin to learn what you are, and what God is? Then come, and honestly measure yourself by this Standard.

Measure your life of self-seeking in the Light of His life of complete self-abnegation, even to the point of His endurance on the cross of the punishment of your sins, that you might be forgiven! Measure the enmity of your mind against God in the Light of His loving devotion to His Father,- His obedience unto death, and that the death of the cross! Measure your pride and ambitions in the Light of His voluntary humiliation! your selfish struggle for riches, fame and power in the Light of His self-sacrifice Who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through His poverty, might be rich! Measure your selfish insistence upon your "rights" in this world-who have really forfeited all rights before God-in the Light of His uncomplaining abrogation of all rights as Man, Who, as God, alone possessed rights! Measure your feeble and selfish love toward even those dearest to you,- not to speak of your hatred of those you deem your enemies,-in the Light of His marvelous love for His enemies, for whom He died, and for whom He interceded on the cross, even while His murderers mocked Him! Measure your transgressions, more than the hairs of your head, in the Light of His holy deeds of love! Your corruption of heart and mind in the Light of His transparent purity!

To what extent have you lost reputation and caste through loving service among the publicans and sinners of this world? Where is your life, lived in such holy power as to completely convict men of sin and arouse their enmity to the point of outraging even human justice to get rid of you by hanging you on a gallows as a criminal? Measure yourself with this One? compare yourself with Him? You can only contrast yourself with Jesus of Nazareth, though you should happen to be the least guilty sinner that ever lived! In the glorious Light of His life and death, in suffering for others, the very best deeds of our lives become spotted and dark, with the mixed motives which attend even the best impulses of our poor selfish hearts. In this Light,-judged by this, the true Standard, by which all things must be judged, and will be, for time and eternity,-even "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." (Isa. 64:6)

Atheists, agnostics, infidels, and "higher critics" acknowledge the existence of this Light, and are forced grudgingly to concede that it is Light, at the same time that they squirm under it, and seek to turn the edge of its exposure of their moral nakedness. They all confess that Jesus stands alone in human history. But yet these wretched sinners affect to speak in a condescending and patronizing way of Him whose shoe-latchet the very best of them who has ever lived is utterly unworthy to stoop down and unloose! They seek to avoid the demonstration that the life of Jesus is the life of god in a Man, and thus the condemnation of the lives of all others, as a Standard of comparison which proves that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," so " that they are all under sin, as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one." (Rom. 3:23, 9, 10)

How we would like to put the life of Jesus to the credit of man, instead of acknowledging that it condemns the entire human race! How we seek to persuade ourselves that perhaps, after all, simply a man, like ourselves (!), has lived this unique Life of love and self-sacrifice at which all the world marvels!

But no! God Himself it is Who emptied Himself, mysteriously veiled His majesty in creaturehood, and visited His creature thus, to tell out the infinite depths of the love of His tender heart, and to do the work which would justify Him in showing mercy to the vilest sinner! God Himself it is Who, in the humanity which He had truly taken, grew up in this barren world of darkness as a tender plant, a root out of a dry ground! Who went about doing good, suffering with the suffering, and sympathizing with the sorrowful! ministering to the poor and the oppressed, temporally and spiritually! healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, making the lame walk, raising the dead, speaking peace and granting forgiveness of sins to sinful outcasts who know their need!

God Himself it is Who, in the Person of the lowly Jesus, in perfect sympathy endured in His own heart the suffering and the sorrow He relieved, even as it had been written:" Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." (Isa. 53:4) God Himself it is Who, as Man for men, upon the cross suffered the full punishment for sins, vicariously, for the very ones who mocked and murdered Him, as well as for all the fallen sons of men,-as it had also been written of Him :

" He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isa. 53:)

Yea, God Himself it is Who, as Man, rose from the dead, bringing creaturehood, in His Person, beyond death and judgment, and carrying it into the heavens whence He came! And God Himself it is Who, still as Man, shall soon come again, revealing Himself the second time to the world, though this time in judgment,-appearing to convict His gain-sayers, in the dazzling glory and irresistible power which belong to Him as God! For "Behold, the Lord cometh, with myriads of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have unrighteously committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." (Jude 14, 15)

Finally, dear reader, as one who loves your soul with a feeble reflection of the love of God, your Maker, I ask again:How is it with you ? Have you come to this Light? or have you chosen darkness? Have your eyes been opened to behold the gracious beauty of the lowly-hearted Mighty One Who is both Light and Love? What have you, individually, to say to your God, in view of His revelation of Himself to you as the Man, Christ Jesus, Who came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost? Do you despise Him, because He has proven Himself to be gracious and approachable, instead of a stern Judge? If so, you shall meet Him in this other character, which you will not despise! May God's mercy save you from such a fate!

For then, alas, you must behold the Light! And you will measure yourself by it, and realize the truth when it is too late,-when the period is forever past during which the grace and power of God could and would have remedied your hopeless condition!

Sinner, waste not one moment! Flee from the wrath to come! Fall at the feet of Jesus, the Light of the world, the Light of men! Put all your trust in Him alone! For He is "God over all, blessed forever!" (Rom. 9:5.)

Come! hasten! flee to this gracious, healing, saving Light! Let His voice persuade you to salvation, Who poured all His sweetness out before us in this dark scene as the Man, Jesus, in order to interpret Himself to His creatures, and Whose gracious words still go out to you from His throne in heaven:'' Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest! Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me (for I am meek and lowly in heart), and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matt. 11:28, 29) F.A.

" The Lord reigneth, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith He hath girded Himself:the world also is established that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old:Thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure:holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord forever" (Ps. 93:).

'This is a Millennial Psalm, describing the time I when man's wisdom and efforts to govern the world will have headed up in anarchy, and God will then have in His own power set all in order and
established government upon a righteous basis. Then, "holiness unto the Lord shall be written
upon the bells of the horses " (Zech. 14:20).

Holiness is that which responds to divine order in government. Man is holy only in the measure in
which he, in heart, respects God's order. This must begin in the man himself. He who does not govern himself in the fear of God, will have no proper sense of government anywhere. When Adam received Satan's lie, he became a rebel against God's government, bringing ruin and confusion upon himself and the world about him. Peace was taken from the earth, only to be re-established through the triumph and reign of the Second Man. In Him we have the divine model of a self-governed Man, before whom every other man stands condemned and guilty.

When grace has wrought in salvation, the first responsibility of every one thus saved is self-government in the fear of God. Not apart from God, which would be merely satanic pride and independency. This was the promise of the enemy at the first, that man should be "as God"; and this was the very condemnation into which Satan fell, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty " (Ezek. 28:13-17). All who have listened to his lie have become like him, and to them our Lord's words apply, "Ye are of your father the devil." Self-culture and self-government apart from the fear of God, then, is nothing but this same spirit of Satan. It is antagonism to Christ, and the spirit of rebellion against the government of God which He has put in the hands of His blessed Son (John 5:22, 23).

Next to self-government in the fear of God comes the responsibility for household government. "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment" (Gen. 18:19). An ungoverned man will have an ungoverned household. Even the exercise of his authority will be of that despotic character which produces in the end rebellion and anarchy. God's government in the household will be in the power of divine love which holds both the reins of order and the rod of correction.

Passing on further, there is the government of the world, which is the same divine order applied in a larger sphere. In spite of the ruin that has come in, and even the failure of the ruler into whose hands the reins of government have been put, there is a most merciful provision for order and safety in the world through governments. Evil is restrained, and well-doers are protected. "For rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same:for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain:for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" (Rom. 13:1-7). This scripture is a witness for God's care of us while living in a scene hostile to Himself and those who are His.

This brings us to another form of government, that of the assembly of God. If He has ordained political government for the protection of His own in the world, has He been less careful to protect the honor of His Son in the assembly of the saints?

There can be no government without headship:"I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God " (i Cor. 11:3). Thus all government is in the hands of the supreme ruler of the universe. Therefore in whatever sphere it be, whether individual, the family, the world or the Church-all is under the One, whose order must be respected and obeyed everywhere. Even the Lake of Fire is but the prison house where all wilful rebels against His rule will be eternally confined with the devil and his angels.

It is the holiness of God's character which gives value to His order and government everywhere. Just as men have lost the sense of God's holiness, they have lost the key of His government. This has led to the departure of the Church from the divine order of apostolic days, and to the substitution of man's order instead of God's. God is displaced, and His word and the Holy Spirit are set aside for human expedients and human rulers. The result can be imagined, nay it is visible.

When Israel departed from God, as foretold by Joshua, they had no king, and "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Tracing this down to its last results, we find the crime of Gibeah, and the terrible confusion that accompanied its judgment (Judges 19:and 20:). The king of Israel, was to be the head of God's constituted authority and government; the absence of a king was the absence of government, because they had thrown off subjection to God. The same has been true of the Church. Indifference to God's holiness leaves the gate open for self-will, and all manner of corruption and violence. Let us beware of Satan's wiles; his enmity is against Christ, and he seeks to dishonor Him by lowering the standard of God's holiness, and thus producing indifference in the hearts of saints to God's order in the assembly. This is manifestly his special effort in these closing days.

Let us now see the provision for government in the Church, which has been given through the apostles, particularly Paul. We do not find a code of laws, with minute details of the letter, but we have that which is far better and equally definite-the word of God and the guidance of the Holy Ghost. It has been said, for instance, that there is no scripture for a prayer-meeting. But while there is no direct command, there is that which is far better, and which shows God's desire for His people.

In the first chapter of Acts, they were assembled in a ten days prayer-meeting (Acts 1:14). After the Holy Ghost had come upon them, and three thousand had been converted, we read, "They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers. In the sixth chapter, the apostles when appointing the deacons to look after the poor, declare their own work to be, "the ministry of the word and prayer." Thus the Spirit shows the mind of God as to the subject of prayer-meetings.

In the same way, we see His guidance as to the government of the assembly. He led to the appointment of the deacons for a special work. They had to be "honest men of good report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom." When an assembly was formed, He led to the appointment of elders or spiritual rulers. "And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed " (Acts 14:23). Another passage will show the nature of their work and how it was to be done. The Apostle was addressing the elders of the Assembly of Ephesus, just before his final departure from those quarters.

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers (or bishops) to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with the blood of His own. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now brethren I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (Acts 20:28-32).

Here we see who has made them elders, the Holy Ghost; their work is pointed out, to feed the Church of God. The need for it is seen in the danger of there being false teachers. The means by which they were to do their work is the word of God's grace. Following is a description of the apostle's own service as a model for all.

We have no apostles now to designate these elders, and it would be folly for uninspired men to attempt to ordain elders; but we do have the same Holy Spirit to call men into this service and to make known their gifts. In the Epistle to the Romans, we have the recognition of gifts, and among them "he that ruleth, with diligence" (Rom. 12:6-8). And again, "God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues" (i Cor. 12:28).

We have also the qualifications for an elder, which remain true for all time.

"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?) not a novice, (a new convert, or one young in experience) lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil" (i Tim. 3:2-7. See also i Tim. 5:i, 17, 19; Tit. 1:5; Heb:. 13:7, 17).

With all these and other scriptures, and their explicit statements as to the qualifications of an elder, can we think it an unimportant matter? Surely not; and yet have we not been very indifferent and careless as to the subject of rule and government in the assembly of the saints? and has not this indifference produced its legitimate fruit?

All can see the weakness which has resulted from this, and many different reasons have been given for it. May we not say that the real root of all our failure has been the lack of a proper sense of God's holiness in government ? Oh, the solemnity of the presence of God! Think of it in the meetings of the saints, in the home, at the place of business. How feeble is our apprehension of that holy presence, the Almighty God!

But does Satan whisper that this tends to legalism, and that we are not under law? But if the law was
intended to impress men with a sense of the awful majesty of God (and we cannot read the descriptions of Sinai without seeing that it was so intended) does grace do less? We are forever delivered from slavish fear that we might have grace to serve God reverently, and with godly fear. If Israel soon lost the sense of His majesty, it is a sad fact that men have done so ever since. We too have repeatedly proved ourselves to be "a crooked and perverse nation," "a stiff-necked and rebellious people," "no better than our fathers." We shall never truly realize what God's grace is, except as we realize also His holiness.

C. E. H.

( To be continued, if the Lord please.)

[The foot-notes are for any who may desire to study the subject of deliverance to see whether Scripture justices the sentiments expressed in the verses.]

1. Rom. 1:-5:11.

2. Rom. 5:12-6:11.

3. Rom. 7:7-8:; 2 Cor. 5:21.

4. Rom. 7:1-6; Gal. 2:19; 3:10-13.

5. Gal. 1:4; 6:14; 2 Pet. 1:4; 2:19, 20; John 16:33; 12:31;
1 John 2:15-17; 5:4.

6. Gal. 5:24; 2 Cor. 12:l-5; Col. 2:9-12.

7. Gal. 2:20; 4:19-31; Col. 1:27.

8. Ephesians.

9. Col. 3:1-4; 2 Cor. 4:

10. Phil. ii; Rom. 6:13.; 12:1; 2 Cor. 12:9, 10; .Phil. 4:13.

11 Col. 2:

F. A.

[It will be remembered that the writer is speaking of repentance unto life. There is a sorrow of the world that worketh death (2 Cor. 7:10). Such was the remorse of Judas, and such the partial impressions of stony ground hearers. But a godly sorrow is far different from these, and, being the work of the Spirit of God, must abide. Various phases of divine life should be discriminated, but not separated. On the other hand, we could never say that a soul had passed from death to life, until there was manifest faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. ED.]

In Exod. 26:31-35 we find the instructions given to Moses as to the veil. He is told what material to use, the manner of its workmanship, where and how to hang it. It was to divide between the holy place and the most holy, and signified that the way of approaching God was not made known. It did not mean that there was no way by which men could go to God, but that the way had not then been made manifest. Subsequently, (Lev. 16:) we find instructions are given as to how the high-priest was to come into the place within the veil. He could not come at all times, only on stated occasions. Once a year only could he enter in there, and then it must be with the blood of a sacrifice.

All this speaks unmistakably of a way to God, but of a way not then made known. On the ground of sacrifice and with the blood of it one man, the high-priest of the nation of Israel, could go in just once a year where the symbol of the presence of Jehovah was. This declared that the way for man to go to God was by sacrifice, but the sacrifice on the ground of which the high-priest went in only once a year was not the sacrifice which opened up the real way to God. The veil unrent proclaimed that the true way of approaching' God was still unrevealed. The sacrifice by which Aaron went in once a year was a type of the true and perfect sacrifice, and his entrance within a type of the entrance of the High-Priest of the heavenly sanctuary. He went in, but not through a rent veil. The veil still unrent declared that if the way in was by sacrifice, the true sacrifice-the one which really opens up the actual way to the presence of God, had not yet been provided.

But if the unrent veil signified that the true way was not yet made known, it also implied that it would be made known. Faith, then, using what was a figure for the time then present, and what had been imposed on them until the time of reformation, looked forward to the time of the revelation of the true sacrifice and the manifestation of the true way of approach to God.

Turning now to the New Testament, we find that when Christ died as a sacrifice, the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. This rending of the veil declared that the true way to God had been made known. The sacrifice of Christ is the true ground of approach to God. His death, His blood, has opened up the way to His presence. The rending of the veil of the temple, when Christ died, was the sign that the way to God which faith had been taught to look forward to had been opened up. The sacrifice which the yearly sacrifice pointed to had been made and the way to God of which the veil was a witness, while declaring it to be un-manifested, was now revealed.

Looking back now in the light of this it is not difficult to understand how the veil of the tabernacle was a type of Christ's flesh. The real veil was the holy, heavenly man Jesus. When His flesh was rent, when He died, when His blood was shed, the true way for man to go to God was made manifest, the way for man to enter the presence of God was opened up.

The epistle to the Hebrews takes this view. It looks at the veil as Christ's flesh. It considers the
sacrifice of Christ as the ground of approach to God. It tells us that the way to God has been opened up by Christ's death, that it is the blood of Jesus that gives us boldness to enter into the holy places.

We find in the epistle that Christ is spoken of as having "passed through the heavens" (chap. 4:14), as having " entered within the veil' '(chap. 6:19,20),as "set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (chap. 1:3), as "set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens" (chap. 8:i), " as a minister of the sanctuary" (chap. 8:2), as having "entered in once for all into the holy place" (chap. 9:12), as having entered "into heaven itself" (chap. 9:24), as appearing " in the presence of God" chap. 9:24), and as having made a way-a new and living way through the veil (chap. 10:20).

Now all these passages speak of Christ having gone in to God, or as being in His presence on the ground of His death. But we might ask, Was He not entitled to be in the presence of God on the ground of His own personal rights and titles? Surely, He did not die for Himself. But He undertook to open up a way for us. It was a question, not of how He could go to God, but of how we could go. Only He could answer it. But if He answers it He must die as a sacrifice. If He undertakes to make a way for us to God He must go in Himself by the way of death. No other way of going in for Him would open the way to us. For us to enter into God's presence He must first find entrance for us, and that could only be by death, by shedding His blood. Thus it is clear that the veil between us and God was the veil of His flesh. He has passed it by rending it, by dying.

Having passed it thus, having thus gone in to God for us, we know the way by which we may draw nigh to Him. Our way to God is the way He has made for us-the way of His death.

If we think of Him as gone in for us, He is there in all the reality of His humanity-a true man still, touched with all the feeling of our infirmity, and so we may be bold to come for sympathy, succor and help-the grace and mercy we need.

He is there also as our Forerunner (Heb. 6:20). He necessarily went in first, but having gone in as Forerunner, He is the guarantee that we shall reach the place He has entered for us. Thus we have a sure and steadfast hope. Whatever the storms here we have an anchor in there where He has gone.

Again, His priestly activity there will not be interrupted or superseded. He ever lives to intercede for us. He is incessant in His care. Will never weary of the work He is doing for us, and it will never pass from His hands. A constant, unfailing Intercessor, He is able to save us right along the way to the very end of it.

All the affairs of the place in which He is are in His hands. The sympathy, succor and help we need He gives. The day by day salvation He effects and the sacrifices of praise we offer to God are presented to Him by the One who has gone in to God for us. In every way provision is made for us, but it is all found in Him who is there for us.

The veil being now rent, the sacrifice having been made, His blood having been shed, and He being there in God's presence on that ground-and there for us, we may boldly come. We may draw nigh with a better hope than Israel had. We can boldly enter in. We can draw near with true hearts in full assurance of faith. C. C.

We shall be with Christ forever,
When this world's dark night is o'er.
Us from Him can nothing sever;
We are His forevermore.

God our everlasting dwelling,
And our portion there shall be,
While from hearts with rapture swelling,
Praise shall rise continually.

Faith we'll need not for our seeing;
Hope no more will be our stay:
All the springs of ransomed being
Shall flow out in cloudless day.

In the heavenly fields abiding,
Where the quiet waters roll,
In our Shepherd's love confiding,
Rest and peace shall fill the soul.

Age on age shall follow ages,
Still no change His love will know;
All the truths of Scripture's pages
In that light of life shall glow.

Oh, that here on earth the prospect
Which before us has been set,
Of enjoying Jesus' presence
Without hindrance or let,

Served to keep us ever near Him,
Walking softly in His ways,
Till with joy we rise to meet Him,
Dwell with Him thru' endless days!

H. A. J.

(" God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me. and I unto the world."-Gal. 6:14.)

(Numbers at end of stanzas reference footnotes)

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
There in Thyself we hide,-
In that dread hour of Satan's power
We too were crucified;
Thy loveliness. Thy beauty
Now clothes e'en such as we;
Since Thou hast bled we too were dead,
But now we live in Thee:
Yea, e'en as Thou in glory now,
Exalted, Lord, in Thee!

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
Thy precious blood our boast;
For us 'twas spilt to purge our guilt
As sinners, vile and lost;
Our sins are all forgiven,
And God Himself is just
While, justified, th' ungodly hide
In Thee, the sinner's trust:
Now by Thy blood we boast in God,-
Through Thee, the sinner's Trust! 1

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
From sin it set us free;
Our old man died-was crucified,
Still hangs upon the tree;
His crimes are expiated,
From every charge we're clear,
For he who died is justified
And in Thyself brought near,-
From sin set free, alive in Thee,
And to our God brought near! 2

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
'Tis rest from all within,
For sin in us upon Thy cross
Was judged,-Thyself made sin ;
Now there's no condemnation ;
Sin's law of death destroyed,
The soul, set free, claims life in Thee,
God's favor unalloyed,-
Now, Spirit-led, in Christ as Head,
Claims favor unalloyed! 3

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
God's law no longer dread;
Its holy light revealed our plight,
Its curse fell on Thy head !
Now married to Another, ..
No law-claims have a place
To draw our heart from Thee apart
And hide Thy glorious face:
None may intrude, however good,
To veil that glorious Face! 4

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
Freed from this hostile scene,
The world's corruption, rife through lust,
Which stirs up lust within :
Vain world! thou art judged and conquered,
Faith gets the victory:
Our Lord, denied, thou'st crucified,-
His cross was death to thee!
We too there died-were crucified:
We rose!'Twas death to thee! 5

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
Our thoughts from self set free ;
Flesh however dressed,-its worst, its best,-
Was crucified with Thee:
Thy Resurrection-Beauty
Our new Self, dearly prized;
The old was lost,-Thy death the cost,-
When Thou wast circumcised ;
While now we're risen and caught to heaven
In Thee-once circumcised! 6

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
All we once were is gone;
Not we, but Thou livest in us now,-
We live by faith alone:
Isaac, kind Guest, God's "Laughter,"
These hearts Thy tent-house now !
In us, O Christ, Thou keepest tryst,-
Sweet joys our souls endow!
Shall Ishmael rude, mocking, intrude
Where joys our souls endow? 7

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
It set poor self aside
That Thou, above, mightest claim in love
Th' affections of Thy Bride!
Joined to Thee by one Spirit,
Thy image in each breast,
We're Thine alone, bone of Thy bone,
With Thee supremely blest,-
E'en now are risen, at home in heaven.
In Thy glad Presence blest! 8

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
Waiting for Thee to come ;
The heart and mind their Portion find
In Thee-above, at home;
And if our members tarry,
'Tis here to serve as Thine,-
Vessels of earth to hold Thy Worth
And let Thy glory shine :
These vessels break,-'tis for Thy sake,
To let Thy glory shine! 9

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
Teach us Thy cross to bear:
The love, the grace in Jesus' face,-
May such Thy members wear!
O teach us to surrender,
That we may prove Thy grace,
The spirit, soul, body,-the whole
Unto Thy Love's embrace :
Infirm at best, let Thy power rest
On us in Love's embrace! 10

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
Let our hearts be as Thine :
Be it loss or gain, joy, travail-pain,-
Beat in us, Heart divine !
Mourn in us for Thy members,
Scattered and made a prey,
And in us cry and weep and sigh
Mid ruin of man's day :
Grant us a share in Thy heart's care
Mid ruin of man's day.
Thus in Thy cross we glory,
It looms o'er all things here;
Beside its bright and glorious light
All vain things disappear!
And in that cross we triumph:
Sins, Sin and Self there see,
All law-claims foiled, and Satan spoiled
And routed openly!-
All worldly power-man's, Satan's hour-
There nailed, spoiled openly! " 11

Yes, in Thy cross we glory,
There Thou hast pledged Thy troth;
There bowed, oppressed in dust of death,
Our poor hearts learned Thy worth;
There Dying Love in anguish
Poured out atoning blood,
And held us fast through Goods of wrath
To bring us unto God:
Blessed embrace of Matchless Grace
That brought us unto God!

Lord, in Thy cross we glory,
There in Thyself we hide,-
In that dread hour of Satan's power
We too were crucified;
Thy loveliness, Thy beauty
Now clothes e'en such as we;
Since Thou hast bled we too were dead,
But now we live in Thee:
Yea, e'en as Thou in glory now,
Exalted, Lord, in Thee!

O God, in Thee we glory!
We boast in depths of Love
That sent Thy Son, Thine only One,
Death under wrath to prove:
Now Thou hast many children,
Begot of His distress:
Fulness Divine, outrage was Thine
Our nothingness to bless,-
Thou'st bruised Thy One-Thy Bosom-Son-
Thy many sons to bless!

Father, in Thee we glory!
In Thy blest house of grace
Thy sons, set free, heart-melody
Four out before Thy face!
Children of God the Father,
Priests of His royal house,
And wooed and won of God's dear Sou,
Thy loved One's chosen spouse,-
Father, we raise e'en now the praise
Of Thy Beloved's Spouse!

"Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18).

Repentance unto life " does not mean that repentance precedes life; "your fruit unto holiness" (Rom. 6:) does not mean that fruit precedes holiness. The fruit is holiness; they go together-so repentance and life go together.

God grants repentance, therefore it is His work, just as He gives life. Repentance is a manifestation of life that occurs at once when the new birth takes place, as the track of a foot shows there has been a footpath as some one has said. It cannot be said that one precedes the other. They come together; the one occurs and the other exists necessarily at the same moment.

The moment I repent, I believe; and the moment I believe, I repent. I bow to God's testimony as to myself a sinner and as to Christ a Saviour of sinners, though there may be a space between believing, between repenting and the soul finding rest by appropriating to myself what Christ has done for me.

I am born again, I believe, I repent, I am saved, I have eternal life, I am converted-what are these but different expressions of what occurs at the same moment in the soul of the believer?

Repentance is a most excellent fruit of divine life wrought by the Spirit, and deepened in after experience to the end. " Repent and believe the gospel" is simply that I repent and believe at the same moment:that is the two go together.

The prodigal "coming to himself," suggests the beginning of life working in the soul. His first thought is of grace, "how many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare." Then he adds:" I will arise and go to my father,"-this is grace and faith ; "and I will say to him, father I have sinned,"-this the expression of repentance. Surely grace was apprehended; faith was working and repentance had place at once and together, the soul was born again and accepted of God, whatever time might elapse before all was realized in his soul, as suggested by the father's kiss and welcome. How beautiful and becoming to the sinner is repentance, and how beautiful the joy of welcome! "There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth."

Repentance is an acceptable sign of life-a work of God like that when it was said, "Let there be light." The word of truth by which we are begotten of God, goes forth to men "to open their eyes" that they might see themselves in His presence, and by that word in the Spirit's power, repent.

How blessed is a "broken spirit," instead of the hardness of a proud heart! The Christian who will not repent, who will not humble himself to say, "I was wrong, I have sinned " has become for the time being, a "captive" to Satan (2 Tim. 2:25); he is a wanderer, exposed on every side to further dishonor. He has become a hindrance and not a help to his brethren, no longer able to "keep rank." The men who could "keep rank" were those who "came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David king over all Israel " (i Chron. 12:38). There is a divine harmony in a broken spirit. "Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight." All hearts are touched, and held in awe, by the utterance of a broken spirit.
Every heart reposes confidence in such, and the state of soul of the repentant one is the far opposite to that which exists when the Holy Spirit of God is grieved. Now the heart is filled with an in expressible sense of the tender love of God. The skies are no longer as brass ; and the heart, no longer hard, goes out in joy to God and to all those who are His; the soul is girded afresh with strength for the battle and is sanctified, and furnished to go forth, and help those who are in need, and to rejoice in fellowship with those who rejoice and worship God.

Confession, repentance, is the door of escape out of every prison-house of Satan. Our God is glorified, the soul is set free, and God's people rejoice with the joy of the Lord. E. S. L.

(Continued from page 214.)

4. A GLEANER IN THE FIELDS OF GRACE.

(Chapter 2:)

Bethlehem is true to its name, "the House of Bread," and its white harvest fields speak of the plenty there must be where God's blessing rests. The time of harvest and ingathering is one of joyous labor. It is the crown of the year,- "Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness."All the long patience of the husbandman is at an end, and his care now is but to reap the fruits of his labor. "The valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing."

God's harvest is without doubt a time of special joy to Him, as He sees the results of divine care and patience in the world. Spite of the unbelief of men, the malignity of satan, and the slowness of heart even in His own, there is fruit to His praise. Nor is it necessary to divorce the thought of the seed sown, the Word, from the fruits gathered in, souls saved and conformed to that Word, Our Lord does not separate them, and as a matter of fact, it is the Word that produces saints:"Being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever" (i Pet. 1:23). How precious is the thought that every child of God will be conformed to that Word through which he has been begotten, and thus also to Christ who in the perfection of His person is the embodiment of all that the word of God is. So we think of the harvest time as the season of gathering in the souls who have been brought under the saving power of the word of God. At the same time, we do no violence to the figure when we apply it also to the full grace that is in the Word for souls, and above all to Christ Himself, "the old corn of the land," who as we have said, in Himself has all the fulness of the Godhead.

Thus we are introduced to but one person at Bethlehem, Boaz, who is the lord of the harvest and the dispenser of bounty. His name, "in him is strength," reminds us at once of the One of whom he is the type. He is " a mighty man of wealth," or valor, as the word more naturally means; for He has reached His place as the Lord of the harvest, and the bountiful Giver through the conflict in which He was the Victor over the "strongman." He has reached the place of wealth through the path of poverty-laying aside the riches that were His by right, in order that He might have associated with Himself those objects of His love and grace. This also reminds us of His long patience and the "travail of His soul," when He poured out His soul in tears and shed His blood that there might be fruit for God in a lost world. Surely to Him those words of the Psalm could apply in a special way, " He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him " (Ps. 126:6).

Thus in Boaz we see the Lord in resurrection, after His toil and suffering, entering upon His joy, and the One in whom is everlasting strength. He is of the kindred of Elimelech, for our Lord took hold of the seed of Abraham and is not ashamed to call them brethren. His relation to Elimelech also recalls what Israel should have been to God, but which she lost, for Elimelech is dead. Here is One, however, who in His life ever manifested the relation to God which Israel failed to do, but who in grace went into the death and judgment which Israel deserved. He is thus ready to maintain the relation forfeited by them, and in resurrection to make good what they had lost.

This is beautifully brought out in Isaiah. Jacob was God's servant, but he proved unfaithful and had to be set aside; then the true and perfect Servant is presented, the One who in life and death always did God's will and is now exalted; then a remnant will turn in faith to this Servant, and finding forgiveness through Him, will themselves become the servant of the Lord, and the seed of a holy nation, which will finally be brought back to its proper allegiance and subjection to God. All will come through the kinsman, who we shall see is the Redeemer. But we must return to our narrative.

The scene is a beautiful and attractive one even in a natural sense. The relation between Boaz and his reapers is all too rare in a world where selfishness in the master and suspicion in the servant are the rule. This must ever be the case where God is left out, and the gulf between "labor and capital " will only widen till the reign of grace be established in the hearts of men. How futile are labor laws and efforts for universal prosperity, when the root of the evil-the sin and selfishness of man's heart-is not reached. It never will be reached until He come of whom Boaz is the type. Then there will be the greetings we have here, "The Lord be with you;" "The Lord bless Thee."

What a flood of memories must have well-nigh overwhelmed Naomi as she gazed on those familiar fields! When she last saw them her life was bright with hope; now all was changed. No doubt she looked through her tears at all the joy and abundance before her, but which had for her passed to come again no more. How sad to the widowed heart is the joy to which she must ever be a stranger. No wonder then that she makes no effort to better herself. Memory was busy, and doubtless for the present employed all her time and thoughts.

Doubtless there will be, as we have been seeing, this sense of desolation on the part of the remnant of Israel. For them there will be no joy, and all the abundance of God's house will but intensify their sense of poverty, and thus, in His mercy, deepen the work so needful in their souls. Whether for Israel, or the wandering saint, there must be a deep work in the soul if God's restoring mercy is to be enjoyed. This is often forgotten by the Lord's people, and the "hurt" is healed slightly. It is good to be in the house of affliction, and a proper preparation for the house of feasting. So Naomi's sorrow and her silence is natural and proper.

But with Ruth it is different. She represents, as we have seen, the faith in the remnant, which makes
no claim of right, but comes to glean in the fields of divine mercy. Hence she is called the Moabitess here, her gentile origin debarring her from all legal claim to any portion in Israel. And yet God had made provision for just such. "When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest:thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger" (Lev. 23:22). Here are the crumbs which fall from the Master's table, and which will prove for Ruth, as for the woman of Canaan, an abundance for all her need.

This passage, coming between the feast of Pentecost and that of Tabernacles, would suggest just this widowed state of the remnant, which must precede their time of joy, and the fulness of blessing when "every man shall dwell under his own vine and fig tree." Pentecost signifies the blessing of the Church associated with Christ in resurrection. When the Lord has taken her to Himself as His heavenly bride the widowed remnant of Israel will appear as one who has forfeited her rights, but whose faith as in Ruth, will begin to glean according to the special provision of the mercy of God.

Naomi gives her consent to Ruth's gleaning and thus is identified in all that happens to the younger woman. How blessed it is to know that the brokenhearted desolation and the budding forth of faith are thus identified before God. Faith looks through the tears of penitence, and both are one in God's sight.

It is all grace, and Ruth realizes that her gleaning is to be in the fields of him in whose eyes she shall find favor. It is always a mark of an unbroken spirit, or one but partially restored, when this lowly sense of absolute unworthiness is lacking. Oh, how we rob ourselves when we maintain a high place and a bold attitude. Grace is for the lowly only, whether sinner or saint, and there can be no enjoyment of it without the broken heart which God will not despise. We see how everything is ordered of God, not by Ruth. She does not know in whose field she is gleaning:"Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz." Humanly speaking, it was Rebekah's hap to be at the well when Abraham's servant came in search for a bride for his master's son; it was the hap of the woman of Samaria to meet the Stranger from Judea, who had such words of life and grace to tell her. But we know that what is man's "hap" is God's purpose, the purpose of love of Him who sees the end from the beginning and plans it all. His eye was upon Rebekah, and He made her go out to the well the first to meet the servant of Abraham. He constrained the woman of Samaria to go where she would meet the Son of God, and have her life transformed by the message He brought her. He knows and He draws each of us, at the appointed time and in the appointed way, to the place of blessing. How wonderful are His ways, and what love there is behind what seem to be the merest incidents. God is absolutely sovereign. All our blessings are from Him alone. The work of grace, from beginning to end, is His. Therefore to Him alone is all the praise.

(To be continued, if the Lord please.)

I am greatly confirmed in the conviction, that at the root of Romanism lies infidelity, not of course in the gross form of denying Christianity in its fundamental truths, or the – historical basis of Christianity, but in the annulling those truths on which the blessing of the soul depends, or their application to it. It is a sensuous religion; fills the imagination with gorgeous ceremonies, noble buildings, fine music, stately processions. It feeds it with legends and the poetry of antiquity; but it gives no holy peace to the conscience-ease it may, but not peace; and, while accrediting itself with asceticism,* it accepts for the mass of its votaries full association with the world. *"I looked at her," says Dr. N., "her rites, her ceremonial, her precepts, and I said, This is a religion."* It holds sin over the conscience as a terror, and relieves from that terror by human intervention, so as to put power into man's hand- into the hands of the priesthood. Looked at as a picture, it fills largely the imagination; in practice it degrades. Christianity and (in its true sense, whatever its shortcomings may have been) Protestantism elevate. I shall refer to this last in a moment:it has largely failed in result, but in its nature, as compared with Romanism, it elevates.

Christianity brings us directly, immediately to God. Each individual is directly, immediately, in relationship to God,-his conscience before God, his heart confidingly in His presence. Judaism had a priesthood, the people could not go into God's presence. They might receive blessings, offer offerings, celebrate God's goodness, have a law to command them; but the way into the holiest was closed by a veil :"the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest." When the Lord Jesus died, this veil was rent from top to bottom, and "we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." "Having made peace by the blood of His cross." "He suffered the just for the unjust, to bring us to God;" "His blood cleanseth from all sin." Hence the essence of Christianity, as applied to man, is, that the Christian goes himself, directly, personally to God-in Christ's name, and through Christ, but himself, into the holiest, and with boldness. He has by Christ access through the one Spirit to the Father, the Spirit of adoption. This being brought nigh by the blood of Jesus characterizes Christianity in its nature. The holiness of God's own presence is brought to bear on the soul:" If we walk," it is said," in the light, as He is in the light," -yet not as fear, which repels, for we know perfect love through the gift of Jesus. We have boldness to enter into the holiest, that place where the presence of God Himself assures that the confidence of love will be the adoration of reverence while we go forth to the world; that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal body, the epistle (as it is said) of Christ. I am not discussing how far each Christian realizes it, but this is what Christianity practically is. He has made us kings and priests to God and His Father. This elevates truly.

Man is not elevated by intellectual pretensions; for he never gets, nor can get, beyond himself. What elevates him is heart-intercourse with what is above him; what truly elevates him is heart-intercourse with God, fellowship (wondrous word !) with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. But, even where the heart has not found its blessed home there through grace, this principle morally elevates; for it at least puts the natural conscience directly before God, and refers the soul, in its estimate of good and evil, personally and immediately to Him. There may be self-will and failure, but the standard of responsibility is preserved for the soul. I do but sketch the great principle on which I insist.
Romanism, wherever it exercises its influence, has closed the veil again. The faithful are not reconciled to God, they cannot go into the holiest, they do not know (as they quote from Ecclesiastes with so false an application) love and hatred by all that is before them; between them and God they have a priesthood and saints and the virgin Mary, Christianity is a divine work which, through the redemption and life of a heavenly Mediator, has brought us to God; Romanism, a system of mediators on earth and in heaven, placed between us and God, to whom we are to go, and who go for us; we are too unworthy to go ourselves. It sounds lowly this voluntary humility, but it shuts out the conscience from the witness of God's presence; it casts us back on our worthiness, it puts away and denies the perfect love of God as known to us (shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given to us) through Christ. It repudiates the blessed tender grace of Jesus, that High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. We must go to the heart of Jesus through the heart of Mary, they tell us. Surely I would rather trust His, blessed and honored as she may have been and was in her own place. It removes me from God, to connect me immediately with creatures, however exalted, for my heart, and with sinful men, for my conscience, who are to judge of and absolve me. All this is degrading. It is the denial of Christianity, not in its original facts, but in its power and application to man.

A few illustrations of what I mean. They hold the great facts or truths of Christianity-the Trinity, the divinity and humanity of Christ; the atonement, so far as its sufficiency goes (not, however, as effectual substitution); that men are sinners (this also very imperfectly); and the need of regeneration, through they scorn the true force of the word. They hold the inspiration of the scriptures, though they have falsified them, both in adding books which every honest man knows are not genuine scriptures, and in giving a translation as the authentic scriptures. They own in a general way the personality and agency of the Holy Ghost. My object is not here to state exactly every point, but to say in general that they own the great fundamental facts of Christianity. It is not there that the spirit of infidelity shows itself.

But the moment you come to the application of these facts to men-to their efficacious value, all is lost. The scriptures are inspired, but the faithful are incapable of using them. In vain is it they are addressed by God Himself through the inspired writers to the body of believers-they must not have them but by leave of others. In vain is it that there is a Holy Ghost-He does not so lead and guide individuals as that they can walk in peace and grace, and understand withal His word. They mock at the thought of His dwelling in believers. They bring the divisions and faults of believers to prove He cannot be there; that is, they use man's sin to deny God's goodness and truth, just as infidels do.

Even as to the scriptures their universal question is the same as the infidel's-How do you know them to be the scriptures ? Their doctrine is, You must believe in them through the church :that is, the scriptures do not command faith in and by themselves, nor is man guilty if he rejects them, just as the infidel says. God's word must be believed because God has spoken, and for no other reason, or it is not believing His word at all. Grace, no doubt, is needed for it, as for everything; but man's responsibility is there, as the Lord said, "If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." They were responsible for not receiving Him, with all ecclesiastical authority rejecting Him :so are men as to the Word.

Again, the sacrifice of Christ, they do not deny it. They repeat it in the Mass in an unbloody sacrifice, they say. But scripture says it was accomplished once for all, and contrasts it in its efficacy with the Jewish sacrifices, the repetition of which proved that sin was still there. Whereas the sacrifice of Christ, offered once for all, having perfectly put away sin for him who believes, there could be no repetition, the believer is perfected forever, and God remembers his sins and iniquities no more. Their repetition shows unbelief in this blessed truth. The believer is not perfected forever – the sacrifice must be repeated. It is not true that God will not remember their sins and iniquities any more. That is, the sacrifice is not denied; its efficacy, once offered for the believer's soul, is.

Again, take Christ's intercessional mediatorship. Christianity presents to me that blessed One, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; a man tempted in all points as we are, without sin; One who also can be touched with the feeling of my infirmities, who has suffered being tempted, and thus is able to succor them that are tempted. In a word, the Son of God Himself has descended into our sorrows and trials, and passed through them in tender gracious love, that I might confide in His sympathy and love, and know He could feel for and with me. Do they deny His priesthood and intercession ? No. But in fact there are a crowd of mediators; above all, Mary His mother. And why ? He is too high and glorious. Any poor man would seek a friend at court to have the king's ear, it is the heart of Mary I am to trust, and get the saints' intercession, and reach His heart through Mary's. The whole truth and value of Christ's intercessory love is destroyed and denied in practice. The saints' and Mary's intercession is trusted, their tenderness and nearness believed in, not Christ's. Heathenism denied the one true God the Creator (though in a certain sense owning Him as a dogma) by a multiplicity of gods in practice. God intervenes by a Mediator in the most perfect system of blessing, and Romanism, while admitting the mediatorship of Christ as a dogma, has denied the one true mediatorship in practice by a multiplicity of mediators. It is the heathenism of Christianity, that is, of the blessed truth of a redeeming Mediator.-From J. N. D's Coll. Writ. vol. 18:

[It is also of interest to note how this miracle sets forth, in a dispensational way, the manner of Israel's future blessing, which must be, as during the present age, through repentance and faith. The empty forms of Jewish purifying are filled with the reality of the truth of God, and as the Remnant bow in repentance to the Word, the wine of joy flows forth. ED].

1 Sam. 13:12.

King Saul was a young man of great promise. He completely won the heart of Samuel, who never ceased to mourn for him long after his rejection by God. He was, humanly speaking, the man of all others throughout the tribes of Israel suited to be their king. Samuel could ask with absolute confidence as he brought him forward, "See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king " (i Sam. 10:24). God had chosen the very best man in Israel, according to the flesh, one to meet the desires of the people who had asked "a king to judge us like all the nations" (i Sam. 8:5). We notice it was not the craving for the king after God's heart, but in order that they might be like the rest of the nations. We may be assured that the desire to imitate the ways and expedients of the world, whether in the individual or in the Church at large will result in spiritual disaster. The jealous eye of divine love detected the departure of heart, and said, "They have rejected Me that I should not reign over them" (ver. 7). It is not very difficult to see the link between these two phrases-"like all the nations," and "I forced myself.'"

But Saul begins brightly and well, and with all the help that the providence of God and the moral support of Samuel could give. We may rest assured that neither in the case of Saul, nor of any other man, did God ever put obstacles in his way, but quite the reverse. But God will test every man.

In fact, to please God he must walk by faith, and this is ever a test. It cannot be otherwise. Further, faith is found only in the path of obedience-is really shown by that; and obedience to God, we need hardly say, often runs counter to, and is always independent of, the opinions and desires of the natural man. Therefore we see the necessity of the occurrence which brought out what was always in Saul.

The occurrence, too, was simple enough. When Samuel had first anointed him, he provided that after Saul had, as it were, taken the first steps of kingship (see i Sam. 10:7, 8), he should go to Gilgal and there await Samuel who would come and offer peace- and burnt-offerings, and tell him what he should do. Everything was simple and suggestive here. The very place of meeting-Gilgal-would remind him of the days of Israel's victories under Joshua, when no enemy could stand before them. Its spiritual meaning is, of course, deeper, but most suggestive to us. "No confidence in the flesh," is its lesson, impressed by the circumcision of those who had heretofore neglected it in the wilderness. There is no power against the enemy save as Gilgal, the application of the cross to ourselves, is entered into practically.

Then Saul was to wait seven days for Samuel, as priest and prophet, to come. As priest he would offer the sacrifices which are always the basis of our fellowship with God. As prophet he would bring the word of God to Saul, tell him what he should do. How simple and essential was all this. The very need of waiting would test the faith and obedience of the new king, and check that restless spirit so common to vigorous minds.

All this was simple and clear enough; but there were two uncertain factors in connection with it which made the result doubtful. These were the people and Saul himself. The people had already shown a spirit of unbelief and departure from God in desiring a king, which boded ill for any faithfulness on their part. Saul was yet to be proved.

Everything was in confusion. The Philistines, who had been quiet enough during the judgeship of Samuel were making incursions, and threatening the nation with more determination than for many years. The people were scattered everywhere. A little handful followed Saul and Jonathan with trembling reluctance. There was nothing encouraging to sight. But this was the very opportunity for faith to shine out brighter, as it did shortly after in Jonathan and his armor bearer. But Saul had no faith.

When the seventh day was reached, and still Samuel had not appeared, the people melting away and the encroachments of the Philistines were too much for the flesh, something must be done. Ah! how often is that made the plea for the restlessness of unbelief. Something must be done ; and we forget, "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength."

Conscience, however, made itself heard. Saul knew what was the path of obedience. He knew there was but one thing, and that was to obey, to wait until Samuel came, and receive guidance through the word of God, on the basis of priestly sacrifice and intercession. This was the path of obedience- of faith. But what about the people? Ah! faith never consults " the people. " What will the people say or do, is ever the question of unbelief. The people would gather as quickly as they scattered; this had been proven again and again, notably in the history of Gideon. But whether they returned or not, faith never questions. It must obey at all costs. Saul knew this, and it was evidently with the greatest reluctance that he disobeyed the word of God.

But oh! dear brethren, he did disobey that holy Word. Of what avail was his reluctance, his forcing himself? Did not this but witness the more strongly against him? Had he done it carelessly, unthinkingly, he might have pleaded forgetfulness. But his own confession, "I forced myself," tells of disobedience in the face of God's known will. He feared man rather than God; he had no faith.

He is tried and found wanting, and as soon as his disobedience had been clearly proven, Samuel appears. Oh! some one says, if he had but waited that one hour! Rather, if he had only obeyed God. It was not the one hour, but the unbelief that lay back of it, the whole time, and which the one hour but manifested to view. It was not the fatal hour when Judas made his hellish bargain with the priests, but the heart capable of such a thing. That but proved what he was.

Saul had been tested. He could not lead God's people, for he had no faith. So Samuel thus early is compelled to announce his rejection. How solemn and how searching! "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Surely we should not seek to take the edge off such an exhortation, nor lose the lesson of this solemn example. Let us seek, with the Lord's help, to make some applications.

Saul himself is the typical professor, enjoying privileges far beyond most. He was above all in direct contact with the word of God through the prophet Samuel. What limit was there to his attainment of the highest degree of excellence? But one thing was needful and that one he lacked. He was without a living faith. So with all professors:they may say "We have eaten and drunken in Thy presence and Thou hast taught in our streets:" nay, they may ask, "Have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils?" But of what avail if they knew not Christ? But what an awfully hardened heart that must be which remains in the darkness though surrounded by light.

The professor has a conscience and knows too much to sin without conviction. When he is allured into sinful paths, he cannot go without a struggle. But will it do for him to plead as excuse, " I forced myself"! Ah no, "out of thine own mouth will I judge thee," will be said to such. But here the application is obvious, and we pass to consider the subject in relation to the believer.

Too often has the individual saint yielded to pressure from without, and been compelled to force himself into paths which he well knew were contrary to God's will. Let the reader pause here and ask himself whether at this very time conscience may not be pleading against this forcing. Some indulgence to the flesh, some association with the ungodly, or some yielding to the ways of the world. Surely the truth of God is sufficiently known, and His Spirit is ever faithful. There must be a fearful amount of this forcing, if we are to judge by the walk and testimony of the saints of God.

But will it do to excuse one's self by saying, "I forced myself," I did it reluctantly? Suppose many of God's dear people have been led away into the world, are we to follow them reluctantly? Will not that reluctance witness to us of the pleading of the Spirit of God, to which we would not hearken?

Let us turn to the assembly of God, the gatherings of His people. If there is one truth more precious and more important than another in this connection, it is the presence and control of the Holy Spirit. When the people of God come together they have, according to Scripture, no human leader to preside and direct the conduct of the meeting. All is to be subject to the Holy Spirit. Of the precious reality of this we need not speak to those who enjoy the privilege of so meeting. But special dangers lurk here, just because of the apparent freedom from restraint. A verse is often quoted, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," and under the plea of this, it. has been argued that much greater freedom should prevail than where this truth is not known.

Unquestionably there should be greater freedom for the Spirit of God, but not for self-will. The restraint upon nature is not a human, but a divine one, and therefore all the greater. How sad, under the plea of liberty, to see careless participation in the meeting, lack of reality in worship, and a restless, busy state of activity, the farthest opposite of that quiet repose or resistless energy, which ever marks the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But let us specify a little. If for any reason worldliness or carelessness have come in, it is natural to expect that the Spirit of God will be grieved, and by His silence, as it were, witness to the conscience of the saints that all is not as it should be. Well do we know this silence, this sense of helplessness which marks not the quietness of rest, but of reproof.

Just here is the danger. If we bow to the reproof and judge ourselves confessing our helplessness, the blessed Spirit is only too ready to lift our hearts again; but if instead of that an effort is made to go on as though all were well, sad indeed is the result. There may be abundant participation; hymns may be sung, scriptures read, and a general activity prevail, and yet all be empty and unprofitable. It is no use to say, "I forced myself," in order to lift the meeting. God is ever worshiped in truth. We do not assemble to "have a meeting," but to realize His presence. If we are in a low state, let us not try to ignore it, but own it, each of us secretly and individually at first, and if the blessed Spirit lay it on us, confess for the whole gathering the feebleness and dulness.* *It need hardly be said that the Lord's table is not the place for specific confessions, save in some glaring evil which obtrudes itself upon the attention of all. On the other hand how much room is there for self-judgment, in connection with the Lord's table. Have I wronged a brother? I am to go to him at the first opportunity, and own my fault. Without doubt much, very much of the dullness in meetings is to be attributed to this and similar causes. We have fed on the husks of this world; we have neglected the word of God, have allowed envy or malice a place in our hearts, and the Spirit is quenched and grieved. He will not go on with worship until we purge ourselves. Surely we are to avoid a merely legal state, but when we have wronged a brother in any way the Scripture is plain "first be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift" (Matt. 5:23, 24). If no injury has been done, but the evil is detected in the heart, it must be judged none the less sparingly, because no one but God and ourselves know of it.*

Let us repeat, God must have reality, and our own souls crave the same. Let us not fear a season of quiet, which may at times be just what is needed for individual souls to be fitted for further worship. There are, to be sure, seasons of holy calm and quiet which are the most delightful, and farthest from the silence of which we have just been speaking. We should be slow indeed to break such, unless manifestly led by the Spirit.

We leave this part of our subject, with the prayer that our God will deepen in all our souls the sense of His Holiness, the reality of the Spirit's guidance, and a true brokenness of heart which will offer no hindrance to that blessed One as He leads out our praises to Christ and the Father. May we be kept from both legalism and carelessness, either of which is a direct dishonor to the grace of God. Do we realize, dear brethren, that we have been entrusted with a truth of peculiar and priceless value? What use are we making of the Spirit's presence ? Is it a doctrine or a reality?

So also we might apply this teaching to the general administration of assembly matters. Oftentimes it is considered a mark of spirituality to force ourselves. Special meetings are held, not as a result of interest, but to awaken it. Affairs are conducted with the celerity of business. Even discipline, and cases that need to be approached with the greatest caution, are handled without the sense of dependence upon, and obedience to God. Need we wonder that souls are driven off instead of helped, and that even divisions are precipitated through this forcing?

Let us remember, too, that there are other consciences, and be very tender; we are not to force them any more than our own. How much care, patience, lowliness all this involves, we need not say. In the things of God the flesh must never be reckoned with. May we learn the lesson and ever say to ourselves, even when most sorely tempted to act without God, "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen thy heart:wait, I say on the Lord" (Ps. 27:14).

In View of Questions Which Have Been Lately Raised.

4.New Birth:What is it.

There has doubtless been so much said of late with regard to new birth and eternal life that many will wish that controversy as to these could stop; and many will think that all has been said that can be said about them. One can surely sympathize with those who think so, and what is said may be the briefer on that account:still these subjects are so central in their importance in relation to Christian truth, and the novel doctrines concerning them have so central a place also in connection with the system which we are reviewing, that it would be impossible to treat this in any satisfactory way without looking at what is in question here. So far also as we are individually concerned, whatever might be the purpose of God with regard to us, and whatever the blessed work upon the basis of which that purpose can alone be justified and take effect, yet where it begins to take effect is in new birth. Thus our review may well begin here, although as to the system before us it is rather in this case a blank than a doctrine-a denial than an affirmation. Yet a denial may have all the importance of an affirmation, and the meeting it be absolutely necessary in order to laying securely the foundations of truth. If we do not know what new birth is, we cannot rightly know what eternal life is either, and much else will become uncertain as the result of this. Amid this uncertainty many suppositions may assume the character of truth and be accepted for it which will for ever prevent the truth being received. If Scripture can clear up this cloud-land for us, it will not only be in itself a gain, but it may prove a way made clear to further progress. Let us inquire at least.

Not merely has the confession been made, " I cannot tell you what new birth is," but it has been openly challenged that no one has any better ability. This is the ignorance of the agnostic, which requires more knowledge than anything that knowledge would pretend to. For in this case one has to be sure that the level of one's own capacity is at least as high as any other whatever can possibly be; and with such knowledge as this, every humble mind would readily concede the palm of superiority to its happy possessor.

Such an one will naturally teach, or at least tell his thoughts; and safely, here no one has better knowledge. Thus it is not thought that there is in new birth a communication of anything, but simply an effect produced. It is the man that is born again:whatever may be the extent of it; it is I myself, the individuality. That is how Scripture speaks of new birth. It is a human idea that something is imparted, but Scripture says, I am born again. Then the Lord puts it more abstractly-"That which is born of the flesh is flesh," for it would go too far to say, "he who is born of the Spirit is spirit":it would make me spirit and nothing else. Yet if the wick of a lamp may represent the individual, it is as though a thread of another description were introduced into the texture of the wick! The result is a collapse of the man,-of all that makes him a man of the world, of all his self-importance. Then there is a cry, a very feeble cry! the first sign of life in a babe is a cry of want or pain; yet Scripture does not apply the term "life" to such a state!

One feels so often as if one needed to make apology for such statements, and as if it must certainly be thought that there is some misrepresentation here; but while the putting together is indeed my own, every statement made is an actual quotation. New birth makes a man appear alive, but he is not alive. In it there is no communication of anything at all, but only an introduction of something; with very important consequences, no doubt; but still there is as yet no link in the soul with God.

I am not responsible for the contradiction that appears in these things, either among themselves or with scripture. Scripture says,-yea, the Lord Jesus Himself,-that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; and to say that here nevertheless there is no link with God, seems as near a direct denial of the divine word as could be uttered, if we are not to assert that it is that. And again there is a similar thing when the Lord speaks of the man as being born again, and we are assured notwithstanding that he is not alive! What kind of birth are we to call it, when although the "renewing of the mind is the outcome" of it, yet there is no life! one is born of God and yet not His; yea, has no link with Him as yet at all!

Is it necessary to go further in the examination of these statements! There should be no need. But let us look at the Lord's words themselves, and see if they leave us so much in the dark as is supposed, as to what new birth is. There is nothing imparted, says this teaching; because it is I who am born again. Scripture says, we are born again, not of "corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth" (i Pet. 1:33); and it adds, "and this is the word which in the gospel is preached unto you." The word of the gospel then, brought home by the power of the Spirit of God, is that by which the man is born again.

But here again the truth as Scripture gives it to us comes right up against the theories; which as usual also clash with each other. For we have already seen that it is denied the Scripture is of any use to souls away from God, without the voice of the living preacher. It is conceded indeed that God is sovereign, and may be pleased to use it, in the same way that He could by an exceptional miracle make use of the speech of Balaam's ass. It is useless to send Bibles to the heathen, because this is so very exceptional. God's way is undoubtedly by preaching! And yet, strangely enough (if anything is strange here) in connection with this theme of new birth we are informed that the work of the evangelist is to enlighten the new born soul. When by the power of God's Spirit a man has been born again, the next thing is that the soul has to be enlightened.

Thus here again we seem to be in a dilemma. It is of no use to send Bibles to the heathen:God's way is undoubtedly by preaching. And yet the preachers' work is only to enlighten those already new born! Scripture however declares that men are born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God in the gospel, and that the Scriptures are able to make one wise unto salvation; while the preacher is God's great instrumentality for getting the saving truth before unwilling men. There is here no semblance of contradiction, the word of God being in all cases that by which new birth is effected in the soul,-whether it be in the page of the inspired Word or by the mouth of the evangelist. In either case the Spirit of God must act:as the Lord puts it in His pregnant figure, "water" and "Spirit " must go together.

The incorruptible seed is thus imparted. The seed is not the mere word, but as nature itself teaches, the word with the life in it. Every fruitful seed carries in it that mystery of life, which we may be little able to analyze, but which we cannot reason away:it is there, reason as we will; arid without it there would be no growth or good whatever.

Thus there is that which is born of the Spirit, and what is born is "spirit." Will any one say that does not convey the thought of a new nature, akin to that from which it has originated? And "the Spirit is life" (Rom. 8:10); everything here speaks of the communication of life; look through Scripture as you will, there is no dead spirit anywhere. " The Spirit quickeneth " (2 Cor. 3:6):"the spirit is life;" dead spirit, dead spiritual birth, dead child of God, or new born child with yet no link with Him,-these are all thoughts so foreign to Scripture, so contrary to it, that nothing but the exigency of an untenable theory could ever suggest them to one even tolerably acquainted with it.

As for the argument that the man being born again is in contradiction to the idea of something being imparted in this, the answer has been given by the one who uses it. "The Scripture teaches that /am born again, whatever may be the extent of it." There is the whole difficulty, such as it is; and it is no very great one. The man is born again, and yet he is not new in all that he is. His body does not partake in this transformation; and he has yet the old nature-the flesh in that sense. The moment you say, The man is born again, whatever may be the extent of it, you state the difficulty, and admit it to be one that you must recognize, as well as the person you are arguing with. But it is no more a difficulty than abundance of fully admitted things. The man is born again; and yet, when you come to define more closely, you speak of " that which is born again," and could not say of the man what you say of this. You can say, " That which is born of the Spirit is spirit," while you cannot say, " The man who is born of the Spirit is spirit." It argues nothing whatever in the way desired. Let us only change the figure, as Scripture itself enables us, so as now to take into consideration what was before omitted, that this is a yet incomplete change in a moral being, the figure of grafting furnishes you with the needed means of taking in, as before you could not, all the facts. The tree which is grafted yet retains enough of its old nature to need care lest, by allowing shoots from below the graft, it should become practically wild again. Yet we speak of it rightly enough as a grafted tree. In a figure taken from the human sphere, which alone fits with the Lord's application for Nicodemus, one cannot find what will fit all round; no unusual thing in figures constantly made use of. The Lord's purpose does not contemplate the old nature,-that is all; and therefore the figure of birth, in other respects so perfect, is thoroughly suited.

But the man is born again; and the thought of a new life imparted is inherent in this. This life, moreover, is all that counts for life before God. The man was dead previously; now he lives; there is but one death in this sense, and but one coming to life; and if a man is no longer dead, he is alive:there is no intermediate state between the two, and therefore no interval. The one born of God is a child of God, and He has no dead children. Spirit from the Spirit is the nature of that which is born; the child partakes of the father's nature. If life is communicated, as despite all protests it most surely is, then the life so derived is necessarily eternal life. Whether or not you allow that it is what Scripture designates under that term, (and as to this we shall have to inquire directly,) yet it is impossible to deny that life attaching to a spiritual nature originating in a new birth of the Spirit must be in the fullest sense eternal life.

How important then, in connection with questions that lie before us, is this doctrine of new birth ! and how significant that the system which is sought to be imposed upon us as the truth of God has to begin with a confession of blank ignorance, which is really a denial of Scripture testimony upon so important a matter! According to the system, to be born of God is somewhat that involves neither life, nature, nor relationship,-no link in the soul with God at all! It is no wonder, but a necessity of this, that those born of Him should be denied to be His children. Thus it is asked, " Is it so that' children ' speaks of descent?" And the answer is, – "I do not think that is quite just. It is not the scriptural thought of children. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit:it is by the Spirit we understand that we are children. . . . You ought not to take that place, except as born of God ; but the place is given you of the Father"!-an argument quite as inconsequent as anything we have listened to on the same side. Naturally, eternal life is something far beyond, and although you are born of God, if that is all, you have yet to pass from death unto life!

Thus I repeat it, the doctrine is that one that is simply born of God is not a child of God, has not life, nature, nor relationship. To put it in the dreariest form of the negation made, he has no link in his soul with God at all! F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

2. Faith:Its separations and companionship. (Vers. 6-18.)

A more hopeless condition than that of Naomi could scarce be imagined-bereft of husband and sons, in the land of a stranger and an enemy. And yet how true it is that the darkest hour is that which just precedes the dawn. It was in divine fitness that our Lord should have selected the cock-crowing as the time to mark Peter's denial. It was the darkest hour in his history-he thrice denied his Saviour, Friend, and Lord, with cursing. And yet that awful outburst of evil brought it to the surface, where it could no longer hide behind loud protestations of devotedness. Peter sees himself, nevermore could trust himself, and in that darkest hour is heard the herald of the coming day. So widowed Naomi, in the hour of her desertion, turns in dim faith to the One from whom she had so deeply revolted.

The same is true in the history of the nation's return to God. Typically, it was in the time of famine that Joseph's brethren returned, unconsciously though it be, with confession to the one they had so grievously injured. In the coming day, it will be "in the cloudy and dark day" that the Lord's wandering sheep will be sought out and gathered. In like manner, each soul is recovered by divine grace when all seems darkest, when the evil is brought out into the light.

But the rekindling of faith makes at first but a feeble flame, with more smoke than light in the flax. It is a selfish motive that induces her to return, much the same as that which stirred the prodigal to turn his face to the father's house:" She had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited His people in giving them bread," There does not seem to have been any sense of wrong in having left the "house of bread," or of having sinned in turning to the people of Moab. Ah, even our repentance has nothing in it that we can boast of-all is tainted.

This comes out more clearly in her interview with her daughters-in-law. They had accompanied her on her homeward way, with the apparent intention of identifying themselves fully with her future fortunes. Surely faith would have recognized mercy to these daughters of the stranger in this, and have encouraged them to follow. But Naomi was not yet restored in her own soul, and therefore could be no help to others. She urges them to return home, and expresses the hope that they may find rest in the house of a heathen husband! " Her own resources having failed, she thinks God has also failed, and has nothing to put before these to encourage them to seek the Lord.

But such is unbelief, never more evil than in a saint. It can see no hope for others for it sees none for itself, and would even discourage those who would be seeking God. Let the wanderers among God's people beware. If out of communion themselves, they not only suffer individually, but are stumbling-blocks to any who might be seeking the Lord. Alas, how the cold, wretched spiritual state of God's people serves to repel rather than attract the seeking soul. If not in words, at least in demeanor and acts, the world is too often given to understand that there is nothing in the things of God to satisfy the cravings of the soul. What else can the distaste for divine things mean, the gloom of soul that speaks from the manner, the evident hunger for worldly pleasure-ah, brethren, let us not think that the world fails to understand all this; it says as plainly as Naomi's words, " Go return each to her mother's house."
But what an awful responsibility is this. Our Lord has left us here as lights in the darkness to attract souls to Himself:what if we by our failure to "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things" are driving them away? There is but one remedy for this-to be in a state of active communion at all times; then we will attract others to Christ, our very lives will be a witness.

On the other hand, God's sovereignty makes use of all things, and the coldness of Naomi becomes the test of the reality of faith in her daughters-in-law. Without exonerating her, the discouragement she offers brings to light the state of heart of the two. There is evident natural affection in both, in fact Orpah shows more than Ruth. The names of these two are suggestive. Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," suggests the turning away which marked her. She kissed Naomi, but returns to the land of Moab. Ruth does not, so far as we read, kiss Naomi, but she clave unto her. Ruth most probably means, "having a shepherd." Her faith here shows that she is one of the sheep, though a Gentile, who is to be brought into the fold.

Let us now look a little in detail at the meaning of this, first for the nation, and then for the individual. Naomi represents the widowed nation, Israel according to the flesh. They have lost the relationship to God suggested by the husband's name, " My God is King," and have, as we were seeing, no claim upon Him according to the flesh-all that has been forfeited. The desolate state of the nation is seen in the widow; and in the two daughters-in-law we see the two states that will mark the people after the close of the present or Christian dispensation, when God will again "visit His people."

In Orpah we see the mass of the people quite content for fancied gain to give up all that faith holds dearest, and to identify themselves with the Antichrist:"If another shall come in his own name, him they will receive." They will see no hope for relief of the wretched condition of the people except in one who will link them with the power of the world, and with all the blasphemy and idolatry which will run riot under the "Beast and the false Prophet."

Ruth, on the other hand, represents that remnant of the nation, which will hold fast to the promises of God, in a dim and cloudy way at first, without claiming aught as a right, but distinctly in faith laying hold upon God. This is seen in her answer to Naomi. It is not mere nature, but faith in the living God that speaks in her reply:"Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee:for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part me and thee." This was in answer to Naomi's desire, that she should return to her people and her gods. It was thus real faith which made use of the covenant name Jehovah, which expressed itself in Ruth's reply-a faith which had stood the test of having no attraction for nature offered to it.

This will be the state of the believing remnant in the last days. In spite of all opposition and discouragement; in spite of persecution, misrepresentation and loneliness, it will take hold on God, the God of Israel, Jehovah. It will have no worthiness to plead, it will be only an outcast, even as a Gentile. But there will be a living faith, and this at all costs, in life or death, will claim a place with the Israel of God. How precious in His sight will be the faith of that feeble and despised remnant.

The lesson for the individual soul, at the present time, is the same. Faith cannot be turned back, and it ever identifies itself with the people of God. As with the Syrophenician woman it cannot be deterred by the prohibitions of disciples or even by the apparent neglect of the Lord. She must have her need met; what is discouragement as compared with that? Such faith is never disappointed, for it has struck its roots in God's own truth. It does not judge according to sight, and when all seems against it, goes forward without dismay.

This faith separates and it unites. We have seen how, when tested, Orpah turned her back upon Naomi and the people of God. This also separated her from her sister-in-law, for they were going in opposite directions. It is ever thus. Faith separated Abraham from home and country, as it did Moses from the dignities and emoluments of Egypt. Even the ties of human affection cannot hold together souls drawn asunder by opposite motives, one going heavenward and the other earthward. Of course, they may outwardly walk together, but how far apart are they spiritually. It is impossible to prevent this, and what a mercy that it is. Faith separates.

On the other hand, it unites with all who are walking in the same path. Many things may combine to make this seem difficult:there may be differences of taste and of habits, but if the great fact of a common faith remains, it links together in spite of all else. Those who have "like precious faith," are by that fact united in bonds that nothing else can sever. "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

(To be continued, if the Lord please.)

(John 2:1-12.)

It was at a marriage, a union of two, a symbol of that spiritual union of man with God which the Lord Jesus Christ had come to effect, by the way of the cross, through death and resurrection. It was to unite man with God. "Married to Christ that we might bring forth fruit unto God " (Rom. 7:4). As there is no legitimate fruit to the flesh but in the married relation, so is there none in the spirit but through union with God in Christ. "Born again," "born from above," "born of God," is the fruit of this union with Christ by faith, through grace. It is not what is sometimes called conversion, which may be only man's own work ; turned about, turning over a new leaf, having been bad, and now going about to be good. This may all be of man, but "born of God " is new life by the Spirit of God. The Saviour said to the Jews, "Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life." It is this new life that unites with God, not simply to be turned about- though a true turning away from self to God always accompanies the gracious impartation from God of this new, eternal, and divine life – but "born of God," and this is always His own miraculous work. In the flesh we are in Adam, born of God we are in Christ, the head of a new race. The former is "the old man," which we have "put off," and whose deeds we are to put off practically; the latter is "the new man," whom we have "put on," and are to manifest it in all our behavior in the world.

It was "the third day. A striking indication of the fulness of divine dealing with man in love and grace. The completeness of the manifestation of God to man. It is the opening up of the new dispensation, in which, by divine power and authority, man is to be brought near to God ; nearer than ever before. It is Christ's death and resurrection symbolized, through which it is all to be accomplished. It is all of grace too, which deigned to be present at the feast which needed Him to make it truly that, not in the way His mother thought, but typically through His death.

"Six water pots." Six-Lost man's number. Stone or earthen vessels ; man come to the end of himself; helpless, hopeless, lost, as to all he can do ; and hence passive, and ready to receive the word of God. Water – the word poured into the earthen vessels by the servants, the proclaimers of His word. Man must come to the end of himself before God, the end of his own resources must be reached before he can receive Another to do for him. So is he represented by the earthen vessels. As such he is a passive receiver of the word of God. This is repentance:it is conversion, but not the new birth. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." When man thus receiving is "full to the brim," the water of the Word, by supernatural power, the power of God, is transmuted into the wine of joy and gladness, which '' cheers the heart of both God and man " ! "The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto him." The new life has come into him; he is "born of God" and "he rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

The best wine last.- The last dispensation of God to man is the best of all. It is of grace, the full favor of God to man, righteously administered through the work of Jesus on the cross. It is all of God and flows from His great love to man. It is the end of the old creation "in Adam,"and the bringing in of God's new creation " in Christ."

"Manifested His glory." – How perfectly and beautifully does this first "sign," or miracle, set forth His glory ! It opens up to us this whole dispensation of God's grace, which the Lord had come to inaugurate and consummate. It is of grace; it is miraculous; it is to all who will receive; it is by the Word ; it is administered by the servants; it is by the Spirit of God; it manifests His glory., Praise His name. J. S. P.

(From the Numerical Bible, on Luke 16:)

This leads on, however, to the next parable, in which, not the outside multitudes but disciples are taught how they may use even earthly things (even the mammon of unrighteousness) in such a way as that, when this fails, the'' friends" they have made by it. may receive them into the eternal tabernacles. But here, notice, there is no parade of the righteousness of the one who acts after this manner. No, it is the very opposite:we have an unjust steward accused of wasting his master's goods, a thing which recalls to us the younger son of the parable before given, rather than the elder. And here is where we all begin naturally, although the Lord has something else to say of this before He closes.

But to begin with, all are stewards of God in the matter of those things with which we have been entrusted; and not one of us can stand before God on the ground of righteousness in our stewardship. Death-and this is brought out in fullest emphasis by the law of Moses-is the turning of man out of the place for which he was originally created, as having failed in it:and who is not turned out? Self-righteousness is thus impossible if we will listen to the teaching of nature itself, and above all of that law under which the Pharisee so securely sheltered himself. The "publican," or tax-gatherer, become a disciple, had owned his sinnership before God, while the Pharisee had refused to recognize it:and thus in the only way possible for man, the repenting sinner had become comparatively righteous.

The parable here is not however of the reception of a penitent, but of stewardship:of one under sentence of dismissal for unrighteousness, and of what he can still do in view of the future.

He does not hope for reversal of his sentence, but seeks how best he may subserve his interest when this has taken effect. If death be this dismissal, as it most evidently is, then in the application this refers to what comes after death; and so the Lord Himself applies it.

The steward is a child of this age, and his wisdom is that of his generation. It is not commended for its righteousness, but for its adaptation to the end in view; and in this respect the children of this age are wiser than the children of light. They pursue end with more clear-sighted .consistency, while the children of light are often how strangely inconsistent. The unrighteous steward is unrighteous to the last, and no plea to the contrary is ever made for him; but his wisdom as to the future is set before us for our imitation, the unrighteousness of it being distinctly reprobated and set aside in the words that follow the parable:"for, if ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?"

His master's goods are still in the steward's hands; and these are all the means that he has, as his words plainly show. Yet his authority over them seems only now to extend so far as concerns the rendering that final account that has been required of him. He is no doubt under jealous oversight now, as to any further "waste," such as has been charged against him; but, of course, if he is to render an account, he has authority to call in the accounts. Here he can do no harm.

So he calls in his lord's debtors to see how every one stands; and remits to each a portion of his debt, a thing which Edersheim remarks, was within his rights, though his motive in it was unrighteous. In mercy, and in his master's interests even, he might have done so; he did it in his own.* But the wisdom with which he made capital out of what was not in his hands is clear enough. *Van Oosterzee concludes that it was his own overcharge that he remitted, and thus that he made his account right with his master, while he gained credit with the tenants. But this introduces much that is conjectural; and it does not seem that he had hope of setting his account right.* The moral for disciples is, "Make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles."

Certainly it is not meant that we can buy ourselves thus admission into heaven, or that God's grace is shown in permitting us to buy cheap. He gives, but does not sell; unless it be "without money and without price." And even as to rewards, love can reward only what is done from love. Yet love itself may desire, and must, the approval of Him towards whom it is felt, and so may covet the rewards of love; while grace permits us out of what is not our own to make "friends" that shall in this way welcome us in the habitations of eternity.

Thus to use what is so commonly, as to be characteristically, the "mammon of unrighteousness" is not unrighteous, but faithfulness in that which is Another's ; and although it be in "that which is least."as such earthly things must be, yet even as that it may test and manifest the character with regard to what is the "true riches." A man's piety cannot be measured by his charities; but on the other hand it cannot exist without them, for "faith without works is dead." And he who seeks to satisfy himself with that which is not his own, but of which he is merely steward, will find the things that are his own proportionately unsatisfying. Even an Abraham, with his face toward Egypt, will find a famine in the land which God has promised and brought him into.

Thus the Lord deals with the side of righteousness; and He rules with a firm and steady hand. Grace does not relax the lines of government; and the throne of grace is a true and absolute throne. A servant may not be a son, but every son is a servant; and "no servant can serve two masters." God and Mammon are incompatible as that.

But that cuts deep; for the Pharisees are among His audience; and they, the zealous maintainers of law, are at the same time money-lovers. They deride Him therefore :for had not the law promised all temporal good to the man that kept it? From this it was easy for one that had never felt the hopelessness of man's condition upon that footing, to make the fruit of a man's own covetousness the token of his acceptance with God. They thus, as the Lord told them, justified themselves before men; but justification is not man's work, but God's :what human law allows one to judge his own case? when, alas, also, the world is in complete opposition to God, and what is esteemed most highly by it is with Him an abomination.

There was another thing. The dispensation of law was passing away. The law and the prophets were until John, and then the Kingdom of God was preached. Now every one had to force his way into that, through the opposition of those like these Pharisees who neither believed John, nor the One to whom he testified.

The passing of the dispensation did not mean that the law had failed. It could not fail:heaven and earth might pass rather than one tittle of it fail. It did not fail, when that to which it pointed came; nor when that was remedied which Moses for the hardness of their hearts had permitted, and the new dispensation perfected what the law was unable to enforce.

He gives them an example, which the former Gospels have insisted on more fully. Pharisaism had taken advantage of the permission of divorce to give sanction to a license against which the whole spirit of the law bore witness. Now all this was to be remedied. He that should put away his wife and marry another would now commit adultery; and he likewise who should marry a divorced woman. The exception given in Matthew with regard to this, and which is found neither in Mark nor Luke, is not really an exception:for the divorce only affirms the breach of the law of marriage which sin had already made in the case excepted.

Thus the law had not failed, but was only perfected in the Kingdom of God.

The Lord goes back now to illustrate the fundamental mistake that they were making by the contrast of two men, perfect opposites of one another in life and after death, but in either case with the reversal after death of the condition in life.

He pictures a rich man. so rich as that if the Pharisaic idea were right, he should have been in fullest favor with God. He is clothed in purple and fine linen, and passes each day in uninterrupted enjoyment.

There is a poor man at his gate, so poor as to be in beggary and starvation. He longs for the crumbs (the broken pieces) from the rich man's table; and the dogs-unclean animals for the Jew- come and lick his sores.

No evil is recorded of the rich man further than this, that he enjoyed himself to the full. Even neglect of Lazarus is not urged against him. Perhaps Lazarus may have got the broken pieces. That he remained a beggar is true:but is it supposed that a rich man is to feed and care for every beggar at his door-step? Nor do we read of anything to the credit of this Lazarus, Providence seems to have decided against him, and the law to have condemned him:for where are the good things the law has promised to those that keep it?

The beggar dies, and there is a marvelous change. Without any means by which to make friends for himself to receive him into the everlasting tabernacles, he is carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. A beggar, with everything against him as that, according to the law, gets a place that the best Jew in the world might envy him for. What has caused this? Not law, we may be sure Not any need of making up for that pitiable life on earth by the after condition. The testimony of the law settles this fully, and would settle it as well for any child of man. Nay, his name, Lazarus, Eleazar, "the Mighty One the Helper" gives us the only key to the explanation here. Spite of all else against him, God the Mighty One, acting apart from law, and so in grace, has lifted him from that degradation in which he was, to the place in which now we find him. He who has chosen Jerusalem, Jacob, Abraham, tiny other name in this line that you please to name, has chosen to do this-to display Himself in it :and who shall say Him nay?

The rich man also dies, and is buried. Again a marvelous, but now dreadful change ! In hades-it is not hell, Gehenna-he lifts up his eyes being in torment, and sees Abraham from afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. "And he called and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue:for I am tormented in this flame."

The language is, of course, as figurative here as on the other side is Abraham's bosom. All representations of what is beyond the present life seem to partake of the same figurative character, which is, however, all the more adapted to appeal strongly to the imagination. The final judgment is not yet come; the once rich man has, as we presently see, brothers upon earth who may be warned to escape that place of torment. Resurrection, therefore, has not come any more than judgment, but the wrath of God is already realized in suffering which can be most suitably conveyed to us in terms like this. The hope of relief,-of such slight relief as is requested here, is presently declared to be in vain, an impassable gulf (or chasm) unalterably fixed between the lost and saved, no crossing or mingling to be, even for a moment; no hope of condition changing after death, such as many entertain today, for a moment to be thought of.

But the reason for the rich mail's coming into that awful doom is what is evidently intended to be pressed upon us. The Lord has already declared to his disciples that whosoever loseth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal; and that, if a man come to Him, and hate not his own life, he cannot be His disciple. This, it is plain, the rich man had not done. This only it is that is affirmed against him:"Child, remember, that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things"-not "good things" simply, but thy good things." He had chosen life on the wrong side of death, and lost it.

This loss is not merely that :for God cannot be simply passive with regard to sin. and the tormenting flame is the wrath of God upon it. Death is not extinction ; nor, therefore, is the second death. All that we find in this picture is the very opposite of this:it is intense realization. And if the pang of remorse is the soul's judgment of itself, (such judgment as the lost may be capable of,) the judgment of God is other than this, and more.

Oh, then, for a voice to warn men ! So thinks the poor sinner here. Companionship is no alleviation of this hopeless anguish. "I pray thee then, father," he says, "that thou wouldst send him to my father's house:for I have rive brethren; so that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment." Even this hope fails:"They have Moses and the Prophets," Abraham answers; "let them hear them." But he urges further:"Nay, father Abraham; but if one go to them from the dead, they will repent." But he said to him, "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead."

No fear that Moses should not receive due honor from the lips of Christ. These Pharisees with their strenuous seeking of a sign from heaven:these are they that dishonor Moses. "Take up, and read," disdainful Pharisee, and thou shalt see how Moses accuses thee of unbelief of all the signs that he has given, and which are fulfilled in Him that speaks to thee. Yet our hearts ache so often for something more, even with Scripture completed in our hands, and a greater than Moses speaking to us from it. Yet "all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink;" and out of all the host that did so, two men of those that came out of Egypt entered the land to which God was bringing them ! So with the men that wanted a sign now, did they dream that when He whom they had devoted to death should come back from the dead, they would he found giving large money to the keepers of His tomb, to have it believed a lie that He was risen ? So still, with their eyes tight shut, men cry for light.

QUES. 14.-Please explain the expression "washed us from our sins in His own blood " (Rev. 1:5). Is the reading of the Revised Version correct, "loosed" instead of "washed," and if so is there no thought of cleansing by blood except as applying to our position before God? Would it be correct to say that the blood is what gives us a perfect cleansing as to our standing before God, and the cleansing of the heart is by the new birth, through the word of God?

ANS.-The blood suggests the life given up as the atoning sacrifice provided in the love of God for our sins. It is that which avails before God, and is the ground of our perfect and eternal justification. The blood is thus Godward and its effects are in the holiest, whither Christ has entered by it for us. This is the work done for us. The work done in us is by the Spirit, through the word of God. The expression therefore, "washed us in His own blood," would not refer to the personal cleansing of the believer's soul, but the effectual work of Christ which presents him perfect before God. While the reading, "loosed us " is well supported, it is not necessarily the correct one, and "washed" is more like John's writings. See 1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14. Inward cleansing is by new birth, through the Word, and constant cleansing is by that Word applied to our hearts day by day. Of course, all rests upon the ground of Christ's finished work, but the distinction indicated should be preserved.

There are various forms of weakness in the saints. One is weak in mind, and lets any little "wind of doctrine" swerve him from the truth. Another is feeble in dealing with others, in the family or in the assembly. Still another is weak in resisting evil. But whatever may be the form this weakness takes, we may be assured that it is all summed up in one word-weakness of faith. Where faith is in exercise, it links us with God's strength. Nature does not act, and the various forms of weakness to which we are prone will be displaced by the mighty power of God. It will be "not I but Christ." Well do we need to pray, "Lord increase our faith."

" Hear, O Israel :The Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with, all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day. shall be in thine heart :And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates" (Deut. 6:4-9).

The book of Deuteronomy is by no means merely I a repetition of the laws in the other Mosaic books. While there is a reiteration of some, and an enlargement or curtailment of others, the book has a character of its own which is clearly marked. Unbelief may wrest this, as it ever attempts, into proof of contradiction, and therefore of later origin, but faith sees God behind all, and seeks to learn His reasons in what may seem at first contradictory statements. Nor is faith disappointed, for here are the rich mines of truth, where are found the most beautiful gems.

Deuteronomy is the book of moral principles, the book in which God goes over His law afresh with His people, impressing upon them its holiness, and warning them of the dangers of neglect or disobedience. In it we find much that would be out of place in the other books. It is a sort of divine commentary upon all that had preceded it.

The passage now before us occurs near the introduction to the main part of the book, which is devoted to the enforcement of the law. We have first the historical setting of the law, the circumstances under which it was given at Sinai, together with the ten commandments themselves. Then follows this, which may be considered as a text for the whole succeeding discourse.

It begins with the unity of God, excluding all other thought of deity, and then claims for Him the complete devotedness of the heart. It is the scripture quoted by our Lord as the first and greatest of all the commandments, including as it does all others, for when God has His place in the heart, every duty is-attended to with the proper motive.

Thus he who keeps this first and greatest commandment, and the second which is like to it – "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,"-has kept the whole law, for " Love is the fulfilling of the law." Alas ! all are condemned by this divinely simple requirement, for love does not come at command, and from hearts alienated from the life of God nothing but enmity to Him can come.

But we can thank Him that we have been delivered from the condemnation deserved from the law, broken by those who were under it, and that we are never to be under that which is ever the "strength of sin," and not of holiness. As those to whom law, as such, has nothing to say, we may now turn to it and find the principles which govern it, principles which are in perfect accord with all God's thoughts and ways. Thus we get lessons of blessing and profit, and through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in us," the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." The Spirit shed abroad in our hearts has revealed the love of God, and now, not as a matter of requirement, but of the constraint of love, we desire to walk in a way pleasing to God. " The love of Christ constraineth us."
It is only thus that the portion we are looking at becomes either endurable or possible of accomplishment. It is absolutely inflexible, and, as we have called it, a monopoly, of time, strength,-all that a man has. Who, beloved brethren, could think for a moment of such complete absorption in the things of God if there were any latent suspicion of His perfect love to us in the heart ? More than this, unless His claim upon us, and His authority over us, is completely acknowledged, none could yield themselves up unreservedly to Him.

But, blessed be His name, He has won our poor hearts to Himself, and has also established a twofold claim, of the most absolute character, upon us. We are His by creation, and His by redemption as well ! "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price."

We are perfectly familiar with the doctrine that we and all we have belongs to God, and that we owe to Him the love of our whole being ; but it is one thing to accept this as a statement of truth, and quite another to let it be manifest practically in the daily life. What is to occupy us now is not anything new in doctrine, but that with which we are abundantly familiar. May the Lord make it more a practical reality in our hearts and ways. Thus and thus only can the reproach of the enemy be removed, that grace has no power in the daily life. What a solemn consideration, that the only power for holiness should thus be discredited through the practical unbelief of those who are the objects of the grace. But let us look further at the scripture.

"And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart." The heart is the seat of authority and power in man. The mind has knowledge, but the heart includes the will and the affections, with the conscience also. It is not sufficient that the word of God should be in the intellect. Indeed there is great danger in a merely intellectual interest in the things of God. Truth unfelt, which has not searched out our own lives, is a most deadly thing to trifle with. Nothing so effectually sears the conscience and leads to the loss of all spiritual power as truth merely in the mind. It is that Laodiceanism which is the mark of the apostasy of the last days, days even now upon us.

Nor is this a danger to which the true people of God are not exposed. In one sense they are peculiarly open to it. Their minds are stored with much precious truth, the remnants of other and brighter days of spiritual joy and power. This truth has ceased to act upon the conscience, to affect the practical life. It is therefore the suited instrument, ready to the hand of the enemy. With it he induces a familiarity with holy things that leads to looking upon them as common. Oh, the awful sin of despising the wonders of divine grace by growing familiar with them in an unholy way ! It is this that leads to sin, often of the grossest kind.

"Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee." Do we know of this hidden word, down in the secret depths of the heart? Other concerns may engage our minds, and must do so, of necessity; but the hidden man of the heart is nourished only by the Word hidden in the heart.

As we have said, this suggests that the word has authority over our consciences. Our sense of right and wrong is thus formed by the truth of God. What a difference this would make in the lives of many. Too often it is the opinion of others that is the guide for the conscience. As a result the standard is lowered constantly, God is gradually excluded, and all is reduced to the level of a merely worldly morality. We are to be imitators of one another's faith, but never of one another's conscience.

The will too is included in the term heart, and this must also be under the power of the word of God if it is to produce in us that right living which is to show the power of grace, while love can only come from the heart. The "love of the truth" must be received, in " a good and honest heart." The word of God reveals His will to which our wills must bow. It searches out all in us that is contrary to that will. Humbling indeed but most necessary is this breaking of our natural wills, but how blessed are the results. An unbroken will is a most effectual barrier to all spiritual progress, or true service. There may be much Martha-like energy, but it will only fret the soul and take it out of the Lord's presence. Till the will is truly subject, the very citadel of the life is in the hands of the flesh.

Notice too how it is not merely the Word in general, very important in its place, but the words, the separate statements for special conduct, that are to be in the heart. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly."

"And thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children." When the heart is occupied, it will find an outlet, and most naturally this will first reach those for whom we are first responsible, and who are nearest to us. It is a common confession that it is easier to speak to strangers of the things of God than to those nearest to us. But why should this be ? Do we not naturally love our own most ? and what most concerns us and them will surely be easily spoken of. May we not find the reason why this is not the case in the fact that the Word is not in the heart ? If there, it will surely find its natural outlet in the first circle of the affections, the family.

How is it with us beloved ? Is the family altar set up in the home ? Are the things of God matter for unconstrained conversation at the table ? Ah, what is our table talk ? Nor will it do to say that we cannot always be dragging in Bible themes in the home. Where the heart is filled there will be no effort to drag in, they will rise in love from a full heart, in all simplicity and spontaneity. Happy the home where this is the case.

But there is more :these things must be taught diligently to the children, or, as correctly rendered in the margin, be sharpened for them. As with the parents, so with the children, the Word must reach the conscience. To do this, nothing must be allowed to take off its keen edge. The word of God is a sword, and what is a sword without a keen edge ? There is a danger of taking this edge off only too common. Nothing so easily and effectually dulls the edge of the word of God as to see that it has no power over the lives of the parents. Children are the mirrors of their parents' hearts in very many ways. How can they expect the children to obey that which so little affects their own life ?The Lord awaken His beloved people as to this !

"And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way." The first part of this we have already looked at. The second is closely linked with it, and flows from it. A merely garrulous person will pour out a flood of unprofitable conversation upon the scriptures without help to the hearers, but it is not likely that one who lives it out in the home, and enjoys fellowship in the things of God in that inner circle, will pour out foolishness in public. This is doubtless why the qualifications for an elder or a leader in the house of God are so largely of a domestic character.

But what have a business man's acquaintances to say about him? Do they know him to be a child of God, walking in His fear? If the word of God flows from his lips like water from a fountain, he will be known and marked. What a protection against temptation would that be, to put it on the lowest ground. "And when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Scripture frequently warns against ungirded loins. A careless, state is what we are in constant danger of falling into. And yet our gracious God is no hard master. As our Lord said to His disciples, so does He say to us, "Come ye apart and rest awhile." The constant strain upon all the energies, and which is so disastrous in many cases, is not the Lord's will for His people. " It is vain for you to rise up early, and to sit up late." After all, this constant rush is but another name for the covetous, restless spirit which marks the age. May the Lord keep His dear people, so far as is possible, from it.

But for how many is rest and relaxation but the opening for carelessness. Under the plea for a change, worldly ways and thoughts are allowed which grieve the Spirit. This is shown by the loss of taste for the word of God, and for occupation with divine things. How different is this from our Lord. Weary with His journey, resting at the well, He is. ready to deal with the sinful woman who meets Him there. He fully exemplified this of which we are speaking. He could never be taken by surprise, for the simple reason that He had nothing but God's will and word in His heart. May we learn to have the sense of the Lord's presence with us in our seasons of leisure and relaxation, to have all our cheerfulness seasoned with the salt of His word.

One of the most difficult questions to settle, especially for the young, is that of amusement. Without doubt here is where Satan robs most of their power and usefulness. He endeavors to have them think of relaxation as something of their own, out of which God and His word is tacitly kept. As a result certain pleasures are enjoyed without God, the appetite for them increases, a distaste for divine things follows, and the world holds the heart. Ah, how many dear young Christians have gone in this path. Let us avoid the first step. Let us rigorously refuse everything in which we cannot have as a companion the precious word of God.

The air which surrounds us presses upon every portion of the body with perfect uniformity. The entire weight resting upon a person is something enormous, but it is not felt, because the pressure is the same everywhere. But let the pressure be taken off one portion of the body, and the weight of the air pressing upon the rest of the body will force the blood through the pores of the skin. It would be torture to have the air thus removed, and yet how much spiritual torture is endured in the effort to exclude God from any portion of the lifer If He pervades all, it is not realized what a mighty force is resting upon us, but let Him be excluded and the irksomeness of His presence in anything is felt.

Let us not forget it, beloved brethren, God must have the monopoly in our lives. He must be all, or we will wish Him to be nothing.

"And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes." In the last days, under the sway of the Beast, none will be allowed to buy or sell who have not received his mark upon their forehead or right hand. They are to publicly own him in work or speech. There is wisdom in this, of a worldly, devilish kind. Satan's kingdom cannot stand if it is divided, and only by rigid exclusion of all that owns Christ can he hold his own.

With the people of God too there are to be no compromises, and so they are to have the word of God as a frontlet where all can see it. This hides the world from the saint's view save as he sees it through the medium of truth. Thus it is stripped of all its varnish and seen in its true light. The eye thus covered can discern the emptiness of all the gaudy tinsel of earthly things. Thus the frontlet serves a double purpose; he is committed to the Lord, and he has spiritual discernment.

But the word is to be upon the hand as well. How searching the thought that all our doings are to be controlled by the word of God. Would the hand be found doing evil if this sign were bound upon it? How this would check all that was not according to that word.

"And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." All that one has is thus marked with the seal of the living God. His sign of ownership is to be upon all. But it will be noticed that it is to be put there voluntarily. The child of God is to do it. It is the badge of a willing, loving allegiance to One who has loved and redeemed us.

A divine monopoly:do we recognize it and acquiesce fully in it? Would we have it otherwise if we could? Ah, if the heart has grasped the fulness of everlasting love, and seen the completeness of redemption, it can give but one answer-"Christ is all." The one prayer will be, Thy will only, and all Thy will be done, always. May it be so with us.

(Acts 5:15. 16.)

When God works, it is a small matter what instrumentality He uses or how He may employ it. There was most certainly no virtue in the shadow of Peter, and it is just as true that there was no virtue in the hand of Peter or in himself at all. This he himself realized most fully. "Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk. . . . The God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus" (Acts 3:12, 13). All the power and all the glory were ascribed to their proper source. It was the power of the name of Christ that availed for the faith of those who would put the beds of the sick where the shadow of Peter might fall upon them.

But most certainly this was a remarkable occurrence. There can be no question that God honored the faith of these people, and that the healing in the sixteenth verse was due to the power of God making use, in some cases at least, of the strange instrumentality. One thing impresses us-the power of God was operating marvelously and unhinderedly. What an amazing thing for simple men to be used in this way; and how humble and dependent they must have been. An emptied vessel is what the Lord delights to use.

We have learned to look at the manner as well as the results of God's working, and to find instruction in details apparently unimportant or unmeaning. Leaving aside the miraculous power bestowed on the apostle, for performing wonders on the bodies of the sick-a power which had its special uses at that time, and which is not the highest form of blessing-let us ask if there is any meaning for us, any lesson of profit in this occurrence.

A shadow is caused by the sun falling upon an object. No object in the shade can cast a shadow. It must be open to the unobstructed action of the sun; it must be "in the light."

We are each in our measure to be not merely recipients of mercy but transmitters of it to others. In this way we are entrusted with the gospel, and, as imitators of God, are to represent Him in a world that knows Him not. But the power for all such work is not in ourselves, but in Christ our Lord. If we are to cast a shadow, we must abide in the light, we must let the " light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" shine unobstructedly upon us.

The reason why so many of the Lord's people are of no use in the world, of no blessing to others, is because they are in the shade. Something has come in between themselves and the source of all light and power. Oftentimes it may be comparatively a harmless, or even a useful thing that thus eclipses for us the direct light of the sun. A man's business, a woman's household duties and cares, may be thus permitted to come between them and the Lord. The result is they cast no shadow, exert no influence for Him.

Now all this opens up a very interesting and profitable line of thought of a practical character. Let us seek to trace it out in a way simple enough, but perhaps suggestive to each of us to make application to ourselves personally.

Home is the place where first impressions are received and given. It is the place of God's establishment-" He setteth the solitary in families." None can estimate the value of godly influence in the home, of the elders upon one another, and upon the children. We are speaking, of course, of Christian households, where the Lord is loved and His name honored. This home life is largely made up of small details, each in itself comparatively insignificant, and each too small to command our attention. How life is largely, in this way made up of actions of which we are scarcely conscious,-little bits of conversation, little acts of love,-example without knowing it.

Here is the place for the shadows of divine love to be cast. Take, for instance, the guidance and control of the children; they need instruction, "line upon line;" they need correction and, at times, chastening. But how often are all these administered apart from God. The parent is not "in the light," and no shadow falls upon the weak and erring little one. Instead, there may be endless talk, constant forbidding, frequent scolding, until the child longs perhaps to be out of the house, at school or with companions. Does not the taste for worldly associates oftentimes begin in this way? Home is the place for unpleasant reproofs, constant occupation with the evil, and the child is, as it were, driven elsewhere for its pleasure.

Far be the thought for a moment to disparage godly care and the exercise of a firm government in the home. Unquestionably much of the wreck in home, assembly, and in the world about us, has come through letting the reins of family-government fall from the hands. But there is only one way to exercise that government, and that is in the power of God's love.

"But," says the weary and overworked mother, "I have failed so often. I begin each day determined not to give way to temper, not to correct needlessly or to scold, and before the day has well advanced I have broken all my resolutions." Is not this an experience all too common among the saints of God? And yet how simple is the remedy. We are to abide in the presence of God, in the holy light of that love which can never be measured. We live in the sunshine. No effort to cast a shadow-who by trying could cast a shadow?-but our one care is to abide in the light, and the light makes the shadow possible.

There is exercise no doubt to be in the light. Many a thing inconsistent with that holy calm has to be judged-above all the word of God must be fed upon daily, accompanied by the spirit of constant prayer. Once in the light and there is no question about the shadow-the influence. Now, instruction is given in the wisdom of love, and there will be less need for spoken prohibition as the eye is quick to detect the power of a soul with God. Even the restless little ones feel this power, and are helped and corrected when the parent is least conscious of it.

There is little need to amplify; we all see and crave this power-how many of us lack it. Think, beloved brethren, of casting this shadow wherever we go:of it falling upon the salesman who waits upon you at the store, so that without effort a word is spoken for Christ our Lord, or a tract given. Think in the busy whirl of "the street," of casting this shadow. Do we covet it ? Let us live in the light. Let us give the Lord the joy of our fellowship, let us see that the Holy Spirit is ungrieved, and we too will cast a shadow wherever we may go.

Reader, do you realize that this world, as Satan's sinfulness and man's sinfulness have made it, is in God's sight a scene of moral degradation and darkness? And have you weighed the terrible fact which the word of God demonstrates, that, moving amidst such darkness, the great multitude of men are in themselves as dark as their surroundings?

Do you realize that the mass of men are lost souls, blindly groping their way in time, with eternity before them? that they are heart-hardened and conscience-seared victims of their own lusts? and that Satan induces them not to take their own sinfulness and that of their fellows too seriously, by means of plausible lies concerning this life, eternity, and God?

Do not men prove what they are by their thoughts and actions? Each individual has a selfish heart; therefore the world is full of selfishness. Each heart is a hot-bed of secret lusts which it would like to gratify. A certain proportion of these secret desires are actually carried into execution, making human society groan beneath its burden of crime and shameful deeds.

Select but one of the world's great cities, and take the record of its newspapers and police courts for but a single day! What an exhibition of the human heart! Yet here we have only such cases as reach publicity amongst the grosser outbreaks merely, which even man's law must prohibit in order to make this world tolerable even to sinners! But also consider the brood of social sins, winked at by man's law, which each day brings forth! And think, further, of the surging tide of impure thoughts and secret desires,-impulses of lust, covetousness, passion and hate,-which daily leave their defiling trail in the hearts of perhaps all in the city, high and low, depraved and highly "cultured," alike!

The flood of corruption and evil which prevails in the world is merely the aggregate of iniquity which is constantly being poured out from individual hearts. Each child of Adam, however respectable, contributes his part to this enormous cesspool. Whoever you are, my reader, certainly you also contribute your part. And the most appalling feature is the sad fact that each heart still contains within itself more and worse than it ever pours out,-yea, the spring and fountain of the evil! For human governments, courts, police, jails, and other social institutions,- corrupt as is their administration, in the hands of men who are themselves sinners like all others,-are nevertheless God's merciful provision to restrain man from unbridled license.

But a restraint is not a cure. Hence the attempts of all the reformers in the world's history to solve the problem of good and evil have proved futile. Such men (themselves also sinners, however respectable) attempt to curb and restrain the world's grosser evils, yet cannot eradicate the root of all these evils, since they cannot re-create the human heart and make it pure!

The sinful heart in your bosom and mine, my friend, is the thing at fault. The Saviour put His finger upon the sore spot,-this root of evil,-when He said:"That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:all these evil things come from within, and defile the man" (Mark 7:20-23).
Shall we, then, trim and doctor the branches of a tree which is rotten at the roots ? God, at least, is not so foolish. John, the fore-runner of Christ, testified :'' Now also the ax is laid unto the roots of the trees" (Matt. 3:10). And the Saviour Himself said, very plainly, and to a most respectable man, "Ye must be born again "! Man must be newly fashioned -through and through!

Thus even God Himself can command but two remedies to stem the flood of evil which surges from the inexhaustible source of evil in the human heart. (i) If we will permit Him to save us, honestly confessing to Him our need of this, He will eventually re-fashion these hearts of ours, making them holy for eternity. (2) But if we refuse His offer to do this (and we refuse it by rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ),, then He must bring our career of evil to a close in death and judgment, His wrath throughout eternity restraining the unchanged heart from breaking out into open sin.

Dear reader, which thing have you chosen,-to be a vessel of God's mercy, or a vessel of His wrath? to have your heart cured, and made fit for eternal happiness with the redeemed in God's presence, or merely to have your pestilential heart curbed and restrained in judgment, so as no longer to contaminate the moral atmosphere? Which have you chosen?

But not alone is man immersed in the corruption he has produced:he is in darkness concerning it,-deluded, blinded, as to his real condition, and the inexorable consequences flowing out of it. The word of God says:"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,-the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,-is not of the Father, but is of the world" (i John 2:15, 16). But men say (because their hearts are as dark as the world around them, the world answering to, and being in affinity with, what is in their hearts):"This world is good enough for me!" Reader, have you ever said or thought this? Is this world "good enough " for you? Then how good are you? Are you at home in this sin-laden atmosphere? How impregnated, then, with the virus of sin must your own heart and mind be!

A world of man's crime and misery! of sin, of suffering, of sorrow! of groans and pain and blasphemy and cruelty and selfishness and impure thoughts and deeds! Yet in such a scene most men are self-satisfied optimists, while they heartlessly tread one another down in the mad struggle for the selfish advantages and prizes of this life! Dear reader, are you one of this selfish multitude,-loving and seeking "the things that are in the world," jostling your way among fellow-sinners to grasp at these things, in order that you may gratify the sinful lusts of your flesh, the covetous desires of your eyes, and the vain pride of this life? Then may God have mercy upon you, before it is too late!

But how can men be optimists, in the face of this universal corruption, and each soul's contribution to it? The word of God explains this mystery. It is because the minds and hearts of men are immersed in "the snare of the devil," and "are taken captive by him at his will " (2 Tim. 2:26).

Satan, inspiring the minds of men, his dupes, is the author of all the optimistic systems of philosophy -of all the excuses for sin, and palliations of it, behind which men hide their seared consciences ! He it is who inspires and nourishes unbelief in every heart! who seeks to discredit the testimony of the word of God, in its exposure of the darkness ! who invents the slanders, voiced both by open infidels and by such professing Christians as the "higher critics," against the " Scriptures of truth " !

Satan forged the lie about God which, entering into the heart of Adam and Eve, corrupted them from their allegiance to God's word. And ever since, this "Father of lies" has continued to forge plausible sophistries, constantly tempering his methods, and his philosophy of unbelief, to the spirit of the times. Sinful man is naturally hostile to God, "because the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). And Satan is the spirit who, at his own will, stirs up and employs against the truth this natural enmity of the human heart. Scripture therefore speaks of him as '' the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience " (Eph. 2:2). So completely is the world under Satan's sway and subtle influence that he is also spoken of as "the god of this age." If men do not accept the light of God's revelation, it is simply because Satan, this world's god, has darkened and blinded the minds of his victims. For "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them " (2 Cor. 4:3, 4).

Thus, with the exception only of those who are saved through faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners, Satan deceives to their destruction the whole world. He holds the human intellect, in which man boasts, in his seductive power, prating of human progress, enlightenment, and the age of reason, while he lulls foolish men, who trust to their supposed wisdom, into false security-in the very face of their manifest corruption ! Hence Scripture proclaims the fearful fact that "the whole world lieth in the wicked one" (i John 5:i, Gr.) !

Such, in brief, is the moral darkness of this world:a scene where man wallows in his own corruption, while Satan's subtle inspiration makes black appear white to the sin-beclouded reason of fallen humanity, seducing men from realizing the facts as they are, or making them skeptics as to future consequences, through the cunning occupation of the mind with man's material achievements, and the insinuation into it of some one of the many schemes of fatal error!

But mark well, unsaved reader:as one living in Christendom, where the word of God is known, your condemnation proceeds not merely upon the fact that you are a responsible unit in the world's system of corruption. An additional verdict is rendered against you:that Light has shone into this darkness, through God's mercy and yet you have not honestly come to this Light, and pleaded guilty under its exposure, in order that you might be saved ! F. A.

(To be continued.)

In View of Questions Which Have Been Lately Raised.

I. THE PRESENT OUTLOOK ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE.

In looking out upon the features of our own times, and even in proportion to our personal interest in them, we are apt to project our own personalities upon them. That a sanguine person will take a hopeful view, where a desponding one will only see gloom and shadow, no one needs to be informed. But every idiosyncrasy, whatever it may be, is quite apt to make its mark upon the canvas of the picture. Hence the taking of one in a manner perfectly trustworthy is a thing as rare as it is desirable. How thankful should we be, therefore, for the briefest testimony of Scripture as to the character of the times through which we are passing, when it is the pathway for our feet that is in question, and our responsibility to God presses upon us at each step we take!

Such guidance we have, through the tender mercy of our Great Shepherd, in the seven epistles of the book of Revelation; every one traced by His own hand, and our attention called to every address, as in no other part of the word of God:he that hath an ear being bidden to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches! We are not going to dwell upon this now:the application has been long familiar to those for whom I am specially writing; but I would nevertheless press upon my readers the main points of that to Philadelphia, which (to myself at least) seems ever of more commanding interest as the time goes on, and the features of the last days develop themselves before our eyes.

There can scarcely be much difficulty in discerning what Philadelphia stands for. If the "woman Jezebel " makes popery absolutely plain in Thyatira, Sardis, having a name to live, though dead, yet with a remnant undefiled, marks out as clearly the state-churches of the Reformation. Philadelphia, following this, with its "brotherly love," as simply speaks of the movement to find and to separate the true Church out of this world-mass. Such has been more or less the character of many " revivals" since the Reformation, when there was sought a true "communion, of saints" and subjection to the word of Christ, rather than the state-upheld creed. Laodicea nevertheless closes the series here; a picture, alas, less and less hard to be read at present, of a church made more and more popular to please the masses, and lukewarm as to the Christ outside. But we have to do now with Philadelphia.

Here, if "brotherly love " characterizes the assembly, that which the Lord specially commends is classed tinder three heads:first, that they keep Christ's word; secondly, they have not denied His name; thirdly, they have kept the word of His patience. Their danger is that, having but "a little strength," they may not hold fast that which they have; the overcoming will, therefore, be in holding fast.

Of necessity the stream will be against them:that is no more than is implied in every phase in which men are found cleaving to God. The world is against God; and, the world having come into the church, the stream here is against God also. Where shall we find a haven of rest outside of it all? Not in any earthly refuge anywhere. Philadelphia is no place of rest, but the center of a battle-field; and the cry of "overcome" is found here as elsewhere. Our rest is only in the glorious Leader, who covers our head in the day of battle, and in the power of the Holy Spirit who can make something out of things that are not, and out of weakness make us strong. Our trust cannot be in the attainment of an ecclesiastical position, though a right one, – in principles of truth, although divine; through all this the enemy made his way at the beginning, when things were almost in their first freshness; no! we need tireless energy to resist fresh inroads; never more likely to be successful than when we are beginning to believe that the battle is over, and that our victories are to be now only in the quiet harvest-field,-in the ingathering of souls from the seed sown by the evangelist, or the recovery of the people of God themselves out of the superstition and error that have enwrapped them. Then indeed it may be that, while we are congratulating ourselves that we are leaders of the blind, lights of those who sit in darkness, instructors of the foolish, teachers of babes, the pit of darkness may be opening at our feet, to engulf us all.

A terrible thing it is, in fact, to think of that actual chasm which swallowed up the church of the apostles' days-the church of Peter and John and Paul-and left only as the successor of this the legal, hierarchical, ritualistic church of the so-called "fathers,"of which one well-known to us has said, "It is quite certain that neither a full redemption, nor, though the words be used once or twice, a complete possessed justification by faith, as Paul teaches it, a perfecting for ever by its one offering, a known personal acceptance in Christ, is ever found in any ecclesiastical writings after the canonical scriptures, for long centuries." In what, then, were they inferior to us, those men to whom apostles and prophets preached, -what have we that they had not, which is to assure us that we are not in danger of making such shipwreck of the faith as it is certain they did? What but the most foolish self-confidence could say, with such a warning before our eyes, that we were in none? Nor can we seriously consider the epistle to Philadelphia in connection with the character of the present times, without realizing that Satan's batteries to-day are turned upon the very central points of Philadelphian position ; and that we are contemplating the beginning of an apostasy from the Christian faith which will be more complete than any which have preceded it? What is the so-called "higher criticism," spite of its lamb-like speech where the flock of Christ perchance may be alarmed, but the most thorough attack that can be imagined upon the Word of Christ? He Himself was hardly beyond His times in matters of criticism ; and grounded His triumphant argument against the scribes as to David's Son being David's Lord upon a mere mistake as to the authorship of the hundred and tenth psalm! But, in fact, who knows if the evangelists have rightly reported Him? or who knows anything that the critics may please to question? Judgment is removed from the power of the common man:we have no more our Bibles with the appeal to every man's heart and conscience ; you must have trained specialists to settle the facts! and what they will leave you after they have completed their dissections is but the fragments of a corpse without voice or life!

Look again at the denial of Christ's Name! Was there ever a day in which heresies affecting His Person or work more abounded? or the tendency to leave out any particular demand for orthodoxy as to either, so long as people accept Him as their Leader in some way not to be too severely criticized. If you should have mistaken the Son of the Father for a mere servant of the Father's house, eternity will make that right, of course, and it is hoped that the mistake will not prove very serious! After all, the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man are the broad lines upon which religions are to be reconstructed today ; and we need not fear but that they will be found to run on into eternity.

This, it will be said, is outside the sphere of Philadelphia; but it is what infects the air which day by day we breathe, and Satan is the "prince of the power of it." There are plenty of modifications of such principles to ensnare those for whom the full poisonous dose would be too large; and what is even more to be noted is that there are apt to be contradictories and opposites of them, born, indeed, of reaction, which by this opposition may deceive the earnest-hearted. For the serpent's lie is scarcely ever the mere negative of truth; and he is apt himself to have an alternative to it, planned directly to catch the opposers. And he who goes by the safe-seeming rule of steering as far as possible from Scylla may find the enemy's Charybdis lying before him on the other side. With God is perfect guidance; but even with the word of God before our eyes, how far from it may we swerve through the self-will to which we are so prone!

I have no desire to conceal the thought that prompts me in writing the present series of papers, which is to examine in the light of Scripture principles and doctrines which are being put forth at the present time among those who, I believe, have truly filled a position answering to what the Spirit of God has characterized as Philadelphian, and which are but the enemy's wile to seduce them from it. Nay, I fear, in the wide-spread acceptance which they are certainly gaining, the loss of that precious deposit of truth which the grace of God had committed to their trust. This is, to me, much more than any ecclesiastical position, however true, which owes its value so largely to the truth to which it witnesses. I therefore desire to take up, with whatever ability the Lord may give, the main points that are in question; in which I shall be in large measure but retracing the outline of truths once familiar, once how precious!- only necessarily to put them in connection and comparison with what is now presented for truth, and not without the hope of some fresh light being elicited by the discussion; which is what God would surely overrule all our differences for. We shall try to look at the moral bearing of things; as indeed the one who is very much the cause of the present inquiry rightly presses:without this they cannot get their just value for our souls; and this is what, speaking for myself once more, I can say I desire. Oh that the value of God's truth may be more realized by us all! It is inestimable, as that which alone can form in us the mind of Christ; and as this, one cannot help contending for it, though it is no wonder if one's motives should be challenged, and one should be treated as a mere "accuser of the brethren." Protestations are of no avail in such a case; specially as those who charge this are not those most likely to seek to satisfy themselves if there may be a cause. One may be well content if there be some who go far enough with me to discern its gravity.

I do not propose, however, to try and establish any specific charges, or make any quotations from any one with regard to what we shall consider. I prefer to leave every one to make for himself the personal application, and thus to eliminate as far as possible the distressing personal element. Let the inquiry be strictly a scriptural one; though it must be along lines which are marked out by what has called forth these papers. Then, if after all one is only fighting a nightmare of the imagination, we shall still not have made, I trust, a wholly useless survey of some important truths. If, on the other hand, it should be found that there is some serious question raised with regard to views that are really current and finding acceptance with many at the present time, then let my readers, without regard to persons, take it into the court of their own conscience, with God alone as the Judge of all, and argue it out there, with all that could distract them put aside. Truth carries its own authority with it for the true; although that in no wise means the setting aside of needed exercise, and the absolute subjection of one's mind to Scripture where Scripture has plainly spoken. And indeed we have little truth, of any spiritual importance, outside of that which Scripture has given to us. We shall by the course pursued be as far as possible delivered from the collision of opinion as to what Mr–has said, or what he means by what he has said, and fasten our minds upon the one question of any prime importance, "What saith the Lord? "
There is, however, one question with which I shall now conclude. Looking again at the epistle to Philadelphia, and referring to the first two points in the commendation there, they are plainly these:"Thou hast kept My word, and not denied My Name." Serious, then indeed, would be the issue which raised question as to both of these! If there were admittedly a question as to the Person of the Lord plainly raised, and permitted to go at least without any public settlement of it; the thing dropped, perhaps, yet the offending expressions never withdrawn ! not justified; not condemned; not retracted! And again, if Scripture, while formally admitted to be the written and authoritative word of God, yet were always in practice distinguished from the "word of God, living and powerful," as that which does not exactly teach, and which, but for the failure of the Church, would never have been needed?

If these two things should demonstrably come together, what more would be needed to show the extreme gravity of the questions to be raised? F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

(Ezek. 14:12-21.)

Ezekiel, as we know, uttered his prophecy outside the land, though the captivity was not complete. Jerusalem had been captured, the land was in the hands of the Gentiles, and the final consummation was about to be reached. If there ever was a time calling for prostration of spirit before God, in all the reality of penitence, both individual and national, it was then. Alas, the people but manifested the absolute alienation of heart and life from God-a state of complete hopelessness, because they were wedded to their sins, they had "set up their idols in their hearts." With such complete apostasy, there was no hope for the nation; it was ripe for judgment.

It was in this connection that the Spirit of God declares that all connection with the nation as such is broken off, and He can only recognize individual faithfulness. He selects three representative men, in different circumstances, and widely separated in time from one another, and declares, " Though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness."

There is an evident contrast here with the state of Sodom, prior to its fall, when Abraham, in intercession, secured from God the promise that He would spare it if ten righteous were found in it. It was Abraham, and not God, who set that as a limit, for the patriarch ceased to intercede further, "and the Lord went His way " (Gen. 18:33):The same prophet also whom we are now following speaks of Sodom as the younger sister of Jerusalem (ch. 16:46-50).

It is interesting also to notice that each of these men, while exercising faith for himself, was instrumental in rescuing others. With Noah this was notably the case. He was the leader of the only remnant that escaped the flood that came upon the entire world. Daniel also was an intercessor, and through him the wise men of Babylon were rescued from the king's wrath, his brethren strengthened in their testimony for God, and the pledge of later national restoration given. ' Even in Job's case there was something of the same kind, for he interceded for his friends, and secured their acceptance before God.

Now the prophet declares that even such men as these could not be deliverers; they must stand alone. If there were any lingering hope in the heart of the people that faithfulness on the part of a few would atone for the sins of the nation, it was dissipated by this solemn word. It is similar to what had been declared through Jeremiah. "Though Moses and Samuel Stood before me, my mind .could not be toward this people "(Jer. 15:i). How hopeless then and how final must have been their heart departer from God.

Times and dispensations change, but the truth of God remains the same. The professing church has, alas, followed Israel, and with more light has gone further into absolute independency of God. His glory has departed from it, corporately, and while He ever blesses individual faithfulness, and owns the desire to obey His word in the few who still hold it fast, yet the united testimony has gone, never, alas, to be revived.

There is room, thank God, for individual faith, and a quiet testimony of the few. For such, without doubt, the history of these three men must have special significance. They are brought together from most distant times and scenes, apparently at random. Yet we know divine wisdom always has a purpose which it is ours to search out. May we learn some lessons, then, from these three men.

Noah lived, morally, in the end of the world. The end of all flesh had been reached, and, so far as man was concerned, nothing but judgment remained. But grace must have its resources even in the darkest hour, and we see its provision of shelter from impending judgment. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and during all the time the longsuffering of God waited, he testified of the world's sin and of God's mercy. Little enough fruit, it will be said, resulted from his long witnessing. But there are two facts to consider. Many must have died during the hundred and twenty years, and how many of these may have hearkened to his warnings, and turned to God ere it was too late. It is not for us to speculate, but we remember how God spoke at a later and somewhat similar time about Nineveh, of the multitudes who did not know their right hands from their left (Jonah 4:ii). May we not believe that possibly some from the multitudes of the ungodly were turned to Him through the preaching of Noah, and were taken away from the judgment to come ?

The other fact is beyond speculation. Noah's preaching was believed by his household. He carried them all with him into the ark. Contrast that with Lot, and his testimony to his mocking sons-in-law, his wife, lost on the very brink of Sodom, and his daughters apparently lost after they had escaped the corruption of that wicked place. Is it not worthy of consideration that Noah could thus influence his own family?

But this suggests the fitness of naming Noah as the first remnant character we are to consider. Judgment was before him. He accepted the shelter provided of God, and in the long years, when judgment lingered, he bore his testimony in the face of an ungodly and mocking age. Is not that the position of God's remnant in these days ? For us the coming of the Lord is a blessed hope, but for the world it is the end of probation, and the beginning of doom. Our testimony is to be to the certainty of that judgment and to God's merciful provision against it. No one can truly maintain a testimony in these days who does not emphasize the near approach of judgment. May we not add that nothing is more uncommon and distasteful to man than such testimony ? This is in itself a solemn intimation of the nearness of the end. There will come mockers in the last days saying, Where is the promise of His coming ? Our Lord also likens the indifference in Noah's day to that of the time just preceding His coming.

Beloved brethren, is this our testimony, not merely upon our lips, but so real that our families believe it ? How searching is this. But such was Noah; he bore witness to a soon-coming judgment from which he was most effectually to be sheltered.

Daniel follows next, not in order of time, for Job far antedated him, but there must be some reason for his having the second place. There is something remarkable in his being mentioned at all, for he was living when Ezekiel wrote. When we think of the simplicity of his faith, the firmness of his separation and the clearness of his testimony, we are not surprised that even his contemporaries had been struck by it. What an honor, unsought surely by that lowly man, to be known for his devotedness and subjection to God, and thus to be associated with the faithful of all time. Beloved, do we so live that our names, even if unknown here, are entered upon the rolls of that "goodly company " who have in all time stood for God ?
Daniel was a captive, not only a witness to ruin impending, but a partaker of that ruin. He had been carried to Babylon to be a servant to its king, and the honor of the beloved city, yea, the honor of God, was in the dust. But his faith was as vigorous as though he were living in the brightest days of Joshua's or Solomon's government. He was as careful not to defile himself at Babylon as at Jerusalem. For him the will of God was just as real as it ever was, and to be as implicitly obeyed. For him too the promises and power of God were unchanged, and he rested in. them implicitly. The key to his entire history is found in his Nazariteship. He walked in separation from his surroundings, and therefore had power. This explains too his understanding of what was in the future for the kingdoms of the world. He maintained his separation, and therefore his testimony. When the time of persecution came, he was not found wanting. He could go into the lions' den as calmly as he went to prayer, and for the same reason-God was with him.

The Lord give us to be true Daniels, in these days of the world's supremacy ; to maintain our separation at all times and at all cost. May we be in that attitude of loyalty to our Lord that will not compromise His truth no matter what suffering it involves. Job suggests other thoughts. There was no stir of preparation for a flood in his life, nor did he have to maintain a separate walk and testimony in the midst of an ungodly world, as Daniel. The current of his life had run as smoothly as possible, until the time of testing came, and that was exclusively an individual experience.

For this reason there are some lessons of special importance which appeal to our consciences strongly. The prominent thought in Job's history is the nothingness of human goodness. He was a righteous man to begin with, and all Satan's malice could not alter that. He maintained his integrity through it all. But God used his troubles and the harshness of his friends to prepare him for an unfolding as to his character of which he had not dreamed. He is brought into the presence of God, and there learns his vileness and nothingness, as he had never before. He learns the lesson and comes out of the furnace purified. It is this lesson of no good thing in us that we have to learn in the inmost depths of our souls, if we are to be truly God's remnant. Painful, humbling it is, but who that in any measure has been in Job's place has failed to get the blessedness of it ? We can conceive of one being harsh in bearing witness of coming judgment :a separate man may have a tinge of Pharisaism about him ; but if he has reached the end of himself in the presence of God, he will be neither harsh nor censorious, but a broken vessel for the Spirit of God to use as He sees fit.

The Lord lead us, beloved brethren, into these things, that we may in these days of hopeless darkness, still maintain His truth, according to His nature, and His desire for His people.