" Much food is in the tillage of the poor:but there is that is destroyed (ruined) for want of judgment" (Prov. 13:23).

The truth of this statement is confirmed in the natural world every day, and in the spiritual also, among the redeemed of the Lord. How often in the humble cottage with but a few acres of ground around the dwelling, yet the home warm and cozy, the well filled table, all bear witness to the fact, while it is the humble dwelling of but a poor man, yet he has been diligent in using all he has, and there is "much food in the tillage of the poor." The spade and the hoe are well used :he digs and sows, he weeds and cares for his little crop; and his precious time is utilized and the result is the comforts of home are there. Wise, and happy in the end, is such a poor man. "The diligent soul (if even poor) is made fat."

But on the other hand, how many a man is ruined (destroyed) financially and morally "for want of judgment. " With every advantage and much ground to use, yet through "lack of judgment," in improving time, and talent, and diligence in using all within reach, in the end there comes a crash. The fields may be large and the house great and wide, yet there is a lack, and all bears witness to the truth of what we have just read.

But we will turn from the scenes of nature that afford us seasonable lessons indeed, and take a look at this passage in the light of our lives spiritually. " Blessed are the poor in spirit :for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven " (Matt. v, 3). This is one of the characteristic marks of the Christian life, till the bright day of manifested glory.

As we thus rightly view the Christian life, as associated with Christ in His rejection, while He is in heaven, we ought to see these marks distinct and plain. " Blessed are the poor in spirit." The whole life now takes shape from the place Christ occupies. He is rejected and so are we (if true) rejected. He is outside this scene altogether, and we are also separated and to walk as strangers.

He is in heaven, and our life and walk, aims and objects are to be all heavenly, formed and shaped by His present place above, and in view of His return so soon, when we will have the blessedness of association with Him forever.

The world has another sphere of existence altogether, that is the life of the unconverted as away from God; and, to a man of the world, people with such aims and objects and characteristics are a poor people indeed. And, in truth, compared with what they aspire after, we are poor. See what the priests and elders of Israel said concerning the apostles, "Ignorant and unlearned men." They had not much of what gives men a place in life, nor what makes men heroes in the world, yet they were all this in the eyes of the Lord. But they were linked by the Holy Spirit to Christ in heaven, while associated also with the assembly, or Church of the living God on earth.

Now from this house of God, the home of the poor in spirit till He come, let us look for a little and see if we can discern the well filled table-"much food in the tillage of the poor."

If the two things are kept distinct and clear, it will be seen that one is dependent Upon the other, "the field" and "the house." What a poor farm if it has no house to turn into as night comes on, and hunger is felt ! What a poor house and table if there is no field around to replenish and sustain it ! This is what the same preacher meant when he wrote, "Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field :and afterwards build thy house" (Prov. 24:27).

The poor man's place, then, we, as Christians, can associate ourselves with (Zeph. 3:12), and these the Lord has left here while He is away. But let us first look at the field without, and see how things go there. For the application of what is upon the writer's mind, as to the ground which surrounds the dwelling-place, we will partition, or draw a fence-line, and call the field that lies to one side of the house the field of study and meditation, and this comes first; and just on the other side lies the field for service. In both these places we require diligence of soul, and the assembly, the house, depends upon both to be replenished and sustained.

To grasp rightly the truth of what the assembly of God now on earth is dispensationally and locally is a great help in Christian life, serving as an anchor in many ways, and furnishes each believer with a true home. We know there have been abuses of this important truth from the assumption of Rome for so long, down to those among ourselves, with whom we have gone into the house God and taken sweet counsel together, yet the extremes of some, or arrogant assumption of others ought not to hinder us using and enjoying what is dear to the heart of God and Christ.

To these two fields we will briefly turn, and look at what they furnish our home and table with. The first field lies open before us,- it is the precious word of God, our Bible. We see written over the gateway as we enter, "In the beginning God created" etc., and we exclaim as we enter such a sacred enclosure, What need for diligent carefulness and prayer! There lies before us, the whole book, not for preachers and teachers merely, but for the weakest and feeblest of Christ's flock. From the start then, we feel what neglect there is here by the mass of Christians; what darkness prevails for the lack of the light which the Word supplies; how much worldliness and failure we perceive – as weeds growing up – that mar and in the end ruin the believer's testimony for want of knowing ana following the holy precepts therein given ! As we enter this gateway, as before said, we are introduced to the gracious Giver of all good, the Author of the book. "God created" "made" "gave" and "said." (See also John 3:16.) As we enter this sacred enclosure, we feel truly it is not a newspaper, nor book of fiction that is before us, but the precious words of the Eternal. Who is sufficient for these things? human nature here is often heard to say. Yet at the same time we feel the warm clasp of a Father's hand, guiding His children through those fields of profit and blessing.

Oh what a privilege, beloved reader, to be in possession of such a book, such a revelation. May we know better this year than last to use our pick and shovel, our spade and hoe, and gather from its precious fulness as the man who diligently works every foot of ground around his dwelling, or as the miner that turns up the mountains and discovers the wealth beneath. (See Job 28:, J. N. D. translation.) "That is a path which no fowl knoweth and which the vulture's eye hath not seen." No! none but the busy miner knows these places and discovers this wealth. Let us beloved, be more diligent to use our time and remember every foot, every inch of that holy ground is ours (2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Josh. 1:3).

The historical lessons are there full of interest and profit from the examples set before us for instruction.
The typical lessons are so closely woven into the texture of these histories of old, that,-while the mind needs always to be curbed in this study, yet, having the guidance of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand to neglect this portion is to neglect one of the most fruitful and profitable parts of Holy Writ.

Then there are the prophetic lessons also, as the apostle terms it "a light that shineth in a dark place till the day dawn and the morning star arise " (2 Pet. 1:). All these things furnish the child of God and equip him for testimony and service.

Then the practical lessons are not to be forgotten, as we study the historical, typical, and prophetic in communion with God; and under the guiding of the Holy Spirit with the glory of Christ before us, we will welcome all that is practical and be sanctified by the Word; we will gather from those fields, fruit, and food to supply the table. Oh for more hearty diligence in this line of things! our hearts would be full of matter; our assemblies week after week would be supplied and the table laden with this food. Never would souls then turn away disappointed and unfed. The little assemblies all over the land would be as the humble home, with a well filled table, if we were in the field of reading, study, and meditation upon the precious word of God. "Much food is in the tillage of the poor." Beloved, my heart is stirred as I think of the neglect here, and would fain abide here, and exhort and expand further, but now must close this part. As we pass on from this field of God's word to the side opposite, we are encouraged, comforted, and strengthened, for there falls upon us as dew from heaven as we enjoy its pages and themes, bringing a divine benediction, – "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Christ and His glory is the theme of the whole Book. It is the written word of God; He the living word of God. His work is seen in creation and His glorious power manifested therein, but in the four Gospels we are brought face to face with Him in all the perfections of His humanity. Then, as we stand beside the cross, we view Him as the sin-bearer and at the sight we are lost in wonder, love and praise.

But, passing on, we soon discover an empty tomb, as well as a vacant cross; and now as the Man Christ Jesus rises, and the cloud receives Him, we behold the throne filled with His presence, and the heavens with His glory; and from that scene He sends down the Comforter to abide with and instruct His people, and conduct them through life's journey "till He come." The Book, the precious word of God, is our chart along the way. May we use it and feed upon it, as the prophets of old, until we see Him face to face.

We verily believe the carelessness and indifference in other parts of the Christian life are due to the neglect of the word of God, in prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit. When the Word is diligently fed upon and enjoyed, it will awaken desires to impart to others. Such is the gracious spirit of Christianity, which takes its shape and pattern from God's great love in the gift of Christ " (John 3:16).

Let us now look over into that great field of need close by the assembly,-the world of living beings, hurrying on to eternity:and, beloved, as we look upon each one, weigh well the fact that each human being that we see and know has a soul which will spend eternity either among the redeemed in a scene of bliss, or among the damned forever. Let us think again seriously, and carry the fact to our quiet room, and, as we bend the knee in silent prayer, ask, " Lord, what will Thou have me to do," in respect to this great need around us ?

Some of our gatherings are dwindling down in numbers, and is there not a need for examination with care, and a search for the cause ? and may not this worm-neglect of earnest gospel zeal-be what is sapping the life, and hence leaving us without fruit in build up the gatherings. Eccl. 10:18, is a picture of many an assembly, once fair and beautiful, but now decay has set in. The assembly is dependent upon the field of service. Just as it is dependent upon the field of study for the building up and profit of all within as to ministry, so it is dependent upon the gospel for keeping from decay. As time passes on, some are taken home, and the [young soon become old, and who are to take their place ? Here is the need of constant gospel energy and zeal, and where this is lacking there is a loss for us now in the gatherings, and then loss in eternity.

May we find here '' much food in the tillage of the poor." True, we will need to work, and in this work there will be need, of self-denial; but again, as we note the joy of souls born into the family of God, delivered from the coming wrath and saved for the coming glory, even here the soul is well repaid for any outlay, any self-denial.

God's mind is surely that the assembly is the proper place, and only proper place, for such people as those born again. (See Song 1:8.) Any ministry that fails of this end, falls short, we are sure, of being like the apostle Paul's. The field here is large, and the need great and varied. Oh what need of a faithful united testimony among the people of God according to the Word, of earnest and hearty interest in the preaching of the gospel to the unsaved, of prayerful interest and sympathy with those wholly given up to such a service, and a generous use of the printed matter which is so accessible in our day.

The zeal of Adventists, Millennial-dawnists, Christian Scientists, and even Mormons, scattering their pernicious and soul destroying doctrines ought to stir us up to scatter the truth of God's word. If we are thus earnestly and heartily engaged in this, doing what we can according to our measure, we are sure God will honor His Word. He cannot deny Himself, and there will be "much food in the tillage of the poor,"-fruit in the salvation of souls and in the advancement of Christians. Thus the gatherings will be kept from decay, by the infusion of new blood, new material.

But on the other hand we are as assured of the truth of the other portion of the verse:'' there is that is destroyed (ruined) for lack of judgment. When there is not a prayerful godly united assembly, how
can we look for anything but a blighted testimony. When the hours are spent in criticism and gossip instead of prayer and conference as to the interests of Christ, how can we look for fruit in the gospel? When there is indifference as to preaching the gospel, distributing the gospel and truth furnished by the press to-day, how can we look for fruit ?

And again, when there is a neglect to care with pastoral hearts for the weak and young among us, and when over severity is manifested instead of love and gentleness caring for the weak and even erring, how can progress and development be expected in the assemblies? Ezek. 34:1-6 is a word we all need to weigh well, and ask ourselves how far we have had a hand in these things. In many places we are assured the testimony among the people of God has been destroyed for this lack of judgment. We are now near the end of the journey. While grace may linger a little longer, and we be left here, may we beloved reader, have grace to keep from the evils around us, and profit, and reap, and enjoy food, and feed others by the diligent toil in those two fields; the first, the study of the word of truth; the other, earnestly winning souls for God our Father and Christ our Lord, and for an eternity of bliss. A. E. B.

Of course, the Christian grows. Jesus Himself grew as a human being, in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. It is a great law of the natural and spiritual kingdoms. First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. In first John, you find repeated mention of little children, young men and fathers, 1:e., different grades and stages of Christian life. "Desire the sincere milk (or spiritual milk, Rev. Ver.) of the Word that ye may grow thereby (i Pet. 2:-2; i Cor. 3:1-6; Heb. 5:12, 13). A man may have been a Christian for years and yet be only a little, puny babe in Christ.

It is a most blessed privilege that we may depend on our gracious God and Saviour to direct our paths and supply our needs.

The old man or our old man which is spoken of as crucified with Christ I understand to be the man. I, myself, as I was born, a descendant of fallen Adam, an individual reproduction, a living specimen of the old stock, with a selfish perverted will, a darkened mind, unholy affections, corrupt tastes-dead in trespasses and sins; as such a man I had a perverted, diseased, degenerate nature.

I, that old man, died, was crucified (Rom. 6:6) with Christ; I live no more, Christ liveth in me, a new self substituted in place of the old I. Now although the old I is dead and gone before God and for faith, yet the old nature is left behind, is here with its evil tendencies and desires. It wants to do this and does not want to do that. It is ready to flare up and get hot, or get cold and indifferent, to stuff itself with anything that tastes good, and to gratify or indulge any desire or appetite that is excited for the time being. But the new man is a human being of a Christly, Divine order. Christ in you, with a nature that is marked by love, joy, peace; that is gentle, patient, etc. One nature is fleshly, the other is spiritual. One wants to do just as it pleases, the other just as the Lord pleases.

These are contrary the one to the other, and if left to fight it out between themselves the old nature will get the upper hand.

But God by His Spirit, through the Word, teaches us that "our old man has been crucified with Christ." That Christ "died unto sin once," and rose again and "liveth unto God," and that we, who are His, are to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin by His death and alive to God with His life, by reason of the fact that we are in Him now by new birth as we were once in Adam by the first birth. And we are not to let the sin (to which we died in Christ our substitute) have dominion over us, but yield ourselves unto God as alive from the dead, and let Him have control of us and rule us by His own almighty loving Spirit.

Not only that but being dead to sin, and dead to law (by the body of Christ), we are married to another, even to Him that was raised from the dead, joined to the Lord (by the one Spirit by whom we are baptized into one body) and are now one spirit (Rom. 7:1-6; i Cor. 12:12, 13). Depending on our adorable Lord and Head, occupied with Him, we bring forth fruit unto God. And thus though sin the old slave master is present, yet his authority and power over us are gone. We know the truth (the truth of Christ as our precious Redeemer, Deliverer, Emancipator. We know Him as the truth, and the way, and the life) and the truth has made as free. Hallelujah.

IN VIEW OF QUESTIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN LATELY RAISED.

7. RECONCILIATION, AND THE REMOVAL OF THE OLD MAN.

The presentation of what is claimed to be the truth as to reconciliation is a very good example of the style of argument which largely prevails among teachers of the school we are reviewing; with whom boldness of assertion seems to make up for lack of demonstrative force. It is amazing in these reports of conferences from which our knowledge of their utterances have mostly to be gained, how little serious attention is given to the Scriptures which are professedly before them, and how little serious attempt there is to hold them to Scripture. Texts are cited, of course; and sometimes a feeble demurrer is made, sure to be silenced immediately, though it were only by an emphatic repetition of the statement questioned. It is easily seen, as the present leader, though with a certain wise caution, says himself, that they are not "simply!" – who are "simply?" – expositors of Scripture, but only of what Scripture has taught them ; but we are right in expecting that what Scripture has taught them shall be able to stand an appeal to both text and context ; and this one finds here indeed little asked or proffered. There are remarks, to be sure, upon texts many, the effort to connect which with the context, and so with serious exposition is sometimes remarkable enough.

For instance, in a question raised with regard to the assertion that " fellowship with the Father and the Son," as spoken of in John's first epistle, was limited to the apostles, reference is made to the sixth verse of the first chapter, " If we say that we have fellowship with Him." The answer is ready:"That is saying, if we say we 'have it. It does not say we have it." And here is the exposition:"The pretension is, that you have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness. The truth is that we walk in the light, and have fellowship with one another " (!!) But the pretension then is, in fact, to be apostles; and the walking in darkness (which cannot be part of the pretension, but is the mournful reality which exposes the pretension) is a strange and round-about proof in denial of so exceptional a claim. The "we," as spoken by an apostle, would in that case be as strange as all the rest. For manifestly he would not exclude himself or any one else from the searching test of such a principle; and in this is putting himself in the common rank of Christians, and not separating him-self from them as one of a peculiar class. The "we," all through his various use of it, is that of Christian profession, and the light or darkness characterizes the true or the false profession-nothing else. Notice also whence the light shines:it is that of the sanctuary, where God Himself is revealed. He is in the light; and that light is just what creates Christian fellowship:" we walk in the light, as He is in the light;" and that establishes the true fellowship for us all, into which every true Christian enters. The apostle is bringing to bear upon this the great central truth of Christianity-the open, holiest, and thus has already shown the fellowship to be divine, as to which he is now concerned to maintain the fact that no Christian can be found outside of it. "Our fellowship "is thus not a different one from this, but that into which (by the ministry of the apostles indeed) all believers are introduced; and in the "we" so constantly repeated here, we have the apostle put- ting himself thus with all the rest, instead of claiming for himself or others a peculiar and exceptional fellowship.

Fellowship is rightly said to be participation in common; but community of thought is strongly objected to:"they that eat of the sacrifices have fellowship with the altar; it is evidently not community of thought there." But if we look at this more closely, we shall surely realize that it is after all the principles which are identified with it that the altar embodies. The altar itself literally is only an inanimate structure, with regard to which the term can only be used as it is idealized. But as to all mental objects, ideas, fellowship in these may be rightly spoken of. One might quote, I suppose, every dictionary that exists, only that, as we shall see directly, the dictionary goes for nothing with those whose views we are examining. Let us take Scripture then, and the very Scripture which they cite against it, and it may be maintained without possibility of successful denial that the altar in this case, apart from the principles which it represents, would mean nothing -be utterly senseless in the connection in which it stands. And just so with the idol of which the apostle speaks in the same relation:the idol in itself is "nothing in the world." Take it in connection with all for which it stands, and for idol you may write "devil."

But there is another interest in maintaining things like these:" Is it not helpful to see that on account of the difficulties and opposition around, there must be a fellowship? " "The word (fellowship) implies to me a special bond in a scene of contrariety; that is, I believe, the force of it in Scripture. And there will be nothing in heaven to call for fellowship." Thus we see how to preserve consistency, and rule fellowship out of heaven, it must be denied that any element of it exists that would entitle it to be there. Thus it is another of those terms, whose number seems continually increasing, which in the hands of these teachers lose their significance for eternity, and are lowered from heaven to earth; and thus error to be maintained requires continually fresh concessions to be made to it. Alas for him who has committed himself in any wise to it, and has not lowliness to judge his departure and draw back his foot from the ever more devious and downward way!

But to come to what is our theme at present-reconciliation ; we shall, as usual, put together the statements made regarding it, and without comment, that they may speak thus for themselves, and make their own impression. Afterwards I shall examine them. It is a pity that the doctrine is only to be found in these conversational remarks which, as already said, can hardly, save by courtesy, be called "readings." Yet the sense is after all sufficiently clear, and the extracts are, save where noted, from one speaker who is entitled to be considered the foremost leader in a movement which is rapidly changing the aspect of many of the central doctrines of Scripture for those who are being carried by it.

Reconciliation, then, we are told, "is one of the terms the force of which you must find from its use in Scripture. The dictionary would not give you the scriptural use of it. In the ordinary use of the
word the sense is that two persons estranged have been brought together. That is not the scripture-idea. It is not minds that are reconciled. There was no enmity on the part of God towards the world; and certainly the mission of Christ was not to make people more pleasant. Yet in Christ God was reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. If you say that 'it came out in the Lord's ministry of grace here on earth,' then you will be bound to admit this, that His ministry was ineffective," "The truth of reconciliation is plainly stated in 2 Cor. 5::God was in Christ; He ignored every other man in a sense, for the moment; there was one Man before Him, and that was Christ." "The ministry of reconciliation began with Christ Himself, and meant that in the presence of Christ here everything was under the eye of God on a wholly new footing in connection with Him. That was the effect of the presence of Christ. The new footing was grace and favor. God was in a new light towards man. He saw what was perfectly suitable to Himself in Christ.

"The ministry of reconciliation was effected in Christ in His life. God approached the world outside of it. He was favorable to the world in Christ, not hostile; but when you come to the word of reconciliation it is the testimony that reconciliation has been effected in death. It is not now simply that God has approached the world in another Man, in Christ being here, but the man hostile to God has been removed. So you have both things now, God's approach to man, and the man antagonistic to God removed in death. That is what I understand by the word of reconciliation, and we have to accept it."

"The difficulty," says another, "with many of us as to reconciliation is, that we have looked at it as reconciling us to God, instead of seeing it as the abolition of us, that all might be in a new Man."

"That is the idea."

And now in opposition to the dictionary meaning:-

"We have stopped at this, Alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled."

"How could that man be reconciled? you could not reconcile a man who is an enemy in mind by wicked works. He can only be so as being in another individuality."

Again:-

" You cannot reconcile what is alienated; it is impossible to reconcile that which is at enmity. If enmity is there, it is there; it is enmity of will; that is not to be reconciled. 'They that are in the flesh cannot please God.'"

" It is you that were alienated."

" But the point is that you are reconciled by being removed, and where the distance was complacency is, because Christ has come in. Hence it is that reconciliation involves new creation."

'' That which you are morally has to go; personally you are reconciled. Is that the thought?"

" I don't object to that, but you may depend upon it, if you press that on people you will give them the idea that reconciliation is some kind of change of sentiment in them. I have no doubt that this is in the mind of the vast proportion of Christians." . . .

" That is, in new creation the saints are presented 'holy, unblamable, and unreprovable.'"

" It must be that; you could not conceive of any process which would change the man who was an enemy in mind by wicked works into holy, unblamable, and unreprovable; no such process is possible, even to God."

Elsewhere we find:-

"The reconciliation of things is remarkably simple. Everything is taken up in Christ. The reconciliation of persons refers to individuals, and has to be individually accepted. 'Through whom we have now received the reconciliation.' In Corinthians it is, ' We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.' Reconciliation has to be accepted when it is a question of persons, .therefore there was the ministry of reconciliation."

" Is there any thought of the enmity being brought to an end in reconciliation?"

"The enmity is only brought in to show that the one marked by it must go. You cannot improve with reference to enmity. You cannot reconcile what is at enmity. It is the purest folly to think of reconciling what is hostile."

" It says, 'When we were enemies we were reconciled."

"Yes; but it was by learning that what was at enmity had been removed by the death of Christ. That is the way of it. I do not think that the apostle refers to a change of feeling on the part of people, but to acceptance of the truth that what was at enmity has been removed. They had received the word of reconciliation-' When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.' They had accepted that as their death. This is the truth on God's side-on the experimental side it is somewhat different."

Once more, even though it may be ad nauseam :-" Do you think a man, an enemy to God by wicked works, could ever be changed into unblamable and unreprovable in His sight? It could not be. That person could be, but not that man." …

"How would you explain our identity remaining?" "That is the point; the complacency is where the distance was; that is in you. It is not that God sweeps all away and brings in an absolutely new race. He does so morally, but not actually. The old man has gone, and where he was Christ is; this has come to pass in the Church." What then is reconciliation?-

" I think the idea of the text is a bringing into conscious complacency with the divine mind and pleasure." "What I understand by it is, that where distance was there is complacency. . . . The distance has been removed in the removal of the man. I don't see in what other way God could remove distance. The distance came in by man, and the removal of the distance means the removal of the man. But the point is that where the distance was now there is complacency."

"Would you preach the ministry of reconciliation to sinners?"

" It would not be much good to them." "Where is the ministry of reconciliation to be exercised?"

" I think very much amongst those who believe." " But do they need to be reconciled? " "I think so, if they are to be for the satisfaction of God."

"When the apostle says, 'Be ye reconciled to God,' had they touched it?"

" I do not think the Corinthians had touched it. … I think it is practical; the Corinthians had not left Adam for Christ. They were practically very much in Adam. They had believed in Christ; I don't doubt for a moment they were Christ's, and had received the gift of the Holy Ghost. But certainly, judging by the epistle, they had very little readiness to leave Adam for Christ."

"The truth for the Christian is this, that in the acceptance of reconciliation he has put off the individuality connected with sin, but at the same time he has put on the new man which after God is new created."

We have now before us – produced, some will think perhaps, at unnecessary length-what ought to enable us to arrive at a sober and sufficient judgment of what is presented for truth with regard to the doctrine. Truth there is in it also, along with much that is new, as generally in these teachings. The misfortune is that here, as in so many cases, the true is not new, and the new is not true. Not merely so, but some of the statements seem absolutely wild and reckless, easily as they were accepted by those who heard them when first made. Only the knowledge that they have been and are being so by so many could make it worth while to repeat or challenge them now. Their currency and the gravity of much with which they connect themselves, give them an importance which in themselves they are far from having.

At the outset we are warned against the dictionary meaning of the word; though it is not and cannot be denied that it is the correct translation of that which has been chosen by the Spirit of God as fittest to convey His meaning, and it would not seem to be one of those words for which, as is well known, when Christianity came in, it had to coin a meaning of its own. Scripture also, at first sight, would certainly appear to confirm the dictionary use. Any simple person would suppose so upon reading that "when we were enemies, we were reconciled," "you that were alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled," and "to reconcile both to Himself, having slain the enmity." The general consent, one may say, of Christians for many centuries has without suspicion accepted Scripture and the dictionary as speaking in the same way.

It is startling to find, in what might seem to be the same line of things,-that is, in arguing against some kind of change of sentiment, as from enmity to friendship (which the dictionary use favors, if not involves) the strong assertion that no process of changing a man who is an enemy to God by wicked works, is possible to God! To save the speaker's character for sanity, we have to assure ourselves that he is only using the word "change," so confusing in this connection, for " whitewashing," perhaps. God cannot whitewash a man, of course, and take him for what he is not. And we are encouraged to believe that is his meaning by what he says elsewhere, that "it is impossible to reconcile that which is at enmity; if enmity is there, it is there." Truly; we shall not dispute about this; but why so earnestly and with such extraordinary emphasis, insist upon this? was it ever in dispute? while another passage still, very similar to the one we have been trying to mend, seems to assert for it that "change" is really meant:" Do you think a man, an enemy to God by wicked works, could ever be changed into unblamable and unreprovable in His sight? It could not be. That person could be, but not that man."

So it is evident that we must walk very carefully, and define very closely, to suit these leaders of the poor perplexed sheep of Christ! How good to have a Bible that always remembers that God has chosen the poor! But we may say then that a "person," an enemy to God, may be changed in this manner; but a "man," an enemy to God, may not! Is that intelligible? Let us go on and see what is to come of this.
Some one asks, seemingly in the same perplexity with ourselves, " How would you explain our identity remaining? " Perhaps he wants to know whether he is after all still a "man,"or only a "person." But happily he is assured that his identity remains:-" That is the point; the complacency is where the distance was; that is, in you. It is not that God sweeps all away, and brings in an absolutely new race. He does so morally, but not actually. The old man has gone, and where he was Christ is."

'' The old man has gone! " Ah! does not a ray of light break in there? Is perhaps the old man the "man" about whom our guide was thinking, when he spoke of the impossibility of the man being changed? But then why distinguish so carefully between the man and the person? The old man is in fact the person that was, before grace had brought him under its dominion, the child of Adam in all the sad inheritance of his fallen father; and because we were all naturally alike in this pre-Christian state, Scripture speaks of "our "old man. But it is not the nature-the flesh-which still remains in us, and with which so many confound it; " our old man was crucified with Christ," and for every Christian is put off, and non-existent. Thus the question is never raised of "changing" the old man, nor could be raised by one properly acquainted with its force in Scripture. This new man does not dwell in us alongside of the old, but displaces it; yet it is the same man who was once "old" who now is "new." He has put off his former self, which the cross of Christ has ended before God in judgment, but from which it has thus liberated him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that henceforth he may no longer serve sin (Rom. 6:6).

The old man cannot then be distinguished as man or person distinct from the one individual alone existing throughout. The assertions made are false and preposterous; and, of course, you do not find a trace of them in Scripture. They are simply the inventions of a fertile but unbalanced mind. It is the man who was once alienated and an enemy to God by wicked works, who in every case of conversion becomes the holy, unblamable and unreprovable child of God. There is no impossibility with God of changing the one into the other; and there is no unchangeable " man " to pronounce or speculate about. And reconciliation, instead of being so far on in Christianity that persons who are indwelt of the Spirit (as the Corinthians) may yet be strangers to it, is at the threshold of Christian life. "When we were enemies, we were reconciled;" not as Christians, but as "alienated and enemies to God by wicked works, He hath reconciled us;" "God was in Christ, reconciling the world"-and not believers – "to Himself." No subtle distinctions can take away from us what God has thus written with a pencil of light in His immutable Book. "If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

How plain, therefore, that the reconciliation does involve a change in the man from this alienation and enmity, wherever it takes effect! How plain that the answer given to the invitation, "Be reconciled to God," involves the dropping of resistance and estrangement, upon the assurance of gracious provision made by which His banished may be restored to Him. The weakness of God is stronger than man, and the foolishness of God is wiser than man; and the amazing spectacle of the Son of God dying for His enemies has power still, through the might of the Spirit to subdue enemies to the love that seeks them.

Consequently the testimony of reconciliation is not that of the removal of the old man; nor can this be found in connection with it:it is merely forced in this way where it does not belong. One wonders at the feebleness that can either put forth or accept such triviality as the following. . In answer to the objection that Scripture "says, When we were enemies we were reconciled ; " it is replied-

"Yes:but it was by learning that what was at enmity was removed by the death of Christ. That is the way of it. I do not think that the apostle refers to a change of feeling on the part of people, but to acceptance of the truth that what was at enmity had been removed. They had received the word of reconciliation-' When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.' They had accepted that as their death."

Now the whole of this is necessarily and at once overthrown by the very sentence which it is supposed to explain. We have the testimony of the very man who says this, that [such a] ministry of reconciliation preached to sinners "would not be much good to them;" and the very words he is explaining assert that it is enemies who are reconciled! Where are we told that it was "by learning that what was at enmity had been removed"? One can only answer, "Nowhere." Instead, we have confessedly the speaker's thoughts:"I do not think!" And where does it say or suggest that "they had accepted that death as their death," in any such sense as the removal of the old man? Not a hint is given of this in that part of Romans from which the text is quoted. It comes afterwards in the sixth chapter, and in quite another connection from what is given to it here. Would it not be well if there were indeed an expositor to help us, instead of men whose knowledge is of fragmentary texts, threaded together with their own thoughts, and in supreme disregard of context?

Before we close we must look at what is said concerning the ministry of reconciliation on our Lord's part, as it is stated in the second of Corinthians:"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Here, as it was in the ministry of Christ on earth that this was accomplished, there could, of course, be no word of the removal of the old man; but here is the comment:-

"God was in Christ:He ignored every other man in a sense, for the moment; there was one Man before Him, and that was Christ. The ministry of reconciliation began with Christ Himself, and meant that in the presence of Christ here everything was under the eye of God on a wholly new footing in connection with Him. That was the effect of the presence of Christ. The new footing was grace and favor. God was in a new light towards man. He saw what was perfectly suitable to Himself in Christ."

Now that it is the truth that in every intervention of God for man Christ was before Him, the justification of the love manifested, is fundamental truth, surely; and that when Christ was born into the world, His good pleasure in men had not only decisive expression, but its justification in the Son of man. But that does not make the interpretation of the apostle's words which has been given us the more exact. True as what is said in itself may be, it is yet assuredly not the truth which is stated in them. God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself is not at all the same as God having Christ before Him; and one may say, manifestly not. God in Christ as seen in His gracious ministry to men, is that identification of God with Him who represented Him on earth which showed Him in a grace which did not deal with men according to their trespasses. It does not speak of Christ as the ground of such favorable regard, but as the One who expressed this regard on God's part. The effect or otherwise of the Lord's revelation of God in this way is not in question; and His sorrowful complaint through the prophet, of laboring in vain and spending His strength for nought, should have hindered this being pleaded as an objection. Yet was His work with His God, as He declares. It could not be in vain, whatever the effect among men, to reveal God thus; and where must one be to say it? God's attitude is what is declared:" He was favorable to the world, not hostile," is the truth of it. But the whole object of the proposed interpretation of this passage is evidently to make reconciliation in it as far as possible in accord with what I can only call the theory that reconciliation means the removal of the old man. The reconciliation here, therefore, cannot be permitted to involve the invitation to a change of attitude on man's part, however much this is favored by the direct appeal of those to whom the word of reconciliation is now committed, " Be ye reconciled to God." This too is enfeebled as much as possible by being turned into "accepting the reconciliation." You must guard this from any suggestion of minds being reconciled, which we have been told is not in it! You are only to think of enmity being removed as this may be contained in the old man being removed.

"Minds are not reconciled"; and yet to be reconciled is, according to another definition, to be "brought into conscious complacency with the divine mind and pleasure!" How is this to be done without the mind? But indeed there is no putting together the various and conflicting statements. Reconciliation is, of course, on God's part towards man-He reconciles; man is reconciled-not reconciles:reconciliation is that "where distance was, there is complacency;" and this means divine complacency. God has removed the distance by removing the man; that is the reconciling to Himself, and no work in us comes into this.

Well, then, is the whole world reconciled? Why no! we must accept the reconciliation. After all, then, if divine complacency is to be where the distance was, and that is in us, reconciliation there is not until we are reconciled:the "be ye reconciled" must take effect. Reconciliation awaits, then, the response on our part before it is accomplished; that is, before it is reconciliation. This is the opposite of what has been so strenuously contended for, and is proved by the very statements which are meant to be the denial of it! Scripture does not negative the dictionary after all.

But more than this; if this is true, and it is as asserted, Christians who have to be reconciled-people, it may be, as in the case of the Corinthians, who have already received the Spirit of adoption, and cry, "Abba, Father,"- then they must be doing so, and rightly doing so, while yet in them the distance is not removed, and divine complacency has yet no existence! There is no divine complacency, but distance unremoved, for those whose souls refuse the distance and draw near to God in the place of children! This is the contradiction into which men fall who "do not read Scripture in the letter," in which God has been pleased to give it, but in that which their own minds have distilled out of it, and which they call, the spirit. How plain it is, that if reconciliation means divine complacency now where distance was before, then, unless there are believers who are not in the value of Christ's work before God, reconciliation must be coincident with the very beginning of true faith in the soul, and not in the place in which these teachings put it; and then, as a further consequence, that the word of reconciliation is not the announcement of the removal of the old man, but the simple story, than which nothing deeper or more wonderful exists, that "while we were yet without strength Christ died for the ungodly," and that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son " for the salvation of the lost! By and by those who have received the message of reconciliation will still need to know about the crucifixion of the old man; but God's reconciling kiss waits not for this, but meets us in our very rage and wretchedness. When we are enemies, we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son. F. W. G.
(To be continued.)

With the year 1900 the publication of the "Believer’s Almanac," so long edited by Mr. Walter Scott, has been discontinued. The effort has been made to take the place of this valuable little book, by the publication of the Treasury of Truth Almanac, compiled by S. Ridout, on largely similar lines.

It will be sent as a supplement to all subscribers of the "Treasury of Truth" for 1901, and can be had separately, for prices see list in the center of this number.

With many the associations of Christmas are suggestive of childhood's joys and of tender reminiscence of scenes of delight in the home circle. In this spirit it is perhaps still observed socially in the family, for the children's sake, by some who are aware that the day itself, in its religious claim and character, has no foundation in Scripture. " The question that presents itself therefore is:Can the day be observed innocently in this social way, apart from its false religious character ?

It is said that the day celebrated as Christmas, was once the day of a wicked heathen feast called Saturnalia; and the season suggests the winter solstice as the occasion of the feast-the period of daylight being about to increase. The day being handed down as a Christian festival, and its name, "Christ – Mass," tells the rest. A corrupt church, a corrupt ritualistic sentiment, introducing a novelty among many other novelties, to please-not God, but men."?:This consideration, of course, is a very serious one, and calls to mind a fertile source of shame and sorrow to the Church:self-will at work-human choice in place of obedience; as among the Galatians, giving occasion for the rebuke, "Ye observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain."

Let us consider the serious nature of this departure from simplicity. It is that setting aside God's word which, as an evil principle at work, has wrought confusion and corruption far and wide in the Church's history, as of old it wrought the ruin of Israel.

This, then, is the meaning of the day-the establishment of a religious custom, of a sacred day without any command from God. If we do this, where shall we stop ? There is no stopping place; and the evil result we have referred to in the previous paragraph.

What, then, is the obligation of the faithful Christian ? Should he not consider the observance of the day as a dishonor to the Lord, being disobedience, and therefore opening the door to further departures and dangers, as we have seen ? "And as to observing it socially with the children in the home circle, ignoring its origin and ecclesiastical claims, can this be done if we have at heart the things that are Christ's ? Can we do it without giving up our character as warriors-leaving to others more faithful than ourselves to fight the Lord's battles and defend the truth ? Would it not be a compromise as to the truth, a provision for self indulgence, and a dangerous allowance of the enemy within our borders ?The very notice that may be taken of a refusal to observe the day becomes a testimony to the truth, both to people without and to the children at home. And the absence of such testimony tends to perpetuate indifference to an evil which the day represents.

The day is enjoyed with zest by the world in common with the Church, and this is a sufficient warning to us. It is one of the wiles of the devil, against which we need to take to ourselves the "whole armor of God." It is a victory of Satan if he can get our hearts attached to a thing that is unscriptural and worldly in its origin and character. Such an attachment must enfeeble us in the conflict for the enjoyment of our Canaan possessions, and mar the clearness of testimony in the family that should direct the children in the way of reverence for God's word and uncompromising obedience.

" The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it" (Prov. 10:22). E. S. L.

VII. THE GREAT FOES.

The child of God has three great enemies in his life on earth-seductive, selfish, unrelenting in their warfare. They are:

I. The World.-In the New Testament, "the world" is used for "the habitable earth," "the people dwelling on it," and the customs, habits, ways, usages etc. of the people (Rom. 12:2); and it is in this last sense we use it. "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (i John 2:16). The child of God having been delivered from this present evil world (or age) Gal. 1:4. is to remember its "friendship is enmity with God" (James 4:4), and so is not to love it (i John 2:15), nor to be conformed to it in any manner (Rom. 12:2). Because "the whole world lieth in wickedness" (or the wicked one), (i John 5:19; 2 Cor. 4:4; i Pet. 4:3). The customs, society, usages, etc. of the world, would allure the child of God from whole heartedness to Christ, by their seductive attractions, amusements etc. ; just as the "mixed multitude" coming; out from Egypt with the Israelites "fell a lusting," and caused them to sigh for "the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic" of Egypt (Num. 11:). Following those who were sheltered from judgment by the blood of the Lamb (Ex. 12:), and delivered by passing the Red Sea (Ex. 14:), their heart goes back to the fruit of that from which they had escaped. Do we try to excuse or justify our action, by saying many "good people" do likewise? This, alas, may be only too true, but "thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil" (Ex. 23:2). It is not a question of approval or disapproval of "good people " but whether it is of God or not. 1 John 2:15 and i Cor. 10:31 should be decisive. It may be a matter of dress, some "harmless amusement" in these days of summer relaxation, the desire for the worldly position, or wealth, but, alas, if yielded to it may sever the saint's communion, grieve the Spirit, and cause much prayer, and brokenness of spirit ere it be restored.

" In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, in shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array" (i Tim. 2:9).

"They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things" (i Tim. 6:9-11). Beware of "the little foxes which spoil the vines" (Song 2:15). It is against a disposition to this "the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy," 1:e., earnestly desireth the whole heart for Christ.

2. The Flesh.-This is self, the most subtle enemy of the three; we may withdraw from the world's alluring power, and yet so vain is the natural heart, that it may gender in a Christian, a spirit of self-complacency, near akin to self-righteousness, or a "holier than thou" spirit, or self-gratification, vain display, either in dress or speech, or manner, so different from Him who has left us an example (i Pet. 2:21), "meek and lowly" (Matt. 11:29), and "made Himself of no reputation" (Phil. 2:7). The injunction is "Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul" (i Pet. 2:ii). Is it some habit, considered by many as not inconsistent? "That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him, which died for them and rose again" (2 Cor. 5:15), and so we are not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh, for it is just as bad in the believer as in the unbeliever and cannot please God (Rom. 8:7). Thus we are to have no confidence in it (Phil. 3:3) and make no provision for it (Rom. 13:14).

3. The Devil.-He is the one who gives activity and power to the two former enemies, bringing them into living action against the child of God, with an energy which only the Son of God can overcome. " For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil " (i Jno. 3:8). Sometimes he appears in a most attractive garb, as "an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14) often hindering the movements of God's people (i Thess. 2:18), calling in question the truth of God's word and His love (Gen. 3:4; Matt. 4:3-11; Luke 4:3-13; Eph. 6:ii, 12), and in open opposition i Pet. 5:8. His great aim ever is to cast a slur or dishonor upon the name of our blessed Lord, or to mar His work, if such were possible. Imitation is his most powerful weapon in these days especially presenting "the form of godliness." Thus he works through the world by suggesting conformity to it, and through the flesh by pandering to its taste and gratifying self.

The relief, deliverance, and victory. There is but one method for this, and this is complete subjection to the word of God. God places every believer on His blessed Son before Him, as dead.

"For ye are dead" (Col. 3:3).

"Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him " (Rom. 6:6).

"The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world " (Gal. 6:14).

Such is the position in which the weakest, youngest believer is placed before God, just as the Israelites were sheltered from judgment by the blood of the Lamb, and brought out of Egypt (a place of bondage, type of the world) given victory over the Egyptians, and Pharaoh (types of sins and sin) by the passage of the Red Sea, as God, in the death of Christ grants each believer shelter from a worse wrath, deliverance from a worse bondage; victory over spiritual foes, and places His people in a new position, on the resurrection side of the grave, and with a new life to live for Him. Victory is then not a matter of personal attainment in holiness of character, accomplished by some struggle, or yielding process, but is a matter of believing God's word, and reckoning oneself in the place practically in which God places such positionally (Rom. 6:4).

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead " (Rom. 6:11-13).

"And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him " (2 Cor. 5:15).

But it must ever be remembered that this is only accomplished by the energy of the Holy Spirit applying the word of God to the heart, for practical effect in life, and the believer recognizing his responsibility by complete obedience to the Word.
"Therefore brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Rom. 8:12, 13).

"This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh:and these are contrary the one to the other:so that ye can not do the things that ye would. If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit " (Gal. 5:16, 17, 25).

"And this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith" (i John 5:4).

'' And take . . . the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17).

Thus and thus alone can the child of God be fortified against these three foes or overcome them, and should he succumb to any of their attacks God's grace still provides a relief in the advocacy of Christ, and deep contrite confession of the sin.

"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (i John 2:i; 1:9).

As to the devil, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (Jas. 4:7). He is a conquered foe, whom Christ has "destroyed" (Heb. 2:14). We need not fear one already overcome, but can overcome him practically in our daily life " steadfast in the faith." B. W. J.

QUES. 7.-Please explain 2 Cor. 5:10, "That every one may receive the things done in the body." Has this any reference to our life before we were born again ?

ANS.-"The things done in the body" seems clearly to show that the entire life is contemplated, and not merely that part after conversion. In the government of God all must be answered for from the time when responsibility begins. Grace has blotted out all sins, past, present, and future, through the precious blood of Christ, but as this does not affect the appraisal of the life after conversion, neither would it that before. All will be manifested, that God may be glorified, and we receive the blessed lessons to be learned.

QUES. 8. What is the Lord's table ? Is it where any truly and with brokenness remember the Lord, or does it exist only where saints are gathered to the Lord's name according to His word ?

ANS.-The Lord's table is the opposite of the "table of devils " (see 1 Cor. 10:20, 21). Saints of God may be thoroughly unintelligent as to the scriptural ground of gathering, and be remiss, through that ignorance, in maintaining the Lord's honor at His table. But it would be dreadful to speak of their remembrance of Him, as being a " table of devils." We could not consistently be identified with what we know to be disobedience to His word, and so could not break bread with those going on in disobedience to the truths of Christ as to His Church; but let us not sin against God by calling their ignorance the "table of devils." Alas, individually, many may put to blush, by their devoted and adoring love, those far more intelligent.

On the other hand, we would shrink from applying the title "Lord's table," to the idolatrous service of the "mass" in the Church of Rome, or to the act of those holding fundamental error, such as denial of the atonement or any other foundation truth.

QUES. 9.-Will the " great multitude " mentioned in Rev. 7:9, be on earth or in heaven ?

ANS.-The entire chapter shows that the earth is in view, and not heaven. The Church has been taken up, and the martyred remnant is not yet seen. This is the multitude of Gentiles, who, with the spared remnant of the nation of Israel, are brought " through the great tribulation," into the millennial blessing of the earth. That they stand "before the throne and before the Lamb," has seemed to indicate that they are a heavenly company. But this language is the general usage of the book, and suggests that close intercourse between heaven and earth, to which, alas, earth is now a stranger. Then, "I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth" (Hos. 2:21). This multitude has a place of priestly nearness and access to the earthly temple. The Church is seen above.

QUES. 10.-Please explain John 12:32, " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

ANS.-The next verse shows, " This He said signifying what death He should die." He was "lifted up" (John 3:14) on the cross, rejected by earth, forsaken of God, and accursed for us, but drawing weary sinners to Himself.
QUES. 11.-What is the difference between "the Kingdom of heaven," and "the Kingdom of God"?

ANS.-The Kingdom of heaven is used in Matthew, and almost always means the kingdom or rule of the heavens over the earth, in a dispensational way. It may, and often does, include mere profession as in Matt. 13:"The kingdom of God" is used similarly in Luke, though it seems to refer in many cases more to the moral than the external. Thus it is used by the apostle in the Acts and Epistles.

QUES. 12.-If a man is scripturally separated from his wife, for no fault of his own, can he marry again ?

ANS.-The tie that bound them having been broken, it seems clear that the brother or sister would be free to marry in such a case. But on the other hand, one can understand and sympathize with the spirit which would go on in widowhood, walking softly and alone the remainder of the pilgrim journey. Let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind before God, and the conscience of the, saints and of the world be respected.

QUES. 13.-In the Lord's supper, should thanks be given only at the breaking of the bread, or at the cup also ?

ANS.-Our blessed Lord's example gives the answer. "And He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them" (Mark 14:23). We give thanks at the breaking of the bread, and " after the same manner " we give thanks at the cup. Both acts are distinct parts of the same feast, and it would maim it to omit the thanks at the cup.

The opposite error is for one brother to give thanks at the breaking of bread and another at the cup. This makes two separate acts, and is equally foreign to Scripture. It is one feast, and if one is led of the Spirit to give thanks at all, it should be both at the bread and the cup.

III.–SONSHIP.

One of the most frequent expressions which one hears now in public, is "brother," and while it is true that God was creator of man, and consequently all men in that sense are equally His creatures, yet if such a word is used to express " the universal Fatherhood of God," Scripture very clearly shows the untruthfulness of such a theory, which at present has become quite common in "religious circles." Of course, such a thought ignores the fall of man, denies the atonement of Christ as a necessity, and does away with the need of being "born again." But "to the law and to the testimony:if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isa. 8:20).

I. Our position naturally.

"Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:"

"Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:2, 3). " Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

"So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:7, 8). And our blessed Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." . . .
(John 8:44), and this latter is spoken too by that blessed One who was to undertake the work which . was to free from the bondage of Satan and bring all believing on Him into the place of sonship before God. It is said of Him that " He knew what was in man," (John 2:25) and no one was more tender and compassionate than He, and none more frank in all His words and manner, and yet dealing in complete justice as to sin. See also Eph. 2:12; James 4:4, etc.

2. How Sonship is obtained.

It might be well to recall the fact that "sons" in Scripture, refers to dignity of position, while "child " or "children" refers to relationship of the believer with the Father. Jacob in his parting blessing to his sons, calls, " Reuben thou art my firstborn . . . the excellency of dignity " (Gen. 49:3).

It is also noteworthy that while "sons " are found in Paul's Epistles, believers are always called "children " in John's Epistles, which have reference to the family relationship. Faith must precede filial relationship to God:"As many as received Him, to them gave He the power (right or privilege) to become the sons (children) of God, even to them that believe on His Name:which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " (John 1:12, 13).

It is to be observed all this honor is conferred by actual spiritual birth which takes place when any poor, guilty, condemned sinner, receives by faith, not by feeling, the Lord Jesus Christ as his own personal Saviour.

The expression:-
"Not of blood," means not by lineage.

"Nor of the will of the flesh," not anything flesh
can do, or any improvement in it. " Nor of the will of man," not anything man can do, no resolves, such as " I am going to be a Christian, and live a good life." "But of God" means it is a work of God in the soul, the moment a poor guilty, lost sinner, conscious of his condition, believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, as made known in the gospel (i Pet. 1:23-25; 2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 2:10.)

3.When obtained.

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not."

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God." . . . (i John 3:. i, 2).

Much of the truth of Scripture is missed by passing over the small words in the verses, which often give special force to the expressions; as for instance, the little word "so" in John 3:16, "as," and "so" in Heb. 9:27, 28, etc, and the word "now" in the verse quoted above. See also Phil. 2:15; Gal. 4:7; John 1:12; Eph. 2:19, 20; Rom. 8:14; 2 Cor. 6:14-18. These with many other verses, show this to be a present blessing, the portion of believers now, in this world (Gal. 3:26).

No wonder the apostle seems struck with wonder, as the Holy Ghost speaking by him, calls attention to the "manner of love" 1:e., the character of God's love. Oh wondrous blessing, marvelous grace; that God who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil" (Hab. 1:13), would and does confer this precious honor upon any and every poor sinner, who with repentant heart turns in faith to our Lord Jesus Christ.

4.Present blessing, and future glory.

"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

"Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son ; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Gal. 4:6, 7; Rom. 8:14, 15). Beloved Christian reader, do you really believe these things, that they are yours, aye, for the very weakest, youngest, babe in Christ, not merely to be possessed by some old saints who have endured a long life of conflict, but they are the free gift of God to the youngest in the faith? and all by sovereign grace-think of the dignity, the wealth, the cause, as the words "a son," "heir of God," "through Christ" come prominently out in the verse.

And think of the future,

"Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me, where I am, that they may behold My glory" . . . (John 17:24), "and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (i John 3:2).

"For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile (humiliated) body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body" etc. (Phil. 3:20, 21).

For the manifestation of this the dead in Christ wait (i Thess. 4:14-18). Creation waits with groaning (Rom. 8:19-22). Space does not admit of more extended research into these gracious blessings, which if the Lord please may come before us later, for "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him" (i Cor. 2:9, 10). O believer, how rich and honored thou art of God thy Father. How responsible too to walk worthy of the dignities conferred. B. W. J.

Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. See Mark 16:2, 9. Was this the Sabbath-day? See Mark 16:1:

Who came "early in the morning when the Sabbath was past" to the sepulcher? See Mark 16:i, 2.

Why did they wait till the " Sabbath was past ?" See Luke 23:55, 56.

Which Commandment was this? See Exod. 20:u ; 31:12-18.

"Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, . . . being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7:4, 6).

God's new creation begins with the rest of a First Day, instead of the Sabbath of a seventh, and we esteem the Lord's Day to be holy, not because of a legal commandment, for there is none (the legal commandment applying to the seventh day Sabbath, and any violation of it, the picking up of a stick even on that day was death. See Num. 15:32-36.) but upon far holier ground, because the name of the Lord who died for us on the cross, and who was raised for us from the grave on the First Day of the week, as head over all things to the Church, His body-is placed upon it. How strikingly the Holy Spirit points to this day, the First day of the week, the Lord's Day, when in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23:verses 9-11, He speaks to the people through Moses of the "morrow after the Sabbath" and the offering of "first fruits," and sacrificed on that day. It has been said, "That if we fail to see Christ in every portion of the Old Testament, we miss the aim of the Holy Spirit which is to unfold Him." With what plainness and sureness do these words spoken through Moses to the people of Israel, carry us to the resurrection on the " First Day of the week" after the Sabbath was past. "The morrow after the Sabbath "and to the first fruits of " spices of ointment" an offering "prepared" for their Lord. God has manifested His delight in His Beloved, and in the work He has "finished"by raising Him from the dead on the First Day of the week. Christ is God's rest. We keep the Lord's Day, because we can rest from all fear of wrath and judgment, He having endured the wrath of a just and righteous God in our stead and for us, and because we are "new creatures in Christ Jesus," "old things passed away"-"all things made new"-"quickened together with Him "-"justified from all things, from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses" -and " sealed unto the day of redemption " (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 1:12, 13, 14; Rom. 3:24; 5:i, 9; Acts 13:39; Eph. 4:30).

The soul that has been touched by the Grace and Love of God in the gift of His Son, and has been set free from the curse of the law by faith in the death and resurrection of Him who has borne the curse, and can say, "Who loved me and gave Himself for me; " that liberated soul will be occupied, not with the law and its demands, but with Christ and be engaged with themes of worship, praise and thanksgiving on the Lord's Day, other than "Lord incline my heart to keep this law." R. D.

"Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone ? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" (Matt. 7:7-11).

These words are indeed the key of an inexhaustible treasury. The apostle James draws from them a simple and irresistible conclusion (4:2, 3):"Ye lust, and have not:ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (or pleasures)." How blessed, how divine, how solemn a word is here ! If we do indeed simply and without qualification, believe it, what an admonition we have as to the secret of so much poverty that our lives manifest, when all heaven's abundance is, as it were, poured out around us, with an earnest invitation to possess ourselves of it !

The words seem only too wonderful to be laid hold of as the simplicity of a child would lay hold of them :and yet here, if the lips of absolute truth are speaking to us,-if they are the words of One upon whom we rest with assurance for the fulfilment of all our "exceeding great and precious," yea, eternal, "promises,"-are we not to depend upon them, as having that fulness of meaning and literality which the Lord emphasizes in the reiteration, "every one that asketh receiveth," and the apostle in his application of them, "Ye have not because ye ask not"? Yet can that be the whole account of the matter ? We look back upon the long list of unfulfilled prayers – prayers put up, as we cannot but think, with much sincerity, often with much importunity, and ask, "can this be the whole account?" Were this the record of our own lives alone also, we might better accept it ; but think of how our own history is echoed in the experiences of all around us; listen to the testimony on every side:how can we disregard this ? And can we write upon all this tale of sorrow and unmet need, as the simple and sufficient account of it, "Ye have not because ye ask not" ?

And yet again we hear the words of Christ to His disciples that, " If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you "(Matt. 17:20). And again, "Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mk. 11:22-24). And again, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do; that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (Jno. 14:13). And still again, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you " (Jno. 15:7). And yet once more, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name:ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (16:23, 24).

These are all familiar texts to us, no doubt; but how much in earnest is the glorious Speaker, that we should believe their testimony! And this is no wonder, surely, when we hear with what He associates such petitions and their success:the Father's glory, and for His disciples, fulness of joy. Nor is it hard to understand this:heaven opened to men after this manner and its gifts poured out without stint upon earth; the people of God enriched, and proclaiming the fulness and glory of their ascended Head. This, as the end of such a testimony, is at once an enlightenment which makes it easy to realize the importance, and so the naturalness, of it. If God is acting for the glory of that beloved Son who on earth glorified Him and still does, by the revelation of His love and righteousness,-how much will suffice to show the delight He has in the Accomplisher and His accomplishment ? We stand before God as those who are the demonstration of its value, "made the " very "righteousness of God in Him," as well as to declare to the principalities and powers in heavenly places the exceeding riches of His grace. We bow our heads in adoration as we ask ourselves, What may we not expect from divine love which has displayed itself in such a place so given us ?

Yet it has been asserted, and not by an enemy, but by one zealous for the authority of Scripture, that "many there are, who in intensest earnestness have claimed such promises, and have reaped bitter disappointment which has staggered their faith. It is easy," the writer goes on, "to explain the failure by reading into the promise conditions of one kind or another, though the Lord Himself made no conditions whatever."He proposes therefore an-other solution of the matter in this way:-

" Here the striking fact claims attention that while the record of the Pentecostal dispensation presents us with the practical counterpart of all such promises, the epistles, which unfold the doctrine of the present dispensation, and describe the life which befits that doctrine,-the life of faith,-inculcate thoughts about prayer which are essentially different, and which are entirely in accord with the actual experience of spiritual Christians.

"Some perhaps may urge that while the earlier Gospels may be thus explained, St. John cannot be treated in this way. I can in reply but plead with the thoughtful reader to consider whether every word addressed to the apostles is intended to apply to believers at all times. Take Jno. 14:12 as a test of this. Is every believer to be endowed with miraculous powers equal to, or greater than those exercised by the Lord Himself? We are prepared at once to limit the scope of such words:is it so clear, then, that the words which immediately follow are of universal application? We have the fact, I repeat, that both these promises were proved to be true in the Pentecostal dispensation, and that neither has been proved to be true in the Christian Church. So also of chapter 15:16, and of 16:23, etc.

" But it will be asked, Is not the promise explicitly repeated in St. John's first epistle (i John 3:22 and 5:14, 15)? I think not. It seems to me that the apostles were in a special sense empowered both to act and to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, where-as the Christian should bow in the presence of the words, ' according to His will.' As dean Alford remarks, ' If we knew His will thoroughly, and submitted to it heartily, it would be impossible to ask anything, for the spirit or for the body, which He should not hear and perform. And it is this ideal state, as always, which the apostle has in view.' But the Christian too commonly makes his own longings, or his supposed interests, and not the Divine will, the basis of his prayer; he goes on to persuade himself that his requests will be granted; he then regards this 'faith' as a pledge that he has been heard; and finally, when the issue belies his confident hopes, he gives way to bitterness and unbelief. True faith is always prepared for a refusal. Some, we read, 'through faith,' 'obtained promises;' but no less 'through faith,' 'others were tortured, not accepting deliverance.'"* *"The Silence of God," by E. Anderson, App. 187-189.*
I have quoted so much because of the great interest attaching to this subject; and because the quotation also furnishes us with most of the points to be considered. The discussion of them will involve all, or nearly all, that I have in mind to say with regard to it.

Now, in the first place, what Dr. Anderson cites from the late dean of Canterbury is undoubtedly the truth, and may be accepted heartily. The apostle has certainly in view an ideal state, and one below which we may be indefinitely; while nevertheless the attainment of it is to be our aim, and capable of being reached with regard to the matter of our prayers indefinitely also. We can hardly suppose that in the Lord's words, "Ye shall ask what ye will," He meant that His disciples were empowered to set aside God's will in favor of their own. An apostle could here have no advantage (if it were an advantage) beyond the least of all that have ever followed Him. And His connected condition, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you," remind us plainly of this. It is only as Christ's words have place in us that we are capable of effectual prayer:and such conditions necessarily underlie all promises of this kind, whether they are expressed or not. They are fundamental in order to blessing; and no one with one right thought could desire it otherwise. As the Lord reasons with us in the passage with which we began, it is to a Father that we come, and that which is our fullest encouragement in coming, and the guarantee of abundant answer to our prayers, is that also which guards from abuse of privilege,-guards, therefore, our own best interests. Our Father will give good gifts to them that ask Him:could any other be counted or coveted as gifts at all? No distinctions to be made between any imaginary Pentecostal dispensation differing from the present need to be insisted on, therefore, to explain what is said to stumble so many. God never meant to put the reins of His own government into the hands of even the apostles; and Pentecostal times were not different in this respect. The need of miracles to call men to give heed to heaven's new proclamation has passed:no earthly wealth was ever so trumpeted abroad as the riches of God's grace have been; and it is no wonder if with the need of them, the miracles themselves have passed away. No paralytic need now arise and take up his bed to make men know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins; and if he did, it would scarcely add an appreciable particle of evidence to that which, through all the progress of the centuries, has been, in fact, piling itself mountains high. For the unbelief of the heart, alas, miracles are no cure; and that is all that hinders the knowledge of the glory of the Lord even now covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. This accounts for a wide difference, as to the display of power, between Pentecostal times and our own,-a display which none with intelligence of His Lord's will could seek or expect to revive now. What has been foretold as to the closing days of Christianity as a dispensation is rather the revival of Satan's power; and this is really what we are beginning to see in the marvels of spiritism and kindred things. But the limit which in this way we may find to the "all things whatsoever ye shall ask," and which is only part of that which has been already freely acknowledged, is no reason for taking away from us all promises of this nature, and relegating them either to past or to the future, in the manner attempted here. We may concede also "that the apostles were empowered in a special sense to act in the Name of the Lord Jesus," if by that is meant that they had authority to act in a certain way. That, of course, is implied in the fact that they were apostles. Nevertheless that does not in the least interfere with the fact on the other side, that we are to "do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus," as an apostle himself teaches the Colossians (chap. 3:17). Where we are taught that the apostles had any special right to "pray in His Name," I have not found; and I think no one can produce the passage. An official place, God-given among men, we must all acknowledge to be theirs:but as approaching God, Scripture does not teach us that apostleship conferred any special rights:it belonged to another sphere; and there all Christians as such are of a holy priesthood,-their one High-priest is Christ alone.

In fact, no Gospel is so unofficial as that of John, which furnishes us with the passages which speak of prayer in the name of Jesus. The very word "apostle " cannot be found in it. Christians would not readily resign, it may be hoped, their interest in these precious promises; and, instead of finding in that ideal state of knowledge which, according to dean Alford, they imply, a deterrent from putting in their claim to them, should surely recognize with joy and gratitude that God in them is calling them to a higher elevation and a nearer intimacy than they have yet perhaps even imagined possible. He has opened all His heart to us. And this privilege of praying in the Name of Jesus imports for us, not a mere asking for His sake, but God's identification of His people with Himself-with all the value that this Name has for Him. We represent Him; and His Spirit given to us is the practical qualification to represent Him. We are to do in His Name whatsoever we do, as those for whom their own wills are ended; their interests in His omnipotent Hand,- men who have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him:where there is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free; but Christ is all, and in all (Col. 3:10, 11). How complete is this change of view! What a clearing of spiritual sight for those who have gained it!

Now to pray in His Name, how different is it from the mere dependence upon the efficacy of His atonement for our acceptance, the putting His Name in this way at the end of our prayers. It is the taking a place which at once declares what is to be the character of our petitions. It does not by any means rule out the personal element:on the contrary it opens before us a wondrous inheritance into which we are invited already by faith to enter, and make it our own. Here we may covet-covet-covet; and the more we do so, the more pleasing shall we be to God our Father, whose glorious gift to us it is. Here is a sphere in which prayer will never be denied, if it be the prayer of the whole-and not the halfhearted. Here are precious harvests to be reaped, of which yet the indifferent shall and can know nothing. While on the earth there are precious harvests too, and still spiritual harvests, in which the fruit of labor shall abide with us forever; when the very scene of man's gaudiest achievements in art, in science, in the various conquest of a world put under him, but in which he knows little more than a great Babylon which he has builded, is passed away like a shriveled scroll in the fire of God's anger!

But as fellow-laborers under God, there are still limits to successful prayer. Nor is it because the thing prayed for is in a certain sense undoubtedly according to His mind, that we can necessarily pray with full expectation of answer. There was with Paul, as we know, a heart that yearned after the salvation of Israel; yet the voice of the Lord sent him out from among them with the assurance, "They will not hearken to thy testimony concerning Me." And if all Christians were to unite in heart and voice to Him who willeth not that any should perish, for the salvation of the world en masse, who could rightly expect answer to such a prayer ? The word of God has barred it in the emphatic statement as to the Spirit of God, that "the world cannot receive Him" (John 14:17).

These are words absolutely plain, surely; but can we then wonder if we find the same principle applying in other relations ? If in the things which seem most manifestly according to the character of God we may yet need the check of His ever perfect will, how evident it is that we may much more need it in things of more doubtful nature. Here we are privileged still to make our requests to God, and never in vain; though the answer may be like that of the apostle's for the removal of the thorn in the flesh, in a very different way from that which we anticipated. Can we never, then, rise to that perfect certainty with regard to these which is implied in the exhortation, to believe that we receive them and we shall have them? Most surely we can; but there is no way to this but by drawing near enough to God to gain such assurance. Here is the high place in which we ought to dwell; nor can we expect to attain it when sought temporarily under the pressure of some present need, while content in general with a greater distance. Our weakness may indeed claim His strength, our ignorance His wisdom to enlighten us, but not our waywardness ability to use and cast Him off again,-to claim His gifts, with the best and highest of all unvalued. In the Christian place, where the Lamb is the light and glory, and in His light all is seen, what may we not attain ?

Beloved reader, how far do you and I know the reality of praying in His Name ? F. W. G.

Ere seeking to answer this question, which seems to be a perplexity to some, it might be well to state, as briefly as possible what is meant by the period of judgment, as this paper will probably fall into the hands of some, who, as yet have given but little attention to prophetic teaching. In doing this it will be necessary to do little more than refer to a large number of passages of Scripture, many of which lack of space will forbid quoting in full, but it is hoped the reader will refer to any that are unfamiliar to him.

First, then, let it be noted that Old Testament prophecy never refers to the dispensation in which we live (extending from Pentecost to the Lord's coming for His own) save in a most indefinite way as, for instance, in Dan. 9:26, a passage which will come before us a little farther down. From Moses to Malachi, Scripture is mainly occupied with one nation, Israel, (Amos 3:2; Deut. 7:6; Ps. 147:19, 20) and the hope of that nation, namely, the raising up of the Prophet (Deut. 8:15), Priest (Ps. ex. 4; Zech. 6:5), and King (Is. xxxii; Ps. 2:6), who is to bring them into everlasting blessing as a people (Ps. 132:11-18; Is. 35:10; 51:ii; 61:7), though not until they have been born again (Ezek. 36:24-30).

The Gentiles shall share in that blessing (Is. 56:6; 65:i) but not as on the same footing with Israel; rather in subjection to them (Is. 14:1-3; 60:3-5; 62:2, 3).

Ere the ushering in of that day of Jehovah's power and Messiah's glory the prophets, however, predicted the rejection of both the looked-for Redeemer (Is. 53:) and the nation (Is. 1.), the former by Israel to whom He came, the latter themselves set aside by God (Zech. 7:13-14) while the rejected Messiah takes His place in the heavens on Jehovah's throne (Ps. 110:i) which He will occupy until the future repentance of the people (Hosea 5:15). This setting aside of Israel is, however, not final, as the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters of Jeremiah, together with many other portions of the Word, plainly declare. But before their restoration to divine favor and the land of Palestine they must pass through a short period of unequaled persecution and chastisement called the "time of Jacob's trouble" in Jer. 30:7. At the close of this time they will be ready to acknowledge the crucified as their Lord and will '' mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son" (Zech. 12:10-14; 13:6, 7). In the darkest hour of their sorrow when Jerusalem is compassed about with armies and they are in direst distress, He will appear as their Deliverer and to the destruction of their enemies, after which the tabernacle of David will be raised up and the reign of righteousness ushered in (Zech. 14:; Amos 9:8-15).

Thus far, the Old Testament. Turning now to the later revelation we find many new data introduced without which the present working of the Spirit of God in the world would be inexplicable. In Rom. 11:we are told that upon the breaking off of the natural branches (Israel) from the tree of promise, wild branches (Gentiles) are introduced in their place; in other words, Israel's rejection has but made way for unforetold grace to be shown to the nations though Old Testament prophecy of blessing to the heathen can be quoted as proof that such grace is not in collision with the Word. This special work among the Gentiles is not to go on forever though, for if these continue not in divine goodness they too shall be exit off and the natural branches grafted in again, for God is able.

God, then, is doing a work, unmentioned in the Jewish oracles during the time that His earthly people are " Lo-ammi" ("not My people," Hosea 1:9:) and unacknowledged by Him, and "blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in " (Rom. 11:25). This, however, is a "mystery" (of which there are several), one of the secret things (Deut. 29:29) till now unrevealed. The Lord Jesus confirms this (but rather from the political side) in His prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem-the long period of desolation and Gentile supremacy following it, and finally the end in His personal appearing (Luke 21:). In verse 24 we read, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

This connects us again with Dan. 9:where we get the great prophecy of the "seventy weeks." A lengthy exposition of this passage cannot be attempted here, but we briefly notice the main points. From the cycle of time, seventy weeks (or sevens) of years (note the periods before the prophet's mind in ver. 2) making in all 490 years, are "determined" or "cut off " and given to Daniel's people, of course, the Jewish nation.

Ere this length of time expires six important events will have taken place:1st, transgression will
be finished; 2nd, an end will be made of sins; 3rd, atonement (rather than "reconciliation") will be made for iniquity; 4th, everlasting righteousness will be brought in; 5th, vision and prophecy will be sealed up, or finished, 1:e., all fulfilled; and 6th, the most holy, or holy of holies of the millennial temple at Jerusalem will be anointed (see Ezek 40:-xlviii).

The seventy weeks are divided into three unequal periods; 1st, seven weeks or forty-nine years; 2nd, sixty-two weeks, or 434 years; 3rd, one week or seven years. During the first seven weeks "the strait times " (see margin) the city and wall of Jerusalem were to be rebuilt. The date from which to count is found in Neh. 2:, when a "commandment went forth to restore and build Jerusalem." The sixty-two weeks seem to have immediately followed and ended in the coming of Messiah. After the conclusion of this period He was cut off and had nothing, but by this, atonement was made. Then comes in the present long interval of Jerusalem's treading down. The city is destroyed as our Lord foretold also, and "even unto the end shall be war "until one arises who confirms a covenant with the mass of the Jews for the last final week. Clearly, then, this week is still future. The prophetic clock stopped at Calvary. It will not start again till "the fulness of the Gentiles become in." The present is a timeless epoch, parenthetically introduced between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks, in which God is taking out from among the Gentiles a people to His Name (Acts 15:14). Not that He has utterly given up the Jew now, but both Jew and Gentile stand on one footing, "there is no difference for all have sinned" (Rom. 3:). Both alike are saved through faith in Christ, and all such are made members of the One Body, the Church, by the Holy Ghost, and united to the Lord Jesus Christ as Head in heaven, another mystery, hitherto unrevealed. (See Rom. 16:25-28; i Cor. 12:; Eph. 4:; Col. 1:24-29). This began with the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:; i Cor. 12:13). It will be completed at the coming of the Lord to call His Church to be forever with Himself, an event which may take place at any moment (i Thess. 4:15-18-; i Cor. 15:51-54; 2 Thess. 2:i). Then the long delayed seventieth week will begin to run its course. At its conclusion Daniel's prophecy (as all other millennial prophecy) will be entirely fulfilled. Atonement was made for iniquity after the expiration of the sixty-ninth week. Everlasting righteousness will be brought in at the end of the seventieth.

This brief period, though, will be one of judgment throughout, and that threefold. It will include judgment on apostate Christendom, on Israel, and on the nations at large. It is to be the awful result of the rejection of the Prince of Peace.

The book of Revelation from chap. 4:-19:is occupied entirely with its solemn events. The saints-of all prior dispensations, as well as the Church – are seen enthroned in heaven, as the twenty-four elders who have been redeemed with the blood of the Lamb (chap. 5:) at the beginning of the week. They ride forth as the "armies of heaven " with "The Word of God " at His glorious appearing at the close. The last three years and a half will be especially the time when Israel shall receive "of the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Is. 40:2), the "time of Jacob's trouble " of Jer. 30:7 and Dan. 12:i, and the "great tribulation" of Matt. 24:and Rev. 7:14. The covenant-breaking prince of Dan. 9:is doubtless the beast, the head of the Roman empire who makes a league with the wilful king of chap. 11:36-39-the Antichrist of prophecy (i Jno. 2:18), the idol shepherd of Zech. 11:15-17, who will "come in his own name" as foretold by the Lord Jesus in Jno. 5:43, and be received by the mass of the Jews as Messiah, but who will become the cruel persecutor of a faithful company designated as " the remnant" (Is. 11:ii; Ezek. 6:8; Rev. 12:17, etc).

Trusting that the above will be clear to any who "search the Scriptures" to see "whether these things are so," we will now devote our attention to the subject proper of the paper. To many the preliminary remarks were doubtless quite unnecessary, but others may find them helpful.

The seventh of Revelation, with its sealed 144,000 of Israelites and white-robed multitude of saved Gentiles, is proof positive that many will be brought to know the Lord after the taking away of the church and before the establishment of the millennial kingdom. These are not saved for heaven, though we have an additional martyr company who are (Rev. 14:13; 15:2-4); but the companies of chap. 7:are saved for the earth. They will be "left" to enter into the kingdom as set up in power at the appearing of Jesus Christ, when others are "taken" away in judgment (Matt. 24:40; Luke 17:34-36), and are probably identical, as to the Gentiles, with the "righteous" of Matt. 25:31-46 who "inherit the kingdom."

Where then will they be found ? Will any who have rejected the gospel as now presented be among them ?

In 2 Thess. 2:we read of the hindrance to the full manifestation of the evil of the period of judgment referred to, which is evidently the presence of the Holy Ghost in the Church on earth. He "lets" or hinders until " He be taken out of the way." When He goes up with the Church at the Lord's descent into the air, "then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall annul by the appearing of His coming; whose coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God sends to them a working of error, that they should believe what is false, that all might be judged who have not believed the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:8-13, J. N. D's Trans.)."

This is certainly a most solemn passage deserving to be carefully weighed. It refers to something which may take place very, very soon; a state of affairs many living now may enter upon shortly. The more minutely it is examined the more clearly it will be seen that it cuts off all hope of any being saved in that coming "hour of temptation "'(Rev. 2:10) who have heard the gospel of the grace of God in this "day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2), but heard only to reject it. It puts a terrible responsibility on those who listen again and again to the proclamation of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet have never rested in Him for themselves. To believers' children and unsaved members of their families it speaks loudly and warningly, for soon those who know the Lord will be "caught up"; then dire judgment will rest upon those who trusted Him not for themselves.

All who "believed not the truth" and who "received not the love of the truth" when it was presented to them are given up to a "working of error" or "strong delusion" that they might be judged. In the day when the truth was preached they turned carelessly from it because they had pleasure in unrighteousness. They were "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God " (2 Tim. 3:4). Now they are given up to error, and that by God Himself. Like Elymas the sorcerer, who rejected the light of the gospel and was smitten with blindness, so upon these, having turned from the truth, God sends the delusion that causes them to believe the lie of the Antichrist.

For former instances of God's sending men delusions and visiting them with judicial blindness, see the cases of Pharaoh (Ex. 11:10), of Ahab (2 Chron. 18:), and of the nation of Israel (Is. 6:9-10; Matt. 13:13-15), all who hear the gospel and believe it not are "condemned already " (Jno. 3:18). If the Lord comes while they are still in that state, the condemnation is final, and we note their dreadful doom in 2 Thess. 1:7-10, together with the contrast of the blessed place that might have been theirs, had they but believed the testimony so graciously given. "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." There could be no stronger declaration that all who reject the testimony now, will be unable to avail themselves of the testimony then, while the result of the outpouring of divine wrath upon the scene will only harden in place of bringing to repentance (Rev. 16:9, 10, 11, 21).

The teaching has become current among many that the taking away of the saved will result in an awakening in nominal Christendom, so that many who now have a name to live, but are dead, will in that day turn to the Lord. As to this, Scripture, as we have seen, states exactly the opposite, which is confirmed by the Lord Jesus in the Gospels. At the end of the age the tares are gathered in bundles and burned (Matt. 13:30, 40-42); the man without the wedding garment on, is cast into outer darkness (Matt. 22:13); the unfaithful servant is appointed his portion with the hypocrites (Matt. xxiv 48-51); the foolish virgins, though they go for oil, are shut outside the door (Matt. 25:ii); the unprofitable servant has even his profession taken away (vers. 28-30); those who neglected to enter in at the strait gate seek in vain to enter then (Luke 13:24); even as those who refused to be warned by Enoch and Noah perished in the flood, and those who listened not to Lot were destroyed in Sodom (Luke 17:26-30).

In short, we search Scripture in vain for one hint that any gospel rejecter will be saved in that clay. Nor does the expression in Rev. 7:9 militate against this:"Of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," for manifestly none of Israel will be among them, as we see the 144,000 of the twelve tribes quite distinct from the great multitude. The expression really declares the universality of the response to the everlasting gospel among the heathen nations, but Christendom, as Israel, is not counted, unless indeed, there be found even there some who never heard the gospel before. We leave then this solemn part of the subject, to look at the other side of the question, Who then can be saved?

And, first of all, we are reminded that this will be the period of Israel's awakening, as we have already seen in several passages. In Dan. 12:3, we read, "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever," and this, as the first verse assures us, during the time of trouble, but "at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book."

The hour of their darkest trouble and deepest sorrow will result in the elect among them returning to the Lord. The 144,000 of Rev. 7:picture to us those who will say, "Come, and let us return unto the Lord:for He hath torn and He will heal us; He hath smitten and He will bind us up " (Hosea 6:i). Zion's sore travail shall result in a great bringing forth of children as predicted in Micah 5:3, and Is. 66:8. We quote the latter passage, "Who hath heard such a thing ? who hath seen such things ? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day ? or shall a nation be born at once ? For as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children." The verses following are deserving also of special notice in this connection. See too Zech. 12:and 13:

And so the "blindness in part" is to be done away, the "fulness of the Gentiles" having come in, as shown also in Hosea 3:4, 5. "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim; afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness, in the latter days." This is true not of the nation as a whole. (See Zech. 13:8, 9; Is. 24:13, also Ezek. 20:31-44), but of the remnant. The mass will be destroyed for their apostasy. The remnant will be acknowledged as the nation, "and so all Israel shall be saved" (Rom. 11:26). To be of the sons of Jacob even, does not insure an opportunity of grace. None who refuse the truth now, whether Jew or Gentile, can be saved then.

Through the Jew, the gospel of the Kingdom will, during this time, be preached in all the earth for a witness, ere the end shall come. Sent forth by the Spirit from on high they will proclaim far and wide the approach of the Kingdom and call upon men to repent as John the Baptist did of old. See Matt. 24:14.

The everlasting gospel of Rev. 14:6, 7 is probably identical with this. There it is the calling on the creature to acknowledge the Creator God in a day when all the world will be wondering after the beast (Rev. 13:). Is. 66:18-21 is instructive in this connection:"It shall come, that I will gather all nations, and tongues; and they shall come and see My glory. And I will send a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Jovan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles, and they shall bring your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses and in chariots and in litters, and upon mules and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord." Here we doubtless have the ingathering of the ten tribes, for the Lord will "save the tents of Judah first" (Zech. 12:7). Connected with it however we see grace going out to the Gentiles who have not heard the truth previously. The great result of this is seen also in Zech. 8:20, 23.

A word on the judgment of Matt. 25:and we have done. This takes place at the Lord's coming to the earth. The living nations are gathered before Him. The separation is made according to the treatment accorded the Jewish missionaries mentioned above whom He owns as "My brethren." Intelligence in divine things is not marked in any, but at least they did not reject or neglect the messengers. They are saved and enter into the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. They are the " blessed of [His] Father."

And so even though the sword of judgment is unsheathed, grace is still exercised according to the word, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy "(Rom. 9:15). From Israel and the Gentiles a countless number will go into the millennial kingdom and acknowledge the sway of the blessed One, once made a curse for them, as for us. But not one who has spurned the Lamb of God in the present period will be among them.

There will, as briefly noticed above, be some who will be numbered with the heavenly saints after the Church is gone. They will be exclusively Jewish as evidenced by the fact that they sing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb" (Rev. 15:3). Their part will be, not with the Church, the body of Christ and Eve of the Last Adam, but doubtless with those of old who "desired a better country, that is an heavenly" (Heb. 11:16). In Rev. 20:we see them enthroned with the rest who live and reign a thousand years. With the Lamb they will be forever, but not theirs will be the special place enjoyed by those who now believe in Him and who are identified with Him in the present hour of His rejection. H. A. I.

There is nothing in Scripture more beautiful I than the truth as to the Church of Christ. It is called "His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Our risen and glorified Lord is the Head, and all believers are united to Him by the Holy Spirit, and thus baptized into the One Body. This determines the dignity, permanence, and heavenly character of the Church. Let us never forget this holy and wondrous truth, nor let us ignore the responsibilities connected with it.

Our Lord has made ample provision for the "nourishing and cherishing " needed by His Church during His absence. "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men." These gifts are as varied as the needs of the Church, and are included under the general heads of apostles, prophets , evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These three last would include the various activities which remain until the Lord's coming-the supernatural gifts of apostle and prophet being connected more particularly with the foundation, or still active through the "prophetic Scriptures" (Rom. 16:26, r. 5:)

The special gifts above referred to are for "the perfecting of the saints to the work of the ministry " (Eph. 4:12). That is, special gifts are for the preparation of all to the general exercise of a mutual ministry in which each one in the body of Christ has his share. " . . The Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:15, 16).

There is nothing more contrary to God's truth than clericalism, nothing that quenches the Spirit of God more effectually. What is evidently contemplated in the scripture just quoted is a vital organism, where each one has a distinct function. It may be truly said there can be no testimony to Church truth which does not hold and exhibit this fact. Every member of the body receiving and giving; mutual edification in love ! How beautiful ! What a privilege to be connected with the feeblest testimony of this kind !

But it would be the greatest folly to ignore the special gifts which our Lord has bestowed through the Holy Spirit. To do so would be to introduce the principles of socialism into the Church. "Are all apostles ? are all prophets ? are all teachers ?" (i Cor. 12:29.) "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, etc." (Rom. 12:6). It is the purpose of our present inquiry to ascertain the relation between the special gifts, as evangelist, pastor, and teacher, and the assembly as a whole, and with the local gathering as an expression of that assembly. We wish to learn the mutual responsibilities of assembly and gift, and of each to the Lord with regard to the other and themselves. It is an inquiry of great practical importance and not a mere theoretical question.

The source and authority for all ministry is our Lord in glory. He calls, and bestows the gifts, and to Him is the responsibility for their exercise. The Holy Spirit is the agent and power; all ministry is through Him alone. No man or men dare intrude between the Lord and His servant, between the Spirit .and those whom He uses "as He will." It is therefore true that the servant is responsible to His Lord, and to Him he stands or falls.

The usual thought of ordination is a contradiction of all this. Here a man, or body of men-it makes no difference which-undertakes to pass upon the call and fitness for service of those purposing to enter upon "the ministry."If they decide the person is qualified, he is ordained, set apart to the work, by his fellow-men. We say nothing of the intrusion into the priestly functions-the common portion of all the saints-but confine ourselves to this ordination to ministry. It was something even apostles did not do. No gift of ministry was ever hampered in this way. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (i Pet. 4:10).This is the simple and apostolic provision for their own and all time. But we are creatures of extremes. In the reaction from human ordination, the tendency is to ignore entirely those divine safeguards against merely human energy. Most certainly the opposite of ordination by man is not self-ordination. Were we compelled to choose between the two, we would undoubtedly prefer the choice of the many rather than the self-appointment of the one. But we can thank our blessed God that we are shut up neither to the one nor the other. The word of God makes a sufficient provision here as everywhere. A careful examination will show the provision.

In physics all action necessitates reaction; in the animal organism every organ that ministers must also receive nourishment. The heart, the wondrous organ of circulation, has a circulation which supplies it with that which renews its waste. So it is with the whole body-all activities are mutual and reciprocal. The equilibrium thus preserved is what we call health. Wherever there is failure sickness comes in.

Now the Spirit of God has used the natural body not merely as an illustration, but as a type of the spiritual body. The details of the twelfth chapter of i Corinthians and the fourth chapter of Ephesians forbid our thinking of the Body, the Church, as superficially and not really a living organism.

Let the reader carefully examine the passages referred to, particularly i Cor. 12:12-31. He will find here the unity of the Body, with diversity of members and of function. He will note too the interdependence of the various members, and the sovereign disposal by the Spirit of the members in the Body. Thus all are affected by the suffering or the health of any one member.

But it is not our purpose to dwell upon that which is well known by every one with even an elementary acquaintance with Church truth. We wish however to show how this means the closest vital connection between individual gifts and the entire Church. The evangelist is not merely an individual servant of Christ, but a fellow-member with all saints in the body of Christ. So with the pastor and teacher. These not merely give to, but receive from the Church all needed nourishment. All flows from the fountain head-Christ our Lord-but through every channel in the Body. Thus responsibility to the Head does not mean the overlooking of the will of the Head as expressed through the agency of other members.

Let our readers elaborate the truth barely hinted at. They will find that the "gifts" are just as dependent upon the other members of the Body, as these are upon the "gifts." They will find that it is just as true for the humblest member of the body of Christ that he is responsible to the Lord, as for the gift. In other words, to distinguish thus between gift and private member is the essence of the clerical system.

Nor let it be thought that this will in any way degrade the servant of Christ in the eyes of the saints. No official position can add to the honor of one who serves the Lord and His people, nor is that truly honor which belongs to him in contrast to the humblest believer. All who are Christ's are dear to Him, and honored by His people. We may and should value those specially useful to the edification of the body, but the esteem and honor will not differ in kind from that given "to one of the least." We recognize those who take the lead among us and admonish us, and "esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake," but this does not give them a "place." Their work will bring love and esteem, as will the work of every child of God, but it will not put them in a class as distinguished from the mass of the people of God. This is always adjusted where there is spirituality and subjection to the word of God.

The "gifted brother" is therefore simply a member of the Body of Christ, dependent upon and responsible to the Head, as is every other member of the Body. He will exercise his gift, just as every other member will exercise his, subject to the limitations and benefitting by the ministries provided by our Lord. It is for us then to see what these ministries and limitations are. His gift is larger, more prominent, and in a certain sense more useful than that of some quiet, humble saint, whose voice is never heard save in the priestly function of prayer or praise; but he takes his place simply as any other saint in the Body of Christ.

The local Assembly is but the local expression of the whole Church. If it be truly an assembly, it will possess the features that mark the entire Body. The chief of these are the recognition of the Headship and Lordship of Christ, the unity of the Body and of the Spirit, with all that goes with these:- subjection to the entire word of God, the maintenance of godly order and discipline, and the freedom for the Spirit of God to act unhampered by human restrictions. The local assembly will also acknowledge, on the principle of the unity of the Body, all other local assemblies gathered in the same way, each assembly being but one of many expressions of an absolute unity-which includes the entire Body of Christ.

Even in these days of ruin and confusion there is still the path for faith to walk in as to these truths, and a testimony to be maintained, feeble though it be, to these essential characteristics of all Church order. It may be called high-handed exclusivism to seek to maintain these truths practically among a little circle of those who in their souls bow to them, but that can safely be left to the Lord, who marks the path of obedience for His saints, and sees if their desire is to walk in it. But we must return to our theme.

The local assembly, then, is but one of a number of such gathered in various places throughout the
world, who are seeking to maintain a testimony as to the Church of God. The brethren of gift, may or may not, be confined to one such assembly; they may pass in their service from one to another of these companies, and reach out, as the Lord enables, to His beloved people everywhere.

From what has been said, it will be seen that there is no such thing as separate membership in the local assembly. All membership is in the Body of Christ; we can join nothing else than that to which we have been joined by the Holy Spirit (i Cor. 12:13). But it follows equally, that if one recognizes his place as a member of the Body of Christ, he will also see his place with those locally gathered to the Lord in any one place.

Thus the evangelist, pastor, or teacher, is like all the saints of God, a member of the Body of Christ, and, wherever he may be, is locally connected with the assembly at that place. He simply falls into his place as naturally as though he had long lived among these saints, and takes up in his measure whatever of service or responsibility the Lord may put into his hands as one of the assembly. He is also as subject to the discipline and order of the assembly in exactly the same way as any one else in it.

No doubt as to details there will need to be care as to undue activity in matters or with persons with whom he may not be familiar, and similarly the assembly will recognize that their acquaintance with the brother has been limited. But the general facts remain as stated, and it will be a great relief to see and act according to them.

We disabuse our minds entirely, then, of any thought of difference between " visiting" and "local"
brethren-save with the limitations intimated-and will again ask, What is the relation between the assembly and the individual gift ?

The assembly is the home of all the Spirit's activities. Every act of service has effect, and receives influence from the assembly. Gospel work, even if done outside, pastoral visitation, Sunday-school work and all else, is, or should be, done with the fullest fellowship of the assembly. So far from quenching the Spirit, this but furnishes fresh opportunities for Him to act through the various channels He has at His disposal. How much of cheer and brotherly counsel and practical fellowship does this suggest. No one stands alone to do his work as best he may, but is assured of loving fellowship in prayer, counsel, and all that may be needed.

We have a beautiful scriptural illustration of this in the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas from Antioch (Acts 13:) There was the normal, perhaps we may say more intense, work of the Spirit, among the gifted men and the assembly at Antioch. The Spirit of God made known His will for Barnabas and Saul, who are sent forth from the assembly, with fellowship, prayer and fasting. On their return they narrate God's work to the assembly, who unite in thanksgiving for the blessing.

So it should ever be. There are special features, what we might call " supernatural," yet the prayer and fasting, the ministering to the Lord, the asking and receiving His mind, the fellowship and prayer should mark the Spirit's work to-day as always. When we think of the vast fields of labor practically untouched, of the needs that cry aloud, of the fewness and feebleness of the laborers, do we not see the need for assemblies to come thus before the Lord in prayer and expectation for rich and lasting blessing ? Might we not expect to see one and another separated unto special service to "the regions beyond " ?

But we need to trace from the beginning this mutual relationship between the assembly and the "gift." We have already seen that all activities are exercised in fullest fellowship with the assembly. In fact, we would not be far wrong were we to say that the assembly will be the first to recognize the beginnings of a helpful ministry. A young brother shows a love for souls, an aptitude for speaking a word in season, or a grasp of divine truth and ability to state it plainly. His brethren see and rejoice in this perhaps before he is conscious of it himself.

Just here is where the divine provision of mutual helpfulness comes in. One may have his future usefulness marred by undue praise or blame, be puffed up or crushed. But if the assembly wisely meets its responsibilities, how such a gift may be nourished and developed by the Spirit under the faithful counsel and prayers of the saints.

The apostle warns against any of God's people engaging in work while still novices. The quiet of the assembly is the divine school till the young servant has gained experience, knowledge, and prudence, and where he profits by the encouragement and counsel and prayers of the saints. How much sorrow would saints be spared if this were always remembered. There is real danger in despising this time of training, and of having a restless spirit which would be "out in the work." Let us never forget that most of God's work is done by those who never go "out," that souls are saved, saints taught and cared for, and much other service done by quiet saints, who never dream of having "gift." It may be trying, but it will work "peaceable fruits of righteousness," for brethren to "bear the. yoke" in the assembly, and "first be proved " before attempting to give up work with hands to devote themselves exclusively to "prayer and the ministry of the word."

We would emphasize this matter, and seek to press upon assemblies their responsibility as to these things. If the Lord has called out "gifts," He has also provided assemblies to help, counsel, uphold in prayer these gifts in their service. How many a servant of Christ craves the fellowship and counsel of his brethren. How it cheers him to be assured of their prayers and loving interest. How he would profit by their advice, and, if needs be, correction. There need not be a spirit of criticism in this. In fact, criticism is far more apt to flourish where the responsibilities to which we have alluded are neglected. How often has a work of God been blighted by fault-finding, which would have been advanced by a few faithful words to the ministering brother. We do not enter into details, which will suggest themselves to most, but would affectionately point out the vital principles involved here.

Summing these up, we would point out that the scriptural and usual way for the manifestation of gift would be in the local assembly, which would encourage and help the brother by loving counsel and prayer, seeking to develop what was of God, and by wise counsel to correct any mistake to which those are liable who engage in the Lord's service.

The local assembly is at all times responsible for the walk, doctrine, and associations of the Lord's
servant. This responsibility may be, and ordinarily will be, met by loving and prayerful counsel and fellowship. Any error in teaching may be pointed out, and part truths supplemented, thus preventing him from becoming one sided in his ministry.

We are quite aware that this will seem to many impracticable and needless, a menace to freedom for the Lord's servant on the one hand, and a heavy yoke upon the assembly on the other. It will at once be admitted that there are dangers in both directions indicated, but is there not the greatest danger of all in ignoring or neglecting the grave responsibilities which must be apparent to all ?

We are persuaded that the Spirit of God already exercises both assemblies and the Lord's servants in these things, and we rejoice at every evidence of mutual care. But let it abound. Should not assemblies be much engaged in prayer that God would raise up, equip and maintain the needed gifts for His Church ? Should they not be looking for an answer to these prayers ? And may they not expect the answer to come in connection with fresh exercise as to the whole subject of the relation of the gift to the entire assembly ?
And for those who are engaged exclusively in the Lord's service, may we not have the deepest sympathy, the fullest fellowship and confidence, and the most ceaseless prayer and care. May our God lead us into His mind regarding these things.

Whenever a truth is ignored and neglected, the enemy will pervert it, and introducing error into it, will make it the basis of some evil doctrine. No doctrine that appeals to professing Christendom can afford to throw off the mask of scripturalness, if it claims to be Christian at all. All heresy contains a measure of truth, which acts as the bait upon the hook to attract the unwary. It will also usually be found that the truth so used is that which from general neglect has become unfamiliar to most.

This association with error renders the truth itself obnoxious to those loyal in heart, so that they are confirmed in their neglect, not realizing that neglect has made the evil use of scripture possible.

In this way the precious truth as to our Lord's corning, and the general outline of the events of the last days, had been for long years neglected by the Church. We might almost say that since the days of the apostles, they had been ignored save in a most general and vague way. As a consequence the enemy linked these truths with the wicked, extravagant or absurd blasphemies of some system of error. In this way Irvingism, Seventh-Day Adventism, Mor-monism and various schools of Restorationism and Annihilationism have obtained the ear of the uninstructed conscience, by making use, in greater or less degrees of accuracy, of the neglected truth of prophecy. Thus prophetic truth became identified in the minds of most with these errors, and this in turn has served to render it all the more neglected. On the other hand the enemy has intruded his poison into the minds of many by the cunning admixture of truth.

We can never afford to ignore truth, any part of it. Were a single book of Scripture ignored, generally and persistently, we might expect Satan to draw from that book some doctrine and cunningly mingle it with deadly error. What an argument we have in this, if there were no other reasons, for constantly and systematically reading and studying every portion of the word of God.

What has been said of the truth of the Lord's coming, applies with equal force to the subject now before us. Rome has always claimed the power, through her saints, to heal the sick, and the false systems already mentioned, with scarce an exception, claim a similar power. It is, on the other hand, a well-known fact that evangelical Christendom has almost entirely shrunk from looking at the subject at all. Wherever there has been reaction from this, the teachings of Scripture on the subject have been distorted or placed in undue prominence, or given wrong connections. Thus "Faith Healing "in its varied forms, has become a doctrine of such prominence as well-nigh to eclipse the truths with which it has been associated, if nothing worse; while such awful blasphemies as that of "Christian Science" have found an acceptance among the many, which shows the need of a clear understanding of what the word of God has to say upon this subject.

We may truly say that nothing is more common in this world than sickness. What a comment this is upon its condition and relation to Him who, when it came all fair from His hands as the habitation of man, pronounced it "very good." Every sickness is a premonition of death, and is but the echo of that solemn word to fallen Adam, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return." Sin has come in, and death by sin, and the universal sway of death is witnessed by the universal prevalence of sickness.

How infinitely pathetic it is!-all humanity groaning under suffering or in sympathy with it ! Think of the anguish of mothers over their little ones, whose entrance into this world was at the risk of their own lives, and who sicken and linger and die at the very threshold of life. Think of the blight that sooner or later falls upon every home-the support taken, or the tender loving mother, or the pride and hope of the family removed in the fresh vigor of young manhood or womanhood. Sickness is but the precursor of all this, even when there is recovery for the time. We need not be surprised then at the efforts to restore the suffering. It is a witness of that natural affection which lingers in fallen man, a relief to the all-prevailing selfishness of the race.

And can we think that God is indifferent, the only indifferent One, to all this suffering? Of course, we reply, No. But is there not a real danger of our shutting Him out, in our thoughts, from the sick room ? Are not the thoughts of most, even of most Christians, that God is good, merciful and pitiful, but that we must let things take their course, do the best we can, and hope and pray ?

Far be it from us to say a single word against most of that. But the fact is that God is looked upon as at a distance by most of His own, and it is considered presumption to bring Him too near. As a result little comfort is obtained, save of a most general character. Thus there is failure to see the hand of God in the sickness. It is regarded as "providential," but not by many as a distinct voice to sufferer and to all concerned.

We should recognize His special presence and attention in sickness. All comes through Him, and if a father who calls to his son expects to be answered, so does our Father when He calls to us in sickness. Oh, that the saints of God realized this more fully ! We have to do with Him; sickness is His appeal to us, and our first care should be to say from our hearts, "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth."

If God has spoken, He has said something. It would be wanton cruelty, if He had afflicted us without a definite purpose. We dare not harbor such a thought for a moment. Let us not then act as if we had such a thought. Of whom do most of us think first in sickness, of God or the physician ? Far be the thought to despise any human means to relieve suffering, but God must be first. Asa sought to the physician rather than to the Lord, and he was not cured. How much restless anxiety would be spared if we immediately turned to God, and submitted the entire trouble to Him. We would be none the less faithful in the use of means, but the heart would have found its rest with God at the very outset.

And what needful and holy lessons He would be teaching us. Many of these are necessarily personal, but there are certain general features that we may point out.

Perhaps one of the first lessons to be remembered in sickness is that we are part of God's creation, and subject to the governmental consequences of the fall. None are exempt from this. It brings home to us in an unmistakable way the reality of disobedience. It bridges, as we might say, the distance between Eden and ourselves, and we hear God saying to us what He said to Adam. It is a holy and profitable lesson to bow under His mighty hand as one of His creatures. Our salvation has not affected that, and while His grace has put us into a new place, our bodies are still in the groaning creation, and we wait for their redemption.

We will thus be reminded of our frailty, our dependence. How prone we are to forget that! Man's breath is in his nostrils, and yet he exalts himself and does and plans as if he were his own master. God lays His hand upon him, and what is he ? a poor feeble vessel of clay. His boasted strength is gone, and, helpless as an infant, he must fall into the Arms of everlasting strength. The child of God cannot because of that expect to be immune from sickness. He must, as to his body, take his place with all mankind. This will keep him humble. He will not presume upon grace, as though it granted an immunity to nature in a place where sin is inherent in that nature.

And what wholesome exercise, of heart-searching, prayer and patience will result from thus being with God about our sickness. We will "hear the rod and Him who hath appointed it." Faith will be called into exercise, and the purpose of the affliction will be understood. We have been speaking of some of the general lessons common to all. Without doubt there will be many a lesson known only to the soul and to God. Even in the most blameless life outwardly, there is much that the holy eye of Love has seen which it cannot pass by. Devotion that has seemed well-nigh complete, has had the stain of spiritual pride. Conduct that has seemed most loving, has concealed the feeling of envy. Duties have been neglected, spiritual sloth fostered, opportunities have not been availed of. Ah, brethren, when we are in the holy presence of God, our best things need to be judged, the iniquity of our holy things is disclosed. We need not suspect or accuse one another of grave outward evil, but there will always be room for searching of heart, and for confession to God.

But there are others concerned besides the sick one. "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it !" There is surely a voice, not only to the immediate family, but to the people of God who are connected with the afflicted person. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." It does not necessarily follow that the sickly ones or those who fall asleep are the ones who have failed to judge themselves. They may be godly ones whose departure would be most sorely felt, and thus their sickness would be calculated to affect the assembly far more than that of some careless or useless one. "The righteous perisheth," said the prophet to the careless nation. God removed the faithful if by this means the indifferent might lay it to heart. Alas, he had to say, "and no man layeth it to heart." Is it not to be greatly feared that this has been the case in our day too ? God lays His rod upon His people; it matters not who the individual directly afflicted may be, the voice is for us all. '' Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord" (Lam. 3:40).

Is not this the great object of all affliction, to turn us afresh to God ? How prone we are to forget, to neglect, to grow cold by imperceptible degrees, until some chastening is required to bring us unreservedly before our God. His love must have us in His presence. There only can we walk in holiness, and be conformed to the image of our Lord. " If thou wilt return . . . return unto Me" (Jer. 4:i). He wishes no mere reform, no mere correction of this or that point of conduct; He desires the entire change of the attitude of the soul that has wandered from Him.

Ah, brethren, when a company of His people thus recognize the hand of God upon them in the affliction of a single individual, how precious are the results. Instead of being confined to the immediate circle, the peaceable fruits are produced among all. Is not this the purpose of our God, and shall we not lay it seriously to heart ? Corporate truth is most wide-reaching.

We have now reached the point where we can act together. The tendency of nature is to drift asunder. Grace unites. A common object, a common life, and a common Spirit dwelling within us – all these draw us together. Thus too a common trial has the same effect. Have the saints been growing cold ? Have they been falling asunder ? Ah, how a common affliction, laid to heart will draw them together, because it draws them to God. United humbling and confession will be the result, and a practical unity be again manifest.

Until some such state has been reached, individually and collectively, all the objects of the affliction have not been attained. How can we ask for the removal of the chastening if we have not learned in some degree its lesson ? We might almost as well apply to a physician to heal as to the Lord, if only healing is our object. May this not explain much of the delay in answering our prayers ? It would but harden, if God granted the prayers of unexercised souls.

But affliction has had its blessed results, and the saints, humbled under the mighty hand of God, seeing the needs-be of the chastening, and turning with all their hearts to Him, can now see what His word offers for comfort and help.

"Peter therefore was kept in prison:but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him" (Acts 12:5). Never was case more hopeless than this, so far as man was concerned. The thirsty sword of persecution had just had its appetite whetted by the blood of James. One more day and Peter must die. But the church, the assembly, not a few but all, were before God in prayer. The word suggests both the intensity and the perseverance of their supplications. We know the result. And He is the same God to-day.

But we have a special scripture upon this subject which we are now ready to examine.

"Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is there any merry ? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you ? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain:and it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit" (Jas. 5:13-18).

James writes, as we know, to the nation, "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad." He looks upon them still as the people of God, and seeks in the spirit of one of the prophets to draw them to God. He recognizes of course that Christ has come, but he does not take up the truths of redemption and the descent of the Spirit, as Paul, Peter and John. He is thus, we might say, the last voice of God to the nation. It is a book of moral principles for the conscience, rather than dispensational. Rightly to answer to the word here they must have new birth and faith in Christ, but the question of outward separation from Judaism is not raised as it is in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Hence we have allusion to the synagogue, with the respect of the rich to which the Jews were specially prone, as not being heavenly people. We need not be surprised therefore, to see the governmental side of truth emphasized, and special directions for the comfort of the sick. But it is striking at the "very point where we would think the Jewish features most prominent, we find the Assembly. But let us look at the passage somewhat in detail.

The general resource in times of affliction is prayer, just as joy also leaves us in the presence of God, with thanksgiving for His mercies. Nothing is to take us out of His presence, we pour out our sorrows in prayer, and our joys in praise. How simple is the walk with God.

But now sickness has come. We first see the exercise of the one who is laid low:"Let him send for the elders of the assembly." This shows a heart that bows under the hand of God, and that recognizes the share His assembly has in all that concerns each one. The elders are the representatives of the entire assembly, and more particularly of its oversight, care and government. They are of course godly men of faith, age and experience, who have themselves been trained in the school of God, and who know what sorrow is. They were appointed by the apostles under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and thus had in that day an official position under the designation of inspiration.

This official position seems to accord with the anointing with oil spoken of in connection with prayer. It was used we remember by the disciples when sent forth on their mission of healing to Israel (Mark 6:13). It was the invariable mark of official designation of kings, priests and prophets (when the latter had any designation). It is a well-known type of the Holy Spirit, who alone can fit for service, or restore to it.

But it is the prayer of faith, and not the oil that saves the sick. This is evidently the essential and permanent part of the direction. Prayer links us with God, forms never can. These men of faith and experience, with the care of the assembly upon them, unitedly pour out their hearts to God. In faith they lay hold upon Him, and he does not disappoint. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up." The affliction was recognized as from the Lord, His mercy was sought, in
connection with the order and government of His house, and His hand of power raised up.

More than this, if sins had been committed, they would be forgiven:This does not mean that sin necessarily had been committed, save in the general sense we have already seen, but that the sickness might have been as chastening for some special sin. The restoration to health in that case would be a witness of the restoration to communion also.

This leads the apostle to speak further of this feature of governmental dealing for sins, and the place of confession. It will be noticed that he does not speak of confession to the elders, though that may have been done, but "confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." Grace has brought us into the light. The holiness of God manifested our sins, while His grace has put them away. We abide in that light with all naked and open to His holy eye. This sense of being in the presence of God will give real fellowship with all who are in that presence. " If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." Thus confession of faults will be natural and unforced to those whom we realize are in the light. If we have been before God truly about our sins, pride is gone, and there will be no hesitation on that account to speak to one another. This does not mean that we should be constantly pouring out the tale of our failures into our brethren's ear. There may be those who are in no spiritual condition to receive such confidences. The lesson may have been learned with God. All will one day come out at the judgment-seat of Christ, but there are times when it can most profitably come out now. If there is the confidence in the Lord and in one's brethren, it may often be a most sanctifying lesson to all concerned.

This confession of faults is spoken of as mutual, and so with the prayer that follows. It shows that it is to be done whenever there is need and faith for it. Most surely it could not be made a condition of prayer, nor be held before the sick one as the priest would hold up the confessional, as the only door to absolution. This would be neither grace nor holiness.

The apostle closes the subject with an example of the effectual – "the energetic"-prayer of a righteous man, one who is walking with God. Elijah closed and opened the heavens by his prayer. He was a man like ourselves, weak, liable to attacks of unbelief and discouragement, and yet he wrought with and for God, and obtained the answers to his prayers. What an incentive to do likewise.

But it will be said, and truly, that we are not living in the days of the apostles, that elders cannot now be officially appointed, and therefore this scripture is inoperative. Most surely there can be no assumption of official dignity, and more sad than that, there is a state of ruin which makes us even ask, Where is the assembly ? The world has crept in, discord and strife have followed, till the church of Christ, to man's eye, is a rent and divided thing. Elders of the assembly ! Alas, the assembly itself has crumbled into fragments, and if grace has enabled a few to act upon the truths of the assembly, it is but the feeblest of remnants. Weeping and shame become us. Elders and anointing would then seem to be out of place where our common ruin witnesses against us.

But blessed be the God of all grace, He has not failed. Christ and the Holy Spirit have not changed, and the word of God, with its precious promises, remains the same. Eliminate then that which speaks of the unfailed church, and we have still, fellowship, experience, care, and above all the prayer of faith. Nothing can alter that. God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Nor is it presumption to recognize those gifts of rule which abide for the church. Brethren of age and experience, of piety and faith-there are these, thank God, whom faith can call in to unite in the prayer that lays hold of God. There is still the brotherly confidence that can pour out sorrow and the failure into the ear of loving sympathy.

How much, then, dear brethren, we have left from this scripture for our comfort and guidance even in a day of ruin. Shall we not then make practical and experimental use of it ? "Prove me now herewith," may we not plead if we have morally complied with the conditions (Mal. 3:10, 11).

We cannot dictate to our blessed God, nor would we demand the restoration to health of the sick. We would however ask if it be His will that He show us mercy. Thus was Epaphroditus raised up. May we not count upon the same mercy ? Particularly when it is some useful and faithful servant of Christ and the Church, either locally or more generally, may we not claim the promise, in submission ever to higher wisdom and purposes than ours ?

Nor is this the least inconsistent with the believing use of means for recovery. The same prophet who announced Hezekiah's recovery in answer to prayer, prescribed the means which was to be used for that recovery. It is pernicious to antagonize God and His instrumentalities, to turn the back upon His mercy because brought in the hands of a physician. This begets a pride which will need humbling so surely as any other sin. Some may be, mislead, and humbly refuse the use of means, but the system which does this is based in pride. It dictates to God.

Let us now turn to the house where God has raised up the loved one in answer to prayer and exercise. Joy and gratitude are there, chastened by the memory of the sorrows and exercises passed through. The glory is given to God, and this by a circle as wide as was engaged in the previous exercise. Let the reader ponder "the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness" (Is. 38:9-22). There is the memory of the bitterness of the chastening, the hourly expectation of death, the cry to God. Then comes the grateful acknowledgment that "Himself hath done it," and the sense of a holiness in God that will impel him to walk softly all his days.

So may it be with us, beloved and sorrowing saints of God. Let us learn from the great Teacher, and while bereavement does come, and blessed be God is not a sorrow without hope-nay, is far better for the one who departs-let us learn too to make use of this resource for faith in times of sickness. Lord, awaken Thy people, and sanctify to them all Thy ways.

(Song of Sol. 1:4.)

'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me. This He said, signifying what death He should die" (John 12:32, 33).

Draw me," my Saviour,
Thou hast been "lifted up," –
Draw me, my Saviour,
Thou hast "tasted" death's cup.

" Draw me," my Saviour,
From all other trust ;
Thy wounds are my healing,
In Thee is my boast.

"Draw me," my Saviour,
O draw me from sin ;
Rule my behavior,
All, all my heart win.

"Draw me," my Saviour,
That I too, may draw –
Win precious souls
To Thee, and from woe.

"Draw me," my Saviour,
"The billows go o'er;"
Draw me, uphold me
Till they are no more.

"Draw me," my Saviour,
O draw me to Thee;
Till with Thee in glory,
My Saviour draw me.

There on Thy beauties
Forever I'll gaze –
There in Thy likeness,
Shall give Thee full praise.

R. H.

THE MAN AFTER THE FLESH.

Chapter I. THE STATE OF THE PEOPLE. Continued from page 324.

"Returning for a little, we must look at the state of the people as exemplified in that of the priests, for as the Scripture shows, the one corresponds to the other. "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so " (Jer. 5:31). Here we see the false prophets, claiming to reveal God's mind, and the priests bearing rule by this. But such a state would be impossible were the people not willing. The people, if only outwardly connected with God, are glad to have a carnal priesthood. So in the history of the professing church, with the awful iniquity of the priests, we must remember that it was but the reflection of the state of a carnal people; in name only the people of God. No doubt a godly priest would do much to check the abounding evil of the people, and a godless one would accelerate their decline. Hence, the solemn responsibility of those in such a place. But the point of importance to remember is that a people away from God make possible a wicked priesthood, as the latter intensifies the alienation of the people.

But what a picture of reckless blasphemy and grossest wickedness have we in these priests. One bears the honored name of a faithful predecessor and relative – Phinehas, "the mouth of brass." The name is suggestive of what he was, an unyielding witness for God in a day of apostasy and corruption, who by his faithfulness wrought righteousness, stayed the plague and obtained '' an everlasting priesthood," as type of the Priest who one day will put down all evil and maintain abiding relationship between God and His people (Num. 25:7-13). With this one, however, nothing remains but the name. Is it not suggestive also that Eli was not a descendent of Phinehas, but of Ithamar, the other son of Aaron? So that at this time, for some reason, the proper line of descent had not been observed, which in itself may indicate the disordered condition of everything. For Phinehas had been promised an abiding priesthood. "A mouth of brass" indeed had this younger Phinehas, but not on God's behalf, as a faithful witness for Him, Rather, he hardened himself against God, and would be one of those who would say, " Our lips are our own; who is lord over us? "

Hophni, too, while there is no historical connection with his name, seems to answer to it only in an evil way. " My hands," seems to be the meaning, which some have thought to suggest " fighter." But the root with which it is connected is used for de-scribing the hands as capable of holding, rather than of striking. Very noticeably it is applied to the priest entering the holiest on the day of atonement, "with his hands full of sweet incense" (Lev 16:12). It would thus be a good priestly name, and fitting companion for Phinehas. "Hands full" of incense and an unyielding testimony. Alas, the hands of Hophni were full, but not of the materials of praise. They were filled with ill-gotten gain and the fat of the Lord's offerings appropriated to his own use. The sin of these men was twofold, the one resulting from the other. In the judgment of the world they would not have seemed equally heinous. They were guilty of sacrilege and of gross immorality, the latter a fitting consequence of the former.

And is not this always the case? Where God is displaced, His service despised, is not the relation between man and man also corrupted ? The unspeakable corruption described in the early part of Romans is the direct result of man's turning from God. So here. The priests will have their own part out of the sacrifice-not that in mercy provided for them in the law of God, but of the best, and of that which belonged to Him alone. When the worshipers, with some remains of a tender conscience, would plead that God have His part first, the rough answer and threatened violence was all the satisfaction they could get. Thus the Lord's offering was despised, and the sin of the priests was "very great before the Lord."

If there is one form of sin more abhorrent than another, and which will bring more fearful punishment, it is that which disports itself in the presence of holy things. This is why religious corruption is the worst. The conscience is seared, and God's holy name is dragged into the most unholy associations. Will He allow it? Ah, He will no more allow it in a formal, Christless church than He would in a formal Israel. Men despised holy things, because of their abuse by the priests. And is it not true, not only in Rome past and present, but in the professing church to-day, that the world despises divine things because those who should be "holy priests," do not give God the chief place in their professed service of Him? When people cease to fear before God, when they see in His ministers mere selfish disregard of God's will, we have apostasy. It is not extravagant to say that such is largely the condition in Christendom to-day. The Lord's offering is despised.

Eli hears of all his sons' wickedness and calls them to account. His words are strong and good. But of what avail are good and strong words when the strong arm of judgment should fall? The law provided the penalty for such sacrilege as this, in death. Why did not Eli show himself to be truly zealous for the Lord's honor ? Ah, words, mere words no matter how strong are worse than guilty complicity. Worse, for the man who utters them knows the evil and goes on with it.

There is solemn instruction in this. It is not enough to see the wrong of a thing, or even to bear witness against it. Action is necessary. This is why so many-Lot like-fret and talk against evil and find no relief or help. Action must be taken, either by inflicting true discipline upon the evil-doer, or, if this be impossible, by separation from a state of things which makes it impossible. Otherwise men will be engulfed in the judgment of the very thing against which they so loudly declaim.

This may seem harsh, but it is in accord with the witness of the man of God who is sent to Eli. He associates Eli with his sons:" wherefore kick ye at My sacrifice and at My offering …. and honorest thy sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel My people!" Not one word of commendation for his own faithfulness, or personal piety. "Them that honor Me, I will honor." And so Eli and his house go down in a common dishonor, branded with the common shame of having despised the Lord. Would that the lesson of this could be fully learned. " Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."

It is refreshing and yet most sad to think of the child Samuel growing up in an atmosphere like this. Refreshing, for the Lord kept him inviolate amidst "the obscene tumult which raged all around;" but sad that one so tender should not only witness, but be obliged to witness against this awful state of things. "But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod." "And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favor both with the Lord, and also with men." "And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli"(i Sam. 2:18, 26; 3:i). The mention of the ephod, the priestly garment, would suggest that on a little child had fallen the only spotless robe in the priesthood. He represents, as we might say, for the time being, the house of Aaron, fallen into ruins in the hands of Eli and his sons. The child grew on and ministered to the Lord before Eli.

Be he but a child, no one who is truly before God will be long without a message from God. So Samuel gets his first revelation from the One till then but dimly known by him. Poor Eli! eyesight has well nigh gone, as well as faithfulness, and lying down to slumber he fittingly suggests the spiritual state he was in. How hopeless, to human appearances, was the state. How unlikely that God would intervene. And yet it is just then that He does speak, and to a little child. Thrice He must call before it dawns upon Eli that the Lord is speaking to the child. He had told him to "go and lie down again, "even as many careless ones would seek to quiet those to whom God is speaking. But at last it dawns upon the old man that it is God who is there, and he dare not-weak as he may be with his sons-he would not silence that Voice, slow as he had been to obey it.

How touching and interesting is the scene which follows, familiar to every Christian child. What a moment in this child's life-God, the living God, deigns to call and to speak with him. What an honor; how lovely and yet how solemn. Well may the child say "Speak Lord for Thy servant heareth."

But what a message for a child's ears. Why should this awful story of sin and its judgment be the first words which the Lord should speak to the little one ? Does it not emphasize for us the fact that the judgment of sin is as necessary for the young as the old? and that God's messenger in a world like this must hear all His word ? How many plead that they are not suited for such testimony. They love to hear the sweet and precious things of the gospel, but when it comes to the solemn declarations as to the state of the Church and the path for faith, how many plead that they are not ready for such things. A child can hear and declare the message of God.

We can think of that little lad, lying open eyed till the morning, with the great awe of God's nearness upon him; and naturally shrinking from the responsibility of declaring this message to Eli. He quietly opens the doors of the Lord's house-significant act-fearing to speak of what he had heard. But Eli calls him, and, faithful to himself, if not to his sons, hears and bows to the awful sentence of God pronounced by the lips of a child.

(To be continued.)

QUES. 14.-Please explain the meaning of the Rider on the white horse, Rev. 6:2. Does he go forth as an antichrist or as a warrior? Is he a real man or only a symbol?

ANS.-He goes forth "conquering and to conquer," so evidently he is not an antichrist, but a warrior. The bow also would speak of this. He thus stands for the victorious spread of power in the latter days. The horse is symbolic of power and rule, but the rider is something more than a symbol. Being the first to come forth, he seems to be the ruler of the revived Roman Empire. Later on we see this ruler as "the beast"(ch. 13:1), revived in satanic power after he had received the deadly wound.

It is of solemn interest to note that this Rider comes forth at the call of the first living creature-the Lion. Christ as King is represented as the lion, and if He is rejected by man, there is nothing left but this warrior ruler. The Jews declared " we have no king but Caesar," and in this last of the Caesars we see the heading up of that apostasy of the world from its rightful Ruler.

QUES. 15.-Please explain the expression " sons of God," Gen. 6:2. To my mind it seems undoubtedly to point to the children of Seth. Yet I believe some hold and speak of the words in Jude 6, 7, as pointing to another view.

ANS.-We have no doubt the first is the correct view. "Sons of God," it is true, is used of angels (Job 1:6; 38:7). But as in all Scripture, the connection must be examined. In Genesis there is no mention of angelic beings in connection with these times, on the other hand there is a distinction between the descendants of Seth and those of Cain. Let this be seen, and all is clear, while the other thought is not only incongruous, but contrary to the entire teaching of the word of God. The passage in Jude gives no support to the view mentioned. It treats of an entirely different subject-the fall of the angels, which occurred doubtless before the creation of man. There is no connection between vers. 6, 7 which is sought to be given.

QUES. 16.-Is there a difference in character between the judgment-seat of Christ and the great white Throne?

ANS.-Of course it is understood that there is the widest difference between these two judgments as to time and persons involved, as well as what comes into judgment. The judgment-seat of Christ takes place at the beginning, we might say, of the millennium, and that of the great white Throne at its close. Only the saved are at the former, and only the lost at the latter; while works are reviewed at the former and persons judged at the latter.

But as to the character of the judgment, of the holiness which is its basis, there is no difference. The light in which the saints' works will be manifested is just as intense as that which will search out "the hidden things of darkness "in the unsaved. Does not this explain the apostle's expression, "knowing therefore the terror of the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:11)? He would entreat sinners, in view of that judgment before them, to be reconciled to God, for he knew the solemn reality of that judgment which would search out all the life of the saints.

V. THE TWO NATURES.

Often it happens that the young believer becomes distressed in spirit as he realizes the continued existence of sin in him, which at times will assert itself by thought, word and action, much to his sorrow. Such an one does not see fully that while he is "born again," and has thus received a new nature, yet the old nature is not remedied, removed, or eradicated, but two distinct natures exist in him as opposite as day and night, good and evil, in their desires and operations, and can be no more assimilated than oil and water.

A lack of apprehension of all this may, and often does, lead into what is called a " backslidden " state, causing distress of soul, sorrow to God's people, and dishonor to Him.

I. The natural man, 1:e., a person in his unconverted state, having only one nature, and that received from Adam by natural, fleshly descent.

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:for they are foolishness unto him:neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (i Cor. 2:14).

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

"So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God " (Rom. 8:7, 8).

This God states to be the condition of every person naturally, no matter how cultured, refined, talented, amiable, or liberal, they"cannot please God."

See also Psa. 51:5; Mark 7:21-23; Eph. 4:22; John 6:63; i Cor. 1:18; Heb. 11:6; John. 3:6.

2. The spiritual man, 1:e., a person such as above, but who has been born again; thus receiving a new nature from God in addition to the old Adamic nature, in all its unchangeableness ; just as bad in the believer as in the unbeliever.

"As many as received Him, to them gave He power (right or privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12, 13).

"Whereby are given unto us, exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 2:4).

" Which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness " (Eph. 4:24).

See also John 3:3; Gal. 3:26; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3, 4; i John 3:9).

Thus these two extremes of nature, Adamic and of God, existing in the same person-a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ-there must be, and is constant conflict, as each asserts itself.

3. The fruits of each nature, and the conflict. '' For the flesh (Adamic nature) lusteth against the spirit (the divine nature), and the spirit against the flesh:and these are contrary the one to the other:so that ye cannot (or may not) do the things that ye would " (Gal. 5:17).

" Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these:adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like" (Gal. 5:19-21).

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. 5:22, 23).

"But as then he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so is it now" (Gal. 4:29). See also Rom. 7:14-24.

It is very profitable and helpful to study carefully the conflict between the two in this last chapter.

4. Victory. With these two conflicting powers, one displeasing and the other pleasing to God, it is evident that as either one has control or sway, the life of the believer must be in approval or disapproval to God; so the apostle writes in 2 Cor. 5:9, that he endeavored to be "acceptable to Him," not accepted of Him in the sense of salvation which was "in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6), and is therefore unvarying, but as to his life and service.

With the new birth God gives a mighty " Helper " in the Holy Ghost, who dwells in the believer imparting energy and overcoming power, so that the secret of victory is to "walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh " (Gal 5:16).

It is to see the place and manner in which God has dealt with the "old man" and then to reckon or count ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

" Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. . . . Mortify (put practically to death) therefore your members," etc. (Col. 3:2, 3, 5.)

How God deals with the old man ?

"Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."

" Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof" (Rom. 6:6, 9, 11, 12).

"I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20).

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh . . . but if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body we shall live" (Rom. 8:12, 13).

So it is to realize our identification, in God's sight, with Christ,-that we have died, been buried, risen, seated in the heavenlies in Him, and that such is the end of the "old man" before Him, judged at the cross ; and thus walking, or living in the Spirit, is making practical here in our lives this exalted position in the energy of the Holy Spirit who bears witness through the word of God to these facts:-

"Ye are dead …ye then be risen with Christ " (Col. 3:3, i).

"Hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 2:6).

But while truly believing all this, the believer at times may yield to the flesh, and, alas, sin is the result. What then is to be done ?

God is His wonderful salvation has made provision for this.

" My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (i John 2:i).

Our blessed Lord did not exhaust His interest in His believing people on the cross, but His advocacy
now avails for those of them who may be overcome by sin. But does not the believer have something to do ? Ah, yes, the saint who has thus fallen into sin, by which his communion is interrupted, must be led to "see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God" (Jer. 2:19), and that it is no light matter to yield to that which his Father hates and which brings not only trouble to himself, but dishonor to our Lord, and will be led by the Holy Spirit in deep humiliation of soul to true self-judgment (i Cor. 11:31, 32), and to make confession of his sin.

But let it be clearly understood that this is not to be done in a mere formal manner;. it must be real heart work of sorrow, for sin is as hateful to our God in His children, as it is in the unbeliever, and surely it is not the normal condition of children of God to practice or allow sin any rule in their lives, but on the contrary it should be an exception.

The apostle Paul writes, "sin shall not have dominion over you" (Rom. 6:14).

Peter "went out and wept bitterly" (Matt. 26:75), and

John calls attention to the Advocacy of Christ. (i John 2:i).

David says, '' Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee" (Psa. 119:n).

This latter, then, is the great preventive, as in the power of the Holy Ghost it takes practical effect in our lives, and as the word points to our Lord, the sure remedy is to be continually occupied with our Lord Jesus Christ. B. W. J.

QUES. 1.-Please explain 1 Tim. 5:6. Is the widow here spoken of a Christian? It seems as if the "true widow" is described in the fifth verse, and in the sixth only a professor is spoken of. Is this correct?

ANS.-The contrast is clear, and the broad distinction is as noted by our correspondent. The sixth verse would describe one who still found her portion and pleasure in the world. Thus while alive in the world, she has no spiritual life. In striking contrast with this is the one who is desolate, but has all her faith and expectation centered in God. She is the true widow, whose consolation is not in the pleasures of this world, but in Christ alone. In this connection the apostle instructs Timothy not to recognize as belonging to the class of widows any under sixty years of age. This seems to indicate that some spiritual importance was attached to this class, and doubtless the "mothers in Israel" were thus recognized. The younger widows were able to provide, to some extent for themselves, or at any rate they were not to be definitely recognized as the older. It is not to be thought that the apostle was forbidding either the care for or remarriage of the younger widows, but was warning against what might easily become an abuse.

QUES. 2.-Why was there no provision made in the Levitical law for sacrifices for presumptuous sins ?

ANS.-Doubtless to emphasize the weakness and unprofitableness of the law. The very sins that would weigh most heavily on the conscience, and enhanced the guilt of man, were the very ones for which no provision was made. Thus David, who could not plead ignorance, realized that no sacrifice of the law would avail for his sin. In his broken-hearted acknowledgment, in the fifty-first psalm, he does not even offer a legal sacrifice. " Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it." But in what blessed contrast with this is the sacrifice of Christ our Lord, whose blood cleanseth from all sin.

QUES. 3.-What is the meaning of the expression, 'baptized for the dead," in 1 Cor. 15:29 ?

ANS.-"Baptized in place of the dead," that is new converts taking the place of those Christians who had died. It is as though the apostle said, " Why should new converts be made to take the place of the fallen Christians, persecuted, suffering. dying-why perpetuate this suffering, if there is no resurrection?" But resurrection answers the question. Christians are living for the future, and those who take the place of the dead will one day share in the glorious resurrection.

QUES. 4.-How wide is the application of such scriptures as Matt. 10:19, 20; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11, 12; 21:14, 15. Do they refer simply to those who are brought before kings, rulers and magistrates, or to any child of God who is questioned regarding his belief. And need he fear that the answer will not be given him because he forgets at the moment to ask for it. if the whole attitude of his mind and heart is that of dependence upon God? Is there anything inconsistent in these passages with 1 Pet. 3:15; "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you?"

ANS.-While the passages"refer primarily to the circumstances of the disciples during and immediately after our Lord's life- abundant illustrations of which will be found in the book of Acts-there is not the slightest reason why faith should not make the fullest use of the promise in every case of need. And how often has God honored the faith based upon these very scriptures. With regard to prayer, there will, of course, be the need for it, but our gracious God knows the constant attitude of the heart. However, as the soul goes on to know Him, distraction becomes less and less possible.

6.THE KINSMAN-REDEEMER. (Chaps. 2:18-3:)

In what has just preceded, we have been regarding Ruth as a type of the seeker in general, apart from the dispensational application. But we must not forget that the connection with the history of God's earthly people in the latter days is clear and continued. While every seeker is depicted in the patient gleaning and beating out, no doubt the faith on the part of the remnant is particularly suggested. There are touching and pathetic intimations throughout the first two books of the Psalms of this reaching out of a faith after a blessing which it but feebly apprehends, and with an evident ignorance of Him who is to be the kinsman-redeemer. There is integrity of heart, a separation from the mass of the ungodly nation, and yet an evident veil upon the eyes. In the sixth psalm, for instance, there is the deepest pressure upon the soul, not only from the persecutions without, but from the sense of wrath from God Himself. It is with apparent difficulty that a little comfort is gleaned at the close. Again, in the thirteenth, under the persecutions of the "man of sin," the soul makes its complaint to a God but dimly apprehended, although real faith is in exercise, and at the close the testimony is that the Lord has "dealt bountifully" with the needy one. Even after the wondrous unfolding of the work of Christ, and His person in the series of Psalms from the sixteenth to the twenty-fourth, we find in the twenty-fifth but a gleaner, gathering comfort and pleading for pardon in view of the remembrance of the sins that will rise up. These will suggest what would be an interesting and profitable line of study, the rise and development of faith in the remnant, as seen in the Psalms. We see, too, brighter days, and hear the "voice of the Bridegroom," if not of the bride, in such lovely psalms as the forty-fifth. But the time of that psalm has not yet been reached in Ruth, and we must follow her through some deep experiences before she reaches it.

After she had beaten out the barley-a grain itself suggestive of poverty and feebleness (Judg. vii, 13) she returns to her mother-in-law and shows her little store, sharing it with her. It will be noticed that she first satisfies her own hunger before giving to Naomi, and in this there seems to be suggested the thought that faith must receive before it can give. The nation of the Jews, typified by Naomi, can receive comfort and encouragement only at the hands of the believing remnant, which itself must feed on the store it has gleaned before it can impart it to others. The "Maskilim," the instructors who are to "turn many to righteousness" (Dan. 12:3), must themselves learn the lessons they are to teach. The very first of these lessons is found in the first of the "Maskil" Psalms, the thirty-second, on the blessedness of forgiveness. And so must it be with all other lessons; Ruth must first be sufficed before she Can give to Naomi.

Passing to a more general application, the lesson is as self-evident. Faith must feed on its gathered store before it can impart to others. In John's gospel we see this strikingly illustrated in the "Come and see " of those who had themselves already come and seen the Christ. It is the poor Samaritan, who in her position resembles Ruth, who can take the message to the people of the town.

We are living in days not only of great activity, but when the doctrine of activity is put in the place of feeding upon the truth of God. We are told that the way to grow is to work; but how can we work without strength and guidance and all else suggested in that word, "communion "? We can only give the overflow to others, in any true sense, and that, as its name suggests, is spontaneous.
But how simple this makes all service. We eat and are sufficed, and out of a full heart we minister to the needs of others. Let the evangelist remember this. Does the deep full joy in a personal salvation fail, and does it seem in any way irksome for him to tell out the same old story? Let him turn in deep penitence to his Lord and Saviour, confessing his emptiness and find again that "grace is the sweetest sound." The same applies to the teacher both in public and private, the pastor, and to all who would be witnesses for our Lord. Thus what might seem like ungraciousness on the part of Ruth conveys a lesson of deep importance to us all.

Naomi, with busy memory going back over familiar scenes long past, asks where her daughter-in-law had gleaned such abundance as it doubtless seemed to her widowed eyes, long familiar with poverty. Her heart already warms to one, whoever he might be, that would permit the lonely stranger to gather in his fields:" Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee." It is interesting to gather from the blended picture of these two women the faith and exercises of the latter day. Ruth has the faith, we might say, and Naomi has the knowledge. So it is the elder of the women who now is prominent, and who imparts to the younger the wondrous news that her benefactor is a kinsman. The knowledge that the Jews will have of the promises of God in regard to restoration and the blessings of the coming Kingdom through the Messiah, will no doubt serve to awaken and quicken the zeal of their newly born faith. Naomi recognizes in Boaz a kinsman, and sees in Ruth's experience the hand of God, " who has not left off His kindness to the living and the dead." The breach between the happy past and the present is spanned by the love and care of One who, whether with the a glimpse of that love. faithful God will yet make good every one of the faithful ,

"He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep hi" as a shepherd doth his flock" (Jer. 31:10). Those who fail to see this fact lose one of the most important illustrations of the faithfulness of God. If an the promises to Israel which fill the pages of the Prophets and the Psalms are to be spiritualized into blessings for the Church, what becomes of the gifts and calling of God for His earthly people? Well might we, without the hope of an answer ask, with the psalmist of old, "Lord, where are Thy former loving, kindnesses, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? "In the face of such a promise as the following, how could we think that God had forgotten the nation of Israel?"Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night . . ., if those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation from before Me forever " (Jer. 31:35, 36).

It is this that is suggested by Naomi in linking together God's past kindness to Elimelech and His present care for her, the poor widow. How good it is to remember that His love will yet find its rest in this now despised people. How it thrills the heart to dwell upon it. Little wonder that Paul breaks out in worship as he contemplates it:"O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! "

With this unchanging purpose of God in our mind, we can understand how the Church is left out of view in all passages that concern Israel, both in the Old and New Testaments. We understand how our Lord, in sending out the twelve to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," leaves out of view entirely the present interval of the nation's rejection, and says, "Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come " (Matt. 10:23).

So the glimmers of faith in the end will connect the little bits of blessing gleaned with the past mercies promised to the Nation. But like Naomi, the people will be slow to apprehend the wondrous meaning of this. She says to Ruth, "The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen." It will be noticed that for her Boaz is not yet the unique and only kinsman but simply one of whom there are others. So when our Lord asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man, am?" the answer was, "Some say that Thou art John the Baptist:some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one
of the prophets." They discerned that He was not an ordinary person, that He was a messenger from God, but how feebly did they see the reality, or rather how entirely they failed to apprehend it. For if Christ is but one of the prophets, He is not our redeemer. Thus Naomi is yet far from the truth.

But faith is on the right track, and in her words to Ruth we have an echo of what Boaz had already said, "It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field." In fact it was Ruth, "the Moabitess," as we are touchingly reminded, who repeats the words of Boaz to her mother-in-law. Thus there is a glimmer of encouragement, and happy Ruth goes all through the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, not in the widow's sackcloth like the mourning Rizpah (2 Sam. 21:10), but with the light of a great hope growing more and more definite in her soul. Such doubtless will be the attitude of the remnant, during that time of exercise in which God's purposes will be learned. Not all at once will they know the blessing that is theirs, but faith grows with exercise, and will soon take no refusal.

So too, in the history of the individual soul, faith grows, and the more it gleans the more does it want. That which satisfied it yesterday will not suffice today. The One who supplies the handfuls is Himself behind it all, and gives a craving which none but Himself can satisfy.

(To be continued.)

THE MAN AFTER THE FLESH. THE STATE OF THE PEOPLE.

Chapter I.

In contrast with the book of Judges, and its supplement Ruth, the books of the Kings deal largely with the national center and the nation as connected with that, and a responsible head. The previous books had given the history of individuals and of separate portions of the nation. While the victories of the judges benefitted the people at large, there does not seem to be that cohesion, or that recognition of a divine center, so clearly provided for in the book of Deuteronomy. It is significant that the first allusion to Shiloh, in the book of Judges, is the mention of an idolatrous rival in the tribe of Dan (chap. 18:31).

The book of Samuel begins with Shiloh, and shows us the state of things there, as Judges had shown the general condition of the people. We have in the earlier chapters the state of the priesthood, in Eli and his sons. We might have hoped that, spite of national unfaithfulness, the priests, whose nearness to God was their special privilege, would remain faithful to Him. Alas for man! Be he never so near outwardly, and intrusted with the most priceless privileges, there is nothing in him to bind his heart to God. All must come from God alone; His grace must keep us, or we will not be kept.

There is no such thing as succession in grace. The son of the most faithful father needs to be born again as well as the most degraded of mankind. This is written clearly on many a page of the word of God. "Ye must be born again."

Eli, the high-priest, was personally righteous and loyal in heart to God, but he was weak. This is bad enough in any position, but when one is intrusted with the priesthood of a nation, responsible to maintain them in relationship with God, it is a crime. Eli's sons were godless men without conscience, and yet in the priests' place, and one of them successor to the high-priesthood.

The carelessness of Eli is so dreadful that nothing but the tragic circumstances of his and his sons' death, can fittingly express God's judgment. We will look at that later. We turn now to something brighter.

God has always had a remnant among His people, even in darkest days, and it is most refreshing to see in Hannah a faith and a desire in lovely contrast with Eli's feebleness, and his sons' wickedness. She lays hold of God, and spite of nature's impotence, and the discouragement of a reproof from Eli, she holds fast. What a reproach to Eli ! He has no energy to control his wicked house, and therefore has no discernment in administering reproof outside.

Faith may wait and weep, but it has its joys later on, and in Hannah's song of praise we get fresh encouragement to pray and wait. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." This remains ever true, for the individual saint and for the Lord's people at any time, and more particularly is it applicable to the remnant in the latter days who will in affliction stay themselves upon the Lord.

This narrative of Hannah gives us a glimpse of what may not have been entirely uncommon among the people, while the mass was in a state of declension. There were always, even in the darkest days, the Lord's "hidden ones," the salt of the earth who preserved the mass from utter corruption for a time at least. It is a comfort to think of this, and to remember that there is at the present time also, a remnant whose heart is turned to the Lord.

But this remnant was not among the official class. The leaders were either too weak or corrupt to help the people. There could be no relief through the ordinary channels, and God must therefore come in by a new way. Samuel, the child of this faith of the remnant, is the first of the prophets.

The prophet was God's special means of communication with the people when the ordinary means had failed. This explains why the message was largely one of sadness. God will intervene; He loves His people too much not to deal with them, but that dealing must be according to His nature and their condition. The presence therefore of the prophet tells the true condition of the people.

Hannah herself is practically a prophetess-all subsequent prophecy is foreshadowed in her song. She exults in the Lord over the conquest of her enemies; she celebrates the holiness of God and His stable purposes of mercy for His people. She rebukes the pride and arrogance of the scoffer, and rejoices in the overthrow of the mighty. The rich have been brought low and the needy lifted up. The barren has become the joyful mother of children. The Lord humbles and exalts-He is sovereign. His adversaries will be overthrown, and His King and His Christ shall be exalted.

Faith looks on ever to the end. If for a time there seem to be partial recovery, still faith does not rest until God can rest. Thus the prophets in a certain sense were not reformers. They accepted and rejoiced in a true turning to God, but they were not deceived by appearances. All reform was but partial and temporary, to be succeeded by still greater darkness. All things wait the coming of the King. He is the desire of all nations, and all who are awakened to see the true condition of the world and of the professed people of God, know there is no hope but in the coming of the Lord.

So too in the history of the individual, whether for salvation or deliverance, there is no expectation from the natural man. The eye of faith is turned from all human excellence to the Christ of God, What peace of soul, what Hannah-like exultation of spirit there is, when He is the object ! Christ alone the Saviour; Christ alone the One in whom is deliverance from the power of sin.

But this complete setting aside of the flesh in all its forms by Hannah, shows at once her own deliverance and the bondage of the mass of the nation by whom she was surrounded. The people's condition was the very opposite of hers, and their confidence and expectation was in man. In this negative way, then, we may learn the true state of the people,-a state of ease and self-sufficiency on the part of many, of more or less open enmity to God, and a weak, helpless sense of need on the part of those partially aroused to the true condition of things.

The state was similar, under altered circumstances, in the days just preceding our Lord's advent. Then too there was a feeble remnant which stayed itself upon God, and a self-satisfied, hypocritical clan of rulers, who led the people as they wished. Then, too, faith waited for divine consolation, and was rewarded with a sight of the wondrous Babe of whose coming Hannah's song spoke. She could well have mingled her praises with those of Mary. But how few felt the need which had been satisfied in those few who had turned entirely from themselves to God and His remedy.

(To be continued.)

And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren :and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow." "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested" (i Chron. 4:9, 10).

The fact that honorable mention is made of this man, and that God granted his request, should be sufficient to attract our attention and lead us to a closer inquiry, if we would seek His approval and
blessing. What is said in a general way of this man is, that "he was more honorable than his brethren."

This in itself surely is enough to stir our hearts to diligence to know what it is that God so honors, and makes honorable mention of. We shall find too, that such lessons will not be mere statements of doctrine or fact; but living lessons that appeal to our inmost being, and that will lead us to Christ.

As to the details recorded:"His mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow." Here at the beginning we may find connection with another "son of sorrow" called by his mother Benoni-that is, "Son of my sorrow"- called by his father, Benjamin, – "son of my right hand " (Gen. 35:18), pointing on as by the prophet's finger to the Christ, that should first suffer, and enter into His glory. And here may we not see, in a spiritual way, this man, put in company with his Master while waiting for the inheritance, cast upon God in true dependence?

Now, we behold him praying; simple, earnest, believing prayer, to "the God of Israel." He does not forget His connection with His beloved people chosen in grace, and destined for glory, while he turns to seek for himself faith's present portion.

"Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! "

Four things are requested, and how suited! How short, how simple the earnest prayer! How full its blessed answer! "God granted him that which he requested."

"Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed."This is the simple language of trust, and although a "son of sorrow" he knows, that, "the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it."

"The God of Israel is his God" and if sorrowful he may yet be "always rejoicing."

"Enlarge my coast." He asks no mean possessions of Him whose delight it is to give; but more land to till, more fruit to enjoy, more to "earnestly contend for" in the country surrounded with enemies. God had said, " I have given you the land," and faith takes Him at his word; and God honors the man that so honors Him.

He asks according to His word-His word was abiding in him-and he gets the sure answer.
Here, may we not say, he is in company with the wholehearted Caleb ? God is with him, and he has no cause to fear. Covetousness of such sort is not that "which is idolatry" (Eph. 1:15-23; 3:1-21; Col. 3:).

"And that Thine hand might be with me." Not "the wisdom of man" does his faith stand in; "but the power of God." "The mighty hand of God;" opened to satisfy "the need of every living thing," he would humble himself under. The guiding hand of Him who "knows the way He taketh" is the hand he desires should undertake for him; and lead him into his inheritance. And last, as one having "no confidence in the flesh;" and who would "with fear and trembling, work out his own salvation" prays; "That Thou wouldst keep me from evil."

Here we read the sweet testimony of what "the grace of God " does; grace that has brought salvation, and fixes the eyes on the glory of God, and assures the believing soul it is its own. Grace that teaches, not, "Let us do evil, that good may come," but, to abhor evil, and cleave to that which is good; "that having denied ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world."

The man born in sorrow, brought to know "the God of the living" as his God, received His promises in faith, learned to trust Him for every blessing, now prays in a day of failure, while waiting for the full possession and enjoyment of the promised inheritance, to be "kept from the evil;" adding, "that it may not grieve me." He thus witnesses to his soul's condition, and that which would grieve the Lord, into whose companionship he had been brought, would be a grief to him.

How quickly the eye is now turned from the man "more honorable than his brethren," to his yet more honorable Master, and to hear Him pray, as He considers His own yet in the world:

"Holy Father . . . keep them from the evil." He who was the true "Son of sorrow," born in the very midst of it, and in His life a '' man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," "who bare our griefs and carried our sorrows" in loving sympathy:and still more "who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree."

Then, if we have known sorrow, and sin which brought all the sorrow; if we have known that blessed Man that " was made sin for us " to save us from the sorrows of eternal judgment; if we have heard Him say, as He dies under the load that He took for us, when the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, "it is finished; " giving peace to our souls, shall we not uncover our heads, and bow our hearts, as we listen to Him pray:-

"Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we are.

" While I was with them in the world I kept them in Thy name:those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.

"I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

'' I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world; but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil," and add our earnest Amen! The same God that honored Jabez, and granted his request, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," shall grant us His blessing, and keep us from falling.

May the Lord lead us for His own name's sake.

'' The Lord is faithful who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil" (2 Thess. 3:3). W. M. H.

It is now twenty-seven years since I began my college life, a life which stretched out through eight years of good, hard work, four at the classics and four at medicine. During the college period and after it, and again, especially in these latter years as a teacher, I have always been most profoundly interested as a student of human nature and of medicine, in trying to find out what ailed the world about me. Why is it, as I have grown older, that I have come to find out that there is so much misery and unhappiness in the world? Why is it that each successive generation of young men begin to run the life race that is set before them, full of vigor, of fine enthusiasm, and with a determination to accomplish great things, and then one by one, drop back into the same indifference, and the same routine as was done by those who preceded them, the fire and all the enthusiasm gone, content in the end to make a good living and to take good care of themselves.

I well recall my own class, as fine a lot of fellows as you could wish to see, shouting "'77 forever" daily in the assembly room until we were hoarse, and each one certain beyond a peradventure that with our advent into the affairs of the world, the golden era was about to dawn. We each knew individually that we ourselves were destined to do some great deed, and we each looked, too, with secret admiration upon his fellows, picturing in our minds the great future which lay before each one.

A quarter of a century has elapsed and what is the outcome? Untimely death has claimed not a few of the dear boys (boys ever in spite of the added years), and those of us who survive have entered upon life's duties, just as our fathers did before us; good, faithful work has been done, but we have failed to bring about those startling changes which we had fondly hoped would make "77 "renowned forever, and a sad little stone in the old college wall, commemorative of ivy day, and a blighted ivy plant below it seem emblematic of our shattered hopes. What is the reason of the failure? Or was it a failure, after all? Was it then impossible to realize those great aspirations which thrilled us as we entered life's arena? These are the questions to which I will briefly address myself in this short letter to the college men of a younger generation; and in my reply I shall have to adopt the personal individual standpoint.

I would say of my own life that I have both lost something and I have found something. I have lost that which I at first esteemed great, for I discovered as I went on that it was, after all, but a bubble, a glittering semblance of a jewel, evanescent and temporal. But wondrous to relate, I have found in its place something infinitely more precious, eternal, a possession which increases in value day by day, lending a reality and a value to life in all its relations far beyond all possible anticipation of my early years.

Let me look at my life a little more closely; what have I actually lost? I think the loss can be pretty well covered by one word which used to figure largely in our college debates and chapel speeches, a word which covered the one great qualification in a man, which marked him out for success, and that word is "ambition." I remember well setting success in life before me as the one great desideratum, and anxiously analyzing its essential elements, which seemed to resolve themselves into ability, ambition, opportunity, health, and adding various adjuvant qualities, such as judgment, memory, tact, etc. I found, by God's grace, as I went on, that this, after all, was but a selfish scheme of living which, even if I might attain my end, was possible only for a fortunate few; I saw, too, some who were just about to take their fill of the cup of ambition suddenly snatched away by an untimely death, while others with all the other qualifications, were restrained from grasping the prize by the hand of disease; others, again (worst mockery of all), who gained all the world could offer in the way of fame or of wealth, remained, after all, most miserable and dissatisfied with life.

My first aim was, therefore, manifestly a false one. What was I then to do? Conclude that life was naught but a mockery? I thank God that when I found the emptiness of the aims of the world, I also found that He was not so sparing of His best gifts as I had begun to imagine. When I discovered that life and self were failures, I then found in Him more than heart could desire. Having no longer any good thing of my own, and now content to be as one of the servants in His house, I found instead that He had a glorious robe of righteousness of His own providing, and He was willing to set the very beggars who trusted Him among the princes at the gate. The glorious grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God in His great mercy has offered, not to a forward intellectual few, but to all men everywhere, came as a blessed solace to one who found on all sides the vanity of setting the affections on the things of this world.

I would like to dwell on this noble theme, for I would that young men everywhere could only see that there is just one thing in the world that is worth making the object of our ambition, and that is to know, to love, and to serve God, and to know Him in the only way we can know anything about Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ's service is not a theory of life or a philosophy, but a life, a new principle, a new birth, a new creation. Behold, old things are passed away, and all things are made new. And this knowledge, which brings the peace the world knows nothing of, is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who calls out and leads God's people in their earthly pilgrimage.

The great effective instrument of the Holy Spirit by which these truths are authoritatively taught, is the inspired word of God, the old Bible, Satan is gaining great victories in these days by holding men back from a loving, searching study of the Bible. Without this study, Christians remain weak and spiritually in a condition analogous to the bodily condition of a man fed on insufficient food at long intervals; they are often found languishing in Doubting Castle, or like the poor Galatians, confessing a faith in Christ but struggling to eke out an existence by the works of the law. If a man desires above all things, to feed his spiritual man, he will not neglect to eat the daily bread of the Word any more than he neglects his ordinary meals. Who ever hears a man say he is too busy to eat at all? and yet many are too busy to read the Bible.

My own daily life, (if I may be excused for continuing the personal part of the narrative), is as full as that of any man I know, but I found long since that as I allowed the pressure of professional and worldly engagements to fill in every moment between rising and going to bed, the spirit would surely starve, so I made a rule which I have since stuck to in spite of many temptations, not to read or study anything but my Bible after the evening meal, and never to read any other book but the Bible on Sunday. I do not exclude real Bible helps, which always drive one back to the Bible, but I never spend time on simply devotional books. Since making this resolution, God, in His mercy, has shown me that this Word is an inexhaustible storehouse from which He dispenses rich stores of precious truths to His servants as He pleases, and as they are ready to receive them. I have found that faith in Jesus Christ is a wonderful foundation rock upon which stands a marvelous superstructure. I have found that the Holy Ghost is not an influence, but a real, living, active Person, whom Christians must know personally if they will grow in grace and knowledge.
I see wonderful truths relating to Christ in types and prophecies which I never dreamed of before, and "the blessed hope" has a new meaning. The messages of the epistles I once thought full of hyperbole, now glow with meaning. And so I might go on, and so doubtless God, in His great grace and goodness, will lead us all on through the ages of eternity, beholding new glories and new graces in His Son.

What more can I say to arrest the attention of young men ?

Once my interest was in things which will pass away, now I am an actual partaker of the divine nature of Him who made all these things. What are they compared to Him ? He is truth.

"And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands:they shall perish; but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." H. A. K.

These chapters show us in what different channels the Lord's thoughts flowed from those of the heart of man. His ideas, so to speak, of misery and of happiness, were so different from what man's naturally are.

The eleventh chapter opens with a scene of human misery. The dear family at Bethany are visited with sickness, and the voice of health and thanksgiving in their dwelling has to yield to mourning, lamentation, and woe. But He, who of all had the largest and tenderest sympathies, is the calmest among them ; for He carried with Him that foresight of resurrection, which made Him overlook the chamber of sickness, and the grave of death.

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He abode two days longer in the place where He was. But when that sickness ends in death, He begins His journey in the full and bright prospect of resurrection. And this makes His journey steady and undisturbed. And, as He approaches the scene of sorrow, His action is still the same. He replies again and again to the passion of Martha's soul, from that place where the knowledge of a power that was beyond that of death had, in all serenity, seated Him. And though He have to move still onward, there is no haste. For on Mary's arrival, He is still in the same place where Martha had met Him. And the issue, as I need not say, comes in due season to vindicate this stillness of His heart, and this apparent tardiness of His journey.

Thus was it with Jesus here. The path of Jesus was His own. When man was bowed down in sorrow at the thought of death, He was lifted up in the sunshine of resurrection.

But the sense of resurrection, though it gave this peculiar current to the thoughts of Jesus, left His heart still alive to the sorrows of others. For His was not indifference, but elevation. And such is the way of faith always. Jesus weeps with the weeping of Mary and her company. His whole soul was in the sunshine of those deathless regions which lay far away from the tomb of Bethany; but it could visit the valley of tears, and weep there with those that wept.

But again.-When man was lifted up in the expectation of something good and brilliant in the earth, His soul was full of the holy certainty that death awaits all here, however promising or pleasurable; and that honor and prosperity must be hoped for only in other and higher regions. The twelfth chapter shows us this.

When they heard of the raising of Lazarus, much people flocked together from Bethany to Jerusalem, and at once hailed Him as the King of Israel. They would fain go up with Him to the Feast of Tabernacles, and antedate the age of glory, seating Him in the honors and joys of the kingdom. The Greeks also take their place with Israel in such an hour. Through Philip, as taking hold of the skirt of a Jew (Zech. 8:), they would see Jesus and worship. But in the midst of all this Jesus Himself sits solitary. He knows that earth is not the place for all this festivation and keeping of holy day. His spirit muses on death, while their thoughts were full of a kingdom with its attendant honors and pleasures. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone."

Such was the peculiar path of the spirit of Jesus. Resurrection was everything to Him. It was His relief amid the sorrows of life, and His object amid the promises and prospects of the world. It gave His soul a calm sunshine, when dark and heavy clouds had gathered over Bethany; it moderated and separated His affections, when the brilliant glare of a festive day was lighting up the way from thence to Jerusalem. The thought of it sanctified His mind equally amid grief and enjoyments around. Resurrection was everything to Him. It made Him a perfect pattern of that fine principle of the Spirit of God:"Let him that weepeth be as if he wept not, and he that rejoiceth as though he rejoiced not."

Oh for a little more of the same mind in us, beloved! -a little more of this elevation above the passing conditions and circumstances of life!

May the faith and hope of the Gospel, through the working of the indwelling Spirit, form the happiness and prospects of our hearts! J. G. B.

With a desire to help the "babes in Christ" the following is sent forth, looking to our Lord for blessing.

I. SIN.

A clear knowledge of the Scriptural teaching as to sin is necessary for a correct apprehension of the need and efficacy of the atonement made by our Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. The following verses will show, in some measure at least, these facts.

What is sin, and who are sinners ? Without entering into any analytical definition of the sense of the word or words, as given in the original texts, we will confine ourselves to the meanings as given in our excellent English versions.

I. "Sin is the transgression of the law," or more correctly as given in the Revised Version, "sin is lawlessness" (i Jno. 3:4). "Lawlessness" is in-subjection; disregard to authority; a lack of sense of responsibility; self-will, as seen in "the way of Cain," as recorded in Gen. 4:1-5. He had no respect for God's claims and requirements for sin, and God "had not respect" to his offering. Read the entire chapter and carefully note the result of all this :

ver. 5. anger in the heart, shown by the very expression of his face;

ver.8. murder;

ver.9. falsehood and speaking against God;

ver. 13.reproaching God, etc. ;

while the remaining verses show man without subjection to God, trying to make the best of the world. City building, land cultivation, cattle raising, pleasure seeking, scientific experiment and research, yet "lawlessness" marks the period. Pharaoh is another illustration (Ex. 5:i). The history of the book of Judges is also a sad picture, the key to which is in the fact, " every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). See Proverbs 14:12. Ecclesiastes 8:11-13. Romans 1:21-25. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.

2. "All unrighteousness is sin" (i Jno. 5:17). Unrighteousness is the sense here, and the standard is God's estimate of what is right or wrong, not man's; therefore every thing which is not fully up to God's standard of right is sin. Who can measure up to the standard? Romans 3:23 says, "All …. have come short;" and " Tekel; thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting" (Daniel 5:27), can be as truthfully written about reader and writer, as of king Belshazzar (Ps. 14:1-2; 53:1-3; Rom. 3:10; James 2:10).

Notwithstanding all this, how truly it is written in Prov. 21:2 :" Every way of a man is right in his own eyes:but the Lord pondereth the hearts." How foolish then in poor man to boast, or bolster up his hopes of favor with God upon natural merit (Rom. 10:3; 2 Pet. 2:10-15; Isa. 64:6; 6:5; Luke 18:10-14).

3. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). Many who are approached concerning their state of soul, say, " Yes, I know what is right, but I don't do it;" to such the above warning might well apply, although in its more special manner it refers to believers. But why cite more passages which tell of the awful inherency of sin, and its display in our actions? Many can be found in the word of God (Prov. 10:16; 21:4; 24:9; John 16:9, etc.) The earliest recorded sin, is given in 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6, "the angels which kept not their first estate"; and Satan, whom John 8:44 and Ezek. 28:13-19 refer to, was the introducer of sin into the garden, (Gen. 3:1-7) and so Rom. 5:12 was the result, making it true of every child of Adam, as Rom. 3:10-19, 23 show. "But the Scripture hath, concluded (shut up R. V.) all under sin" (Gal. 3:22. See also Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21-23; Eph. 4:18; Rom. 8:7. 8; Rom. 3:9; 2:ii; 3:22, etc.),

4.What is the result of sin, and of being a sinner?

"The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), 1:e. separation from God. When God placed Adam in the garden, the warning was, "in the day that them eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17), and expulsion followed as a result of disobedience, as seen in Gen. 3:Of course, there is more than physical death in Rom. 6:23. By a careful comparison of John 8:24 with 21, the truth may be seen as to banishment from God's presence forever; for He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil" (Hab. 1:13). And when it is seen that "every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12), what can be done, or excuse made? Notice it is an "account of himself," not of others. We could give a record readily of the good actions, or evil deeds of others, but what of our own?-"every one" "account of himself." "Unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile" (Rom, ii, 8, 9; Rev. 20:11-15; 21:8; James 1:15; i Cor. 6:9, 10; Mark 8:43-48; Matt. 25:45, 46).

Such is the awful result of sin, and inevitable consequence to a sinner who passes out of this world unrepentant. How sweet then sounds the gospel of God's grace; "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country " (Prov. 25:25). And such the gospel is, " The angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy " (Luke 2:10, 11). And the apostle Paul catches the heavenly strain, as in i Cor. 15:1-4 he writes, "I declare unto you, the gospel . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures," and he assures them that if they "received" it, ver. 1, they were "saved."

" For God so loved the world (of sinners), that He gave His only begotten Son, (to die for sin, and for sinners) that whosoever (of sinners) believeth on Him, should not perish, (which they must otherwise do) but have (now, a present possession) everlasting life" (John 3:16). B. W. J.

O Soul Inspiring story
Of holy love and grace, In lustrous lines of glory
Engraved on Jesus' face!
Transfixed in contemplation
Of Thy transfiguring rays,
In fervent adoration
We hymn Immanuel's praise!

Blest Face, in what completeness
There Godhead-fulness dwells-
Outshines unearthly sweetness
That love in us compels!
The Father, oh, how sweetly
Unvailed to human scan-
Yea, God's own face completely
Revealed in that of Man!

Yet once, meek Face, afflicted,
Wan, haggard, vigil-worn-
In tender signs depicted,
Our griefs and sickness borne!
Thy sympathies how freighted!
Thy heart how burdened then!
Thy gentle frame how weighted
To bear the ills of men!

Ah, once depressed, dejected,
Thy lot the outcast's shame,
Thy love rebuffed, rejected-
Reviled and mocked Thy name:
Thy deep love's every token
Was pierced by hatred's dart,
Until reproach had broken
Thy lacerated heart!

And once marred, scarred, disfigured,
Dishonored, spit upon-
In mockery transfigured
With robe and thorny crown-
Scourged, crucified, torn, bleeding
In pain upon the tree-
Reviled, yet interceding
For those reviling Thee!
Then, love-bound Lamb, there taken
When ire 'gainst us awoke,
Thy bosom bared-forsaken-
To quench for us wrath's stroke!
Unfathomable anguish
In that appalling hour
Love bore for us to vanquish
In weakness Satan's power!

Amazing blaze of glory
Deep-carved in Jesus's face,
May Thy transcendent story
These hearts transform in grace;
Till soon, conformed completely,
With love-lit eyes we'll scan
God's features beaming sweetly
From Thine, Thou Son of Man!

F. A.

Daniel 7:, having an important bearing on the beast of Revelation, I will first refer to that chapter. The fourth beast, or Roman empire, is here seen in vision by Daniel from its beginning in ver. 7, to its close in ver. 26. We find in the last clause of ver. 7, that "it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns;" while ver. 8 further states:"I considered the ten horns, and behold there came up among them another little horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things." It is these ten horns, and the little horn, with which we shall mainly have to do when we turn to Revelation, but principally the latter.

Now Daniel, we are told in ver. 19, would know the truth of the fourth beast; and this is given in vers. 23-25,-" The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth etc., and the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." It will be seen that the ten horns and the little horn, will be in existence at the same time, and it is of some importance to be clear as to this, as the kingdom in its revived form, will comprise the ten horns and the little horn, and will commence some time before, and run on to the close of Daniel's seventieth week.

Turning now to Rev. 13:, we get John's description of the beast. "And I stood upon the sand of the sea; and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads, as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast" (vers. 1-3). Also the last clause of ver. 5,-"And power (or authority) was given unto him to continue forty and two months."

As in Dan. 7:, so here, the beast is seen to rise out of the sea, which is generally interpreted to mean, the multitudes in an unsettled state. And it may be well to note in passing, his close similarity to the dragon from whom he derives his power etc., which chap. 12:3, supplies,-"And behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns." The resemblance is striking and significant. It will also be seen that he combines in himself the leading distinctive features of the first three beasts of Dan. 7:,-viz. the leopard, the bear, and the lion; the order in which they are given in Daniel, being here reversed.

Before turning to other scriptures, it may perhaps be well to gather from those already before us, what they would seem to unfold concerning the beast. First then, Daniel's vision of the fourth beast, or Roman empire, clearly points, through the typical meaning of the ten horns, to another phase of this great empire, when it will be revived in a ten kingdom form; this we gather from chap. 7:24,-"And the ten horns out of this kingdom are" ten kings that shall arise; " from which it is evident that it looks forward to a future time. We are also told in the same verse that "another shall rise after them," foreshadowed by the little horn of ver. 8. Now it is this king, or little horn, which Rev. 13:speaks of as the beast.
In proof of this I would point to the striking similarity between the little horn of Daniel, and the beast of Revelation. Dan. 7:21 says, "The same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them." Rev. 13:7, "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them." Dan. 7:25, " And he shall speak great words against the Most High." Rev. 13:6, "And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God etc."-Dan. 7:25, "And they shall be given into his hand, until a time and times and the dividing of time." (The same period spoken of in Dan. 12:7, as "time, times, and an half;" or an exact period of 3 ½ years; a Jewish year consists of 360 days.) Turning to Rev. 13:5, we get the same period of time allotted to the beast. '' And power (or authority,) was given unto him to continue forty and two months," which is equivalent to 3 ½ years (1:e., Jewish months, which consist of 30 days each.) Thus the identity of the little horn of Dan. 7:, with the beast of Rev. 13:, is complete.

There are also other features connected with the beast of Revelation which demand some consideration. In chap. 13:i, he is seen to have "seven heads," which chap. 17:9, informs us are "seven mountains." I do not interpret this, as some have done, to mean "the seven hilled city of Rome," which I consider would destroy its significant meaning; but rather as seven states, or kingdoms. Now we are told in Dan. 7:24, that "the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings." As before stated, the Roman empire will be revived in a ten kingdom form, and the time of such revival will be soon after the rapture of the saints; then another king, or "the little horn," which we before saw to be identical with the beast of Rev. 13:, will arise and subdue three kings out of the ten, thus leaving seven; and I strongly incline to the belief, that these seven kings, or kingdoms, are symbolized by the "seven heads" of Rev. 13:i, and 17:9, and so identified are they with the beast, who now becomes their imperial head, that the woman, or harlot, of chap. 17:3, is seen sitting on the beast, having the seven heads and ten horns; while in ver. 9, the seven heads are viewed as seven mountains (or kingdoms) on which the woman sitteth.

It yet remains to account for the ten crowned horns of chap. 13:i, the angel's interpretation of which will be found in chap. 17:12, which reads:"And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast." That these ten kings are quite distinct from "the ten kings, or horns," of Dan. 7:, is clearly evidenced by the fact that three of their number are not subdued by the beast, but rather, under the hand of God, the whole ten "agree to give their kingdom unto the beast," ver. 17, for the destruction of the harlot (papal Rome) as ver. 16, shows-"And the ten horns which thou sawest, and (not ' upon') the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire."

Moreover we find these ten kings allied with the beast right up to the close of his career; this will be seen from ver. 14, where we are told-"these shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them etc.," thus running on to the same time when the beast himself shall be overcome and cast alive into the lake of fire (chap. 19:20). Viewed in another way, three of the first ten kings (1:e. of Dan. 7:) are subdued by the beast, and he becomes the imperial head of the remaining seven; whereas the last ten kings, as we have seen, are the beast's allies, " giving their power and strength to him," ver. 13, and thus under this second aspect, the two are manifestly distinct the one from the other.
Reverting again to chap. 13:ver. 3 gives us another event connected with the beast. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed:and all the world wondered after the beast." I would gather from this scripture that the beast, or imperial head, will be subjected to some very severe reverse in battle, which the words "wounded to death," would imply; and the latter clause of ver. 14, would support this view, "that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live." This would seem to clearly point to a reverse in battle by the sword. But that this wound will only be partial may be gathered from the fact that, only one of his heads is seen as wounded to death, which would seem to me to imply, that his reverse will only be temporary, and his recovery so rapid, that all the world will wonder after him.

Turning to chap. 17:8, we get something further

-"The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition; and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, . . . when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is," or "shall be present." This, taken in conjunction with ver. ii, "The beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition." Also chap. 13:3, "And I saw one of his heads, as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast," forms an important factor in determining the identity of the beasts of the two chapters.

Reverting again to ver. ii, a difficulty presents itself as to how he (the beast) is the eighth, and yet of the seven. I think this may be explained as follows:

-The Roman empire, as we have before seen, will be revived in a ten kingdom form (the seventh phase of this great empire) three of these kingdoms being subdued by the beast, or little horn, who himself becomes the imperial head; and so it can be said of him, he is the eighth, and is of the seven. Chap. 17:10, also speaks of this seventh kingdom in the following words:"The other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space." Why a short space ? Because the empire, 1:e., in its ten kingdom form, after a brief period of its restored existence, passes into the hands of the beast, who as its imperial head will form an eighth, which will further tend to explain the difficulty why he is the eighth, and yet of the seven.

I would here add another thought, that I believe the rider of the white horse of Rev. 6:2, is identical with the beast seen rising out of the sea in chap. 13:1; the latter showing his origin, while the former would point to the beginning of his victorious career. And if this be so, it adds force to my contention, as to "the other yet to come" of 17:10, and who continues for a short space; which I interpreted as the Roman empire in its revived, or seventh form of government. That it will only continue for "a short space" is evident as it will have ceased to exist in its ten kingdom form previous to the opening of the seals, when the rider of the white horse will have become its new imperial head. And I am more than ever convinced that it is in this last phase it is seen in chaps. 13:and 17:, and in no sense retrospective, as some have viewed it.

I might just add, for the sake of clearness, that where I have used the words, "the beast," throughout my remarks in connection with chaps, 13:and 17:, I have done so to preserve the scripture appellation, but in almost every instance it must be interpreted to mean the imperial head of the revived Roman empire. The empire may, in one or two instances, be associated with the head symbolically.

To these remarks I add a brief history of the beast:

I. The little horn of Dan. 7:8, 24. 2. The one who shall confirm a covenant with the mass of the Jewish people, and cause their sacrifice and oblation to cease in the midst of the week (Dan. 9:27).
3. The rider of the white horse commencing his career of conquest (Rev. 6:2). 4. First seen to arise out of the sea, (1:e., the multitudes in an unsettled state) and characterized by seven heads and ten horns (Rev. 13:i). The seven heads symbolizing seven mountains (chap. 17:9), 1:e., states or kingdoms, of which he becomes the imperial head. The ten horns symbolizing the ten kings of chap. 17:12, but wholly distinct, as I have shown, from the ten kings of Dan. 7:24. And here I would add an additional reason in support of this. The ten kings of Rev. 17:12, it will be seen, had "received no kingdom as yet," (ver. 12), whereas the ten kings of Dan. 7:24, were already reigning previous to the beast coming into power, for it is three of their number whom he subdues before he becomes the imperial head; whereas these latter ten kings, none of whom are subdued, "give their power and strength to the beast," (ver. 13), and are allied with him to the close of his eventful career. 5. Identified with the dragon (Satan), by the seven heads and ten horns, compare chap. 12:3. 6. Possesses the leading distinctive features of the first three beasts of Dan. 7:, and derives his power from Satan (chap. 13:3). 7. Receives a severe shock in his military career, described in chap. 13:3, as "one of his heads as it were wounded to death," see also last clause of ver. 14. I believe we get the symbol of this in the eighth chapter under the fourth trumpet, compare also chap. 17:8, 2:8. Becomes an object of Worship, (chap. 13:4, 8). 9. Becomes a blasphemer of God, and his name and temple and them that dwell in heaven, (chap. 13:6; compare Dan 7:25). 10. Makes war with the saints (chap. 13:7; compare Dan. 7:21). II. Upon the sounding of the sixth trumpet his time of power will be limited to forty-two months, or 3 ½ years, (chap. 13:5), being the same period as the two witnesses of chap. 11:3, whom he will overcome and kill (ver. 7). 12. Will favor the Antichrist, who will cause an image of the beast to be set up and worshiped (chap. 13:14, 15). 13. Will ultimately be associated with the harlot of chap. 17:, see vers. 2, 7, 9, and subsequently under the hand of God, aided by the ten kings of chap. 17:12, will destroy the harlot (1:e., papal Rome) see vers. 16, 17. 14. Finally assisted by the ten kings and others, will make war with the Lamb (chap. 16:13, 14; 17:12-14; 19:19). 15. His doom will be cast alive into the lake of fire (chap. 19:20).
H. M.

7. NEARER THAN THE NEAREST. Chapter 4:Continued from page 136.

With the promptness and energy of a heart fully engaged, Boaz goes up to "the gate." This was the place of rule, where all matters were settled, all transfers made. It would correspond to the courts of to-day, where all legal transactions are consummated. In the matter upon which he was engaged, nothing was to be done "in a corner," but all was to have the full concurrence of those concerned, and be witnessed in the light of open day, by those judicially authorized to give their sanction.

The first person who appears is this "nearest kinsman, "whose claim must first be met, or whose right of redemption must first be set aside, before Boaz, no matter how willing he might be, could interpose as redeemer. It is significant that this person is not named. The nearest kinsman of Elimelech, and the natural redeemer of his inheritance, we have no clue to his name; and this of itself has significance when we look at the spiritual meaning.

Who then is this nameless person who has the first claim upon Israel, and the right to redeem the inheritance? Who or what is "nearest of kin" to Israel according to the flesh? We have under the simile of the marriage relationship, but the reverse of what is before us here, a scriptural hint that is suggestive. The two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, were children respectively of Hagar, the bondmaid, and Sarah. We are told that these things are an allegory:"for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children " (Gal. 4:24, 25). It would seem clear from-this that, with slightly altered conditions, the nearest of kin would be this same "legal covenant." Just as Hagar first brought forth a child before Sarah,-"that is first which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual" -so the law was the first basis upon which Israel sought to bring forth fruit to God.

This is clearly seen from the history of the nation. They never nationally and consciously entered into God's thoughts of sovereign grace. They did not realize that He had taken them up to fulfil the promise made to Abraham-the promise made in purest grace. Some feeble glimpse they may have had of it, but when they had passed through the Red Sea, and had experienced nothing but grace and mercy at the hands of God, they were ready at Sinai to enter upon a legal covenant, without a thought of how it set aside the mercy and grace of God.

To be sure, they never tasted the bitterness of a purely legal covenant, for Moses broke the first tables of stone before he came into the camp, after the giving of the law and the idolatry of the golden calf. It was indeed mercy that he did so, for what would have been the judgment upon that guilty people, had God dealt with them upon the basis of pure law? Surely, as Jehovah said to Moses, "Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them." But as a matter of fact He spared them for the time being-a thing utterly impossible under pure law-and went on with them on a basis of mingled law and mercy. The second tables of stone were prepared and given to the people in connection with the revelation made to Moses of, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty" (Ex. 34:6, 7). Here is a mingling of mercy, with a final intimation of judgment on the guilty, which formed the basis of all further dealing with the nation.

They went through the wilderness on this covenant, entered the land and settled there on the basis of obedience to the Lord. Provision was made, for failure, by sacrifice; and yet all provisions failed just where most needed. There was no sacrifice for presumptuous sins, only for those of ignorance. There could therefore be no peace for the most guilty, and king David in his broken-hearted prayer (Ps. 51:), must turn from the sacrificial provision of the law to a mercy to which he held fast in spite of the law.

It was under this covenant that the nation divided, became mingled with the heathen, and were finally carried captive. This is dwelt upon to a great extent in the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel, where the Lord enlarges upon Israel's disregard of His covenant, their failure to hallow His Sabbaths which were the sign of the covenant, or to walk in His statutes. When Daniel made his confession of sin, for himself and the nation (Dan. 9:) it was in the light of that first covenant. So was it with Nehemiah after the return from captivity (Neh. 9:29). In the last chapter of the Old Testament (Mal. 4:4) the people were exhorted to "remember the law of Moses My servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments."

Thus throughout their entire history there was a distinct covenant relationship recognized by God and the people. There was a provision made for forgiveness and recovery, oftentimes made in the most touching way. "Come now and let its reason together, saith the Lord:though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword "(Is. 1:18, 19). "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Is. 55:7). "If the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed … he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him:in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live" (Ezek. 18:21, 22).

These and many other scriptures show the close relation between Israel and the legal covenant. They have never had any other relation to God- save the secret one, on His part, of electing grace and promise. So when the remnant turns in repentance to Him in the latter days, this legal covenant will have, so to speak, the first right to put in its claim of kinship.

Returning now to our narrative, we find Boaz, figure of the risen Lord, calling in and offering to this kinsman the right of redemption. We have already noticed the provision of the law for raising up a deceased relative's family (Deut. 25:). We have now an allusion to another law of similar character, the redemption of a forfeited inheritance. The law will be found at length in the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus. In brief, it declared the divine right of "eminent domain." The land was God's, and could never be finally alienated from those to whom His grace had given it. All was to go free in the year of jubilee, or could be bought in by a near kinsman. The land of Israel is literally the Lord's, for His ancient people. In spite of all their sin and folly, it abides – strange fact in these days of universal ownership on man's part, of the earth – practically a land without a people, as though it were waiting for its rightful owners ; and such is without doubt the case. The land itself will yet be redeemed for Israel, and they will yet be put in full possession of that which they have forfeited by their sin and disobedience. But who will redeem it, and for whom will it be redeemed? These are the questions to be settled "in the gate."

( To be continued.) 222

The following paper is intended to treat of our Lord's manner and ways in teaching and preaching, and it is hoped that not only the heart may be refreshed by coming in contact with Him, but that also we may learn practical and valuable lessons. Nicodemus styles Him the " Teacher come from God," and His adversaries bore witness that never a man spake like this man. While, of course, we know this as to the substance of our Lord's teaching, yet, His method, because it clothes like a well-fitting garment, attracting little attention to itself and enhancing the beauty of that which it covers, is, perhaps, very often lost sight of. Do we know to what extent He used metaphor and simile ? Have we a clear conception of the way in which He met the objector ? What external means did He employ upon occasion to emphasize the lesson ? Wherefore did He use so much parable, and how were these parables adapted to the circumstances amid which they were spoken ? Such are some of the questions which force themselves upon us.

But they also serve to bring us closer to Himself, and this is the purpose of every study of Scripture. His words are a mirror in which we behold Him, and far more than we might expect does the method of them bring us into contact with Him. Our manner is often assumed to meet the occasion, and is the product of surrounding elements, but with Him it was never so; it came fresh from His heart. Every attitude, every gesture was full of Him and the mission which had become part of Him. You remember how in the tenth chapter of John, the Lord seems to take delight in the knowledge that His sheep know His voice, and that they are so occupied with it, that they know not the voice of strangers ? And as His voice would correspond to the character of His words, our study should be one that is pleasing to Him. Oh that we indeed so knew His voice that the voice of the stranger repelled with that fear of the unknown that seems innate in the animate creation. Then would we indeed walk aright with His word a lamp for our path and a light for our feet.

The first topic that naturally presents itself in this subject, is what we may call the external character
of His speech, such as clearness, energy, bodily position, etc. Of these indeed there is very little given us, and yet there are some things that surely must prove of profit to him that considers them. While there may be no scripture which directly asserts it, we may be sure our Lord ever spoke distinctly and clearly.

Now, perhaps, it may seem to be a small thing to say that the Lord spoke clearly, so that all could understand Him, yet we will the better attach a value to it if we consider how indignant we should become were one to assert that He did not thus speak. We should regard it as nothing short of blasphemy, and very rightly. He was the Word who created the worlds, the universe, that wonderfully adjusted mechanism in which part is fitted to part with divine precision, and from which arises a harmonious melody to God. How then should this Master Harmonizer fail to utter His truths in a voice attuned to their importance ? It would be absolutely impossible. When we consider too how mind and matter are related, and how the Creator has framed us so that one should play upon and answer to the other in this dwelling-place of our spirits, who can doubt but that the voice was ordained of Himself to awaken music in the soul ? No slurred over words ever troubled those who listened to Him, and are not His ways Divine ?

Now this clear voice was sometimes raised so that it became loud and powerful. Thus we read in John that on the last day of the feast "Jesus stood and cried," and in another place it speaks of "His great Voice" as it rose over the weeping and wailing at the grave of Lazarus. And so when the storm
that gathered over Calvary was hushed to its close, "Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the Ghost." Now apart from the physical necessity there was of prevailing over the sounds that existed, on at least two of these occasions, there was in all of them an especial need that spoke to the Lord's heart, and to which we do well to give heed. There is a peculiar danger that on our feast days the things around us may lead us to forget the Giver and our need of Him. The feast of which we have been speaking is said to be the feast of Tabernacles, a time in which Israel was to remember her wandering in tents through the wilderness, and which very probably became a means of celebrating the fact that they no longer thus wandered. Now although not the object of the feast, spiritually this may be all right, but there is then danger of forgetting" that wherever we are we need Him as much as ever to watch over us; and such moments are full of peril.

At other times there are feasts of Satan's spreading, and the one who sits down thereto will be in dire need of hearing that urgent cry from the risen Jesus. "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink."

But to refer to the suitability of that raised voice in the other instances, there are moments when some burden is laid upon us such as that which lay on the grief stricken crowd lamenting at the grave of Lazarus. How wonderfully thrilling that "Great Voice" must have sounded, and with what eager expectation and joy must they have looked for the response. When the cares of the world, its sorrows and griefs, flood in upon our lives, how refreshing will it be to hear it rise above our storms
and quell our fears. Then shall we burst into singing:

" How sweet the voice of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear."

The last instance which we have mentioned answers to the time in which " he that hath the power of death " sows such fears as he is able, when we are called to leave it. Will it not be good too to recall that He over whom death's billows deeply went, cried out with a loud voice as they closed upon Him, proclaiming His power and triumph over them, and then yielded up the Ghost ? "No man taketh it from" Me, I lay it down . . . and I take it again." How eloquently do these words and that voice proclaim " The Prince of Life."

The expression of our Lord's face is, as I remember, given but once, and yet that same instance, in its impressiveness, is referred to in two of the Gospels. It is on the occasion of the healing of the withered hand, when, because of its being the Sabbath, they seek to bar the path of His mercy. He then looks round about upon them all with anger. But how wonderfully touching is the moment. They seek to hinder good reaching another, and His ' shepherd's heart is aroused and His anger blazes out. " Is it not lawful to do good on the Sabbath day?" He cries, and in answer heals the hand. They might seek to kill Him ; they were going to nail Him to the cross on Calvary, and He would cry in wonderful compassion, " Father forgive them, for they know not what they do," but let them try to injure another and indignation shines in His Face. When we consider how that by and by, before it, heavens and earth will flee away, we no longer marvel at the impression it made, and we wonder at the beauty of the thought, that on such occasion alone have we mention of it.

When our Lord teaches He is generally seated. The attitude is one of repose and authority. His words are so certain, and carry so much authority with them, that any other position would seem less suited. He was seated all through the Sermon on the Mount. Such words as " Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy," appear to stand on such pillared foundations as rather to lose than anything else by seeking to enhance their value. So also was He seated in a boat, when giving forth the parables of the Kingdom, in the thirteenth of Matthew. In contrast with this position, however, He rises to announce the fulfilment of, and read His Father's words; while when in the Temple He momentarily relaxes His stooping posture when confronting the Pharisees with that majestic charge, " Let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone at her." How well adapted are these attitudes to the sentiments which they accompany, and how they should prevent us from getting careless with what we may call minor matters.

There is one other beautiful position which our Lord assumes, and coming as it does at the end of His earthly sojourn, seems to sum up the whole of His ministry on earth. "Having loved His own which were in the world He loved them unto the end," and as He is about to leave them He leads them out to Bethany, and body and spirit uniting together in one long, lingering attitude of protection, those blessed hands but so recently stretched out in such a different way, now spread themselves broodingly over them, while from His lips the words of blessing fall, and a cloud receives Him out of their sight. ''Out of their sight?" Yes, and yet that sight, which no earthly cloud should be able to obscure, shall be their last recollection of Jesus, and all through their lives hover in Divine benison over them.

Although not directly connected with our subject, the words following in Luke, have such a beautiful touch to them, that one would fain linger for a moment to meditate. " And as He blessed them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven." In the opening of His ministry we see Him going to John and saying, upon the latter's protest against baptizing Him, " Suffer it now for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Baptism is a burial of self. John says he has need to be baptized of Jesus. The Lord in effect replies, "That is true, but consider not what I am as to right, for I am come to lay all that personal right of Mine aside, yea to lay self aside, to work for the people among whom I have come." Having then taken such a position, as He comes up from Jordan, as if they no longer could contain themselves, the heavens are rent asunder, and the voice of God breaks out, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." So now may we not think of that same delight as expressed in the words, "carried up " ?

One of the most marked features of our Lord's teaching is its parabolic form, and this so marked that it could scarcely escape even the cursory reader. We know that among the nations of the East the parable is a very much used method of communication, and yet, however true that may be, it would scarcely suffice as a reason for our Lord's using it, unless, indeed, there be something in the parable itself that meets a special need in all climes and countries. We all know how fond children are of it as a means of instruction, and learned men assert that in what they call the childhood of the race, the early days, it was constantly employed in ordinary conversation. But are we not all children in heavenly things ? And what after all in the words of Jesus makes things so plain as the parable ? How the gates of heaven seem thrown open to us as the father's arms are clasped around the prodigal, or the shepherd lays the sheep upon his shoulder. They speak with a plainness that reaches even the lowest depths.

But we must notice that although this be true as to a great many of them, yet our Lord says that some others were given with a. distinctly opposite purpose. "For unto you it is given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but unto them it is not given." The parable then is often used to hide truth, and we are led to ask the further question:If to hide, why then speak them before all those from whom He would wish to conceal the truth of which they speak ?

Our answer may, perhaps, be twofold. Of course it is very plain that for the Pharisees, who entered not into the Kingdom, the mysteries would scarcely be a subject to explain to them. Such would be a veritable casting of pearls before swine. And yet, on the other hand, it must be that after all He is seeking the Pharisee, otherwise our question would remain unanswered. We who know the Lord, know also that He loved even the Pharisee, and to them a mystery was a great incentive to study. Here, however, were mysteries that no human mind could very well fathom without the key, and a search for the key might indeed bring the poor Pharisee into His presence. I cannot but believe that this was the Lord's object, and any other thought than this would militate against plain scriptural teaching. If He ate with publicans and sinners He also sat down in the house of the Pharisee, and both Pharisee and Publican were welcome at the feast of the great King.

Taking this then as a correct interpretation of His words, we may remember that to speak plainly is not always the part of a good teacher. Often and often is the scholar to be aroused by that which he does not understand. Thus we may learn a lesson of the " Teacher come from God," and remember that if we attend the lecture of another, and do not understand a great deal that is said, even so, we would not have understood the One like whom man never spake. He knew that the disciples would not understand Him, and yet was in no wise deterred from speaking in the form in which He did. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to search it out." Oh, brethren, are we among those kingly ones whose glory it is to search out the things hidden by our great Teacher ? Be assured that he who does will find much pleasure. It is true in heavenly, as well as in earthly things, that we must labor for those things which are of most value, excepting necessaries, which God asks us not to labor for, such as water and light and salvation. F. C. G.

(To be continued.)

" Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. 3:ii).

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe."

"The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as a high wall in his own conceit " (Prov. 18:10, 11).

Here we have two contrasted shelters-the name of the Lord and the rich man's wealth. The righteous runneth into his shelter-the name of the Lord -and is safe; the rich man surrounds himself, in his own conceit, with the wall of his wealth, and imagines he is safe. Which is our shelter?