At last, after months of suffering and weary waiting, our beloved brother Mr. F. W. Grant has departed "to be with Christ, which is far better."He quietly fell asleep on Friday morning, July 25th, and was laid to rest Lord's day afternoon, on his sixty-eighth birthday.

In the midst of our grief, we cannot but thank God for this blessed release. Although hoping to the end that God would raise him up in answer to prayer, as He did so wondrously two years ago, it became increasingly evident that unless He interposed by a special act, our brother must go. He had spent every particle of strength, and all his reserve vitality was gone. He felt this, and his most acute suffering was the sense of inability to go on further in the things of God.

And yet at times he believed that God was giving him fuller capacity to understand His Word, and that it might please Him to continue the work so dear to him. But He has taken him home instead, and as we looked into his peaceful face, from which the signs of weariness and suffering had been taken away, we could but thank God for the blessed change for him.

On Lord's day afternoon, a large number of saints from the neighboring assemblies, with many others of the Lord's people, gathered for the burial. The sense of loss, of sympathy with his beloved wife and household, was mingled with gratitude for the precious ministry of this beloved brother, and a deep sense of the responsibility upon us, to stand where he stood, and to follow him as he followed Christ.

He was laid to rest, surrounded by his brethren, who felt the cheer and comfort of "that blessed hope " as they sang

"Forever with the Lord
Amen so let it be."

It is hoped in our next issue to present some outline of the work and the character of the ministry of our brother which shortness of time prevents now. S. R.

NO NIGHT THERE.

No need of feeble candle-flame, nor flare
Of fitful sunlight, oft by clouds obscure;
But light that shall eternally endure.
God giveth light, our hearts could not conceive,
These eyes could not behold, yet we believe
'Tis all light there.

NO TEARS THERE.

No weary watchings, with no heart to share
Our anguish. Yet the burdened soul finds rest
In sweet communings on the Saviour's breast;
Sweet foretaste of that never ending day,
When God Himself shall wipe all tears away.
All joy there.

H. Mc. D.

"The distinction between the terms 'Kingdom of Heaven' and 'of God,' I apprehend is in this, that 'earth' is the natural antithesis to 'heaven,' as man is to 'God.' Hence the Kingdom of Heaven always relates to the whole scene, and is more strictly dispensational; whereas the Kingdom of God over man may be individual, and gives more the moral character. Thus you find the Kingdom of God is not ' meat and drink,' etc. Kingdom of Heaven could not be used here.-Helps, 1874.

(Continued from page 49.)

II. THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL OF GOD.

When we speak, as we are going to do, of qualifications, we have, first of all, to understand that lack of qualification can keep no one out of that which God designs for all. If there is only a sincerely willing heart, God undertakes with regard to all that is needed in the way of qualification; and what we have to do just now is to consider how fully in this way He has provided for us-how well, therefore, we may learn in God's school, whether young or old, quick or dull, whatever in ourselves may seem to hinder or indeed forbid education!

God's meaning for us all is, as we have seen, education. Apart from any choice of ours, He has ordained for us needs which peremptorily require to be attended to, or we cannot even live in this world at all. The human creature is dependent as no other creature is. We are placed at the very beginning of our history here, in our mothers' arms, to find there, assuredly, more than the mere physical nourishment that we need. We may find the latter as mere animals, but God has made us something more than this; and we may be sure that in whatever He has ordained for us, we shall do well to remember what we are as human; and not because, for instance, the beasts are fed in the same way that we are, to merge ourselves therefore in the beastly nature. We are not mere flesh; we have spirits from the Spirit, and it is thus that we have been formed in "the image of God," even naturally, for "God is a Spirit."

God can never forget this; and the first element here is that of a moral nature, which not only can gee and understand things in themselves, but weigh them, balance them, understand their worth. Here, in our mothers' arms, we surely learn, and necessarily, some lesson of that dependence from which no one can escape; but we learn more than this:we learn, and are to be assured of, and drink in, a love which meets us in this need of ours, and which is to be our first lesson, and a moral one. The mother's love is proverbial as the deepest which nature knows. How little would the child be provided for in the mere provision of her breast, if there were not under it a mother's heart, which would willingly spend itself upon the child, and which is surely a wondrous lesson of altruism, as people say, for the child itself!

Sin, of course, has disordered everything; and we shall find not only that many children are deprived of that which they instinctively crave in the way of nourishment, but are deprived still more of that meeting of heart with heart, and awakening the heart by the heart, which God would have. Sin has disordered everything; but it takes little wisdom to realize that we must separate the disorder from the natural institution which is plain in spite of it, and the love that breathes in it on the part of the Creator. How much, in fact, men owe to a mother's love! How often have we heard of the criminal in his prison-cell hardened into perfect callousness as to every other feeling, but who yet has woke up to at least a flash of self-reflection and self-judgment at the remembrance of his mother!

Under this kindly influence then, the child begins its development. In God's design the mother is the
first teacher of the babe; and if all is right, will be the first best teacher in a spiritual way also. But we have not exactly to do with this now. That which we gather from it is clearly this, that God's design for us all is education; and that for Him the moral part is all-essential to the rest. If we think of God's school, however, as we are now to contemplate it, the Book which is put into our hands, and which is in itself so unique and so sufficient that we rightly call it "the Book," "the Bible," is plainly that which is to give us all our lessons. In the authority with which it speaks, it takes only the place which the mother, for instance, must take with her child, and which is so necessary for the child.. It speaks with authority because it is the language of One who knows; and as the Book of God, who does not suggest possibilities, but teaches truth. What sort of a teacher could any of us be who has no positive truth to teach? If the Book be God's Book, then certainly it is competent, and must be so, and in this way the uniqueness which we recognize in it speaks very plainly. But while it speaks thus with authority, the simplicity of its language shows us God's earnest desire for all His creatures, and is the only thing that is worthy of the God of all. He is not the Creator of the rich or the intellectual or the man of science, or of. any other special class, but the Creator of all. And thus it is that the apostle argues with regard to the gospel and the simple ability to enter into all the gladness which it gives by faith, where-ever faith maybe. "Is He the God of the Jews only?" he asks. "Is He not also of the Gentiles? Seeing it is one God that will justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith" (Rom. 3:29-30). But thus the Book of books is in a sense all of it a primer, however much else it is, and its first and last lesson is of God.

How blessed the way in which the only Teacher possible with regard to the creation of things speaks in the very beginning of the Book! What majesty in the simplicity of it! How it naturally awakes the response of the heart to Him who speaks in it! Nevertheless we want something more in order to have aright even this first lesson, and as Scripture is put into our hands to-day, in all the fulness of a perfected revelation, one Personality reveals itself in it throughout; and that He may be perfectly understood and be realized as near us, in such a way as no mother even can be to her child, in human guise God puts Himself before us in it.

In the Old Testament, for the Messiah everything waits. In the New Testament, we wait in that sense no longer:He has come, and with all blessing in His hand. There was a needed preparation of man for this which the long previous history declares, but we are not to speak of this now. God is fully revealed, He is in the light; and then He is Himself the Light by which all other things are read. How plain that here alone it is that we are in the true place for ' learning anything whatever! and in His presence we learn first of all, ourselves. We learn what hinders learning. How great a necessity this, and how from this we realize the good of a human Teacher as well as of the Manual in our hand! We need to know how to learn, as well as what to learn. We need, too, (how often,) to be free from other thoughts that have come in from elsewhere, and which prevent our recognition even of the simplest truths! With us, according to what has been already said, we shall not wonder to find that the hindrances are largely moral. Thus if we are truly in the presence of God, we shall be occupied with ourselves first of all in order to learn in ourselves, in the way of true self-judgment, all that is contrary .to Him with whom all our knowledge is to be communion. We learn thus in ourselves that which is to help us all the way through, and we learn self-mastery from Him who is absolute Master, and whose help is found in learning every lesson.

It is a fundamental necessity for learning, in the whole range of learning, that our eye must be single, in order that our whole body may be full of light. Now here God's singular care for us is once more revealed. The Spirit of God is He who brooded at first on the face of the deep, and He is the Agent in creation everywhere. Most capable, surely, He; and He it is who now takes upon Him to be our effectual inward Monitor; Himself, as Scripture assures us, (if we are Christians indeed,) dwelling in us. How perfect, then, is such a provision! We have Christ on the one hand, as our Teacher, Himself the revelation of God in His own Person, and thus of all things else,-the Light in which we see light. But then we have the Spirit of God in us to remove that which would, nevertheless, prevent the light having its proper effect. What love breathes in all this, to subdue in us all that is contrary and to mold us to its teaching!

The Spirit must form the house before He can dwell in it. Thus necessarily, according to Scripture, and because of what we are as fallen, new birth must precede indwelling. Here we are at once faced with a mystery which yet, like all other mysteries, has within it, in fact, a revelation. We are not, of course, developing Scripture doctrines now, and therefore we cannot enter, as might be desired, into the doctrine here; but Scripture assures us that we have thus communicated to us by the Spirit a new nature which is so really a divine nature, that we become by it, in a way which the original creation itself could not make us, children of God. God's way is to meet all that sin has caused by abounding over it. It is not enough for Him simply to replace what has become no longer able to answer its original purpose. His way is to show His perfect mastery over it by bringing in that which is higher and better, controlling thus for good the very evil which has come in. Christ's work has not replaced us where we were; it has done far more than this. We are not back in Eden and are not to be back there. We have lost earth, but to gain heaven. We have lost the innocency in which man naturally was, not to regain this, nor to find a fresh life sustained by the old tree of life in the midst of the garden. All these things become but types and shadows of what Christ has made our own. In Christ we have a new life which is eternal life; and in Him we find also in a higher way, not simply un-forbidden but made fully our own, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil which gives us now a competency to enter into the whole problem of good and evil, and to find holiness when it would be impossible for us to go back to innocence. We know what evil is in ourselves, and here is the mystery of which we were just now speaking, that while in new birth we have a new nature, yet as every Christian's experience will tell him if he consult it in the light of Scripture, the old nature is not yet removed. This is a perplexity which, no doubt, we have all found ; and which yet not only experience affirms to be the fact, but we may be able also without much difficulty to realize how effectually by its means the whole problem of good and evil is thus put before us. We find in ourselves the evil and the good. We find the evil in the presence of the good, revealed by it effectually. In all the manifestation of the sin that still remains within us, we learn by reason of use to have our senses exercised to discern between these.

But let us carefully remember that this does not imply that God would have us in any sense in subjection to the evil. If the Spirit indwells us, then ample power there must surely be over whatever inveteracy of evil can be imagined. We need only to be subject to the Spirit. The power is not in us but with us. We are still with this divine Teacher, learning dependence as we learned it first at our mothers' breasts. Yet ever also our responsibility, the proper responsibility of a moral being is enforced. The very presence of the Spirit of God does not make us of necessity the victors in the conflict which is implied in these two nature^.We must be subject to the Spirit, not finding strength in ourselves, but weakness; and not needing to be dismayed because of the weakness, when the very condition of triumph is that when we are weak then we are strong. How thoroughly is it God's purpose to hide pride from man! and thus if the Spirit indwells us it is, in the strong language of Scripture, to join His help to the very infirmities revealed (Rom. 8:26, Gk.).Thus if we pray, because we know not what to pray for as we ought, "the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Here then is infirmity which is expressed even in the very groanings of the Spirit. But these groanings are perfectly intelligible to Him who "knoweth the-mind of the Spirit"; and the Spirit still "maketh intercession for the saints according to God." Thus the groan declares our infirmity. We cannot utter the wants which, nevertheless, are most real ones. This groaning which is unintelligent to us is intelligent with God, and here how truly the Spirit intercedes for us, therefore, is manifest. It is Another who, in fact, is groaning in these groans which we cannot utter; and, according to this wisdom which is beyond us, God answers the Spirit-guided prayer. How blessed to know, then, that weakness is nothing which is to daunt us, but only that which is to make us lean the more simply and more fully upon the power of God!

(To be continued.)
'NOT A -DOG SHALL MOVE HIS TONGUE."

Deep, deep as the streams that flowed
O'er the bended head of the Son of God;
As the fathomless deep into which broke down
The long descent, where at last alone-
Alone in His love with our need, must be
The goal of His agony.

Soul, hast thou heard in thine own distress
The surge of that midnight sea?
When first to the straining ear came back
The voice of One who was there for thee ?
And thou heardest nought but the strife of the sea ;-
Nought but the strife of the swollen sea,
And the Son of God in His agony!

The brooding Spirit is over the flood;
In human weakness power of God:
Laid, the eternal new foundation
Of final, fore-ordained creation,
Where the abundant streams arise
That water God's own Paradise.

Deep in the heart of God the spring
(Drink, O beloved, abundantly!)
Whence, all the fulness ministering,
Its glad evangel greeteth thee:
Light out of darkness, ever to be!
Deep to deep calleth, " No more sea! "

Drink, O beloved, abundantly!
'Tis the voice of a deep that calleth thee!
Bright with the brightness of His face,
Thy Christ the glory of His grace,
Filled with His fulness, thus to be
Witness to Him eternally-
This is the portion of the blest,
Where the eyes of the Lord forever rest,
In realms no mortal foot hath trod,
Yet the Spirit searcheth the deeps of God

Scant not the grace that calleth thee!
Nor limit the Hand that enricheth thee!
Nor turn from the blessed Voice that still

Calls from the Glory as from the Sea,
"Come unto Me," and ever, "to Me!"-
The soul that is yet unfilled to fill
With the perennial joy that He
Giveth, and only He.

O heart that the heart of God hath formed!
Whose measure but He can fill,
Deep unto deep is calling now;
Know thou His voice and will.
He for His love hath fashioned thee!
Rise up, then, to thy destiny!
No princely beggar at this world's gate
For the dole of its penury,
Throw aside the shame of thy low estate!
"Arise; for He calleth thee!"

F. W. G.

(Heb. 11:17-22.)

We have presented to us in thi53 chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews the gathering up of the scriptural testimony as to the principle of faith, and its operation in the lives of God’s People from the very commencement of time. In the Jewish system all was material, and Appealed to the natural faculties of men, while faith, he shows, goes out to the unseen, which characterizes true Christianity. It is for the possessor of it, the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen."It makes real to the soul in which it operates the very things that are hoped for and not therefore possessed, while it is also that which also gives to that soul the conviction, the certainty, of the existence of these very things that are unseen, and yet for which we hope. God then if the whole sum and substance for faith, so much so that without it is impossible to please Him. He requires that one who comes to Him must believe that He is, and that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. It is faith, and only faith, that can fulfil this requirement.

Moreover, faith, we know, is the gift of God. so that in its activity it must partake of His character, and always rises to its source and only sufficiency; that is, God Himself. We may therefore rightly expect to find some phase of God's own character in its activity, and of course especially so where it is acting in some distinct realization of God's all-sufficiency. It is this which we have presented in the passage before us. . The great men of Genesis are mentioned in connection with one distinct incident in their lives founded upon faith. First of all Abraham – typical above all others of the man of faith. In his case we have the offering up of Isaac. We cannot think of this and not have our thoughts turned to consider the pain and anguish of heart it must have meant for Abraham. It was for him the yielding up of the one in whom all his hope was centered, and yet how readily he gives up this object of his heart's deep affection. How beautiful a witness to the way faith counts on the all-sufficiency of God ! Abraham might have chided with God for laying such a burden upon him, and for taking away the one in whom his hope was centered. He might have questioned how the promises would be fulfilled, and what hope was left if now Isaac be removed. We say such reasoning would be the working of unbelief.

But do we not often reason this way in our hearts? It is far different with Abraham:not a word of murmuring, he promptly obeys the trying command. He "rose up early" the next morning, and goes the way he is bidden. Ah, was not He who had given Isaac when all hope was shattered, and there existed no longer any possible way of fulfilling the promise naturally, was He not able to raise up? to kill and to make alive ? Would He fail in such a way to fulfil the word of His promise ? Impossible. Let Isaac be taken ; His arm is not shortened, and His word cannot fail; He will provide.

Such is the language broad writ over the actions of faithful Abraham. Would that our own hearts spoke more on this wise, this whole-hearted yielding up to God's blessed will. Has He given us much blessing and given us the very thing our hearts longed for ? If then it be His will to take them from us shall unbelief raise its dragon head to chide with Him, the pledge of whose love is the gift of His only begotten Son f Rather shall our faith not speak in Abraham's language and say, "Thy will, not mine, blessed God." The object in such a trial is surely to turn our hearts to more simply and more completely trust in Him.

Perhaps Abraham had begun to rest a little in Isaac and the fulfilment of the promises in him, instead of continuing to look to God in the realization that even with the one given in whom all was to be fulfilled, still it must and could only be through God's own hand and power carrying all into effect. Whether he had reasoned so or not, we know not, but have we not often reasoned in this way ? God has given us the desire of our hearts and provided much in blessing us, and the heart grows lax, and coldness comes in, the eye is turned a little from our God, and we begin to find some sufficiency in what He has given-resting in that and the possession of it, instead of still continuing, after possessing the desires of the heart, to trust only in His all-sufficiency; enjoying the g|ft in the sense of this, and not in the least in any independence of Him who gave it. Very necessary, then, is the refining of our faith by the trial occasioned in the taking away of that in which we are finding any measure of sufficiency, even though given by God to us and of His will.

May God in His grace grant that we learn this lesson in His presence, for experience is not the best teacher in spiritual things, though we must mourn how often we choose this way of it.

But now in this activity of Abraham's faith we have a beautiful expression of one character of our God, as the Father in His love. We have not a more striking illustration in God's word than this is of the unspeakable gift of His love to us. It is pressed upon Abraham, "take thy son, thy only son Isaac," and so He, too, gave His only begotten Son, wrenching His heart of love and all its affections in giving up the well-beloved of His bosom to suffer for our sakes. The sorrow of the Father's heart in yielding Him up a willing sacrifice, who can tell it ? And if this be so, who can measure the depth of His infinite love for us, that He should give such a wonderful gift ? How sweet to know this One as our Father, and to be able to approach Him as such, to be known as His children, having been given the Spirit of adoption.

And then how beautifully expressive is Isaac's obedience to his father a type of the perfect obedience of the Son of God. No Voice of protest to mar the scene, but perfect self-surrender. The "Lo! I am come to do Thy will, O God," is heard here. And this is His declaration knowing full well what the accomplishment of it meant, even the awful forsaking of God upon the cross. The heart of the Father and of the Son are one in the divine, eternal expression of love to the creature, and it is this side of God's character that is expressed for us in this incident of Abraham's faith.

We pass on to Isaac, who blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Here we have a far different thought as to God's character. Faith is clearly on Isaac's part in connection with the blessing given, and not with the way that it is given. Isaac would have given Jacob's blessing to Esau. Nevertheless, Isaac's faith is seen in recognizing Jacob truly blessed. He, no doubt, saw how God had accomplished His fore-announced purpose, spite of his fleshly desires to the contrary. Thus we read of him trembling exceedingly, no doubt with the thought before him of God's word spoken at the time of the birth-"the elder shall serve the younger," and how he had sought to do contrary to it. He therefore confirms the blessing to Jacob.

But what we see in all' this is clearly the fact that God is the God of election, and that, be the desires of the saint what they may, and seek to fulfil them in whatever way he may, His purpose cannot be changed and He will accomplish it. "The children being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger." (Rom. 9:ii, 12.) So that in the case of Isaac, we see the God of election controlling events for the accomplishment of His fore-announced purpose.

How blessed a character of God this is for us ! If it had not been that He had purposed, we could not be blessed; and if it had not been that He had marked us out before the foundation of the world
according to His fore-knowledge, we should not be the "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." And so "whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate . . . them He also called; " for if He had not called, and by His power (which always accompanies His voice when He calls) made us obedient to His will, we would have willingly gone on in the way of destruction. What sweet and blessed assurance then we have in this that He is the God of election, having all power to carry out His every purpose of blessing concerning us. We have the lesson of His matchless love for us in Abraham, and the assurance that love so wondrously manifested will provide for everything, giving every possible blessing; and now we learn that this same blessed One is He who has elected us in His unbounded grace to eternal blessing, to just all that blessing that the wonderful exhibition of His love has really pledged Him to give; for, having given His Son, "how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things" (Rom. 8:32).

In the third place we have Jacob and the blessing of the two sons of Joseph, accompanied with his worship, leaning upon the top of his staff. Here the contrast with Isaac is very marked. He shows how he has learnt his lesson, that that which is natural must be replaced by what is spiritual, the elder must give way to the younger. He crosses his hands in blessing Manasseh and Ephraim who receives the greater place. It must be so, Manasseh is typical for us of the forgetting of those things which are behind; this truly is absolutely necessary for Ephraimite fruitfulness to come in. All here, be what it may, must be turned from, and counted as dung, if the blessed fruit-bearing which pleases our God is to be developed in us.

But this is really a resurrection lesson. Why are we to turn from all earthly things to those which are above ? Is it not because we are dead with Christ, and are raised up with Him on resurrection ground? in new creation having no longer any link with the old order ? And this is God's way for us, and the accounting of His glorious counsels concerning us, so that in very deed He is the God of resurrection. All His ways exhibit Him in this character, that of bringing life out of death. The earth, as we know it, is a resurrected earth from the ruin it had fallen into; and now He is bringing a new creation out of the ruined old one, by the power of resurrection. The practical working out of which in the subjects of this resurrection work, is the lesson we learn from Jacob's faith in blessing the sons of Joseph. Here, then, we have Him as the God of resurrection, and it is a principle which characterizes His dealings as revealed all through Scripture.

To know Him in this character is the pledge to our faith of the fulfilment of His every promise and our every hope in connection therewith. He "hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power." That resurrection power that raised up Christ will also raise us up; yea, is the pledge of it, for we are now linked with Christ for eternity. It is in the raising up of Christ that God is supremely manifested as the God of resurrection, and in which we know Him as such. It is the security of everything for us since we are before God in Christ as our Representative; and He has been raised up from that place into which He has descended for us, bearing our judgment as our Substitute.

When the lesson of all this has been learnt in the soul, the consequence of it is worship from a heart filled with the riches of God's grace, and to which things present are but dung, and their loss counted gain.

Finally, in Joseph making mention of the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt and giving commandment concerning his bones, we have the comforting promise of God's sure visitation given to his brethren, from the midst of whom God is about to remove him. His faith here certifies to the fulfilment of the promise to bring them into the land which they were to be given. We cannot help but consider the fiery furnace of affliction through which Israel was to pass during their sojourn in Egypt, after which we know Jehovah visited them. How to those poor slaves, oppressed under the tyrannical sway of Pharaoh's power, all hope or prospect of the fulfilling of God's promise to their fathers must have seemed to be gone. And how, too, perhaps they counted Him unfaithful to His promise. Nevertheless, how sweet in view of these circumstances God's message for faith to lay hold of in the word spoken by Joseph! What a comfort from God Himself to any among Israel who trusted in Him. And so we know how after all the sorrow, degradation and trial which they passed through, God answered the faith of Joseph and proved Himself faithful to His promise to the fathers, accomplishing deliverance.

Here, unmistakably, we have Him presented to us as the unchanging God. Let there intervene a time, no matter how long, no matter how much filled with trial and sorrow, with an outlet only dark, through which light would seem never to break, we may be sure He will never change, and that which He has spoken He will carry out and nothing can swerve Him. How blessed to know Him as such in a path like this through a hostile world, that is, of course, if it really is a hostile world to us, and that depends much on our communion and testimony. We know this glorious One also as our Father, who has called us to communion and fellowship with Himself; to abide under the covert of His wings where harm cannot come nigh.

"We change, He changes not."

These are sweet lessons He has given us of His own character in the lives of these examples of faith. And may He in His rich grace grant us to learn them in simple faith, that we may indeed find our whole portion in Himself, in whom is a wealth of all-sufficiency for us which is infinite and divine. Let us never forget that it is the fruit of the suffering and death of our blessed Lord; and while the glorious blessing we have been brought into is the necessary result of that awful Cross, (for God will honor and magnify in this way the name of Christ who has glorified Him in connection with sin, by the bestowal of all His infinite wealth upon poor creatures whose place He took in love and atoned for their sin) yet let us remember the pit from whence we have been dug, the awful depth to which the Son of God had to descend that He might lift us up into God's glory, and to apprehend even now, in some measure, His blessed character. J. B. Jr.

Frankincense gives forth its sweetness
Most when tested by the flame;
So each trial moulds to meetness,
Every child who bears My Name,
Through the heart's deep exercise,
Tho' with many tears and sighs.

So, whate'er of earthly sorrow
May be woven with thy bliss,
Patient wait, the bright to-morrow
Surely will reveal thee this:
That in love I chastened thee,
That thou might'st be more like Me.

H. McD.

Lightheartedness and true Christian happiness are very different things. A thoughtless man may be lighthearted because he has little sense of responsibility ; but a thoughtful believer who meditates upon the revelation which we have of God in His word cannot fail to be penetrated with the sense of His love, of His grace, of His holiness, of His glory, all of which are in his favor through the cross of Christ. And what depths of genuine, unalloyed happiness will thus fill his soul! P. J. L.

In the matter of salvation it cannot be too clearly and strongly put that no one can come between the soul and Christ. Saving faith and repentance are individual things, as new birth is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of each one singly. It is to be feared that in the effort to secure converts this may be overlooked. Great crowds flocking to hear popular and attractive preachers, even where a certain measure of the truth is preached, are not always a sign of the most effectual work. Moving narratives which touch the emotions, sweet melodies of gospel hymns, even earnest and importunate appeals, while perfectly right in themselves, may, if not properly safeguarded, sweep large numbers on the crest of emotional waves into a profession which is not justified by the after experience.

Far be it from us to say a single word derogatory to earnest effort, but we do feel increasingly the absolute importance of remembering that the stupendous work of salvation cannot be effected by twentieth century energy. God reserves, and ever will, for Himself alone, the prerogative of introducing sinners into His own holy presence by the power of His word and the Holy Spirit. Let it be ours to be so obliterated that we shall simply be the channels to convey God's blessed message to perishing souls.

There would be less cause to mourn over backsliders and false professors ? were greater care given not to intrude human energy into the domain of the Spirit of God. Does some .one say that this blocks the wheels of gospel effort and causes the hands to hang down in indifference ? We are sure that none who know what the presence of God is will dare make such a remark. It is unintentionally a slur upon the power and willingness of the Holy Spirit.

The same is also true to a great extent in connection with the life of individual communion with God of the soul. If private prayer and reading of God's word, and the daily exercise of faith, are neglected, it will be found that all the social side of our Christian life is incapable of making up the deficiency. There must be the walk with God as though there were no one else in the world but ourselves.

This being recognized as true, we can now take up the other side, which is of the greatest importance, and speak of our mutual relationships as Christians. It is striking and strange that where one side of truth is neglected, even though the other side may be in a sense exaggerated, yet its true bearing is lost. Thus to-day, where the inner life is so largely ignored, the mutual life is equally disregarded; for, after all, great concourses of Christians, conventions, and the good-fellowship of hearty greetings and pleasant intercourse, savor rather of this world's gatherings than of that sweet and quiet growth which the word of God indicates. Let us take up some of the passages of His precious word which bring out mutual relationships.

It is important, first of all, to see that there is nothing of a voluntary character, as we might say, in the relationship of God's people. There is no thought of "joining the Church " in Scripture. Thanks be to God, He has not left that to our volition. No wonder that where "the church of our choice" is made the basis of our fellowship there should be the multiplicity pf denominations which are the sorrow of every Christian heart. No, God has made Church-membership an expression of His own sovereign will, and an organic, vital connection which cannot be broken. " By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit" (i Cor. 12:13). "There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling " (Eph. 4:4). The blessed truth is here seen that the same life, the same activity, permeates the entire body; every believer is united by the Holy Spirit to Christ in glory, and that same vital connection is established with all His brethren. How precious, and yet how searching a truth! Who dare dispute the connection with Christ ? Now, how unspeakably precious is the thought that our bond of union with Him in glory is a divine one, the presence of the Holy Spirit of God! While this is an added truth to the fact that we are also individually partakers of the divine nature by the new birth, yet it is closely allied with it. The two cannot be separated in the present dispensation. But how many of us realize that the link with Christ is no stronger than with one another ? We are persuaded that if this truth be grasped, or, rather, grasps us, it will work a revolution in our thoughts and ways.

Growing out of this is the simple fact that we are members of one another, because members of the same body (Eph. 4:25). " We being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members of one another" (Rom. 12:5). A most comprehensive and beautiful expression of what this means is found in another familiar verse in Ephesians:"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."How varied and complete are the provisions here!

But, tempting as it is, we must not allow ourselves to be drawn from the object of our present little paper, which is not so much to enlarge upon these precious principles as to glean some practical words with which Scripture supplies us, and which will appeal to heart and conscience, we trust, in a practical way.

Perhaps the first and most obvious thought in connection with our mutual relationship is that love pervades the whole body. The epistles of John are full of this, so that we need do no more than refer to them. " See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently " is what Peter says. What a blessed contrast to the condition of the natural heart described in Titus 3:3:"Hateful, and hating one another." This love is the best guide, for it is divine and not human affection, and therefore supremely subject to God in all things:"This is love, that we walk after His commandments." This explains such a passage as "Love covereth the multitude of sins," which does not mean that it seeks to "hush them up," but rather to bring them into the presence of God in intercession, and then, in faithful, gracious ministry, to touch the heart of the wrong-doer.

The spirit of love is the spirit of service. Love must find an expression for itself, and therefore is ever active. "By love serve one another " is indeed not merely the command of grace, but the instinct of the new heart. In what holy contrast is this to that fleshly activity so faithfully depicted in the same chapter of Galatians:" If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another," and "Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another" (Gal. 5:13, 15, 26).

But let us look a little in detail as to the activities of this love. We have said that love desires to serve. It is equally true that it desires companionship. We long to be with those we love, and this is most graciously provided for:'' We have fellowship one with another" (i John 1:7). This is true of those who are "in the light," where "the blood of Jesus Christ," God's Son, "cleanseth from all sin." Sin is judged in the light of God's holy presence, and His provision of grace in the blood of Christ effectually gives rest and peace there. The soul can say with the apostle, who writes, not as placing himself above other children of God, " Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ," and we can say the same. But the fellowship with the Father demands, may we not say, fellowship with one another as well ? " Every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him ?"

"Wherefore, receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God." This we might call the first act of acknowledgment of the link that binds us together. Reception, does not merely mean to this or that. Nor are we referring to full fellowship at the Lord's table. In a day of difficulty like the present there may be details which require patient and careful dealing. Surely we are not to be indifferent to the claims of the holiness of God, nor to our responsibility to maintain precious truths which "one another." He has entrusted to us, but there should ever be the gracious reception and recognition of every blood-bought child of God whom we can truly recognize as such. . There should be, so far as possible, the acknowledgment of that common life and love upon which we, have been dwelling.

Such reception as this, even where of a general character, involves added responsibilities. Do I recognize one as a child of God ? Then I owe it to him, as well as to God, to seek to lead him on further in that which is our common treasure. This will at once be the delight and desire of our hearts. But how much care this involves! "Be of the same mind one toward another." Our brother may need to have many wrong thoughts corrected, and to get a view of many truths of which he has hitherto been ignorant. To be of the same mind does not mean that we are to adopt his opinions, or to allow them to go on unchecked, but to give place rather to that one mind of Christ which shall control us all. See, also, Rom. 14:5. It is not an easy thing to be of the same mind one toward another. It means the subjection on the part of us all to the word of God, and a readiness to bow to its authority. This is the only basis of a true spiritual unity of thought. To be "perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" when neither the mind nor judgment are those of God, would be, for faith, to leave the divine path for one of man. It is, alas, only too easy to reach accord in a carnal way; but to be of one mind in a divine way means the obliteration of self and the true exercise of divine love.

But reception and unity are not all. "That the members should have the same care, one for another."
'' Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2). '' We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves" (Rom. 15:i). Here again is the simple activity of love which seeketh not her own, but is occupied in ministering to the need of others:and oh, how much care, how much burden-bearing there can be among the saints of God! Beloved reader, we would ask, How much do you know of this in a practical way ? Could we have but one petition granted in connection with these things, it would not be that God would raise up more gifted public preachers, but rather that He would lay upon us all in love the grace of burden-bearing and a loving care one for another.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things is suggested in our next quotation:"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God " (Eph. 5:21). See, also, the similar passage in i Pet. 5:5, where the thought is not so much that of being subject one to another, but "be girded with humility toward one another," so to be ready to receive whatever of admonition may be offered. 'Connected with this, also, is the exhortation in James 5:16:"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." This does not mean merely, going to the brother whom I may have wronged and acknowledging the fault,-this should surely be done,-but rather that confidence of love in the helpfulness of our brethren, and realizing our oneness to such a degree that we are free to open our hearts and unburden ourselves to those to whom our confidence will be as sacred as though whispered in the ear of God alone. The confessional of Rome has so shocked the moral sense that there is an utter revulsion from the very name of confession, and yet we are persuaded that much of God's chastening would be lightened, as is suggested in the passage we have quoted, were there more of that true, hearty simplicity which would enable us to be more open with one another. It is fully recognized that this cannot be a one-sided matter. Alas, the spirit of speaking evil of one another has been all too common, and this is a most effectual check upon that exercise of true, hearty loyalty which could receive the secrets of our brethren into the silence of our own bosom to be spoken out to God alone!

"Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." See, also, Col. 3:13. There are many forms of bearing a grudge, from the open and avowed enmity, with its accompanying malicious evil speaking, to that secret alienation and chill upon the heart that forms such a sad contrast to the previous "sweet counsel" which the saints took together as they went to the house of God. There is nothing sadder than to see coolness coming in where once existed the most implicit confidence and fullest love. We cry out against all this, and often in our helplessness ask, Must it be ever thus ? Is there no remedy? Yes, surely, a remedy here, as for every ill to. which the saints of God are subject, though an humbling one. (But who ever was humbled before God without blessing Him in their souls ? Humility is, after all, the true exaltation of the soul.) The remedy is simple and clear-forbearance and forgiveness; and lest it should be thought that this forgiveness is a merely negative thing, in which we can go on in chilling coolness toward those we have forgiven, we are reminded that the measure of it, as well as its character, is seen in the way we have been forgiven by God in Christ. As the Father's arms of love are about us, with the kiss of forgiveness, and all the joy flowing into our hearts from the sense of that, we do not dare to confound that pride which calls itself forgiveness with that exercise of divine love which meets the erring one and loves out of him the last remnants of envy or jealousy or bitterness; and so confidence is restored.

But it may be said, we must be faithful with our brother, and lead him to a true sense of his wrong. Yes indeed so, but there is nothing like love to melt the hard heart, and forgiveness of a divine character will do this. Unquestionably, if there is pride and persistence in a course of wrong-doing, faithfulness to God will forbid the exercise of that which may be struggling for expression in the heart; but this must not be confounded with that hard and unrelenting spirit which waits in all the stiffness of self-righteousness for the first signs of breaking in the other!

Where there is this forgiving, and the other exercise of which we have been speaking, how much more will there also be! We will "tarry for one another" (i Cor. 11:33). The strong will not rush along, feeding on high truths beyond the reach of the lambs of the flock, nor will there be the over driving of the tender. We will "salute one another," as seen at the close of so many of the epistles. It may seem a trifle, but in the things of God nothing is that, and the intentional avoidance or willing omission of this act of brotherly love too often speaks of a coldness in the heart which is not a trifle. How fervent were the salutations of the apostle! What love, what confidence, what winsomeness there was in it! Let us not be too superior to hearken to the admonition suggested here.

The same applies to the "hospitality which is to be used one toward another without grudging" (i Pet. 4:9), and to that edification and admonition which will ever find a place. (See Rom. 15:14, 14:19; i Thess. 4:18, 5:n.) In short, dear brethren, let us examine these precious scriptures prayerfully and carefully as to all our varied relations one to another. We need to be stirred up as to these things, lest we drift into the helpless formalism by which we are surrounded.

" And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching" (Heb. 10:24).

"My heart longs that the Lord may be glorified in the walk of His own ; that they may glorify Him, not only by avoiding evil, but by maintaining close communion with Him, and, separated from the world in all their ways, may be to Him for a .testimony, and for a testimony that their hearts are elsewhere because their treasure is." J.N.D.

A Christian, who has heaven before him, and a Saviour in glory, as the object of his affection, will walk well upon earth; he who has only the earthly path for his rule, will fail in the intelligence and motives needed to walk in it; he will become a prey to worldliness, and his Christian walk in the world will be more or less on a level with the world in which he walks.

The clouds hang heavy o'er me,
And dark, and chill the night;
Yet clouds, nor chill, nor darkness
Can shut Thee from my sight,
Nor hush the song my heart still sings,
Nor stay my soul's uplifted wings.

Thy clouds are fraught with mercies-
Tho' oft of darkest hue;
Yet faith's keen vision fears not
To pierce the darkness through,
And find the side that's toward Thy face
Alight with glory of Thy grace.

When sorrow, like the rain drops,
Falls heavily and cold, I turn me to God's sun-light,
And there mine eyes behold-
All broken into rainbow hues-
What I had thought were sorrow's dews.

Life's storms and clouds are many,
But God is in them all;
Apart from Him, nor sorrow,
Nor rain can ever fall;
No cloud that e'er o'er-shadowed me,
But drew me closer, Lord, to Thee.

The storm that broke on Calv'ry,
And hid the noon-day sun-
That made the stout heart tremble-
Was borne for me, by One
Who wrought sweet peace from deepest woe;
-God's clouds have never hung so low

They wrapped Him in their darkness,
They hid from Him God's face;
Called forth that cry so bitter,
That He might show me grace;
That storm, now passed and gone for aye,
Hath bought me everlasting day.

And now His clouds, which shadow
My sun a little while,
Remind me of His sorrow
Which won for me His smile:-
The remnants of that tempest wild
Which brought me to Him, reconciled.

So, bright, or dark-whatever,
They can not slip His hand;
Their gilded edges tell me
My Father hath command;
What tempest e'er can do me harm,
Beneath His strong, and loving arm?

H. McD.

"My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places; when it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place " (Isa. 32:18, 19). In this chapter we have the blessed results of Christ's reign depicted. '' Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness . . . and a Man shall be as an, hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." How blessedly has "the Man Christ Jesus" opened, through His own pierced side, a hiding place from the storm of divine judgment, a covert from the tempest of that wrath and indignation which shall ' overtake the despisers and rejectors of His mercy; and how blessedly true it is that for those who are sheltered thus by Him, rivers of refreshing flow forth into the dry places of this life, making the desert to blossom as the rose, and the cool shadow of that great Rock gives rest in this weary land where still we wait for final rest! This is a spiritual application of that which directly refers to millennial blessing for the remnant and the restored nation of Israel. We would not, nor can we, rob them of that which shall be theirs in the coming day of blessing for God's earthly people. It is ours already in anticipation to enter into the enjoyment spiritually of that which shall be also visibly theirs.

These words have a direct and most blessed application to Israel, but this does not in the least mar their application in a spiritual way to ourselves. Everything rests upon the work of righteousness, that work of righteousness of which the Cross forms the basis and is the highest exhibition. Peace was made by the blood of His Cross, and He shall reign over His redeemed people and a ransomed earth on the ground of the work of righteousness accomplished upon Calvary. This work is peace, "peace to him that is afar off and to them that are nigh," a peace which can never be marred. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."And the effect of this act of righteousness is quietness of soul. No more trembling, no more doubting, fears banished forever. Oh, the quietness that has come in after the storm, for those who have believed in this finished work of righteousness! And assurance forever-an assurance that is grounded upon the word of God who cannot lie; therefore which, not depending upon our changing feelings or anything in ourselves, abides forevermore. What a comfort it is when His people turn from all else to this blessed effect of righteousness, finding in it indeed an all-sufficient ground of peace and blessing!

And now we are told of the blessed results of this:'' My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places." Notice, first of all, the abiding character of all blessing here. It is not a tarrying place, but a habitation, a dwelling, a resting-place. Hail may come down 'upon the forest, the city may lie desolate, man's city with all its boasted greatness and splendor be overthrown, but the dwelling place of the people of God rests upon an eternal foundation. It is a peaceable habitation. Looking very simply at these three expressions for a moment, we can gather from them that which should characterize the believer in his present life here.

First of all, there is peace. This we have already glanced at as the work of righteousness and its effect. Who can over-estimate the blessedness of this peaceable habitation. The dwelling in Egypt, sprinkled with the -blood of the passover-lamb was a peaceable habitation. Judgment raged without. It would never enter there. The blood spoke of judgment already visited upon a substitute, the lamb without blemish, so that now that habitation which otherwise would have been a house of mourning has become a house of feasting. The palace of Pharaoh was not a peaceable habitation, nor the hovel of the beggar. There was no difference between high and low on that awful night in Egypt. There was not a house where there was not one dead, save in those habitations sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. And oh, what rest of soul it is to remember, as we tarry in this world, that we are safe sheltered by the precious blood of Christ, our habitation is a peaceable one! It may not be, and probably is not, a home of wealth and luxury. That which the world calls pleasure may be and should be largely excluded from it. It may be but a humble cottage, and yet it is a peaceable habitation, for are not those who dwell beneath its roof sheltered safe from all wrath and judgment? "My people." This can be said of no other people. Do we not thank God that we are amongst His people ?

And then these are sure dwellings. They are not only dwellings where wrath cannot enter, but where those who abide there have the assurance of their safety. It would have been a reproach upon God, it would have been a tacit denial of the truth of His Word, had an Israelite trembled as he waited in the land of Egypt during that fateful night. It would not have been humility, but presumption for him to have said:" I hope all is well." If the blood of the passover-lamb had been sprinkled upon the doorposts, he could say:"I have a sure dwelling place, secured to me by the unfailing word of God, on the ground of His sacrifice." And so now the believer who trembles, who fears lest after all God may not be as good as His word, is really, in the solemn language of the apostle, making Him a liar. Has He not spoken and is not that sufficient? Shall we dishonor Him by doubting His word? Oh, let us, each one who has rested upon this blood-bought peace which Christ has made by the blood of His cross, let us take in the full comfort of those words:"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life."

But again there is not merely peace from judgment and the assurance of safety, but that comfort which is suggested in the third expression here, " quiet resting places," where the heart is at leisure not only from all questions as to its safety, but from everything which would disturb and mar the communion of the soul. Returning to the figure of the passover, God not only provided the blood as the shelter, but the lamb as food, and those within these resting places could feed in quietness and with contentment of soul upon that lamb whose blood had ' sheltered them from judgment. So Christ Himself is the food of His people, and may we not say that those who find their satisfaction in Him, who feed, with the bitter herbs of repentance and abhorrence of sin, upon His blessed person, find a satisfaction of soul that the world knows nothing of? They are quiet and at rest.

Thus we have a three-fold cord which is not quickly broken:peace made for us by the blood of His cross; the assurance of perfect acceptance by the word of God, and the quietness which comes from the heart satisfied with Christ. May we know more of these blessed habitations! Even as Israel in the coming day will delight to dwell every man under his own fig-tree, let us delight in the fulness of blessing that is ours, and show our satisfaction with it by walking here in holy separation from everything which has the sentence of judgment upon it.

We continue our reading during this month with the life of David. In the first book of Samuel we followed him during his rejection, where we have found him to be frequently the type of a rejected Christ. We are now to see him enthroned where he still typifies his Lord, especially as the enthroned king and head of the line. Our Lord frequently referred to Himself as the " Son of David."We have already, in our last number, looked at the main divisions of the book. It will suffice to point out some of the striking chapters.

The first four chapters give us the history of the transition of the kingdom from the house of Saul to David. Hebron is here the centre, and David is there enthroned king of Judah. This in itself is rather a suggestion of that which culminated in later days under David's sons when the kingdom was again divided in two, and Judah with Benjamin – significant exception – only remained faithful to the house of David. During the period of his stay at Hebron the power of David increases, while that of the house of Saul constantly diminishes. There is much here that we cannot approve and which David himself reprobated but was powerless to control. Joab, his kinsman, had strange influence over him. He was a man of violence and without scruple, and the death of Abner unquestionably was a blot even upon the beginning of David's reign.

Finally the opposition of the house of Saul is entirely overcome and from the sixth to the ninth chapters of the book we have David in all his power, king over the whole people. Here he is a type of Christ in His Kingdom of glory when He shall reign, not merely over Israel, but -over all the nations. We find in this part that David overthrows his enemies and brings them into subjection just as Christ our Lord will do when He takes His power. Scripture clearly indicates that even after the appearing of our Lord there will be a season of conflict; of victory indeed, but that the peace to the ends of the earth will not be secured until all enemies are beneath His feet. It is the reign of David which answers to this first part of our Lord's Kingdom, as that of Solomon does to the second. We find also in this part, Chap. 6:, that the ark is brought to its true centre, Jerusalem, and while the temple is not yet built, God is enthroned in the midst of His people. In connection with this, we have the promise of God to establish David a sure house forever. This promise is fulfilled, not in Solomon, but in David's Son and Lord, Christ.

There are many precious gems in this portion. The familiar one of the king's grace to Mephibosheth, the grandson of his old enemy Saul, must not pass unnoticed. Here we have a lovely picture of the kindness of God being shown to an undeserving enemy. But this bright picture closes all too soon, and in the next portion-chaps, 10:- 12:-we have again the personal history of the king rather than the typical. The dreadful sin of the king in connection with Bathsheba is too painfully familiar to require more than a mere mention. It is well, however, to note that it was idleness on his part which paved the way to this dreadful chain of sins which left its scar and stain upon his whole after life. We see the lovely blending of God in His government and in grace in His dealing with the king, and in the midst of all the wreck we see the heart of the poor sinful monarch turning in faith to the God whom he had dishonored. The fifty-first psalm is the outpouring of a broken and contrite heart which God did not despise.

The next portion of the book (chaps. 13:-21:) is a solemn illustration of that truth which is woven throughout the word of God that, " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." God's forgiveness could not set aside the result of David's sin, and the lust, the violence, the deceit, were all reproduced in the bosom of his own family. Solemn and awful thought! A picture which God in His mercy has given us in connection with one of the loveliest characters of Old Testament history and one of the fullest types of Christ Himself, showing us three things:

1st. That it is utterly impossible for any mere man to be aught than a type of Christ. The best men that have lived have had their blemishes, yea, some of those who have been most highly honored have sinned most deeply.

2nd. Christ alone can be before the soul as the Object of its delight. " Let no man glory in men."

3rd. We see the faithfulness of God who would not cover the sin of one so dear to Him but would give the lesson for all His people. May it be written in all our hearts!

The history of Absalom is another illustration of the painful weakness there was in the character of David, and the rebellion of that wayward son is but an illustration of what we have already had in the history of Eli. If government is disregarded, there will be unquestioned shipwreck and disastrous results.

David's faith again shines out brightly in his rejection, and here again we get a glimpse of him as type of One who was rejected. Weakness is again seen in the lack of cohesion between the two tribes and the ten, sad premonition of the division which was later to occur.

In the last portion of the book (chaps, 21:-24:) there seems to be a return to-the early and brighter days of the king, and his song of triumph and last words beautifully illustrate the spirit of dependence upon God and boasting in Him. This is particularly seen in the " last words" (Chap. 23:) which together with the list of his mighty men, form a most instructive portion. The theme, we might say, of his last words, is, "Christ is all," and it is in connection with this precious fact that his mighty men and their deeds are recounted. It is only as Christ is glorified that there can be any reward for faithfulness to Him. In the day of His glory all His servants will have their place in association with Him.

The book closes with the account of the judgment of God upon the people because of David's-pride in numbering them. This is made the occasion of bringing out the faith of the king in God:" Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord " and not of man; and we have here also in the sacrifice upon the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite, the foundation, as it were, chosen for that abiding temple which was to be God's dwelling place, temporarily indeed during the history of Israel prior to Christ, but one day yet to be His temple; and the glory of that latter house shall be greater than the glory even of Solomon's.

Passing to the New Testament, it will be easily seen how Matthew, as the gospel of the Kingdom, fits in with the history of David as a type of Christ. Everything in Matthew is connected with the Kingdom. That is the key to the entire Gospel. Its seven divisions will indicate this. We have:

1. (Chaps. 1:and 2:) The genealogy and birth of the King.

2. (Chaps. iii-7:) The announcement given by John the forerunner, and the principles, as we might say, the constitution of that Kingdom as unfolded in that wondrously spiritual enforcement of the law called, "The Sermon on the Mount."

3. (Chaps. 8:-12:) This portion is devoted to the works of power which authenticate the King, together with the foreshadowing of that rejection by the people which was to culminate in His crucifixion. In this portion we have the disciples sent out by our Lord as His messengers, and His warning that they would receive the same treatment as Himself. The twelfth chapter closes this part with the twofold rejection; that by the leaders of Christ, and our Lord's rejection of them. Here we have the solemn warning as to the fearful sin against the Holy Ghost. We might say, in passing, that this sin was the deliberate accusation that our Lord did His miracles by the power of Satan instead of by the power of the Holy Ghost.

4. (Chaps. 13:-20:) This division is devoted largely to the development of the Kingdom in the hands of men. The thirteenth chapter with its seven parables gives us a sevenfold picture of this development which covers the whole time until the second coming of our Lord. It is the mystery form, with the King rejected and absent in heaven. It is also in this portion that we have our Lord's transfiguration and glory, and the government of God's house-binding and loosing in the Assembly.

5. (Chaps. 20:29-23:) This is devoted largely to those parables of the end which speak of the responsibilities of the leaders, their rejection of Christ, the marriage of the King's Son and our Lord's conflicts with the unbelieving leaders of the people. Chap. 23:is a solemn arraignment by our Lord of these leaders.

6. (Chaps. 24:and 25:) This is our Lord's great prophetic discourse in which He unfolds the future in connection with the Jew, the(Gentile and the Church of God.

7. The last portion of the book is the consummation of all, where we see the Lord offering Himself up as a trespass offering in death, and as raised again from the dead declares Himself the recognized Leader of His people. It is the King throughout.

The short epistle of Titus is also to be read, of which we will say but little. It is devoted to the great- and important truths of church-order and that godly walk which is ever the accompaniment of all true order, and from which it should not be separated. It is well for us to remember that no amount of ecclesiastical correctness will avail without that practical godliness; nor, on the other hand, should the latter be used as an excuse for indifference as to God's order in His house. Several lovely gospel passages occur in this epistle.

(Phil. 3:20.)

We look for the Saviour," the Christ, blessed Lord, '"
Who will come for His saints, we are told in His
word,
From the right hand of God, where He sits on the throne,
And waits for the day when He'll come for His own.

"We look for the Saviour," who left His bright home,
Was obedient to death, that vile sinners might come
Unto God through His Son,-the dear Son of His love,
At whose name all must bow, in earth or above.

"We look for the Saviour," He who bore on the tree
All our sins in His body, that we might go free
From death and the judgment due us for our sin;
Whose blood makes the vilest all spotless within.

"We look for the Saviour," our perfect High Priest,
Who on high intercedes for us-even the least;
Who is fitting a mansion, preparing a crown;
Who in God's perfect time will come for His own.

"We look for the Saviour!" Lord Jesus, bestow
Upon each one Thy grace, that we ever may show
To the world, such reflection of Thee and Thy love,
That sinners shall turn to the Saviour above !

"We look for the Saviour; " the sound shall soon come
Of the voice of the archangel calling us home ;
At the noise of His shout what a deep joyous thrill
Of love and contentment each bosom will fill!

Forever with Jesus! no more to depart
From His presence, but know all the love of His heart;
And forever we'll gaze on His own blessed face,
Forever we'll sing of His mercy and grace.

Forever, forever ! oh, how our hearts grieve
At the long separation :we would this world leave,
And caught up in the clouds meet the Lord in the air.
"Oh, hasten, Lord Jesus, we long to be there ! "

F.

THE MAN AFTER THE FLESH.

Chapter 3:GOD'S CARE FOR HIS OWN HONOR. (1 Sam. 5:, 6:)

(Continued from page 33.)

The latent unbelief in the heart of the Philistines is seen in the way they took to restore the ark to the land of Israel. Who would have thought of taking two heifers who had never known the yoke, and harnessing them to a cart without drivers ? Would not this insure the destruction of the ark ? And to accentuate the difficulty, the calves of these cattle were left behind, so that all nature was against the ark ever reaching the land of Israel. May we not well believe there was a latent hope in the hearts of the people that it would turn out differently from what they were constrained to believe? If it goeth up by the way of its own coast to Bethshemesh, then He hath done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know it was not His hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us." Truly, if the living God Himself were not directly concerned in it all, if it were not absolutely His hand that had inflicted the blow on account of the presence of His ark, if it were not His will to restore His throne again to His people, no better means could have been taken to manifest the fact.

But God delights in such opportunities to manifest Himself and to make bare His arm,-surely we may well believe a closing witness to the hardened hearts of these people that He was indeed God, and a wondrous testimony as He returned to His people, of the fact that His hand was not shortened that He could not save. It reminds us of that time in the history of Israel's apostasy when the prophet Elijah issued his challenge in behalf of God to the prophets of Baal, with all the people as witnesses. It was to be no ordinary test. They were to see whether it was God or whether it was Baal. So the priests of Baal are allowed to take their sacrifices and, without unusual care, to see i f they can bring down fire from heaven. When they had consumed the day in their vain cries and cutting themselves, and there was no response, and abashed and silent they had to wait for the voice of God, then it was that the prophet took those special precautions to manifest that it was indeed God and He alone who was dealing with His people. Water is again and again poured over the sacrifice, over the altar, until it fills the ditch about the altar, and when every possibility of fire has been removed, all nature's heat quenched, then it is that in a few simple words the prophet asks the Lord to manifest Himself. Ah, yes, He can do so now. He cannot manifest Himself where there are still smoldering embers of nature's efforts; and it is well for 'the sinner to realize this. The fire to be kindled by divine love comes from God,-is not found in his heart. It would only be a denial of man's need of God. Nor must the saint forget the same. truth.

And so the kine with their precious burden go on their way, unwilling enough as far as nature is concerned, lowing for their absent calves as they went, but not for a moment turning aside; and the lords of the Philistines who follow them are constrained at last to admit that God has vindicated His honor and manifested the reality of His own presence and His own care for His throne. They follow and see the ark deposited upon a great rock,-may we not say, type of that unchanging Rock on which rests the throne of God, the basis of all sacrifice and of all relationship with Him, even Christ Himself ? And here we leave the Philistines, who return to their home, glad, no doubt, to be well rid both of the plagues and of Him who had inflicted them.
The ark returns to Bethshemesh, " the house of the sun," for it is ever light where God manifests Himself, and His return makes the night indeed bright about us. It comes into the field of Joshua, "Jehovah the Saviour," a reminder to the people whence their salvation alone could come. In vain would it be looked for from the hills, Jehovah alone must save. And here the spiritual instinct of the people, weak and ignorant as they are, is shown. They take the cattle and the wood of the cart and offer up a burnt-offering, far more acceptable to God than the golden images sent by the Philistines, of which we hear nothing again.

But the lesson of God's honor has not been fully learned, and, alas ! His own people must now prove that His ways are ever equal. If He is holy in the temple of Dagon, so that the idol must fall prostrate before Him; if that same holiness will smite the godless Philistine nation, it is none the less intense when it comes to His own people. In fact, as we well know, judgment will begin at the house of God, and as the prophet reminds the people that they only as a nation had been known of God, so far from this entitling them to immunity from punishment, it was the pledge that they would get it if needed :"Therefore will I punish you for your iniquities."

The men of Bethshemesh rejoiced to see the ark, but they little realized the cause of its removal into the enemy's country, and the need of fear and trembling as they approached God's holy presence. They lift up the cover and look within the ark, and God smites of the people, and there is a great slaughter. It seemed a very simple thing to do. We may hardly say that it was an idle curiosity to see what was therein. Possibly they may have thought that the Philistines had taken away the tables of the covenant, or at any rate they would see what was there. Was it not the covenant under which they had been brought into the land ?Was it not the law which had been given on mount Sinai, written with the very finger of God, and were they not .as the people of God entitled to look upon these tables of stone? Ah, they had forgotten two things, that when Moses brought the first tables of .stone down from the mountain, and saw the idolatry of the people dancing about the golden calf, he cast the stones out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He would not dare either to dishonor the law of God by bringing it into a godless camp, or insure the destruction of the people by allowing the majesty of the law to act unhindered in judgment upon them' for their sin. They also forgot the divine covering over those tables of stone,-that golden mercy-seat, that propitiatory ,with its cherubim at either end, beaten out of pure gold, one piece, speaking of the righteousness and judgment which are the foundation of God's throne and which must ever be vindicated or, He cannot abide amongst His people. So upon that golden mercy-seat the blood of atonement had yearly been sprinkled, the witness that righteousness and judgment had been fully vindicated in the sacrifice of a substitute, and that the witness of atonement was there before God as the ground upon which His throne could remain in the midst of a sinful people.

To lift off the mercy-seat was in fact to deny the atonement. To gaze upon the tables of the covenant was practically to deny their sin and desert of judgment, and to lay themselves open to the unhindered action of that law which says:"Cursed is he ' that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." The law acted, as we may say, unhindered, as the covering was removed. God must judge if He acts merely according to law.

How we should bless our God that His throne rests on the golden mercy-seat; that the blood of the Sacrifice has met every claim of a broken law, and faith delights to look where the cherubim's gaze is also fixed, upon that which speaks of a Sacrifice better than that of Abel-calling not for vengeance, but calling for the outflow of God's love and grace toward the guilty. Ah, no; God forbid that we should ever in thought lift the mercy-seat from the ark. (To be continued).

The journey through the world is to the child of God as a boat on a strong current:It cannot stand still; if it is not aggressive it loses ground.

Let the soul of the saint cease to be in exercise with God toward the flesh, the world, and the devil, and he will soon experience the sad results of their aggressiveness toward him.

2 Sam. 2:1, 4

After Saul's death, David "inquired of the Lord" if he should go up"into any of the cities of Judah." He was told to go up. Again he inquires. "Whither shall I go up?" and the Lord said, "Unto Hebron."

Note these repeated inquiries and answers, as if to strike our attention. At a time when serious consequences hung upon David's every step, we are taught the deep necessity of waiting upon God always. Twice he had inquired of the Lord, twice he was answered; and the way it is presented prepares the mind to expect a fresh inquiry of the Lord as to the next important step-his coronation as king. But, at this point, there is suddenly an absence of further inquiry:"And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah." Not a word about the other tribes-no message sent them that they might share in the event; and the king is anointed "over the house of Judah."

David was never marked out to be king merely over Judah. How clear and solemn the connection here between not inquiring of the Lord and this great error! The ties of nature-the men of Judah, led to action from natural impulse, not spiritual wisdom; like the failure of Paul at Jerusalem, kind friends and congenial associations were too much for the heart. The natural result was a union of the other tribes in an independent kingdom under a son of Saul. Bloodshed follows, "long war," treachery, jealous hate, murder, and vengeance – an awful record. Not until seven and a half years afterwards is David anointed king over all Israel at last, as recorded in chap. 5:

But David's after-history shows the evil continued to work. When again taking the kingdom after the overthrow of Absalom (chap. 19:) David appeals not to all Israel, but to Judah, to bring him back. This was greater failure than before; for in the former case the men of Judah came, and crowned him. In this case, though Israel was saying to one another, "Why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back," David pays them no attention, but appeals to the elders of Judah, saying:"Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house, seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the king, even to his house ?" David was in a perverse spirit. He knew all Israel was ready to receive him, and yet still turns to Judah. And not only this, he says nothing about the kingdom at large,-only about the king and "his house."

But this is too flagrant an error to be passed over.« "And, behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said unto the king, Why have our brethren the men of Judah stolen thee away, and have brought the king, and his household, and all David's men with Him over Jordan?" (2 Sam. 19:41). And the men of Judah claim him as "near of kin" to them; and the men of Israel say '' we have ten parts in the king . . . why then did ye despise us?" and this is followed by fiercer words from Judah.

The result is recorded in the next chapter-rebellion and bloodshed. We hear of no word or influence of David to pacify. Events take their course to the bitter end; while God, in mercy to His people, . brings the tribes again in subjection to David as before.

Thus we see that the division into two kingdoms later on, had its roots in the condition of David's heart from the beginning-whatever the condition of all the tribes. This is a very solemn lesson as to the evil consequences among God's people of un-judged sin. And a special lesson in this history, is the first suggested-the deep importance of waiting upon God. " My soul wait thou only upon God." In this same history of David we see the grave danger, at special times, of being suddenly swayed from simplicity, and grossly blinded to spiritual discernment by strong natural feeling, as by pride and selfish interests of family, of friends, or of party. Never does the Lord fail to answer, to guide, and to bless those who wait upon Him; nor can He fail"to make ' '» us feel the evil results of doing our own will and forsaking Him.

May we be doers of the Word and thus prove that "good and perfect and acceptable will of God," learning to wait upon Him at all times. E. S. L.

"Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Tim. 6:6).

With all its progress and wealth, this is a restless world. Discontent is everywhere present. There is a desire for gain, for change, which begets restlessness on every side. The poor man is not contented to be poor, but enviously looks at the wealth of his neighbor and determines to be like him. Others are craving for greater power, wider influence, or a more desirable social position. If the hearts of men could be read, there is scarcely one in which would not be found a long list of desires for something not possessed, together with a discontent at what is theirs. This renders the whole social fabric uncertain. There is no stability, no leisure for the establishing of the existing order. Everything is moving, and the progress of last year becomes out of date in this. Whither the whole rush is tending is easy to see; and in government, business, social relations, the stamp of discontent is a pledge of dark times to come. And what losers are men by this discontent! Life becomes a restless turmoil instead of a quiet growth. The same tendency is transmitted to the children, and all sense of repose and steadiness of character is lost in the busy whirl which discontent compels.

Passing to the saints of God and remembering how we partake naturally of the same characteristics, a word of exhortation from the Scripture on this important subject will not be out of place, to "be content with such things as ye have for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."There are a few of God's people who could not recall instances of the blessing of following this simple word and the danger . of its neglect. Here is a child of God going on happily in his appointed place. He has food and clothing for his family, and opportunity for the reading of the word of God and for fellowship with his brethren, but he hears of a chance to better his prospects by moving to a distant city; steadier work, better wages are promised. To be sure there is no gathering of saint sat the place, but then other things will be better. Discontent begins to fasten its hold upon him, and now instead of the quiet leisure for God's word, there is the restless dwelling upon the possibility of advantage. He begins to despise the mercies for which he previously thanked God, and instead of quiet growth, he becomes a restless and unhappy man. The Spirit of God is grieved, taste for the word of God is lost, fellowship of saints is ignored, and all for what? For the bauble of a little greater prosperity in worldly things. How many failures, both individual and in the family, can be traced to this spirit of discontent. It seems to be in the very air, and therefore we need to be particularly on our guard as to it.

The gain that we should be seeking is the gain of godliness. We can be as covetous as we please for more of the word of God. We can be desirous of that. Night and day we can have a holy restlessness of soul to know more of Christ and of God's ways and of His Word. This will never interfere with rest of soul. It is its fitting companion. It offers a field for all the activities and powers of life.

The great opportunity for discontent is to find a heart that is empty. Where the mind is filled with the word of God, where we are "satisfied with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord," there will be no restless desire to go here and there. The things of time and of this world will assume their proper proportion. They will never be allowed to dictate to us. Nor does this mean in the least a spirit of indolence or a lack of care for the welfare of those who are dear to us. '' He that provideth not for his own is worse than an unbeliever." But that is not the great danger. The tendency is to sacrifice spiritual advantages for temporal, to allow these latter to outweigh every consideration of spiritual benefit and advantage.

Looking at it simply, have we not the word of God in our hands, and the Holy Spirit in our hearts? What priceless treasures we have which will abide forevermore, compared with which all the wealth and ease and greatness of this world are refuse, not worth a thought. If any of the readers of these lines are in danger of being ensnared by discontent as to circumstances or position in life, we would affectionately and urgently entreat them to turn afresh to that inexhaustible supply which the word of God affords. Here they will find wealth which cannot become tarnished, and garments which wax not old. They will find occupation for every leisure moment and a happiness in God's ways, compared with which all the wealth, power and pleasure of this world is nothing.

It may seem trifling to speak of such a subject as this, and yet perhaps there is nothing more needed amongst God's people than true contentment. Has He not said:"I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee?"And if we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper," what more do we need? Will not our Father care for our earthly wants? He who clothes the lily with beauty and feeds the ravens has given His own Son for us. Are we not satisfied with that gift? Let worldly acquaintances gather wealth if they please. Let those whom we knew in humbler circumstances become among the great or noted of this world. What is it all worth compared with those enduring riches and that position of highest dignity which is the portion of the child of God? Take a glance at Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, and see a picture of contentment which is unmoved even by the restless strife of her sister Martha,-truly a good -part, which we have our Lord's pledge shall never be taken away. The place at His feet is always open, His Word is ever fresh and free. Whatever the straitness in our circumstances may be, we are not straitened in Him. What is needed for His people is not greater worldly ease or prosperity, but contentment with Himself. Let us then judge everything inconsistent with this heavenly peace of soul. We have brought nothing into the world. We are going to leave it soon and must go empty handed out of it. Those riches of the soul that we gather are enduring. These we can carry with us, or rather they are laid up for us in heaven. .We can be rich in good works, rich in prayer, rich in faith, though poor in this world's goods. Our blessed Lord was poor when here upon earth, in the judgment of this world. Shall we not be satisfied with the riches which- He has secured for us and be content with whatever portion of this world's goods He may give us? Let us indeed be so satisfied with Him that we can truly say,

"Jesus, Thou art enough,
The heart and mind to fill."

Here may be, and, alas, is much of mere systematic teaching and preaching of things which the mere intellect may have received, and which, by a natural fluency of language, we may be able to give out; but all such teaching is vain, and had much better be avoided in the sight of God. True, it might often give to our public assemblies an appearance of barrenness and poverty which our poor, proud hearts could ill brook; but would it not be far better to keep silence than to substitute mere carnal effort for the blessed energy of the Holy Spirit?

True ministry, however, the ministry o£ the Spirit, will always commend itself to the heart and conscience. We can .always know the source from, which a man is drawing who speaks in "the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth," and with the ability which God giveth; and while we should ever pray to be delivered from the mere effort of man's intellect to handle the truth of God amongst us, we should diligently cultivate that power to teach which stands connected, as in Levi's case, with the denial of the claims of flesh and blood, and with entire devotedness to the Lord's service.

In the second consequence above referred to we have a very elevated point:" They shall put incense before Thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon Thine altar." This is worship. We put incense before God when we are enabled, in the power of communion, to present in His presence the sweet odor of Christ in His person and work. This is our proper occupation as members of the chosen and separated tribe.

But it is particularly instructive to look at both the above mentioned consequences in connection; 1:e., the Levites in ministry to their brethren, and the Levites in worship before God:it was as acceptable in the sight of God, and as divine an exercise of his functions, for a Levite to instruct his brethren as it was for him to burn incense before God. This is very important. We should never separate these two things. If we do not see that it is the same Spirit who must qualify us to speak for God as to speak to Him, there is a manifest want of moral order in our souls. If we could keep this principle clearly before our minds, it would be a most effectual means of maintaining amongst us the true dignity and solemnity of ministry in the Word :having lost sight of it has been productive of very sad consequences. If we imagine for a moment that we can teach Jacob by any other power or ability than that by which we put. incense before God, or if we imagine that one is not as acceptable before God as the other, we are not soundly instructed upon one of the most important points of truth ; for, as some one has observed, " Let us look at this point illustrated in the personal ministry of Christ, and we shall no longer say that teaching by the Holy Ghost is inferior to praise by the same, for surely the apostleship of Christ when He came from God was as sweet in its savor to God as His priesthood when He went to God to minister to Him in that office. The candlestick in the holy place which diffused the light of life-God's blessed name -was as valuable, at least in His view, as the altar in the same place, which presented the perfume of praise."

From C. H. M. in the "Tribe of Levi Considered."
'WHAT MEAN YE BY THIS SERVICE?"

EVERY BELIEVER IS BLEST WITH ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN CHRIST. In Rom. 3:25 the words"through faith in His blood" may seem to some to convey the thought that besides faith in Christ, or with it, one must appropriate for oneself the value of His blood in order to be justified; and therefore that one who believes on Christ, but has not yet realized for his own soul the value of the blood of Christ, though born again is not yet justified; whatever other Christian blessings he may lack besides-in the minds of those who so reason.

Is this the doctrine of Scripture ? We are happy to think that it is not, but rather that we have the precious assurance, from Scripture, that every believer on Christ is justified and possessed of all Christian blessings:he needs only, by teaching, to be introduced into the enjoyment of the things that are his. That is a very different thing, and full of the joy of grace.

"Through faith in His blood" is translated in the Revised Version '' through faith, by His blood;" "with," or "in His blood," in a foot-note, giving thus the preference to "by His blood;" and the same phrase is so translated in Heb. 10:19:"boldness . . . by the blood of Jesus"-"in" it, literally-in the effect and value of it-that is, by it.

Thus we may say "through faith" is, as it were, a thought by itself, giving the principle on which we are justified; and then "by His blood" gives the ground. Afterwards follows the application-" that He might be just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," but the application is briefly stated. Is not the prominent teaching in Rom. 3:about the ground of acceptance, while in Rom. 4:is more prominently the application? so that "by His blood" in Rom. 3:, in the portion where it is found, would be in harmony with the subject-the ground on which God can justify the sinner. Rom. 3:thus reminds of the Lord's lot in Lev. 16:, the goat that was slain and its blood put upon the mercy-seat. For the people's lot, the sins of the people were confessed upon the head of the scape-goat, suggesting to us the application of Rom. 4:, " He was delivered for our offences.; " and we know He was "raised again for our justification." Therefore Rom. 3:does not raise the question or suggest the thought of the believer's realization of the value of the blood of Christ, but rather of the value of that blood before God, who, because of it, is just in justifying "him that believeth in Jesus." And this concluding statement confirms what has been said. The believer "in Jesus" is justified. His apprehensions and appropriations may or may not be clear and bright, but if a believer "in Jesus" he is justified. Is not that the teaching of Scripture, and of this scripture before us ?

It may be said, How do we know that any one is justified if they are not assured as to it themselves? But the point is, What does Scripture teach ?Happily for us, we can be assured ourselves, and we can assure others that, if believers in Jesus, we are justified. Scripture does not teach that one who believes on Jesus will at once know all he possesses, nor that he must appropriate those blessings that he may have them, which would, of course, be confusion and an impossibility, for I must be assured that a thing is mine to enjoy it, but it leads us by teaching into the enjoyment of what is ours, of what are our common possessions in Christ. Therefore the assurance of justification and of the present possession of eternal life, and of a new-creation existence in Christ, is taught the believer by the Word. That he needs to be taught it is plain, because he is taught it. And this corresponds with experience plainly, for every believer has to be led on from doubts and fears and bondage into peace and liberty by the truth; but that truth simply assures him of what is already his in Christ, Scripture does not teach, therefore, that one may be a believer on Christ and yet lack justification, or lack being "in Christ," or lack the indwelling of the Spirit, until he grasps the truth as to these things; but it assures all believers on Christ that all these things are theirs, and ministers them to us all for our soul's enjoyment and establishing.

Thus' we may turn away from ourselves to God, from earth to heaven, from poor human experience for a foundation, to Christ in the glory of God. We have all in Him, and we can rejoice that these blessings are common to all who are "in Christ;" and "in Christ" all are who have life, who are born
again; for such are "alive unto God in Christ Jesus."

And "all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (i Cor. 1:2) are told "your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit" (i Cor. 6:19). The believer, the first moment of his conversion, the first moment of life, is one who calls on the name of the Lord.

It is true that it is one who is already born again who receives the Spirit to dwell in his body; but no delay in that reception is supposed, and therefore all believers-according to the doctrine of Scripture- are spoken of as not only born again, but as indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Let us rejoice afresh and unhinderedly in the grace of our God and in the fulness of blessings we have in Christ, and that we can freely minister these things to all believers as their common and inalienable possessions in Christ. Thus, doubts and legal shadows are scattered by the light. But we need to use "the sword of the Spirit" and to "fight the good fight of faith," and to walk in the truth, if we would hold it fast.

Justification, life in Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (by which we share in the baptism of the Spirit-for "by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body"), risen with Christ, seated in Him in heavenly places-none of these blessings are things to be attained to by the believer, to be possessed. They are his from the first, and therefore to be enjoyed. Satan would have us make a merit of attaining these things, and so get us to rob God of glory and our own 'souls of blessing; but the Word assures us of our possessions, that by it-by the Word-we may enjoy our goodly portion, and be built up in the knowledge of the Lord.

Why is it so hard for us to receive the fulness of God's grace in Christ ?-why do we allow Satan to hinder us thus? "All things are yours." Let us freely join in the word of praise, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus " (Eph. 1:3).

Has He, then, so blest us, or has He not ? How can we repeat this verse if He has not ? If He has, let us repeat it with the heart, and never again doubt it ? Then we will be free to enjoy the land that flows with milk and honey, and to feed upon the old corn of the land, which is Christ, who came from heaven and has gone back to heaven, and who is coming to take us to be where He is, and to behold the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:24, 25).

That we have all things in Christ, and that nothing is left us but to rejoice, seems too much-too good to be true; but let us note that, far from being an easy path for self-indulgence and self-complacency, it is just when we submit to grace, and rejoice in the Lord, that we begin our proper experience in the school of God. He must deal with us, and chasten and rebuke, but through all He will lead the soul into unthought-of joy in Himself, and new delights in His word and ways. Thus there is the brightening prospect of Phil. 3:, and the song of praise from the hilltops of the truth of the Ephesian and Colossian epistles, and of all Scripture. E. S. L.

The portion for our daily reading during the present month is the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament, the gospel of Mark and the epistle to the Hebrews in the New. As Exodus gave us the great truth of redemption and relationship to God, so Leviticus shows us how that relationship is to be maintained. Its prominent features are the sacrifice and priesthood, with the sanctification in both people and priest without which it would be impossible to enjoy intercourse with God. Its main divisions will bring this out more clearly:

1. (Chaps. 1:-7:) We have here the varied sacrifices -the burnt-offering, type of the death of Christ in His devotedness to God; the meat-offering, the Person of Christ as exhibited in His life. It will be noted that the meat offering always accompanies the burnt-offering. We have then the peace-offering, Christ's death as the basis of communion between the soul and God. The sin-offering and trespass-offering show respectively how the sacrifice of Christ meets sin, which is the root, and trespass which is the fruit.

2. (Chaps. 8:-15:) Here we have the consecration of the priest, and the association with him of the priestly family, beautifully exemplifying the relationship between Christ and His saved people.

3. (Chaps. xvi, 17:) The great Day of Atonement, whose services beautifully show the way into the sanctuary.

4. Chaps. 18:-22:) Daily walk of priests and people in consistency with the principles of God's holiness.

5. (Chaps. 23:-27:) God's ways with His people as seen in the feasts of Jehovah, the restoration of the year of jubilee, and prophetic warning as to disobedience.

Passing first to the epistle to the Hebrews, which should be read in conjunction with the book of Leviticus, we have the inspired explanation of the meaning of that Old Testament book. Christ is the subject throughout, and, in the glory of His Person and the efficacy of His finished work, displaces, as He has exemplified, that law which could only be a "shadow of good things to come."

The epistle divides into five parts:

1. (Chaps. 1:-2:4.) Christ in His peerless glory as Son of God become Man.

2. (Chap. 2:5-4:13.) Christ in His humiliation, the Author of salvation for " His brethren."

3. (Chap. 4:14-10:)Christ our great High Priest and perfect Sacrifice, the Mediator of the new covenant, who has entered into heaven itself and opened the way for us to enter into the holiest.

4. (Chap. 11:) The walk of faith upon earth as exemplified in Old Testament history.

5. (Chaps. 12:and 13:) Exhortations and warnings to the Jewish professors to hold fast to Christ and to " go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach."
It is well to remember in reading this wonderful epistle that its theme is not eternal life (for that we turn to John's writings), but the basis of relationship with God. It is written especially for Hebrew professors, whether true or false, and this accounts for the solemn warnings as to apostasy. It need hardly be said that no true child of God can ever perish, nor is there a shred of Scripture in this epistle or anywhere else to intimate such a possibility.

The last portion for the month is the gospel of Mark. Here we have to do with the person of our blessed Lord, seen as the Servant of man's need and the Prophet to declare the mind of God. There are three main divisions:

1. (Chaps. 1:-5:) Our Lord's ministry in healing. This part is filled with acts of mercy upon the needy.

2. (Chaps. 6:-10:45.) Opposition and rejection. Here we see how the enmity of Judaism will not allow His healing service to go on unchecked, and this occasions many a faithful testimony by the One who is already being rejected by Israel. It furnishes-the occasion for brighter revelations of Himself and clearer teaching than even the former period of unchecked activity.

3. (Chaps. 10:46-16:) Man's heart of enmity fully brought out in the death of Christ, His resurrection fully manifesting God's acceptance of His work. Here all leads up to the cross and from the cross up to the throne. If man rejects, God glorifies Him.

It is easier to imbibe false notions than the truth, for the simple reason that truth always displaces or condemns something in us, whilst error on the contrary flatters some part of our evil nature." A man who in his heart imbibes error, is a man in whom some sinful disposition remains unjudged.

The foundation is Christ and His finished work, I and every one who believes upon Him is eternally saved, secure on that foundation, and yet there is such a thing as being saved "as by fire" (i Cor. 3:15). It is when a man's life, instead of being devoted to Christ, is spent for himself. He may gather riches, honor, dignities. He may have abundance of pleasure, as it is called, but when the judgment-seat of Christ tests all this, when the fire of God's holiness passes upon it, will it stand or will it all be consumed ? Oh, as we think of this, does it not stir us to be careful in all we do and say ? May we not well ask ourselves the question, Is what I am doing going to abide, or will I suffer loss ?

FRAGMENT

The Second Book of Kings continues the narrative of the First, of which it is really a part. Naturally, in the history of a decline which it records, things grow darker with the deepening apostasy. But morally the end was seen in Solomon's fearful backsliding, as governmentally its consequences appeared in the disruption of the kingdom. All this we have seen in the First Book.

There, too, we saw the mercy of God in sending prophets to witness for Himself and against the people. Elijah stands forth prominently, exhibiting in himself, as John the Baptist in a later and similar time, the character of one who would walk in separation from all that against which he testified.

For purposes of convenience the book may be divided into two parts:(i) Chaps. 1:-17:-The downward progress of the nation, ending in the captivity of Israel by the Assyrians ; (2) Chaps. 18:-25:-Further subsequent decay in Judah, and the Babylonian captivity. The narrative is a continuous one, passing from Israel to Judah. In the first division the northern kingdom is prominent, while, of course, in the second part we have only Judah.

Elisha is the chief prophet here, as Elijah was in the first book. Chap. 1:shows us the prophet of judgment in a characteristic attitude, calling down fire from heaven. In chap. 2:we see him passing into heaven, translated as was Enoch. His mantle of service falls upon Elisha, who takes up his ministry from God.

Elisha emphasizes mercy rather than judgment. His miracles show this, and are calculated to quicken into flame any smoldering embers of repentance or faith lingering in the hearts of the people. Alas, though they doubtless witnessed to the faith of individuals here and there, nationally the people follow their kings, who without a single exception walk in the ways and sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

There are some beautiful gospel pictures here, and lessons for the people of God:the victory over the king of Edom (Chap. 3:); the widow's oil, and the Shunamite woman (Chap. 4:); Naaman (Chap. 5:); the siege of Samaria relieved (Chaps. 6:, 7:). But in spite of all these witnesses of God's willingness to bless and help, both Israel and Judah go on in their own course (chap. 8:).

Hope temporarily revives with the new dynasty of Jehu, but his zeal is of a fleshly character and is not mixed with faith; so, though his family remain on the throne during four generations, the disintegration of the nation proceeds (Chaps. 9:, 10:).

Turning to Judah, chap. 11:gives the account of God's preservation of the seed of David when, through the wicked Athaliah, a deliberate attempt is made to exterminate it. Joash the young king, thus spared, shows good energy in restoring the service of the temple, but his faith weakens in the presence of the enemy, and he sacrifices his treasures in fear of Hazael, king of Syria. Solemnly enough he meets the end which he had escaped at the beginning. God protects the helpless child, and permits the strong man to be assassinated (Chaps. 11:, 12:). The remainder of this portion (Chaps. 13:-17:) continues the narrative of both kingdoms until the ten tribes are carried away captive. Chap. 17:shows the origin of the Samaritans of the New Testament. They were heathen brought into the land in place of the departed Israelites. They assumed the name of Israel ("our father Jacob," John 4:), but were never anything but aliens. Hence our Lord would not recognize the claim of the woman of Samaria to kinship with Israel-" Ye worship ye know not what . . . salvation is of the Jews."

The second division of the book offers some relief to the prevailing darkness, in the bright faith of Hezekiah, whose reign is narrated at some length (Chaps. 18:-20:). But he is succeeded by a monster in wickedness, Manasseh-"forgetting," and how appropriate his name-he forgot his father's example and his father's God (Chap. 21:).

Josiah comes in next, and personally his faith is bright. The temple is cleansed, and the book of the law found in it, read and obeyed. How truly all recovery to God is marked by a turning to His Word in obedience. But although the king is faithful, the evil day cannot be postponed, and after his' death-a sad one, with a touch of pride, the only blot recorded in this good man's life-the feeble and unbelieving successors quickly follow one another till the people and the land are under the iron heel of the king of Babylon (Chaps. 22:-25:).

We will but briefly mention the prophet Jeremiah (Chaps. 1:-31:). This will be found a fitting companion to the Book of Kings, and gives glimpses of the heart of God speaking through His servant, pleading with a disobedient and gainsaying people. The importance of the prophets cannot be overestimated. They not only give the moral and spiritual condition of the people, of which their external history was the setting, but they lay down principles-of government, judgment, pleading, and mercy-that obtain for all time. This is particularly true of the, present day, when indeed there might appropriately be many weeping with Jeremiah and declaring his testimony to a Church that has well-nigh apostatized from God.

"Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect (τελειπσαι) as pertaining to the conscience." The apostle, in this passage, is drawing a contrast between the sacrifices under the Mosaic economy, and the sacrifice of Christ. The former could never give a perfect conscience, simply because they were imperfect in themselves. It was impossible that the blood of a bullock or of a goat could ever give a perfect conscience. Hence, therefore, the conscience of a Jewish worshiper was never perfect. He had not, if we may use the expression, reached his moral end as to the condition of his conscience. He could never say that his conscience was perfectly purged, because he had not yet reached a perfect sacrifice.

With the Christian worshiper, however, it is different. He has, blessed be God, reached his moral end. He has arrived at a point, so far as the state of his conscience is concerned, beyond which it is utterly impossible for him to go. He cannot get beyond the blood of Jesus Christ. He is perfect as to his conscience. As is the sacrifice, so is the conscience that rests thereon. .If the sacrifice is imperfect, so is the conscience. They stand or fall together. Nothing can be simpler, nothing more solid, nothing more consolatory, for any awakened conscience. It is not at all a question of what I am; that has been fully and forever settled. I have been found out, judged, and condemned in myself. " In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good." I have got to the end of myself, and there I have reached the blood of Christ. I want no more. What could be added to that most precious blood ? Nothing. I am perfect, as to the state of my conscience. I do not want an ordinance, a sacrament, or a ceremony, to perfect the condition of my conscience. To say so, to think so, would be to cast dishonor upon the sacrifice of the Son of God.

The reader will do well to get a clear and firm hold of this foundation-point. If there be any darkness or uncertainty as to this, he will be wholly unable to understand or appreciate the various aspects of " Christian Perfection " which are yet to pass in review before us. It is quite possible that many pious people fail to enjoy the unspeakable blessing of a perfect conscience by reason of self-occupation. They look in at self, and not finding aught there to rest upon-who ever did?-they deem it presumption to think of being perfect in any respect whatever. This is a mistake. It may be a pious mistake, but it is a mistake. Were we to speak of perfection in the flesh (what many, alas, are vainly aiming at), then, verily, true piety might recoil with just horror from the presumptuous and silly chimera. But, thank God, our theme is not perfection in the flesh, through any process of improvement, moral, social, or religious. This would be poor, dreary, depressing work indeed. It would be setting us to look for perfection in the old creation, where sin and death reign. To look for perfection amid the dust of the old creation were a hopeless task. And yet how many are thus engaged! They are seeking to improve man and mend the world; and yet, with all this, they have never reached, never understood- yea, they actually deny-the very first and simplest aspect of Christian perfection, namely, perfection as to the state of the conscience in the presence of God.

From C. H. M. in "Christian Perfection."

THE MAN AFTER THE FLESH. Chapter 4:,

GOD'S MERCY TO HIS HUMBLED PEOPLE. (1 Sam. 7:)

(Continued from page 94.)

But we may be sure that the enemy will never permit any recovery to God without making some special effort to hinder it. So, when the Philistines hear of this gathering of Israel, they go up against them. Are they not their slaves? Can they allow that which, while a manifestation of weakness, may lead to something else ? And so with our spiritual foes. Satan will not object to the people of God dwelling upon evil and being so filled with it that they lose all power to judge it, but there is one thing that he always resists with all his energy and cunning, and that is a gathering together before God for humiliation and prayer. He abhors this. Formalism abhors it. Philistinism in all "its forms dreads seeing the people of God humbled in His presence. This will explain why the hour of prayer and searching of heart before God is so often interrupted by the intrusion of things which distract and hinder the soul. How often have we found individually, and unitedly too, that there were special difficulties in the way of getting low before God! This is the Philistine hindrance to God's work amongst us. Various reasons will often be given. It will be said that there is no hope, on the one hand, or no need on the other, of such an exhibition; that we had better be getting to work rather than humbling ourselves and doing nothing. This is ever a Philistine device to hinder a return to God and deliverance from formalism. Let us be on our guard; and as the apostle could say, "We are not ignorant of his devices," let us not be so easily duped by the wiles of the adversary.

The children of Israel are terrified at this array of the enemy. Their old masters are still that to them, and with consciences that remind them of their own unworthiness and failures, they do not seem to have the faith to lay hold upon God in face of the enemy; and yet there is a holding to Him, feeble though it be. They realize the need and the value of prayer. So they say to Samuel:'' Cease not to cry to the Lord our God for us that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines."They had indeed turned to Him, and though it is but a child's feeble cry of weakness, what child ever cried to a mother without moving her heart? what child, failing and weak and unworthy though he may be, ever cried to God without getting an answer? There had been a time when they would save themselves out of the hand of the Philistines. That has passed. The humbling lesson had been learned. They have turned now to Him from whom alone their help can come, and not even the ark, (that badge of His throne) but divine power itself in the midst of a self-judged people is their only hope.

There is more yet; for Samuel, nearest to God and therefore knowing His mind, not merely intercedes, but '' took a sucking lamb and offered it as a burnt-offering wholly unto the Lord." Well he knew that the one way of approach, the only ground of merit, was sacrifice; and though himself not the priest, yet here in the place of the priest, he offers the burnt-offering to God, on the ground of which he can add his prayers. This lamb, of course, speaks to us of that '' Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," though here not as the sin-offering, but as the burnt-offering,-Christ in His .devotedness to God unto death, the Lamb without blemish or spot, whose life had proved Him personally well-pleasing and acceptable to God, and therefore whose death could be a Substitute for the disobedience and sin of His people.
Thus they have had, we might say, a threefold ministry. The Word has searched their hearts and brought them to repentance. The priestly intercession and sacrifice of Samuel have opened the way for God's power to be manifested, and, as judge, Samuel has taken the place of leader amongst the people. In all this, he no doubt foreshadows what Christ is in perfection for His people, the One who has brought home to our hearts the word of God by His Spirit, whose one sacrifice and all-availing intercession as our High Priest ever speak for us to God, and who as Leader carries us on to victory- the Prophet, Priest, and King.

Now let the Philistines draw near if they dare. – They are meeting no more a boastful people, whether strong or weak. Their controversy is now not with Israel, but with Israel's God, and therefore the mighty thunder of the Lord is the answer to their proud assault. They are discomfited and smitten before Israel, and now the victory becomes a rout; the Philistines are pursued from Mizpah and all the way to Ebenezer. How significant that place becomes to them,-not of previous defeat (chap. 6:i), but giving its own meaning now, '' hitherto hath the Lord helped us." Have we not known something of this? And what a joy it is to be able to triumph in our God in the very face of those enemies which once have been our masters and to whom, hopeless, we had rendered, even though unwilling, yet a servile obedience!

The victory is complete and permanent, and all during the days of Samuel's faithful ministry the enemy came no more into the land. What was there to hinder this from becoming an abiding permanence? Was not the deliverance under Samuel as complete, humanly speaking, as could be desired? Surely there is but one answer to this, and if we enquire why then there was ever subsequent bondage to these very enemies, the simple answer must be, No leader like Samuel and no bowing to his judgment like that at Mizpah. It is very important to notice that this deliverance under Samuel was not temporary in its nature. It was no make-shift. Other lessons, other sins and weaknesses amongst the people brought out the need of fresh deliverers. The great, all-prevailing truth had to be learnt in fresh ways, and, above all, that which was external and partial in Israel according to the flesh had to be fully manifested,-else Samuel was indeed another Moses, under whose rule, as type of Christ, the people might have gone on happily, recognizing none but God as their Ruler, and their guide him who spoke for God.

It is comforting, too, to see the recovery that takes place. Cities which had long been under Philistine sway, now that their power is broken over the nation, are restored. Peace follows as a result. So for us. If we in any way repeat the experience of Israel at Mizpah, there will be not merely a deliverance from present foes, but a restoration of many of those blessings, much of that spiritual truth which we have felt and enjoyed practically. "Cities to dwell in" will be restored to us and our coasts will be enlarged.

We now see the government of Samuel after the enemy has been thrust out of the land. He judges Israel all the days of his life. What a beautiful life it is; begun, we may say, in the heart of his mother before his birth-a man dedicated to God and His service; who in childhood heard His voice and obeyed it; who, as he grew, became more and more the suited instrument as the messenger for God; the first of the prophets-of that long line of spiritual and faithful witnesses who, during all the years of Israel's darkness and apostasy, yea, even of captivity, witnessed for Him, sought to bring back an alienated people, or failing in this, turned their gaze to Him who should come, the true Prophet, as the true King, and restore peace and blessing to the nation. But what a privilege to be a Samuel in dark days like these! May we not covet it for ourselves in our measure and station?

We have seen the special scene of judgment at Mizpah, but this was to continue, a thing that we often lose sight of. There must not merely be one act of self-judgment, but our whole lives are to come under the light of God's truth. The practical Word is to be applied to our ways. Samuel had four places in his circuit where he went from year to year to judge Israel; Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and Ramah where his home was. There surely must be instruction in these names and the associations connected with them. They are well known in Israel's history.

Bethel is "the house of God; " all judgment must begin there. There is no power for judgment until we are in His holy presence. Judgment must begin, too, at the house of God, for holiness becometh that house forever. Here it was where God revealed Himself to Jacob at the first and here when he had forgotten, for his family, that holy separation which should ever mark the home of the saint, he was bidden to return:"Arise and go up to Bethel and dwell there."

The next place was Gilgal, the place of the rolling away of the reproach of Egypt. Here Israel had encamped on passing Jordan and coming into the land. As soon as they put their foot upon their heritage, they had to make themselves sharp knives for circumcision, and thus to roll away the reproach of Egypt, the badge of the world which was upon them. So for us, Gilgal follows Bethel. This world is judged and its reproach rolled away. Circumcision is practically applied with the sharp knife of divine truth. The sentence of death is remembered afresh and what the cross means for self. Here is the place of power indeed. Here we lay aside the livery of the world and shake off its yoke. We are now God's freemen, ready to do battle for all that He has given us in our goodly inheritance.

Next comes Mizpah, " the watch-tower." There has been that sense of God's presence suggested by Bethel, that judging of self at Gilgal where we have learned, as the true circumcision, to have no confidence in the flesh; but how prone we are to forget, how easily do we glide back into the world, and need to be afresh reminded of what we thought we should never forget ! The watch-tower, then, is needed to watch against the wiles of the enemy, to guard against that declension to which we are so prone. The very fact of our having been at Gilgal implies a danger of our getting away from it, or losing its holy lesson. We need to be on our guard. Many a saint has fallen because he forgot this obvious lesson and failed to meet the divine Judge at Mizpah. Let us watch and be sober.

Lastly he returns to Ramah, "the height," which suggests that exalted place on high of our true Judge, the Lord Jesus, where His home is. He has gone on high. He would lead His people there. "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is," and so, as His abiding place is there, we are to learn to abide in our hearts there also. We are to let the light of that heavenly position where Christ is, and where we are, in Him, judge our "members which are upon the earth,"and which we can thus mortify (Col. 3:). The circuit of judgment is not complete until this heavenly character has been stamped upon it. It is, of course, very similar to Bethel, but there the thought is simply the presence of God. Ramah would suggest, in its height, the elevation, that heavenly character which should mark His people:"Our citizenship is in heaven."

Beloved, shall we not crave for one another the benefit of this fourfold judgment?-this sense of the presence of God in His own holiness; this judging and refusing of self; this sober, careful, humble watching, and the separate, heavenly character which comes from entering fully into the fact that Christ is not in the world nor of it, and so neither are we of the world. Here is the place of worship. Here Samuel dwelt, and here it is our privilege to dwell and share, with an exalted Christ, in the sweet savor of that sacrificial altar upon which He offered Himself a sacrifice for a sweet smelling savor unto God. In the value of that sacrifice, Israel was safe, shielded from her enemies. So are we.

MURDERS AND SUICIDES DURING THE PAST YEAR.

A prominent secular paper is in the habit of collecting the yearly statistics of death by violence, and presenting them to its readers with such comments as may occur to the editor. It is significant that even such an authority can get scant comfort from these dark features.

In general, murder is steadily on the increase; a slight diminution during last year being more than made up by the enormous increase of the previous one over its predecessor. There were 7852 murders during last year, 8275 during 1900, which was an increase of 2050 over the preceding year (1899).

Think of 8000 murders in a year ! Cain's crime multiplied eight thousand fold! and that in a single country, at the head of the nations in civilization. Imagine a city of 8000 inhabitants massacred in a single night. All would be horror stricken; is it less terrible that the violence is wide-spread, persistent, and increasing ?

But the record of death by suicide is even more significant, as showing an effect which may be directly traceable to the civilization which is the boast of the age. In 1890 there were 2040 suicides; in 1891, 3531; and the increase each year has been steady and rapid. In 1900 there were 6755, and last year 7245 murdered themselves!

Of the causes assigned for suicide, the chief one is significant-despondency, 2980. Oh, how it tells of the emptiness of this poor world-three thousand who find nothing to live for, utterly disheartened ! Beloved fellow-believer, do you forget upon your knees to thank our God for giving you an object to satisfy every craving of the heart for all eternity ?

But who, as he ponders these dark and ever-growing figures, can think of the world as growing better? What has the prosperity, civilization-even education of the world done for it? Let these figures give their answer, and turning to that blessed Word of God, let us see the end of it all-more and more open apostasy, the working of the "mystery of iniquity "-until full-blown rebellion against God will meet its doom. Then having been swept clean by judgment, the blessed reign of the Prince of Peace will begin.

Error advances by degrees until at last it is fully established and souls are blinded to the truth. There are serious indications among us, in the way of indifference as to the ordinance of baptism that should alarm us, lest the heretical doctrine should become accepted and be spread among us that as an ordinance it has no application to us now.

And of this as a probability may we not be well assured, especially in the light of recent departures from the truth, that we would not in that case stop in the down grade with the denial of baptism, but would travel rapidly to further error, once we had despised the Word and yielded to a wile of Satan. Such is the history of God's people, often repeated. We need at this present time to pay earnest heed to the word in 2 Peter 3:17:"Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen."

Error has in it the seeds of alienation from God, of dishonor to Christ and to His word; but with steadfastness and growth in grace there will be humility and the knowledge of the Lord, and the desire to give Him glory that will repel what would dishonor Him.

One reply that is made, showing what is at work among us, is (as to baptism), "I don't understand it." Of course, if there is desire to learn, God will teach; but if the reply means, " I feel excused from
taking a stand about it, or from submitting to it," then surely, though the soul may not be conscious of it, a doctrine of Scripture is being slighted, and the spirit of this loosens the hold of God's word in general upon the soul; and how dangerous a ground this is, let all consider. From this we should shrink with great fear!

On the other hand, if we submit to the Word, God will give us increasing understanding about it. To use an old illustration-if a man stands with a lantern looking out into the darkness, he gets no further light; but if he steps on, the light advances on his path.

What has rendered the soul incapable of judging is known to the Lord-sloth, a "puffed up" condition, the loss of a "good conscience."Whatever it may be, Satan has gained an advantage by his wiles. The loins are not "girt about with truth," (the first part of the whole armor of God) without which we t cannot stand in the conflict to enjoy our heavenly possession. And we shall all be tested.

Another thing advanced (by some who do not deny baptism to be obligatory in general) is this:that baptism is not required in the case, for example, of one who has been for some time breaking bread; he is already, "inside," and therefore does not need to "come in." This may be classed as similar to the suggestion that baptism was right at the beginning, when Jews and Gentiles were being joined on new ground in the profession of Christianity, but is not called for now in Christendom at least; while it would be right (probably it would be allowed) still for a Jew or a heathen.

To this it may be fairly replied, that the error is in concluding that such are inside. Is it not assuming to be true what is not true ? The unbaptized are not "inside" in this sense-not being baptized. They are inside surely in one sense, but not so as to the very matter that is in question; they have not submitted to that form which is expressly the putting on Christ. And where is the line to be drawn? If baptism has been neglected or overlooked for a few weeks, are such absolved from responsibility to be baptized ? or does it take a longer period ? and who is to draw the line, and assign a period ? Does it not appear manifest that such a plea must lead to the confirming of souls in the entire neglect and contempt for the doctrine of baptism, as is already the case with some ?

But, surely, Scripture gives no authority for this suggestion. How could Scripture authorize the neglect of Scripture ? If a person is not baptized, he has not in that respect submitted to the word of the Lord. He has not "put on Christ" in this outward form of confession of His name that the Lord Himself has ordained :a public taking of one's place among Christians in Christ's kingdom in a way He has marked out.

Already the benumbing effect of error has so affected some, that it is to be feared that exhortation on the subject, however scriptural, will be received with indifference-a dulled sense of obligation of long standing nullifying the power of God's own Word. Let us cry to God about this, that we may experience God's mercy, and be delivered from this snare of the devil.

As to the claim of some, that Paul's ministry puts us on higher ground than baptism, we have only to consider that Paul is the one who makes baptism very prominent in his epistles, as we all know.

Very precious is the teaching of baptism. It is subjection to that "Name which is above every name" openly before men. Surely the Lord richly blesses that open confession. It tells of our death with Christ-death to sin (death to the life we lived before)-that as He was raised from the dead, so we also should walk in "newness of life" in Him who is risen. But this is not written to present the doctrine of baptism, but as an alarm and an appeal, if the Lord may use it to that end, that we may be aroused to confession and prayer, and to seek deliverance from the Lord.

Occasionally one is found among us (breaking bread) who has not been baptized-one of the indications of the slackness that exists among us, and of the danger that threatens us:taken by itself, not so serious as when taken or viewed in connection with other tendencies already mentioned.

Whatever differences we may have to deplore among us as to the ordinance of baptism, let us at least seek grace to hold fast the ordinance:to let that go would be a serious departure from the truth; an error so grave, that difference of judgment as to the application of baptism cannot at all be compared to it, surely.

Let us remember the solemn injunction to Timothy (i Tim. 6:20), "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust;" and again, (2 Tim. 1:14,) "That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us;" as Paul himself could say, "I have kept the faith:" it was surely that Timothy was to "keep;" as Ezra, also, exhorted the twelve priests and their ten brethren, when he had weighed to them "the silver and the gold," and the holy vessels offered to the Lord:'' Ye are holy unto the Lord; the vessels are holy also. . . . Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites … at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the Lord" (Ezra 8:28). E. S. Lyman.

Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God; and considering the issue of their conversation, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come. Be not carried away with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be confirmed with grace, not meats; those who have walked in which have not been profited by them" (Heb. 13:7-9).- J. N. JD.'s Version.

The theme of the Epistle to the Hebrews is the pre-eminence of Christ in all things. Written to those who were by birth and inheritance disposed to set a value upon the external, apart from the saving grace of God, it came in direct opposition to all fleshly pride and carnal religion. In fact, it did not so much set aside abuses of the law, as our Lord in dealing with the self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees, as it showed that all ceremonial religion, though given by God Himself, was but temporary. The law had but "a shadow of good things to come." Beautiful- shadows indeed, and most helpful in illustrating divine truth, and yet never for a moment to be confounded with the substance-Christ Himself.

Thus Christ is seen pre-eminent over and displacing all things which the Hebrews were tempted to hold to and to substitute for Him. We see Him as Son of God, pre-eminent over the angels, and setting them aside; as the faithful Son over God's house, displacing Moses, the faithful servant in his own day; as the true High Priest, who abides forever, displacing Aaron and his sons, whom death was constantly removing; as the Mediator of the new covenant, sealed with His own blood, therefore an '' everlasting" covenant; as the one perfect Sacrifice by which we are sanctified-"perfected forever"-and have boldness to enter into the holiest'' by the blood of Jesus," displacing forever "the blood of bulls and goats." We see Him as "the leader and perfecter of faith," who, having victoriously run His course, has sat down upon the throne of God, the object of exultant faith and love and hope, as we speed on our way, laying aside every weight, and turning from all that would distract.

Jesus only, and always, is then the theme, and again and again is He put before the Hebrew Christians, with every warning and entreaty to hold fast the confession of their faith without wavering. No ordinance, no matter how holy; no man, no matter how venerated, could for one moment dispute the place which He alone could occupy.

And surely if the Hebrews needed such an admonition, we living in these last days need also to be ever recalled to "the Son."If we are not tempted to turn to Judaism in name, there is the pronounced tendency to take up a ritual which ministers to the flesh in the same way. Rome has multitudes of votaries not called by her name; while other multitudes are turning to " divers and strange doctrines " which exalt man and degrade the Christ of God. We need, perhaps as never before, to hear the Shepherd's voice, to be turned back to Christ alone.

We all recognize, too, the tendency to make much of man, and unknowingly to fall into idolatry by giving glory to some instrument whom in His grace God has seen fit to use, rather than to Himself. We lean unduly upon the hand which would point us to Christ, and too often make priests of those who are reminding us that we are all priests. We close our lips in presence of the ministry of those who are telling us, "Ye may all prophesy." Thus we abuse the very gifts given by our glorified Head, and one lesson at least which we may learn from the removal of beloved and honored servants of Christ is not to make too much of these-to "cease from man"-to cleave more simply to Christ alone. Thus will we honor the servant by turning to the Master, and be kept from the shame of idolatry.

And yet-returning to the Epistle to the Hebrews- we find a whole chapter devoted to human examples of faith. A great cloud of witnesses look down upon us in the eleventh chapter, and in the closing one of the book thrice does the writer (who, though doubtless Paul, veils himself that Christ alone may claim the eye,) speak of their "guides," or "leaders." They were to remember those who had passed away, and imitate their faith; they were to obey those who remained, realizing that they were charged with weighty responsibilities, and were to salute them in all honor and affection.

Scripture, then, not only warrants but commands the remembrance of those whom God has given as leaders of His people. To forget them means, too often, to forget the truth they brought, and paves the way for that "building the sepulchres of the prophets" by a godless posterity who are indifferent to every warning spoken by those prophets. There is a sober, discriminating way of dwelling upon the ministry of faithful servants which encourages our own faith, quickens conscience, and stirs afresh to follow them as they followed Christ.

Most biographies are written from a human standpoint ; the man is before us rather than his message. Such biographies are not helpful; but who has not been stimulated by the narratives of devotion, self-denial, unresting toil of faithful men at home or abroad ? We realize on either hand that they were men "of like passions with ourselves," and that a Power wrought in and with them which is for us too.

The passage we have quoted at the beginning shows us how we can properly "remember our guides." First of all, what makes their remembrance profitable is that they spoke to us the word of God. It was not for special personal excellence of character, either natural or gracious ; nor for great activities and results in the Lord's work-considered in themselves. What gives value to the remembrance of the leader is the word of God with which he was identified, the message he brought.

We read of one of David's mighty men, Eleazar the son of Dodo, that he stood alone against a great host of Philistines when "the men of Israel had gone away." He smote them "till his hand was weary and his hand clave unto the sword; and the Lord wrought a great victory" (2 Sam. 23:9, 10). His very name, "God is help,"turns from the man to God. What could he do single-handed against the host of the. enemy ? His arm grows weary, but the weary hand cleaves to the good sword, and we see no longer the feeble arm of man, but the power of God behind that weary arm, hewing out victory with that sword. The man has become identified with the sword, and God can use such an one.

So are all God's mighty men; feeble, and with weary arms, they cling to that "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Their very weariness and feebleness makes them cling (like Jacob who, his thigh out of joint, can no more wrestle, but cling). Such men God can use, for they are identified with their sword,-with the word of God. To remember such is to remember the sword-the Word which they brought. There can be no higher honor to a servant of Christ than to merge him, as it were, in the truth he ministered; in thinking of him, to think of the sword he held in his feebleness. The world may honor its soldiers, its men of wealth, its benefactors, and build them monuments. They are its departed great men. Believers recall the memory of those who have left their greatness in our hands-the Word of God. To do this is simply to have mind refreshed and heart stirred by that which abides forever.

We are also to consider the issue, or outcome, of their walk. What has their life ended in ? It has now ceased. A rich man's life ends, so far as what he leaves behind is concerned, in wealth; a statesman's, in power and influence. In what shall we say the life of Christ's servant has ended ? What has 'he left as the sum of that life ? Is it not suggestive that the very next clause gives what is really the answer, while closely connected, as we shall see, with the following clause ? " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." The issue of their life is the abiding Christ. They have passed
off the scene, but Christ, the object of their ministry, abides. With Paul they could say, '' To me, to live is Christ." Christ is the end, the goal of their life. To depart and be with Him is far better. Happy indeed are those who are called to lay down their burden and enter into His rest. They loved and served Him here; they enjoy unclouded peace and rest as they wait with Him there. The outcome, the end, of all their life-work, toil, testimony, is Christ. They enjoy Him to the full now; they have, as it were, left Him as a priceless legacy to us here.

And their life was a life of faith-the refusal at once both of creature righteousness and creature strength. They had learned to "rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh." We are not called to do, in detail, their work. God calls and fits each of His servants for some special work, peculiarly suited to the special gift with which he is endowed. We are not to be imitators of one another, but ever to be imitators of the faith that casts the feeble upon the Mighty.

Lastly, we note the warning not to be "carried about with' divers and strange doctrines." The servant of Christ ever stands for His truth against all opposition of error. His ministry, in so far as it was under the guidance and in the power of the Holy Spirit, brought home to heart and conscience the truth of God and the Person of the Lord.

Do we not need, as has already been said, to be specially on our guard in these days against the subtle inroads of error ? The Person of the Son of God, His atoning work, His Church, the destiny of man- are all objects of the enemy's attacks. Let us hold fast the truth, and Him who is the truth, and His Word of truth.

We have, then, four characteristics of a proper memorial of departed leaders-(i) The word of God ministered by them; (2) The outcome or issue of their life, Christ for them and for us ever the same; (3) The faith which occupied them with this blessed Person; and (4) The warning against error. If we ever have these features before us, there will be only profit in remembering those who have gone on before us.

Perhaps there is less temptation to do anything else in the case of the beloved brother whose memory we are seeking to recall. His claim for a permanent place in the hearts of the saints rests-as it really does with any, but more ostensibly than with most-in his identification with the word of God. Unknown to many in the flesh, who have profited by his ministry, with little of what may be called popularity, or the magnetism supposed to be so essential in a leader, he is lost sight of in the precious truth which it was his joy to unfold. Those who knew him personally loved him for the worth and Christian nobility of his character, the fruit of God's grace; for that wondrous mind received from Him, and for the simplicity and dignity of a true Christian man. But it is not of these things that we speak, while we would ever seek to walk in the steps of piety and faith wherever seen. We turn rather to that Word to which he held fast, and, in conscious feebleness and dependence, used so constantly. What views of the Word did he give us! What thoughts of Christ! What truths under the guidance of the Holy Spirit! These abide.

If a heathen poet, who has left behind some beautiful specimens of human wisdom and human art, could say, " I have builded a monument more enduring than brass," can we not with greater propriety apply these words to one whose one aim it was to build only the pure Word in all his ministry ? That Word endures, "when all that seems shall suffer shock." What higher honor can there be for any of us than to be associated, to be identified with that Word?

In taking up, then, his ministry, and seeking to analyze it, to understand its prominent features, it is with the prayer that Christ may be glorified, not His servant; that the truths of God's word may be brought afresh to mind and conscience, and thus we may be stirred to take fresh hold of Christ and His truth. This, we are sure, would be the only way in which our beloved brother would have us speak of him at all. For him, as for every one who loves the Lord, it can only be, "Not I, but Christ."

The truth of God is one arid self-consistent, and yet it is many-sided. There are special beauties connected with every view of it, and much to be learned from the manner of presenting it by each servant who is guided by the Spirit.

We will speak first of his ministry of the gospel. Every one who loves Christ, loves the gospel. It is a sure sign of spiritual coldness when one loses taste for the simplest truths of salvation. Our brother was no evangelist, deeply as he sympathized with every winner of souls, and longed for a wider, fuller and more constant work in evangelization. In his gospel addresses we do not find much of that ardent insistence which is often seen in the gospel preacher. One word characterized his preaching- thought. Appeals to the will, touching narratives, denunciations,-all proper when one is led of the Spirit,-were not there.

But there was a rich and tender unfolding of divine grace and love. Man's sin was brought into the presence of infinite holiness, a divine compassion and a perfect redemption. Sin was seen to be sin, not so much in its effects, or in its just recompense, as in the light of the Man who sat at the well of Sychar, or who dealt with the poor child of sin and shame in the Pharisee's house. In his book of gospel addresses many examples of this can be found. Read again the "Gospel in the Genealogy," and see how grace is magnified in Christ's association with the sin of His people-blessed be God, Himself all pure and undefiled by the contact of all human wretchedness. The same can be seen in "A Brand from the Burning," and other addresses in the same book.

How sweet it is, dear brethren, to have these precious truths recalled to our minds! Our brother was not alone in these precious truths. He had received them from others who, like himself, had found rest and peace at the feet of Jesus. He longed for a revival of gospel work among us. Shall we not be stirred afresh by the love of Christ to tell to the perishing the news of that grace which reaches the lowest, -which has reached us ?
But it was as a teacher, an unfolder of the word of God for His people, that our brother will be best remembered. We may say at the outset here that he had received and assimilated the ministry of our beloved J. N. D., whom he recognized as specially called of God, raised up to give to the Church in freshness and clearness the priceless heritage of truth so long hidden from God's people. None prized more highly or more constantly made use of the " Synopsis " and collected writings of Mr. D. than oar brother. Their gifts were distinct. The elder had, perhaps more clearly than any since the days of the apostles, a clearly defined outline of revealed truth. Whether in the exposition of a single verse, a chapter, a book, or a section of Scripture, he grasped the salient features, and set them before his hearers in a few pregnant sentences. His eye swept the heavens at a glance; he caught the current of divine thought, and followed obediently its leadings. We shall follow the characteristics of our brother's ministry as we go on. We cannot refrain from saying that it will be a sad day for the Assembly when the writings of J. N. D. are neglected or ignored.

As has been said, our brother had assimilated the teachings of Mr. D. Hence he had a clearly de-' fined outline of Scripture truth, into which he could bring the "things new and old" which he gathered from his own study of the Word. Those who have read his "Lessons of the Ages," and his " Mysteries of the Kingdom of .Heaven," will see how clearly he grasped and presented the great outline features of dispensational truth." While holding in the main with those who had gone before him the great salient features of prophetic and dispensational truth, our brother has presented them in a way both fresh and helpful, quite peculiar to himself. His book on Revelation illustrates this on many a page of most profitable prophetic study.

Similarly he took up great doctrines of the word of God and exhibited them in their beauty and power. His work on "The Atonement" is a Scriptural examination into that blessed doctrine. He traces from the beginning the great truth of salvation as seen typically in the earlier books; prophetically, in the Psalms and Prophets; as actually accomplished, in the Gospels, and doctrinally unfolded in the epistles of Paul and the other apostles and Revelation. One rises from the study of this book with a deeper conviction than ever of the cardinal place in God's plan of the truth of Atonement, and a clearer realization of the divine wisdom, love and skill unfolded throughout the pages of the word of God. The " scarlet line " is traced throughout, and we see how Christ and His work were ever present in the mind of God.

We may link with this book the other one, on the Person of our Lord, "The Crowned Christ." No one who is sound upon the work of Christ is likely to hold wrong views as to His Person. So in this work we will find a reverent, but thorough, inquiry as to what the word of God teaches regarding the Son of His love. Our brother did not believe in passing over truth with a few vague and glittering generalities. By habit and by faith he was a painstaking inquirer into minute points which would escape the attention of the casual observer. He therefore deals with the Deity and the Humanity of our Lord-Son of God in a twofold way, Son of Man as well; Divine Creator on the one hand; obedient, sinless, deathless Man, on the other. The analogies between the first man, first Adam, and the Second Man, the last Adam, are carefully noted. Distinction is made between first begotten-suggesting other children-and only begotten-excluding all others. In short, our brother seeks to point out the "many crowns" upon the head of Him whom faith loves to follow in every character He wears-and worships Him in each-the Word, God over all, the Man of sorrows, the Son, the King-Blessed be He forevermore, and let all His saints say Amen!
Passing next to a book more widely known, perhaps, than any other of his separate works, we will glance at his "Facts and Theories as to a Future State." Of the need for such a work there was, and is, sad evidence, not only among the open deniers of the word of God, but with those who claim to bow to Scripture, and who quote it in proof of their position. Time was, when to be a " Universalist" was, like a " Unitarian," to be one who would not be held within the limits of Scripture statement. But during the time of the revival of the truth of the Lord's coming, and the accurate study of Scripture, there have arisen various schools of thought, all professedly bowing to Scripture, in which the solemn reality of eternal punishment, conscious and unchanging, was denied. It seems as though Satan were, as he no doubt is, seeking to lay parallel teachings to those being brought before the Church of God. In this way he would discredit the real truth, and create a revulsion in the minds of many against all Scripture, and at the same time instil into the minds of others the deadly poison of his own lie.

There are many kinds of mind among men, and for each class Satan will have that special form of error which he knows will be most likely to attract. Thus there is "the larger hope" of those whose sensibilities will not allow them to entertain the thought of what the Son of God so plainly calls " everlasting fire." This hope of ultimate salvation for all has various forms in which it clothes itself-all included under the general head of Restorationalism.

Directly opposite to this-alas, not opposed, for error is many-sided, but united in its hatred of truth -is the grossly materialistic teaching of Annihilation, in its varied forms; while between the two are many individual forms of error, partaking of the character of one or both of these main systems.

Nor let it be supposed that these errors obtained only among some peculiar or obscure sect, as " Christadelphianism." Begin where they might, they worked their way with satanic persistence into the fibre of the professing church, until at present they are to be found, more or less openly advocated, in many of the evangelical denominations.

The enemy had come in like a flood, and the Spirit of God, as ever, in faithfulness lifted up a standard against it. The task before our brother was an arduous and difficult one. It would not do to write in generalities; mere denunciation, no matter how much deserved, would be out of place. To fall into a passion, if we may use such language, with the enemy would be but to play into his hands by an exhibition of the weakness which he would say was inherent in the orthodox view.

What was needed was a temperate, thorough analysis of every false view, the examination of every passage of Scripture used in support of error, and a thorough exhibition of the untruth being taught. But mere destruction was not enough. Every scripture must be put in its true light-the doctrine of the word of God fully brought out, so that the reader would be left, not merely with errors refuted, but with a solid foundation of divine truth beneath his feet. Incidentally, many crudities and misconceptions among the orthodox had to be set right.

It is the united judgment of many leaders of Christian thought, not merely those who might be thought to be favorably disposed, that in "Facts and Theories" the Spirit of God has provided a wealth of truth with which to meet error. We would earnestly exhort the saints, particularly those who may be in any way thrown with various forms of this error, to arm themselves with the weapons found here.
In this book there will be found considerable of what may be called psychological study of Scripture. Our brother did not hesitate to enter into every field of knowledge. He believed that all truth is one, and that if faith does not cultivate a field, Satan will, He was a profound student of what is called nature, reading from both the friends and enemies of revealed truth. Thus he not only studied the works of God in plant and animal life, but examined the teachings of such leaders in error as Darwin and his disciples. For him "Evolution" had neither attractions nor terrors, as, with keen mind and childlike faith, with Bible in hand, he tested all by the light of divine truth. Unlike a brilliant but misguided leader, of whom we would fain hope the best, spite of the errors taught by him, our brother was unmoved from the solid rock of divine truth. He made the infidel investigators of natural phenomena "hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of God." He plucked their own weapons out of their hands, and used them against them.

Here, again, he was no mere destructive critic, but a builder of truth. It was a favorite remark of his that nature taught not merely of God, but of Christ, and that we would find the atonement and other great truths in the book of God spread abroad in field and forest and starry heavens as well as in the pages of Scripture. He delighted in all books which soberly presented the typical truths of nature, and in his "Spiritual Law in the Natural World" has presented a most attractive line of truth, to kindle further desire for divine knowledge.

It was his great wish to write another work upon the book of Genesis, in which these truths should have their full treatment. Alas, he has been taken, and the work is not done. Who is there who will take it up with the same faith, and deliver these fields of truth from the enemy's hand, and put them at the disposition of the saints ? The time is ripe for it; is anyone doing the work? The Lord stir the hearts of those to whom He has given the key of knowledge, that they may use it to open the door to His treasures!

It is right, also, to make another remark in this connection. Men have come to nature first, as though they could get to God in that way. But we must ever remember that man is a sinner, "alienated from the life of God." There is but one Way-Christ Himself, and "no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." If we are to know God in any true sense, we must know Him through Christ, and through His Word. We must not expect nature to interpret the Bible, but the reverse. We must use the word of God as a lamp to correct our natural thoughts. "The world by wisdom knew not God." Our brother ever stood for the primacy of Scripture. He denied the common statement that the Bible was not meant to teach science. He declared the Bible was meant to teach whatever came before it-history, facts of nature, or any other matter. It did not use the language of modern science-it used the everyday speech of those to whom it was given, but none the less is it divinely accurate.

We do well to remember this, and not to yield to the wiles of the enemy, who, under specious pleas, would rob us of the absolute infallibility of the word of God.

And this brings us to consider that which may be truly called our brother's life-work. He had for years been impressed with the absolute perfection of the Scriptures to its least "jot and tittle"-a truth we all accept. But with him it became the one absorbing thought of his life, and he put it to the test to the full extent of his powers. If the Bible is absolutely inerrant, then not only are its doctrines perfectly true, its narratives perfectly accurate, but its very words are divinely chosen.

He found, as others before him had done, that Scripture itself drops many a hint, gives many an example of the way in which the Spirit of God would have us use it, Simple quotations of law or prophets, allusions to sacrifices or customs, allegorization of Old Testament facts, stress upon the significance of names, the juxtaposition of words-all these he found in Scripture itself. Space here forbids our going into anything beyond the barest mention. It will be sufficient to refer to the narrative of Hagar and Sarah, in Gal. 4:, for an example of how Scripture uses Old Testament narrative; to the priesthood of Melchisedec, in Heb. 7:, as showing the use of the interpretation of names and their relation one to another; to the whole Epistle to the Hebrews as a divine commentary upon Old Testament ritual.

He also found that our Lord's use of the parable to teach was not a mere casual method, but one of the usual methods of the Spirit of God throughout Scripture. Not every parable was interpreted. A few were explained, not as though to limit further investigation, but to give the key to it. "Know ye not this parable ? How, then, will ye know all parables ?"

The word of God is not merely a revelation; it is a book to exercise every faculty of the renewed man. To know it in any full measure is to have in the highest sense a liberal education. It offers but little to idleness; but to the prayerful seeker it is, like its divine Author, "a rewarder of them that diligently seek " it.

Let this great truth lay hold of our hearts as through grace it laid hold of him, and a boundless field will be found at our very door in which to find food and sustenance to the delight of our soul. How his heart well-nigh broke at the indifference, the unbelief, the lethargy that hung- like a pall upon most of the beloved people of God! How he yearned over them! Were his removal to stimulate others to shake themselves from the dust, we could indeed bless God.

But we must trace out a little further the way in which the Spirit of God led this humble student of the Word. If Scripture not only gave examples of interpretation, but encouragement and commands to continue on in what it opened up, then he would go on. If Scripture gave the significance of the names of persons and places-here and there-he would everywhere seek that significance. If it "spiritualized " a narrative, he would catch at the key, and use it throughout the Word. Every portion of Genesis should be as the account of Hagar and Sarah, and Melchisedec. Exodus and Numbers should be as Leviticus. Samuel and the Kings would be found to be no exception to the word that '' all Scripture is profitable."

He had for years been a diligent student of the book of Psalms. Not only did their contents attract, but the form in which they were written-their divisions into a pentateuch, the acrostic form of a number of them, their evident relation one to another in various groups-all these things impressed him with the fact that God had written them upon a distinct plan in which the numerical significance of psalm and group and book had a clearly marked and important place. But if the Psalms were written thus, why not all Scripture? So he went on, till he found the same divine harmony throughout the inspired Word.

He has given us the account of all this, with its results, in a most engaging little book, "The Numerical Structure of Scripture," a work which will be a revelation to those who have not yet read it.
But to the thoughtful mind such a handling of Scripture will seem, to say the least, hazardous. And so it is. So it seemed to our brother. He shrank from the fancies and imaginations of the mind of man. Various books illustrated only too sadly the dangers of this method, when undertaken apart from the Spirit of God. He feared, he was cautious, he was prayerful, but he did not draw back. The Spirit of God thus, doubtless, put him on his guard against the use of the imagination; so he went on carefully, slowly-testing each step. The result was a most rich and beautiful exhibition of the treasures of the Word of God.

Time will not permit us to enter into details here. The "Numerical Bible" is in our hands, and will speak for itself to the thoughtful student. It must suffice here to point out the application of those principles to which we have already alluded.

All Scripture is written according to a well defined plan, in which each book has its definite place, which corresponds, in spiritual meaning, with the number of that place. Thus the first book of a group (as the first group also) will have a meaning suggested by number one; and so with the second, third, etc. The scriptural significance of these numbers was found in the Word itself, and justified by many a text. The Pentateuch of Moses was found to be the basis, the plan, upon which the entire Scripture was written. Thus there is a historical Pentateuch, a Prophetic, and a Poetic one-as well as one for the New Testament.

Each of these pentateuchs he found to correspond, book by book, with the Mosaic one. Thus a third book had a Levitical significance, or at least a significance corresponding with the number 3.- Incidentally, what a proof we have here of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch-5 books, no more and no less, forming a complete, symmetrical whole!

The same structure was found to exist in each separate book. Each division and minor section was found to correspond in meaning with its numerical place. Thus a fourth division of a book would have the characteristics of number 4, a second section in that would give some thought connected with number 2, and so on. These divisions are noted down to portions as small as the chapters in our ordinary Version, and in some cases to portions the length of only a verse or two. In the Psalms each verse has its numerical place.

Thus, instead of the arbitrary divisions into chapters and verses, of no help save for purposes of reference, we have a structure exhibited, every part of which has divine meaning. Far be it from us to suggest that perfect accuracy has been reached in noting these divisions. Others may, here and there, find more simple and well defined marks; but in the main they are seen by the thoughtful mind to be the true divisions.

And what a witness to the perfection of the Word of God they are! An answer to the wretched infidel work of "Higher Criticism," and most helpful, too, in getting and holding the contents of any book of the Bible.

We have been speaking only of the text of Scripture and its divisions. When we come to the "Notes," which form quite a full commentary upon the text, we find not only the use of the divisions, but a most lucid and profound exposition of the Word of God. The scope of each book, its theme and main divisions, are stated in a few paragraphs. Then each portion is gone into with careful detail, and the results spread before the reader, opening up the entire passage. All is treated, as we have been saying, from a spiritual point of view. ' Every word has meaning, every allusion had a purpose in the mind of the Spirit. Thus the types of Exodus and Leviticus are handled with reverent particularity, and the whole book becomes luminous with divine meaning.

There is little or none of the spirit of dogmatism in these notes. We are simply able to accompany the writer, and see upon what scriptural grounds he has reached his conclusions. Thus we are unhampered, and, instead of listening to man's word, have been pointed to the Word of God.

We must also refer to the treatment of the last half of the book of Joshua. Here, most commentators had been able simply to grope among the names and point out here and there a place identified by its modern Arabic name, or by some more or less obscure historic allusion. Our brother, on the contrary -looking upon this as the description of God's inheritance for His earthly people, and spiritually for ourselves-found in each tribe, with its boundaries, some features of divine truth; in the name of each spring and hill and valley and town some spiritual blessing in Christ. A map of our spiritual inheritance could almost have been constructed. Thus in an apparently barren and meaningless desert of names, the Spirit made to blossom beautiful and precious fruits for the saints.

The labor in all this was arduous, and necessarily progress was slow. But the Lord enabled His servant, in weak and failing health, to go from Genesis to 2 Samuel in a thorough and orderly way; to devote a volume to the whole book of Psalms, and to complete the entire New Testament. This last was scarcely more than half accomplished when his life was despaired of, but, in answer to fervent prayer, he was raised up and enabled to complete that portion. Then, turning back to the Old Testament, he had well-nigh finished the prophet Ezekiel when the weary servant was called into the rest of God.

As we think of what has been accomplished, we bless God. As we think of what remains, we mourn. But we have learned in vain from our brother if we think that his work is unfinished, or that the word of God is bound. When apparently near to death he uttered a significant sentence in prayer:" We fail and are set aside, all human strength passes, but Thou abidest, Thy Spirit abides, Thy Word abides." Yes, beloved, we have the abiding Word, the abiding Spirit; and when all else fails, they remain-the Author and His Word. The work of our brother may never be carried on as he began it-but the Spirit of God will still lead faith on into the unsearchable riches of Christ. There are other features of his ministry we may profitably dwell upon for a moment, to recall the precious truths made more clearly known to many of us through his instrumentality.

A small but most helpful pamphlet upon "Deliverance " has been used for the emancipation of how many! The subject of sanctification has been more misunderstood, perhaps, than any other doctrine in the word of God. On the one hand it has been taught that the believer can experience such a change that his sinful nature is eliminated, and he can live in "perfect love;" on the other, it is claimed that we must go through life groaning under the bondage of indwelling sin. Both views are clearly unscriptural and injurious. The one fosters spiritual pride, and the other makes provision for the flesh. In the pamphlet referred to the subject is treated most lucidly. The seventh chapter of Romans is expounded-the bondage of the saved man seeking fruitfulness by the law, the increasing load and hopeless entanglement until, in utter self-despair, the soul cries out, "O wretched man that I am!" The author then passes on to show the true deliverance through Jesus Christ.
Unlike many, he does not close his theme with the seventh chapter, but passes on to the first few verses of the eighth. Thus the believer is not seen at the close with a twofold service of the law of God and the law of sin-but a very different law, a law of emancipation from the bondage of sin-"The Spirit's law, of life in Christ Jesus."

Who that has groped his way through the awful experiences of that seventh chapter, and beat his wings against the iron bars of his cage, till, bruised and helpless, and well-nigh hopeless, he reached the end of self-who, we say, can forget the relief, the peace and joy that came when this commanding truth entered the soul ? We were free-not only from guilt, and the external bondage of sin, but, best of all, free from self.

But this truth is only the doorway into the opened heavens where Christ can be seen in all His peerless beauty as the object of the soul. Sanctification comes through occupation with Himself. Just as self-occupation, whether it be good or bad self, is defiling, so occupation with a glorified Christ transforms into His image. These truths are brought out in the pamphlet referred to above, and in "Christian Holiness:its Roots and Fruits"; "Some Thoughts on Job's Ditch," etc. Others have written helpfully upon these themes, but we mention these features as distinctively characteristic of our brother's ministry. He ministered Christ to the soul. He fed the lambs and sheep with the tender grass of divine grace and love.

No earnest soul can pass through this world without being called upon to contend earnestly for the faith. Some are more distinctively warriors than others, but all who would be loyal to our Lord must expect to endure hardness for Him. We are not ashamed, therefore, to speak of our brother as a controversialist. This occupied but a small part of his life, but was a season of intense exercise while it lasted. He did not seek controversy, but when he felt the truth of God was involved he did not shrink from declaring what he believed to be the Scripture doctrine, and holding to it at all cost.

Sad as have been the trials of these times, many can bless God for a clearer apprehension of His truth through them. The truths of eternal life, the portion of every believer; of sealing with the Spirit not being dependent upon the amount of knowledge possessed, but upon faith in the person of Christ-have come with relief to those who were in danger of bondage and self-occupation. His " Facts and Theories " is a controversial work most needful and helpful, as we have seen.

Any notice of our brother's ministry would be incomplete without reference to his ecclesiastical views and position. Of these he made no secret, not flaunting them defiantly, but steadfastly maintaining them. He believed in the sufficiency of the name of Christ and the person of the Lord as a centre of gathering for His saints, instead of the manifold divisions and sects of Christendom, over which he mourned. He believed in the presence and competence of the Holy Spirit to order and control the Assembly of God without the intervention of human officialism or un-scriptural ordination. Above all, he believed that a right attitude of heart toward the Lord was indispensable, without which all else was as "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."

His "Present Things" is a searching presentation of the epistles to the seven churches, in which he falls into the current of the Spirit's teaching upon the Church as a vessel of testimony for Christ.

On the other hand he was not indifferent to the dangers of a place of separation. He has traced with a hand of sorrow in "A Divine Movement" the dangers that menace those who have come, outwardly at least, "outside the camp." He did not shrink from the path, but warned against either an unscriptural narrowness or an equally unscriptural indifference to what he believed concerned the Lord's honor. He was persuaded that a true basis of fellowship could only be had in accepting and acting upon all the doctrines of the word of God. He did not believe that a true fellowship could be secured by ignoring questions of doctrine or discipline upon which saints had formed different judgments.

With a largeness of heart to go out, as he did, in love to saints of God of whatever name, he felt and expressed the need of the greatest care in maintaining scriptural order, according to the truths of the unity of the Spirit.

One matter weighed greatly upon him. He felt and deplored the tendency to leave all ministry "in the hands of the few. His address upon "Prophecy" is but one of many testimonies regarding this. He maintained from Scripture that "ye may all prophesy" is not to be a dead letter; that every brother, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, was responsible to use that gift. It was not that he held any different view upon this than what is common to the saints, but he felt most deeply about it. He feared the danger of things crystalizing into form, and warned again and again as to it. May every one harken to his admonition.

But we must close. What, it may be asked, is the object of this memorial of our brother's ministry? Is it to glorify the man ? God forbid. We with him would ascribe the glory to Christ alone. "Not I, but Christ." As John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

No, beloved brethren, our object has been to make Christ more precious, to make His Word more loved, more read, more studied. This was the passion of our brother's life, the desire that consumed him. He made a significant utterance shortly before his departure. Sitting propped in his chair, with the word of God open before him, as was his custom through the days of weary, helpless waiting, he turned to the writer of these lines, and with a depth of pathos, glancing at his Bible, said, " Oh, the Book, the Book, the book! " It seemed as though he said, "What a fulness there; how little I have grasped it; how feebly expressed its thoughts." May these words from the dying servant of Christ lay hold of many a heart. Is it the book with us ? the one Book, always that ? Oh, beloved, he speaks to us all still, and says, Make everything of the Book!

I see a lost creation!
I hear its supplication-
In groaning degradation
Through man, its fallen head!

I see man's sinful madness!
I hear his shift at gladness-
Till scourged in gloom and sadness
To doom among the dead!

I see a Saviour seeking!
I hear Him sweetly speaking
In love to sinners-reeking
With man's depravity!

I see man, God disowning!
I hear my Saviour groaning-
In cursed death atoning
For man, upon the tree!

I see God's love down-reaching!
I hear in many a preaching
His tender tones beseeching-
Man's enmity to span!

I see One here sojourning!
I hear Love's accents, mourning
As-brooding, grieving, yearning-
God's Spirit strives with man!

I see the few believing!
I hear them-praises weaving
With all their tears of grieving:
Heart-sick for home above!

I see the many doubting!
I hear them, scoffing, scouting-
Embracing sin, and flouting
The gentle call of Love!

I see the new creation!
I hear saints' adoration-
Creation's celebration
Of God, and Christ its Head!
I see a scene of sadness!
I hear no note of gladness-
Where conscience stings to madness
The ever-dying dead!

F. A.