QUES. 25.-2 Cor. 13 :4 speaks of our being "weak in Him." Eph. 6 :10 tells us to "be strong in the Lord." Kindly give why the difference exists.

ANS.-In the first it is said that "though Christ was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God." To surrender Himself thus to death-the expression of utmost weakness-was a necessity, as we all know. And as identified with Him in that death, which is true of every child of God, we too confess our weakness and helplessness. When what we are in ourselves is the thing in view, Christ crucified is God's only answer -a most humbling yet wholesome lesson.

But Christ is not left there, nor we. "He liveth by the power of God." All power is His, and is displayed in the apostle, as he declares throughout the chapter.

In Eph. 6 :10 he but exhorts us to be in such a state of soul as will enable ns to make use of that power, detailing in the verses which follow the means of being strong.

QUES. 26.-Could Acts 21:24, 26 possibly mean that the apostle got back under the law ? And could we call that obedience on his part which is mentioned in verses 4 to 11 of the same chapter?

ANS.-It was not getting back under the law as a principle of approach to God, but it was a violation of what he wrote later on in Eph. 2 :13-22. It was yet maintaining a place in the Jewish system which prevailed yet so long among Jewish believers, with which the Lord bore in patience, but to be totally abandoned as commanded in Heb. 13 :10-13.

As to verses 4 to 11, the apostle evidently did not recognize the entreaties of brethren as the voice of the Spirit, else it would have been disobedience; his passionate love for Israel led him on ; and God never condemns love. It is not a safe guide, however, Paul's failure to recognize the voice of the Spirit was no doubt at the root of the weakness he displays in yielding to the advice of his Jewish brethren. Had he not gone to Jerusalem, as the Spirit warned, he might have gone to Rome as the Lord's free servant, instead of the Lord's bound servant. Let us learn from the mistakes of the Lord's dear servants, and also from the manner of the Lord toward them. As our sins and misery have manifested the depths of God's love, so the apostle's mistake, which puts him a prisoner in the hands of the Gentiles, becomes through grace the means of bringing the gospel before rulers and kings. Let us never despair because of our mistakes and sins. If we but bring them to God in brokenness, and hide nothing, He can, and will, use us the more, even while we suffer their natural consequences.

QUES. 27.-"Saturdarian Delusions." The printed paper under this heading which you send us for review means well, no doubt, but it certainly can be no help to the cause it advocates. Its subject is scarcely within the purpose of our magazine.

QUES. 28.-Why are not all the gifts spoken of in 1 Cor. 12 recognized and exercised among those gathered to the Lord's name as well as those referred to in Eph. 4 :11, 12? We know that " the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
ANS.-How can they be recognized, or exercised, if they do not exist? If any had the gift of miracles, of healing, or of tongues, as they had in apostolic days, they could no more hide them than evangelists, pastors, or teachers, hide theirs. Indeed, so anxious are some to be found with such gifts-"sign-gifts"-that they pretend to have them while any sober person can see they have not.

The gifts of Eph. 4 are of absolute necessity to the Church during her passage here. They remain to the end therefore, for Christ's love to the Church cannot cease. Some of the gifts in 1 Cor. 12 are not for the Church. They were given as " signs and wonders " for unbelievers (1 Cor. 14 :22), that the origin of the new doctrine might not be .questioned. When God judged that these sign-gifts had abundantly fulfilled their purpose, He withdrew them. They were given and withdrawn "according to His own will" (Heb. 2:4). Nor is it difficult to understand why God should now refuse all sign gifts to His people. How could He call the attention of unbelievers to a Christianity which is fast becoming apostasy, and soon to be spewed out of His mouth as a loathsome thing? Christ Himself stands outside its door, appealing to every heart which still has an ear for Him (Rev. 3 :20).

Your use of the passage, "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," is not legitimate in this connection. It occurs in Rom. 11, where the promises and purposes of God toward Israel and the Gentiles are unfolded. Nothing can thwart their fulfilment; but God has not decreed that gifts of miracles should abide to the end. On the contrary, you will find in 2 Thess. 2 that "signs and lying wonders" are to characterize the closing days of Christianity. Christ began it "with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will." Antichrist, " whose coming is after the working of Satan," closes it "with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.''

Sad picture indeed ! but who that has his eyes opened by the Spirit of God does not see it fast forming about us on every hand ?

Other questions remain for a future number.

(Continued from page 248.)

THREE-FOLD APOSTASY.

"Woe to them! because they have gone in the way of Cain, and given themselves up to the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core [Korah] " (ver. 11).

Three-fold is the apostasy here treated of. I propose to take up the distinct phases, brought here to our notice so solemnly, under three separate heads, and so direct attention first to

"The Way of Cain."

Strictly speaking there are but two religions in the world;*-the true, that of God's appointing; the false, the product of man's own mind. *See a gospel volume, by the same writer, "The Only Two Religions, and Other Papers." Paper covers, 20 cents.; cloth, 50 cents. Same publishers.* The first is the religion of faith; the second that of credulity or superstition, in whatever form it may appear.

In the beginning God made known to guilty man the truth that death and judgment were his rightful portion, only to be averted by the sacrifice of the glorious Seed of the woman, who in the fulness of time should appear as the sinner's Saviour, bruising the serpent's head, though Himself wounded in the heel. This was the primeval revelation. In accordance there with, faith taught those in whose souls grace had wrought, the propriety of approaching God, the Holy One, on the ground of sacrifice; each bleeding victim pointing on to Him who was to be made sin that guilty men might be delivered from their sins and stand before the throne of the Most High uncondemned. Therefore we read,".By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts:and by it, he being dead, yet speaketh " (Heb. 11:4). Mark, it was not by intuition, but by faith- through a revelation apprehending the mind of God-Abel offered. He brought that which told of a life forfeited-a sinless substitute, whose vicarious death could be placed over against the desert of the guilty one. Of this the lamb out of the flock speaks loudly, though he who offered it has long been numbered with the dead in Christ.

This is the pith and marrow of the gospel, "Christ died for the ungodly." " He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed." "It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." Everywhere in Scripture the same testimony is given, for "without shedding of blood there is no remission."

Now this is exactly what, in principle, Cain denied. He brought an offering to God according to the promptings of his own heart, "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," as is the heart of every natural man. His sacrifice seemed fair and lovely:the fruits of the ground, wrung therefrom by toil and travail. But there was no recognition of the true character of sin and its desert. God's sentence of death on account of sin is refused; therefore no life is given, no blood is brought. This
is natural religion as opposed to what has been revealed. The fruits presented picture well man's effort in all that is fairest in character-building, all that is loveliest in man's attainment;-beautiful indeed if seen to be the fruit of divine grace already known in the soul; but of no avail whatever to meet the claims of divine justice, to purge the conscience and cleanse the soul from the stain of sin. It is surely plain, then, that "the way of Cain" is a most comprehensive title, embracing every form of religious teaching, ceremony, or cult that ignores the need of the vicarious atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Whether it be the substitution of rites and ceremonies for simple faith in Him who died upon the cross, as is so frequently the case in Romanist or heathen communions; or whether it be the subtle and refined speculations of modern religio-meta-physical systems (denominated Theosophy, New Thought, Christian Science, Rationalism and so on, ad lib.), which all tend to deify man in his own estimation and free him from what is held to be "the degrading thought" that he is a sinner needing a Saviour;-all spring from one and the same thing, the pride of the human heart which substitutes the notions of the unregenerate mind for the revealed truth of the word of God. All are but different forms of the one common human religion -the way of Cain-and can only lead their deluded followers to share Cain's doom.

The vaunted new religion of Prof. Elliott is as old as the fallen creation. It was first pictured in the fig-leaf garments of Adam and Eve; then crystalized, as it were, in the offering of Cain; and every
sinner too proud to own his guilt and trust the atoning sacrifice of the Christ of God has been an adherent of it, whatever form his superstition may have taken.

Back to the way of Cain are thousands turning who once professed to have an interest in the blood of Christ. Counting that blood a common thing, as the blood of a mere martyr for righteousness' sake and liberty of conscience, they trample beneath their feet its atoning value, and haughtily dare to approach the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity with the fruits and flowers of nature, boasting in what would be the occasion of their deepest repentance if they had received the love of the truth that they might be saved.

So with readiness, refusing the ministry of the Holy Spirit they give themselves up to

" The Error of Balaam."

Of the false prophet who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the people of Israel, we read three times in the New Testament. In a passage very nearly similar to the one before us, Peter writes of "the way of Balaam" (2 Pet. 2:15). The glorified Christ, in the Apocalypse (2:14) speaks of "the doctrine of Balaam," and Jude, here, mentions his error. That the three are most intimately related is self-evident. Out of his error sprang both his way and his doctrine. He was a striking example of those who suppose that the object of godliness is to make gain, and who consider it a right and proper thing that religion should be used to minister to one's personal advantage. Leo the Tenth was a true disciple of Balaam when he exclaimed to his cardinals, "What a profitable thing this myth about Jesus Christ has been to us! " And every person, of whatever sect or system, or perchance outside of all such, has followed after the error of Balaam who enters upon the dispensing of religious mysteries with a view to financial or other emolument.

Balaam's history, as recorded in the book of Numbers is an intensely solemn one. He "loved the wages of unrighteousness" while professedly a prophet of God, he endeavored to prostitute his sacred office to the accumulation of wealth. At times, deterred by fear, again by a sense of the proprieties, he yet persists in the effort to either curse or seduce the people of God for his own advantage. He stands before us branded on the page of inspiration as one who, for temporary profit, would stifle his own convictions and lead astray those directed by him.

The same dreadful error is at the bottom of the vast majority of evil systems being at present propagated by zealous workers. Which of them would exist for a month if it were not for the baneful influence of gold ? Try to imagine modern faddists giving freely what they profess to believe is divine; suffering uncomplainingly, in order to carry their false gospels to the ends of the earth; dying triumphantly to seal their testimony in blood, as did the early Christians, and as do many godly and zealous believers still!

Let the mind range o'er the whole host of heterodox sects:the golden spell of mammon is upon nearly every one. And in all human systems, however orthodox outwardly, where the Word of truth is departed from, the same potent spell assumes control of preachers and teachers whose lips should keep knowledge, and whose hearts should be free from covetousness.

This it is that leads to the effort to please, not God, but men. Smooth things are prophesied; offensive truths to ticklish ears are scarcely touched upon, or altogether avoided, and all in order that the purse strings of the ungodly may be loosened and the ministry be made a profitable and honorable occupation.

Of old, Christ's servants went forth in simple dependence upon Himself, for His name's sake, "taking nothing of the Gentiles," Elisha-like, they refused anything that looked like payment tendered for the gift of God. Abraham-like, they would not be enriched by Sodom's king. Peter-like, they spurned the money of the unworthy that no evil taint might be upon their ministry, nor a salve be put upon the sinner's conscience. But it is far otherwise with the popular apostles of a Christless religion. Gehazi-like, they would run after every healed Naaman and beg or demand a fee. Lot-like, they pitch their tent towards, then build a house in, Sodom, and under Sodom's patronage. Like Simon Magus, whose very name gives title to this most odious of all sins, they practice their simony unblushingly and think indeed that the gift of God can be purchased with money. But the dark clouds of judgment are gathering overhead and soon they shall learn, as Balaam did, the folly of pursuing so evil a way.

"The gainsaying of Korah"

is the last of this unholy trinity of apostasy. The way of Cain is false religion. The error of Balaam is false ministry. The gainsaying of Korah is false worship and rebellion against Christ's authority.

Korah was not a priest, neither were any of his rebellious company. They were Levites whose business it was to attend to the outward service of the tabernacle. But lured on by pride they rose up against Moses and Aaron (typical of Christ as " the Apostle and High Priest of our confession") and setting aside. God's anointed, sought to force their way into His presence as priests to worship before Him, without divine warrant or title. This is what is everywhere prevalent to-day. Independent and inflated with a sense of their own self-importance, vain men openly rebel against the authority of the Lord as apostle and priest and dare to approach God as worshipers apart from Him, and ignore His claims. This is the kernel of Unitarianism, and the leaven that is fast permeating unbelieving Christendom. The cry that all men by nature are sons of God and need no mediating High Priest is heard on every hand, and will increase and spread as the end draws nearer.

Jude says of these apostates they "perished in the gainsaying of Korah." He speaks of their doom as a settled thing. Just as sure as judgment overtook the dwellers in the tents of wickedness of old, when the earth opened her mouth and Korah and all his company went down alive into the pit. So shall the yawning gulf of woe receive in due time these insolent rebels against the Lord of glory, in the day when He, who has borne with their impiety so long in grace, shall arise to judgment.

It is precious to read in Num. 26:11, "Notwithstanding the sons of Korah died not." Linked as they were by natural ties to the proud rebel, they chose a different course, and their children are heard singing, in Ps. 84, "I had rather sit on the threshold of the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Happy indeed is it for all who are numbered in the same holy company, and who, saved from going down to the pit, eschew the practices of all who go in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the error of Balaam for temporary reward, whose doom will be to perish in the gainsaying of Korah! H. A. I.

(To be continued.)

There is no glory halo
Round his devoted head,
No luster marks the sacred path
In which his footsteps tread,
Yet holiness is graven
Upon his thoughtful brow ;
And all his steps are ordered in
The light of Heaven e'en now.

He often is peculiar,
And oft misunderstood ;
And yet his power is felt by both
The evil and the good :
For he doth live in touch with Heaven –
A life of faith and prayer;
His sympathies, his hopes, his joys –
His all is centered there.

His body is God's temple,
His heart the Master's shrine,
He lives, and thinks, and speaks, and acts,
As moved by power divine.
His is the calm of Heaven –
The faith that can be still ;
For God revealeth unto him
The secrets of His will.

He is a chosen servant
Among God's many sons;
He bears His sayings on his lips,
And on His errands runs.
No human frown he feareth,
No earthly praise he seeks,
But in the dignity of Heaven
His burning message speaks.

He with delight most holy
Hangs o'er God's precious page;
There finds his path, and learns the end
Of this self-loving age.
In Jesus' sacred footprints
He long hath humbly trod;
A constant man of faith and prayer-
Such is the man of God.
I've found him in the workshop,
And in the busy street;
The plainest, simplest, humblest man
That one could wish to meet.
I've treasured up his sayings,
And marked his faithful ways;
And oft to follow in his steps
My longing spirit prays.

W. B.

Republished by request

In view of the rapid and portentous strides made by Christian Science today, it behooves Christians to know what is taught by a system which claims to be Christian, to revere the Bible, and to honor Christ.

For those who have neither time nor opportunity to investigate these claims the following quotations have been carefully culled. Unless otherwise stated, they are all from the text-book, '' Science and Health, and Key to the Scriptures," edition of 1909, and are followed by the numbers of page and line.

May the knowledge of what Christian Science is be used of God to the safeguarding of any of His own who may be in danger of becoming ensnared by this "wile of the devil "(Eph. 6:11). E. V. W.

"CHRISTIAN SCIENCE" CLAIMS TO BE:

God's gospel-page 11. The word of God-ed. '01, p. 497. The Holy Ghost-p. 46, line 30, and p. 43, 1. 8. Divine Science-p. 12, 1. 31. The Comforter-p. 55, 1. 29. Mind-healing-p. 52, 1. 22. The new wine of the Spirit-ed. '01, p. 8. The light shining in darkness, which the darkness
comprehends not- ed. ‘01, p.293.

FROM "ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST":

Another's suffering cannot lessen our own liability-p. 40, 1. 14.

One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin-p. 23, 1. 2. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part-p. 23, 1. 4.

Final deliverance from error is not reached by pinning one's faith without works to another's vicarious effort-p. 22, 1. 23. The eternal Christ, His spiritual selfhood, never suffered-p. 38, 1. 23.

HOW "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE" QUOTES THE BIBLE:

"The injunction, 'Believe, and thou shalt be saved,' demands self-reliant trustworthiness " -p. 23, 1. 28.

'' For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death of His Son "-p. 45, 1. 10.

"Jesus was 'the way'; that is, He marked the way for all men "-p. 46, 1. 25.

"CHRISTIAN SCIENCE" LOGIC:

He overcame the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving their nothingness-p. 39, 1. 4.

"CHRISTIAN SCIENCE" BLASPHEMY:

That God-like man-p. 54, 1. 29.

At the time when Jesus felt our infirmities He had not conquered all the beliefs of the flesh, or His sense of material life-p. 53, 1. 27.

The scourge and the cross awaited the great Teacher. Yet He swerved not, well knowing that to obey the divine order and trust God saves retracing and traversing anew the path from sin to holiness-p. 20, 1. 19.

The motherhood of God-ed. '01, p. 500.

"CHRISTIAN SCIENCE" TEACHES:
The soul is not in the body-p. 39, 1. 10.

There is no personal devil-p. 16,1. 18; p. 41,1. 32; p. 46, 1. 11.

There is no pleasure in sin-p. 39, 1. 32. There is no pain in Truth-ed. '01, p. 7. Man is not a mortal, but an immortal-p. 42,1. 28. There is a Purgatory, or place of probation after death-p. 36, 1. 21. "A probationary and progressive state beyond the grave "-p. 46, 1. 23. Our Lord spent a period of probation in the flesh-p. 35, 1. 15. To have a human father is unnecessary-p. 31,

1. 10. There should be a discontinuance of the marriage relation-p. 56, 1. 11; p. 57, 1. i; p. 57, 1. 27. Jesus was conceived by the Virgin Mary by the illumination of her spiritual sense. He was her ideal-p. 29,1. 17. The scientific explanation of the atonement is that suffering is an error of sinful sense which Truth destroys-p. 23, 1. 8.

And all this wicked, blasphemous doctrine deceitfully cloaked over by the name of " Christian "![Ed.

QUES. 4.-Will you please, through help and food, give the meaning of Acts 19:6? We find in Acts 2 :1-4 the Holy Spirit given to the Jews, and in Acts 10:45-48 poured out on the Gentiles. Also, in Eph. 1:13, that a soul, upon believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, is sealed with the Spirit. Why, then, this delay in Acts 19:6?

ANS.-Because the Holy Spirit is not given in connection with John's baptism, which was only unto repentance. John did not preach salvation through an accomplished work by Christ; he preached repentance. He said so himself:"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance:but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" (Matt. 3:11). Repentance is but a preparatory work to let Christ in; and, important and of absolute necessity as it is, it is not what the Holy Spirit dwells with. It is Christ He has come to glorify, and it is faith in Christ which He seals and dwells with.

But there is evidently more than this involved in the case of Acts 19:6; for even after they have received Christian baptism they do not receive the Holy Spirit until Paul laid hands on them. Is it not for a reason similar to that seen in chap. 8 :14-17 ? " Salvation is of the Jews,",the Lord had said to a Samaritan, for the Samaritans had left the worship of God at Jerusalem to follow after golden calves. They must be made to feel therefore the shame of their departure. Though they had received the word of God and Christian baptism, men from Jerusalem must come and pray for them, and lay hands on them, and then they receive the Holy Ghost.

So here now at Ephesus :God is disowning Jerusalem. Him true testimony is not there now; for they would keep alive a Judaism He has cast off. It is from there indeed that disturbers and corrupters of Christianity issue. The true testimony is with Paul, and these Jewish believers are made to know it by their receiving the Spirit through the laying on of his hands.

QUES. 5.-Would you please say in help and food if the following paragraph, which I recently read, teaches the truth? "It is only in the ' old man' that the devil finds anything upon which he can carry out his work; and as we reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God, his temptations to sin find no place in us. As we hourly and momentarily so live unto God, we shall know He is able to save and to keep His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21), and others shall know it too."

ANS.-We do not believe that one truly taught of God would thus mix the devil with indwelling sin. Scripture does not so. Romans, chapters 5 and 6, treats very fully of indwelling sin, and of the manner of hindering its activity ; there is not one word there about the devil. We hear much of him in Ephesians-an altogether different sphere, and the one where his activities are now displayed.

The use of Matt. 1:21 in this connection would indicate the writer knows little as to redemption, and is more taken up with his life before men than with his relations with God.

This is a time when men are more ready to speak than to hear, and much is said and printed which, if not positively evil, only befogs God's people.

In this book we learn of man's pathway on earth, of his sojourn on it, and his life, with all its varied exercises and bitter experiences. The eye sees, the ear hears, the heart tries to find satisfaction; but it cannot:all the searching; after happiness on earth without the true knowledge of Christ and of the redemption which is by His blood is vain. It cannot be found under the sun. The knowledge acquired in such a search only increases sorrow (chap. 1:18). Ecclesiastes' world-the place of man's birth, life, death-is like Joseph's empty sepulcher:Christ, the only source of true happiness, "is not here."He is in heaven; and that is a sphere into which this book does not see, cannot enter; f or it is above the sun, and the range of the book rises not above the sun.

Its last chapter gives us the end of life under the sun, after a dark and dismal day, with many bitter sorrows and disappointments. The end is reached, death and burial are recorded, "and the mourners go about the streets"; but all beyond is left under a pall of darkness. There is no light for the future, and no communications regarding that bright glory where Christ is all, and in all.

What a gloomy world from such a standpoint! And all this is the record given, under God's ordering, by a philosopher, a poet, a preacher, and a king. One may be all this, and yet have no light. Sin has made the world what it now is. Yet one day, not far distant, there will be a great change. When the Lord returns, the world will be a true home for man, -for Israel, and for the nations then upon the earth. His presence in glory will demand that every knee bow to Him, and the knowledge of Him shall be spread out and cover the whole earth as the waters do the bed of the sea. This knowledge will be in contrast to that described in Ecclesiastes. There will be in it no increase of sorrow, but of joy and peace. A. E. B.

QUES. 16.-Will you please tell us what is meant in 1 John 5 :16,17 by the sin not unto death which we are to pray tor, and the sin unto death of which the Spirit writes, "I do not say that he shall pray for it " ?

Some of us are not absolutely clear on this matter, and would like to know what you can tell us on this subject.

ANS.-It is the government of God among His redeemed people. The doctrine of it is seen in 1 Cor. 11:29-32. The grace of God was being taken advantage of among the Corinthians, as we see in chap. 5 of the same epistle. This is hateful to God. But He never imputes iniquity to His people ; so He chastens them, even unto removing them from the earth by death. We have a striking illustration of this given in detail in Acts 5:3-5-Ananias and Sapphira.

"All unrighteousness is sin" ; and when we see a brother in unrighteousness, we may well pray for him; for who knows the end of it? All sin, in the end, leads to the judgment of God. But there is sin of such great guilt, or of such public dishonor to God, that power for the prayer of faith on behalf of such an offender will not be given. The summary judgment of God in such a case is the only adequate means of meeting the sin.

QUES. 17.-Does "in hope of eternal life " (Titus 1) refer to a hope of which the promise of God before age-times was the basis and inspiration in Old Testament times, now manifested and realized in the gospel; or does it refer to the hope of glory in another scene, with which the present possession of eternal life is linked? In other words, does the word "hope" in this passage carry us backward or forward ?

ANS.-We believe it covers the whole ground, both backward and forward. The first creation ruined, God announces another which begins with the New Birth and ends in eternal glory. " In hope of eternal life" stands thus in broad contrast with the ruin of the present life, and the attending consequences.

QUES. 18.-Is it according to Scripture to have family worship- that is, to assemble the family every day for reading of the Scriptures and prayer? And if the husband (a believer) takes no part, is the wife free to do it ?

ANS.-Not only is it according to Scripture to have family worship, but it is most contrary to all Scripture not to have it. Even in Old Testament times they were commanded, "Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul. . . . And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deut. 11:18, 19).

In the New Testament, "And. ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath :but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). Timothy "from a child" knew the Holy Scriptures. How? By his godly mother and grandmother. Indeed, there is no place where the Scriptures can ever be learned like in the home circle, and where piety can ever be so well cultivated. The Sunday-school, the meetings of God's people, are a great help and blessing, but they are only at stated times:the home is always-from morning till night.

The family is a divine institution, and there is the seed-time for every good thing, the beginnings which have no endings, for good or 99:There is none in all the earth with as much responsibility toward my children as myself, and none who can exert so deep and lasting an influence.

Did parents realize this sufficiently, they could not allow the cares of earth to dismiss the, at least, one daily family worship.

If the father does not lead it, the mother is most surely free to do it, and God will bless her and her children in it.

QUES. 19.-Should children of Christian parents be taught from infancy that God is their Heavenly Father, aud to pray to Him as such?

ANS.-It would be a grave error to teach them that God is their Father apart from the truth that they are sinners needing salvation, and that repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to become children of God. Faith in us can count upon God's promise (Acts 16:31); but conscience must be exercised in them, or it will be but a superficial thing.

Our children being "holy" (1 Cor. 7:14), we can associate them with us in all our home worship and Christian exercises ; but they are sinners by nature as others, and must be faithfully taught the way of salvation. In their prayers they will, of course, address God as their Father ; for it is the character in which He has revealed Himself in the New Testament; but that is a different thing from teaching them that God is their Father. This is to be left to themselves, and to come in a natural way.

QUES, 20.-We are told in Scripture, "Forsake not the assembling of "yourselves together." There are none near me who as-semble in the name of the Lord Jesus alone, and as member! of His body only; they are all denominational assemblies. What am I to do?

ANS.-To forsake the assembling of ourselves with God's people where they assemble according to God, indicates a bad state of soul. To refuse to identify ourselves with assemblies which are not according to God, is faithfulness. If we walk with God in secret, in our loneliness, He will not only bless us, but also make us a blessing in the end.

Service versus Communion.

A little incident recently came to our ears which illustrates so well a great matter that we give it to our readers as it came to us :

A loved and loving daughter made up her mind to work with her own hands a pair of slippers for her father's nearing birthday. She had to use every spare moment to accomplish the task in due time; and as she wished it to be a surprise, she had to hide from her father a good deal. Instead of welcoming him at the door, as was her wont when he returned home from his work, she had fled away up-stairs several times at sight of him through the window where she was working at the slippers.

Finally the birthday came, and the beautiful slippers were presented to her father. "Is this, my darling child, what has deprived me of late so much of your company ? Well, I value the love expressed in the work, and thank you for it; but oh, my child, never again do such a thing. Your company and communion are worth to me more than all the work you can do."

Is not this just the lesson the word of God teaches us in Martha and Mary? (Luke ro :38-42.) The Lord loved them both, and both loved the Lord:but Mary knew the Lord's heart as Martha did not:she abode therefore at His feet listening to Him and enjoying communion with Him while Martha was cumbered about much serving. Martha's chosen portion would be taken away therefore, for service is a thing of time; but Mary's would abide, for the communion of love is the very atmosphere of heaven our eternal home.

May we be " steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," for we know that labor in the Lord is not in vain; but let not our service be of such importance in our eyes as to cause neglect of intercourse with the Lord Himself-neglect of His word and of prayer.

If we do, it will make our service savorless; it will cause us to be disobedient to the word of God where that word interferes with our ideas. Happy are they who, full of the joy of the Lord-the fruit of communion-serve unweariedly in the obedience which has no reserve.

" I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." (Zeph. 3:12.)

Such will be the remnant- those of faith-of the unbelieving nation of Israel just preceding the return in glory of the Lord whom they once rejected. To them He comes, and bids them now "be glad and rejoice with all the heart . . . the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee :thou shalt not see evil any more" (vers. 14 and 15).

Are not present Christian times, just before the return of our Lord and the rapture of the Church, in principle like those Jewish times ? Who that sees present Christian conditions from end to end of Christendom-sees them with the eye of God-can fail to be a mourner, and afflicted ? Who that means to live by every word of God can avoid sharing the affliction and reproach that truth is now in ? Who that purposes in his heart to obey the truth unreservedly will not find himself with a company of afflicted and poor people ? Where is the man who, determined to declare the whole counsel of God, can abide in peace to-day even in that which still calls itself orthodox ?

Shall we then cease from "the good fight" because all odds are against the faith and cast reproach upon it ? Why should we ? It is a sign of the near fulfilment of our hope. Our redemption is nigh. The coming of the Lord is at hand. While afflicted on the way for a little while, the Holy Spirit -"the earnest of our inheritance"-fixes our eyes on the eternal joys of the nearing end.

"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7.)

This passage does not mean that cleansing by the blood of Christ is a continuous thing. (1 John 1:7.) It is not so at all. The believer is cleansed once for all by the blood of Christ, just as Christ shed His blood once for all, never again to be repeated. Heb. 10 :1-22 teaches us this most forcibly. Believers are "sanctified (set apart to God) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (ver. 10). They never need a second application of the blood of Christ, "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified " (ver. 14).

We need Christ as Advocate (i John 2 :i) every time we, believers, sin; we need Him constantly as Priest (Heb. 7:24-27), for in our life with God we are in incessant need-a need which He alone can supply ; but as Saviour, the One who delivers us from the wrath to come, we meet Him thus once- "once for all." All thought of Him as Saviour after that is remembrance-the sweetest, indeed, of all remembrances, for time and all eternity.

QUES. 31.-If there is known sin in the assembly and it is unjudged by them, can the assembly count on Christ being in their midst?

ANS.-Such an assembly will not be much concerned whether Christ is in their midst or not. All Christians know that Christ abhors sin; that He had to go through untold suffering to put it away; if they are not concerned therefore about its being practiced among them, neither will they be concerned about having Christ in their midst. The two stand or fall together:unconcern about sin is unconcern about Christ, and this is Laodicea-a state of things at whose door Christ stands calling upon His own who may yet have an ear to hear.

But we apprehend that your question goes farther than this, and that it asks if other Christians, outside such an assembly, can consider it as having no more the presence of Christ in their midst. To this we reply that we do not believe any man has the power to pronounce on such a matter. It belongs fo the Lord alone. He never asks us therefore in His word to leave an assembly because Christ is no more in the midst of it, but because unrighteousness is there, and there in power. To judge that Christ is not there is assumption-a dangerous thing to say the least. As it cannot be proved, it cannot control the conscience. To "depart from unrighteousness," which is God's word and way (2 Tim. 2:19), is obedience-the true Christian mind; and this controls the real conscience, for unrighteousness can always be proved.

In such presumptive mind some have professed to decide which among the various parties of Christians has the Lord's table, and which has the exclusive right to ecclesiastical recognition. All this has unholy ends, for it is born of pride and destroys the sense of right or wrong, so frightfully illustrated in the church of Rome. The spirit of obedience is not so. It can give "Thus saith the Lord " for every step it takes.

QUES. 32.-1 Cor. 14 gives, I believe, the order of God in the assembly of His people, and verse 31 makes it evident that order is not a one-man ministry since "all may prophesy one by one." In the use of this God-given liberty may there not be abuse ? May not some forward brother (and such are not always the most able to edify) take advantage of the liberty and oppress the assembly to the grief of the Holy Spirit?

ANS.-Most assuredly. There is not one privilege which man has not abused, and the high privilege of freedom of ministry is no exception. Where the true character and purposes of ministry is realized, however, men will not think of its freedom; they will think of its responsibility, and see to it that they minister in communion with God. It any one does not, but abuses the privilege to the detriment of the assembly, in kindness and love let the assembly tell him so.

Rev. 2:2 plainly shows that the assembly is responsible to prove if what ministry comes to them is really sent by the Lord. It is responsible therefore to judge of the character of what is ministered among them. A man who ministers in communion with God always edifies.

QUES. 33.-Are the "Dunkards" or "Tunkers " sound in the faith? We are much among them and can find out little about what they hold, save that they seem very strong on baptism and taking no medicine. A little information would be gratefully received.

ANS.-As far as we know they hold to the fundamentals of Christianity. They are little occupied with truth however, but much with externals, especially the manner of baptism, washing of feet, peculiar dress, etc. From what we have heard among themselves the burden of their preaching is against pride, but it seems to be limited to the pride of dress and like external things.

The salvation which God's grace has provided in Christ for lost man, when possessed, is that which alone reaches and breaks up all pride. As elsewhere generally, one hears very little of Christ among them. In the world of eternal things it will matter little in what manner we have been baptized, or what has been the shape of our garments, but it will matter greatly what place the Lord Jesus Christ has occupied in our hearts. The more fully He dwells there the less legal or taken up with externals we are, though it will regulate our life through and through, for "We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the game image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord " (2 Cor. 3:18).

QUES. 34.-Are men possessed with demons to-day as in the time of Christ, and spoken of in Malt. 8:28, or has His death and resurrection changed that condition of things in any way ?

ANS.-Yes, the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the descent of the Holy Ghost and the introducing of a dispensation of heavenly things has made a great change. It has changed the sphere and character of Satan's work, as it has changed the sphere and character of God's work. When God's work and blessing were of an earthly and material nature, the opposition of Satan was in the same things. Now that God's work and blessing are of a heavenly and spiritual nature, the opposition of Satan follows there too. Eph. 6 :12 plainly shows this, and 1 Tim. 4 tells the character of the present working of demons.

Blessed are they who are under the entire control of the word of God that they may escape the deadly snares of the "perilous times" in which we are.

Other questions for future Nos., (D. V.)

QUES. 40.-What course should the Assembly take toward a brother in a case similar to 1 Cor. 5, if he had confessed his sin before it became known, and they were satisfied he was broken about it? Had it become public, and he was charged with it, and he confessed it, and the assembly was satisfied he was truly repentant, should he then be put away ?

ANS.-Discipline in the house of God has two principal objects :the holiness of God, and the restoration of the offender. In connection with this the principle of God is, " If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." If the offender therefore judge himself, who can judge him ? What is there to be judged ? This is the principle of salvation itself:If the sinner condemns himself,
he has Christ for his Saviour, and there is therefore no condemnation for him. So it is with the saint who offends. It may be far more painful for him to judge himself, because, when he sins, he sins in the light, and this is great guilt. But when he does judges himself, Christ is on his side-his advocate. Who then will be his accuser? 2 Cor. 12 :20, 21 illustrates this. It seems evident by the language of verse 21 that the apostle would have no thought of discipline in his mind if the sins mentioned were repented of by the offenders.

Of course, in the sins which come to the knowledge of the assembly, it is the assembly's responsibility to determine if the offender has truly judged himself. In the first phase of your question there is little to be feared as to genuineness of the repentance. None would be likely to confess a sin which no one knows unless his conscience were in exercise before God. In the second occasion mentioned, much greater care would be required. The offender might well be placed as one in the Old Testament suspected of leprosy (Lev. 13) until it is evident to all that the sin is judged not only because it has been discovered, but because it is seen in the light of the holiness of God. What concerns the assembly most deeply is sin working-sin that is unjudged, active. It was active in Achan, therefore his judgment; also in the man of 1 Cor. 5, therefore his judgment also. 2 Cor. 2 :6, however, gives also the thought of "punishment" in discipline. There may be cases therefore in which the offender has brought such great public dishonor on the name of the Lord that only a public judgment by the assembly will meet the requirement. But whatever kind of sin it be, whether judged by the offender himself or not, it is ever cause for humiliation and confession in the assembly-the only right mind in which discipline of any kind can be exercised. Nothing, perhaps, tests the state of an assembly more than discipline. 2 Cor. 2 :9 shows that its exercise is required partly in view of this. Insubordinate Christians cannot exercise it aright. They are either opposed to it, or tyrannical in it.

Truth held in the power of the Spirit delivers us from self and self-occupation, and engages our thoughts with Christ. This silences the flesh. A mind plagued with evil thoughts is plain proof that we have not been taken up with the riches of God's grace in Christ Jesus.

"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God " (2 John 9).

It is not sound doctrine which makes us Christians, any more than good works makes us Christians; but as the good works which God has ordained for His people to walk in prove us to be true Christians, so does sound doctrine. Departing, therefore, from the doctrines which form the foundations of Christianity proves us to be only counterfeit Christians-not real, not born anew, not washed in the blood of the Lamb. Even in those who are real Christians, and who therefore could never surrender "the doctrine of Christ," whatever false doctrine they may intelligently hold in matters not fundamental, only proves there is self-will-unjudged pride. The doctrine of our heart tells plainly and unmistakably our state. A man after God's own heart gets his doctrine from God's own word; he is subject to it from end to end. He forces no part to introduce something of his own.

The very brief but sweet epistle in which our text is found warns a Christian lady against those who "transgress," that is, who are "progressive," as they call it now. They "abide " not in the doctrine of Christ; they invent something of their own, as though what God revealed at the beginning had grown out of date and were no longer true; or they wrest the Scriptures so as to make them say what they want them to say.

At no time perhaps since Christ came has this state of things been as prevalent as now. What need, hen, for watchfulness among the people of God! What need to live by every word which proceedeth from the mouth of God, and by it and prayer keep in close touch with God Himself! The men who depart most from the word of God plead most for "love." It is deception. "This is love," says the apostle of love, "that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it" (ver. 6).

"Confess your faults one to another." (James 5:16)

'There is perhaps nothing that contributes more to the general welfare of God's people than confessing our faults one to another when in anything we have wronged one another. It establishes Christian confidence, because we see the work of conscience. Even among men generally, what produces confidence is conscience; when conscience cannot be trusted, confidence departs.

Among those who love our Lord Jesus Christ, and know the truth, there is the greatest danger of a subtle form of self-righteousness which stands in the way of the confession of sins:we know that if we sin, it is because there is something wrong in our spiritual condition; we have not walked in communion with God; and to have all this suggested by confessing our sins is too much for our pride. Therefore we do violence to our conscience; we hide our sins; we even find some self-satisfying excuse for them; a crust gets over our souls, and our spiritual senses are blunted.

The Lord give us grace not to sin, but, if we have sinned, to have the needed humbleness of mind to make confession to whomsoever it is due.

"The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" (Luke 16:8).
In Matt. 19:29 the Lord encourages the hearts of His own by telling them that "every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." There is need of encouragement in this, for on the way they may find themselves suffering from having forsaken some of these things for Christ's sake. The Lord knows this, and He would cheer them through the difficulties.

In our text, however, He would exercise their consciences by shaming them with the greater wisdom of "the children of this world." These have their all on earth, and they know how to invest so as to secure the earth and all the good things it has to give. But of His own Christ said, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world "; this is a fact; it depends not on their practice; by His calling they belong to heaven, and no more to the world; but as He looks at their practice, with sadness of heart He has to say, "The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light," for they of this world know how to sow abundantly for the earth, that they may reap of the earth abundantly; but the children of light sow sparingly for heaven; and they, of course, will also reap sparingly.

Oh what loss for the people of God, whose only opportunity to sow for an eternal harvest is now!

QUES. 7. – Did the apostles, in writing the New Testament, understand all they wrote; or did the Holy Spirit, in inspiring them, lead them to write beyond their understanding ?

ANS. – Had you asked this concerning the Old Testament writers, we would have said, "No; the writers had not the full understanding of all they wrote, and this on the ground of 1 Peter 1:10-12." Concerning the New Testament writers, however, it is different, as 1 Cor. 2 :10-16 shows. Christ had come, unlocking by the Cross all the great purposes of God. In consequence, the Holy Spirit had come and taken up His abode in the saints to give them the full intelligence of these purposes. It seems evident that, in unfolding them, the writers themselves understood fully all they wrote. Nevertheless, the perfection of what the Spirit gave by their means is a matter that neither they nor we have fathomed. Many things too in the simple narrative of the Gospels, the Acts, in Rev. 1-3, etc., etc., have such marvelous connections and dispensational application that it is hardly possible that the instrument used in writing could possibly have apprehended.

QUES. 8.-What is meant in Rev. 3:5 by "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life " ? Can any one's name be blotted out of that?

ANS.-It seems so plainly from chapter 22:19. It cannot be, however, " the Lamb's book of life " (chap. 21:27); for this one is surely kept with inerrant precision. There is no doubt the " book of life," here, is the record of our confession of faith in Christ, and of discipleship, in which, by our profession, we have as it were written our own name.

QUES. 9.-Is Rev. 3:19, 20 a purely individual communion? and is the assembly, or collective testimony, disowned?

ANS.-This is plainly individual communion here, as indeed all true communion must ever be. It is also plain that God is here about to spew out of His month that which calls itself the Church ; but it must not be forgotten that Philadelphia goes on to the end, as well as Thyatira and Sardis ; and that such in Laodicea as sup with Him, and He with them, are not Laodicean in character, but Philadelphian. Nor is God less pleased with their collective testimony than in brighter times. The admonition, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together," is the more urgent "as we see the day approaching." We need not surely, in so doing, call ourselves Philadelphia, nor pretend to anything, but the Lord will prove His pleasure in us.

QUES. 10.-What do the two sons and the servants of Luke 15 :11-32 represent ?

ANS.-First of all, in the pictures such as this given in Scripture there is one special lesson intended to be taught. If we want to make every detail teach, instead of gathering the great central lesson, we shall miss the object the Spirit has in view.

The two sons represent the two classes mentioned in verses 1 and 2 ; the younger one is the publicans and sinners; the elder, the Pharisees and scribes. The servants (not hired servants, as the Prodigal calls them) would naturally make us think of the angels.

QUES. 11.-Scripture says, "Woman praying, or prophesying, with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head." (1) Does this mean her husband only, or her brethren also ? (2) Does it mean audibly, or in private prayer also, as its being on account of the angels seems to indicate? (3) Does the covering mean the hair itself? (4) Does this apply to house-to-house meetings as well?

ANS.-(1) "The head of the woman is the man." So, in praying or prophesying with uncovered head, she dishonors man in general, not merely her husband. (2) It means anywhere when in the attitude of prayer. Wherever the man should uncover his bead, the woman should cover hers. (3) No; the hair is only the sign that she should be covered-put on a covering ; as the short hair on man is a sign that he should be uncovered-put off his covering. (4) Yes ; however informal the covering may be, it is God's order in all places where we have to do with His holy things.

QUES. 12.-Would it be wrong for a Christian to marry a woman who is good and gentle, with uplifting ideals and high aspirations, a professing Christian, yet evidently a stranger to Christ?

ANS.-Children of God may be very ignorant of truth which, when presented to them in love, they will receive with gladness. If, however, one is truly a stranger to Christ, giving no sign of a real conversion, it matters not how lovely his natural disposition maybe:the plain language of Scripture to the Christian is, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:. . . for what communion hath light with darkness? … or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" (2 Cor. 6 :14, 15.) If the children of God violate the word of God in any part, they may rest assured of reaping bitter fruit.

Is it not already a mark of a bad spiritual state for a Christian to form an attachment at all with one who is not a Christian?

Strangers and pilgrims." (Heb. 11:13.)

This wonderful chapter brings before us the long line of God's hosts who, one and all, have illustrated what faith is, and have thus delighted the heart of God in that they have trusted Him when they had nothing but His word to rest on:" These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." It was what they saw afar off which captivated them, made them let go "the things which are seen," made them now strangers among those things which absorb others, and pilgrims through a world in which the rest of men labor to establish themselves.

Though put last, as climax and perfect example (chap. 12:2), our Lord Jesus Christ heads that great line. He is the Beginner, or Head, of the whole line, and He has finished the course of faith, and reached its end. He was therefore, par excellence, the "Stranger and Pilgrim" here. He saw vividly those glorious things "afar off," for He lived in them. He never doubted their being made good in the due time of God's wisdom; He embraced them; "for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame." Oh, how unspeakably blessed to be in the ranks of that vast procession, headed by the Lord Jesus, wending its way through an unbelieving, mocking, sometimes angry world.

"A fugitive and a vagabond in the earth." (Gen. 4:14.) In contrast with what we have just been viewing stands that earth." disturbed world. Is it a wonder that such a procession passing through it should disturb it? It declares by its trend that indeed the world is " a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth."A fugitive, running away from God, and therefore in the opposite direction from us who are going on to meet God with holy joy :a vagabond, living in unrestrained self-will, all accountability to God thrown off, while we insist that God is absolute sovereign; that every man owes Him absolute obedience; that we condemn in our own selves every disobedience to Him.

O brethren, should we not shun with jealous care everything which would lessen the contrast between the two ? They cling to this scene of death:do we ? They seek pleasure in it :do we ? They lay up treasure in it:do we ? They make themselves a name in it:do we ?

May the Lord Jesus so satisfy our hearts that the great burden of our lives may be to be found in the footsteps His feet have made for us here as the great leader and finisher of faith.

Is it so ?

One of our correspondents writes, "The Lord was never called merely 'Jesus' by any but His enemies. His own called Him 'Master, and Lord'; and 'Ye say well; for so I am.' When He gives His own name (blessed Lord), it is,

" ' I am Jesus, whom thou persecutes!.'

" ' I, Jesus, have sent Mine angel."

' As for us:

" 'Who art Thou, Lord?

" 'Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ?'

" 'John said, It is the Lord:

"'Lord, is it I?' etc., etc."

We give this to the circle of our readers for their examination and search. Our space, month by month, seems to grow more limited; so we beg that if replies are sent for publication, they be as concise as possible. As the Darby translation is generally conceded to be of closest adherence to the text, it may be used in citing passages for proof or disproof of the brother's statement. Technical terms are not our object, but what is suitable in our hearts and on our lips toward our adorable Lord-so great, yet so lowly; so lowly, yet so great.

( Continued from page 205.)

The blessings which grace bestows along with justification by faith are all, as we have seen, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this suggests the idea of many being involved by the act of one, and sharing the results of that act. Possibly the thought was before the apostle's mind as an objection raised by some to his teaching. At all events, he fully indorses the idea. If the word "wherefore " is changed to the expression, "with reference to this" (which is really the force of the words in the original), the meaning is made more simple. Thus the apostle's argument is:With regard to the justified being involved in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and sharing in its results, it is the same as it is with sin and death coming into the world by one man. Many are involved by the one sin of Adam, and share in the results of that sin.

There is no other explanation of the fact that the children of Adam universally have a corrupted moral nature. The moral nature of man was first corrupted in him-our progenitor. Having become corrupted in him, it has passed on naturally as an inheritance to his descendants. They have a fallen, sinful nature through him. All his children are thus involved in his fall and ruin-the many involved by the act of the one.

As regards death, it is the penalty of sin. It was by sin that death came to Adam, but the death that came thus to him has passed on to his descendants. Involved in his moral ruin by his sin, deriving from him his fallen, sinful nature, to be righteously ex-empted from the death he brought in by sin, his children must establish a right to live. Not one has ever done this. They all sin, and so death justly passes to them. In the holy government of God it would be impossible to exempt from death the sinning children of Adam, although it is not their sinning that brought death into the world. It was brought into the world by the sin of Adam. It came in thus under the government of God as pen-ally for sin, and it necessarily passes to all that sin -which all do.* * The apostle is not here taking the case of infants and idiots into consideration. It is quite true that they have, as an inheritance from Adam, a corrupt nature, and die. They are, so far, involved by his one act of disobedience. Still, when the apostle says, "For all have sinned," he must be exempting infants and idiots. He surely exempts them in chap. 3 :23.Those who die in infancy ,in irresponsibility, are exempt from a judgment of "deeds done in the body."It is of those in responsibility that the apostle says, " For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Even their responsible die, for they are linked by the body with the old creation which must pass away. But there is no reason why they will not have part in the first resurrection. If we view them in their irresponsibility as exempted from judgment their case presents no difficulty.* Righteously, therefore, all die.

The law did not alter this. It was a special system of dealing with man; a system in which sin was taken note of in detail, and under which sin became transgression, and was thus shown to be in nature and character enmity to God. If death thus rightly reigned under law, it is still true that it rightly reigned when and where there was no law; for it was not law that brought death into the world; it came in by sin, and sin was in the world before law.

The principle, then, of many being affected by the act of one is clearly established by appealing to undoubted historical fact. The entire human race is involved in the one act of disobedience by which the moral nature of our progenitor became corrupted. The universal reign of death is a sufficient appeal to demonstrate the principle of many sharing in the consequences of the act of one.

Now Adam, looked at as the fountain-head of the stream of fallen, sinful humanity, a race of sinners, sharing in the disastrous results of his sinful act, is a " figure " of Christ. He, too, is the Head of a race, a spiritual race, all of whom are involved in His blessed obedience unto death, and share in its glorious consequences. The principles we have been considering are as true in connection with Christ as they are in connection with Adam.

However, before the apostle draws his conclusions from the argument he is using, he stops to point out certain features connected with those two fountain-heads in which they stand in remarkable contrast, and in which Christ abundantly exceeds over Adam. While Adam is a type of Christ, and thus in certain features there is a similarity between them, there are three features in which there is dissimilarity. The dissimilarity consists in this, that in the case of Adam there is the measuring of penalty in exact righteousness; while with Christ there is a wealth of blessing that far exceeds the need that has to be met. It is a "much more" than the recovery of a position and condition that have been lost. It is the gaining a much higher place and a condition of blessing infinitely greater than those which were forfeited by sin.

Let us look at the three features in which the dissimilarity between the first man, Adam, and the Second Man, the last Adam, is so strongly emphasized.

First, there is a difference between "the offence " of the one and '' the free gift" which is by the Other. By Adam's one offence death has been transmitted to "the many" who have sprung from him. The death that came to Adam as penalty for sin has passed on in that character to those that have descended from him. Now the "free gift" by Christ, conferred on "the many" to whom it is given to "live by Him," abounds for them far beyond their deliverance from death, the penalty of sin. It means for them life in the abundance of its power. It is "much more" than salvation from the death duly and righteously deserved. It is the positive reality and blessedness of living with God.

Again, there is dissimilarity between the effects of " the one sin " and the effects of "the gift." A state of condemnation was established by one sin. One sin produced a subsisting state of condemnation. One sin brought it in. The gift through Christ has established a state of righteousness. An abiding, subsisting state of righteousness is the effect of the gift by Christ. This established state of positive righteousness is "much more" than deliverance out of the state of condemnation. The gift does indeed deliver out of the state of condemnation, taking full cognizance of the accumulation of offences; but beyond the deliverance from the condemnation, there is the provision of a state of positive righteousness, which is one of abiding acceptance. This is a righteousness already produced, fully accomplished-a completed righteousness conferred by God in grace. How blessed to have it thus as the transcending favor of God!

The third feature in which there is dissimilarity relates to the final results. Through the offence of the one, there has come in by the one a reign of death. It has been an absolute reign-a reign of irresistible power. Now on the other hand there are those "who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness." It is not merely deliverance from the power of death, from its reign and triumph, but a "much more," by which they themselves are "more than conquerors." By the power of the life grace confers on them, they themselves reign. The life they have is life through and in the living, victorious Man, Jesus Christ. In this life they reign. What an abundance of grace!

Now we have seen that in verses 12-14 the apostle sets before us the features in which there is similarity between Adam and Christ; and in verses 15-17 the features in which there is dissimilarity. In verses 18-21 we get his conclusions. To rightly understand these we must keep in mind the dissimilarity as well as the similarity; the unlikeness as well as the likeness; the features in which there is contrast as well as the features in which there is resemblance. In other words, we must not forget the "much more" and the "abundance" of verses 15-17 while we are considering the apostle's summing up of his argument.

There are three conclusions that the argument leads to. First, by one offence there was brought in for all men a state of condemnation. The one act of Adam operated in the way of establishing a subsisting state of condemnation for all men. So, too, by one righteousness there has been brought in for all men an abiding state of righteousness. Before his fall Adam lived in a state of innocence. But it was living under conditions of testing, and so was not in an abiding state of righteousness. When he fell, he came into a new state. After he sinned, he was no longer under testing in innocence. He was in a new condition entirely. It was a state of condemnation. Condemnation was connected with the new condition in which he lived. This state of condemnation was brought in by his one offence. His one offence bringing in such a state, determined for all men a living in a state of condemnation.

Now Christ by His one righteousness has established an abiding state of righteousness. He is living in such a state. The abiding state of righteousness in which He lives is a provision He has made for all men. Just as Adam by his one offence passed out of a state of testing in innocence into a state of living under condemnation, so Christ by His one righteousness has passed out of a state of living in which He was in relation to sin (always personally sinless, of course), into a state in which He lives no more in reference to sin, but to God-a state of subsisting righteousness. He has passed out of a state in which He had to do with sin and death. He now lives in a state in which He no more has to do with them. He has established a state of abiding righteousness in the behalf of all men.

The apostle is affirming here the all-sufficiency of the provision of this state of righteousness. It has been established as a provision for all men. It is available for all. If any have difficulty about it, let
them remember the apostle, in the verse we are considering, is not speaking of the final results of either the one act of Adam or of Christ. He is speaking of the bearing of their acts. Just as the one offence of Adam was toward all for a state of condemnation, so the one righteousness of Christ is toward all for a state of subsisting righteousness of life.

Again, in speaking of a state of condemnation, he does not say "of life." Those who are living in this state are living in a state that is really death. When he speaks of a state of abiding righteousness, then he says, "of life." Those who are in this state are the only ones who are really living. They live by Him who has established a state of life in unchanging righteousness.

In verse 19 we get a second conclusion. By the disobedience of one the many springing from him have been caused to be sinners. They are sinners by the fact of inheriting his corrupt moral nature. So, too, on the other hand, by the obedience of Christ those who derive life and nature from Him, by that very fact have a life and nature in which they are righteous. They are not righteous in themselves, but in Him by whom they live. In Him they are holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable. In the life and nature they have derived from Him, the righteous One, they are in life and nature righteous. By His one obedience they have been caused to be righteous.

We must now look at the third conclusion-verses 20, 21. Here the apostle refers to the introduction of law as a special dealing with man. It did not bring in sin and death, but caused the offence to abound. It turned sin into transgression. It demonstrated sin to be, in its essential character, enmity against God. It was given as a special system of dealing with man for that very purpose. But law did not bring either sin or death into the world. They were already in the world when the law was given. If sin reigned unto death under law, it did before law also. Nevertheless, whether in the time of law or before it, wherever sin abounded grace has abounded in a far more abundant measure. In every age-time there have been those who received " abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness." They reigned in life-a life not derived from the first Adam, but from Him of whom he is a "figure." They were involved in the one obedience. They were sharers in the results of the one righteousness.

How glorious these triumphs of the grace that is through Jesus Christ! How glorious, whatever the age-time, whether before law, after law came, now, or in the age-times to come!

If now sin has reigned in death, the reign of grace through righteousness is unto eternal life. While Old Testament believers derived their life-the life in which they reigned-from Him that then was to come, yet they did not have the life in the abundance and fulness of its power in which it is possessed by those who receive it now. But even we who derive life from Christ in this Christian age do not yet possess it in its most abundant power. For this all receivers of the " abundant grace " must wait until life is possessed in its final condition.

But this final condition-a condition that is permanent and eternal-is the assured portion of all the recipients of the grace that reigns through righteousness. All who derive life and nature from the second Fountain-head live by Him. Living by Him, they are more than victors. The end will be the completion of the triumph of grace, living by Him still, but having life in its final and unchanging condition.

Now we must notice that the apostle adds, " through Jesus Christ our Lord." He has fully justified the principle of many being involved in the act of one, and sharing in the consequences of the act. Thus, in adding here, "through Jesus Christ," he reaffirms the principles.

Christ, then, is a new fountain, or source of life. Those who derive life from Him-the receivers of grace, the justified-live by and in Him. This fact assures of final and complete salvation-a salvation that will embrace the body. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord" (Jas. 5:7).

We cannot settle anything by prayer which God has already settled in His word. He has revealed His whole mind to us there. He has therefore nothing more to say. We may be puzzled, through ignorance of His word or through self-will, about what He has said and we may therefore have plenty of reason to pray and supplicate for light, but we may rest assured that He has nothing more to communicate, no more revelation to make, no new principles to add. When He speaks again it will be to seal forever every word of His holy Book, either by His rewards to them who have been obedient to it, or His judgment upon them who have been disobedient.

Obedient child of God, only be patient. The coming of the Lord is near. Then will the present trials of obedience be turned into the glories of obedience.

"Ye have killed the people of the Lord" (Num. 16:41.)

Such was the low, rebellious state of Israel that they even denied the Lord His right to exercise government among His people. They could eat and drink the good things of His creation; they could enjoy all the sweets of His great redemption; but they could not bear His government; they rebelled at that. How like that is the present state of Christendom!

"Why so dwell on grace?"

While preaching lately at — a young clergyman attended assiduously. At the end of one of the services he remained behind for conversation.

"Why is it," he asked, " that you dwell so much upon what establishes the eternal security of the believer ?"

" Because," we replied," all true communion with God, Christian testimony, fruitfulness and service has its root there. If your child is not sure of being your child how can there be between him and you the true communion of father and child ? If any question as to the final issues can be raised in the heart of the believer, how can he abide in the Father's bosom in perfect peace ? But this is the very secret of holiness without hypocrisy, of obedience without legality, of abounding service without restlessness-indeed of every fruit of the Spirit in the child of God."

The young man, who had realized a good measure of blessing during these services, felt the truth of this, and though it crossed the system of theology under which he had been trained, he owned God's way was better than man's.

Compare Isaiah 50:4.

I am like the wearing-out string of a wondrous violin-the Master uses great care in daily tuning it, lest it break and no music come from it here:but then-when He comes to take it for heavenly choirs and it becomes like him-then, the Master, and the violin, and the music – and the string! oh grace unutterable!-forever with the Lord!

To be servant to such a Master !-and the service shall be eternal, like His own service. "And His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face and His name shall be in their foreheads . . . and they shall reign forever" (Rev. 20 :3-5).

Wonderful Master ! Happy servants ! Blessed, joyous, eternal service!

(2 Tim. 3 :14-17.)

Lord Jesus Himself said (speaking of Moses), " If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words f " (John 5; 46, 47.) His words were the words of God; He does not contrast the authority of what He said with that of the written word, but the means of communication. God has been pleased to employ that means as a permanent authority. Peter says, " No prophecy of Scripture . ." (2 Pet. i:20, 21). There have been many prophecies which are not written; they had the authority of God for those persons to whom they were addressed. For the word speaks more than once of prophets-who must therefore have prophesied- without communicating their prophecies to us.

A multitude of things spoken by Jesus Himself are not reproduced in the Scriptures (Jno. 21:25); so that it is not only a question of from whom we have heard a truth, but also of the means by which it has been communicated. When it is for the permanent profit of the people, or of the Assembly of God, God caused it to be written in the Scriptures, and it abides for the instruction and the food of His children in all ages. . . .

The Scriptures are the permanent expression of the mind and will of God, furnished as such with His authority. They are the expression of His thoughts. They edify, they are profitable:but this is not all-they are inspired. . . .

They teach, they judge the heart, they correct, they discipline according to righteousness, in order that the man of God may be perfect; that is, thoroughly instructed in the will of God, his mind formed after that will and completely furnished for every good work. The power for performing these comes from the actings of the Spirit. Safeguard from error, wisdom unto salvation, flow from the Scriptures; they are capable of supplying them. . . . Does this perfect and supreme authority of the Scriptures set aside ministry? By no means; it is the foundation of the ministry of the word. One is a minister of the word; one proclaims the word- resting on the written word-which is authority for all, and the warrant for all that a minister says, and imparting to his words the authority of God over the conscience of those whom he teaches or exhorts. . . . That which the word says silences all opposition in the heart or mind of the believer. It was thus that the Lord answered Satan, and Satan himself was reduced to silence (Luke 4:1-13). He who does not submit to the words of God thereby shows himself to be a rebel against God. . . . The Old Testament left untold the history of Christ, the mission of the Holy Ghost, the formation of the Assembly:because these facts not being yet accomplished could not be the subject of its historical and doctrinal instructions, and the Assembly was not even the subject of prophecy. But all is now complete, as Paul tells us that he was a minister of the Assembly to complete the word of God (Col. i:25). The subjects of revelation were then completed.

God's Word speaks of grace as well as truth. It speaks of God's grace and love, who gave His only begotten Son that sinners like you and me might be with Him, know Him-deeply, intimately, truly
know Him, and enjoy Him forever, and enjoy Him now, that the conscience, perfectly purged, might be in joy in His presence, without a cloud, without a reproach, without a fear. And to be these in His love, in such a way, is perfect joy. The written Word will tell you the truth concerning yourself; but it will tell you the truth of a God of love, while unfolding the wisdom of His counsels. . . .
Let me add to my reader, that by far the best means of assuring himself of the truth and authority of the Word is to read the Word itself. J. N. D.

"All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come."

"All things are yours"-"ye are Christ's"- "Christ is God's" (i Cor. 3:21-23). Study the inventory of your possessions! The servants of Christ are given you of God to be your help and comfort. Cherish them well; they are Christ's bequest to the Church, given for the edification of His body, for the work of the gospel; they are the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Though given to you, they are responsible to their Lord and Master, to whom they must give an account of their stewardship.

Pray for them, care for them, view them as the love-gift of Christ to you; help them with your carnal things to minister spiritual things (i Cor. 9:11).

The world is yours. Every part of the globe is your possession, for it is the material world which is here meant, the "kosmos," "the beautifully arranged habitable earth"-not the debased moral system of which John bids us beware, with its lusts of the eye, the flesh, and the mind; it is that world which God pronounced good at first, and which, in virtue of Christ's death, shall yet be purified and reconciled; for "things on the earth, and things in the heavens " shall witness to the triumph of the Lamb (Col. i:20).

The inheritance now defiled by sin shall declare, in the time of restitution of all things, during the glorious millennial age, how the Creator and Heir has claimed the right of redemption, and wrested the prey from the mighty.

Some tried, suffering saint may say, "If the world is really mine, how is it that I not only do not pos-sess a foot in it, but am often bare of the very necessaries of life ?"

Before answering that question, let us inquire in what way is the world yours ? It is because "ye are Christ's." He is the true and rightful Heir; has claimed the right of redemption, and wrested the prey from the mighty.

Some tried, suffering saint may say, "If the world is really mine, how is that I not only do not possess a foot in it, but am often bare of the very necessaries of life?"

Before answering that question, let us inquire in what way is the world yours? It is because "ye are
Christ's."He is the true and rightful Heir; all things are destined for Him. The title-deeds are His. The Father has expressed His love to the Son by putting all things into His hand (John 3:35). The hand pierced on Calvary not only holds the sheep He purchased, but the possessions they are to enjoy. All things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were not only created by Him, but in-tended for Him. He came once to claim His rights, but the world-the moral world-rejected Him. He has accepted their rejection (for the time being), and lingers in long-suffering grace ere He subdues by
power what He has already purchased by blood.

Our Saviour, our Lord, is kept out of His own earth. He had no place to lay His head when here, He has not a foot in possession today. He is denied His title as "purchaser" of the inheritance, just as He was refused when seeking His rights as Son of Man; but He will claim His property. The Son of Man shall yet have dominion over land and sea; the terrestrial and the celestial are His; it is not merely this measurable globe which belongs to Him, but the entire universe, the unseen and seen worlds which deck the starry heavens-all are His; for " He is God's." He is not merely the heir of this world, but the heir of God; and how vast are God's possessions! It is as joint heirs with Christ we are to share the glorious inheritance which fadeth not away.

Tell me, would you care to have the world without Christ ? Would you like to possess it in its polluted state ? It is purchased, but not redeemed; bought, not reconciled; pledged, but not possessed. The inheritance must be purified, all things which of end and them which do iniquity purged out, ere its rightful Lord shall take to Himself His glorious power, and reign.

Meanwhile the Christian may literally have nothing, while possessing all things-the world be his, while poor and penniless. His is a joint-heirship; he cannot occupy except in conjunction with the true and rightful Heir; hence the anomaly-an her to untold wealth lacking the very necessaries of life! Why ?Because the world has rejected the rightful Heir-Christ has been cast out of His own world What true heart, knowing Christ's rejection by the "moral world," will not identify himself with Him in that rejection ?The natural world is truly ours because we are Christ's, and it is with Him that God has freely given us "all things"; and until He puts His foot on land and sea, and claims His rights, we contentedly share His rejection. But not only is the world ours, but-

Life is ours, In the midst of a scene of moral and physical death we have life-divine life as a present possession as well as a future hope!

Death is ours. The king of terrors, with his sting gone, his power broken, is no longer a dreaded foe, but a kind friend, to conduct us where sin and sorrow, pain and tears, are forever wiped away. Death, to a Christian, is like the opening of the door to a caged lark-the means by which his wings are free to soar into his native air. It is the captive freed; the exile's way to his own land; the banished restored to the family circle.

Yes, death is indeed ours, for it will take us to home and happiness, to joys unceasing, pleasures unending-to the abode of the Redeemer and the redeemed, the glorious courts, the paradise of God, with its living fountains, its tree of life with its ever-new fruits.

It will conduct us to the Father's house, to that home where the First-born has gone and prepared a place for the many sons; where, together with Him, and together with them, we shall spend a blissful and endless eternity.

Things now existing and things not yet apparent all belong to us. Who shall compute our wealth ? If it is a profitless speculation, entailing present misery and eternal loss, to gain the whole world and lose our own souls, what a profitable thing it is to turn to Jesus, and get not only present happiness- even if with persecutions-but untold wealth in an eternal future! The millionaires are robbed of their wealth by death, the Christian is introduced to his by death; he came into this world bare of everything, he goes out of it possessor of everything. Who would not be a Christian ?
But if we are not yet in possession of our wealth, we have the assurance that the unseen hand of God controls and orders every step of our pathway, and turns the most untoward events into ministry of blessing.

"All things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8 :28)-the dark as well as the
bright, the sorrowful as well as the joyous. The house of mourning is thus made better than the house of feasting; the most untoward events become the occasion of a fresh discovery of God's goodness; even our follies are overruled for good, and our very distresses draw out God's resources, for with God all things are possible. Yes, our God is the God of impossibilities:no matter is too hard, no difficulty is too great, for Him. It is when matters are, humanly, hopeless, God can manifestly declare Himself. In an Indian village a converted native stood alone for Christ. One Lord's day morning his heathen neighbors warned him the locusts were coming, and told him to bring out a long stick, in order to beat them off the patches of corn and stop their devastations. He replied, "It is the Lord's day; I cannot come." "Then you must starve," they answered, '' for we will not look after your corn."

He quietly shut the door and spent the day in prayer to God. Early Monday morning he sallied forth. The locusts had swept every green thing off the earth; the verdant fields were no more; every patch was bare and desolate, except that of the man who had looked to God.

My informant was thirty miles away when the news reached her of God's intervention. She said, "It seemed such an impossibility, that I would not believe it; so I traversed the distance, saw the man, saw the patch of corn, and all around desolation; so I can vouch for the accuracy of the statement."

What a witness for God this man was! The heathen thus had demonstrated the reality of the true God, and it did indeed work for good.

Yes, with God all things are possible, and all things work together for good, although it may not be manifest how this is at all times, and especially when plans are frustrated, hopes disappointed, health gone, wealth flown, and all is dark and sorrowful; and when painful days and weary, sleepless nights follow each other in constant succession, then faith's anchor must be made fast, and we must cling to the assurance that even these things have hidden blessings for us. God is good, always good, ever working for the saints He loves, and the hand which chastens is controlled by the affection of the heart and the wisdom of the mind.

Let us imitate a godly man we know, whose wife was unconverted, and made his life bitter. "Ah," said he, "at such times there is only one chair in the house I can rest in, and I always go there for refuge." " What is that ?" "Rom. 8:28-'All things work together for good to them that love God.' "
Shall we, tried fellow-believer, seek to rest there ? If the "all things" we have in title are not ours in possession, we can at least be assured of this-that all is being ordered and controlled for our real good, and when the way is ended we shall say, "He led us by a right way to our city of habitation."
H. N.

Differences.

It is needful, for the right understanding of the word of God, to be careful about the meaning of the different words used. For instance, the word disciples of Christ cannot be interchanged with the word children of God without making confusion. As learners, we are disciples. As born of God, we are children. As being brought into the liberty of Christianity, we are sons, not servants, as in the dispensation of law.

As indwelt by the Spirit, we are members of the Church-the body of Christ.

All these names may apply to the same person, but they are quite distinct from each other.

"Even Christ pleased not Himself.’ (Rom. 15:3.)

It is needful, for the right understanding of the word of God, to be careful about the meaning of the different words used. For instance, the word disciples of Christ cannot be interchanged with the word children of God without making confusion. As learners, we are disciples. As born of God, we are children. As being brought into the liberty of Christianity, we are sons, not servants, as in the dispensation of law.

As indwelt by the Spirit, we are members of the Church-the body of christ.

All these names may apply to the same person, but they are quite distinct from each other.

"Even Christ pleased not Himself." (Rom.15:3.)whatever cost to Himself, He would seek and pursue that will only. All that opposed that will, opposed Him; all that resisted it, resisted Him, and caused Him suffering. Even His most advanced disciples caused Him suffering in that way often. A Peter could not bear the thought of His going into death:he would have the glory of the kingdom, without the righteousness of the Cross. A John would vindicate the Master by destroying men's lives, thus spoiling the day of grace by making it a day of judgment. What great and high moral elevation is this, that He could say, "The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell upon Me"!

Fellow-Christian, do we so know God, so know and enjoy what He has in Christ displayed Himself to be, that, to please Him, and not ourselves, is henceforth the purpose and the care of life ? This will associate us thoroughly with Christ. It will necessitate our suffering with Him. It will require our taking up the cross daily-the denial of our own likes or dislikes, that we may truly take up with His likes and dislikes.

Is it not worth while? "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." We suffer but for a day, we reign for ever and ever. Who else rewards like that ? But all largely hangs on how deeply we drink into His grace-how we read the unfathomable evil of our hearts, and the unfathomable love and grace of His heart.

Law and Grace.
The Law was "written and engraven in stones" thus telling its true character. Stones have no heart, no compassion, no mercy. So Law is mere Justice-an awful thing, when alone.

Grace was not given on stones. '' Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." There we find heart, compassion and mercy to overflowing. It cost Him no less than the fearful death of the cross. It could enable Him to endure anything, so that we might be saved and God's character manifested.

Law justly claimed righteousness from man. Grace brings righteousness to man. Law justly condemns to death the offender. Grace gives eternal life to the believer. Law shall stand in all its greatness and dignity forever among its slain. Grace has already put a song in the innumerable hosts of its redeemed, who will fill heaven and earth to all eternity. What frightful pride must there be in the heart of man which hides from him the riches of the grace which Christ has brought into the world!

" I cannot see what some people so much find in the Scriptures," remarked a young man recently to an acquaintance:"to me they are all foolishness."

"I believe them from end to end," replied the other. "They have been, and daily are, a rich blessing to me:it is God who speaks to me in them."

"How do you know," retorted the first, "that they are the word of God ?"

"By yourself now," said the other. "They say that 'the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:for they are foolishness unto him'; and, by your own confession, that is what they are to you."

Thus do men, and all things about us, bear constant witness to the truth of Scripture, and that in spite of themselves.

Unrevised Notes of an Address given some years ago fay S. R. Gen. 3:6-9.

Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord. We may see a person, but it has not the same effect on us as to hear his voice. When the Jews sent to John to find out who he was, he said, "Tell them I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." " My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me."

The Lord said unto Adam, " Where art thou?" He does not say, "What have you done?" but, '' Where art thou ?" God wants the sinner to see, not only the sins he has committed, but the place he occupies-the place of distance from God. When God speaks, Adam hides himself, and he uses the very gifts and blessings that God has given him to put them between himself and God:he hides among the trees of the garden. The sinner hides from God; but the one that hears the voice of the Son of God, and believes on Him, is hidden in God.

Matt. 3:13, 17-Jesus comes to John to be baptized; and John knowing who He is, shrinks from putting Him on a level with the others. His baptism points on to the cross; His whole life pointed to the cross; as the grass was cut down, and put into the manger, so His birth too points to the cross. After His baptism, a voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Two things to be connected:God looks at the sinner, and says, " Where art thou ? " then points to Christ, saying, "That is My beloved Son"-man's need, and God's remedy.

Num. 7 :89-Moses hears the voice from off the mercy-seat, saying, " Speak unto Aaron (chap. 8:2), and say unto him, When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick." When we light a light, it is to see the things around us. But this light, which is the Holy Spirit, is to shine on the candlestick-to show out the glories of Christ. If men were writing the seventh chapter, they would not make it so long, they would not repeat what each prince offered; for they are all the same. But God sees so much in Christ that He never tires to speak of Him. The sin-offering- what Christ is toward men-is but a small part, only one kid of the goats, while all the others speak of what Christ is toward God.

i Kings 19:11-13-God tells Elijah to stand upon the mount. There was a great wind that rent the
mountains, but the Lord was not in the wind; an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; then, after the fire, a still, small voice. When he heard the voice he wrapped his face in his mantle, and the voice said, "What doest thou here, Elijah ?" God does not terrify His children; He speaks to them in a still, small voice. How about our path, our obedience, and our testimony? Do we hear that still, small voice ?

Song of Sol. 2:8-17-'' The voice of my Beloved!" Do we hear the voice of our Beloved ? He looketh forth at the windows, showeth Himself through the lattice. We can almost see Him. He says, The winter is past, there is nothing to fear. The storm is past for us, and the singing-time has come. The voice of the turtle (Spirit) is heard in the land. Christ, from yonder side, is saying, "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." Turn from the things that drag you down, and be not like Lot, who was no pilgrim, but like Abraham, who, when God called him, left all – his country, kindred, and father's house. If we do not hear His voice calling us from earth now, we will not enjoy His coming.
" Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines. It is the small things, the little trifles, the gewgaws of this world, that do the harm. We close up the large holes in the fences, which the wild boar might get through; but the little foxes get through the little holes, and spoil the vines. We all know what our foxes are. The grapes are tender; God's Spirit is sensitive.

In the 14th verse there is another voice. God says, "Let Me hear thy "voice; thy voice is sweet." He loves to hear our voice, even if we only confess our failures.

"My Beloved is mine, and I am His. . . .Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be thou like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether."

There are various marks of ripeness in the Christian character which are well illustrated in the fruits of the field.

One mark is beauty. As the fruit ripens the sun tints it with surpassing loveliness, and the colors deepen till the beauty of the fruit is equal to the beauty of the blossom, and in some respects superior. There is in ripe Christians the "beauty of holiness."

Another mark of ripe fruit is tenderness. The young green fruit is hard and stone-like; but the ripe fruit is soft, yields to the pressure, can almost be molded, retains the mark of the finger. So it is with the mature Christian; he is noted for tenderness of spirit.

Another mark of ripeness is sweetness. The unripe fruit is sour, and perhaps it ought to be, or else we should eat all the fruits while they are yet green. It may, therefore, be in the order of grace a fit thing that in the youthful Christian some sharpness should be formed which will ultimately be removed. As we grow in grace we are sure to grow in sympathy and love; we shall have greater and more intense affection for the person of Him "whom having not seen we love "; we shall have greater delight in the precious things of His gospel; the doctrines which perhaps we did not understand at first will become marrow and fatness to us as we advance in grace. We shall feel that there is honey dropping from the honeycomb in the deep things of our God. We shall, as we ripen in grace, have greater sweetness toward our fellow Christians. Bitter-spirited Christians may know a great deal, but they are immature. Those who are quick to censure may be very acute in judgment, but they are as yet immature in heart. I know we who are young beginners in grace think ourselves qualified to judge everything, but when our virtues become more mature I trust we shall not be more tolerant of evil, but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms.

Another and very sure mark of ripeness is a loose hold of earth. Ripe fruit easily parts from the bough. You shake the tree and the ripe apples fall. If you wish to eat fresh fruit you put out your hand to pluck it, and if it comes off with difficulty you feel you had better leave it alone a little longer; but when it drops into your hand, quite ready to be withdrawn from the branch, you know it to be in a good condition. Selected

QUES. 6.-Will you please explain a few questions I will ask? I have tried to be a Christian now for seven weeks, and yet sin has dominion over me. I have earnestly asked God to give me power over all sin, but I have no answer, and I cannot tell where my mistake i« To be converted, I understand a man has to confess to God that he has sinned, and then he would have the new life, if he were anxious for it, and would be able to put away the old ways. Or, would one have to make right all, or any, of his past wrongs to his fellow-men before God would give him power over sin?

Can a man lose eternal life while he lives here on earth, and how, please ? I want to know how I stand.

I believe the Bible says, to sin against the Holy Ghost is eternal death, but I know not what that sin is.

When a man is converted, will there be any change whereby he may know it ?

Sir. I intend to ask no vain questions. I am only anxious to leave off all sin, and live as God would have me live.

ANS.-There are very few sincere souls who, in the course of their Christian experience, have not asked the questions you now do.

First of all, " power over sin " is not the primary part of Christianity. There is something of cast importance before that. The epistle to the Romans, which is the great exposition of Christianity in the Scriptures, does not touch the question of power over sin until the 6th chapter. Has your soul, then, firmly grasped, first of all, the great fundamental truth of the first five chapters ? If not, your occupation with power over sin is but of little use, save, perhaps, in teaching you more deeply your need of a Saviour, by the greater sense of your sinful state.

If you ask what is that great fundamental truth of the first five chapters, let us ask you to read carefully and prayerfully the third chapter. It brings man, whoever he be, before the bar of God, where no less than fourteen charges are there brought against him -against you. If he pleads guilty, God's way of clearing him is told from verse 19 to the end of the chapter. It is a righteous way, for Christ on the cross bore all that sin deserved at the hand of God. It is a gracious way, for it is wonderful grace for such sinners as we are, to find our sins all gone from the moment we believe on Jesus. It is a loving way too, for what marvelous love is seen in God thus giving His beloved Son to provide salvation for us at such great cost. Again, it is a holy way, for God, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, can open His holy arms wide to the vilest of sinners who comes to Him confessing his sins, and freely receive him at once, without violating in the least His holiness. See Luke 15:11-24. In this way too the repenting thief was taken from his cross to Paradise without delay. See Luke 23 :39-43.

Your letter would indicate that you consider power over sin to be the way of salvation. The cases I have just put before you in Scripture say not a word about that. Power over sin is not the way of salvation ; it is the fruit of it. Salvation comes by what Christ has done for us on the cross.
Once we have believed what Christ has done for us, we know our relationship with God. We know we are His children. We know He loves us, and that nothing can ever separate us from His love. It is this which brings power over sin, and a desire for a holy and fruitful life. The Holy Spirit is given to us for this, and He dwells in every believer.

One thing, however, is to be kept in mind:The old, sinful nature is still in us ; it is never changed; it is as prone to lead us into evil at the end of our Christian life as at the beginning. The way of power against it is told in chapter 6 of the Romans, especially in verses 6-14:not only did God lay our sins on Christ at the cross, but He crucified "our old man" there too. Our old man is our self as born of Adam. If God crucified our old man there, let us account him so, and obey His desires and lusts no more.

In 1 John 1:8-10 you will get a good idea of what " conversion " is. There is not a word said there about making good the wrongs we have done, right and good as that is, as far as we can. You must not encumber the grace of God, and thus cloud it. Many do that, until they turn grace into law, and thus hinder the blessing of souls, and the fruitfulness which follows.

As to losing eternal life, read John 10 :27-29. No words of man can he added to make it plain. It is Christ Himself who says it. Woe to Him who contradicts Christ, or any part whatsoever of Scripture, for " Scripture cannot be broken."

A careful reading of Matt. 12 :22-32 will tell you what the sin against the Holy Ghost is :The Lord has cast out a devil, and thus shown He works by the power of the Holy Spirit. But His enemies are determined to disown Him, and they violate all conscience by ascribing the power to the devil.

But I close with the prayer that yon may learn the grace of God which has come by Jesus Christ; which occupies us with Christ, not ourselves; with what Christ has done for us, not with what we are doing, or can do, or can be.

The flesh is never improved. It is as evil, and as ready to do evil, at the end of our Christian life as at the beginning. But if we walk with God, and keep it under the judgment which He has pronounced upon it in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and executed there too-blessed be His name-it has then no power to act.

All true Christian experience ends in destroying confidence in the flesh, and making Christ all to one's soul.

It is easy to exalt the Church, for it condemns nothing in us; it is quite another thing to exalt Christ, for that condemns everything in us. I am a great person when I think of the Church; I am a poor worm when I think of Christ; yet He loves me. What bliss!

(Chapter 1:18-3 :20-continued from page 41.)

The cross of Christ is the full revelation of what the wrath of God is. No mere governmental, earthly and temporal judgments, however severe and terrible, could be an adequate expression of God's absolute and eternal wrath. It was not until the cross, that men had a full revelation of God's estimate of sin. There, infinite and divine wrath was fully told out. God showed all that it is as He poured it out on the holy head of His beloved Son.

What a spectacle that scene was for both angels and men! How impressive! How solemn! God revealing to all His intelligent creatures the due, the exact due, of sin!

If God has made manifest in the cross of Christ the exact measure of what sin must receive at His hand, it is necessary that men should learn that it is impossible for them to come into the court of God and clear themselves of the charge of guilt that in righteousness deserves such wrath as the cross is a revelation of. Men need to be convicted of the absolute impossibility of giving a justifiable reason for their sins, that they are absolutely without excuse, before they will appreciate the grace that the gospel proclaims. From verse 19 on, the apostle takes up the various pleas that men make why they should be exempted from the judgment of God against sin, and shows how unavailing these pleas are. He demonstrates the impossibility of any one establishing a valid excuse for sin. He shows that no one can clear himself of being justly charged with guilt.

First, If it is claimed that there are men who do not even know that there is a divine Being, he shows the claim cannot be allowed. Creation, both as a whole and in detail, is incessantly declaring there is a Creator, a God over all. It is a demonstration of both the eternal power and divinity of the Maker of all things. The responsibility and accountability of the intelligent finite creature is involved in this testimony of creation. No one, then, can excuse himself for violating the nature and character of his relation to the Creator of a creation of which he knows himself to be a part. As rational beings, all men owe subjection to their Creator, and sin in every form is in violation of this subjection, but no valid excuse can be made. No plea for violating creation's witness will stand. It is inexcusable guilt (vers. 19, 20).

Second, It is sometimes said there are hosts of men whom God has abandoned; that He has left to indulge themselves in their lusts; are they then to be blamed for sinking into low and degrading vices? The excuse will not avail. It is true that God, in governmental dealings, because men have turned away from Him and have chosen to indulge their lusts, has given them over to the vices they love. But notwithstanding this, there is in them innately (such is the constitution of their being) a sense of the justice of God in sentencing them to death. They know they deserve to die. They know the sentence by which they have been condemned to die is absolutely just. This is true of the lowest, of the most degraded and abandoned. None, then, can excuse themselves, or their sins, in the court of God on the ground of His, having given them over to judicial blindness. His governmental ways will not be a protecting shield against the charge of guilt (ver. 32).

Third, There are those who say, " But we are not so low and degraded as the great mass of the poor, ignorant, blind heathen. We know better; we condemn their vulgarities and vices. Are we to be judged along with them ?" Especially in so-called Christian lands, where the light of the truth of God shines more or less brightly, is there a large class of people who are thus making their superior light and knowledge a reason why they ought to be exempted from eternal judgment. But in the day when a just God will judge, their plea will not stand. It will be proof rather of despising the riches of God's goodness, forbearance and long-suffering, and of refusing to repent. It will be evidence of a hardened, impenitent heart.

God is just. He will judge justly in the day of judgment. Righteousness will be the principle on which He will judge. If any one can produce in the court of the judgment-day a record that will prove that he has been a seeker of glory, honor and incorruptibility, his record will be approved. But who will be able to produce such a record ? But if righteousness requires the approval of the record (supposing it possible for such a record to be produced), it would necessarily require the disapproval of a record that will be proof of disobedience and sin. Will there be any whose record will not be that ?

If, then, righteousness is the principle on which the judgment will be carried out, it will be in vain
for any to hope for exemption from judgment on the ground of having better light and knowledge than the poor, ignorant heathen. God will not respect persons when He judges the deeds and thoughts of men. Those who have sinned without having special advantages and privileges will receive the due reward of their sins. The guilt of those who have sinned under greater light and knowledge will be all the greater. Righteousness will demand a judgment commensurate with the guilt. Light and knowledge will not be accepted as an excuse for sin.

If chapter 2:1-16 thus clearly insists on the inexcusable culpability of those who boast of light and knowledge above their more unfortunate fellow-men, sunken in vice, we are now to learn how the case of the Jew stands. By the will and authority of God, he occupies a specially exalted position among men. He had received a divine commission, had been called to be Jehovah's witness and the exponent of His will. Set thus in the place of a light, guide and teacher to all men by divine authority, his responsibility was peculiarly solemn. How has he met it ? Why, instead of being a bright and shining light for God, a true and faithful witness that Jehovah was the one only and true God, by his idolatrous and incessant disobedience he has become the occasion and instrumentality of God's being blasphemed among the Gentiles. He has incurred very great guilt.

A Jew might answer, while admitting all this, that circumcision protected him from judgment by God. The apostle exposes the utter insecurity of such a retreat. No Jew would be willing to have an uncircumcised man who kept the righteousness of the law counted as a circumcised man. He, then, must submit to being counted as an uncircumcised man if he breaks the law. It is not the formal ordinance of circumcision that makes a man a really circumcised man, for circumcision to be real must be of the heart. No Jew has the right to count himself to be really a Jew unless he is one inwardly (vers. 17-29).

If a Jew objects that this makes formal circumcision useless, and that there is no good in being outwardly a Jew, the apostle answers that many advantages and privileges belong to those who have been outwardly circumcised, the principal one being the guardianship of the "oracles of God." Here, alas, the Jew had signally failed.
He might still argue, admitting the failure, that having put them in trust with the faith, God could not possibly nullify it. If He should finally judge them, He would falsify His character. To maintain His righteousness with those among whom He had deposited His oracles, He must exempt them from judgment. The argument means that God cannot vindicate His righteousness in the day of judgment, if He takes account of the sins df a Jew.

To silence this the apostle appeals to Ps. 51:4. Just as He took account of the sins of David, and was justified in doing so by David himself, so in the day of judgment the right of God to take account of sins will be fully justified. He will overcome every one who thinks to call it in question. It will be better to make every man a liar rather than challenge God's right to judge sin.

If refuge be taken under the plea that the unrighteousness of the Jew will commend the righteousness of God, the answer is, "That destroys God's right to judge at all. Every Jew is anticipating the judgment of God upon the world; but on this principle it never could be."

Besides this, it implies that the truth of God is dependent, for example, on my lie to abound to the glory of God; but this means that it is my right to sin-that it is a justifiable thing to say, " Let us do evil that good may come." But, the apostle says, The judgment of such is just.

Thus every argument is met, and the Jew is left without a single reason why he should be exempted from judgment in the day when God will call men to an account about their sins. He is in no better case than the Gentile. All Jews and all Gentiles are under sin. All are chargeable with guilt.

Thus far the apostle, saving a single exception, has been reasoning without appealing to the Scriptures. Every argument has been forceful, and there is no escape from the conclusion that not a single man can offer a valid excuse for his sins in the court of God. But before he drops the subject he adds an appeal to the Scriptures to show that they confirm his reasoning. Their testimony is that every mouth is stopped, that the whole world is guilty; and this is just what he has been proving.

He concludes now by insisting on the absolute impossibility of a man's justifying himself before God by deeds of law. The law convicts of sin. It does not clear the guilty, but affirms the guilt. It must be useless, then, to seek justification before God by it. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

Oh, 'tis all brightness yonder, no clouds nor dim,
But joy, and peace, and gladness, and rest from sin!
Oh, 'tis all glory yonder, for Christ is there,
In blest effulgence shining beyond compare!

And there's no sorrow yonder, nor grief, nor pain;
They live to serve and worship the Lamb once slain.
And there's no morrow yonder, 'tis one Today;
There shines with fadeless splendor the sun's bright ray.

For Christ's the sun and sunshine of that bright place.
There we shall learn His glory, as here His grace:
And now we wait with patience His blessed will.
The stormy wind and tempest His word fulfil;

They're servants of His pleasure-He bids them come;
Then by a word they're silenced, and all is calm;
And we shall reach in safety, the moment bright,
When we shall see His beauty in radiant light.

And if, meanwhile, He calls us to face the storm,
His Shepherd-care surrounds us, and His strong arm
Shall guide us through in safety the long, dark night,
Till earth-born clouds shall vanish in morning light.

Mr. George Mitchell, of Detroit, Mich., a brother in Christ much beloved, departed to be with Christ on March 26th, 1910, at his home, after an illness more or less acute for several years. His remains were placed in the Woodlawn Cemetery March 28th, where many friends and relatives assembled for the last service that man could render him.

Our brother was not only well known and loved by a large circle of the Lord's people at Detroit, where he had resided for more than a quarter of a century, but also at many places in both the United States and Canada.

He was brought to Christ in early life, at the age of 20, and for thirty-five years bore faithful testimony for his Lord. He passed away full of joy and peace, at the age of 55 years.

His health had failed him for about four years; but through most of this time both he and his family, who clung devotedly to him, hoped for his recovery. During the last year suffering increased from various complications, and the burden was heavy upon him at times. Under the trial, amid the many exercises of heart and mind, he developed much in his spiritual life, grew tender in his feelings, very prayerful in his spirit, and he yearned more for communion of heart with his Lord from day to day. Fellowship and intercourse with his brethren concerning the word and work of the Lord he prized greatly also.

It could be easily discerned by those near to him, or with whom he corresponded (which he freely did till near his end), that his spirit, like the golden grain, was ripening fast for the harvest. Thus was our Lord training His dear servant for the change from earth to heaven, from a body in which he groaned to the brightness of His presence in paradise, where no more pain is known, and the inhabitant shall not say, " I am sick" (Isa. 33:24).

During the last few weeks of his life things present faded away, and before his spiritual vision arose vividly the brightness of the scene he was nearing, into which the precious blood of Christ his Saviour had given him fullest title to enter; so that to be by his side and converse with him was a special joy and privilege to those who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. How marked in him the fulfilment of the Holy Spirit's mission, "He shall glorify Me (Christ):for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:14).

A passage of Scripture was repeatedly upon his lips for several days, "Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better" (Phil. i:23). Then, still nearer the end, as if another step had been made, another passage took the place:'' We are confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord " (2 Cor. 5:8). He had been disciplined, educated, weaned, so that his soul was thoroughly at home with the Lord; and as one face to face with Him, he would, when suffering perhaps more than usual, say, "Lord, release me, and take me to Thyself."

As yet his beloved wife had not expressed her willingness to give him up. This seemed to weigh upon him. The time came, however, when she told him that now she was resigned and willing for him to be freed:the Lord loved him most, and had the first claim. This relieved his mind, and the happy smile that passed over his face brightened all the sorrowing circle about him. There was not a cloud now over his departure, and all felt it was near at hand.

The day before it came, the members of the family who were in the house came to his side to get a parting word. He had an affectionate word for each one, suited to his age and condition-a precious testimony, which they will long remember. To the youngest he said, "M–dear, are you going to meet me in heaven ? " To which she replied, "Yes, father dear, it is my purpose." He then added, "Remember, it is only by the blood of Christ we are entitled to go in-nothing but the blood of Christ."

Then, with marks of deep pleasure and satisfaction, as he thought of three already in heaven and five on earth, he turned to his wife with a beaming face and said, " We shall all meet with the Lord in heaven." Surely a rich reward for our beloved brother for his devotedness and faithfulness in the home circle.

After this he spoke with feeling and concern about his four brothers, being extremely anxious for each of them that they might each one give clear evidence of knowing the Lord Jesus by bearing testimony for Him.

The last day he suffered much at times. Eventually there came one spell of intense pain. All his were there by his side:together they knelt, and prayer was offered that the Lord would save him from further suffering, and, if His will, release him soon. Their prayer was answered:he was relieved from further pain, and for about three hours he rested peacefully, a smile again and again on his countenance, in answer to any word spoken to him, or inquiry made. A quiet slumber followed for half an hour, when, without a struggle, he passed into the presence of the Lord, out of our sight until that bright moment when the Lord shall call His dead ones out of their graves, change His living ones, and take them all together into that bright eternal glory where there shall be no more pain, nor sorrow, nor death.

At the funeral the Word was ministered by A. E. B., from i Cor. 15:22-28 and i Thess. 4:13-18, at the house:at the grave, by F. J. E., from Isa. 57:i, 2. It was a quiet, lovely afternoon, and all felt as if nature herself responded to the peace and rest of our departed brother's spirit.

He will be missed in his home, the community, and deeply in the assembly of God's people, with which he had been associated almost from its beginning. He had contributed to its growth and development from its infancy, and had with others, watched over it with a true fatherly care and shepherd heart.

Our brother loved the Lord's people, whoever they were, regardless of what might be their church position or connection. He loved the whole Church of God, and took a keen interest in all that concerns the spiritual welfare of those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.

He also loved the gospel, and ever expressed his hearty fellowship with those who preached it. His heart and home were open to those who sought to spread it; and the more faithfully and sweetly he heard it preached, the more did his heart rejoice in hearing it. We believe we are justified in applying to our departed brother the words of Prov. 10:7, "The memory of the just is blessed." May the comforts and favors of "the Father of the fatherless children " and "the Judge of the widow " abide with and sustain the bereaved family (Psa. 68:5; Jer. 49:

11), and the sweet savor of our brother's life and testimony be treasured up among the Lord's beloved people, that fruit may continue from it. A. E. B.

One of the most precious lessons we may learn from the story of Ruth is to be found in her manner of gleaning. In chapter 2:3 we read, "She went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers." In verse 7 the servant said to Boaz, "She said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves:so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now." Then in verse 23 the inspired writer adds, " She kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest." She came to glean, she continued to glean, and she gleaned unto the end. Happy Ruth! she continued in the field, to find her need abundantly met through the goodness of God, under whose wings she had come to trust.

What an example of "patient continuance" and its reward this is for us who are privileged to "glean among the sheaves " of the word of God! How can we glean to profit ?-continue unto the end ? As we traverse the field of truth, we shall find, like the favored Moabitish damsel, "handfuls of purpose " let fall for us to gather. Our gracious Master, whom Boaz but faintly typifies, prepares for us, and drops at our very feet, tokens of His love and care. "The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him" (Lam. 3:25).

To follow Ruth further, she "beat out" that which she had gleaned. Now, if we would profit by spiritual gleaning, we must " beat out" the precious ears of truth by prayerful meditation. Then we shall be able to say with Jeremiah of old, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" (Jer. 15 :16).

Then follows the practical application of the truth. " She took it up, and went into, the city; and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned:and she brought forth, and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed" (2:18). What a complete picture of one who has been "abundantly satisfied" with the fatness of God's house! It is only by being thus satisfied, "filled with the finest of the wheat," that we can become His messengers, going out into the world laden with blessing for others.

May we therefore continue to glean, and glean unto the end, in this rich harvest-field. The time of gleaning brought Ruth food and gladness through the kindness of Boaz, to whom she had once been "a stranger" (2:10):and what did the end of the harvest bring ? Rest in His love and His home. So when our gleaning days are over, we shall pass into the glorious fulfilment of the promise left by our Lord Jesus, " In My Father's house are many mansions :if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself" (John 14 :2, 3). J. M. G.

(Continued from page 269.)

(Chap. 6.)

We have seen that the apostle teaches that the victims of sin, who have been laid hold of by the grace of Christ, who took their place under sin's dominion, are now connected with Christ in the new position He has taken up as risen from the dead. They are of Him. They live now-live by Him. Living by Him, they belong to Him, are in Him; and with Him are dead to sin, and have title to think of themselves from this point of view-as in Christ. It is their right to take the place of being of the risen Christ-to look at themselves from this standpoint.

Now it may be said, "From that standpoint it is true that those who are the subjects of this grace have title to be practically free from the service of sin; but title to deliverance from sin is one thing, and ability to use the title is quite a different one. It will be said, "It is one thing to look at my mortal body and think of it as subject to the claims of Christ, and quite another thing to keep from activity the sin that dwells in it." We are told, "It is quite right to regard our members as being instruments of righteousness and for the use and service of God, but it is another matter to hinder their being used as instruments of unrighteousness."

We are thus reminded that there is a distinction to be made between title to be free from the service of sin and ability to make the title good practically.

To this distinction we readily agree; but before we discuss the question of the power by which we live practically to God, and where we find that power, there are other questions which must be looked at first. We must first inquire, Are there any necessary hindrances in the way of being practically delivered from the rule of sin ? Are there limitations to which practical deliverance is possible, and beyond which it is impossible ?

If we turn back to the preceding dispensations we readily see that there were then subjects of grace- men who lived in faith, in the light of the prophecies of the grace that has been brought to us (i Pet. i:10). They thus lived by the One of whom Adam was the figure, but they did not live in the abundance and fulness in which it is given to us to live (John 10:10). Life and incorruptibility were not then illuminated as they are now (2 Tim. i:10). They lived the life of faith under limitations. Again, they did not have the full measure of God's estimate of sin as we have since the cross of Christ, and here we cannot fail to see a very great limitation which must very largely have affected their practical lives. Furthermore, the law, when it was given to Israel, must have been a very great limitation to the extent in which the life of faith could be practically maintained.

Here is a matter which requires careful consideration. It should be remembered that the law as a rule of life was given to Israel as a nation-to men in the flesh; and the children of faith were not separated from the rest of the nation; they were not exempted from the rule of life under which the nation was put. Being thus under the same rule of life as the rest of the nation, they were under restraints that made it impossible for them to take the place of children with God. While they were children in reality, they could not be children practically (Gal. 4:1-7).
Now, the rule of life under which they were put, as being a part of the nation upon whom it was imposed, is the strength of sin (i Cor. 15:56). It made the offense abound in them as well as in the rest of the nation. Being thus under an order of dealing which stirred sin in the flesh they were continually in bondage through fear of death (Heb. 2:15). They could not be set free as long as that order of dealing with them stood. The law gave to sin an opportunity and advantage, and it was impossible for them to claim exemption from its penalty. They could never say sin did not have dominion over them.

Believers, then, under law, were under conditions of restraint-limitations which prevented the grace that had laid hold of them abounding in the fulness and abundance of its power. But Christ dead, risen and glorified, is the end of these conditions of restraint for believers. He is the end of the law for believers, whether it be for righteousness or for a rule of life. The subjects of divine grace are not under it now. This has been authoritatively declared, and with this declaration there has come also the assurance that "sin shall not have dominion over us" (ver. 14).

In the apostle's statement," For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace," we learn there is no necessary hindrance to those who are of Christ being now practically free from the service of sin. God is not now requiring His children to live by a rule which is the strength of sin. He has brought to a complete end, for believers, the whole system under which formerly He held them under restraint, and under which it was impossible to know and enjoy the complete measure of grace.

It is, then, the privilege of every child of God now to be practically delivered from the rule of sin. Deliverance from the dominion of sin is his present right. It is not to be thought of as an ideal, impossible of realization until the body is changed. It is to be maintained that the grace of God, which is by Jesus Christ, provides for all its present subjects not only eternal exemption from judgment, but also present freedom from the service of sin; and that God is not now imposing on them a rule of life that hinders their enjoyment of deliverance from sin's power.

But the apostle's assertion that the subjects of grace are not under law is often disputed. Many still maintain that the law is the Christian's guide to right living. But freedom from it as the rule of life is most unequivocally stated by the apostle. There is not the least ambiguity about his expression of it. He is speaking, too, as the exponent and representative of Christianity. His statement is authoritative. Nevertheless, it is not accepted as being the truth by many. There are many who refuse it with horror. They say it means license to sin. They tell us freedom from law as a rule of life means lawlessness, indulging in sin as much as one pleases.

But this is plainly a misconception of the apostle's teaching. It is a thorough misunderstanding of the character of divine grace. No one really entering into that grace, in which Christ took the place of the victims of sin, could conceive of it as meaning license to sin, or think it necessary that the subjects of that grace should be under law as a rule of life to them from sinning.

That freedom from law means lawlessness, the apostle resents, and strenuously refuses. That it means license to sin is an intolerable thought to him. He exclaims most vigorously against it. All who submit to his authoritative statement of what the grace of God means, will join with him in denouncing as a false conception the thought that freedom from the principle of law is liberty to indulge in sin;-a thought to be put far away.

Having strongly denounced the idea as repulsive and intolerable, the apostle now proceeds, in ver. 16, to show what the misconception really means. To say, " If we are not under law, then let us sin as much as we like," means deliberately choosing to be the servants of sin. To willingly indulge in sin is to make one's self a voluntary servant of it. That should be self-evident. What is so manifest ought to expose the error underlying the statement that "because we are not under law, but under
grace, therefore we may sin as much as we choose." It is plainly wrong:it certainly is not apostolic teaching.

The apostle goes on to insist that it is not the form of teaching to which the subjects of grace have submitted themselves (ver. 17). They have received a different type of teaching altogether. They have surrendered themselves to a teaching of another character. Having received the apostolic teaching, that which he denounces as intolerable must be unholy and abhorrent to them.

Now, let us remark, the teaching that freedom from law as the rule of life means lawlessness, is not the teaching to which the Roman saints had given their adherence. Taking them as representatives of the saints of apostolic times, we may say, such teaching was not a part of the faith of those saints. It is therefore a teaching antagonistic to Christianity. Those who are seeking to introduce it into Christian teaching, who would make it a part of Christian instruction, are corrupting and subverting Christianity. It is therefore to be vigorously refused and strenuously opposed. The defenders of the apostolic faith must join with the apostle in refusing it as a misconception of the character of Christianity, as unholy, and intolerable.

But we must follow the apostle further. Having thanked God that the Roman saints were not adherents of such a false and unholy teaching, he tells them (ver. 18) that through their surrender of themselves to the right form of teaching, they were made free from sin, and are now the servants of righteousness. He then exhorts them to let righteousness have the use of their members even as
formerly they had allowed sin to use them (ver. 19). Then, next, he contrasts the fruit. He says, "When you were free from righteousness you lived in unholiness. You are now ashamed of the unholy lives you lived as the servants of sin. You were on the road that leads to and ends in death. But now as servants of righteousness you are living in holiness, and are on the road which leads to the final condition of life which is in prospect for all those who have become connected with the risen Christ."

We may, then, sum up the apostle's argument in the chapter:The grace that is by Jesus Christ has provided and secured, for those of whom it lays hold, a new position and condition of life in which they are entitled to be practically free from the service of sin. Though they are still in their old, mortal, sinful bodies, yet there is no necessary reason why these bodies should be under sin's power, or their members be yielded up to be used for sinful purposes. Christ, by whom we live, being the end of the law, both for righteousness or as rule of life, for those who have life in Him, we are not limited by what gives strength to the sin that dwells in us; hence there is full liberty for the life of Christ to manifest its power in using the body, though still mortal and sinful, to the glory of God.

This is what the grace of God confers on those who submit themselves to the grace of Christ in His one obedience unto death. We are granted the inestimable blessing of living with God. This is eternal life indeed. May we submit ourselves more fully to the grace that has made it our portion. But in spite of the plain and authoritative statement of the apostle, that we are not now under a rule of life that prevents our enjoying this liberty from sin's service, there are many who very mistakenly regard the principle of law as the only means by which a life of practical holiness can be produced. Notwithstanding the apostle's unequivocal statement that we are not under law, they insist that law is the power for holiness. Evidently, some in the apostle's day maintained this. It was necessary for the apostle to take up the question of law to show the effect of it upon a believer who undertakes to make it the rule of life.

As we shall see, the question that is raised is, What is the power by which a believer lives a life of holiness and fruitfulness to God ? Is it law that gives him strength to serve God, or is it Christ enjoyed by the power of the Spirit ? Does the one who is in Christ find in the principle of law power to yield himself to God ? Is it the principle of law that gives him ability to yield his members to righteousness ? Is practical righteousness produced in those who are in Christ by walking after the law as a rule of life ?

These are all serious, sober-minded questions. Every soul that the grace of Christ lays hold of sooner or later raises them. Finding themselves the objects of the love of God they cannot long enjoy that love as the Holy Spirit sheds it abroad in the heart without feeling themselves under the obligation to live to God. In their efforts to do so they find they need power to enable them to live to the honor and praise of God. We naturally suppose a life to the glory of God can be lived by making the law the rule of life. The supposition is an entire mistake. But the experience under the trial of it is necessary to manifest the mistake.

This experience is explained and interpreted in chap. 7. The explanation of the experience answers definitely and authoritatively the question, Is the law the Christian's power for a life of holiness and fruitfulness to God. C. Crain

(To be continued.)