"Nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done"-Luke 22:42.

I cannot say,
Beneath the pressure of life's cares today,
I joy in these;
But I can say
That I had rather walk this rugged way
If Him it please.

I cannot feel
That all is well when darkening clouds conceal
The shining sun;
But then, I know
God lives and loves; and say, since it is so,
"Thy will be done."

I cannot speak
In happy tones; the tear-drops on my cheek
Show I am sad;
But I can speak
Of grace to suffer with submission meek,
Until made glad.

I do not see
Why God should e'en permit some things to be,
When He is love;
But I can see,
Though often dimly through the mystery,
His hand above.

I do not look
Upon the present, nor in Nature's book,
To read my fate;
But I do look
For promised blessings in God's holy book,
And I can wait.

I may not try
To keep the hot tears back; but hush that sigh,
It might have been;
And try to still
Each rising murmur, and to God's sweet will
Respond-amen.

GENERAL FEATURES.

These two chapters which open the book of God stand alone, as it were. In majestic, yet divinely simple, language they delineate the good and perfect work of God, unmarred as yet by the creature's failure. The remainder of the Word, we may say, occupies us with the marvelous fact, presented in various ways, and in successive steps of divine revelation, that God is now at work to retrieve the ruin wrought by sin; and that the triumphant end of this work is to be the new heavens and new earth established in eternal perfection and relationship with Himself, all being grounded upon the work of redemption accomplished by Christ. Yet all this has been no afterthought with God, as these first two chapters of His book clearly testify; but rather these things have been His eternal purpose and counsel, so that His work in the material creation is made in such a way as to express these His most cherished thoughts.

What rest it gives, what soothing balm to the troubled mind, to turn from the fallacious theories of men and the wanton complexity of their wild reasonings to the sublime but divinely-simple words which open these chapters:"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Every mist is gone. The beclouded thoughts of man are suddenly and perfectly illuminated. The perplexities have vanished, one and all. Man's search after truth has ended, for here it is found. All the theories, every one of which left the enigma of creation unexplained and its secret beyond the grasp of man, are useless now, for God has given the answer. In it He has, as it were, said, "The world by its wisdom shall not know Me. It must wait on Me to know what, apart from My willingness to reveal it, is unknowable. I will be the Teacher; only those who will learn of Me will be found wise."

These two chapters, in their beauty and simplicity, are a prophecy of all time. They carry us back to the remotest bounds of the past, and onward to the transcendent glory of the eternal day. The material creation is here made the mirror in which the image of the spiritual is clearly discerned. God's last thought is seen to be His first. We desire to detail somewhat the spiritual image delineated here. It is the new creation, in its successive steps of progress, its eternal relationships and blessings, that is before God's mind. And as this is formed out of men who are morally and spiritually ruined by the fall, and who are transformed by the spiritual work of God in grace, so we see here the fair, beautiful and perfect cosmos fashioned from the ruin of the first creation.

The chapters properly divide at the end of verse 3 of chapter 2. First we have the positional aspect before God of new-creation life-its development into that position designed by Him for it (chaps. 1-2:3). In the second place, we are afforded a view of the relationships and blessings with God of this life (chap. 2:4-25).

The positional aspect is developed for us in successive steps of progress from a ruined condition to fully accomplished transformation, and the bringing in of the new order of life. The distinctive features of new creation work are typified in the work of these six days. They are a picture of the bringing of the ruined creature into full likeness and conformity to Christ-the One who is ever the supreme object before the eye of God. We will therefore find Christ everywhere, for He is the end of all God's purpose. Light is ushered in where darkness obtained ; fruit and life where only barrenness and desolation-the counterparts of death and judgment- prevailed; authority and government established where only confusion and awful discord had been displayed.

The steps of progress in the spiritual development are well marked for us in this first portion. We may mention them in the following order:

1.Light-the synonym of life-new birth.

2. The lesson of good and evil as life develops.

3. The good prevailing through resurrection-the earth appears.

4.Then we look upward, and our eyes are on the heavens above, to learn their speech.

5.Then the fruit-bearing of trial and tribulation, for the waters of evil are still around us.

6.But in connection with the new nature, mastery and government are accomplished.

Again, we may look at these six days in two sections of three days each. The first presents to us God's work of new creation in connection with our position as lost and ruined by the fall:1st, New life, for we were dead and in darkness. 2nd, The lesson of the two natures in us, and the finding of the means of separation and sanctification. 3rd, Triumph (earth comes up) over evil (waters) in the power of resurrection. The second series presents the relation to God which we are brought into as occupying the position now given to us through His work:1st, We are in relation to heaven, governed by heavenly things, which are signs to us of what God has wrought. 2nd, Our relation to Him is now such as brings us under the exercise of His discipline and care, to make the very evil in and around us productive of fruit, so that though we be Jacob in our way, we may be set apart from this to bring forth fruit to God. Thus God makes the evil to yield results in blessing since we are now in relationship with Him. 3rd, And now (the earth) that which is of resurrection in connection with us, the new nature, brings forth its fruit; and this brings in the man in his full character. And so these fruits of resurrection-life in us bring out the new man created in Christ Jesus according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth. After this how beautifully the rest and peace of the seventh day comes in as a third section, giving the blessed fulness of result as a consequence of God's work. This concludes the first portion of these two chapters.

Let us now briefly outline the second part (chap. 2:4-25). We find here three sections:1st (vers. 4-7), Man's place in relation to the new scene of blessing; 2nd (vers. 8-17), The eternal state of the new creation; 3rd (vers. 18-25), The eternal relationships which pertain to this scene.

When we meditate what the blessedness of all this will be-the groan of creation forever ended, and all brought into "the liberty of the glory of the children of God "-our hearts fill up with the anthem of praise to Him, our Saviour and Lord, who having made peace by the blood of His cross, is the One by and through whom the Godhead will reconcile all things. Truly He is the One who is the " Wonderful "-as a child born; the "Counselor"-as a son given, the Divine Wisdom, the Word; the "Mighty God "-marked out as Son of God in power by resurrection ; the Father of Eternity"-the One who brings to birth the eternal day by His work. And thus having brought all things into subjection, " then the Son also Himself shall be placed in subjection . . . that God may be all in all"; the Son's title thenceforth forever the "Prince of Peace." May our hearts contemplate Him with constant and increasing delight, Him of whom we sing:

" Thou art the everlasting Word,
The Father's only Son;
God manifest, God seen and heard,
The heaven's beloved One :
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow.

"Of the vast universe of bliss,
The center Thou, and Sun :
Th' eternal theme of praise is this,
To heaven's beloved One :
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow."

J. B.

(To be continued.)

To the editor of help and food.

My beloved Brother:–A copy of a type-written circular letter on church principles has lately come to my hand. It is being privately circulated in the parts where I am. Its teaching is so mischievous that I crave space for a few remarks upon it in your periodical, as I believe it may be helpful to some who have been, or are, in danger of being misled by its specious argument and show of piety. In order to do so I quote at length the portion of the letter referring to ecclesiastical matters:

"To the laws of their countries men yield a silent obedience. Some of the acts of their legislators may, in their judgment, be faulty, yet, bearing the seal of state, they are absolute in their authority. To take exceptions, or refuse subjection, to such acts would be counted anarchy and rebellion.

"On the other hand, to express one's approval by saying that you had carefully examined their requirements, and, having found them justifiable, would render obedience, would be an assumption of superiority, and an intimation that their acts were not binding without your indorsement.

"Of these defective human laws it is written in Rom. 13:1-5, 'They are ordained of God'; and of the fallible rulers, ' They are the ministers of God'; and to us, 'Ye must needs be subject.' We find this perfectly borne out in the Perfect Man. He proves clearly to His disciples that the demanded tax is unjust, and then honors it by paying the tax.

"Again, our blessed Lord has established governmental authority among His own which are in the world; but the administrators of it, though of heavenly birth, are still fallible, and what they do must often be faulty in His eyes. He does not invalidate their acts, however, on this account; but (as far as our responsibility to render subjection is concerned) He has said it is ratified in heaven. They may err ignorantly, possibly wilfully, and subject themselves to correction; but this is a matter entirely separate and distinct from the former.

" Beloved, we often speak of the beautiful simplicity of the gospel of God's grace, and contrast it with the intricate ways of man's devising:but is not the same true of the above simple principles concerning governmental authority ?

"God's way is ever to circumscribe evil, and to keep it within narrow limits.

"First it is, 'Thee and him alone'; then, 'One or two more'; then, ' Tell it to the church.'

"Thus far we have plain directions from God's word, but no further. Thus far we are in a plain, beaten path, where even the babe in Christ may walk and act intelligently. But beyond this there are no scriptural way marks for faith to walk by. Thus far saints may walk with God; but if they go further, they must walk without Him, having no light save the glow of the sparks of their own kindling; and as faith cannot serve them there, cold intellectualism must take its place. A. C. F."

Such are the unholy principles advocated in this letter, and I ask in all seriousness, could "cold intellectualism" go much further, or Jesuitical sophistry be much worse, than this ?
It has been well known to many of us that for years teaching like this has been tacitly accepted by advocates of church authority as opposed to the subjection of the individual conscience to the word of God; but it is only of late, I believe, that the theory has been so baldly stated as this. I think every Romish priest from pope down to deacon would say "Amen" to the claim for obedience to ecclesiastical decisions here made.

If Luther, Calvin, Farel, et al., had only seen that God has committed authority to the Church, which must be obeyed even though she has erred ignorantly or wilfully, it would have saved all the trouble and pain of the great rebellion against divine (because ecclesiastical) authority commonly miscalled the Reformation! Those admittedly earnest and conscientious, though utterly misguided, men actually supposed that the Church was responsible to hear and bow to the authority of the word of God, in place of being itself constituted the authority to which all who would have the Lord's approbation must yield an unhesitating, "silent obedience," without either examining her requirements or investigating the rightfulness and scripturalness of her decrees! As a result of the independency of these obstinate heretics, a great division was perpetrated, and a wretched fuss stirred up which has not been straightened out yet, and is not likely to be unless the teaching of A. C. F.'s letter be universally accepted among Christians, real and professed. The so-called reformers imagined that only what was "bound on earth"-by Scripture, of course-was "bound in heaven." Had they but seen that heaven ratifies (so far as our obedience is concerned) all that the Church does, whether bound by the Word or not, they would have lived and died in the Roman communion !

What a pity the apostle Peter had not read this letter before he made his famous (or was it infamous?) blunder of the 4th of Acts! There he actually dared to examine a decree of the rulers of the people to see if in obeying it he would be disobeying God; and believing such would be the case, he acted accordingly.

Well, some of us are making great progress backward. It would seem unbelievable, were the evidence not so manifest, that men who, rather than bow to human decrees bearing the stamp of divine authority, turned away from the systems of men and came out to the name of the Lord alone, could now be turning back to that which is the very pith and marrow of sectarian pretension.

I would notice, ere closing, the Jesuitical sophistry contained in the following sentence:" He does not invalidate their acts, however, on this account; but (as far as our responsibility to render subjection is concerned) He has said it is ratified in heaven." Can it be that A. C. F. shrank from actually saying that the Holy God really ratified wilful wrong-doing in heaven ? And so he inserted a parenthesis to let us know that while God cannot do this, He does ratify "our responsibility to render obedience" to the evil or unholy judgment! What state can one be in to write like this! But I forbear. May God keep His people from calling good evil, and evil good! H. A Ironside

The moment our service for Christ makes us a center of attraction around which admirers revolve, Christ Himself is put in the background, and the service has become a snare.

It is hard for man to be a devoted servant of Christ, continuing in devotedness and yet abiding a servant -a servant thankful to be employed by such a Master.

When I speak of mercy, I am thinking of the need in me; when I speak of grace, I am thinking of what is in the heart of God.

(1 Samuel 18.)

David had wrought with God in secret first. Afterwards he wrought with God in public for the deliverance and blessing of God's people. Jonathan saw this, and recognized it. The numbers also that sing his praises increase:" Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." To one who has read the whole history, from the first moment David appeared until this chapter, it is very lovely to see his graces develop little by little. But while the notes of praise are being sung by many on that account, it provokes envy in Saul. He "was very wroth" and he " eyed David" and he "became David's enemy continually." What a difference in the effects produced by the activities of God's grace! In one it excites the flesh, and shows what it can do if allowed:in the other, what the Holy Spirit leads to do. As soon as David gets his public place, and is recognized according to his own personal worth, he is envied. This exposes him to special temptation, and to the attacks of Satan; but in all these he continues steadily with God:he "behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him." "David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was much set by " (margin, precious).

It is not now the lion's roar that he needed to dread, but rather the craft of the serpent in times of favor and acceptance. He had overcome both the lion and the bear under other circumstances early in life. Now that favor abounds on the one hand, and envy eyes him on the other, he needs no less the power of God to acquit himself well. He realized this, and kept on with God; so he "behaved himself wisely." At first he walked with God, and so overcame both the lion and the bear. Afterward he walked with God and easily defeated Goliath; and when the more difficult and complicated circumstances came, and found him still walking with God, he was an overcomer then too, and therefore his name was much set by. As we read again this lovely history, may our cry during the present year be, "Lord, keep Thy servants everywhere, at all times, under all circumstances, in the secret of Thy presence, as was David in this beautiful part of his history. Keep them so that whether there be prosperity or adversity, success or repulse; whether some may encourage, or others, moved
with jealous thoughts, become jealous, we may behave ourselves wisely, and seek to walk with the Lord as did David." A. E. B.

Weaken the authority of the law, and it is clear that you destroy the foundation on which the gospel rests; for the law was of God as certainly as the gospel. Hence came in a most weighty question, especially for an Israelite:what was the bearing of the doctrine of Christ, respecting the kingdom of heaven, upon the precepts of the law? The Lord opens this subject (vers. 17-48) with these words:"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets." They might have thought so from the fact of His having introduced something not mentioned in either; but "Think not," He says, "that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." I take this word "fulfil" in its largest sense. In His own person the Lord fulfilled the law and the prophets, in His own ways, in righteous subjection and obedience. His life here below exhibited its beauty for the first time without flaw. His death was the most solemn sanction which the law ever could receive, because the curse that it pronounced upon the guilty, the Saviour took upon Himself. There was nothing the Saviour would not undergo, rather than God should have dishonor. But our Lord's words warrant, I think, a further application. There is an expansion of the law, or δικαιωμα (righteous requirement), giving to its moral element the largest scope, so that all which was honoring to God in it should be brought out in its fullest power and extent. The light of heaven was now let fall upon the law, and the law interpreted, not by weak, failing men, but by One who had no reason to evade one jot of its requirements; .whose heart, full of love, thought only of the honor and the will of God; whose zeal for His Father's house consumed Him, and who restored that which He took not away. Who but He could expound the law thus-not as the scribes, but in the heavenly light ? For the commandment of God is exceeding broad, whether we look at its making an end of all perfection in man, or the sum of it in Christ.

Far from annulling the law, the Lord, on the contrary, illustrated it more brightly than ever, and gave it a spiritual application that man was entirely unprepared for before He came. And this is what the Lord proceeds to do in the wonderful discourse that follows. After having said, " Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled," He adds, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven:but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven" (vers. 18-20). Our Lord is going to expand the great moral principles of the law into commandments that flow from Himself, and not merely from Moses, and shows that this would be the great thing whereby persons would be tested.

Hence He says, when referring to the practical use of these commandments of His, " Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven"-an expression that has not the smallest reference to justification, but to the practical appreciation of and walking in the right relations of the believer toward God and toward men. The righteousness spoken of here is entirely of a practical kind. This may strike many persons sharply, perhaps. They may be somewhat perplexed to understand how practical righteousness is made to be the means of entering into the kingdom of heaven. But, let me repeat, the sermon on the mount never shows us how a sinner is to be saved. If there were the smallest allusion to practical righteousness where a sinner's justification is concerned, there would be ground to be startled ; but there can be none whatever for the saint who understands and is subject to God's will. God insists upon godliness in His people. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." There can be no question that the Lord shows in John 15 that the unfruitful branches must be cut off, and that, just as the withered branches of the natural vine are cast into the fire to be burned, so fruitless professors of the name of Christ can look for no better portion. Bearing fruit is the test of life. These things are stated in the strongest terms all through Scripture. In John 5:28, 29 it is said, "The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation," or "judgment." There is no disguising the solemn truth that God will and must have that which is good and holy and righteous in His own people. They are not God's people at all who are not characterized as the doers of that which is acceptable in His sight. If this were put before a sinner as a means of reconciliation with God, or of having sins blotted out before Him, it would be the denial of Christ and of His redemption. But only hold fast that all the means of being brought nigh to God are found in Christ-that the sole way by which a sinner is connected with the blessing of Christ is by faith, without the works of the law-only maintain this, and there is not the least inconsistency nor difficulty in understanding that the same God who gives a soul to believe in Christ, works in that soul by the Holy Ghost to produce what is practically according to Himself. For what purpose does God give him the life of Christ and the Holy Ghost, if only the remission of the sins were needed ? But God is not satisfied with this. He imparts the life of Christ to a soul, and gives that soul the Holy Spirit to dwell in him; and as the Spirit is not the spring of weakness or of fear "but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind," God looks for suited ways and for the exercise of spiritual wisdom and judgment in passing through the present trying scene.

While they looked up with ignorant eyes to the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, our Lord declares that this sort of righteousness will not do. The righteousness that goes up to the temple every day, that prides itself upon long prayers, large alms, and broad phylacteries, will not stand in the sight of God. There must be something far deeper and more according to the holy, loving nature of God. Because with all that appearance of outward religion, there might be always, as there generally was in fact, no sense of sin, nor of the grace of God. This proves the all-importance of being right, first, in our thoughts about God; and we can only be so by receiving the testimony of God about His Son. In the case of the Pharisees we have sinful man denying his sin, and utterly obscuring and denying God's true character as the God of grace. These teachings of our Lord were rejected by the outward religionists, and their righteousness was such as you might expect from people who were ignorant of themselves and of God. It gained reputation for them, but there it all ended; they looked for their reward now, and they had it. But our Lord says to the disciples, " Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter, into the kingdom of heaven."

Allow me to ask the question here, How is it that God accomplishes this in regard to a soul that believes now ? There is a great secret that does not come out in this sermon. First of all, there is a load of unrighteousness on the sinner. How is that to be dealt with, and the sinner to be made fit for and introduced into the kingdom of heaven? Through faith, he is born again; he acquires a new nature, a life which as much flows from the grace of God as the bearing of his sins by Christ upon the cross. There is the foundation of practical righteousness. The true beginning of all moral goodness in a sinner-as it has been said and as it deserves to be often repeated-is the sense and confession of his lack of it, nay, of his badness. Never is anything right with God in a man till he gives himself up as all wrong. When he is brought down to this, he is thrown upon God, and God reveals Christ as His gift to the poor sinner. He is morally broken down, feeling and owning that he is lost, unless God appears for him; he receives Christ, and what then ? "He that believe th hath everlasting life." What is the nature of that life? In its character perfectly righteous and holy. The man is then at once fitted for God's kingdom. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." But when he is born again, he does enter there. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The scribes and Pharisees were only working on and by the flesh; they did not believe that they were dead in the sight of God; neither do men now. But what the believer begins with is, that he is a dead man, that he requires a new life, and that the new life which he receives in Christ is suitable to the kingdom of heaven. It is upon this new nature that God acts, and works by the Spirit this practical righteousness; so that it remains in every sense true, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven."

But the Lord does not here explain how this would be. He only declares that what was suitable to God's nature was not to be found in human Jewish righteousness, and that it must be for the kingdom. W. K.

"If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law," says Scripture. It is plain that if to be under the law were the means of Christian holiness, it would have said, " If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are under the law," rather than, "ye are not under the law."

But men are blinded. Though they constantly take up the commandments, repeat them, and teach them, yet they say they are not under the law! How could persons be more under the law than when they adopt the language of the Ten Commandments as the expression of their own relationship before God ? It is done by Christian people at the present day as really as by the children of Israel themselves. For persons to say that while acting and speaking thus they are at the same time not under the law, is evidently to cheat their souls in a fearful manner. What is meant by being under the law ? It is acknowledging myself under that rule as what God has given me-the rule by which I have to live. If a person were to use the law for the purpose of convincing an ungodly man of his sins, that is not to be under the law. But if I take up the ten words, and ask God to enable me to keep each, this is to confess myself under the law.

Then, may I break the law ? God forbid. Such an alternative could only emanate from one who understands .little indeed of the grace of Christ. All admit that the law is good and righteous. The question is whether the God who gave the law to Israel has given the same to Christians as the rule by which they are to live ? I deny it. He gave it to Israel. What He has given to the Church is Christ. Christ is unfolded in the whole word of God; and what the Christian has to walk by is the entire word of God, and so taught as to manifest Christ. The law kills, but the Spirit gives life. In Exod. 20 God gives to Israel the law, and tells them that He was the God that brought them out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. One might show from this how we too are delivered out of our bondage. This is quite grace, as far as it goes. But the moment you put Christians under the law as that which they have to walk by, like an Israelite of old, you are doing the very evil that the epistle to the Galatians was intended to correct, and what the Holy Ghost says those led by the Spirit do not. " If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." So men are doing at the present time-taking up the language of the commandments that were intended for Israel, and undertaking them as the directory of their own obedience to God every day. Yet they are obliged to explain away a great deal of the law; for instance, the Sabbath day. They keep, and very properly, the Lord's day; and I keep it too. But I deny it to be the Sabbath day, and maintain that the first day and the seventh day are not the same thing. Scripture always contrasts the first day with the seventh. The one is the first, the other is the last day of the week. The first day is a new thing, altogether apart from the law. People think that the keeping of a seventh day is the important thing. But this is not what God says, but the seventh day; and we are not at liberty to alter Scripture. This is not hearing the law, but destroying it. Who gave any man liberty to change the for a-when the change makes an all-important difference ? Let us beware of tradition, and seek to understand the word of God.

The denial that the law is the Christian's rule of walk is far from impairing holiness. The Holy Ghost brings in a deeper character of holiness than was even asked in the Ten Commandments. When our Lord said, "Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees," He did not mean righteousness imputed to us, but practically true. The Christian has a righteousness that is real. It is true that we become the righteousness of God in Christ, but that this is the only righteousness of the believer, I dispute. The Holy Ghost produces a real work in his soul, founded upon the work of Christ-separation from the world, devoted-ness to God, obedience, and love; and all these things, not merely according to the Ten Commandments, but according to the will of God as it was fully displayed in Christ. If any man hold that because the Lord kept the law, He did nothing else, one pities him. The keeping of the law was a small part of His obedience; and we are called to be like Christ in His devotedness to God at all cost. A first principle of practical Christianity runs thus:"If when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." This is a thing quite unknown to the legal system. In the Ten Commandments we find, if a man obeyed his parents he should live long on the earth. That this is not the principle on which God now deals is most evident; for we have all known most obedient children taken away in early days. Am I denying that there is an important spiritual truth for me to gather from that very word? Quite the contrary. The apostle Paul himself refers to this promise, not, it seems to me, as a motive why a Christian child should obey its parents, but as the general indication of God's mind. It was the first commandment with promise. The spiritual instincts of true Christians, let me add, are beyond their system; and although they are doctrinally under the law, they desire to walk in the Spirit. I have not a single unkind feeling against those who maintain that state of things. But the Spirit of God does speak of it as a very great error and peril. What we have to do then is to understand the mind of God, to give utterance to it, and obey. "If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." The Jews were. Whenever we see the people of God in Scripture under the law, it always means Israel. If a man now puts himself in a Jewish position, he takes upon himself that responsibility. In his faith he may be a Christian; but in outward forms and ordinances he is at least half a Jew. We ought to seek that they may be Christians, and nothing else-to have done with that which covers and obscures the character of Christ, and for which they have to pay the sad penalty either of carelessness of life, or of having their hearts cast down and doubting, instead of enjoying the liberty with which Christ has made US free.-From Lectures on Galatian, by W.K.

Philosophy.

No one would think of denying the greatness of Socrates as a philosopher. Among the wise of the wise Greeks he was chief. Yet all his wise philosophy left him groping in the darkness of his own maxim, " One thing I know, that I know nothing."

All his powers of reasoning, all his wisdom, left him where Scripture declares it must ever leave every philosopher, every reasoner, every man who thinks he has power within himself to solve Pilate's question, " What is truth ? " To all such, Scripture's solemn sentence is, "The world by wisdom knew not God" (i Cor. i:21).

Feeling.

"Oh that could feel myself saved!"is the cry we have heard over and over again from the lips of honest, earnest souls all along our pathway. They were far from the spirit of the philosophers, yet they too closed their ears to the voice which was ready to instruct them. They too wanted to find satisfaction through something within themselves. They could not. They never can. The army of those who would solve truth by their feelings is, to a man, doomed to disappointment as surely as the army of reasoners. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," repeatedly said our Lord. Truth is not in us, but in Him, and we must needs have it communicated to us or remain in darkness.

Knowledge.

Has the reader ever noticed the immense use of the word know in Scripture ? The word feel, or feeling, is not used over a dozen or fifteen times throughout the book. Not that feelings do not abound in connection with truth. They do. Nothing is so productive of feeling-joyful and sorrowful-as truth. But feelings are not truth, and are no more capable than reason of finding truth; and only truth delivers. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," said our Lord. Many hundreds of times is that word know used in Scripture. It tells of ears that hear-of ears into which God has poured some wonderful information. By it

We know that the Son of God is come (i John 5:20).

We know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 8:9).

We know that He was manifested to take away our sins (i John 3:5).

We know that all who believe have eternal life (i John 5:13).

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God (Rom. 8:28). And we might go on and on quoting page after page of the blessed things which we know, and can heartily enjoy because we know them.

The Church and the churches.
The word of God says "There is one body" (Eph. 4:4), not two, nor three, but one-only one. That "one body" is the body of Christ (Eph. i:23):that is, every true Christian is to Christ what a man's foot, hand, etc., is to that man (i Cor. 12:12-27). Nowhere in Scripture do we read or find the idea of a Baptist, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or any other body. The only thing found there is the one body of Christ, formed by the "one Spirit" of God. The relationship therefore of all true Christians is that of fellow-members of the one body of Christ-a divine relationship entered into at conversion by the Spirit's baptism, and consummated in the glory of heaven to which the Church is destined.

Christians assuming any other relationship than this with one another, associating themselves together on any other principle than this, are therefore sectarian. They form another tie than that which God has formed, and by which He binds all His children of this dispensation together.

But the members of that one body are scattered all over the earth. They cannot assemble together in one place. They therefore assemble in any locality convenient to those who live in that locality. There may be "two or three," or two or three hundred or thousand; Christ, the Saviour and Head of the Church, has pledged Himself to be present in the midst of them thus assembled (Matt. 18:20). He is their Center of assembling as the Ark was of old the gathering-center of Israel. He is also the attractive Object of all their hearts-every one rejoicing in the presence, to faith, of the Lord Jesus. These local churches, or assemblies, are, of course, even as the persons who compose them, "one body in Christ, and every one members one of another" (Rom. 12:5). If new converts be received in one locality, they are received there on behalf of the whole Church of God universal, and thus introduced into her fellowship-her fellowship, mark, not her membership, for they were already made members by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Should one move where he is unknown, a letter of commendation gives him full access to all privileges everywhere. If one walks in evil and is put under discipline in one place, he is under discipline in the whole Church universal until he repents.

All these local assemblies are, for their doctrine and their practice, primarily responsible to the Lord, inasmuch as "Christ is the head of the Church " (Eph, 5:23), and should any of them fall into evil doctrine or practice He may visit them with judgment, as in i Cor. ii:26-32,or take away its candlestick altogether as threatened in Rev. 2:5. They are also responsible to one another, for all "are members one of another" (Rom. 12:5). No local assembly can act for itself alone. Its actions affect all others, bind all others, and render thus all others responsible with it. It must therefore, when questioned, be open in the fullest way to investigation, as it is accountable to all the rest. The sense of this responsibility toward one another produces wholesome care in all that is done in each place.

But, some one may say, this is all very true, and sound doctrine, and in accord with all Scripture, but Christendom is full of divisions and parties, insubject to each other, which in turn abound with persons who are in no wise subject to Scripture or to the Lord. What then are you going to do ? Walk apart from them, and, by scriptural teaching and godly labor after the fashion of the apostles, form a fellowship on the principle of the whole Church of God, to practice among themselves what the whole Church should practice. It may be small and weak, and cause opposition and contempt, as in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, when they were building afresh upon the old foundations; but it will please God. The mere attempt will please Him. Faithful labor at it He will bless; and when the Lord returns He will manifest that every "living stone" which had been set on the old foundations had been set in a place of special blessing-blessing for eternity.

It is not service which entitles a man to be heir; it is relationship. Men may think that by good deeds they will inherit heaven. It is great folly. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God"(Jno. 3:3)

The above is the heading of an article which appeared recently, dated from New Haven, Conn. It reads as follows:

" A new confession of faith, which drops the Apostles' Creed and requires no formal expression as to the divinity of Christ, has been adopted by the deacons, and will be presented for adoption by the Center Church (Congregational) of this city. The church has strictly held to Puritan orthodoxy for more than two and a half centuries, having been founded in 1638. New members will only have to pledge themselves to believe in a higher life and to moral purposes. The old confession of faith will be spread upon the records of the church as a historical relic.

" As explained by the church officers, the purpose is to make the confession of faith absolutely non-theological, and to gather into membership those who have hitherto been debarred by slight theological scruples."

This is only one of the many signs of the times. It is not the fig-tree putting forth its leaves-for the Christian heart can only rejoice at any and every indication of Israel's approaching restoration-but such movements as the above must surely sadden the spirit of every true believer in Christ, for they show only too plainly how near to complete apostasy the Gentiles of Christendom are.

It has been a well-known fact for years that the Congregational Church, especially in New England, is honeycombed with Unitarianism. But it was always more or less of a veiled form; but now it has become emboldened, and unblushingly shows its head, as in this Center Church of New Haven.

And what are these people really doing ? They are selling Christ over again for pieces of silver. It
is "to gather into membership" those who will not confess Jesus Christ come in the flesh. These churches, whose candlesticks have long since been removed, see themselves declining, and about to become extinct. And in the hope of gathering in any kind of nondescript membership, "new members will have only to pledge themselves to believe in a higher life and to moral purposes." Any semi-civilized pagan would subscribe to such a belief. It sinks lower than Mohammedanism, which requires a belief in the existence of a personal God at least. This "new confession of faith" does not even ask this much of applicants for membership. It comes the nearest to Antichrist-denying the Father and the Son-of anything we have ever seen. They are thereby giving up Christianity; soon they will also give up the name "Christian," when their apostasy will be complete.

"The old confession of faith (in the deity of Christ) will be spread upon the records of the church as a historical relic." And the new confession, be assured, will be spread upon the books of God as evidence that these men did not like to retain His Christ in their knowledge; so they allure into their sinking ship people who have '' slight (!) theological scruples," and are thus willing to sacrifice Him again into the hands of the unholy. Oh, the shame of it! And it was from the bosom of these very churches that such men as Jonathan Edwards, Brainerd and Nettleton came forth to tell to lost men the saving power of Him who was here '' God manifest in the flesh."

Let these departures from the "faith of God's elect" stir up all true Christians to hold the vital and
blessed truth of Christ's person in power and all boldness in face of a scoffing world. And let it not be mere "orthodoxy" of belief, but the affections engaged and the soul enjoying the blessed knowledge that the Christ who is ours is "God over all, blessed forever."

Soon all this insult and rejection which God now permits men to offer His beloved Son will be terminated forever, and all created intelligences in heaven, earth, and under the earth, will ascribe to the Lamb "blessing, and honor, and glory, and power" (Rev. 5:13). It is only a little while and God will show who is "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (i Tim. 6:15).

Until then may we be willing to suffer the shame and scorn and reproach which the confession of what He is sure to bring upon us from the world. C. K.

Dear Mr. Editor :

Referring once more to the " Sons of God" in Gen. 6, I for one can say that one Scripture passage settles this question conclusively; and thinking it might do so for others also, I ask a little space in your pages.

This passage is Matt. 22 :30:"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."

There may be essential differences between the resurrected and the angels in other respects, but in this respect they are alike that they neither marry nor are given in marriage.

This passage then teaches that both the resurrected and the angels with whom we have to do now are not designed to multiply themselves ; consequently God did not make them in the way that answers to this purpose; they are not created so as to be capable of this.

This seals the matter to me; and in seeking light on the 7th verse of the epistle of Jude it is made sure at the outset that to angels the first part of the passage does not, and cannot, refer ; nor does the context demand such an application ; for does not the 7th verse refer to the 5th as well as to the 6th?

When God destroyed unbelieving Israel in the wilderness one great event stands out above all others, namely, When in the case of the Moabites the people gave themselves over to fornication, thus going after other flesh (not strange flesh), and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them sinned in like manner, for which they are suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, whereunto the devil and those fallen angels, for whom this fire is prepared, are reserved. J. K.

BY C. GRAIN.

We read in this passage of a " third heaven " into which this man was taken. But can we know, or have some right comprehension of what the third heaven is? By this I do not mean the blessedness of heaven; that, surely, we may regard as impossible. But can we form a satisfactory idea of what the third heaven is in contrast with the first and second heaven? In the first chapter of Genesis we have at least a conception of two heavens. We find there a heaven as the sphere of the clouds, and of "the birds of heaven." Then we find a heaven of the stars; in these, no doubt, we have the first and the second heavens. The sphere of the birds and of the clouds is clearly a physical and created heaven; and so likewise is the second heaven-the heaven of the stars.

Now, in the last chapter of Peter's 2d epistle, we learn that these physical and created heavens are to pass away:"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ? " Again, in the 20th chapter of Revelation, at the end of time, as we say, when the course of human history has run out, and when the great white throne is set up, we read of the passing away of the first heaven and the first earth from before Him who sits upon that throne:that is, we read of the passing away of the present physical creation-the things spoken of in those brief words of the apostle Peter.

Here, in ad Corinthians, chap. 12, we read of "the third heaven," which cannot be, of course, either of the two physical heavens of which we have been speaking. May we not, then, regard this third heaven as the heaven of God, the home of God? And if His dwelling place be an eternal home, it is an immaterial, uncreated heaven. I think we cannot question that, and that this is what the apostle refers to in 2 Cor. 12, when he speaks of this "man in Christ" being caught up into the third heaven.

Thus far I have only expressed it as a conviction; but the expressions in the 2d and 4th verses seem to settle conclusively that the apostle identifies the third heaven with God's paradise. In the second chapter of Revelation we also get the expression, "the paradise of God"; and here the apostle identifies the third heaven with the paradise of God. "Paradise" means a place of delight, and God's home surely is a place of eternal delight.

It is interesting to notice several things brought before us here by the apostle in reference to this "man in Christ" being caught up into the third heaven. In the first place, we should remember it is in the apostle's defense of himself when his authority as an apostle had been called in question. Men had come in among the Corinthian saints to disparage the apostle – to supplant him in their minds and hearts. So far as this was a personal matter, it was not of much account in the eyes of the apostle; but in undermining his apostleship they were putting in question the truth which the Corinthians had received from God through him. So it was a matter to which he must give attention for the sake of the saints. He could not let it pass as he did on another occasion when he wrote, "It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you," etc. But he was set for the defense of the faith once delivered to the saints, and his apostleship must be maintained. So, in effect, he says:If these people are calling my authority in question, if it is a matter of defense, why, I can boast of as much as they can. If they are Jews, so am I; if they are ministers of Christ, so am I, etc. He then says, Now I am going to boast of something that none of them can boast of. (Read from the 23rd verse of the previous chapter.) "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the assemblies." Here, says the apostle, is my record; here is a picture of my life as an apostle, and as a minister of Christ. Were these false apostles-who transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness-were they and their labor like this ? But that is not all:"I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord," he says, even to being " caught up to the third heaven,"-the Paradise of God-a wonderful experience to which everyone of them was a stranger.

But there is a great deal more in these verses than the apostle's defense of his apostleship. What is stated here bears very importantly on several other matters. I may say, by the way, it has been questioned if it was really the apostle who was caught up to the third heaven, but that question is settled in the 7th verse of this chapter; for he says, "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." It could be therefore none other than himself.

Let us note a few things in connection with this scripture. In the first place, we may notice that he who was caught up into the third heaven was not there as an apostle, but simply as "a man in Christ." And that is the only possible way in which any man can be there. No one can ever enter the eternal home of God except under cover of Christ. I remember when I was at school, on coming home one vacation I took a friend along with me. Had this friend gone to my father's door alone, and knocked for admission, no doubt many questions would have been asked him. But going there with me, no questions were asked, because he was entering my father's door under my cover. My father welcomed and received me, and received and welcomed him because he was under my protection. So with the home of God. There is but one way in:Christ says, " I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." We enter the Father's home only under Christ's cover and protection. Well, a "man in Christ" entering heaven is a man under cover of Christ.

Many vain speculations have been made as to when and how the apostle was thus caught up, admitted into, this " third heaven." The apostle himself tells us he did not know whether he was bodily caught up or not. He had been into paradise, in the third heaven; he knew that; but if it was with or without his body, he could not tell.* *The blessedness of the things witnessed and heard was such, and self-consciousness so absent, that whether in the body or out of the body, the apostle could not tell. Have we not in this a suggestion of the condition of those who have "departed to be with Christ, which is far better" ?-[Ed.* Why should any speculate about it then? One thing is clear, the apostle not only thought it was possible to go there in the body, but also out of the body. Then, at any rate, there is consciousness for the spirit or soul of man after death. If there were not another verse in all Scripture bearing on that question, this one passage settles absolutely that the disembodied spirit after death is conscious.

In the Old Testament we read that "Enoch walked with God and God took him." Elijah too was caught up by a whirlwind. Where were they caught up to? To the heaven of clouds, the heaven of the stars, or the dwelling-place of God ? All down through the ages those who died in the faith, as Hebrews 11 tells us, have gone where Enoch and Elijah went; without question they went to the home of God, the third heaven, and they went there under the cover of Christ. And the dying thief too, who went to Paradise, went there under the cover of Christ; for the moment he took his place in self-judgment and repentance, casting himself upon Christ's mercy, the blessed Lord said to him, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." He had joined the other thief in reviling the Lord at first; but suddenly, when his soul is laid hold of by the Spirit of God, he confesses himself a sinner, rebukes the other thief, saying, "Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss." He confesses himself a sinner, and casts himself upon the mercy of the Lord; and the blessed Saviour becomes his protection against his great and many sins, and says to him, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." So has every spirit of just men all along through the ages gone to paradise under cover of Christ.

In the 4th verse the apostle tells us that having been caught up into paradise, he heard "unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." Is it possible for us to form any conception of what the apostle was a witness to in the third heaven? If we turn to the eighth chapter of Proverbs, we find there the Son of God under the title of "Wisdom." And what is it "Wisdom " says? Mark, it is before creation, before the foundations of the earth were laid -in eternity, when there was none but God Himself. Communications between the divine Persons are here given us:"Then was I by Him, as one brought up with Him:and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; rejoicing in the habitable parts of His earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." How that speaks to us of the Father's delight in the Son, and of the eternal purpose. His eye was looking towards the eternity to come, when that purpose would be revealed and fulfilled-when the physical new heavens and new earth shall be established, and God and man dwell eternally together, and that "rejoicing together in the habitable parts of His earth" will be realized! Here we have the expression of it:"I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." What delight in each other! What divine communications from Divine heart to Divine heart!

Well, the apostle was caught up to the third heaven, and what did he hear ? He says, I cannot declare what I heard; I heard unspeakable, or ineffable, words in the home of God; not the language of man, but the tongue of heaven in that home of God. Can we doubt that he heard divine communications of which we have been speaking ? What else could it be? In the home of God, He must be the Speaker, and in the language of that place. Could the apostle find words in our language to express the fulness of that fellowship? Nay; that was impossible for a man to express.

In closing I will turn to Rev. 2:7 to show that in eternity we shall participate in the life and joys of that place. We know that we have been laid hold of by the grace of God for that home. We are on the way to it, and when we are in it we shall participate in that fellowship of which the apostle has been speaking, and of which the eighth chapter of Proverbs is an expression. We have here, in Revelation, the promise of "the Tree of Life"-a symbolical expression, no doubt. Revelation is full of symbols. " The Tree of Life " symbolizes Christ as the Sustainer of life in the home of God. From Him we derive life; we live by Him, and we are going to live by and with Him for ever. He says:"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life." If the Tree of Life is the symbol of the life in the home of God, eating is the symbol of participating with Him. But I will not enlarge upon this. It is wonderful!

Man has lost the earthly paradise which God had made for him; but think of this marvelous grace of God, to send His only begotten Son down here in this world, when we had lost everything, to lay hold of us, and exalt us even to taking us to His own home with Himself! Here is grace-the grace of God! May the immensity of it, and the glory of it, lay hold of these poor narrow hearts of ours; for He has delivered us from the eternal doom of sin, and "made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."

As one follows the life and times of Daniel in Babylon, many beautiful traits of character appear in him, a few of which we note. One thing is especially to be noticed:In every trial and difficulty he has the mind of God. In him is fairly illustrated, " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant" (Ps. 25:14). His name implies this:and although given another which means Protected by Bel; he was ever true to his real name, My Judge is God.

It is said of him and his three companions, "God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom:and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams" (chap. 1:17).

As we follow him step by step through his eventful career, what an example he presents for the believer in this day! His separation from the world is complete; he was no shifter; he was not carried about with every wind of doctrine; his convictions were formed by the word of God, and were therefore firm; not like many now who allow themselves to be "spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men" (Col. 2:8).

This made him a. man of purpose (chap, i:8); not one who drifts easily along with the company he happens to be in. True convictions develop conscience:he "purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself," but be true to God and keep himself "unspotted from the world," as we read in'" James i:27. He was not a double-minded man who is unstable in all his ways (Jas. i:8).

Again he was a man of wisdom:"Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom" (chap. 2:14). How lovely is the wisdom which comes from above! It is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy " (Jas. 3:17).

He was a man of unfeigned faith:He goes to his companions and has them join him in asking mercies of the God of heaven (chap. 2:17, 18), and God honors their faith and answers the prayer (2:19). How fully this justifies the constant exhortations of Scripture to "pray without ceasing," James i:5 also says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him;" and also Matt. 18:19, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven."

Daniel does not become vain over the knowledge given him, nor does he fail to give thanks and praise to God for it (chap. 2:20-23). How he pours out his heart in praise to God! "I thank Thee, and praise Thee, O Thou God of my fathers." Would that what the Lord ministers to us ever had the same effect upon our hearts!

Then again in chap. 4:27 we see him a man of courage, a faithful messenger, and a wise reprover. He had laid to heart Prov. 25:12, 13. Having interpreted the dream to the king, he now counsels him to break off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, that it might yet lengthen the peace of his kingdom. There was "salt" in his prophesying. Not only had he no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but he reproved them too (Eph. 5:11; a Tim. 4:2).

Once more in chap. 5:17 we find him a man who would not be influenced by a gift. It is commonly said that every man has his price. This is not true. Daniel could neither be bought nor hired; he could say to the king, "Let thy gifts be to thyself and give thy fee to another, yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. " He had treasured up in his heart the words of Deut. 16:19, and the exercise of the gift that was in him brought him before great men, as said in Prov. 18:16.

In chap. 6:10 he appears as a man of prayer. He will not relinquish his dependence on God; therefore not even the den of lions can intimidate him; no decree of man, whoever he be, can turn him aside from his purpose to please God above all. Morning, noon and night he must pray with his windows open toward Jerusalem. He knew well the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple, and that part of it in i Kings 8:33-40, so he disregards all human interference. How much higher and greater our incentive to persevering prayer:"Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will Ido"(Jno. 14:13). In chap. 9 he is a humble man. He confesses (ver. 20). He not only confesses the sin of his people, but takes his place as one of them; according to Luke 14:ii he takes the low place and for it is exalted.

In chap. 10:11 he is called "A man greatly beloved, "^ or "A man of desire."In the language of the New Testament (Jno. 7:17), it is one whose will is to do the will of God, and of such it is said, "They shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." Now "the secret of the Lord is with those that fear Him."

In this same place we see in Daniel a man who realizes the solemnity of the word of God. The words of Isaiah 66:2 are in his soul, "To this man will I look, to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word." Oh that this might be more true of all the people of God! T. G.

I have been thinking of the importance of Matt. 18:23-35. It illustrates 2 Cor. 5:19-31. God was not imputing sins to sinners when Christ was on the cross. That was a ministry of reconciliation-a discharge of their debts. The discharge is temporary if men refuse the reconciliation, but eternal if they receive it.

God's appeal to men is His love in Christ displayed in the cross. The very appeal is a discharge of their sins-not imputing them; but, to be an eternal discharge, they must be reconciled to Him and His way of dealing with them.

FRAGMENT Much we may do, and busy haste may show;
Yet 'tis not eager running to and fro that does His
will:

He loves that we upon His strength may lean,
Thus from His stores with chastened hearts to
glean,
And praise Him still. A. D. S.

Satan at Work.

At the end of the millennial reign of Christ there will be a great rebellion. The devil, who had been cast into the bottomless pit at the beginning of that reign, will be let loose for a little season, that the true state of every heart may be manifested. A multitude like "the sand of the sea" will arise, and will actually come up against Jerusalem to overthrow the King of kings (Rev. 20).

The same process is now going on in Christendom. The blessings of Christianity are very different from the blessings of the millennial reign, and much higher. They tell of God's richest grace to men-a grace which not only forgives the repentant sinner, but unites him to Christ, makes him a member of Christ's body, and a fellow-heir with Him of all the glories in which He is soon to appear. The great movements of the present day, such as Unitarian-ism, Higher Criticism, Christian Science, Millennial Dawnism, and various others, are, toward Christianity, what the rebels at the end of the millennial reign will be toward the kingdom of heaven. The object of Satan, by them, is to dethrone Christ by leveling Him down to other men. As Rome wrecked the apostolic Church, and turned it into a "Mother of Harlots," so these, unable, as Rome, to close the Bible which was reopened by the Reformation, are corrupting it, and making it of no effect thereby. Thus is the apostasy which is to end Christianity, as prophesied in the Word, rapidly coming on. The doom of all who are bringing it is coming on at the same time (2 Thess. 2). Let all who care for their souls beware of trifling with these works of the devil. Let them reprove them, and stand off from them as Abraham from Sodom, though an intercessor still- not like Lot, who, while he vexed his righteous soul about them, remained with them, and suffered great loss thereby. Indeed, abiding with what we know the word of God condemns, whatever our excuse may be, is a destruction of conscience and of Christian progress.

Death.

In Scripture death, in reference to man, never means extinction. It is always, as one can easily learn by careful examination, a parting, a change of condition, a transferring of the individual from one sphere into another.

If used in the sense of physical death, it is the parting from each other of the body and the spirit. Luke 16:19-31, among a host of other scriptures, shows that the two men who died were in no wise extinct. Parted from his body, the spirit of the one was in bliss; of the other, in woe; while waiting, both of them, for a time when " there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" (Acts 24:15).

If death is used in the moral sense, it is a parting of man with God, which sin indeed effects (Gen. 4:16). And this parting is as complete as the parting of spirit and body in physical death. So complete is it that man in his natural state is said to be "dead in trespasses and sins," and must be born anew to be brought again in communion with God. Thus the apostle, in Eph. i:4, 5, speaking of those born of God, refers to their past condition in these words:"God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ," etc.
If used for the deliverance of the believer from the torment and power of indwelling sin, it is to teach him that in the death of Christ, "made sin for us," with whom he is now identified by the new life he has received from Him, he is forever parted from the sin that dwells in him, and from the law which condemns it. "Dead to sin" and "dead to law" express thus our perfect deliverance.

Again, if used in the eternal sense, as in Rev. 20:14, it is the parting of man with God from which there is no return. From the first death, which began in Eden when man disobeyed God, there is return. God, in Christ, has made abundant provision for that; He has made it for all men; so that not one need perish nor remain in alienation from God. Christ "is the propitiation for our (believers') sins:and not for ours only, but also for the [sins of] the whole world " (i John 2:2). This life is the time to appropriate the benefits of this, through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. This neglected, or spurned, brings on "the second death "-the eternal parting.

Much more might be adduced to the same effect, but enough has been said to set the honest seeker in the way of finding the true meaning of death as taught in Scripture. What a blessed friend it is to the believer-how justly the king of terrors to the unbeliever!

(Continued from December number, page 322.)

UNHOLY SEPARATISTS.

"These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks swelling words, admiring persons for the sake of profit. But ye, beloved, remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they said to you, that at [the] end of the time there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts of ungodlinesses. These are they who set [themselves] apart, natural [men], not having [the] Spirit" (vers. 16-19).

Just as the true servant of the Lord bears not only the doctrine of Christ, but commends himself by the manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit, so Satan's false apostles not only come with the sophistical denial of the truth upon their lips, but there are characteristic signs that soon make known to the godly the presence of these wolves in sheep's clothing. They may attempt to lisp in the voice of the believer, but their habits and ways betray them.

Like the mixed multitude who came up out of Egypt, in company with redeemed Israel, those of whom Jude writes to warn us are murmurers and complainers. Never having learned the initial lesson of subjection to God, they soon find the path of outward obedience to His word unspeakably irksome, for "the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Hence their continual objecting to the plainest precepts of the Holy Scriptures.

Aiming only to please themselves, they walk un-blushingly after their own lusts, using their sacred calling as a ladder to worldly gain and ecclesiastical preferment. Self-denying service for Christ's sake, constrained by His all-conquering love, they understand not, yet resent with indignation the suggestion that greed for mammon and power is the actuating principle controlling them. But He who seeth not as man seeth has searched them through and through, and here records their true character as discerned by those Eyes which are as a flame of fire.

Great swelling words fall glibly from their uncircumcised lips as they boast of human progress and accomplishments, while forgetting the dreadful fact that man's will, till subdued by divine grace, is as much opposed to God as ever it was in the past- even when it nailed His blessed Son to a gibbet and poured contumely on His devoted head. Forgetting His sorrows, they pander to the ordered system of things that slew Him and now fain would adorn His sepulcher.

The fifth count against these deceitful workers is one to which the majority are now so accustomed that it never occurs to them as one of the special signs of the apostasy-"Admiring persons for the sake of profit." The extent to which the public laudation of church dignitaries is often carried (even in their very presence) is shameful and disgusting.* *At a recent meeting, where the writer was one of an audience of about three thousand persons, one D. D. introduced another Rev. Dr. as follows:"For years some of us have sat at the feet of this Gamaliel of the Occident, sometimes wondering, sometimes approving, sometimes venturing for the moment to disapprove, but ever carried at last by this master of men, this mighty brain-worker, to see the strength of his positions and to accede to his views. Such an intellectual genius appears hut seldom in a generation," etc., etc., ad nauseam. The Lord Jesus said. "How can ye believe which receive honor one from another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" It should be added that both lecturer and chairman above referred to were pronounced higher critics.* Adulation is carried to such an extreme as to be positively nauseating; but it is the order of the day, and will become increasingly marked as man is, inch by inch, pushed into the place of God and His Christ, till the full consummation of the Man of Sin of 2 Thess. 2. The deification of humanity and the humanizing of Deity in the minds of men is the natural outcome of all this. How different was the spirit of Elihu, who, having no advantage or profit of his own to seek, could speak with all due deference before the aged, yet with firmness declare, " Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person; neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take me away" (Job 32:21, 22).

Well it is for the soul who seeks to be guided by Scripture to remember that nothing which he beholds on every side was unforeseen by God. Unbelief and apostasy may abound, but nothing takes Him by surprise. Long since, the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ had warned us that the last days would be characteristically days of spiritual declension and departure from the truth. The coming of mockers, walking after their own unholy desires, has long been foretold.

For the simple believer there is both strength and encouragement in this. If he look about him and see, as it were, star after star falling from heaven, teacher after teacher apostatizing from the truth, the love of many waxing cold, with error proudly defiant and apparently carrying all before it, he is apt to be overcome by fear and gloom. Like the prophet, he will be ready to cry, " Truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey" (Isa. 59:14, 15). But he may forget to add, with the same prophet, "The Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment." But let him remember that all that is so solemn in the on rushing tide of evil has been foreknown and foretold long ago by Him who knows the end from the beginning, and he at once begins to take heart. He realizes that he is not to expect anything else. Therefore what he sees but the more firmly establishes him in the truth of Scripture. And, more than that, it is in the time of the end all this iniquity is to come to its height, before being forever overthrown by the personal appearing of the Living Word as King of kings and Lord of lords. Therefore he finds encouragement in the very darkness of the scene to soon expect to behold the still shining-forth of the Morning Star, and later the rising in glory of the Sun of righteousness.

This is the value of prophecy, which is as a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in the heart (2 Peter i:19). Led on by this sure and steady gleam, the humble child of God will not be dazzled by the pretensions, nor disheartened by the influence for evil, of these haughty resisters of the truth, who set themselves apart as a select circle, who have attained to what the commonalty of Christians have not yet reached. There is a spiritual and a carnal separation. The former is separation from evil at the call of the word of God, when to longer continue in some particular association would be unfaithfulness to Christ. The latter is a walking apart in fancied superiority, led on by pride and vainglory. This is what marks out the class Jude is portraying, in the day of their power.

For it should be noted that the apostle evidently traces for us the growth of the apostasy. He begins with evil workers privily creeping in, under cover of a Christian profession. Ere he closes they are pictured as having cast off all fear, as though their very strength made the necessity for it to have ceased. In place of caution and covered tracks, we have superciliousness and hauteur of the superlative degree, even to the forming among themselves of a select separated coterie, who arrogate to themselves all spiritual light and privilege, as well as human learning and scholarship.* *Something of this is seen in the way in which critical rejecters of inspiration write and speak :"All scholars are now agreed that so-and-so is not true, or authoritative"; "No scholar now denies" this or that point for which they are contending. But the simple reader need not think such pretentious expressions have any real weight. Thousands of spiritually-minded scholars reject the so-called "results" of Higher Criticism in toto.*

But great swelling words, even when coupled with the most arrogant presumption, can never overthrow the truth of the Eternal, nor alter the word, "The Scriptures cannot be broken."

Of the word of God, as of the Son of God, it can be said, "Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder." God is silent now, while men blaspheme His name and stumble over His word. Soon He will speak from heaven, when all shall know with whom they have to do!

Then it will be manifested that those who opposed Him, in their pride, were but natural, or soulish, men, bereft of the Spirit. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:for they are foolishness unto Him:neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned " (i Cor. 2:14). This explains the difficulty many have in regard to believing the great truths of Scripture. They are unregenerate, natural men, attempting to act as ministers of Christ. But their speech betrayeth them. H. A. I.

(To be continued.)

QUES. 5.-Will yon kindly explain what is meant to be taught in Heb. 7 regarding Melchizedek, especially vers. 2 and 3? I do not understand who this person was, how he came to be a priest of God and. in that country, and what is meant to be taught by it. Others have asked me regarding it also, and I would be glad to know.

ANS.-Your question is a very large one, requiring more than can be answered here, interesting as it might be to us and to others, for it embodies that great office of our Lord Jesus Christ which endears Him forever to every soul that truly knows Him. We would recommend to yon, "Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews," by S. Ridout; "Genesis in the Light of the New Testament," by F. W. Grant; also, the volume of the Numerical Bible containing the Epistle to the Hebrews ; all of which can be had of our Publishers.

QUES. 6.-Please explain Mark 16 :17, 18. In going into people's houses to seek after their souls, I have been asked to prove my Christianity by the miraculous powers told out in that scripture. How am I to meet this ?

ANS.-As the Lord did to the same generation of people in Matt. 12 :39-"An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas."

By a careful reading of the passage concerning which you enquire, you will find it does not make signs necessary for all time in them that believe. So plainly was it for that time only the time of the setting up of Christianity-that the last verse of the chapter declares it accomplished.

When God was establishing Christianity, He gave abundant proof of its being of Him and not of men. But while providing an external proof, miracles never change the heart of man. So we have, in Luke 16:31, "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead," and this we have exemplified in John 12:9-11.

At the close, in the days of Christianity's full apostasy, the powers that accompany it are, according to 2 Thess. 2 :8-12. "after the working of Satan." Lei the people of God, therefore, beware of all pretenders to miraculous powers.
A Letter from a Japanese Christian.

QUES. 10.-Where can I find the original Church which was established by Jesus Christ in the beginning? We read of that Church in the Bible; and the next we hear of the Church is the Roman Catholic, with the Pope as its head. Where is the Church with Christ alone as its head ?

ANS.-She is hid in the midst of Roman Catholic and Greek corruption, of Protestant confusion, and in and out of the innumerable sects and parties of Christendom. She is composed of every one throughout the world who has repented of his sins, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, and who is therefore born of God, washed from his sins by the blood of Jesus, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Every one of these is united to Christ and to every other member of Christ by the Spirit of Christ who dwells in him, and they thus form the Church which is Christ's body (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 5). Christ in heaven is the head of that body (Eph. 1:22, 23). It remains ever one body, and cannot be divided, because its unity is a divine work, and not left to the responsibility of man. Had not its members sinned against Christ, there would be between them the same outward, manifest unity in which it ever exists before the eye of God. But sin has broken that unity which is for the eye of man.

In present conditions (which will be ended only by the coming again of our Lord) the only remedy for God's obedient people is expressed in 2 Tim. 2:19-22. And they who obey it experience still the sweetness of our Lord's promise, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am. I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).

QUES. 11.-Can you help me on Eph. 2:10, and on Isa. 45:7? Neither of these passages is clear to me.

ANS.-The first refers to the new creation now being operated by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with Christ. 2 Cor. 5:17 says as to this, "If any man be in Christ, be is a new creature," or rather, That is a new creation. This is illustrated in Adam :God created him, and placed him in the garden, to perform there what God had appointed for him. So now we are born anew -made a new creation in Christ Jesus, to practice the works which belong to that heavenly creation.

As to Isa. 45, it is a very different thing, as you may easily see by a careful reading of the subject in hand. Trodden-down Israel is before the mind of God, and He is going to raise up a man, who will be called Cyrus, a mighty king, to give them deliverance. As He, in judgment upon Israel for their sins, has brought evil upon them, and none could hinder it, so He will bring them good, and none can hinder that, when His time comes for it. He is absolutely sovereign.

" Able art Thou our love to win, Worthy of all our trust."

Two Christians were conversing together one day, when one said, "I do feel so unhappy sometimes because I think I am not worthy to be a Christian. I don't know if you ever feel that? " "I know I am unworthy, and always shall be unworthy, but it never makes me doubtful, or unhappy," said the other, "because I know Christ is worthy, and God looks at Him, not at me. I constantly think of the worthiness of His most precious blood, and the worthiness of Christ to God. I do not think lightly of past sins, nor of present failures; but I know that both they and sin itself have been condemned in the person of Christ on the cross, and that God looks at the believer in and through His beloved Son, who knew no sin, who was made sin for us, that we might be called the righteousness of God in Him. We died nth Christ, and now God regards, not our un-worthiness, but He ever looks at His beloved Son, and sees us complete in Him."

(Continued from page 266.)

SANCTIFICATION BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST:ETERNAL.

The great theme of the epistle to the Hebrews is that aspect of sanctification which has been designated positional, or absolute; not now a work wrought in the soul-by the Holy Spirit, but the glorious result of that wondrous work accomplished by the Son of God when He offered up Himself to put away sin upon the cross of Calvary. By virtue of that sacrifice the believer is forever set apart to God, his conscience purged, and he himself transformed from an unclean sinner into a holy worshiper, linked up in an abiding relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ; for "both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one:for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren " (Heb. 2:n).According to i Cor. i:30, they are "in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us .. . sanctification."They are"accepted in the Beloved."God sees them in Him, and looks at them as He looks at His Son."As He is, so are we in this world" (i John 4:17).This is not our state. No believer has ever been wholly like the Lord Jesus in a practical way. The highest and best experience would not reach up to this. But as to our standing (our new position), we are reckoned by God to be "as He is."

The basis of all this is the blood-shedding and blood-sprinkling of our Saviour. "Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb. 13:12). By no other means could we be purged from our sins and set apart to God.

The main argument of the epistle is very fully developed in chapters 8 to 10, inclusive. There the two covenants are contrasted. The old covenant asked of man what it never got-that is perfect obedience; because it was not in man to give it. The new covenant guarantees all blessing through the work of Another; and from the knowledge of this springs the desire to obey on the part of the object of such grace.

In the old dispensation there was a sanctuary of an earthly order; and connected with it were ordinances of a carnal character, which nevertheless foreshadowed good things to come-the very blessings we are now privileged to enter into the enjoyment of.

But in the tabernacle God had shut Himself away from sinful man, and He dwelt in the holiest of all. Man was shut out. Once only every year a representative man, the high priest, went in to God, "but not without blood." Every great day of atonement the same ritual service was performed; but all the sacrifices offered under the law could not put away one sin, or '' make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience."

The perfection of Hebrews, let it be noted, is not perfection of character or of experience, but perfection as to the conscience. That is, the great question taken up is, How can a polluted sinner, with a defiled conscience, procure a conscience that no longer accuses him, but now permits him unhinderedly to approach God ? The blood of bulls and of goats cannot effect this. Legal works cannot procure so precious a boon. The proof of it is manifest in Israel's history, for the continual sacrifices proved that no sacrifice sufficient to purge the conscience had yet been offered. "For then would they not have ceased to be offered ? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins" (chap. 10:2).

How little do holiness professors enter into words like these! "Once purged!" "No more conscience of sins! " What do such expressions mean ? Something, dear reader, which, if but grasped by Christians generally, would free them from all their questionings, doubts, and fears.

The legal sacrifices were not great enough in value to atone for sin. This having been fully attested, Christ Himself came to do the will of God, as it was written in the volume of the book. Doing that will meant for Him going down into death and pouring out His blood for our salvation:'' By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (10 :10). Observe, then, that our sanctification and His one offering stand or fall together. We believe the record, and God declares "we are sanctified." There is no growth, no progress, and certainly no second work, in this. It is a great fact, true of all Christians. And this sanctification is eternal in character, because our great Priest's work is done perfectly, and is never to be repeated, as the following verses insist:"For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (ver. 14). Could words be plainer or language more expressive ? He who doubts shows himself either unwilling or afraid to rest on so startling a truth!

That one true sacrifice effectually purges the conscience once for all, so that the intelligent believer can now rejoice in the assurance that he is forever cleansed from his guilt and defilement by the blood-sprinkling of Jesus Christ. Thus, and thus only, the sanctified are perfected forever, as regards the conscience.

A simple illustration may help any who still have difficulty as to this expression, peculiar to Hebrews, "a purged conscience." A man is in debt to another who has again and again demanded payment. Being unable to pay, and that because he has unwisely wasted his substance, and this known to his creditor, he becomes unhappy when in the latter's presence. A desire to avoid him springs up and takes control of him. His conscience is uneasy and defiled. He knows well he is blameworthy, yet he is incapable of righting matters. But another appears, who, on the debtor's behalf, settles the claim in the fullest manner, and hands to the troubled one a receipt for all. Is he now afraid to meet the other ? Does he shrink from facing him ? Not at all; and why? Because he has now a perfect, or a purged, conscience in regard to the matter that once exercised him.

It is thus that the work of the Lord Jesus has met all God's righteous claims against the sinner; and the believer, resting upon the divine testimony as to the value of that work, is purged by the blood of Christ and "perfected forever" in the sight of the Holy One. He is sanctified by that blood, and that for eternity.

Having been turned from the power of Satan unto God, he has the forgiveness of sins, and is assured of an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Jesus (Acts 26:18).

But there is an expression used farther on in the chapter that may still perplex and bewilder those who have not apprehended that profession is one thing, and possession another. In order to be clear as to this, it will be necessary to examine the whole passage, which I therefore quote in full, italicizing the expression referred to. "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace ? " (vers. "26-29).

In what we have already gone over we have seen that he who is sanctified by the one offering of Christ upon the cross, that is, by His precious blood, is perfected forever. But in this passage it is equally plain that one who counts the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, shall be forever lost. In order not to miss the true force of this for our souls, it is necessary that we give some attention to what we have already designated "positional sanctification." Of old all the people of Israel, and all who were associated with them, were set apart to God both on the night of the passover and afterwards in the wilderness. But this did not necessarily imply a work of the Spirit in their souls. Many were doubtless in the blood-sprinkled houses that solemn night, when the destroying angel passed through to smite the unsheltered first-born, who had no real faith in God. Yet they were by the blood of the Lamb put in a place of blessing, a position where they shared in many hallowed privileges. So afterward with those who were under the cloud and passed through the sea, being baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All were in the same position. All shared the same outward blessings. But the wilderness was the place of testing, and soon proved who were real and who were not.

At the present time God has no special nation, to be allied to which is to come into a position of outward nearness to Him. But He has a people who have been redeemed to Himself out of all kindreds and tongues and peoples and nations, by the precious blood of the Lamb of God. All who ally themselves by profession with that company are outwardly among the blood-sheltered:in this sense they are sanctified by the blood of the covenant. That blood stands for Christianity, which in its very essence is the proclamation of salvation through Christ's atoning death. To take the Christian place therefore is like entering the blood-sprinkled house. All who are real, who have judged themselves before God, and truly confided in His grace, will remain in that house. If any go out, it proves their unreality, and such can find no other sacrifice for sins; for all the typical offerings are done away in Christ. These are they of whom the apostle John speaks so solemnly:"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would* have continued with us:but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us" (i John 2:19). *The italicized addition, "no doubt," is superfluous. The passage is complete without it. It is a positive statement, and admits of no exception.* These unreal ones were positionally sanctified; but as they were ever bereft of faith in the soul, they "went out," and thus did despite to the Spirit of grace, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing. These sin wilfully, not in the sense of failing to walk uprightly merely, but as utterly abjuring, or apostatizing from, Christianity, after having become conversant with the glorious message it brings to lost men.

But where it is otherwise, and the soul is really resting on Christ, positional sanctification becomes eternal:because the sanctified and the Sanctifier are, as we have seen, linked up together by an indissoluble bond. Christ Himself is made unto them wisdom, and this in a threefold way:He is their righteousness, their sanctification, and their redemption.
Here is holiness! Here is an unassailable righteousness! Here is acceptance with God. "Ye are complete in Him," though daily needing to humble oneself because of failure. It is not my practical sanctification that gives me title to a place among the saints in light. It is the glorious fact that Christ has died and redeemed me to God. His blood has cleansed me from all, or every, sin; and I now have life in Him, a new life, with which guilt can never be connected. I am in Him that is true. He is my sanctification, and represents me before God, even as of old the high priest bore upon his mitre the words "Holiness unto the Lord," and upon his shoulders and his heart the names of all the tribes of Israel. He represented them all in the holy place. He was typically their sanctification. If he was accepted of God, so were they. The people were seen in the priest.

And of our ever-living High Priest we may well sing:

" For us He wears the mitre
Where holiness shines bright;
For us His robes are whiter
Than heaven's unsullied light."

That there should be a life of corresponding devotedness and separation to God on our part no Spirit-taught believer will for a moment deny, as we will now consider.

(Continued from page 181.)

OBSERVATIONS ON THE HOLINESS MOVEMENT.

Since turning aside from the perfectionist societies, I have often been asked if I find as high a standard maintained among Christians generally who do not profess to have the " second blessing " as I have seen among those who do. My answer is that after carefully, and I trust without prejudice, considering both, I have found a far higher standard maintained by believers who intelligently reject the eradication theory than among those who accept it. Quiet, unassuming Christians, who know their Bibles and their own hearts too well to permit their lips to talk of sinlessness and perfection in the flesh, nevertheless are characterized by intense devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, love for the word of God, and holiness of life and walk. But these blessed fruits spring, not from self-occupation, but from occupation with Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The great professing body who are scarcely clear or pronounced as to anything, I do not here take into account. I refer rather to those among the various denominations, and those outside of all such companies, who confess Christ boldly and seek to be a testimony? for Him in the world. Compared with these, I repeat, a far lower standard of Christian living is found among the so-called holiness people.

The reasons are not far to seek; for in the first place the profession of holiness induces a subtle spiritual pride that is often the veriest pharisaism, and frequently leads to the most manifest self-confidence. And secondly, the next thing to saying I live without sin, is to say that nothing that I do is sin. Consequently, the teaching of holiness in the flesh tends to harden the conscience and to cause the one who professes it to lower the standard to his own poor experience. Any who move much among those in this profession will soon begin to realize how greatly prevalent are the conditions I have described. Holiness professors are frequently cutting, censorious, uncharitable and harsh in their judgment of others. Exaggerations, amounting to downright dishonesty, are unconsciously encouraged by and often indulged in their "testimony " meetings. The rank and file are no freer from vulgarisms, slangy expressions, and levity in conversation than ordinary persons who make no such profession; while many of the preachers are largely given to sensational and amusing sermons that are anything but serious and edifying. And all this, mark you, without sinning!

The apostle Paul emphasizes "envy, strife and divisions" as evidences of carnality, and designates them as the works of the flesh. Where have divisions, with all their accompanying evils, been more manifest than among the rival holiness organizations, some of which roundly denounce all connected with the others as "backsliders," and "on the road to hell"? I have heard such denunciations on many occasions. The bitterness existing between the Salvation Army and the various offshoots therefrom-the Volunteers of America, the discredited American Salvation Army, the now defunct Gospel Army, and other "armies"-may be instanced as cases in point; while the other holiness societies have no brighter records. I have observed that debt and its twin brother, worry, are as common among such professors as among others. In fact, the sinfulness of worrying rarely seems to be apprehended by them. Holiness advocates have all the little unpleasant ways that are so trying in many of us:they are no more free from penurious-ness, tattling, evil-speaking, selfishness, and kindred weaknesses, than their neighbors.

And as to downright wickedness and unclean-ness, I regret to have to record that sins of a positively immoral character are, I fear, far more frequently met with in holiness churches and missions, and Salvation Army bands, than the outsider would think possible. I know whereof I speak; and only a desire to save others from the bitter disappointments I had to meet leads me to write as I do. Among Christians generally there are failures that shock and wound the sensibilities of many, occurring from time to time, through a lack of watching unto prayer. But surely, among the holiness people, such failures, if they ever occur, do so at very rare intervals! Would that I could say so. Alas, it is far otherwise ! The path of the holiness movement (including, of course, the Salvation Army) is strewn with thousands of such moral and spiritual breakdowns. I would not dare to try to tell of the scores, yea, hundreds, of "sanctified" officers and soldiers who to my personal knowledge were dismissed from or left the " Army" in disgrace during my five years' officer ship. It will be objected that such persons had "lost their sanctification" ere lapsing into these evil practices; but of what real value is a " sanctification " that leaves its possessor not one whit more to be relied upon than one who lays claim to nothing of the sort ?

On the other hand, I gladly concede that both in the ranks of the religious-military society of which I was once a member, and in other holiness organizations, there are many, very many, pious, devoted men and women whose zeal for God and self-abnegation are lovely to witness, and will surely be rewarded in " that day." But let no one be blinded by this to suppose it is the holiness doctrine that has made them such. The refutation of this is the simple fact that the great majority of martyrs, missionaries and servants of Christ who in all the Christian centuries have "loved not their lives unto the death," never dreamed of making such a claim for themselves, but daily owned their sinfulness by nature and constant need of the advocacy of Christ.

The testimonies of many who were at one time prominent in other organizations where holiness in the flesh is preached and professed fully agree with mine as to the large percentage of " backslidings " from virtue and personal purity.

Superstition and fanaticism of the grossest character find a hotbed among "holiness" advocates. Witness the present disgusting "Tongues Movement," with all its attendant delusions and insanities. An unhealthy craving for new and thrilling religious sensations, and emotional meetings of a most exciting character, readily account for these things. Because settled peace is unknown, and final salvation is supposed to depend on progress in the soul, people get to depend so much upon " blessings," and "new baptisms of the Spirit," as they call these experiences, that they readily fall a prey to the most absurd delusions. In the last few years hundreds of holiness meetings all over the world have been literally turned into pandemonium where exhibitions worthy of a madhouse or of a collection of howling dervishes are held night after night. No wonder a heavy toll of lunacy and infidelity is the frequent result.

Now I am well aware that many holiness teachers repudiate all connection with these fanatics; but they do not seem to see that it is their doctrines that are the direct cause of the disgusting fruits I have been enumerating. Let a full Christ be preached, a finished work be proclaimed, the truth of the indwelling Spirit be scripturally taught, and all these excrescences disappear.

Perhaps the saddest thing about the movement to which I have referred is the long list of shipwrecks concerning the faith to be attributed to its unsound instruction. Large numbers of persons seek "holiness" for years only to find they have had the unattainable before them. Others profess to have received it, but are forced at last to own it was all a mistake. The result is sometimes that the mind gives way beneath the strain; but more frequently unbelief in the inspiration of the Scriptures is the logical result. It is for persons dangerously near these shoals of infidelity and darkness that I have penned these papers. God's word remains true. He has not promised what He will not perform. It is you, dear troubled one, who have been misled by faulty teaching as to the true nature of sanctification, and the proper effects of the indwelling Spirit of God. Let neither gloomy unbelief nor melancholy disappointment hinder your reading the chapters that are to follow, and then searching the Scriptures daily whether these things be so. And may God in His rich grace and mercy give every self-occupied reader to look away to Christ alone, "who, of God, is made unto us wisdom:even righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." H. A. I.

(To be continued.)

MY BELOVED BROTHER:–

I also have met with the teaching that the formula of baptism given in Matt. 28:19 was suspended in the Acts. So far as it has come to my notice it is associated with the teaching that Matt. 13 was interrupted to be resumed after the rapture. Of course both notions are unfounded.

A careful consideration of the prepositions used in the different passages where baptism is mentioned will make the matter very clear.

In Matt. 28 :19 we have the risen Lord conferring authority upon his disciples to baptize. He authorizes them to baptize " to (εις) the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This is the only place where the authorization is mentioned. The authority for Christian baptism is found here, and here alone. The risen Lord in issuing a commission to the eleven to go and disciple all the nations, authorizes them to formally identify the disciples of Christ with the confession of " the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." It is thus plain that baptism is a token, or mark, or badge of discipleship to Christ. The badge of discipleship is put on by the baptism. The baptism signifies that the one baptized is connected with the profession of "the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Hence the formula " to," (or "unto") the name, and so forth.

Now in Acts 2, Peter, as one who had received authority to give the token or badge of discipleship to Christ, counsels the Jews (convicted of, and realizing their guilt in, having rejected and crucified Jesus the Christ) to accept the badge which he has authority to give them. He says, " Be baptized for (επι) the name of Jesus Christ." This he urges, too, as the one only door open to them for forgiveness. Hence he goes on to say, " with a view to (εις) the remission of sins." The One they have rejected is the only One who can forgive them. It plainly is not a question of the formula used in the act of baptizing, for as yet no one had been baptized. They were under conviction and had asked, "What shall we do?" They are told, "Take shelter under the name of Jesus Christ." Peter and his fellow-apostles stood ready to put that name upon them. Subsequently the name of Jesus Christ was put on a great number of them. In baptizing them the apostles acted in the name of the risen Lord ; He having authorized them to do so. This authorization we have seen was given in Matt. 28 :19, Matt. 28 :19 was not suspended, but carried out. They were baptized "to the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." The apostles in so baptizing them were doing what they had authority for, and doing it by the authority of the risen Lord:they acted in His name. For these conscience-stricken Jews, it was being authoritatively put under the shelter of the name of Jesus Christ with a view to the remission of their sins.

In Acts 8 :16 and 19:5 we have the expression, when rightly rendered, " baptized to the name of the Lord Jesus." But it is not a substitution of another formula. It is simply the fact that Christian baptism is to the name of the Lord Jesus, and it is necessarily so, since He is the One by whom the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, were fully revealed. Baptism "to the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost," is necessarily baptism to Him by whom the three persons of the Godhead were distinctly revealed. The expression, " baptized to the name of the Lord Jesus" cannot then be a new formula substituted in place of that of Matt. 28:19.

There is yet another expression in Acts 10:48, "And he commanded them to be baptized in (εv) the name of the Lord." This clearly is not the substitution of a new formula, for Peter is plainly appealing to the authority by which he commands that the Gentile converts should be baptized. He is acting here under authority conferred in Matt. 28:19. He saw to it that Cornelius was baptized. In doing this he was acting by the authority of the risen Lord, or, in other words, in His name.

There is absolutely no ground for the teaching that the book of the Acts indicates the substitution of a different formula from that of Matt. 28:19.

To sum it up. Baptism in Christian times is to the name of the Trinity. It is by the authority of the risen Lord Jesus. Those who baptize therefore do so in His name. Baptism in His name may be spoken of, either as to the name of the Lord Jesus, or to the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. C. Crain

We also "thank God" for cheering "tidings from a far country," and pass it on to the devoted tract distributors for their encouragement in this work of faith and love. Many letters are received speaking of light, of help, of blessing received through the ministry of tracts, magazines, and books, which it would take too much space to publish, and which, we think, it is usually safer to leave to the day of manifestation, when the all-knowing God will manifest all things, and render to each as his work has been.-[The Publishers.

"Preach the Word" (2 Tim. 4:2).

The second epistle to Timothy brings us in fun view of the dosing days of Christendom. It is of special importance to all such as the Lord has called into His service in such days, for it tells them how to conduct themselves, and how to carry on their ministry, in days of peculiar difficulties.

The antediluvian days closed with an apostasy such as left only Noah's house following in God's ways. The Jewish days closed with their crucifixion of the Messiah promised them in all their Scriptures. Millennial days will close with a frightful rebellion against the King of kings; and Christian days are closing with a rising apostasy, which will culminate in the open worship of the Beast.

Who, then, could expect a smooth path in the faithful service of the Lord Jesus at such times ? The greater the need therefore of guidance from on high in all our pathway. When men "will not endure sound doctrine," what great temptation it is to hold them by something which still appeals to them! Therefore all the innovations of human devices on every hand, which but serve, however, to discredit Christianity, and make it despicable to them who know it only by its fruits.

Shall we, fellow-Christians, resort to such things? Nay! our guide-book says,"Preach the Word." Only the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, of His deity, of His atoning blood shed upon the cross, avails to deliver men from the wrath to come and from the present power of sin in all its forms. Let there be no compromise therefore if we sincerely love men. Let there be no mixture, no fellowship with the false, no dulling of the keen edge of truth by human devices. Let us "preach the Word"

Some, falling under despondency and the difficulties of the times, would discourage the faithful and energetic continuance of this labor. The day of gospel testimony is over, and men will hear no more, they cry; and so would fold their arms and enshrine themselves in supposed faithfulness as more advanced in Christian intelligence.

Let none be carried away with such sophistry, but devotedly and perseveringly "preach the Word," and they will still find blessing attending. It may not be large, but it will be no less a sweet savor to God. Only let there be no resort to human expediencies-turning evangelistic work into musical entertainments, sensational announcements to attract the crowd, revivalistic excitement and frothy speeches, for they only harden men's consciences in the end. Let them pay no attention to the multitude of sects and parties; seek no honor or recognition from men; make no attack on any; bring no innovations or anything to attract attention to themselves; but only "preach the Word "-faithfully, lovingly, wherever the door is open, and God will bless that Word and such work. In the midst of the multitudes of the unconcerned and apostates there are still needy souls who respond to the voice of God when it is heard. What is needed is devotedness and self-denial sufficient to reach such where they are; perseverance to toil on and on without depending on results; faith in the almighty power of the word of God and the Spirit of God. If any desire a divine treatise on the training of servants for such work let them prayerfully study the Acts of the Apostles. The more they meditate upon it, and follow it, the more at the end will they find the fruit of their service true and abiding. We believe that not one faithful preaching of the word of God will, at the judgment-seat of Christ, be found to have been fruitless.

Let them not fear as to their necessities, nor, in passing through them, turn their faces to man, rich or poor. The man who is sent by the Lord Jesus will be cared for by the Lord Jesus, even if He has to use ravens in doing it, and He is as near to His servant in one place as in another, amid saints or sinners, among heathen or Christians. Every true servant who will tread the true path of faith must needs learn to suffer need as well as to abound. It is the school which fits him for his work. Suffering need makes him dependent-a most necessary mind -and abounding makes him rejoice in the loving care of his Master. And, indeed, such was the Master's own path of service here, and we know the servant is not above his Master. Shame be upon us if we seek to be above Him in our circumstances. Until He return let there be no seeking rest, no love of ease, no yielding up the solemn responsibilities of this wonderful, wonderful day of grace. Rest and riches unspeakable, glory and honor are in sight, but not here.

''Whatsoever things" (Philip. 4:8).

Traveling through muddy roads is liable to make us muddy; so we need to keep high up from the mud. So for the Christian. He travels through an evil world. Not only so, but as the waters of the sea are ever pressing to enter the ship and sink her, so the evil that abounds in the world is ever seeking to make inroads among the people of God and level them down with the world.

Every man who loves Christ and the sheep of Christ feels this; he is therefore wide awake as to evil in every form-doctrinal and practical. It makes him a soldier-ready for conflict at every attempt of the enemy to enter where he does not belong. The Lord loves this, and every "good soldier of Jesus Christ" will therefore receive "a crown of righteousness " when the Lord appears.

But the "soldier" side of the Christian has its dangers as well as every other side, and if not guarded it is liable to develop into a sour, critical, fault-finding, evil-surmising spirit which dwells in evil, is incessantly occupied with evil, preaches most against evil, and ends in gloomy solitude. What a remedy, what a protection against all this we have in the passage referred to here:'' Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." What a refuge this is for us! We may have to deal with evil, but as the workman returns to his home as soon as his labor is over, so our minds and hearts need to return to the scene of light and love, of holiness and of good where God dwells. We labor in the evil, but dwell in the good.

Dynamiters.

What an exposure of crimes, of, the foulest and most appalling kind has been made of late among the federations of labor! And in the banded efforts which follow to thwart justice, what an exposure of the true character of those federations. It is the mind that is in them which will animate "the Beast" of Rev. 13, "and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the Beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the Beast, or the number of his name."
The next chapter shows the results on them who yield to the Beast as also on them who resist. Such a revelation is not merely to give us prophetic intelligence but also to guide our own feet. God's hatred of the diabolical system is expressed. Suffering there may be even now, under its yet restricted power, in refusing any connection with it or subjection to its demands, but if the saints of the coming dispensation, in view of the end, are willing to suffer martyrdom from it, should the saints of this dispensation, who are yet protected by the powers that be, be a whit behind them ? May patience and faith be given to all who suffer from this terrible scourge.

The fabulous fortunes rising on every hand tell too plainly that oppression is also working from another direction. What then? "Be patient therefore, brethren . . . for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

My Dear —:

Answering your questions as to qualifications for administering the rite of baptism, I would say our appeal must of course be to the word of God for instruction in this, as in all things else which concern the order and welfare of His house on earth. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" (i Cor. i:17). This implies authority for both. The wisdom of Paul's refraining from administering the ordinance is seen in verse 15, and in the tendency of the Corinthians to exalt one above another (ver. 12).

Baptism by water being the door into the Kingdom, its full importance is given by the Lord, administrator both "in heaven and in earth" (comp. i Cor. 12:5), at the close of Matthew-the gospel of the kingdom. There in Galilee, upon a mountain, our Saviour conferred on the eleven authority to " disciple all nations, baptizing and teaching."

In Acts 13 :13 we read of "Paul's company"; and in chapter 18 :8 that " many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized." Who did the baptizing- Crispus, Gaius and the household of Stephanas excepted ? In Acts 20:4 seven brethren are named who accompanied Paul into Asia. Are we not to infer therefore that the brethren with Paul who at any time were his traveling companions took part in baptizing the many converts which God gave him in the cities of Asia and Europe?

The same as to Peter, to whom Christ gave " the keys of the kingdom of heaven." He preached on the day of Pentecost, and about three thousand were added the same day. Those under conviction addressed their question, What shall we do? to Peter and to the rest of the apostles. Peter answered, " Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ." We are not told how many took part in the holy rite, but is it not safe to say quite a few did so, seeing the number added ?

"Certain brethren from Joppa accompanied Peter" to the house of Cornelius, where "many were come together." As Peter preached the glad tidings, "the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word." After appealing to his brethren as to the fitness of these Gentile believers for baptism, "he commanded them to be baptized" (Acts 10 :48).

Here we are left in no doubt as to who baptized. These " certain brethren " were suitable men for this holy work-"fit men" (Lev. 16 :21), "men that were clean" (Num. 19).

From the Scripture thus far looked at we learn that evangelists, pastors and teachers have not exclusive authority to baptize. Other brethren may assist. Such should be. of course, men of piety, as in everything else which puts a man into prominence in the house of God. Seeing these things, we are persuaded that "certain brethren" in your assembly are well qualified for this service. Independence on the one hand, or officialism on the other, is alike obnoxious to God. A distribution of labor according to God-given wisdom secures blessing, holiness and peace among His people.

In His great high-priestly prayer of the 17th of John, our Lord says of the men given to Him by the Father, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth:Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (vers. 16-19). This precious passage may well introduce for us the subject of practical sanctification-the ordering aright of our external ways, and bringing all into accord with the revealed will of God.

At the outset we shall do well if we get it fixed in our mind that this is very closely related to that sanctification of the Spirit to which our attention has already been directed. The Spirit works within us. The Word, which is without us, is nevertheless the medium used to do the work within. But I have purposely dwelt separately upon the two aspects in order to bring the clearer before our minds the distinction between the Spirit's sanctification in us, which is the very beginning of God's work in our souls, and the application of the Word thereafter to our outward ways. New birth is our introduction into God's family; but although born again, we may be dark as to many things, and need the light of the Word to clear our bewildered minds. But through the sanctification of the Spirit we are brought to the blood of sprinkling:we apprehend that Christ's atoning death alone avails for our sins. – We are sanctified by the blood of Christ, and able to appreciate our new position before God. It is now that in its true sense the walk of faith begins, and thereafter we need daily that sanctification by the truth, or the word of God, spoken of by our Lord.

It is evident that in the very nature of things this cannot be what some have ignorantly called '' a second definite work of grace." It is, on the contrary, a life-a progressive work ever going on, and which ever must go on, until I have passed out of the scene in which I need daily instruction as to
my ways, which the word of God alone can give. If sanctification in its practical sense be by the Word, I shall never be wholly sanctified, in this aspect of it, until I know that Word perfectly, and am violating it in no particular. And that will never be true here upon earth. Here I ever need to feed upon that Word, to understand it better, to learn more fully its meaning; and as I learn from it the mind of God, I am called daily to judge in myself all that is contrary to the increased light I receive, and to yield today a fuller obedience than yesterday. Thus am I sanctified by the truth.

For this very purpose the Lord has sanctified or set Himself apart. He has gone up to heaven, there to watch over His own, to be our High Priest with God in view of our weakness, and our Advocate with the Father in view of our sins. He is there too as the object of our hearts. We are called now to run our race with patience, looking unto Jesus, with the Holy Spirit within us and the Word in our hands, to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. As we value it, and are controlled by its precious truth made good to us in the Spirit's power, we are sanctified by God the Father and by our Lord Jesus Himself. For in the 17th of John He makes request of the Father, " Sanctify them through Thy truth." In Eph. 5:25, 26 we read, " Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." Here it is Christ who is the sanctifier, for He could ever say, " I and the Father are one." Here, as in John, sanctification is plainly progressive; and, indeed, that water-washing of Ephesians is beautifully illustrated in an earlier chapter of John-the isth. There we have our Lord, in the full consciousness of His eternal Sonship, taking the place of a girded servant to wash His disciples' feet. Washing the feet is indicative of cleansing the ways; and the whole passage is a symbolical picture of the work in which He has been engaged ever since ascending to heaven. He has been keeping the feet of His saints by cleansing them from the defilement of the way-those earth-stains which are so readily contracted by sandaled pilgrim-feet pressing along this world's highways.

He says to each of us, as to Peter, " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me." Part in Him we have on the ground of His atoning work and as a result of the life He gives. Part with Him, or daily communion, is only ours as sanctified by the water of the Word.

That the whole scene was allegorical is evident by His words to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Literal feet-washing Peter knew and understood. Spiritual feet-washing he learned when restored by the Lord after his lamentable fall. Then he entered into the meaning of the words, " He that is bathed* needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." *As many now know, this word means a complete bath, and differs from the word used later for " wash " in the same verse.*

The meaning is not hard to grasp. Every believer is bathed once for all in the "bath of regeneration" (Titus 3:5, literal rendering). That bathing is never repeated. None born of God can ever perish, for all such have a life that is eternal, and consequently non-forfeitable (John 10:27-29). If they fail and sin, they do not need to be saved over again. That would mean, to be bathed once more. But he that is bathed needs not to have it all done again because his feet get defiled. He washes them and is clean.

So it is with Christians. We have been regenerated once, and never shall be a second time. But every time we fail we need to judge ourselves by the Word, that we may be cleansed as to our ways; and where we daily give that Word its rightful place in our lives, we shall be kept from defilement and enabled to enjoy unclouded communion with our Lord and Saviour. " Wherewithal," asks the psalmist, "shall a young man cleanse his way?" And the answer is, " By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word."

How necessary it is then to search the Scriptures, and to obey them unqestioningly, in order that we may be sanctified by the truth! Yet what indifference is often found among professors of a "second blessing" as to this very thing! What ignorance of the Scriptures, and what fancied superiority to them, is frequently manifested!-and that coupled with a profession of holiness in the flesh !

In i Thess. 4:3 there is a passage which, divorced from its context, is often considered decisive as proving that it is possible for believers to attain to a state of absolute freedom from inbred sin in this world:"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." Who can deny my title to perfect holiness if sanctification means that, and it is God's will for me ? Surely none. But already we have seen that sanctification never means that, and in the present text least of all. Read the entire first eight verses, forming a complete paragraph, and see for yourself. The subject is personal purity. The sanctification spoken of is keeping the body from unclean practices, and the mind from lasciviousness. Think of calling upon men freed from inbred sin to do this! But it is quite in keeping as included in that sanctification that the Lord Jesus prayed we might know. He who lives upon the word of God will be characterized by a clean life, not a life polluted by fleshly lusts. H. A. I

(To be continued.)

The night is dark and thick, the clouds roll on –
Ominous presage of impending doom!
Here all's unrest, no prop to lean upon,
But faith, triumphant, through the deadening
gloom,
With joy espies – fair harbinger of dawn! –
The Morning Star in all His beauty shine :
And brightly now the roseate hues adorn
The near horizon, gilt in light divine.
He comes! the Saviour comes! With joy we raise –
Our hearts to His attuned – th' eternal hymn of praise.

He comes! the long-expected, faithful Lord –
Joy of His people's hearts – to claim His own,
His soul's deep travail, His supreme reward,
Changed to His likeness, sharers of His throne.
His mighty voice the graves, responsive, heed;
His loved ones sleeping in the dust awake ;
The living changed ; all, from earth's trammels freed,
With Him of everlasting joy partake.
He comes! the Saviour comes! our hearts rejoice
His glorious face to see, and hear His well-known
voice.

A. D. S.

QUES. 1.-Having long been isolated from such as love the Scriptures and have understanding in them, I appreciate the more the monthly visits of Help and Food, and now take advantage of the Question department. We read in John's first epistle, chap. 2:2, that Christ is not only the propitiation for the sins of His people, hut also for those of the whole world. In his Gospel, chap. 3 :16, 17, he again says the same thing in substance. Paul says the same thing in 1 Tim. 2:3-6, and much more to the same effect all over the Scriptures. It is evident God desires, and has provided fully for, the salvation of all men.

On the other hand, there is also mentioned in Scripture a class who are subjects for the lake of fire. Now all true Christians believe that God is infinite in power, wisdom, and knowledge. How then can we reconcile His grace in providing for the salvation of all, and His perfect power, wisdom, and knowledge, with His creating a class whose destiny is the lake of fire ?

ANS.-John 3 :18-21 is the explanation. God has created no class of beings for the lake of fire. God is love, and everything He creates has perfect love for its destiny. When Satan rebelled against God, and other angels followed him, God prepared a place in which to shut them up, that they might not disturb forever His dominions. Either the God of love must remain sovereign, or His revolted creatures become that, and drag all down into misery. Revolted men who choose Satan for their master, spite the proofs of God's love to them, spite the unspeakable pains He has been at to bring them back to Himself, spite of every means He has put out to win their hearts and lead them to repentance, must share Satan's final retribution.

If any one ask why God created beings with such great and high and solemn responsibilities, the answer is, "O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, " Why hast Thou made me thus?" (Rom.9:20.) Every purpose of God is like Himself-light and love. He has purposed none to be lost, none to be unhappy. But they who resist or despise His purposes must learn that He remains sovereign forever; and they must bow down under His judgment.

QUES. 2.-Can Christians honor Christ in being presidents or vice-presidents of boards of trade, or members of any society ?

ANS.-We cannot be conscience for others, nor has God set any one to regulate the consciences of his brethren. Anything, however, which would bind the Christian under a common yoke with unbelievers, and expose him to do what would wound a Christian conscience, would be a violation of the solemn admonition of 2 Cor. 6:14, and be thus a hindrance to the free exercise of the sweet relations mentioned in the last verse of the chapter. It would blunt the soul and check spiritual progress.

One of the Secrets of Gardening.

Good gardening is, to be an indefatigable enemy of weeds. Preventing their growth necessitates the stirring of the soil; and the more the soil is stirred, the better the crop grows and the greater the yield. So with the Christian:the more sincerely and earnestly he takes sides with God against himself, the more he will grow; the weeds of his evil nature will not be able to develop, and this will cause the new nature to have deeper roots, greater growth, richer and more abundant fruit.

This means, of course, that such a gardener must be industrious, early and late against the enemy, because of his love for the goodly plants which grow in his garden.

And what is the finest garden of earth compared with the garden of heaven in the believer's soul ? If that one is worth all the care, labor, industry, bestowed upon it; if it is worth rising up early and watching it late; if it deserve all this toil, all this enriching and watering, which after all is but for a short season, what of this wonderful garden of the soul, whose fragrance and fruit are to abide forever ? Is it not worth while to cultivate it ? Shall we be industrious for what passes away, and careless and idle for what passes not away ?

But, after all, does not the gardener enjoy his labor ? Is he not happy in his toil, even before fruit-time comes ? And is there not holy joy in all our Christian labor and exercises of soul ? Can we fall on our knees in supplication about this or that temptation, fear, need, or service, without rising up again comforted and blessed ? Does not every victory over ourselves and our circumstances make us sing and praise the grace of our great High Priest, and increase our acquaintance with God ? And is not this, of itself, true bliss ?

May the Lord break up all our slothfulness of heart, all our apathy concerning sin-sin, not in our brother, but in our self; for we can easily be fierce against the mote in our brother's eye while blind to the beam in our own.

May He also break up all self-complacency, for there is no weed more destructive in the garden of the soul. We are so proper, so faultless, so free from what would mar the lofty opinion which our fellows have of us, that we can scarcely realize our incessant dependence on Him who is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. Or we think ourselves beyond the experience of men in whom the Spirit dwelling "maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

Let all weeds be rooted out, that Christ, Christ alone, Christ our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption, may stand before the soul as our all. Thus will our individual souls flourish, and practical unity will be with love, holiness, and power.

Fresh Opportunities for the Gospel.

From a recent publication we copy the following, which enlarges the field of prayer for all God's people, and of service for such as may be called to it. The paper says:"From a missionary report written some weeks after the revolution in Portugal, it seems evident that the movement was in no way anti-Protestant. Non Catholic preachers never had anything to fear, neither was any opposition shown to the gospel as such. The hostility was directed chiefly against the Jesuits, who had incurred the bitterest hatred of the people. As a result of the revolution, these have now been banished, and the monastic orders (with the exception of one seminary) have been suppressed. Religious liberty has been proclaimed, each church being left free to profess and teach its own doctrines without interference; and members of the government have even expressed pleasure at being able to secure to Protestants this free field for their activities.

" Other regulations are being prepared providing for the civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths; enactments as to divorce and secular education-all in the direction of liberty and freedom from religious tests.

"While it is too early to speak of the stability of the new regime, the present position in Portugal is calculated to call forth the sympathies and prayers of God's people everywhere."