"We are bent upon doing something which God does not want us to do at all; upon going somewhere that God does not want us to go. We pray about it, and get no answer. We pray again and again, and get no answer. How is this ? Why, the simple fact is that God wants us to be quiet, to stand still, to remain just where we are. Wherefore, instead of racking our brain, and harassing our souls about what we ought to do, let us do nothing but simply wait on God."

In the thirteenth chapter of John we find the Lord full of the thought of going to the Father:"Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hand, and that He was come from God and went to God;" and "knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." Full of these thoughts and of this love, He expresses the desire of His heart in their behalf in an action the significance of which they were afterward to apprehend. According to His own words at the time, it represented what was necessary that they should have " part with Him " (5:8),-that is, communion. Part in Him they had already; part with Him was to be maintained and insured by that which He signified in this wonder of lowly condescension upon His part, when " He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded."

Water-washing in its spiritual reality is " by the Word," as the apostle tells us (Eph. 5:26). Hence the significance of this action is simple for us. The Word of God must have its power over our life and walk, that we may be able to enjoy the intimacy with Him to which He has called us. Grace can never dispense with the necessity of this, but enables us for it:" grace and truth have come by Jesus Christ." Thus only is our deliverance in full reality accomplished:our hearts brought back to God, now as never before known, our feet to walk with Him in the liberty of His blessed will.

But what we want to realize in this picture before us is, that it is He Himself in whose hand the water and towel are. The Word itself, apart from His living presence, will have no real efficacy. He must apply it to us:" If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me." Our feet must be in His hand, yielded to Him. It is not at all that we are to judge our ways according to our apprehension of the Word and its requirements, but He must interpret and apply the Word. We must be with Him about it; and if with Him, then seeking no compromise, but that He tell us all the truth:He, Master and Lord of all; and we, absolutely and implicitly subject to Him.

In what unupbraiding grace-yea, in what tenderness of a perfect and holy love He will do all this, let the narrative here assure us. And we all, have we not known the chastened joy of moments such as these, when, searched out in His presence, we realized the faithfulness of so great a Friend, and felt how His love was claiming and cleansing and delivering us for Himself? Surely every Christian heart has known these. But we want to be given up wholly to this soliciting of divine grace; and what would not be the blessing of it!

The action of the thirteenth of John is not the remedy for declension or failure merely, and we shall lose immensely if we limit it to this. It is rather the perpetual provision for daily need. We want day by day to be in quiet retirement thus with Him, opening our hearts to the light as the flower opens its petals to the sun. " He that doeth truth cometh to the light." It is thus the life that is ours unfolds and declares itself. Faith becomes mature, and love contemplates and embraces its object. Alas! the superficiality and lightness of the times are seen in the little apprehension of the need even of this:little retirement, little examination of one's ways before God, little intimacy with Him. Surely we want to be reminded of the words of the apostle, "Holding faith and a good conscience, which some hiving put away, have made shipwreck concerning faith."

4.-THE CHURCH AND THE INDIVIDUAL.

The maintenance of conscience being thus of such necessity to the whole spiritual life of the believer, it deserves now to be considered how it is to be accomplished amid the complication with the duties of relationships in which we stand to one another. It is evident how often here individual responsibility is forgotten and individual conscience given up, as it is thought; in necessary . sacrifice to the consciences, or even to the want of conscience on the part of those with whom we are associated, whether by our own wills or by God's, in Church-relationship. How then does Scripture speak as to this? How is our individuality to be preserved in harmony with such place and connection ?

And here the question cannot be ignored or escaped from, Is Church-relationship a matter of one's own will, or God's? It is rightly of God's only. The Church is Christ's body; membership in that, the only membership that Scripture owns. No doubt it is a day of confusion, and the Church as a practical gathering together of the members as such is not to be found. We have now sects in which these are scattered, and by which they are scattered. Still it is practicable for those who own only the body of Christ to gather together in this character; and such a gathering cannot be a sect. Nor is this unimportant to the point before us, for if man's will be allowed in the very first place to define the circle and the terms' of our association with others, it will be of necessity admitted a certain place in all that connects itself with this; and how large a place who shall say?

The Word of God is given thoroughly to furnish us unto all good works, and certainly could not omit such a matter as this. Simple enough, too, it all is:our circle, that of all God's saints; the terms of our association, mutual subjection to our Head and Lord. Here there can be no bondage and no compromise:the exercise Of conscience and freedom for it are alike secured.

With a circle less or other than this, the terms must be a human creed, confession, formulary, compact of some sort. Conscience is then bound to the confession,-1:e., not to the Word of God as such, even were the confession wholly scriptural. Thus even the scripturalness of the creed does not give the conscience its rightful fealty. But if it be unscriptural, then the conscience is bound as much to maintain the error as the truth; and where practical laxity in this respect may be winked at, this (as laxity) is scarce more favorable to real godliness of walk.

Where, with the code adopted, a governing body regulates as to ministry, etc., appointing sphere of work and character of service, and where between minister and people the common stipendiary engagement of the day exists, the conscience is more and more fettered and perverted. The simple being before God becomes impossible. I grant that Scripture being supposed to sanction this system enables a good conscience to be retained. Yet the results of it will be found, in proportion to the real exercise of this before God, in constant embarrassment and perplexity; until, there being no end, at last the yoke is wearily acquiesced in without effort to escape.

The blessedness of truth is that it brings to God, and establishes in the holy liberty of His presence. Thus, how simple and blessed is the thought of Scripture, " As every man hath received the gift, so let him minister the same, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God"! To serve with whatever I have is my privilege; and that is my duty also. I dare go to no one to ask for leave to serve, or to have my sphere of service defined to me. All this must be ascertained between my Master and myself, and He will recognize my service and sustain me in it. Here, faith is necessary at every step, and a good conscience necessary to faith.

Wherever ecclesiasticism comes in, the individual conscience is oppressed or ignored. And this is quite as true of its republican as of its aristocratic or monarchial forms. God's Church is none of these:it is a pure theocracy. No head but Christ, no authority save His Word, no power save that of His Spirit. Alas! it is no wonder that for aught but faith this should be confusion. And wherever faith is not in exercise, confusion will in fact soon be found. God values no mere external order where it is not the product of His Spirit; and where mere external order is, the action of the Spirit may be first of all to break this up. This often causes His work to be in suspicion even among Christians. For practical faith and exercised consciences are after all how little to be found among, the people of God! It is complained of as a strange and terrible thing if, according to His word, the truth of Christ divides the members of a family. But in fact how little is this seen, compared with what would be if souls were real! Too commonly, and as a matter of course, the power of nature is more exhibited in a time of testing than the power of the Spirit or the Word. Wives go with husbands, children with parents, friends with friends, assemblies as a whole, swayed by the power of some master-spirit, move submissively hither and thither, be the direction right or wrong. But in God's path really nothing but faith is found. Lot was no Abraham when he walked with Abraham. And thus God allows often sifting to go on, and more breaking up to come, when we were fain to hope all was now set right and we, were past the need of it.

But for faith there is no path but God's, be it smooth or rough:its roughness is better than the smoothest that could be found elsewhere. The blow of the flail is only blessing to God's wheat, and stormy wind fulfills but His word; the north wind, no less than the south, causes the spices of His garden to flow out. What has been the path of His people ever? Where is the truth that does not first bring conflict? And when this ceases, and it is received without this, it will be found to be received as tradition, not properly as truth at all.

The importance of maintaining the individuality of conscience cannot, then, be insisted on too strongly. We can never rightly devolve its guidance upon any man or set of men, upon any leaders however gifted, upon any unanimity of the church or churches. God has claim to be heard, apart from all this, and is ready to make His voice heard in my soul. The maintenance of conscience means the maintenance of His sole supremacy; and to give up my conscience to another is to worship Him in His deputy. But He has none; and the attempt is real and essential idolatry; while to . give up conscience for the sake of peace is to choose peace with Satan and with Him conflict.

The truth, not conscience, is authoritative for the soul; but the conscience is the recipient and the guard of the truth.

In the Psalms we have some of the most wonderful unfoldings of the cross in its inner meaning that Scripture furnishes. It is striking that whereas in the gospel narratives themselves it is mostly the external sufferings, of the Lord which occupy us, in the Psalms the divine Sufferer utters freely His heart out. The one cry of abandonment which does indeed expose its mystery, and which Matthew and Mark record, finds its full interpretation only in that twenty-second psalm, the language of which it borrows, and to which it thus guides our thoughts. And here we find, under a vail, if we may so say, the vail removed. As the priests, able to enter within the tabernacle, could behold the glories of it, so we whom faith brings within, can listen to the very heart of Christ outpoured, and see earth's failed foundations laid afresh and for eternity by One standing where no other could stand but He. Typically given, according to the Old-Testament character, unbelief may doubt or deny the revelation. It is to faith that God reveals Himself; Christ, dumb before His accusers, displays to His disciples His true glory. There arc five psalms which we shall briefly at in connection with our subject, and which give us different aspects of the cross. Three of these-the twentieth, twenty-second, and fortieth are in the first book; the sixty-ninth is in the second; the hundred and second in the fifth book. I have elsewhere shown the way in which these five books of the Psalms identify themselves respectively with the five books of Moses. Here it will be seen how the Genesis-book,-the book, as we may say, of the divine counsels, maintains its character in the way in which it opens up to us the work of Christ:in the twentieth psalm, as victory over evil; in the twenty-second, as meeting the requirement of the divine nature as against sin ; in the fortieth, of that which, like the sweet-savor offerings, shows the infinite moral perfection which delights in God, and in which He delights.

The twentieth psalm begins then, where the story of grace began in Eden, with the announcement of the cross as victory over the enemy. The way in which it is introduced is perfect as all else. The first book (psalms 1:-41:) divides into three parts; in the first of which we find, as connected with the sufferings and deliverance of His people, Christ rejected (ps. 2:) and glorified (8:). His people are always here Israel, and in the second part (ps. 9:-15:), their sufferings in the last-day crisis, out of which they are finally delivered, are detailed. In this second part Christ is not found la the third (ps. 16:-41:), we have Him in a new character which, penetrating to the heart of the subject, explains and perfects the whole counsel of God. He is seen amongst the people in the lowly grace of perfect manhood, for God, for man, redeemer from misery as and because from sin. The sixteenth psalm thus shows Him in the place of dependence and trial, God His one portion and sufficiency in that path that passes through death itself into the joy of His immediate presence:the path of life through death, for us henceforth open.

Thus the seventeenth psalm shows how He can now associate others with Himself; giving the righteous through the only righteous One their ground of appeal to God. While the eighteenth psalm speaks of His victory over all His enemies, a victory which involves others with whom He is pleased to associate Himself.

The next three psalms show, on the part of His people, the faith which attaches them to Him. In the nineteenth psalm, first of all, setting its seal to God's other testimonies of creation and the law, but to rest only with full satisfaction and delight (in the two following psalms) in Him who is alone their kinsman-redeemer. While psalm 22:completes the picture by adding to the knowledge of redemption by power that of redemption by purchase, "not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

The twentieth psalm is in other respects a remarkable one, but, as far as we have now to. do with it, is of very simple character. The anointed (or Messiah), king of Israel, is seen in distress and difficulty in the presence of his enemies (compare 21:8, 11). It is conflict on account of others; and the name of the God of Jacob-1:e., of grace toward sinners, is appealed to in his behalf. From the sanctuary in Israel, and out of Zion, seat of electing- love, the help is to come. It is connected with the establishment and triumph of the people Plainly, and Messiah's offerings and burnt sacrifice secure this. Hence, in his deliverance they rejoice aloud, and in the name of this God set up their banners. Jehovah, their covenant-God, saves, and to the king also (to Messiah Himself) they call. The next psalm enlarges upon this deliverance and victory.

The twenty-second psalm now unfolds the reality of the sacrifice upon which all is based. It is the well-known psalm of atonement, so solemn and so dear to the Christian heart. It is the sin-offering, -the requirement, as 1 have elsewhere said, of the divine nature. The forsaking- of God is the necessary result of the holy One being made sin.

This is what is throughout put in contrast with all other sufferings. All felt as they arc, and no indifference to any,–the bodily anguish, the shame, the heartless wickedness of the assailants,-yet the one agony which outweighs all the rest is this forsaking of God. " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? far from helping Me, from the words of My roaring? O My God, I cry in the day-time, and Thou nearest not, and in the night-season, and am not silent!" "Be not far from Me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help." "But be not Thou far from Me, O Lord:O My strength, haste Thee to help Me! "

This forsaking is also carefully distinguished from any thing that a righteous man ever suffered. "Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them:they looked unto Thee, and were delivered; they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man." Yet a long line of martyrs witness to us that, as to deliverance simply from the hands of enemies, multitudes have cried and not been delivered, the sufferings through which they passed only proving that they were not forsaken, but on the contrary maintained and enabled for whatever they passed through by a power manifesting itself thus the more. How many before and since have roved Paul's experience, "Persecuted, but not forsaken"! None of these patient sufferers, precious and acceptable as their patience was to God, touched even the border of the darkness of the cross, when the cry of the holy One found no response.

What to Him that desertion was, He Himself alone could know. "Thou art He that took Me out of the womb; Thou didst make me hope even upon My mother's breasts; I was cast upon Thee from the womb; Thou art My God even from My mother's belly." To us, born in sin and shapen in iniquity, to whom estrangement from God is the natural condition, and who, even when by grace redeemed, can so readily slip out of communion with God, how little is it possible to realize the agony of this condition! With us, too, when out of communion, it implies a state which prevents realization. The spiritual sense is blunted, the spiritual affections are not in play; and if even in this state sorrows and troubles surprise us which make us feel vainly after Him, the consequences of the terrible loss are sure to overshadow and obscure the spiritual loss itself; while at the most the darkness that can envelop one who has ever known God is the darkness of a clouded sun compared with a night of total absence in the case of Him who was made sin for us.

Alone in human weakness, with every element of bitterness in the dreadful cup which was His to drink-He could ask, as none among men be-could, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" yet proclaim at the same time the holiness of Him who had forsaken Him. "But Thou art holy:dwelling amid the praises of Israel." Is not here, in fact, the reason of this forsaking, that the holy One would dwell amid the praises of a redeemed people? That worship could never be but for the cross. He must be" in the outside place of darkness, that we might be, children of light, in the light with God.

The consequence is, that after He has been brought into the dust of death, and is heard from the horns of the unicorns, the blessing that flows out answers in perfect contrast to the suffering endured. The Son of God, as the fruit of His own abandonment, communicates to now-acknowledged "brethren" the Father's name. He who was in that unique, solitary place, praises in the midst of the congregation which He gathers, and whose praise He leads. Yea, "the meek shall eat and be satisfied :they that fear the Lord shall praise Him the heart of the redeemed shall taste the joy of eternal life (26). To the ends of the earth, and to perpetual generations, the wave of blessing spreads,-joy out of sorrow, praise out of desertion, light out of darkness, life out of death; the subjection of adoring worshipers to a Saviour-God, and His righteousness declared in the accomplishment of this great salvation.

Thus ends the wondrous twenty-second psalm, of which atonement in its central feature-He who knew no sin made sin-is the theme throughout. Any full exposition is not here within our scope. But it is the foundation of all true blessing to understand it; its words will give the deep tones to our praise forever.

A number of psalms follow which give us, in various character, the exercises and experiences which find their answer in, or are the fruit of this blessed work. At the close of the book are two psalms which give, by way of conclusion, as it were, the moral of the whole. The heart of Christ is shown in its innermost depths, His life in its one principle, in the fortieth psalm. In the forty-first the heart of man is seen in relation to Him who has come into the place of poverty and reproach for – into a humiliation so low that unbelief can misconceive and discredit His true glory.

The fortieth psalm is significant in its very number, which is that of perfect probation; and here again we find the Lord in those sufferings which were the trial of His perfection, and which brought out the sweet savor of His blessed sacrifice, here put in contrast with all other sacrifices.

In the twenty-second psalm we have seen the Lord taking the sinner's place, that God might dwell among the praises of His redeemed; here we see what was in His heart God ward who did so. It is the perfect Man, with ears which never needed the anointing of blood to consecrate them to God; who, marked out in the book of God's counsels from the beginning, now comes forth simply, as none else, to do the will of God; His law within His heart. " By which will," says the apostle, "we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." This perfect devotedness He manifested there where, in the sharpest and most terrible-contrast to it, He cries, "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon Me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more in number than the hairs of My head; therefore My heart faileth Me."Yet, says He, " I waited patiently for the Lord;" even in the "miry clay" of that "pit of destruction."

Plainly this is the psalm of burnt-offering,'though the sacrifice represented take the place of all the-other offerings. Indeed it is quite in character that it should be so. The burnt-offering was the "continual burnt-offering," as that which was emphatically a sweet savor to God. The sin-offering is what the necessity of man craves and obtains; so with the trespass, and so with the peace-offering; but the burnt-offering, as it goes wholly up to God, expresses that which is the object of His unceasing delight. Thus, when no other sacrifice was there at all, the burnt-offering kept its place upon the altar, which from it, indeed, received its name; for this blessed work it is in which the moral glory of His person (which is what the altar speaks of) shines out most fully.

Here, accordingly, it is not the outside place that His cry expresses, but the "iniquities" which, as taking them upon Him, He could call " Mine:" this was the miry clay of the pit into which He who came to do God's will had descended. This, therefore, is the character of suffering most suited to display, as a dark background, that personal glory. Unbelief might indeed take such confession to justify its rejection of the holy One, while faith, adoring, finds in it its eternal blessing. And this is the key to the psalm which follows this.

The epistle to the Colossians has for its key-note the ninth and tenth verses of the second chapter-"In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him." It is the fullness of Christ for the Christian. The first chapter gives us the first part of this, which it anticipates:" For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him."The second and third chapters show our completeness in Him:His death for us delivering us from our natural portion; His resurrection bringing us into our portion now with God. In the first chapter, the work of atonement is represented as for the reconciliation of heaven and earth, as well as having accomplished the reconciliation of all believers:"And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,-by Him, I say, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven. And you, that were some time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight."

This doctrine of reconciliation is important as showing how far the need and value of the cross extend. In Romans already there is the statement that " when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son;" but here it extends much more widely, and has to do, not merely with persons even, but with things-all things, both in heaven and in earth. There are no persons in heaven to be brought back by the work of Christ, " for verily He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold "(Heb. ii:16, Gr.). It is not, therefore, of persons that the apostle is speaking here, but of the frame-work of things put out of joint, as it were, through sin, as far as sin has reached, and which the work of Christ was needed to set right.

In this application of reconciliation two things are plain:first, that it is not merely a moral effect on man that is intended by it, (although this moral effect there is, and it is a great truth too;) and secondly, that it was in the nature of God Himself that the deepest need of atonement lay. Going on to Ephesians, we find the apostle speaking of "the redemption of the purchased possession" (1:14); and in Hebrews 9:12, saying, "It was necessary, therefore, that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." Here, the heavenly things, then, are spoken of as purchased, purified, reconciled, redeemed. In whose eyes were they, then, impure? Clearly, in His to whom alone all true sacrifice was ever offered. It was the nature of God which required atonement, His holiness that needed satisfaction in it. In a deeper sense than probably Eliphaz knew could it be said, "The heavens are not clean in His sight" (Job 15:15). The work of Christ enables Him to lay hold upon all that with which sin has been connected, and restore to more than all its pristine beauty and excellency. How unspeakable is the value of that work which not only does this, but actually glorifies Him in filling the heavenly places with those redeemed from the fall, and made the very " righteousness of God in Christ."

As for Christians, they are already reconciled through the work of Christ:"You…hath He reconciled."It is done, although not yet are all the fruits reaped of this. Already are we before God in Christ, " accepted in the Beloved," waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body, to put us in" our place every way, in the very image of the heavenly. Reconciliation on bur part necessarily includes the change-from enmity, the natural state, to love, as here and in Romans both:" When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son;" "You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled." The moral effect is what is needed as to vis. The power of the display of the love which has so wonderfully met our whole necessity brings our hearts back to God. Love wins love:" we love Him because He first loved us." Hence, for this effect, the freeness and fullness of the gospel are essential. " 'Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him most?''I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.' ' Thou hast rightly judged.' "Question of the love that calls forth my love is fatal to this effect. I must be delivered from the necessity of seeking my own things, in order to live, not unto myself, but unto Him who died for me and rose again. This, the apostle tells us, was the secret of his life, such as we know it was:" The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

Reconciliation was needed thus on our part, and in order that it might be, the death of Christ must meet the demand of divine righteousness; but on this very account it is never said in Scripture, as it is so often in human creeds, that God is reconciled by the work of Christ. He had not changed, but we. God had never enmity to the work of His hands, however fallen away from Him. He had not, then, to be reconciled; and so, even where the reconciliation is of things, not persons, it is still these that are said to be reconciled, as we have seen. As to man, reconciliation is pressed upon him on the ground of Christ's work:"We pray, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God; for He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

The second part of Colossians gives, as I have said, the effect of the work of Christ for us, bringing in His resurrection and life beyond death as giving us our new place in the efficacy of it with God. We have "dead with Christ," "buried with Christ," almost exactly as in the second part of Romans, our death being called here "the circumcision of Christ," or Christian circumcision. While the "alive in Christ" of Romans is here carried back to its commencement in our being "quickened together with Christ."Our life in Him is thus seen, from its first moment, to be the result of atonement. The blotting out of legal ordinances, which were contrary to us, and the spoiling of principalities and powers, are connected also with His work. Risen with Him, we are in spirit to be outside the scene we are passing through,-to " seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."

Ephesians, as is well known, carries us one step beyond this. We are not only risen, but ascended, " made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here, "with" can no longer be said, as is evident. We are not actually, but as yet only represented, there:it is " the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places."

This is individual, of course. And though, as in Colossians, "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace," yet the meeting our responsibility in grace is not the special subject of Ephesians, but the new creation which we are made in Christ, and this in its heavenly character the epistle sets before us. It is not within our scope just now to enter upon this. In connection with it, the effect of the cross is spoken of as breaking down the middle wall of partition between both Jew and Gentile, both man and God. This middle wall of partition is the law, which the apostle calls, therefore, by a strong figure, the "enmity," and its abolition, our peace and reconciliation:"Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."There is nothing here but what is simple enough, and needs no comment. Nor does Ephesians present us with any further development of the doctrine of atonement.

The texts we have had before us naturally connect themselves with one already quoted in connection with them, but to which we must give now more particular attention. It is 2 Corinthians 5:21. The whole passage runs thus:"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as" though God did beseech by us, we pray in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

Notice, first, there is no statement here of the world having been reconciled. It is of the attitude which God took in Christ come into the world, of which the apostle is speaking. What Christ was doing when here, he says, we are doing as His representatives, "in His stead," now He is no longer here. But that attitude is of beseeching men to be reconciled,-not telling them they are. In this way God was not imputing their trespasses to them, inviting them to draw nigh to Him, not forbidding access.

Now this same liberty of access is proclaimed, but the ground of it is an already accomplished work:"He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." The main feature of atonement is here very clearly given; and the force is made plainer by the contrast of words and thought. In the same sense was Christ made sin for us as that in which we are made righteousness; and as the sin was the sin of man, so the righteousness is the righteousness of God. Moreover, as it was not in Himself that He was made sin, for He knew none; so not in ourselves are we made divine righteousness, but in Him. The antithesis in all this no one can doubt to be designed; and it makes evident the meaning of the whole. Christ who knew no sin was identified with it upon the cross; we as the fruit of His work, in our place in Him, are identified with the righteousness of God. In Him dying upon the tree is seen the sin of man; but the righteousness of God is seen, wonderful to say, in sinners being accepted in the Beloved.

But you may say, Is not the righteousness of God seen also in the cross? Surely it is; and so the third of Romans states:" Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness;" but in what respect? "That He might be righteous, justifying"-pronouncing righteous-"him which believeth in Jesus." That we might be in Him, it was necessary that He should be made sin for us; the righteousness of God no less could satisfy. That we are in Him declares therefore the cross God's method of salvation-affirms that righteousness, now our shelter and defense, " the righteousness of God over all them that believe." With this, then, we are identified forever:forever we shall display it, as we shall " the exceeding riches of His grace."

V. the coming in humiliation. (Chap. 20:29-23:)
I. The final presentation of the King (chap. 20:29-21:17). At Jericho we find the Lord once more as Son of David, a title we do not find on the lips of Israelites from chap. 12:till now; and it is as this He gives sight to two blind men, the witnesses of His power and goodness. The willing hearts of His people answering His claim upon them, He rides into Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, " Meek, and sitting upon an ass." The evangelist omits in his quotation "just, and having salvation," as in fact the unbelief of the nation prevents the manifestation of this power in their behalf. All the city is moved; but although the words of the hundred and eighteenth psalm are upon their lips,-words with which, in a future day, they will welcome their Deliverer,-as yet, there is no real recognition of Him. He cleanses the temple, become now a place of robbery instead of prayer, and there heals the blind and the lame; but the leaders of the people reject Him, and out of the mouth of babes and sucklings only is His praise perfected. He leaves the city, and going out to Bethany, (for the first time mentioned in this gospel, linked so abidingly with the well-known glorifying of the Son of God by resurrection out of death,) He lodges there.

2. Rejection of the people for their fruitless profession (chap. 21:18-46). It was significantly from Bethphage-the " house of unripe figs,"-that the Lord had entered the city. On His return to it in the morning, a fig-tree whose promise of fruit is not fulfilled is made the type of a judgment for similar fruitlessness coming upon the guilty nation. In the temple, the chief priests question Him as to His authority, but He refuses answer till they have settled the prior question of the baptism of John. In fact repentance-the burden of John's testimony -must be the way to salvation by Christ. For a repentant sinner there is but one Saviour, and no babel of discordant teaching can drown for such the voice of Christ. But despite their seeming respect for divine authority, the publicans and harlots went into the kingdom of God before the Pharisees. The parable of the vineyard is the history of the nation which God had cared for and blessed, and admonished by a long succession of prophets. Now, after having rejected one after another the servants He sent to them, they were about to consummate their guilt by slaying His Son.

3. Rejection of the people for their rejection of the offers of grace (chap. 22:1-14). Yet patient mercy would not stop even here, as the following parable of the kingdom shows. The very death of Christ would furnish forth a table where the King could invite guests to the marriage of His Son,-guests already bidden by the voice of prophecy. But the Jews (these bidden ones) still reject, persecuting to death the messengers of grace. Then the limit of divine forbearance is reached, and the city burned up, while to supply the place of the rejecters a general call goes out to all men. This gathers many, among whom, however, when the King comes in to see the guests, some are found whose type is the man who has not on the wedding-garment,-the covering, that is, which grace provides. And indeed out of all whom grace invites the few only are chosen, not the many.

4. The trial and exposure of the leaders of the people (chap. 22:15-46). After this, the various parties among the Jews come-up before Him, seeking to entangle Him in their talk, but in fact out of their own mouths to be judged. The Pharisees and Herodians are condemned by Caesar's image on the tribute-money. They had subjected themselves to Caesar for their own gain; they must therefore accept the position in which their sin had placed them. The Sadducees are convicted of ignorance of Scripture and of the power of God. The lawyers are made to recognize as the great commandment of the law that which proved them most of all guilty. Finally, the Lord puts before them the fundamental question which convicts them of ignorance of the true dignity of their Messiah,-of David's Son,-whose enemies would yet be made His footstool.

5. Their judgment (chap, 23:). Then the Lord turns upon the convicted and silenced leaders, and denounces them as the hypocritical destroyers of the people. Jerusalem, refusing the love which would so often have gathered her children under its secure shelter, is left desolate without Him until they shall say, as yet out of their distress and misery they shall be made to say, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Then, even after so long resistance, divine grace shall save them.

If your honest purpose be to get on in the divine life, to progress in spirituality, to cultivate personal acquaintance with Christ, then challenge your heart solemnly and faithfully as to this. Make Christ your habitual good. Go, gather the manna that falls on the dew-drops, and feed upon it with an appetite sharpened by a diligent walk with God through the desert."

"CHRISTIAN, see carefully to it that you are not only saved by Christ, but also living on Him."

"In order to a satisfactory result when one person has to explain any thing to another, it is
chiefly necessary that the person to whom the explanation is offered should really and sincerely try to understand what the other would express.

It is very desirable that the explainer should use such words and such manner as shall best express his mind; but, though he spake never so clearly, if the other is listening without that real desire to understand, language will always afford to a disputer opportunities of raising, questions, and of misrepresenting assertions, and of so confounding (as the disputer thinks) the other, but really he himself is the confounded one; for the other still knows what his own meaning is, though he may be grieved at his failure to lead his friend to understand it and profit by it, while the disputer has missed what perhaps might have been a real increase of wisdom or knowledge to him, and certainly what would have been an opportunity of manly, friendly, and wise intercourse and exchange of ideas.'

There surely is wisdom in these observations, and we Christians would do well to lay them to heart. Is it saying too much to assert that there is amongst us a lack of that patient waiting, both on God and each other, that would result in mutual edification and happy communion ? ' Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another:and the Lord hearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name.' (Mal. 3:16.) What a contrast this scripture presents to the case described in the above observations!"

A Lecture, at Plainfield, N. J., on Monday evening, August 4, 1884.

"Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village ; and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said, ' Lord dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her, therefore, that she help me.' And Jesus answered and said unto her, ' Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'" (Luke 10:38-42.)

As you know, beloved friends, there was genuine faith in both these women. " Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." Martha had not only received the Lord into her house, but she had received Him into her heart; there is no kind of doubt about that. The very character here in which we find her was not merely her natural character. She was busy about One that she loved. She was busy about One whose glory she recognized, at least in measure. She was busy in serving Him; and there were very few, beloved friends, in that land and time, that cared to serve Him. He was One who had not where to lay His head,-One who was despised and rejected of men -the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; men hid, as it were, their faces from Him ; He was despised, and they esteemed Him not.

Martha had faith-genuine faith, as Mary had,- faith that thought of Him truly, as at least One who had come far to serve her, One whom she owned as the Christ of God come into the world. Martha was busy in her care for such an One; and that is the solemn lesson. With all this love in her heart, and with all this real faith in His person,- that faith which made her one of the very few in Israel that recognized Him at all,-that with all that, she could be so far wrong as we see her wrong,-that with all that, she could be put in disparaging contrast with Mary her sister,-Mary who did nothing,-Mary who simply sat at His feet to hear His word. The Lord takes her up to signify His entire approbation as to where she was and what she was. He has a reproof for Martha's service, but has only approbation for Mary's simply sitting at His feet.

His words are very striking ; '' Thou art careful," He says to Martha;-''Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things." Beloved friends, if you are busy about many things, you will not only be busy, but troubled. Martha, we read, "was cumbered with much serving;" and she was not only "encumbered," but "troubled;" -it weighed upon her. It was very busy service; but it weighed upon her,-weighed her down. Beloved, if you have service that weighs you clown, look to it-see well why it is. Plainly; that very character would put you along with Martha here. She was cumbered with much serving. She goes to the Lord with her complaint. Mary might help her; Mary has left her to serve alone. She wants Him to use His authority with Mary. She says, "Dost not Thou care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her, therefore, that she help me." She began with seeking to help the Lord as it were, and she ends with complaining that she cannot get help herself. She wants to serve the Lord, but she turns round at last and wants to get Mary to serve her. The Lord's words are what we are to think about to-night:"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her;" "But one thing is needful"-only "one thing." To what a little point would that diminish all care if we realized it:only "one thing"! How many distractions would our hearts be free from if we only recognized and bowed to the truth of the Lord's words. Only "one thing"! Do you honestly think it, beloved friends? There are a great many needs in this busy world:there are a great many duties that, you have, and that Christians think they have to society, to their neighbors, and what not. The Lord here would bring our hearts from every thing simply to one, and that one, to sit at His feet and hear His word! Don't you feel as if that would leave service out altogether? How is it possible that only one thing is needful, and Mary had chosen that very part, when there are so many things to do? Are we to leave out service to the Lord?–what does it mean? Beloved, this:That the thing which is to be our care is that we receive from Christ; and if we receive,-if we are receiving, beloved friends, service, and every thing else, may take care for itself. Mark, I do not mean that you won't serve. You will – you will. But I say this:that if your care is not for service, but to be receiving from Him, you will find that "one thing" which the Lord speaks of embraces all the rest.

What God wants from us is receptiveness,-He wants in us capacity to receive. You remember what He says Himself in the seventh chapter of John, when men were busy with their feast of tabernacles before the time,-busy with their empty show of something which after all left the heart just where it was, or, rather, emptier than ever. The Lord stands up just upon that great day of the feast:the great day of the feast is when the hollowness conies out the most. And in that "great day of the feast," when men have shown how little they can do to secure the happiness they have been seeking, the Lord stands up and says, " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37, 38.) Beloved, there is not any thing there, you see-there is not any thing about these busy Martha-cares-this busy Martha-service; there is not a bit about it-not a bit about it. "You take care," the Lord says, "to receive of Me. Come and drink; and he that believeth on Me, [faith being that receptive character in the soul,-"he that believeth on Me,] out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

Well, now, can it be so simple? Have we not got a great deal more to do than believe on Christ? Why, how many of us, beloved friends, are believing on Christ? Thank God, a good many here. And how many could say-how many could realize at all that out of their bellies are flowing rivers of living water? Mark what a beautiful thing,- that out of the innermost of man's nature-the part that craves-the part that is the natural man's god in his fallen condition, the fullness flows. "Their god is their belly," says the apostle in Corinthians:that is to say, that man having fallen from God- fallen from the apprehension of a love that satisfies, and got to be a mere questioner of it, has got into self-care-into labor-into lust. God did not put him into such a place as that. God did not put him into a place where he must care; God put him into a garden; did not think that even the very world which He had created was good enough for the man of His choice, but took up one special part of it, planted it with trees of the choicest kind, made every thing that should gratify his eyes-his heart, and put him there in the midst of that garden, beloved friends; to enjoy the favor of God, and receive from His hands. And that is all.

Well, you say, was there nothing else? had he nothing to do? No ; he had to refrain from doing, -he had not to take of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There was no labor that God required of him. He was the favorite of Heaven-the last, newest creature; he was put there in a marked way as a dependent one, the most dependent, I believe, of all God's creatures. He was put there into a paradise watched by and cared for by God Himself, all his necessities made but the means of God's care for him being manifested. He was essentially a dependent creature. The angels had fallen before this, as we know, and God had made man a creature like the angels-an immortal spirit,-one who was, as it were, His child-His offspring by creation. I say, God put this spirit which He had made into a body, with which it was to be linked, and upon which it was in a certain respect to be even dependent. You know how dependent we are upon our bodies. don't mean that Adam was in the same way that we are. He was not. I don't mean to say that there could be in Adam any tendency to death, or any thing of that sort-the condition which we arc in as fallen. Surely not. But he had necessities, he had to subsist by food, he was dependent upon the senses for his communication with the world, in which he was to subsist, not independently, but maintained by food. The angels fell by pride. God, by all this, was hiding pride from man. He was teaching him dependence; caring for him, at the same time, in a way that made that dependence no trouble to him. If He made him a needy creature, He made all these things avenues by which he could be filled with satisfaction and delight. How blessed and wonderful that! God has joined those two things together from the very beginning; making man dependent upon Himself, and making that dependence no trouble-no distress, but a means of realizing the loving care of his Maker and Preserver every day and hour.

And, beloved, you know how man fell. A beast seduced him. God would not allow him to be tempted by a higher being,-one in that character. Of course, we know it was Satan who seduced him. But God would not allow him to come in any angel-shape-as one higher than man. And that makes very significant what you find in the second of Genesis, that God made Adam look at all the beasts which He had made, and give them names. He made him give them names as having knowledge of them. And looking them through and through, Adam knew that there was not one that could be found that could be a help for him. He was the master of the beast; they were all put under his hand, and he was the lord of them. Then God made woman, and gave her to be the help for him that he needed. But, beloved, it was by a beast man fell. God would not suffer him to be tempted but by a beast. He should have no excuse. He should not be able to say really that he was beguiled by one whom he could suppose had superior knowledge. He gave place to one who was below him, lost his superiority over the beasts themselves, and the blessed realization of what God was having vanished from him, he was sent out of paradise into the world outside, now to prove for himself what his own hands could do for him.

"God hath made man upright," says the preacher, " but he has sought out many inventions ;" and men are proud of it,-they are proud of their inventions. I have often said, How is it, beloved friends, that man has to have these inventions? Men say that "necessity is the mother of invention." It is required to invent to meet men's necessities now. But, beloved, how did man need those, inventions? They are the sign of the fall. Outside of paradise, and fallen away from God, he lusts. His belly is his god,-he craves. He is a creature made for eternity; he has, as the preacher says again; "eternity in his heart." That expression in Ecclesiastics 3:II-"the world his heart"-should be "eternity. With eternity in his heart, man tries to satisfy himself with the poor things of time. What is it that baffles all his wisdom ? He has no possible invention that can enable him to do away with death, or to meet judgment, He is a creature, formed for eternity, trying to satisfy himself with a world that passes from him, and ignorant of God. The first knowledge that we find after the fall is of his nakedness, and the first invention an apron to cover his nakedness. And so he has gone on.

Now Christ comes into the scene after this fallen and wretched creature,-comes into the midst of men such as you and I are. And he says, with the fullest knowledge of man's condition, " Whosoever is athirst, let him come unto Me, and drink;" he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."The place of want, beloved friends, is the belly-the-very thing that compels man to toil for satisfaction. The Lord says that he shall be so full-so satisfied, that out of that craving heart of man-out of his belly, no longer craving, but satisfied-shall flow " rivers of living water," Do you believe it, beloved friends?-do you believe it? If rivers of living water flow out of you, this means both testimony and service, surely. It implies real ministry to others, and that God is to get His own from you in the world. Surely it does. But if this is to be true of you, what are the means by which it is to be accomplished? You are to come and drink; you are to come and receive from Him as Mary did, and you shall find that in this one thing needful all other things are contained. Even amid a ruined world paradise is returned again for him who takes this place at Jesus' feet,-this place of happy dependence to which there is no lack, eternally secured to one that finds it. " Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her " How sweet and wonderful is that! Do you believe it? I am sure most Christians do not believe it at all. I am afraid, beloved friends, that there are scarcely any of us that in our hearts do fully believe it. If you say you do, where then are these "rivers of living water"? Why don't they flow? What is wanting? Ah! faith in it is wanting. There is so little of it. You see, the fullness is His, it is not ours. People have the idea that grace in a man is a sort of thing that God puts as it were a seed into the soul, and it is to grow and grow and grow, and develop there into more, so that he has consciously more and more. That is not it at all. Surely I do not mean to say that a man is not born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, and that as so born he does not grow. Surely he does; but that is another thing. From the very beginning of growth this ought to be true of us. Beloved, the blessedness we speak of is to be found in that which God has already given to us, if we are Christians,-that which the apostle witnesses in the second chapter of the epistle to the Colossians-in that verse of which we have often been speaking together as the key of the epistle. "In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are filled up in Him." Now, if that is really so, you see your competence at once. God has given you your place, your part, in Him already; and think, beloved friends, that in One in whom is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Him we are filled up! Faith has got to recognize this; faith has got to make it practical, not to make the thing true. It is true; but we have to recognize it to find the proper truth of it.

Let us remember, too, that the Voice that spoke in the feast of tabernacles did not address itself to any inner circle of privilege. It was in the world He spoke. In it still, therefore, He is speaking to every weary, unsatisfied heart. Now, I appeal to you, if there are any of you who have such. The Lord invites you, beloved friends. You say, perhaps, Well, I am afraid I don't realize my sin enough. Come to Him, then; for He is exalted to be a Prince and Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins. Come to Him. He invites men convicted of sin; but He invites them also in another character,–as thirsty and weary ones. Like Martha here-occupied with their own efforts in one kind or another-He invites them to come to Him. Whatever they are and whoever they are-not a soul but is welcome, thoroughly welcome, to Him. Alas! we are all Martha’s, (not, of course, in faith,) but apt to be busy with much serving; and the last thing which we naturally think of is to come to the Lord, to find satisfaction in Him alone. Ah! is not that true of some person here? You think, If He is such a glorious Person, He must be served. If He is such a glorious Person, would He come down from heaven to earth to be served by you? Was it not more adequate faith in Mary, saying, as it were, " If He had wanted service, He would not ask for it from such poor incompetent, hands as mine." "The less is blessed of the better."It is not more blessed to receive, but " it is more blessed to give than to receive."And are you trying, beloved friends, to serve Christ? Take care you are not trying to be "the better," and to make Him "the less."Are you trying to serve Him, when He had to come down from heaven to earth to serve you? Mary says "If He has come to serve me, I will let Him do it" She is down at His feet:He says she has chosen that good part. Do you choose the "good part," and you shall have it forever.

What is the secret, beloved friends, of all the dishonor done to Him (alas!) by His people? I'll tell you,-the one thing, the secret of it is, that they are not where Mary was,-they arc not in the place of real occupation with Himself. That is what the Lord wants. He has come all this weary way to attract our hearts to Himself. He wants us to receive out of His fullness,-He wants us simply to receive. Not to get us to say, after a little while, "I must be doing something now." He wants us to receive-to receive-to RECEIVE. If it is only receiving from Christ, every other responsibility will be met easily,-not by effort, but met of necessity. This will come after your own soul is fully satisfied; for the vessel must be filled itself before it can properly flow over. It is not from a vessel that is partly full that you expect an overflow. You must sit at His feet until you are filled yourself,-that is the first thing. And when filled yourself, don't think that you require effort then. Beloved, as surely as you are filled yourself, out of your belly shall flow "rivers of living water."

Alas! alas! pride is so natural to us. Man has followed Satan in that way. He would be as God. Man would still take that place, and make God his debtor. How can God be gracious? How can God give, and give, for nothing in return?-how can that possibly be? And, beloved, if there are those here who have these weary, restless, sinful, unsatisfied hearts, how hard it is for you to learn that He would make over to you, positively and definitely, His fullness! That is what He does.

You have only to receive ; only to take the place at His feet:He will pour out His grace. I would press this as from first to last the blessed truth. It is He who applies-who appropriates to the soul all the fullness of His grace, all the value of His work.

You remember, in the third chapter of Zechariah, how Joshua the high-priest is represented there, the very picture of a sinner clothed with his sins before the angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. There is not a word spoken by Joshua, nor a question asked of him. There is none to ask. Convicted sinner as he is, the only question is, what has God for a convicted sinner? People get into the presence of God in their sins. Many think, indeed, that they have to put away their sins and then get into the presence of God. No; nobody gets into the presence of God except in his sins, and then he is as dumb as Joshua is. The angel of the Lord says to Satan, " The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee:is no! this a brand plucked out of the fire?" And what does He say then? He says to those that stand by, "Take away his filthy garments from him;" and then He turns to the poor sinner himself, and, to make it plain to him and to us, He leaves the language of type and shadow, and to him He says, not "I have caused" thy filthy garments "to pass from thee," but " I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee." It looks like a New-Testament revelation ; so clear, so full is the grace announced. Poor souls that trouble themselves about their acceptance, how glad they would be to have such a voice! And yet it is for them,-written for them, the unchanging word of the unchangeable God. Does the angel tell Joshua to appropriate this grace? No; He says, "Take away the filthy garments take them from him," and He says to him, not even Can you believe that your iniquity is gone? or that My grace is great enough? but, in His own free and royal way, " I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee."He who speaks without repentance, and never withdraws His words, says, " Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." That is how Christ ministers to one that comes to Him. Is there a soul here that needs that? Christ definitely assures you of the forgiveness of your sins. He does not say, Now, appropriate this; but He says, I appropriate it to you, and it is yours." If we confess our sins," says the apostle,-what then? Joshua stands with those sins confessed upon him;-those sins covered him in the presence of God, and what is the result? He found God Himself acting in his behalf. It is God that appropriates the value of Christ's work to the soul. It is God that says, by the Spirit, to men, not You must do so and so, but I-I, it you confess your sins-if you simply take that place,- I am faithful and just to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, (1 Jno. 1:9.)

Beloved, it is an immense thing to be clear as to that,-it is an immense thing to be able to give souls such assurance. Like the spies to-Rahab- "Our life for yours." Those are grand words. She, as it were, says, " What can you tell me from God? Give me a true token." ''Our life for yours." Oh to be able to comfort souls in that way,-to give them the positive assurance from God-those souls that would gladly accept salvation, but are busy with their acceptance of it! Oh to be able to give them a " true token " that Christ has so died for sinners,–that when you take that place as sinners before God, that blood is the true token of salvation yours, yours, YOURS!

And as we begin, so we go on. Would that we did! but I mean in God's thought. As we begin, so we go on. We get out of His gracious handout of His fullness, first, our acceptance with God, -that which satisfied our souls-peace and rest in His presence. But oh, beloved, is it there we stop? Are we to acquire holiness in a different way from that in which we get righteousness and peace? No, surely; just as we find Christ for righteousness, so surely we do for sanctification and all else.

We have got to receive it at His feet, to look into His blessed face, to learn of His love to rejoice in Himself; and that is true sanctification. If that is so, Christ sanctifies. Occupation with Christ is what makes our lives what they should be,-transforms our lives-transforms our very faces. Occupied with Him, looking into His face, we are changed into His image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. It is in company with Himself we find "that good part "which Mary had chosen, in "part with Him."

And as with sanctification, so with service. Oh that we may have that kind of service which will not separate us from Him-the service that flows freely almost unconsciously, from the joy of His presence, and of the service which He renders us! Beloved, we are continually exalting ourselves, and He has to abase us. How strange and sad it is that so much of our lives we cause Him to fight against us instead of for us! Because He would have us in the place of blessing, He has to put us down, down, down,-our efforts at holiness, our attempts at service, in order that He may put us in the place He has for us. How slow are we to receive in its full reality the grace that requires not, but gives,-that delights to give,-that only seeks to have objects for it; the grace that, simply as we receive it, we find, not only fullness for ourselves, but that which makes our lives full also for others. May we all learn it more simply, the power and value, not of our efforts, but of Christ Himself.
It is the "one thing" I want to say to you tonight. Don't you think it is enough? If Christ says, "But one thing is needful," what is more needful than simply to learn that "one thing"? He came not to be served-to be ministered unto, but to minister to others, yea, to give His life a ransom for many. Let Him serve, in the greatness of His love; and we shall find, not only practical fullness for daily need, but all that He is told out to us.

Whoever you arc, there is no one to ask the question, when you come to Him, whether you are fit for His presence. He has no guard to His presence-chamber to ask whether you have got a right to be there. He does not want you to be kept off. Sin is no barrier even, because in the cross of Christ grace has triumphed, aye, over the worst sin that man could possibly commit; as the. hymn says,-

"The very spear that pierced His side Drew forth the blood to save."

Beloved, wherever you are, whatever you arc, no soul so far from Him but I invite you to Christ to-night. There is not merely no guard to His presence-chamber to keep you out, there is the public proclamation that you are welcome there. The King's door stands open, His table is for you, beloved friends. And His presence, Lord of all, come down in grace, that His fullness may be available for us, that we may find in Him, out of His fullness, "grace upon grace."

Now, I don't want to say any thing else tonight; but "one thing is needful," and we may shut up our books.

That " one thing needful" is occupation with Christ-to sit at His feet and learn of Him. So then, if we want to serve Him, the only possible way is to receive from Him first till our hearts are so full that we cannot hold it any longer. When the vessel is once filled, all the power of the spring pours over. The overflow is not measured by the capacity of the vessel, but by the power of the spring. Think of that, beloved friends. Think of our testimony in the world being the testimony of the divine fullness,-not the measure of what we are, but the measure, so to speak, of what He is. The one thing needful for us is that our whole souls should be satisfied with Himself; and to be occupied is to be satisfied.

God give us more practically, everyone, to know and prove it in His grace.

"That the world may know that Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." Do you believe that? If you do not, it is positive unbelief.

Therefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be acceptable to Him."

…. Because many Christians have not seized the force of this truth [being "in Christ" and "not in the flesh,"] nor of the expressions of the apostle, they use Christ's death as a remedy for the old man, instead of learning that they have by it passed out of the old man as to their place before God, and into the new in the power of that life which" is in Christ. Ask many a true-hearted saint what is the meaning of, " When we were in the flesh," and he could give no clear answer; he has no definite idea of what it can mean. Ask him what it is to be in Christ:all is equally vague. A man born of God may be in the flesh as to the condition and standing of his own soul, though he be not so in God's sight; nay, this is the very case supposed in Romans vii, because he looks at himself as standing before God on the ground of his own responsibility, on which ground he never can, in virtue of being born again, meet the requirements of God, attain to His righteousness. J.N.D.

The doctrine of justification developed mainly in the first part of Romans, but extends, in a certain very important application of it, into the sixth chapter, while the latter part of the fifth, which we were last considering, connects it with the doctrine of the two Adams therein given. It is as in Christ we find it, accompanying the new life by which we are made of His race as last Adam:- "justification of life." For this reason a glance back will be here in place.

The truth is developed in this epistle in the order of application to the soul's need. And the first part accordingly begins with that which is its first conscious need, the guilt of sins committed; the second part takes up what is a later discovery and distress, the sin inherent in a fallen nature. The first of these is met by the application of the blood of Christ, justification by His blood. The second is met by the application of the death of Christ:"our old man is crucified with Christ;" " he that is dead is justified from sin " (6:6,7, marg.).

These are two different applications of the same work of Christ, which avails in all its fullness for every believer. No one can be justified by the blood of Christ who is not at the same time justified by the death of Christ. The blood is already the sign of death having taken place, and only as that could it avail for us. It is only as that that it could put away our sins, so as to give us effectual peace with God at all.

Justification is the act of divine righteousness. It is for this reason that the righteousness of God is so prominent in the first part of Romans, while it is not found at all in the second part. Righteousness is that quality in God which has of necessity to say to sin, and on account of which the soul conscious of its guilt trembles to meet Him. No one, whatever be his guilt, is afraid of God's love; but how great soever that love may be, the awakened conscience at once begins to realize that it is righteousness must have to say to sin. The glory of the gospel is this, that it takes up just this character of God to put it on the side of the believer in Jesus, so as to make it his very boast and confidence." I am not ashamed of the gospel [the glad tidings]," says the apostle; " for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." And how this power? "For therein"-in these glad tidings to guilty men,-"the righteousness of God is revealed, by faith, to faith" (chap. 1:16, 17, Rev. Vers.). It is the revelation of divine righteousness in a gospel to the guilty, faith alone being required to receive the gospel, it is this which is the power of God for the deliverance of souls. – In the third chapter it is more fully made known as divine righteousness declared by the cross "in the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God " (3:25, R.V..), and at this time, "that He might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus" (5:26). The righteousness of God is that, then, which makes Him righteous in pronouncing righteous the believer in Jesus. This righteousness of God becomes as it were a house of refuge with its door open " unto all," and its protecting roof, impervious to the storm, "over all them that believe,"-over all that have fled to the cross for refuge (5:22)*. *επι, "over," or "on." There is indeed a question of reading here, and some would leave out "and over all;" but we need not consider this now.*

It is the righteousness of God which repels every charge against the believer in Jesus. His justification is an act of righteousness, for the blood that is before God is the token of the death of his Substitute in his behalf. The penalty of his sins has been endured by Another, who, if "delivered for our offenses," " was raised again for our justification." This is the public sentence of it which declares on God's part His acceptance of the work. The ground is the blood; the sentence is the resurrection of our Surety. This sentence is God coming in to manifest Himself for us on account of the work of Christ accomplished. Faith rests in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.

This might seem all that is needed. Assuredly the work of Christ meets every need, and His resurrection is the token of complete acceptance. What is needed is not in fact something more than this, but the fuller bringing out of what is involved in it; that in our Substitute we have therefore passed away as on the footing of the first man, identified with Adam, and are in Christ on the footing of the Second Man, alive in Him to God. For faith, therefore, I am dead to sin;" because He died to it, and cannot live in what I am, -though for faith only,-dead to. This approves the holiness of the doctrine, as the seventh and eighth chapters show its power. It answers the moral question with which the sixth chapter opens.

Let us notice the way the doctrine is unfolded. The objection is started, " If then grace abounds over sin, then the more our sin the more His grace. Shall we then continue in sin, that grace may abound?" To which he answers, "We are dead to sin, how can we live in it?" This is conclusive against the abuse of the doctrine, although it is only for faith that we are dead :for then faith in it must tend to holiness, and not unholiness. The truth is ever according to godliness.

But how then are we dead to sin? He bids them think of what was involved in their baptism. Baptized to Christ Jesus,-again the order of words whose significance we have seen before,- we were baptized to His death:to have our part in this, according to the ordained testimony of it upon earth. Burial is just putting a dead man into the place of death:" we are therefore buried with Him by baptism into death." Our place in natural life is ended:upon earth we have but our part in the death of Jesus. But He is risen; the glory of the Father necessitated His resurrection from among the dead, and this is to give its character to the new life in which henceforth we are to walk; " for if we have come to be identified* [with Him] in the likeness of His death, we shall be also on the other hand in the likeness of His resurrection."*I follow the London New Translation. "United," which the Revised Version gives, does not give the full force. It is literally "grown together" (not "planted") so as to be one. " With Him" is evidently to be understood.* That is, if our baptism-the " likeness of His death "—have real meaning with us, we shall be, in the character of our walk, in the likeness of His resurrection.* *Observe the gegonamen, "we have become," in contrast with the esometha, "we shall be,"-not" become." But this is only moral "likeness," not the full being " risen with Him" of Ephesians and Colossians.* One thing will be the result of the other; " knowing this, that our old man "-all that we were in that old fleshly life-"is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,"-"nullified," rather, "brought practically to nothing,"-"that henceforth we should not serve sin."

The "knowing this" connects with the sentence before, and confirms the meaning of " the likeness of His resurrection" as a present moral result. Our old man received its sentence of shame and condemnation from God, (for this is what the cross means,) where Christ died for us. We know and have accepted its setting aside thus.

But here we must inquire the exact force and meaning of " our old man." Many take it as the expression of the "natural corruption or unholy affections of men," or "the old nature." But Scripture has a different term for the old nature, and for the principle of evil in it. It speaks of the "flesh," and of "sin in the flesh." Between person and nature there is an essential and important difference ; and if we are to take the inspired words as a perfect guide, (which we surely are,) "the old man " is person, and not nature. The importance lies in this, that responsibility (because the real activity] belongs to the person, not the nature. It is not nature that acts, although it may give character to the actions; and we as Christians are exhorted not to "walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit;" practically – though with an important difference too, which we may by and by consider, -not after the old nature, but after the new. The responsible person is distinguished as such from both natures, which are together in him.* * "Nature" (from natus, "born,") means (he character derived from birth; and we are born, and born again. The man of Romans 7:17,18, although new born, and able to distinguish himself from "the sin that dwelleth in " him, still must say, in his " flesh dwelleth no good thing."*

So, in full accordance with this, we read of " the flesh with its affections and lusts," and even of " the works of the flesh" (Gal. 5:24, 19),-1:e., fleshly works; but "doings" (πράξεις) are attributed to the "old man" only (Col. 3:9).

Moreover, the old man is never said to be in the Christian, but always to have been " put off," as in Ephesians 4:22, Gr., Colossians 3:9, or as here, " crucified with Christ" (6:6); while the flesh, on the contrary, (though he is not in it,) is always recognized as in him.* * Galatians 5:24 may be objected to this, where it is said that " they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." But this is not the same thing with Romans 6:6. There, it is " with Christ,"-the effect of His cross:here, it is they that are Christ's have done it, as accepting in heart and mind their place as His.*

The "old man" is not, therefore, "the flesh"- the old nature, but the person identified with the nature. It is myself as I was under the old head, -as a living responsible child of Adam. It is as such the Lord stood for me upon the cross, and dying, ended for me the whole standing and its responsibilities together. He died for me, not for the old man, to restore it, but for me, that as the sinner that I was, I -might find, in nature and activities together, my rightful condemnation in the cross, and have my place in Himself before God, and not in Adam. Responsibility as a Christian of course only here begins, but as a child of Adam it is over. My Substitute has died, and death ends the whole condition to which responsibility attaches. Eternal judgment is only for the deeds done in the body; and, my Substitute having died, I have died with Him-have passed out of the whole sphere of accountability in this respect.

We see how well it may be said, " Much more, then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." Every thought that might raise a question is indeed for the once-justified one completely gone; and, in Christ, we live because He lives.

And what is the consequence of this crucifixion of the old man? It is that "he that is dead is justified from sin." So the Greek, and. the Revised Version rightly now. We see how truly it is a question of person and personal standing all through here. Justification is of course that, but it is a justification more complete than in the first part of the epistle. No lust, no sin of thought, no evil passions, belong to a dead man-to a corpse. And this shows in how far we are dead to sin. Nothing of all this can be imputed to one dead with Christ. " Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." The life now begun is as much involved in and dependent upon His life as the death we have been considering is involved in His death. Changeless, -eternal, past the power of death it therefore is:" knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more:death hath no more dominion over Him; for in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God."

He has died to sin, but what sin? In Him there was none, but on the cross-standing there for us- He had to say to it, and as " made sin for us" died. But thus He has passed away from it forever, to live ever to Him now from whose blessed face, when bearing the burden of it, it had necessarily separated Him. For us He died, and died to sin:this death and this deliverance by death belong to us. But in Him also we live, in the life He lives,
a life wholly to God. " Even so reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (5:ii, R. V.).

We are to " reckon" this so, not feel, find, or experience. It is not a matter of feeling or experience that Christ has died to sin. By faith we know it, and by faith also that He lives to God beyond the power of death. It is a most certain fact; but faith alone can apprehend it; and faith alone can apprehend our death with or our life in Him.

But here let us pause a little to consider some things that have been in dispute of late, and their application to what is before us. Is it condition, or standing, to be in Christ before God ? or is it perhaps both together? The doctrine already considered, if it be clearly according to the Word, will enable us, surely, conclusively to settle this.

What is meant by "standing"? Clearly it is the same as position or place*, but in a certain aspect which makes it practically somewhat narrower. *The same verb, istemi, in certain tenses means "to stand," and in certain others, transitively, "to make to stand:to set, or set up, establish, etc."* The last words are not found in Scripture in the present application, and in the New Testament in any real application to what we call Christian standing, the former possibly three times.* *Rom 5:1; 1 Pet. 5:12; Jude 24. In the last case it is in the transitive form, "present" or " make you stand." We must not confound with these such passages as Rom. 11:20; 1 Cor. 15:1; 2 Cor. 1:24; Col. 4:12, etc., the force of which is really different. The text in Peter is doubtful; many read " stand," not" ye stand.*" Two passages say it is in grace we stand; one speaks of standing " faultless in the presence of His glory." In Romans 5:I it is "this grace," referring, not necessarily to what has gone before, but to present known grace-the free and absolute favor of God. Further than this, if we insist on the direct use of the word, Scripture does not carry us.

But the force of the word is simple, and its legitimate application does not seem hard to reach. As I have said, "standing" is position in a certain aspect, namely, in view of its capability of being maintained. Thus it is used often for continuance, as in opposition to falling:" If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand"-" I continue [or stand'] unto this day." "Standing "is used, therefore, of position where there might be question of such continuance; and the question before God being as to the claim of His righteousness being met, and the claim of His righteousness being the demand of His throne, I believe "position before the throne" would fitly express what would be meant by "standing."
It does not follow that this will be negative merely, however,-a mere question of guilt. For the throne of God is surely as much that which appraises righteousness as guilt; nay, it is this which involves the other. Our standing before God is much-how much!-more than as justified from sins or sin; it is " the abundance of the gift of righteousness,"-the best robe for the Father's house.

But we do not ordinarily,-and I think, rightly- speak of standing as sons, or as members of the body of Christ. The terms of the throne we do not apply to the family, or to Church-relationship. Standing is what we call a forensic term, and does not convey the whole truth of our position.

Now if we speak of condition, it is simple that this may refer to either a fixed or a variable state. If born again, that is a condition which abides unchangeable, while there are states, as of feeling, etc., which may change in the lapse of a few moments.

In the application of this to what we have before us, what does this speak of ? standing, or state, or both-" dead to sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus"?

Now being "dead" is state-the state of one who has died. I have died with Christ to sin, as real a fact as can be; and though He lives, and death has no more dominion over Him, yet as to sin He remains still separated from it by death, to it still and ever dead:and this is my condition too as dead with Him. Though faith alone can realize it, it is a state in which I am unchangeably. So also, and of course, as to being "alive unto God:" that is unmistakably a condition contrasted with the other.

But What is implied in being "dead to sin"? The apostle answers, " Being justified from it." " Our old man is crucified with Christ." It is I myself as one standing on the old ground,-myself as identified with the old nature and its fruits alike -who have come to an end, and come to an end in deserved judgment:crucified; yes, and crucified with Christ. It is Christ who has stood for me, died for me:the old standing is gone. In this " dead to sin," condition and standing are inseparably united.

What then about the other side? If the old condition and standing are removed together, what replaces these? A new condition-"alive unto God; inseparably connected with a new standing-"in Christ Jesus." This, and this alone, is the complete answer. I have before remarked upon the order of the words. " In Christ," in contrast with "in Adam," speak of a new Head of a new race, who is at the same time the Representative of it, as Adam of his. " In Adam " we die:"in Christ we live,":-our life bound up with His life:"Because I live, ye shall live also."-"If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." This life is already begun:by faith we know, and reckon it so. We are "dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus."

This gives us the new standing, and the positive righteousness which is ours before God. As Head of His race, He stands before God in the perfection of the work He has accomplished, in the value of that matchless obedience, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. " Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom from God,-even righteousness." This is not merely guilt removed; it is the best robe in the Father's house. (To be continued, D. V.)

In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews the apostle gives a long list of examples of what faith is, as found in men of old. Each one in some characters of it had manifested this, and God had owned them in it as those of whom He was not ashamed. But every example was imperfect, every witness defective, nay, as we know, with positive blemishes and contradictions in their lives to what yet characterized their lives. In the twelfth chapter, in contrast to them all, the apostle urges an example with positively no defect, One who led in and completed the whole course of faith; and that is the meaning of the expression in the second verse, -" The author [or Captain, leader,] and finisher [or completer, perfecter,]of faith." It is this divinely perfect course that the sixteenth psalm gives us in its principles; and these I desire to dwell a little on now, for our enjoyment and ad-monition both.

The sixteenth psalm gives us Christ Himself as the Speaker, as is evident from the tenth verse, which exclusively applies to Him. He alone is that Holy One who as such could not see corruption in the grave. David, as the apostle Peter shows the Jews, personate's in this prophetically Another, greater than himself, although his Seed; and it is the same blessed Person throughout the psalm, as the least consideration will convince every Spirit-taught soul. He who knows Christ will recognize at once the features of his Beloved. It is in this way we shall find the deepest blessing in it for our souls. It is indeed a Michtam,-"a golden psalm." There are five divisions:the human number thus giving us the "Man, Christ Jesus." And these divisions, in their combined significance, are a little Pentateuch. For the Pentateuch,-Moses' five books,-as seen in the new light of Christianity, covers the whole of man's spiritual life here, from its beginning to its end, and to that judgment-seat of Christ, where all will be rehearsed in its reality, as were Israel's wanderings in the plains of Moab.

First, in one verse, you have the characteristic of His whole life, (so strange for Him, when we consider what He was,) as a life of dependence, a life of faith:" Preserve Me, O God, for in Thee do I put My trust."

Then, two verses (2, 3,) show Him taking distinctly His place, not as God in divine supremacy, but as man in obedience, and for men,-for the saints,-in goodness which flows out to them as objects of His delight.

Next, three verses (4-6) proclaim the Lord Himself His whole portion; His lot therefore maintained by Him in pleasant places.

Fourthly, two verses (7, 8,) speak of Him as led by divine wisdom ministered to Him, His object before Him being only God; and thus of the unfaltering steadfastness of His steps always.

While, lastly, three verses trace the path to its end in glory; a way of life found through death itself into the fullness of joy in the presence of God, -the pleasures at His right hand for evermore.

The Lord enable us with wisdom and with reverence to look at these things a little in detail, and may bur "meditation of Him" be "sweet" indeed.

I.

The theme of Genesis is life, and that not of I fallen and ruined, but of restored and renewed man. Of this those biographies of which it is largely composed very plainly speak. This new V life, as developed in a world departed from God and under death, manifests itself in a life of faith whose springs and resources are in the unseen things, which are, in contrast with the seen, A things eternal.

In us, life begins with a new birth; and, when it exists, is found in contrast with another principle within us, Cain like, the elder born. The of the flesh," too, alas! are found disfiguring life of faith, how much! We are now to contemplate the perfection of One in whom nature was never fallen, in whom there was no principle evil, and upon whom (after thirty years passed in the world,) the Father could set the seal of perfect approbation. There is no dark preface to His spiritual history; and yet, as truly as,-more truly than-with any of us, His life was a life of faith Hard as it may be (just because of what we know and own Him to be,) to realize this, Scripture assures us of it in the fullest way. The epistle to the Hebrews, in giving the proofs of the brotherhood of the sanctified to Him by whom they are sanctified, brings forward, as applying to Him, a text exactly similar to the one before us:-" I will put My trust in Him " (Heb. 2:13); and again, in the passage with which we began, asserts Him to be the "leader and perfecter of faith." The glory of His Godhead must not therefore obscure for the truth and perfection of His manhood. He is One of whom it could be said, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given," while at the very same time " His name shall be called . . . . The mighty God." And the gospel of Luke declares Him, as a child, to have grown in wisdom and in stature. How impossible for any uninspired writer to have given us such an account of One who is " God over all, blessed forever " ! But God is earnest to have us know the full grace of Him who descended for us into the lower parts of the earth. He is seeking intimacy. He is assuring us of His ability to sympathize with us in every sinless human experience :" in all things tempted like as we are, apart from sin." (Heb. 4:15, Greek.)

This too is His perfection, which could not be manifest in the same way if not subject to real and full trial. Explain it, reconcile it with His Godhead, we may be quite unable to :we are not called to do it. The blessed truth we need, and can accept, reverently remembering that " no one knoweth the Son but the Father" (Matt. 11:27). The depths of His love are revealed in the abysses of His humiliation ; and here we find our present sustenance and our joy forever. We must not for a moment suffer ourselves to be deprived of it :we must not allow its reality to be dimmed.

" Preserve Me, O God ! for in Thee do I put My trust" is the language of One as absolutely in need of God, and hanging upon Him, as any one whosoever. He has come down to man's world, such as sin has made it, not to hide Himself from its sorrows in any wise, but to know them all. Power may be in His hand, and manifested without stint in behalf of others; but to satisfy the hunger of forty days He will not make the bread for Himself which the need of others shall gain from Him without seeking. Conscious of the bleakness and barrenness of the scene into which He has come, "In Thee," He says, "do I put My trust;" or, more vividly, " In Thee have I taken refuge." The "dove in the clefts of the rock" (Cant. 2:14) is not only our emblem; it was His also, in days of real sorrow and distress, when, " though He were Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered" (Heb. 5:8). Precious assurance for us! Christ the very pattern of faith in its every character, in every circumstance of trial:"in all things tempted like as we are, apart from sin."

II.

In the next verses (2, 3,) He declares Jehovah to be His Lord. He to whom obedience was a strange thing has taken the place of it. We had swerved from the path even in Eden,-as soon as put on it; had turned every one to his own way, as if it were well proved that our wisdom was more than God's, and as if we owed Him nothing who created us. He, the Creator, here comes down Himself to take up and prove the path of His own ordinance for us, not as He had ordained it even, but with the thorns of the curse in it; amid all, to show how for Him it could be meat and drink to do the Father's will; to approve and vindicate it at His own cost when it cost Him all.

"Lo, I come to do Thy will, O My God" was the one purpose of His heart on earth. We allow ourselves many objects. We shrink from the intolerable thought of an absolute sovereign will with a claim upon us at all times, and one defined path from which there is to be no wandering. "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" But God revealed as He is now revealed makes His sovereignty the joy of a soul which knows that His will can only be according to His nature. For us, love, able to show itself as that, characterizes all His ways with us. But what was it for Him who had to meet, as we have not to meet, the prior demands of righteousness upon us, that love might act toward us? His path was not that which love to Him would have dictated. Would not a man spare his own son that serveth him ? Would not God, then, spare His own beloved Son ? Nay, " He spared not His Son, but delivered Him for us all." How wondrous a Leader have we, then, in the path of obedience, who could come expressly to do this will; " by which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"! (Heb. 10:10.)

Thus He says also to Jehovah, " My goodness extendeth not to Thee;" words which are explained by what follows:" but unto the saints which are upon the earth, and unto the excellent, in whom is all My delight." He does not take the place before God to which His perfection would entitle Him. It is not to avail God ward for Him to give Him upon earth the place due to His absolute obedience; otherwise the death of the cross,- death in any wise,-could never have been His portion. This obedience of His,-this goodness manifested in obedience,-was for the saints, the excellent of the earth, in whom was His delight. For this, it must be " obedience unto death,"-going as far as that (Phil. 2:8). He must empty Himself of all, sell all that He has, if He would have what to Him is " treasure " (Matt. 13:44).

Thus He dignifies His poor people with those titles,-the saints and the excellent. Nothing but grace in Him could account them so. Not that there is not in them true spiritual worth and moral beauty:they surely are what He calls them. Yes; but they are made so by His call. And His heart looks on to the time of perfect consummation, when the glory of His workmanship shall be seen in them. "According to the time shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel"-measuring the distance between the natural and the spiritual, the Jacob and the Israel,-"What hath God wrought!" Thus we shall be not only " to the praise of the glory of His grace" but also "to the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:6, 12,) which then shall be seen in us.

Thus, then, the Lord descends to a path which displays His love to His own, and not His personal claim on God; giving up that claim, that we might have claim. These two verses give, therefore, fittingly, the Exodus-section of this psalm, which, as applied to Him, exhibits, not redemption, but the Redeemer. Not yet indeed how low His grace must stoop is seen:the twenty-second psalm, for the first time, fully discloses that. Here it is His personal love which puts Him upon that path which, to accomplish such a purpose, cannot end but with the cross.

III.

Now we enter the sanctuary. The Levitical section (4-6) shows us what God is to this perfect Man. He is His all:most beautifully told out in the words, " the measure of My portion and of My cup." So it literally reads. As it was said of the Levites (Deut. 18:2), "The Lord is their inheritance," so here Christ is seen as the true Levite. "Jehovah is the measure of My portion,"-its whole contents. But who can measure this? It is an infinite measure, infinite riches.

" My portion and My cup:" what is the difference? The "portion" is what belongs to me; the " cup," what I actually appropriate or make my own. Eating and drinking are significant of actual participation and enjoyment. Many a person has in this world a portion which he cannot enjoy ; and many a one has a portion which (through moral perversity, it may be,) he does not enjoy. With the Lord, indeed, His portion and His joy were one. Jehovah was the measure of both. He had nothing beside; He wanted nothing beside. These two things should be found, through grace, in the Christian also. For all, it is true that God is the measure of our portion,-we have no other. Oh that it were equally true that He was the measure of our cup,-of our enjoyment!

How strange and sorrowful that for us both should not be equally realized! How wonderful that we should seek elsewhere what cannot be found, while we leave unexplored the glories of an inheritance which is actually our own. We covet a wilderness while we neglect a paradise. " My people have committed two evils," says the Lord Himself; "they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have hewn out to themselves cisterns,-broken cisterns, which can hold no water."

And this is the reason why, when we turn to God, and would fain comfort ourselves in Him, we do not find the comfort. Our portion does not yield us for our cup. Would we wonder if we saw an Israelite returning from, the worship of Baal refused acceptance at Jehovah's altar? "Covetousness is idolatry," says the apostle. But what is covetousness ? It is just the craving of a heart unsatisfied with its portion, for which the thing sought becomes an end that governs it; their lust, as you may see in many a heathen deity, becomes their god. "Their god is their belly,"-the craving part,-says the apostle again, " who mind earthly things."

But "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." So here the voice of our blessed Forerunner :" Thou maintainest My lot." It is a sure abiding possession that does not leave the heart, to unrest. And how blessed a portion! " The lines are fallen unto Me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." It is the Son of God down here in a fallen world who says this. "He that hath received His testimony hath set to His seal that God is true."

IV.

Now comes (7, 8,) the proving by the way,-the wilderness-history of the Son of Man. And again how true a man is He! "I will bless Jehovah, who hath given Me counsel; My reins also instruct Me in the night-seasons." It is the same Person who speaks in the prophetic word of Isaiah :" The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I may know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning; He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learner."* *Same word as "learned" before; but the sense requires the change, as others have suggested. If " taught" were substituted in each place, there would be no need of change.* How real was thus His dependence, walking by the daily counsel of God, His ear early wakened to receive it. We remember how in His temptation by the devil He applied to Himself the saying in Deuteronomy, that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live." So did He live then, even as we, only in a perfection all His own. On the one hand, there was this direct guidance of the word of God; on the other, His own Spirit-led thoughts, the fruits of that word digested and assimilated, by which all His practical life was formed. What a place with Him had that Word! " Scripture" which " cannot be broken," as He said of it once in the face of unbelief. What a place should it not have with us!

This retirement with God; this meditation by night; this daily sought, daily found guidance from God:how much of it do we really know, in days of so much outward activity as these? The sweet communing of the soul with a living Counselor and Lord, how much is it to be feared that it less characterizes the Christian's life than it did of old, -in clays that we deem much darker. Yet nothing can really make up for such a deficiency. It is in secret the roots of faith lay hold of the sustenance that can alone mature into fruit in the outward life. "The secret of the Lord," which is "with them that fear Him," may we not say, is imparted in secret? How much does the Lord insist upon this secret life before God in His sermon on the mount, before "your Father, which seeth in secret." Surely, there is little of it as there should be, and must we not fear that it is becoming less?

It is literally, " My reins bind Me,"-My thoughts hold Me fast; those deep inner thoughts in which what we are in inmost reality expresses itself. Do such thoughts hold you fast, beloved reader? and if so, what is their character? Do they speak of joy, or sorrow ? of peace, or anxiety ? of earth, or of heaven? Does the Word of God blend with them in harmony, or reprove them ? In that season when God continually withdraws the soul into its individuality, apart from the intrusion of all outer things, does it freely, gladly rise to Him ? or where does it wander?-where else does it seek a more congenial companionship? Can you say, with the delight of one of old, " When I awake, I am still with Thee"?

Look now at the purpose which all this implies:" I have set the Lord always before Me." That is not, " I am saved:I am at peace about my sins." Surely that is a fundamental point to be assured of; but is it not to be feared that many stop there, with little thought of really living to God as their redemption implies? "He died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and rose again." Such alone is Christian life:its liberty is liberty to serve; its "joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." What else can reconciliation to God imply but a return to glad, whole-hearted service?

" He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." And who can doubt how the Man Christ Jesus walked? If we have other ends before. us,-if we have set money before us, or a good name, or a life of ease, or whatever else it may be, is not our life in its whole principle different from His? You say, We all fail:true; but failure in the carrying out of a right principle is one thing, and having a wrong one is quite another. " I have set the Lord before Me" expresses the purpose, the choice of the heart; and He could say, "always" which we cannot. The essence of sin is, " we have turned each one to his own way;" and if " the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all," it was not that, delivered from the curse of it, we might go on under its bondage, still less, freely following it. No; if it be iniquity, it is written, " Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."

And for Him who could say, " I have set the Lord always before Me," what was the sure result? " Because He is at My right hand, I shall not be moved," or perhaps better, " I am not moved." It was what by daily experience He found. There was no tottering, no unsteadiness in His steps:no circumstances, no power of the enemy, could hinder or turn Him aside. All other aims may be defeated, all other hopes frustrated; but where God is before the soul, it can never miss its aim, it is the secret of all prosperity and success. If we have set the Lord before us, we may go forward with the fullest and most assured confidence. And this is in fact found in such a path. What hinders faith like a double mind ? what strengthens it like a single eye ? How can we trust God for a selfish project? how doubt that He will fulfill His own mind? In the path of faith it is we find faith, and there alone.

V.

And now comes the final, the eternal result (9-11).The principles of divine government
secure the blessing or the curse, as the contrary goals of obedience or disobedience; and this is what Deuteronomy insists upon. The whole course through the wilderness is retraced by Moses in the plains of Moab, and the judgment of God as to it shown; and this is given as wisdom for the land upon which they are now to enter. So for us the judgment-seat of Christ will recount our lives before we enter heaven, and the lessons of time be for eternal wisdom.

For Him whom we have now before us, the government of God could have no mingled results, no doubtful or hypothetical blessing. If death were before Him, it was what was taken in the path of obedience simply, as the Father's will. From it the Father's glory necessitated the resurrection of His Holy One. " Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoiceth; My flesh also shall rest in hope; for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [or hades]; Thou wilt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption."

There was but One who could come up out of death upon such a ground; He who, not for His sins, but in His matchless grace, went into it. " Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him out of death, and was heard for His piety (marg.); though He were Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." (Heb. 5:7-9.) Thus as Captain of our salvation was the One personally always perfect perfected. In the psalm, we do not see it indeed, this descent into death as atoning work, but we do see it as part of a path which His love to the saints had made Him enter. But thus our souls recognize it as indeed "the path of life" trodden by Him as Forerunner and Representative of the host of His redeemed. " Thou wilt show Me the path of life; in Thy presence, fullness of joy; at Thy right hand, pleasures for evermore."

The path of life is the path that leads to it, for " life " in its full reality can only be enjoyed where God its Source is. Death is separation from the source of life. When the soul departs to God that gave it, the body left behind is dead; for soul and life are in Scripture one. But the soul therefore is not dead. So man, departed from God,-for here departure is on the reverse side,-spiritual death becomes his condition. And the world takes its character from this:it is out of correspondence with God. The breach is witnessed of through its whole frame; on account of it the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together; and we too, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves also groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body^ Thus, though we have life in us, it is a life whose proper display cannot yet be, a life hid with Christ in God, until. Christ our life shall appear. Meanwhile, our path leads up to it:opened for us through death itself, by Him who, going into it, has abolished it, and brought life and incorruption to light by the gospel.

" In Thy presence, fullness of joy." What indeed to Him who says this? The Son of the Father in His self-assumed exile; His face toward the glory which He had with Him before the world was! There is really no "in,'! and to leave it out brings out perhaps better the force:" Fullness of joys, Thy presence! at Thy right hand,"- the place of approbation,-" pleasures for evermore."

So for us the joy of heaven is defined in this:" We shall be ever with the Lord;" " Where I am, ye shall be also." " Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me; for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." The knowledge of the Father, and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, characterizes now for us eternal life. Life in its fullness means, then, for us this knowledge in its own proper home. " In My Father's house are many mansions," says the Lord to His disciples; " if it were not so, I would have told you:I go to prepare a place for you." He would not have suffered them unwarned, to have enjoyed so dear an intimacy with Himself if eternity were not to justify and perpetuate. And for us, every taste of communion now, every moment of enjoyed intimacy, is the pledge of its renewal and perfection in the joy beyond. " If it were not so," He would not have permitted it. The glory into which He is gone could not change the heart of Him who once left it for our sakes. The One who descended is the same also who is ascended up. The Glorified is the once-Crucified. We shall see in His face above the tender lowly condescension of the days of His flesh; "we shall see Him as He is" only to find Him as He was:nearer as better known.

" At His right hand " too, we shall all be. Whatever special rewards there are, there will be gracious approbation for all. It is sweet to know that whatever differences may obtain among us, the common joys will be also by far the deepest and greatest joys. Fruits of our own work which we may have, what can they be compared with the fruit of His work which we shall enjoy together? Children of God we all shall be alike, and the Father's heart and home alike for all; to be members of Christ, and His bride, and joint-heirs with Him will be our common portion; "kings and priests unto His God and Father " also, His love has made our common privilege. There is an unhappy legal tendency to make special rewards mean what is real distortion of all this, as if some, after all He has done for them, might be yet in comparative distance from Him. Even the " many mansions" of the Father's house have been made to minister to this thought. Nothing could be less like what is the real purport of those blessed, assuring words, which emphasize the room for all, the taking all in, not leaving any out, not banishment of any into comparative distance.

For us, the joy into which He has entered is joy that awaits us now, how bright! how near! nearer and brighter with each day that passes.

Mark, in many respects so similar to Matthew, is in many respects also its perfect opposite. It is, as already said, the gospel in which we have the Lord in the humiliation so wonderful in view of His true glory, and which yet in fact glorifies Him so much. Only one so high could stoop so low; and Mark is the gospel of His service, even to the giving of His "life a ransom for many." The gospel divides, as it seems to me, into three parts, of nearly equal length:the first giving the character and results of the Lord's active ministry among the people (chap. 1:-5:); the second, the characteristics of discipleship to a rejected Master (vi-10:45); the third, His service perfected in suffering and death, even the death of the cross (10:46-16:).

The apostle begins the examples of faith by one not taken from the past, but from the present. He does not speak of the elders, but of ourselves, and claims all his hearers as belonging to this company of witnesses." Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things that are seen are not made of things which do appear." It seems strange associating what now we deem simple and common belief with the list of precious fruits which follow; and we ask ourselves naturally, What is the meaning of such a preface? But in fact, a living faith in creation is one more connected with the elders than at first we may perceive. Creation is that with which the Old Testament begins, and it is the basis of the truth of all revelation. No heathen ever understood it; and to understand it is to do what faith must ever do-put God in His true place as the One upon whose mere, word all things, whatever they may be, depend. It is an immense principle, if realized in the soul, not simply the unseen things known, but known as that upon which the things seen are absolutely dependent. One walking in this spirit has alone the secret of endurance, the key of all just reasoning as to created things. I am supposing, of course, his relationship assured to Him without whom thus not a sparrow falls to the ground, and who is our Father. But this ascertained, then to walk before One at whose word the worlds sprang into being, -consciously to live and walk and have one's being in Him,-how sweet is the realization of this to the heart! In what corner of His universe shall we not then be with Him? or which of all the subject elements shall be our foes? "If God be for us, who shall be against us? . . . Shall even tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

What encouragement for the pilgrim path is this! Moving through a world where things seen are entirely dependent on the unseen, not unknown, Source! True, sin has come in, and there is not only apparent but real confusion,-that is a thing none the less true, and to be ever kept in mind; but the rod of power belongs still to the shepherd-hand that will once more claim it, and justify Himself from all the suspicions that His creatures now may entertain. Meanwhile faith has learned deeper lessons from the One smitten with the rod than if smiting with it. He has stripped Himself that He might enrich us with His poverty, and yet shall have His own returned with usury in the glory soon to be revealed.

For the path of faith, then, the third verse of this chapter has great significance.

We come now to the examples which for our admonition and encouragement the apostle sets before us. And here it will be at once seen that there is an order of connection between them which it is for our profit to observe. The first example begins where every thing begins with us -with acceptance with God; and it lies at the threshold of history, speaking aloud in the solemn circumstances attached to it, which, for the fifteen hundred years before the flood, would make it impossible to be forgotten, and which the Spirit of God has recorded for the ages afterward. The way of Cain has indeed been constantly man's unhappy choice; but God has distinctly marked His approval of Abel's way,-no self-devised one, surely, or it could not have been the way of faith. " By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh,"

There are some words in the sermon on the mount, which it is instructive to compare with this. There, the Lord speaks of a gift which cannot be accepted; not for any thing wrong with it, but because of wrong in the giver,-that is, of a gift which the state of the giver may discredit, if it. cannot accredit:while here, we are told of a gift which accredits the giver. " Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."

Now it may seem strange to some who read this, for me to say, what is but the simple truth, that this last gift is really the saint's gift; while the one in Hebrews is the sinner's. If I come to God as a saint, with something to present to Him, there must needs come in the question, Is it with clean hands I bring it? but a sinner has a gift which if he will he may bring to God, and no question of the cleanness of his hands be raised at all! How could it be the question with a sinner, of clean hands? That he is a sinner necessarily settles that. But is there not a way by which a sinner, as such, may draw near to God? Indeed, blessed be His name! there is. Faith is his resource, even as it was Abel's; and Christ, of whom the firstlings of the flock which Abel brought speak, is the precious gift which no hands of ours can soil when we bring it to God! Abel's was just the sinner's sacrifice; which his faith made what it was, for in fact it was but in itself a mere slaughtered beast, of no possible value to take away sin:faith made it what it was for God-the token of an infinite sacrifice to come. Thus offered, it stood for him-he was accepted in it:"He obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts." So too can any other be accepted.

Our text is a precious and incontrovertible evidence of what gave value to the offerings of the saints of Old-Testament times. Had they brought simply in blind obedience what God had bidden, it would have been at best their faith which God accepted and testified of:the testimony would have been to themselves, not really to their gift. Had faith not been needed, God could not have testified but to the mere value of the beast itself, which for the purpose could have had none. Thus that in faith they brought-that to which, and not to their faith, so brought, God testified, shows that what they in their faith really saw and brought was Christ; for only to the value of Christ could God bear witness. Doubtless it was through a haze of distance that they mostly saw; not clearness but reality of faith was necessary, as now also it is:but to Christ only could God ever witness. Could He to the cattle upon a thousand hills, or to man's faith itself, whatever it were, as making a sinner righteous before Him?

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad:" such are the Lord's conclusive words. Moses, says the apostle, "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect to the recompense of the reward." How much they knew it may be impossible for us at all to understand ; but such statements as these are given us that we may recognize our brethren in these saints of an elder day, and that faith's object in all times may be seen as ever and only in Him of whom the seed of the woman, from the first moment of the fall, has spoken on God's part to men.

Acceptance by faith and acceptance in Christ are, in Abel, one; and this significantly begins the record of Old-Testament worthies. It begins, surely, every path of faith, the whole world over, and in every time. This testimony is sealed with the blood which declares too, from the beginning, into what a world God's grace has come. Six thousand years have past, and still He waits, and the long-suffering of God is still salvation.

( To be continued, D. V.)

Ah, Jesus, Lord, Thou art near to me,
Great peace flows into my heart from Thee;
And Thy smile of joy fills me so with gladness,
This weary body forgets its sadness
For thankful joy.

We see Thy countenance beaming bright;
Thy grace, Thy beauty, by faith, not sight;
But Thou art Thyself to our souls revealing,
We love Thee, Thy presence and favor feeling,
Although unseen.

Oh who would alway, by night and day,
Be set on joying in Thee alway;
He could but tell of delight abounding
Through body and soul, one song resounding,-
"Who is like Thee?"

To be compassionate, patient, kind,
Thy pardon, leaving our sins behind,
To heal us, calm us, our faint hearts cheering,
Thyself to us as a friend endearing
Is Thy delight.

Ah, give us to find our all of joy
In Thee ! Thy service our sweet employ;
And let our souls with a constant yearning
In need and love to Thyself be turning
Without a pause.

And when we are weeping, console us soon;
Thy grace and power for Thy peace make room;
Thy mirrored likeness Thy praises telling;
Thine own true life in our bosoms dwelling
In love be seen.

Truthful in childlike simplicity,
Guileless, arrayed in humility,
Be the holy wounds of Thy tribulation
The fount of our peace and consolation
In joy and woe.

Thus happy in Thee till we enter heaven,
The children's gladness to us be given,
And if peradventure our eyes are weeping,
Our hearts on Thy bosom shall hush their beating.
In full repose.

Thou reachest us, Master, Thy pierced hand;
Thy faithfulness, gazing, we understand,
And shamed into tears by Thy love so tender,
Our eyes flow over, our hearts surrender,
And give Thee praise.

My desire is to take up and discuss as simply as possible, and yet as fully as may be necessary, some of the leading truths of the epistle to the Romans. My aim is not controversy, as I trust, but edification; yet on this very account I shall seek to remember all through the need of those who have been exercised by questions which have of late arisen. Exercise is not to be deprecated. It is well to be made thus to realize how far we have really learned from God, and our need of being taught in His presence that which cannot be shaken. There is an uneasy dishonoring fear in the hearts of many as to submitting all that they have apparently learned, through whomsoever or in what way soever learned, to be afresh tested by what seems "novel" and in some measure in conflict with it. But it will only be found, by those who in patience and confidence in God allow every question to be raised that can be raised, and seek answer to it from Him through the Word, how firm His foundation stands, and how that which seems at first to threaten more or less the integrity of our faith only in result confirms it. Difficulties are cleared away, things obscure made to take shape and meaning, the divine power of the Word to manifest itself, Christ and His grace to be better known. Much too that we looked at or were prepared to look at as fundamental difference in another's view turns out to be only the emphasizing (though perhaps the over-emphasizing) of what was really defective in our own. And so "by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part," there is made " increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love."

Let us now look at what is surely the key-note to the interpretation of what is known to many as the second part of Romans (ch. 5:i2-8:), the two , contrasted thoughts, " in Adam " and " in Christ." This is what we start with in chap. 5:12-21, though as yet we have neither term made use of. Indeed the first term occurs but once in Scripture, and that not in Romans, but in i Cor. xv, where the first Adam and the last are put in emphatic contrast.

The statements of chap. 5:12-21 are the exposition of the doctrine :-.

" By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

"If through the offense of one the many be dead."

"The judgment was by one to condemnation."

"By one man's offense death reigned by one."

"By the one offense toward all men to condemnation." (Greek.)

"By the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners."

'Sin hath reigned in death." (Greek.)

These are the statements as to the first man and the consequences of his sin. They show that his sin has affected not himself alone, but many with him; that it brought in death as a present judgment upon a fallen race, and tending to merge in final condemnation.

Two things as to present fact:a race of sinners; death as God's judgment-stamp upon this race. The final outlook or tendency for all, utter condemnation.

The first man was thus in a very real way the representative of his race; not indeed by any formal covenant for his posterity, of which Scripture has no trace; but by his being the divinely constituted head of it. As the father of men, he necessarily stood as charged with the interests of his posterity; from his fall, a corrupt nature became the heritage of the race, and thus death and judgment their appointed lot, the final issue no uncertain one. Thus in a real way he represented them before God; but, as I have said, not by any formal covenant on their behalf. His representative-character, was grounded in what men call natural law, which is nothing but divine law, and which is both evident in nature and asserted in the plainest possible way in Scripture. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one," expresses the law."What is man, that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?""Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."The Lord's words in the gospel fully and emphatically confirm these sayings of saints of old:"That which is born of the flesh is flesh."What men now call, The principle of "heredity," is thus affirmed, and it is the whole scriptural account of the matter. The theories of a covenant with Adam for his posterity, and the imputation of his sin to them, are simply additions to Scripture, and as such, not only needless, but an obscuring of the truth, as all mere human thoughts of necessity are.

" By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."* *The marginal reading, "in whom all have sinned," will hardly be now justified by any scholar*. Such is the apostle's statement here. It speaks of death as with every individual the result of his own sins, although his being made (or "constituted") a sinner was the result of Adam's disobedience (5:19). I know it has been argued that this could not apply to "infants, who if they sinned could only have done so in Adam. But the apostle is not speaking of infants, nor did their case need to be considered here. Sinning in Adam is not a doctrine of Scripture, and it is not allowable to insert words of such a character and importance in this place. The apostle is addressing himself to believers, to show the application of the work of Christ to such, as delivering them from all that attached to them by nature or practice. From this the case of infants may be easily inferred, but it is not his object to speak of it, and it cannot be shown that he does so at, all.* *For those "that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression" (5:14) are not infants, as many have supposed, but those who had not sinned against positive law as Adam had. For Adam's law in its nature could not be that of his posterity, who, until Moses, had none. The words "from Adam to Moses" show what is meant.*

Sin, then, came in through Adam. The nature of man was corrupted; by his disobedience the many were made sinners:and thus death introducing to judgment was the stamp of God upon the fallen condition. Adam was the representative of his race by the fact that he was the head of it, and thus, as it is put in i Corinthians 15:22, " in Adam all die."

This expression, though found but once, is of great significance, because it is contrasted with

and throws light upon another expression which is of the highest importance to us, and which the following chapters of Romans use repeatedly. " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." We are now prepared to understand how "in Adam all die." In his death was involved and insured the death of all men. As head of the race, his ruin and death was theirs, and so "in him," their representative, they die. " In Adam " speaks of place,-of representation; as the apostle argues as to Levi and Abraham (Heb. 7:9, 10):"And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham ; for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchisedek met him." We too were in the loins of Adam when he fell and sentence of death was passed upon him; and in him we die. Thank God, we have heard the voice of Another, Head and Representative too of His race, which says, " Because I live, ye shall live also." (Jno. 14:19.) In Adam we die:in Christ we live.

As in Adam, then, we are completely ruined. We are "constituted sinners"-sinners by constitution. Death and judgment are our appointed lot. This is what has to be met in our behalf, if Christ comes in for us. It is not enough for Him to be a new head and fountain of life for us from God. He must not only be our new Representative in life, but our Representative in death, and under curse also, taking the doom of those whose new Head He becomes. Hence comes a distinction which we must bear in mind. In life, He is our Representative that with Him we may live and inherit the portion He has acquired for us:in death, He is our Representative that we may not die, because already dead with Him. This last is substitution. He dies for us, and He alone:in life He lives for us, and (blessed be God!) lives not alone.

Now let us look at the apostle's statements. And first,-

Adam " is the figure of Him that was to come." (5:14.)

Thus it is that in i Cor. 15:22 "in Christ" is set over against " in Adam," and that in ver. 45 again " the last Adam " is seen in essential contrast to the "first:" "The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit."

But what, then, does a "last A dam " mean ? The head of a new race. And thus "if any man be in Christ"-set over against "in Adam" in the verse already looked at,-"it is a new creation." (2 Cor. 5:17, Gr., comp. marg. Rev. Vers.) The first Adam was the head of the old creation; the last Adam is the Head of the new. "In Christ" means to belong to the new creation and the new Head.

I merely link these terms together now. I do not propose to examine here what exactly the new creation is. The term is not used in Romans, though in Galatians (its kindred epistle, though wider in scope,) it is. But it should be obvious that the first Adam, as "the figure of. Him that was to come," figures Christ as "the last Adam," the representative Head of a new race. As such, the apostle compares the results of the obedience of the One to "the many" who stand in Him, with the results of the first man's disobedience to " the many " who fell with him.

But we must pause before proceeding with this, to make it perfectly clear to any who have a doubt that Scripture speaks of the last Adam as really the Head of a race. Spite of the term "last Adam," some have doubt of this. They say, "We are never called children of Christ, but of God;" which is true, because it is divine life that is communicated, and "children of Christ" would imply only human life. " The last Adam is made a quickening Spirit" surely proves, however, that in this character He quickens (or gives life), while at the same time it shows the character of the life communicated ; for " that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And this action of the last Adam we find imaged by the Lord in resurrection breathing upon His disciples when He says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The first Adam was but a " living soul" into whose, nostrils God breathed the breath of life, that he might become so. The last Adam breathes upon others; He is a quickening Spirit, not merely a living soul.

Isaiah also, foreseeing the glory of the Lord, declares, " When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed" (53:10). And again, in words which are quoted and applied to Christ by the apostle, " Behold, I and the children which God hath given Me"(ch. 8:18; Heb. 2:13).

There is surely no more need to prove that Christ as last Adam, like him whose antitype He is, is the Head of a race. It is the key to all that follows in Romans 5:and the two next chapters, where "in Christ" as Corinthians gives it, is in contrast, yet antitypical correspondence, with " in Adam."

Now, as in Adam's case we have traced the results of the disobedience of the one to the many, let us trace the results of the obedience of the new Representative-Head to the many connected with Him.

"Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."

"The free gift is of many offenses unto justification."

" They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ."

"By the one righteousness toward all men to justification of life." (Gr.)

"By the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous."

These are the statements corresponding to, yet contrasted with, the former ones which we considered. One thing we must remember in considering them, that these two accounts do not exhibit a mere balance of results. "Not as the offense so also is the free gift" (5:15). If righteousness be shown in dealing with sin, the " free gift," while of course it must be righteous, absolutely so, is yet measured only by the grace that has given Christ for us. Hence His work by no means merely cancels the results of sin, but lifts us into a place altogether beyond what was originally ours. Let us see what we have here, although even here the tale is not fully told.

First, we have " life;" and this in the next chapter (5:23) is expanded into "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." It is not merely life from another source, but life of an entirely new character and quality; not a restoration of the failed and forfeited life, but a life infinitely higher-a divine life. There is but one life which is eternal, and "in Christ Jesus our Lord" declares its source to be in a divine Person, and now become man. Nor only so, for the force of the expression is precise. It is not correctly given in our common version, but in the revised it is, as I have quoted it. It is "in," not, as the common version, "through;" and " Christ Jesus," not " Jesus Christ." Such differences, minute
as they may seem, are in Scripture never without significance. " Jesus Christ" is the Lord's personal name emphasized; "Christ Jesus" emphasizes His official title. It speaks of a place now taken through His work accomplished. In the eleventh verse it should read similarly, "alive to God in Christ Jesus." Again we have it in the eighth chapter, " no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus;" and in the second verse, "life in Christ Jesus." Elsewhere we have "sanctified" and "saints in Christ Jesus," "created in Christ Jesus," "of Him are ye in Christ Jesus," and so repeatedly. Except once-Peter (i Pet. 5:10), no inspired writer uses this order of words, but only Paul. " In Jesus," or " in Jesus the Christ," we are never said to be, but only "in Christ," or "in Christ Jesus." The special force ought to be therefore clear.

Our life, then, is not only in Him, but in Him as now having accomplished His work and gone up to God. There, as Peter on the day of Pentecost bears witness, He is made Lord arid Christ (Acts 2:36), actually reaching the place which was His already by appointment, but to be reached only in one way. The last Adam becomes Head of the race after His work of obedience is accomplished, as the first Adam became head when his work of disobedience was accomplished. And as in the one case, so in the other, the results of the work become the heritage of the race. . The head of the race represents the race before God. The ruin of the head becomes the ruin of the race. If the head stands, so does the race.

In either case, the connection of the head and the race is by life and nature, a corrupt nature being transmitted from the fallen head, a divine life and nature, free from and incapable of taint, from the new head, Christ Jesus. Death and judgment lay hold upon the fallen creature; righteousness characterizes the possessor of eternal life.

But here there is another need to be met; for these possessors of righteousness in a new life are by the old one children of Adam, and under wrath and condemnation because of manifold sins. Christ, the Son of the Father, is not stooping to take up un-fallen beings, and bring them into a new place of nearness to God, but He is taking up sinners. For these, then, He must provide, along with a new life, a righteousness which shall justify them from all charge of sin. They must not only be delivered from inward corruption by a principle of righteousness imparted; they must be delivered from guilt also by a righteousness imputed. There must be a "justification of life,"-that is, a justification belonging to the life communicated:"by one righteousness toward all men,"-God's grace offering itself for acceptance by all,-" unto justification of life."

Here, then, comes in, not representation simply, but substitution,-representation under penalty for those who had incurred the penalty. He who is our Representative-Head in life must be our Substitute in death also. He must be "obedient unto death," standing in our place, that we may stand in His,-in the place He has won and taken for us with God.

His obedience avails for much more than negatively to justify from all charge of sin:it has its own infinite preciousness before God, in virtue of which we have a positive righteousness measured by this. He " of God is made unto us righteousness" (i Cor. 1:30). We " receive abundance of the gift of righteousness," as the passage before us says, and " shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ."
Thus are the effects of the fall for us removed, and we stand in a new place under a new Head. We are in Christ, not Adam; and this, as we have seen, speaks of place in a representative,-that by virtue of headship of a race. Our connection with Christ is now, as formerly it was with Adam, by the life which we receive from Him, and of which we partake in Him,-that is, by belonging to the race of which He is head. This and its consequences are unfolded further in the following chapters, to which this doctrine of the two Adams is the key. (To be continued, D. V.)

It is evident, and easy to see, that conscience reveals nothing. It simply declares the character of whatever is presented, and that according to the light it has. As the eye is the light, only as it is the inlet of light, to the body, so the conscience is simply the inlet of whatever light morally there may be for the spirit. And just as disease may, to any extent, affect the bodily eye, so may it affect also the spiritual. Alas! the solemn consideration is, that sin has thus affected, to a greater or less degree, the consciences of all men. Yet in none, perhaps, is it altogether darkened, and its power will manifest itself often in the most unexpected and striking way in those who, notwithstanding, resist to the last its convictions.

The scribes and Pharisees, plotting to entrap the Lord by the case of the adulteress condemned by Moses' law, are thus driven out of His presence by the simple yet penetrating words, " He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her " (Jno. 8:7, 9).Conscience in Herod sees in Christ the murdered Baptist risen from the dead (Mark 6:16).Stephen's adversaries, on the other hand, rush into murder, cut to the heart by the conviction that they have resisted the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:54). Thus, in the midst of the most frantic opposition to the truth-nay, by this, the power of the truth over the conscience is clearly shown.

Scripture declares it in doctrine as well as example.-" This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world; and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God" (Jno. 3:19-21).Here is the principle of which the example last given is the illustration. The evil-doer is aware of the light when he shuns it; would quench it, if possible, because he is aware of it. In it he is not, because he flees, not welcomes it; yet in fleeing, carries the unmistakable witness of it in his heart.

Again, in the parable of the sower the Lord declares the same thing in another form. Of the seed sown by the wayside He says, " When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and under-standeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside." (Matt. 13:19.) Now this is one apparently quite unconvinced; he does not understand; the seed lies merely upon the surface of the ground, inviting the fowls of the air to catch it away. The heart of this man, hard as the roadside with the traffic of other things, if you could say of any that it was untouched by the Word, you could say it here; yet the Lord expressly says, "Taketh away that which was sown in his heart." Even here, the Word has not only touched, but penetrated. The heart, unchanged by it, has rejected it:true, but it has had to reject it. Satan is allowed to remove the Word, and it is taken away; but its rejected witness will come up in terrible memory at another day.

And this exactly agrees with the words of the apostle:'"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are perishing; in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Cor. 4:3, 4.) Here again the unbelief which refuses the gospel shuts the unbeliever up into the enemy's hand. The blinding of the mind by the god of this world, like the removal of the seed- by the fowls of the air, is the direct result of this first rejection of unwelcome testimony.
How immensely important, then, to the soul the treatment it accords to whatever it has to own as truth, little or much as it may seem to be! For God is the God of truth; and, where souls are themselves true, the possession of any portion of it is the possession of a clue-line which leads surely into His presence; the giving it up is the deliberate choice of darkness as one's portion. And this applies in measure to every one, sinner and saint alike, and to every truth of revelation. Every truth really bowed to in the soul leads on to more; every error received requires, to be consistent with it, the reception of more. It is darkness; and darkness is a kingdom, as the light is,-part of an organized revolt against God. As the truth leads to and keeps us in His presence, so error is, in its essence, departure from Him.

Of course, the truth may be received intellectually merely, not believingly; and if trifled with, it is no wonder if it result in terrible hardening of the heart. The more orthodox Pharisees were worse persecutors of the Lord than the infidel Sadducees. And the Jews every where led the heathen in their early attacks on Christianity. But in these cases it was still rejected truth that stirred up their opposition. But the truth is really and decisively rejected where its claim over the heart and life is allowed in word, and in word only. He who to his father's claim of service said openly, "I will not," yet afterward repented and went; while he who respectfully answered, " I go, sir," never went.

And this is the character of truth, that stirs up opposition. It speaks, prophet-like, for God, affirming His authority over the soul, and abasing the glory of man in His presence. Unbelief says, as Ahab of Micaiah, "I hate it, for it does not prophesy good of me, but evil." And even in the believer, it runs counter to all that is not faith within him; and alas! how much within us is not faith! Thus, among Christians themselves, the truth in any fullness stumbles so many, and at every fresh unfolding of it some who had followed thus far are left behind:it is even well if they do not become active opponents of it. Thus He who in the angel's announcement brings " peace on earth," brings in fact, nevertheless, because of man's condition, "not peace, but a sword." The fellowship of saints is disturbed and broken up; the thousands drop to hundreds in the very presence of the enemy. Romanism boasts, with a certain reason, of her unity at least in outward organization; while Protestantism proclaims the sanctity of conscience, and divides into a hundred sects.

Yet if conscience be in any respect given up, all is. For its principle is obedience to God, and to God only; and this is a first necessity for a walk with God. Conscience is, above all things, therefore, individual. It refuses to see with other eyes than its own; and refuses, too, subjection or guidance without seeing. It will easily incur in this way the reproach of obstinacy, contumacy, pride, self-will; while on the other hand there is constant danger of mistaking these for it. It is thus a thing which all ecclesiastical systems find it difficult to recognize or deal with, and which makes large demands for wisdom, patience, and forbearance with one another. " We see in part; we prophesy in part:" and what we see may seem in ill accord with what is really truth seen by others, just for want of knowledge of a larger truth embracing both. But even if we see not, and but think we see, still conscience, because it touches our practical relationship with God, is a solemn thing" to deal with:he who meddles with it interferes with God's rights over the soul, and usurps a vicegerency which He commits to no one.

Yet the voice of God, let us carefully remember, conscience is not. It is an ear to hear it only, and which may be dull and deaf, and hear with little clearness after all. God's voice is that which utters itself by the Spirit through the Word. But this voice speaks to the individual, to him that hath an ear to hear. None can, but at his peril, resign his responsibility in this to another; and none can, but at his peril, require this to be done, Yet, alas! how often, in various ways, consciously and unconsciously, is this required and yielded to!

3.-PURGED AND PURE.

"To serve the living, God," the conscience must first of all be " purified from dead works." (Heb. 9:14.) A soul alarmed on account of sin is driven by conscience into effort to escape from the wrath which it foresees as the necessity of divine holiness. In an unawakened condition, not so much con-science drives from God as the heart, estranged, refuses One in whom it finds no pleasure. Its pleasure is in banishing Him, if possible, from the thought; aye, terrible as it is to realize, sin as sin, as offense to Him whom it counts an enemy, is a real pleasure. Many, it is true, are quite ignorant of this, and would resent the imputation of it; for the heart is deceitful above all things, as it is desperately wicked, and who can know it? But when we wake up to realize our condition, we shall assuredly begin to realize it to be so, and none who has been truly brought to God but will own with the apostle, the remarkable example of it, that "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son."

When awakened, the holiness of God is seen as necessary wrath against sin; and then effort begins to secure shelter from it. And naturally this takes the shape of an attempt to keep those commandments of God hitherto despised and broken. Ignorant of how complete the ruin sin has caused,- ignorant of the unbending requirements of God's holiness,-ignorant of the grace which has provided complete atonement, the soul persists (often for how long!) in trying to bring to God some fruit that He can accept, and which will secure, or help to secure, the one who brings it. But this is only " dead work." It is neither "work of faith" nor " labor of love." It is self-justification, the fruit of fear and unbelief:hence truly "dead work," the mere outside of holiness at the best, with no life- no inward spirit in it to make it acceptable to the "living God." It is rather itself an offense, and thus a necessary defilement of the soul.

The blood of Christ therefore it is that purifies the conscience from dead works. Justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Brought to God, and to God known in Him, there is "no more conscience of sins" in the rejoicing worshiper. Free from the load of guilt, he is able to welcome the light fully and without reserve-yea, with eager desire. The yoke of Christ is rest and freedom. Thus the apprehension of grace delivers from a morbid self-occupation to enable one for real holiness. The conscience is purified so as faithfully to receive, without partiality or distortion, the communications of the Father's will. " The fruit of the light as we should read Ephesians 5:9,] is in all goodness and righteousness and truth."

And if that were all, how blessed-how wholly blessed would be this condition! "Light is good" indeed, " and a pleasant thing it is to behold the sun." If in this all nature rejoices, how the new nature in that which is the " light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Thus the fruit of the light is found in this eternal day and summer of the soul.

From the side of God there is no need of change or variation more. His grace is perfect; His gifts and calling are without repentance. Here, in the enjoyment of its own things, the soul is called to abide; here all its own interests summon it to abide. What might be expected then but continual growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Alas! that this rightful expectation should be so little fulfilled; but in whom is it perfectly fulfilled? in how many do we see almost the opposite of it, retrogression instead of progress! and how many are there who remain apparently almost stationary, although in reality of course with loss of zeal and fervor, year after year! What is the cause of all this, which we find acknowledged in apostolic times as in the present? For the Galatians were no solitary ex-ample of those who "did run well," being hindered from steadfast obedience to the truth. At Rome, those whose faith had once been" spoken of throughout the whole world," we find testified of by the same witness as all seeking their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:8; Phil. 2:21). And later he says of them, " At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me" (2 Tim. 4:16). Corinth went into worldliness and immorality. Ephesus lost its first love. Of some of these it may be pleaded that it is assemblies that are spoken of, not individuals, but the two ordinarily go together, and the magnitude of the departure shows that the plea can hardly avail. The general fact is as plain as it is intensely solemn.

But the decay of the fruits of faith means the decay of faith itself. And this decay of faith, whence does it proceed but from failure to maintain the purity of conscience? In the case of some, (who had, no doubt, got far away,) the apostle argues this:" Holding faith and a good conscience, which [1:e., the latter,] some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck" (i Tim. 1:19). It is easy to show how heresies and false doctrines, and the reception of these by others, spring from a conscience defiled:but this is not now my point. For simplicity of faith itself, a good conscience must be maintained. As another apostle says, " If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things; beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God" (i Jno. 3:20, 21). And so the Lord, in view of Peter's grievous fall, and the natural result of it, assures him, " I have prayed for thee, that thy, faith fail not" (Luke 22:32). How vital, then, to the whole spiritual condition is the maintenance of a pure conscience!

But again, this pure conscience can only be maintained by exercise. " Herein do I exercise myself," says, once more, the apostle of the Gentiles, "to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men " (Acts 24:16). How many mistake-how easy, therefore, is it to mistake-a conscience dulled by neglect, for one that is really "good"! How many persuade themselves all is well with them, while they are simply not near enough to God to detect the evil!

" As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord," we are admonished, " walk ye in Him " (Col. ii 6). This alone is the Christian " rule " (Gal. 6:16); and that is alone a good conscience which keeps to the measure of this. Yet how easy to have the theory, nay, in certain respects, the faith of where we are, without this becoming the real measure for conscience of practical walk!

In the sanctuary, with God alone, we find the light in which things take their true shape and character. In Israel's sanctuary of old, the light of common day was jealously excluded. The light of the golden candlestick guided the priests alone in their daily service. For us, the light of the holiest is that of the glory of God in the. face of Jesus Christ. And in this, things look very differently indeed from the mere common light in which the natural conscience views them. Yet many Christians are able to be at peace with themselves merely because they are judging themselves by a standard little beyond the common one. They even ignorantly bring in the grace of God to quiet the stirring of self-accusation, which they suppose legality, and go on in a careless dream as far as possible removed from the peace of communion,-the "peace of Christ." But the apostle was not legal when he said, " Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be acceptable to Him " (2 Cor. 5:9, Gr.), nor in his exercise to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. (To be continued, D. V.)

I. (1:1-13.) The Person who comes to serve. (i) 1-3. Promised. Mark's gospel does not begin with a genealogy, nor contain one. Love needs no title to serve, except the power. In the power which He is to serve man, when we consider the greatness of his need, the true dignity of Him who ministers becomes apparent. Thus Mark starts with His title in the forefront,-" The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." As this also He is announced by the prophets:it is Jehovah Himself whose way the predicted messenger bids prepare. Nor is this but a specimen; all former time has prophesied of Him.

(2) 4-8. Heralded. In fulfillment of this, John comes, and as remission of sins is the blessing to be brought, so it is by the baptism of repentance- in bowing to this-the way is to be prepared. And this is partially accomplished. Multitudes flock out to Jordan, the river of death, to acknowledge, in taking their place there, their just due, "confessing their sins." Separate as he himself is from the multitude in food and clothes, he proclaims a greater distance between himself and the One of whom he is but the unworthy herald. But his voice has in it here no note of denunciation:the baptism of fire is not found, as in Matthew; " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost."

(3)9-11. Attested. Then the Lord comes Himself to submit Himself to the baptism of John, taking His place, in grace, in that death which was the due of others; and there He is sealed with the Spirit, the witness of a perfection which the Father's voice proclaims, along with the full divine dignity which is His:" Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased." It is here not as in Matthew, however, a witness to the people, but to Himself, as the words show.

(4) 12, 13. Proved. Thus attested, He is "driven" by the Spirit into the wilderness, and is there for forty days tempted of Satan, and in circumstances of lowest humiliation, " with the wild beasts." At last, His perfection proved, ministered to by angels as to His bodily need, He is ready for His blessed service.

2. (1:14-3:6.)The character of His ministry.

(i) 1:14-20. The Word, and human instrumentality. His ministry begins with the presentation of the Word, with that gospel of which He is Himself the substance. This must of necessity be, of course, but it is well to notice it. John's message is confirmed, and his testimony-with a suited difference -taken up. Every new dispensation thus puts its seal on that which has gone before; while, throughout all, the Word maintains its place as the judge and arbitrator in every question that can arise. It is blessed to see the Lord Himself not refusing this test, but appealing to it on every occasion.

We next find Him gathering around Himself the human instruments, who, delivered themselves, are to be the means of delivering others. Men are to be fishers of men. How glorious here is the triumph of the gospel! how sweet and perfect the precious grace of God! It is, as another has said, "the fact in itself" that is given here; not the details, for it is the fact itself which is intended to have significance for us-a striking and blessed one.

(2) 1:21-39. The power of Satan met. In the next place, and first in the actual story of accomplished deliverance, we have the record of the power of Satan, man's terrible captor, met and foiled. It was the type of this which was the first sign by which Moses was to be made known to Israel as the deliverer raised up of God for them-the rod of power cast out of the hands of him to whom it belonged become a serpent, yet yielding itself with necessary submission to that hand put forth once more to claim it for its master. Man is captive in the grasp of one stronger than he. In the very synagogue is a man with an unclean spirit:terrible proof of Israel's condition! But the " Holy One of God"-tested and attested as this-has power to which the baffled enemy can only yield, the more unwillingly the more manifestly. The man is freed; and next, the diseases, so often his work, are healed, and we hear of devils every-where cast out. All men seek for Him; and He is found, having " risen up a great while before day," in a solitary place, in prayer. The pride of independence is the spirit of Satan. The Conqueror of Satan is the dependent One. It is thus Scripture, in its perfection, declares Him. Who would otherwise have dared to imagine it? Perfect Man as perfect God, how does His example speak to us in this!

(3) 1.40-45. Man's corruption cleansed. The root of man's condition is next reached; for leprosy is the well-known type of that for which it was so often inflicted-sin, as seen in its corruption, in its tendency to spread, in its contagious defilement, in its sure end which only God could avert. It is remarkable that here we have the second sign God gave to Moses; and here as there, though with how great a difference, the healing is by touch. It is the same story of redemption, however varied. Here how plain the assurance that to cleanse us from the sin by which we are inflicted there is needed, not simply the word of divine power, but the contact, so to speak, of incarnate deity! How wondrous this warm, assuring, health-giving touch! But the cross alone is that in which this " I will" of the blessed Lord could express itself; and in this it is He touches the leper. Who, more than he, could have imagined this " I will" ? (4) 2:1-12. Mans impotence removed. Next, and in perfect order, the impotence of man is met; and here, so beautifully, the place of human instrumentality is indicated. Powerless ourselves to heal or save, our one part is to bring the helpless one into the presence of Jesus. Is not this what must be the effect of all true preaching, as of all true prayer? and in both, is not faith the real worker? and does not Jesus still "see faith"?

Then the secret of power is, first of all, forgiveness. Power is not wanted to obtain forgiveness, but it is an after-result for those forgiven. Power is to be indeed the sign of this, as we see in the palsied man; but more, it is to be in the face of the blasphemies of unbelief a witness to Christ, that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, as still He has. How vain to expect this, then, where no present forgiveness, perhaps no forgiveness on earth at all, is known!

(5) 2:13-22. The exchange of law for grace. But this involves much more, which the Lord now openly announces:it is indeed the secret grace all along now openly announced. He calls Matthew from the receipt of custom,-a publican, the very type of a sinner, and to be not merely a recipient of salvation, but a special messenger to declare it to others. A feast at Matthew's house would be well understood in its significance for publicans and sinners. The Pharisees find fault. " How is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?" How perfect and beautiful the answer! how it encourages, and how it exposes at once!- " They that are whole are in no need of the physician, but they that are sick:I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

But this was the reason why for so many the joy of the Bridegroom's presence was unknown. How should they know it who had no need to be relieved by His hand-need that no other could more unwillingly the more manifestly. The man is freed; and next, the diseases, so often his work, are healed, and we hear of devils every-where cast out. All men seek for Him; and He is found, having " risen up a great while before day," in a solitary place, in prayer. The pride of independence is the spirit of Satan. The Conqueror of Satan is the dependent One. It is thus Scripture, in its perfection, declares Him. Who would otherwise have dared to imagine it? Perfect Man as perfect God, how does His example speak to us in this!

(3) 1.40-45. Man's corruption cleansed. The root of man's condition is next reached; for leprosy is the well-known type of that for which it was so often inflicted-sin, as seen in its corruption, in its tendency to spread, in its contagious defilement, in its sure end which only God could avert. It is remarkable that here we have the second sign God gave to Moses; and here as there, though with how great a difference, the healing is by touch. It * is the same story of redemption, however varied. Here how plain the assurance that to cleanse us from the sin by which we are inflicted there is needed, not simply the word of divine power, but the contact, so to speak, of incarnate deity! How wondrous this warm, assuring, health-giving touch! But the cross alone is that in which this " I will" of the blessed Lord could express itself; and in this it is He touches the leper. Who, more than he, could have imagined this " I will" ? (4) 2:1-12. Mans impotence removed. Next, and in perfect order, the impotence of man is met; and here, so beautifully, the place of human instrumentality is indicated. Powerless ourselves to heal or save, our one part is to bring the helpless one into the presence of Jesus. Is not this what must be the effect of all true preaching, as of all true prayer? and in both, is not faith the real worker? and does not Jesus still " see faith "?

Then the secret of power is, first of all, forgiveness. Power is not wanted to obtain forgiveness, but it is an after-result for those forgiven. Power is to be indeed the sign of this, as we see in the palsied man; but more, it is to be in the face of the blasphemies of unbelief a witness to Christ, that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, as still He has. How vain to expect this, then, where no present forgiveness, perhaps no forgiveness on earth at all, is known!

(5) 2:13-22. The exchange of law for grace. But this involves much more, which the Lord now openly announces:it is indeed the secret grace all along now openly announced. He calls Matthew from the receipt of custom,-a publican, the very type of a sinner, and to be not merely a recipient of salvation, but a special messenger to declare it to others. A feast at Matthew's house would be well understood in its significance for publicans and sinners. The Pharisees find fault. " How is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?" How perfect and beautiful the answer! how it encourages, and how it exposes at once !- " They that are whole are in no need of the physician, but they that are sick:I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

But this was the reason why for so many the joy of the Bridegroom's presence was unknown. How should they know it who had no need to be relieved by His hand-need that no other could relieve? It is in the consciousness of sin that we learn grace, and in grace, the God who alone can show it. How readily a soul that has come to a genuine sense of utter ruin can distinguish the voice of Christ from every other! For a lost sinner, can there be two Christs? Here, in self-judgment, man escapes out of the devil's snare, and out of the perplexity in which so many are hopelessly involved, and enters into the light where God is! But the awful isolation of a soul on its way to God is gone in the new eternal joy of having found Him. How impossible to such an one the dull routine of legal ritualism! How could the disciples of the Lord fast like the Pharisees, or even John's disciples? The ignorance of the questioners was the gross spiritual darkness of those who knew neither themselves nor God. But in truth the legal righteousness could not be patched with the new gospel one, nor the wine of this new spiritual joy be put into the forms of the old ordinances. The new wine must find new skins to hold it. Judaism with its forms was now to pass away.

(6) 2:23-28. Mans need beyond ordinances. With this the question of the Sabbath' necessarily connects. The Pharisees find fault with the disciples for plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath day. The Lord brings forward, as in Matthew, the example of David; but He presses specially the point of need-"when he had need,"-and adds the words, so decisive, and so characteristic of Mark, " The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath;" and that "-therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." Man's need is more with God than the maintenance of ordinances, as ministers to which in fact they were even ordained. To the "Son of Man," therefore, become that in pitying recognition of that need, and to relieve it, the Sabbath itself is subject.

(7) 3:1-6. The prerogative of good. In the case of the man that had the withered hand is added another consideration, more closely appealing to the conscience,-the prerogative of good. " Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do evil; to save life, or to kill?" They hold their peace, guiltily silent where the case was clear. The Lord answers His own question by healing the man.

3. (3:7-5:) Results.

(i) 3:7-19. "Whom He would.". The results of His work in detail are now to be brought before us. And here we must remember, and as of wider application, the words prophetically spoken of Him by Isaiah as to Israel:"Then I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain:' yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God." Not only was it true of Israel, but all through the present time, apparent failure attaches to His work. Until He comes again in the clouds of heaven, the world remains the scene of His rejection, and none the less because whole countries are covered with nominal Christianity. Heaven is filling indeed with the fruits of His travail. The salvation of countless multitudes has not failed, but on earth we shall find His own warning words assuring us of what must be owned as failure. Yet neither His power fails nor His love. The end shall surely speak for Him; but in the meanwhile, faith and patience are needed constantly.

In the opening verses here, multitudes proclaim His power and goodness, and we find Him taking measures for the extension of His ministry by means of His disciples. No power can possibly be lacking to Him who is in His humiliation the Servant of the eternal counsels of divine love itself:"He calleth unto Him whom He would, and they came unto Him." He serves here who is sovereign. "And He ordained twelve, that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach"-again the Word of God takes its place in His thoughts-" and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils." A divine place is here assumed, for who could give authority of this kind except God Himself? But it is in service that it is displayed,-in love that has made Him serve.

(2) 3:20-30. Rejection. But from the outset, and most manifestly, He is the rejected One. His very kindred treat Him as out of His mind, and would lay hold of Him; while the scribes, with malignant wickedness, ascribe the glorious works, which it was impossible for them to deny, to the power of Satan. The Lord rebukes them with the unanswerable argument that Satan could not be divided against himself, and warns them that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost would never be forgiven.

(3) 3:31-35. The link with Christ spiritual, not natural. Upon this, His mother and His brethren come, and, standing without, send unto Him, calling Him. He uses this to declare the true link of relationship with Himself as spiritual-a link which the new dispensation was openly to make known. Subject Himself to, and supremely delighting in, the will of God, it is he who does that will who is brother, sister, mother, to Him. The consequence of His rejection by the world is the necessary separation of His people from it.

(4) 4:1-34. The Word testing men, and faith in it the only possible condition of bearing fruit. A dispensational change, then, is now announced; but even here it is the moral character that is insisted on. The Word of God dropped into the heart of men tests the state it finds, and faith is the indispensable condition of fruit-bearing-of this relation with Christ. In fact, three parts of what is sown are destroyed by the influence of the devil, the flesh, and the world. And this in the kingdom of God, outside of Israel, to the nation to which as a whole "all these things are done in parables." " These are they which are sown on good ground:such as hear the Word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit;" though here also, alas! in different measures, for the influence of these opposing forces is but too plainly felt.

The rest of the parables given in Matthew are omitted in Mark, save one, and that very evidently in moral connection. On the other hand, we have one added here that no other gospel gives, and which plainly enforces the lesson of responsibility, which the Lord inculcates in plain words at this point. There is nothing hid which shall not be manifested, nor kept secret, but to come abroad at last. To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken even that he hath. The kingdom of God itself is to be committed into the hands of men, as if He who begins thus the seed-sowing were asleep, or ignorant of all they did. Yet the harvest will come, and the hand of the first Sower will put in the sickle. In the meantime it will have changed form and character, and grown into the likeness of a kingdom of the world. This is a parable to many still, and yet the fulfillment is before the eyes of all. " If any man have ears to hear, let him hear."

These four sections give the result of Christ's work which are manifest and external. We now pass to three which give us more what is internal and spiritual-the divine view; and this is as well known, the common division, and common character of the division, of such sevens.

(5) 4:35-41. The security of faith amid whatever peril. The first of these results is the perfect security of those who are with Christ, whatever the seeming peril. Faith, alas! may fail, and does often, how miserably! Did they think the waters had power to engulf the Lord? He may seem asleep while the storm rages, but if with Him- and let our only care be practically to be with Him,-He on the throne of heaven is embarked with us in the vessel, and no wave can rise over the throne of God!

(6) 5:1-20. Deliverance, rest, clothing, and a right mind. Four precious things come now together, and who has words to tell their worth?

First, deliverance from Satan's bondage; in which naturally all are, although not as obviously as the Gadarene demoniac. His condition is most striking, dwelling among the tombs,-and the earth to which men cling is more a place of the dead than of the living; impossible to be kept bound, or to be tamed,-and so are all laws and civilizing processes unable to restrain or tame Satan's poor captives. Then," cutting himself with stones," self-torturer, and looking upon the Son of God as a tormentor! The deliverance is complete, decisive; then, what a change! Restlessness has given place to repose; his nakedness is clothed; his mind is cleared. How he clings to that dear Lord his Saviour, and would fain be with Him! but the word for the present is, " Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."

(7) 5:21-43. Life out of death. Finally, we have, as in Matthew, (but here, surely, not with a dispensational meaning as in Matthew,) two histories intertwined. In Jairus' daughter we have man's state in its full reality discovered, his deepest need which must be met. The Lord is here the life-giver; and He is "declared the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead." The dead hears the voice of the Son of God, and lives. This is the divine side, and man is necessarily merely passive and recipient. But there is another side, and this, it seems to me, the woman with the issue represents. Here, faith relies upon the Saviour for its need, and the issue is staunched. To adjust these things fully-the divine and human sides-may transcend our power, but both have their place.

Turning to Zechariah 13:6-9, we find a scene described of which the likeness to that in John 20:cannot be considered accidental. The question is the same-the identification of Christ, this time in His royal glory; and the inquiry, "What are these wounds in Thy hands?" with the answer, " Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends," are so profoundly suitable to the occasion of our Lord's second presentation to His people that one marvels and worships to read .them as written full five centuries before His first coming to suffer that wounding at their hands. Wonderfully, too, the passage closes with the greeting of restored relationship that follows on His recognition by signs such' as these,-"And I shall say, It is My people;" and they shall say, "The Lord, my God!"Here, then, we discover the solemn truth that the wounds of Jesus' will, at His coming in His kingdom, prove His title to the homage of the repentant nation at whose hands He received them-a truth further taught in the previous chapter, where the familiar words occur, "And they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn," etc.;a word of prophecy repeated in almost similar terms by the same Spirit six centuries later, and after the piercing had taken place:"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him; and all the tribes of the land shall wail because of Him." (Rev. 1:7.)

With this also agree the strange words of the prophet Habakkuk, who (if we may accept the marginal reading of chapter 3:4,) describes the coming of God and the Holy One thus:," His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise; and His brightness was as the light, and He had bright beams out of His side;" that is to say, that not only will the wounds of Jesus be His identification, commanding the obedience, submission, and worshiping love of His nation, but those very wounds will be themselves His highest glory, and from them, as from the stricken thunder-cloud, will issue forth " bright beams " of light, to the joy of His reconciled people, and the confusion and destruction of His enemies.

If, then, the wounds of Jesus-kept open, so to speak, in our love-feasts from week to week, through all the ages of this present interval-shall fulfill so glorious a function at His coming back to the earth to reign over Israel, can we be surprised to find that in the still further future, at His assuming universals way, His wounds will again prove His title to that throne of glory?

Opening at Revelation v, this scene is portrayed -portrayed in purpose so divine, in effect so dramatic, in language so wonderful, as to confound, overpower, and yet inspire and elevate, our minds as often as we read it. For there it is told how, , when every creature in heaven, in earth, and under the earth had failed to qualify to claim the title-deeds of universal sovereignty,-when the eyes of the se£r flowed with bitter tears to think that earth's long hopes of redemption from her cruel subjugation were to be disappointed,-a Lamb, a little Lamb, a little wounded Lamb, a Lamb as it had been slain, stood out in the midst of that glittering circle of glory, and, by right and title only of those visible wounds, took the book from off the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, and heard the joyful acclamations of all the great wide universe, which had now at last beheld its Redeemer.

Such, briefly, are the tremendous issues that have turned and shall turn upon the wounds of Christ, which in, our commemorative supper we love to discover symbolically shown forth. May it not be that hereafter, when faith shall change to sight, we shall make the personal proof of their identifying power which one has sought to convey in the beautiful lines that follow:-
" But how shall I then know Thee
Amid those hosts above?
What token true shall show me
The object of my love?
Thy wounds, Thy wounds, Lord Jesus,-
These deep, deep wounds will tell
The sacrifice that frees us
From self, and death, and hell!"

(G.F.T.)

The great supper of Luke 14:speaks of what God has treasured up in Christ for us. He sends out an invitation to tell men they are perfectly welcome to come and enjoy it:but having in hand present things-God's things really, which they treat as their own,-they excuse themselves. Seeking enjoyment in what they claim to be their possessions, the better and higher joy God invites to they care not for and refuse.

Where, then, will God find His guests? How the answer bows the soul and heart in adoration! . There are among men some who are not enjoying present things, such as the despised man of the streets, the destitute inhabitant of the lanes, and the wretched child of poverty, who, by dire necessity, has been driven to seek shade and shelter beneath the hedge; to such God turns; it is such He seeks and finds and brings to His table,-men who have no excuses to bring but whose necessity makes them willing to be simply receivers-debtors merely to simple grace.

In the beginning of chapter xv, our blessed Lord is in the midst of a company of such people; and who can measure His joy or theirs as He eats and drinks with them ? If there are some among men who cannot be happy with sinners, God can; nay, more,-it is such, and only such, He receives. Dear reader, do you complain of this? Does your heart murmur against the grace that stoops down to meet publicans and sinners ? Are you Pharisee enough to speak sneeringly of such grace? God grant you may not be; but whether or not, He finds His joy in His love to sinners, and vindicates Himself against every murmur lurking in the heart of all who scorn to be called sinners.

The parables of this chapter show us this. The first two tell us of the joy there is in heaven, and before the angels, over a sinner who repents. In the first of these, God is a seeker, and the sinner is a wanderer, who goes on and on, and further away, until, not only the joy of his own way vanishes, but worn out by the roughness of his road, he is at last content to be served by the God of all grace; who, finding him as such-a needy one, takes him up in the arms of His love and rejoices over him with a joy immeasurable, though divinely expressed.

In the next, God is a seeker still; but we have more the means and methods used to bring the sinner where God in His grace can meet him. As walking after the course of this world he is morally dead,-1:e., he has no apprehension in his soul of God or of his true condition before God. The lighted candle of the word or testimony of God, and the broom of circumstances, which are wholly under the ordering of God, whatever agencies may be employed in producing them, brings the sinner forth a heap of dirt and rubbish, which only divine grace can meet, and in which only God Himself can find the silver-1:e., one for whom Christ died to be his redemption. As being simply that God finds him; thus we learn it is the sinner who repents that God finds; and such, and only such, are the occasion of the joy with which all heaven rings in full accord with the heart of God.

The last parable describes, for our profit and learning, the wondrous welcome and reception God gives the sinner who repents, and in connection with this we are shown what repentance is. The younger brother having received his portion of his father's goods goes to the far country. He now belongs to the class who in the fourteenth chapter made excuse. He has in his hand what he wants to enjoy:but in the far country it soon goes; all is soon squandered and lost. A famine comes, and he is in want; his hand is empty now ; he has nothing to enjoy. But why does not the father go and meet him now? Simply because he is not yet the sinner that repents. He does not yet think himself the suited object for pure grace, and so he goes and joins himself to a citizen of that country, to try and see if he can retrieve his lost fortune; but, thank God! this cannot be done. When we have spent all our goods, and lost our reputation and our character, no effort, no reformation, can possibly regain what we have lost. We have written our history, and it is irreversible; we belong now to the men of the streets, lanes, highways, and hedges. Our names as being sinners are indelibly stamped upon us, and in spite of every thing we can do we find our selves put where we do not wish to be. Happy is he who submits to it; for until then, we must remain . strangers to the welcome and reception of the God of all grace.

At last the prodigal bows; he submits to his necessity. He thinks of the grace and plenty that is with his father, and he says, That is just what I need. It just suits him now. A hungry, perishing sinner needs the grace of God. He says, " I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants." He is a sinner now-a man of the streets. He has accepted the counsel of God against himself; he will let God tell him all things that ever he did; but having bowed to this, he bows to the grace that meets it all. He renounces airworthiness of his own. Not knowing the character of the grace he submits to, he says, " Make me as one of thy hired servants;" but so saying, he shows he is willing and content to be indebted to grace. This is repentance. The prodigal is now a sinner that repents; he has risen up to go to his father.

We will now look at his welcome and reception. As soon as the prodigal has started for his father, the father is on his way to him. " When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." How wonderful! Until he repented, the father could not go to meet him; but just as soon as he repents, the father hastens to him. Beloved reader, this is a picture of the way God meets a sinner. He is not austere, demanding of sinners to cease to be sinners. He invites them to come as sinners-as being simply sinners and nothing else; and the moment they take Him at His word, and consent, in the reality of their souls, to meet Him as simple sinners, needing, by that very fact, His grace, He comes to meet them just as here,-"When he was yet a great way off," 1:e., still in the far country-a sinner in his sins, " he saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." How blessed that!

But this is not all. God not only comes and meets the returning, repenting sinner to welcome him back, but He at once, without the least delay, appropriates to him all the provision He has made for sinners in Christ, set forth here by the best robe, ring, and shoes. So fully has Christ answered before God for all the sinner's need, that as soon as a sinner takes his place with God as one of those for whom Christ died, all the fullness of the provision of God in Christ for sinners is his, and his forever; God having met and welcomed him to His bosom bears witness to him that all is his-his at once. When a sinner tells God he has no worthiness, God answers, I will clothe you with worthiness; I will put worthiness upon you; just as here, when the prodigal says, " I have sinned, and am no more worthy," the father replies, " Bring forth the best robe, and put it upon him."How wonderful! A sinner in his rags- his sins, in the full consciousness of having nothing else but his sins, in God's presence telling him so, and God at once giving him a change of raiment, even the worthiness and beauty of Christ, accepting him in His beloved, so that he is now henceforth forever before Him without blame- the blamelessness of Christ on him, in the eye of God. Oh, what grace! and how full and perfect! Dear reader, it is the grace of God, and nothing short of it, would suit him. It is a grave mistake to suppose any delay on God's part in making over to the sinner that repents the provision of His grace in Christ, as if He were waiting on sinners to cease being sinners, to become saints, ere He could give them His provision for them. God does not invite sinners to come to His great supper and then tell them when they come they cannot partake of it until they have passed through certain experiences, and made certain attainments. Such a thought is thoroughly derogatory to God. It makes the gospel only a half gospel; it falsifies the character of God, and denies His full and perfect grace. It is sinners He seeks; it is sinners He calls to repentance. " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."So too the sinner that repents He receives and rejoices over. It is the ungodly that He justifies. Those who come as ungodly-as without strength and as lost, He meets, and that, too, in the very place they take before Him; and, meeting them thus, He assures them of a full and hearty welcome, and that every thing He has provided for them in Christ is theirs. The kiss upon the cheek of the prodigal is the token of the full and hearty welcome, and the best robe, ring, and shoes speak as clearly of the unreserved appropriation to the returning one of all that God has in Christ for sinners.

Beloved reader, have you ever received God's kiss of welcome? and do you know its full meaning? And further, have you ever gone to God without any reserve in your soul to tell Him all your heart-all your care and trouble, and all your sins? Ere your tale was fully told did you not find yourself in a change of raiment, shining before the eye of God in all the beauty and brightness of Christ? Truly yes, for then it was God accepted you in His beloved. Having thus received you and robed you, how He rejoiced over you! Already, from your meeting Him-at the very moment of your reception, God-the blessed God is merry and glad over you. It is His joy to have you in His family; it is yours, too, to be in it; and the joy thus begun is without end-eternal.

May our hearts know better the reality, depth, and blessedness of it. C.C.

We now come to the New Testament. We have already carried its doctrine with us in the interpretation of the Old; for our object has been, not to trace the gradual unfolding of the truth from age to age, but to get as completely as possible for our souls that truth, as Scripture, now complete, as a whole presents it to us. Thus we have already anticipated much of what would otherwise now come before us. Yet we shall find, if the Lord only open our eyes to it, abundance of what is of unfailing interest for us, and that the substance here goes beyond all the shadows of the past.

In the Gospels, however, the doctrine of atonement is but little developed. We have instead the unspeakably precious work which wrought it. The Acts also, while devoted to the history of the effects of its accomplishment, speaks little directly of the atonement itself. It is not till we come to Paul's writings that we find this fully entered into, and its results for us declared. He is the one raised up to give us the full gospel message, as well as the truth of the Church, of both of which he is in a special sense the " minister " (Col. 1:23,25).

The gospel of John, however, more than all the rest together, does dwell upon the meaning of the cross; and here it is mostly the Lord Himself who declares it to us. John's is, in a fuller sense than the others, the Christian gospel; and in it, we may say, we enter into that holiest of which they see but the vail rent at the end; while for John, the glory typified by that of the tabernacle of old shines out all through.* * John 1:14, where " dwelt" should be, as in the margin of the Revised Version, " tabernacled:" it is a plain reference to the glory of old.* It is necessary, then, to show how this is possible, man at the same time being fully shown out for what he is by the light in which he stands. Before we speak of this, we must take up, however, the "synoptic" gospels, and briefly examine their testimony.

Their direct teaching is scanty indeed. The Lord's own declaration that " the Son of Man . . . . came to give His life a ransom for many," and that His blood was " shed for many," is given in all; Luke indeed changing this last into " shed for you" and Matthew adding, "for the remission of sins." The doctrine of atonement is quite plain here, however little enlarged on. Luke gives us beside how after His resurrection, He appears to the two on the way to Emmaus, and reproves them for their unbelief of all that the prophets had spoken, adding, "' Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory ?' And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Afterward, to the eleven He says, " Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name, beginning at Jerusalem."

When we look more deeply at the work presented in these three gospels, we find in them respectively, as I have elsewhere shown, the features of the trespass, sin, and peace-offerings respectively. The trespass-offering unites with Matthew's gospel of the kingdom as being the governmental aspect of atonement-the reparation for injury rather than judgment for sin; yet this in its Godward side reaches of necessity to the vindication of the holiness of His nature, so that Matthew and Mark alike give the forsaking of God. But while the three gospels show the rending of the vail, and the holiest opened, Matthew alone shows the meeting of death for us, the graves giving up their dead; for death is governmental infliction, and so belongs to Matthew's theme. So, evidently, does that view of the cross which is found in the two parables of the kingdom, the treasure and the pearl, where the work is looked at as a governmental exchange-a purchase:" went and sold all that He had and bought it."

Mark, while it has the forsaking of God also,- the characteristic features of the sin-offering,- omits these governmental features. It is the Son of God in the glory of His voluntary humiliation, obedient even unto death, glorifying God at His own personal cost,-as the bullock is the highest grade of the sin-offering,-but therefore glorified of God in consequence, so that He ascends to the right hand of God (16:19). But His humiliation is most absolute. He does not, as in Matthew, "dismiss His spirit" (27:50, Gr.), as One that had power to retain it, but, in true sin-offering character, " expires " (chap. 15:37, Gr.). Even in His cry upon the cross there is a note of difference which is significant. He says, not " Eli,"-literally, although it be a name of God, "My Strength"- but "Eloi," "My God."* *In the twenty-second psalm it is" Eli," not " Eloi," but 1 think it clear that the latter, in this connection, is the deeper word.*

So the results of the cross are characteristically different in Mark from Matthew. It is not a commission given to disciple into the kingdom, but to preach the gospel, with power over the enemy and over the consequences of sin accompanying the simple believing in this precious word.

In Luke, the peace-offering character is everywhere plain, as it is in the cross most manifestly. It needs scarcely comment. The Lord's cry is "Father;" and He openly assures a dying thief of a place with Him in paradise. But further exposition would belong rather to a sketch of the gospels than of the doctrine of atonement, and it has been given elsewhere.

The gospel of John introduces a subject in the Old Testament unrevealed,-eternal life. Personally, the Lord was this, and among men the light of men. But this only disclosed the truth of their condition. The world-and the Jews in this light were only part of the world,-lay in a darkness which no light merely could reach, for it was the darkness of death; but a spiritual death of sin which hot even life alone could reach. Guilt must also be met. " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone," are our Lord's words. Life must spring for man out of an atoning death. The water of cleansing and the blood of expiation must come out of the side of a dead Christ. The Spirit thus bears record that " God has given to us eternal life."

The first word as to atonement in the gospel of John is in the Baptist's testimony:"Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." This is the broad general view of Christ's work and its effect. By and by, a " new " earth- not another earth, but the earth made new as to its condition,-will be eternally the abode of righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13). To us, how wonderful a condition for this world, which for nearly six thousand years has been the abode of sin, to be the abode of everlasting righteousness! What will have accomplished this? The precious sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Every inhabitant of that new earth will be one redeemed by the blood of Christ, and secured eternally by its value. Sin will be completely banished. Its memory only will remain, to give full melody to the praises of the saints.

But who is this Lamb of God? "This is He," says the Baptist, "of whom I said, 'After me cometh a Man which is preferred before me, for He was before me.'" After in time as a man, yet the One inhabiting eternity! It is God Himself who is at the cost of redemption, and that when not power merely could redeem, but only blood! Therefore a man, incarnate, to be in meek surrender of Himself a Lamb slain. This is what is of moral value to fill the earth with righteousness, and to lift to heaven also, those made members of Christ by the baptism of the Holy Ghost(1:33).

In the next case, the need of man has just been fully exposed in the Lord's words to Nicodemus. He must be born again, as Ezekiel had already witnessed; although not able to declare the full truth and magnitude of this work of God in man. But One was come from heaven to declare it, Son of Man on earth, yet still in heaven. Nor only to declare it, but to make this work possible; for "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

The imperative necessity of atonement is here affirmed. The Son of Man must be lifted up, and faith in Him be the way of everlasting life. The type of the brazen serpent shows in what character "lifted up;" for Moses' serpent clearly represented that by which the people in the wilderness were perishing. At bottom, for them as for men in general this was sin, the poison of the old serpent, which has corrupted the nature of every one born of flesh. For this, "made sin," Christ was "lifted up,"-offered to God a sacrifice,-that men might have, by faith in Him thus offered, not a restoration of mere natural life, but one spiritual and eternal.

But again we are assured of who it is effects the sacrifice. Not only it must be One who as Son of Man could be lifted up, but " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is not only the Son of Man, lifted up to God, but the Son of God in the full reality of this, the eternal Son, the only begotten, sent down, God's gift, from God.

Thus eternal life is ours who believe. The character, privileges, and accompaniments of which are detailed for us in the chapters that follow. The sixth chapter shows it to us as a life enjoyed in dependence, lived by faith, maintained by the meat given by the Son of Man-meat which endures to everlasting life, as long as the life itself does. But this meat is the bread from heaven, and the bread is His flesh, which He gives for the life of the world. But this involves His death,-blood-shedding; so that "except ye have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man, and drank His blood, ye have no life in you; he that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life,-abideth in Me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and 1 live because of the Father, so he that eateth Me, he also shall live because of Me." (10:53, 54, 56, 57.)

We must notice a difference here which neither the revised nor the common version makes apparent. The first expression-"have eaten," "have drunk,"-speaks of once partaking, the others of continuous. The once having eaten and drunk insures eternal life, but it is maintained as a practical life of faith by continuous eating and drinking. It is a life dependent though eternal, and what communicates it sustains it also.

The tenth chapter presents the Lord as the Shepherd of the sheep, giving His life for them, in perfect freedom, and yet as fulfilling the commandment of the Father. He is thus able to give a reason for the Father's love (5:17), and they are saved, have eternal life, and can never perish, nor any pluck them out of His .hand. In the twelfth chapter, again, He compares His death to that of a corn of wheat which dies to produce fruit; but I pass on to consider the character of the closing chapters.

Here, what is a feature every where, is just this voluntariness of self-surrender which the tenth chapter has declared. No one takes His life from Him:the men sent to take Him fall to the ground before Him, and while giving Himself up, secures the safety of His followers by an authoritative word. To Pilate, He declares His kingdom founded on the truth, and which every true soul would recognize; while the authority of the governor over Him existed but by divine permission for a special purpose. Upon the cross, there is no darkness and no weakness. He declares His thirst, to fulfill one final scripture, then announces the perfect accomplishment of His work, and delivers up His own spirit to the Father. The soldiers' errand doubly fulfills the prescient word of God, who on the one hand guards the body of His holy One from mutilation, while on the other giving to man the threefold witness of completed atonement. All this speaks of the offering for acceptance (Lev. 1:3, 4, Rev. Vers.), the voluntary burnt-offering.

To this the account of the resurrection answers also perfectly. Relationship established, the corn of wheat having died to bring forth fruit, the Lord owns His "brethren," ascending to His and (thus) their Father, His and their God. He assures them of peace, the fruit of His work (20:19, 20); of their new-creation place in connection with Himself, last Adam (5:21; comp. Gen. 2:7, i Cor. 15:43), and of their qualification therefore to " receive the Holy Ghost." All this is the testimony of perfect acceptance in the value of His completed work.

The Acts, while speaking throughout of the fruits of atonement, give little of the doctrine of the work itself. We may therefore pass it over. I am aware of no new aspect in which it is presented to us in it.

The word "mystery" in Scripture does not speak of any thing in itself impossible or even difficult to be understood, but of what is secret except to those to whom it is revealed. Thus the apostle says of the gospel, " But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

Again, in Revelation 1:20, John is told to " write the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."

Even to believers, the New-Testament truths,- those proper to it-were thus mysteries; and so the apostle again and again applies the word. " According to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by prophetic scriptures , made manifest to all nations for the obedience of faith." " The mystery which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." " The mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, and now is made manifest to the saints." And so, speaking generally of the New-Testament mystery, he says, " So let a man think of us as ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." (i Cor. 4:1:)

It is evident, then, that the New Testament as a whole gets its character from these mysteries, which are its own proper and distinct truths. The apprehension of these, and of these as distinct, must be of the very greatest importance to every one who desires the knowledge of the Word of God. The apostle does not even scruple to say of the " mystery of God,"-the sum of these various mysteries,-that therein " are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.*"*Colossians 2:2, 3. The words that follow " the mystery of God" are greatly in question, and the editors differ. Some add, as in our version, "and of the Father and of Christ;" some, "even Christ;" some, "which is Christ;" some, "the Father of Christ." The probability is, these are different versions of an attempt to explain what the mystery of God is, and that they ought really to be left out.* For it is what is distinctively Christian truth which is required to make us in knowledge and in practice Christians. Alas! the extension of the term backward to include all believers from Abel down shows how what is distinctive has been well-nigh lost, to the great injury of souls. Let us, then, with the more care, consider what this mystery of God is.

The first time the word occurs in the New Testament is in Matthew 13:11. Already rejected of Israel in fact, spite of the mighty works which showed conclusively who He was, the Lord has declared that spiritual relationships were those which now He could alone acknowledge. " But He answered and said unto him that told Him, 'Who is My mother, and My brethren?' And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, ' Behold My mother and My brethren! for whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is my mother and sister and brother."

Now this is what Christianity affirms-a relationship purely spiritual, which Judaism never was. Accordingly the Lord now leaves the house and sits by the seaside; and there He begins to speak of that saying of the Word of God broadcast among men which was to introduce and characterize the gospel dispensation. The parabolic form is significant of the rejection of Israel. "Therefore speak I unto them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." And to His disciples He says, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."

Israel rejected, the word goes out addressed to faith any where, and the kingdom in the meanwhile taken from them, assumes another aspect from that announced by the Old-Testament prophets. It is a kingdom with a king absent; set up, not in power, but in patience; in a scene in which Satan, flesh, and world are leagued against it:this is closed by the coming of the Son of Man in person, and the casting out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity,-a coming which introduces the form in which Daniel sees it. Here, therefore, the New-Testament mystery of it ends.

If Daniel be referred to, and connected with the book of Revelation, it will be found how thoroughly this explains a difficulty which has long perplexed the interpreters of prophecy. The seventh of Daniel shows us four great empires, and only four, stretching from the prophet's own day, until the setting up of Messiah's kingdom. These four empires, it is almost universally agreed, are Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The empire of Rome, then, exists when the Son of Man comes in I the clouds of heaven. But here is the obvious difficulty, that the Roman empire has in fact already passed away, and the Son of Man is not yet come. Various efforts have been made to surmount this. Some would fain make the spiritual power of the pope the continuation of the civil imperial power; some would make the coming of the Son of Man a spiritual coming only, and the kingdom of course a spiritual one also. It is not needful for us here to argue as to either of these theories, for theories alone they are. The book of Revelation gives a wholly different and a complete solution. There we find, once more, Daniel's fourth beast, and in connection with the Lord's personal pre-millennial coming (ch. 19:19). But in what shape does this Roman beast appear? As one whom he sees rising up afresh out of the sea, expressly as one revived out of death (ch. 13:3, 12, 14). Beast and woman-civil and ecclesiastical power-are here distinct (ch. 17:), and the announcement angelic illumines with divine light the Old-Testament prophecy:"The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition; and they that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and shall be present" So, and not "and yet is," should the last words be read.

Here we see that the whole time of the national existence of the Roman empire is omitted from the Old-Testament prophecy, and that this gap of omitted time corresponds with the development of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven of which our Lord speaks. The ecclesiastical power which has so long ruled Rome finds its place in connection with these in the New-Testament prophecy; while for the same reason the kingdom of Christ spoken of by Daniel cannot be the spiritual kingdom of the Christian mysteries, which were then unrevealed. Concerning all these parables of the kingdom, the evangelist quotes and applies the prophet's words:" I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."

These two phases of the kingdom, the present and the millennial forms, should not for a moment be confounded by any attentive reader of Scripture. The parables of the thirteenth of Matthew show us clearly the one ending with the other beginning; and the Lord distinguishes them in His address to the church at Laodicea as the times of His sitting on the Father's throne, and of His taking as Son of Man His own. So we are translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. 1:13); while Daniel speaks of the coming of the Son of Man, and similarly the Lord in the parables-"The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity." (13:41.)

This, then, is the first of the New-Testament mysteries, and with this it is easy to see how their ends, named as such, coincide:thus the apostle speaks of the " mystery " of the partial blinding of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in; so too of " the mystery of the gospel" (Eph. 6:19), as concerning which they are enemies for the Gentiles' sakes (Rom, 11:28).

Basis of this gospel is the " mystery of godliness, He who was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory." The actual coming of the Lord in fulfillment of prophecy takes its place thus in the front rank of Christian mysteries. Christ come in flesh; justified in Spirit, personally at His baptism, in testimony to the acceptance of His work when raised from the dead; a spectacle to angels; proclaimed beyond the range of Judaism, to those without claim or promise-those in grace; a testimony believed in the world; received up in glory, and abiding there:this is indeed the mystery by which men's hearts are won to God, and their lives changed to some reflection of His life which is itself light. In this way the Church becomes the " epistle of Christ, written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."

"The riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is Christ among you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27, marg.) Christ among Gentiles no Old-Testament prophet ever spoke of, and the glory here is another than that which pertained to Israel. Heaven, which is opened to receive Christ, has received in Him the Forerunner of a heavenly people. For men on earth, it is a. hope,-not an attainment yet, but a hope how bright!

In Ephesians he develops more distinctly this mystery of Christ among the Gentiles:"Which in other ages was not revealed unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3:5, 6). Three things are now declared, which are all outside the older revelation:-

1. The Gentiles fellow-heirs :on equal terms with Israelites in a heavenly inheritance.

2. Gentiles and Jews made members together of the body of Christ.

3. Gentiles and Jews partakers together of His promise in Abraham's seed, by real identification with that seed, which is Christ.

These three wonderful blessings are all unknown to the Old Testament; they are divine mysteries which the "ministers of Christ" alone can speak of.

1. Of Gentiles being fellow-heirs with Jews no Old-Testament prophet ever spoke. It implies necessarily the setting aside of all such distinctions ; whereas the promise in the Old Testament to Israel is, that "as the new heavens and new earth which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain" (Isaiah 66:22). The apostle has already assured us that to Israel, his kindred after the flesh, these promises belong. So, again, Micah declares, "The law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. . . . And I will make her that halteth a remnant, and her that was cast afar off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to thee shall it come, even the first dominion; .the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem" (4:2, 7, 8). Many more passages might be quoted, but it needs not. Any one can turn to almost any of the prophets, and read them for himself.

2. But the Church itself, the body of Christ, exists also as yet neither in fact nor in promise. In fact, for "we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body" (i Cor. 12:13); and this baptism of the Spirit, prophesied of by the Baptist as the future work of Christ, was announced by the Lord before His ascension as to take place "not many days hence." Not yet had He taken His place as Head in heaven, for it was then, when God " set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places," that He " gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:20, 22, 23). At Pentecost, this wonderful relationship was first established, and to the saints of the present dispensation it entirely belongs. The distinctive promises to Israel which we have just been looking at are absolutely inconsistent with membership in the body of Christ.

3. Our place in Christ is another thing. .It is only as in Christ that we are accepted before God at all. But God's way of blessing us thus, by a new Adam in a new creation, was hid in God until the time that God made it known by Paul. Thus he alone speaks of justification even as before God; for of course James gives us not this, but that before men, by fruit which man can see.

To follow this out would lead us into too large a field; but it is easy to understand that by this truth of new creation is explained what the first chapter of Ephesians gives us:"The mystery of God's will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself for the dispensation of the fullness of times to gather together in one [more literally, "to head up,"] all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth." We see fully in all this how the mysteries are but the out beaming glory of Christ, "the Father of Eternity;" "for Him," as well as "by Him, all things were created."

But the epistle to the Ephesians gives us yet another mystery–the relationship of the Church to Christ, as the Eve of that new creation of which He is the last Adam. This is based upon that of the body to the head; but it is a different thing, as we may easily see by reference to the type in question:" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but loveth it and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church; for we are members of His body."

Here the Lord is said to present the Church to Himself. Eve was presented to Adam by God; but the divine glories of the last Adam shine out every where; so also in this, that He gave Himself for His Church. " God caused," we read, "a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made He a woman, and brought her unto the man." Who can fail to see in Adam's significant sleep that sleep of death, deeper and more mysterious, of Him upon whom it could never have fallen had He not " loved the Church, and given Himself for it"? In this way only could the Church come into being; and as Eve was the very flesh of Adam, so is the Church the body of Christ. But Eve, by being Adam's flesh, was only thus prepared for being his wife; and so with the Church. We are already His body, but only by anticipation His bride,-"espoused," as yet not married. These, then, are two things, very closely connected, not to be confounded.

There is one more mystery, so called in the Word:"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall" not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (i Cor. 15:51,52.) This plainly and closely connects itself with what the apostle, if he does not use the same term, gives distinctly as a new revelation "by the word of the Lord (i Thess. 4:15-17), that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep; for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be ever with the Lord."

This is what closes, not indeed the mystery of the kingdom, (which goes on until the Lord appears and sets it up in power; and there is a most important interval, although a short one, between these two things;) but it closes the Christian dispensation, and introduces the "end of the age,"- that is, of the Jewish age,-the preparatory of discipline and judgment for Israel and the earth, the fruits of which will be found in a remnant ready to inherit the blessing when He that shall come comes, and the times of restitution begin "from the presence of the Lord."

These, then, are the Christian mysteries; not one of them foretold or known in the Old Testament:although when known from the New, the types of the past dispensation catch and reflect back brightly many a gleam of the new glory. It is the same blessed God all through, with the precious grace in His heart from the beginning of those ways which lead steadily on to their full and glad accomplishment. These things, fully at last revealed, characterize, even more than do new-covenant blessings, the "new-covenant" books.

II. DISCIPLESHIP TO A REJECTED MASTER. (Chap. 6:-10:)
In the face of rejection, the Lord now sends out His disciples; chosen before, but now actually sent into the field of labor. This characterizes, I do not doubt, the second part of Mark. It gives us, first, in the sixth chapter, the features, for faith, of a world in which Christ has been rejected, but in which divine love manifests itself in none the less energy, while its ways suit themselves to the condition of things. Secondly, to the ninth verse of the eighth chapter, we have the religious opposition, which ignores man's true need, as well as the authority of God, in contrast with divine grace, which recognizes both. Thirdly, to chapter 9:8, we find the person of Christ confessed by faith, with the cross as present result, the glory the final one. Fourthly, to the end of the same chapter, lowliness and self-judgment are insisted on as the sole way of power and blessing. Lastly, in the tenth chapter, the original divine order in creation is restored, marriage cleared, and its fruits received and blessed, while the fall and need of salvation are maintained, and the principles of reward and rule with Christ announced.

I. (Chap, 6:)The activity of divine love in a scene of rejection.

(i) 6:1-13. Limited by unbelief, yet with full power for men, and seeking them. At the outset, we find the Lord rejected in His own 'country; spite of His mighty works, refused, because of the lowly, familiar way in which He appeared among them. The prophet is not without honor save in his own house. He recognizes this, yet marvels; hindered by their unbelief, can there do no mighty work:yet what they will let Him do He does; He lays His hand upon a few sick folk, and heals them. Still seeking them in patient grace, He goes round about the villages teaching.

It is in face of this unbelief He now sends out the twelve. " He who could not work mighty works, because His service was dependent on divine conditions, on which God could found and carry on His intercourse with men, in order to reveal Himself, now gives power to others over all unclean spirits, a power which is divine. Any can work miracles if God gives the power, but God alone can give it. They are to lack nothing, for Emmanuel was there; and to announce judgment if their message was rejected. Divine love had made Him entirely a dependent Servant; but the dependent Servant was God, present in grace and righteousness," * Synopsis, 3:212.

They who are sent forth are identified then with this gracious activity of divine love toward men; take up their Master's word, and manifest the power given them over the enemy.

(2) 6:14-29. The power of the world in opposition. But here the evangelist turns aside to exhibit the character of the world in opposition to the message of God. At Herod's court the Lord Himself appeared at another time, to find him only hardened by resistance to the present prick of conscience. The scene here is without Christ, in awful antagonism. But such is the rule of the "prince of this world" during the whole present time of long-suffering goodness, until the revelation of the Lord from heaven ends it. How easy to see here the real ruler is not Herod! How marvelous to find Satan using the conscience that would not bow to the word of truth and God, to make him bow to the mandate of a wicked woman against one he knows to be " a just man and a holy"! This, too, was-among the professing people of God, by one who swore to Him the oath by which the prophet died. Since then the powers of the world may be professedly Christian, and that only disguise, not hinder, the real rule of Satan.

(3) 6:30-45. Wilderness ministry. We now return to the Lord, who brings His disciples out into the wilderness for rest and refreshment. This is what still for us the wilderness is made to yield. But here, too, they find a multitude of needy ones, who, seeing them depart, have come out thither after Christ. The day will soon declare how much the wilderness has been the meeting-place between Christ and the souls He serves, and how the Church, in this her necessary place if she will company with Him, has been used for the communication of blessing . to those seeking Him. Little, it may seem, they have, but if God's grace be there, five loaves and two fishes feed five thousand men, while each of those distributing has his precious basket of fragments left,-more than what he began with. For true ministry does not exhaust the one who serves, but furnishes him, if (that is) it be received from Christ. Let us remember the command also to make men sit to eat; and that none that come but find a welcome him that cometh He in no wise casts out.

(4) 6:36-52. His way in the sea. What follows represents His care for His beloved people toiling across the sea, the wind contrary, (for Satan is the prince of the power of the air,) Himself absent:how He comes to them upon the sea, and they know Him not, but take Him to be a spirit, one . conquered of death, not conqueror; how He makes Himself known and is received into the ship, and then the wind ceases. Our general and our individual histories repeat this story often; and how often do we find, when the new trial comes, that we are no more prepared than formerly to recognize the One who comes to us, and when He makes Himself known, it is as great a wonder! Our hearts are, how often, hard and unbelieving as these disciples-indeed, more strangely so.

(5) 6:53-56. The final blessing. But at last the sea is passed, as when He joins us in the end it will be passed, and then the blessing comes, even for the earth, when it, like Gennesaret, shall " know" the One upon whom it all depends, and the blight upon the whole frame of things shall pass, with the spiritual sickness it attends and indicates. For us in His presence also, the former things shall have passed away.

2. (7:-8:9.)The religious opposition, and the grace that alone meets the need of man.

(i) 7:1-23.Human tradition against God and man. We have now the opposition of the religious leaders, always to be met under whatever different forms, until Christ comes. Human authority, first derived from the authority of the Word interpreted, soon and surely displaces the authority of God Himself; and superstition darkens and perverts the natural conscience. It is easier to wash the hands than to purify the heart, and, a priesthood having taken the place of God, their profit may be found in that which sets aside His glory. But man's true need is where all human help is powerless, in a heart from which nothing but evil comes.

(2) 7:24-30. The grace which meets man where no claim is possible. But then in God alone man's help is, and where no claim is possible at all. Of this the Syrophenician woman is the example. A Canaanite, of a race under the curse, and under the power of Satan in her daughter, she is not of the privileged family, but outside-a dog:man's true position whosoever he is. But he has only to take this, to find his sure resource in the grace of God, which cannot possibly fail the one who counts on it. So the woman finds, and from such need Christ cannot be hid.
(3) 7:31-37. The gift of hearing and of speech. But this is not all, nor the worst of man's condition. His deepest need is just that which leaves him without voice to cry, or ears to hear the word that comes to him. It is here we find the Lord oppressed with the state to which He ministers. This is indeed the fullness of grace, yet it is that of which every saved soul is the recipient. Here the election of grace is marked, the man being taken apart from the multitude when he receives healing. And this, it seems to me, connects this with the miracle that follows in which is emphasized-

(4) 8:1-9. The divine sufficiency of the provision made for man. We have a similar miracle indeed to that in the sixth chapter, but the numbers tell a different tale. It is now seven loaves, instead of five, and the baskets-large baskets, and not as before,-are seven also. Before, the numbers 5 and 12 point surely to the human instrumentality employed. Seven speaks rather of divine perfection, although still the grace of God employs men as instruments. This is the fitting close of what is the subject of this second section.

3. (8:lo-9:8.) The confession of Christ, leading to the cross in this world, and to the glory beyond.

(i) 8:10-13. The unbelieving Pharisees seek a sign. Again the section opens with the question of unbelief on the part of the leaders of the people. The Pharisees seek a sign from heaven-some wonder which would command the attention and secure the homage of men at large. The sign of the Son of Man in heaven will be this at last, but too late then. Their former religiousness had no need of the cross, and could not recognize the lowly self-humiliation to which divine love had stooped for men. But of necessity that love must keep its own way, and Christ must be a stumbling-block to those whose pride could not interpret grace. To such a generation no sign could be given.

(2) 8:14-26. The leaven of the Pharisees. But not only in enemies did these things work; the leaven of the Pharisees acted as hindrance to faith in the hearts of the disciples also, and the. Lord's warning words to them as to it only serve to bring it out. They prove themselves ignorant of the proper power and glory of Him in whom yet they sincerely believe. They see, but as through a vail, "men as trees." This condition is no doubt represented in the blind man at Bethesda. But the Lord does not leave incomplete that to which He has once put His hand, and at last the man is restored and sees every thing clearly.

(3) 8:27-30. Faith's confession. Save in those brought thus by personal need into contact with the Lord Jesus, there was nowhere any true faith, those who thought to do Him honor only equaled Him with John the Baptist, Elias, or some other prophet. For truly convicted souls, blessed be God ! there is but one Christ. Peter, divinely taught, then confesses Him. But for Israel, as for man / in nature, all was over therefore, and as Messiah, He charges them that they should tell no man of Him. Through depth's of suffering and distress the way lay open to higher glory,-the glory from which He had stooped, and to which He was to return with the joy for which He endured the cross.

(4) 8:31-38. The way of the cross. And now the Lord begins to speak openly of His rejection and death; and immediately the unbelief which can be so strangely mixed with faith begins to show itself in Peter. He "took Him, and began to rebuke Him"! but the Lord at once rebukes as of Satan Peter's opposition, and announces this cross of His as a pattern and principle for His disciples also. " Whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's," (observe how legality is swept away by the very terms,) "the same shall save it. . . . . Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

(5) 9:1-8. The glory at the end. The revelation of the glory closes, therefore, this section. Three-disciples are taken up into the mount of transfiguration to see the kingdom of God come with power. All the elements of the kingdom are in the scene, -the saint who has passed through death; the saint who, like another Enoch, was translated without seeing death; the saints on earth in natural bodies, yet with the glory openly revealed; the "bright cloud," the Shekinah, soon declared as the place of the Father's presence; but Jesus, the Son of Man, proclaimed once more, as at the beginning of His ministry, the Son of God, is the object before the eyes of the astonished disciples, who, if they for a moment put their lowly Master upon some sort of equality of footing with Moses and Elias, are at once warned by the voice from the " excellent glory," " This is My beloved Son; hear Him."

4. (9:9-50.)Lessons of the Path.

(i) 9:9-13. The lesson of resurrection from the dead. The Lord has already spoken of resurrection, but now He refers them to the time when the Son of Man should be risen from the dead as the time when the glory just, unvailed to them should be matter of public testimony and of common joy. But before this, the. Son of Man must suffer, as Elias, for that generation had already come and been cut off. Thus resurrection from the dead, at which they wonder now as a new thing announced, is indeed the foundation of the power and blessedness of Christianity. It is the witness of Christ's work accepted for us; it is that in which we too are risen with Him ; it is that which gives character to our walk through the world. These meanings are not here, nor could be yet, unfolded; but to us, they connect necessarily with what the Lord speaks of to His disciples.

(2) 9:14-29. The lesson of power to use power. On their descent from the mountain, they find a multitude gathered, and the scribes questioning with the other disciples. The power of Satan is manifesting itself unchecked by that which the Lord had intrusted to them. It is this that causes His exclamation, " O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?" Still there is resource 'in Himself. The only lack of power, as He assures the father of the afflicted child, is in the lack of faith. The devil is cast out; and the Lord, in answer to the question, " Why could not we cast Him out?" points out the root of failure to be in want of prayer and fasting. Dependence and self-denial is the secret of power, without which we do not practically possess what in fact is ours. We have seen, in the beginning of His ministry, the Lord Himself meeting Satan as the dependent One; how necessary, then, that His followers should do so!

(3) 9:30-37. The lesson of greatness. The Lord we find full of the cross and of resurrection; the disciples, shrinking from this, are occupied with and dispute about which of them should be the greatest. The Lord bids them understand that the desire to be first would put one last of all. He takes a child as His fitting representative, and assures them that whosoever receives one such little child in His name receives both Himself and His Father also. Self-seeking is surely the antipodes of greatness, as every conscience needs must own. And yet how far asunder are heart and conscience here!

(4) 9:38-41. A lesson on "not following us'' An important lesson comes next as to the largeness of heart by which alone we are competent for a narrow path. John answers the Lord, " Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and he followeth not us; and we forbad him, because he followeth not us." It is self in a subtle, religious way, none the less offensive upon that account. Think of devils being actually cast out in the name of Christ, and a disciple of His forbidding it! But liberality is not enjoined, as men enjoin, upon the ground of any uncertainty as to the path itself. They could not be-how could it be supposed they could be-uncertain of their own path. The Lord puts His answer upon different ground entirely. " No man can do a miracle in My name that can lightly speak evil of Me." In the midst of a world which rejects Christ, how simple and necessary should be the recognition of all that is of Him. It is the joy of the Spirit to take forth the precious from the vile, supposing there be the vile. And as to the Lord Himself, there is not a cup of water given to a disciple in His name but He will acknowledge it in due season.

(5) 9:42-50. Salting with fire. On the other hand, woe to him who causes to stumble one of Christ's little ones; and whatever in you causes you to stumble, cut it off:for every one shall be salted with the fire of divine holiness. If it be in this present life, the result will be holiness eternal; but if not, in Gehenna the flame of remorse will accompany the eternal fire which will subdue all opposition. " Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another."

5. (10:1-45.) The moral restitution of a fallen world.

(i) 10:1-12. The divine order of marriage restored. We find now the moral Order of the kingdom of God, in which the defects of the law (which made nothing perfect) are removed, and the institutions of God in creation are freed from the perversions of man, fallen and corrupt. In answer to the Pharisees, the Lord restores the primitive meaning of marriage, and forbids the divorce which Moses, for the hardness of their hearts, had allowed.

(2) 10:13-16. Children received and blessed. Children are next received and pronounced of the kingdom of God, while whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

(3) 10:17-27. The need of salvation affirmed. But if only as a little child can the kingdom be entered, the power of man to earn it in any shape is excluded. His goodness is set aside. Not the rich but the poor enter, and that by the very grace of God,-by salvation. Thus the natural amiability, which even drew out the regard of Jesus, when tested, proves only the more decisively the complete ruin of man. " There is none good but One, that is, God." The first-born of fallen man is Cain, "possession;" for the heart dropped away from Him who alone can satisfy it, seeks its good where death reigns over all, where all is vanity. Possessed of this, God is all the more shut out by it out of his heart, and " it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." But " who then can be saved?" asks the disciples. That is indeed what is needed-salvation; but that is entirely in the hands of God:"with men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible."

(4) 10:28-31. The principle of reward. Peter then begins to say to Him, " Lo, we have left all and followed Thee." The heart of a disciple is quite capable of turning the rewards of grace into earning, and so destroy their whole character. Divine love will in fact reward, but only what is done for Christ, not for the reward. "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or-lands, for My sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life." But then all depends upon the motive; and thus, in result, " many that are first shall be last, and the last first."

(5) 10:32-45. The kingdom of God no kingdom of the Gentiles. Again the Lord begins to put before them the cross. It was that which if they had known in its inner meaning, of necessity would have delivered them from the spirit they immediately manifest; for James and John come unto Him now seeking the places on the right hand and the left in His glory. The Lord puts to them the question of their ability to drink of the cup He was to drink, and be baptized with the baptism with which He would be baptized. They answer, though they had shrunk from it just before, that they are able. He replies that they shall do this, but that the places they seek are not His to give, except to those for whom they' are prepared of His Father. When the ten hear it, they are much displeased, for the same spirit really animates them all; and then the simple blessed truth is stated, so clear and necessary when made known, so impossible to conceive beforehand, that God's kingdom is not like a kingdom of the Gentiles-the places in it not such as would satisfy the pride and ambition of men. The highest there is He who as the " Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." The spirit of service is that which qualifies for a rule which is service still, the ministry of love which values the wealth that is in its hand as power to minister.

God for us:Creator, Governor, Disposer of all things; so as to make practically independent of the world's resources, as well as master over all that sin has caused in it.

Shout for joy in Jehovah, ye righteous:for the upright, comely is praise.

2. Celebrate Jehovah with the harp; with the ten-stringed lyre sing to Him psalms.

3. Sing to Him a new song:play skillfully with a loud noise.

4. For right is Jehovah's word; and in faithfulness all His work.

5. He loveth justice and judgment:the earth is full of the goodness of Jehovah.

6. By Jehovah's word were the heavens made; and all their host by the breath of His mouth.

7. He passeth as a heap the waters of the sea; He lath up the depths in treasuries.

8. Let all the earth fear Jehovah; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him!

9. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood.

10. Jehovah bringeth to naught the counsel of the nations; He disalloweth the thoughts of the peoples.

11. The counsel of Jehovah standeth forever; the thoughts of His heart from generation to generation.

12. Happy is the nation whose God Jehovah is, -the people He hath chosen for His inheritance.

13. Jehovah regardeth from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men.

14. From the place of His habitation He looketh close upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

15. He who fashioneth their hearts together, who understandeth all their works.

16. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host:a mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

17. The horse is a vain thing for safety, and by his great strength he shall not deliver.

18. Lo, Jehovah's eye is toward them that fear . Him, toward those who hope in His mercy;

19. To rescue their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

20. Our soul hath looked for Jehovah; our help and shield is He.

21. For our heart shall be glad in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.

22. Let Thy mercy, Jehovah, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee.

Remarks.-This is a psalm which anticipates somewhat one of the themes of the fourth book, of which the hundred and fourth psalm is a full expression. "Jehovah" is the covenant-name of God, the name by which He takes up in grace His people. But Jehovah is the Creator-God, in whose hands all His works are. The fourth book dwells upon the fact that in Christ these two are one-the breach between Creator and creation healed, and more:the Creator Himself has done this. This gives its character to the coming of Christ as Jehovah, who yet is Second Man, to take possession of all. The present psalm gives only the effect for faith now of the Covenant-God of grace being Creator and Sovereign of all.

I. (Chap. 3:1-6.) The herald of the kingdom. It is striking that only in Matthew is John seen as proclaiming the kingdom. Outside of Jerusalem and her religious service, his place in the wilderness, in dress and food apart, he baptizes to repentance in the river of death, preparing the way of the Lord. The people return to him, not he to them.

II. (Ver. 7-12.) His testimony. In the Pharisees, religious pretension asserted itself among a people in spiritual ruin; in the Sadducees, open unbelief. To these, the leaders of the people, John declares the ax at the root of the fruitless tree. They must not claim to be Abraham's children,-for a Jew, the loss of all his privileges,-and God would nevertheless act in power to raise up children to Abraham, as it were out of the stones. The Lord before whom John went would baptize with the Holy Ghost, but also with the fire of judgment, and thoroughly purge Israel, His floor.

III. (Ver. 13-17.)The proclamation and anointing of the King. Then the Lord comes to take His place in death for those He finds there, not as one whose due it is, but to "fulfill righteousness."It is His pledging Himself to that more solemn " baptism " to which for the people of His love He must needs stoop. And He who could give an argument to the Father's love in thus laying down His life (Jno. 10:17) is thereupon owned by the Father as His Son, in whom He has found His delight, the Spirit as a dove anointing Him for His work. The bird of heaven, the bird of love and sorrow, in whose silver wings-for redemption brought Him down-is the sheen of the gold, the display of divine glory, is His fitting type.

IV. (Chap. 4:i-2:) His proving in the wilderness. Thus proclaimed and anointed, He is exposed to the tempter, led up of the Spirit, not of His own will. The Second Man, blessed contrast to the first, is tempted in a wilderness, not in a garden, fasts to meet the devil, for complete exposure, not, as others, to meet God. His forty days' proving, not fed with manna, but hungry, reveals Him perfect in the knowledge which in forty years of lessons Israel had failed to learn. He answers Satan out of Deuteronomy, in which the moral of their wanderings is declared, taking ever the place of man in dependence, out of which by the truth of His divine glory Satan would seduce Him.

The flesh, in Him sinless, is the first point of attack. Here is found, in One come into the world only to do God's will, no motive in the hunger of a forty days' fast to provoke a will to satisfy it. Man lives by the word of God, not bread; so He in dependent willlessness.

The second temptation is as Messiah, to whom the promise quoted confessedly belonged. But the devil mutilates it, for the blessed word of God could not in any honest usage be a means of temptation. He would lead the Lord aside from His " ways," to prove (as if He needed proof) that God was for Him. But if Israel had thus tried God, He, perfect in faith, could not do so.

Finally, and at once, all the kingdoms of the world are set before Him, by the sudden dazzle to throw Him, if possible, off His guard, if but for a moment, and seduce His heart from its allegiance to God. But here Satan has disclosed himself, and being disclosed, is defeated. He departs, and angels come and minister to the Conqueror.

V. (Chap. 4:12-7:) The principles of His kingdom.

(1) 4:12-25. The proclamation of the kingdom by the King. And now, according to Isaiah's prophecy, the light shines in Galilee. The King Himself proclaims the kingdom, gathers around Him those who are to be the heralds of it, and exhibits the power by which evil shall be banished from the earth under Messiah's sway.* *"The powers of the world to come " (Heb. 6:5):The word " powers " being one commonly used in the plural for miracles; and "the world to come," the regular phrase for Messiah's kingdom (upon earth).*

(2) 5:1-16. The character of the heirs of it. Thus manifesting His title to the kingdom, in the presence of the multitude He instructs His disciples in the characteristics of it. This is the " sermon on the mount." The kingdom here, we must remember, is that which the prophets of the Old Testament had announced, in which Jerusalem shall yet be, more gloriously than ever, "the city of the great King" (5:35), and "times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; " not as now, the kingdom in the time of His absence. Yet in principle the Lord's words apply to us often with more force on that account, as we may easily see, if we apprehend the difference of dispensation.

He begins with describing the character and blessedness of the heirs of the kingdom, a character formed by the hope of that they see not yet, as given in four beatitudes (10:3-6), and displaying the more specific divine lineaments which are found in all God's children, given in three (10:7-9). "Poor in spirit," because their heart is set upon what is beyond; "meek," as claiming nothing in the present (see Ps. 37:); "mourners," as their Lord was, in a world of sin and its attendant misery; "hungering after righteousness," as feeling the divorce between it and judgment now (see Ps. 94:15). These are the first four. The merciful and the pure (in heart, not externally merely,) answer in measure to the divine character as "love" and "light;" while the third and last of these final beatitudes shows the activity of these, and hence the "peacemakers shall be called the children of God."
Two beatitudes follow of those who incur the opposition of the world for their practical conduct and for their testimony. Persecuted for righteousness' sake, they are yet the " salt of the earth," and for Christ's sake, they are its light. They are to let that light (their testimony to Him,) shine before men, that they may thus see their good works, and glorify their Father.

(3) 5:17-48. The law maintained and perfected. Next, the law is maintained in its integrity, not a jot or tittle removed. It is to be written on Israel's heart according to the terms of the new covenant (Jer. 31:33). The Lord's "fulfilling" it means that He brings out the fullness of it. He applies it to the thoughts and intents of the hearts, and completes it by the repeal of what had been of old time suffered for the hardness of them. By the manifestation of love even to enemies they are to show themselves the sons of their Father in heaven.

(4) 6:1-18. Righteousness before the Father. Three special characters follow of a righteousness* which is to be before God, not men:alms, as practical righteousness manward; prayer, the evidence of dependence Godward; and fasting- mortification-selfward. *"Alms" (5:1) should be as in the margin, "righteousness."*

In the first case, it is important to note that mercy, from those who are the simple recipients of mercy, is simple righteousness (comp. 18:32, 33). And not only are deeds of mercy not to be blazoned before the world, but to be done as if were in unconsciousness to ourselves of their being- done (comp. 25:37-39).

In the second case, the prayer our Lord teaches the disciples is not in His name (Jno. 16:24), nor from the stand-point of Christianity. It could not yet be. But it is the perfection of prayer in the place in which they then stood. The thought of divine government runs through the whole, but the most complete subjection of heart to Him who is on the throne, who is the Father. The first petition is that that name may be hallowed; the second, that His kingdom come; the third, to which this necessarily leads, that His will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. How blessed the condition of soul in which such like desires seek foremost utterance before its own personal need! Then how simply and beautifully is this expressed! The owning of dependence, without desire to escape out of the place of it, looking for daily bread-no more. The sense of sin needing forgiveness from God, leading to the manifestation of a spirit of forgiveness toward others. Lastly, a sense of infirmity which deprecates trial and the evil it may elicit.

In the third case, fasting, it is well to remember the apostle's word to us, " If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Of this, fasting was the expression, though in a form of sorrow unsuited to the joy of the Bridegroom's presence (9:15). And it still remains as this expression in times of solemnity and trial and exercise of soul before God (chap. 17:21; Acts 13:2).

(5) 6:19-34. The eye and the object. Now the Lord goes deeper, and lays bare the heart, detected in that which governs it. As the eye is the inlet of light to the body, so faith to the soul. Here heaven contains our treasure, and our one Master is God. To admit another object means divided service (in which God is not really served at all,) and a darkened eye. On the other hand, as to all here, our Father's care leaves us without the need of care to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness alone.
(6) 7:1-12. Meting the measure we would receive, A principle of divine government is now insisted on. By the hands of men God metes men their own measure. Therefore beware of harsh judgments, and the measure you mete; while nevertheless you must not loosely abandon spiritual things (as men have the so-called "sacraments,") to those incapable of valuing them. So may you look for God to give you what to you shall be of value; and what you want to have done to you you must do.

(7) 7:13-29. Practical treading the path pressed, and building upon the Word. Finally, entering in is pressed, a practical treading the path, though narrow, and refused by the mass. False prophets would come also, deceiving souls. Mere lip-honor to Christ would avail nothing in the day which was coming to test all; nor any thing but such acquaintance with Himself as would be shown by practical building on His words. Here alone was true wisdom, as would then be fully proved.

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." (Eph. 2:17.)

It is well and commonly said that the simplicity the gospel is its difficulty with souls. God's ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. We do not know ourselves even, until of God reveals us to ourselves, and we elation as long as it is possible at all Hence repentance, 1:e., the bowing in I; the judgment which the Word has pro-d concerning us, is in God's order absolutely necessary to the reception of the gospel. It is not, and cannot be, as some in the present day would have it, " Believe the gospel and repent," but as we find the Lord Himself preaching it (Mark 1:15)-"Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Faith in the Word must thus, however, precede repentance, for only from faith can repentance flow; and as soon as faith is in the soul, its fruits begin to manifest themselves. Conversion is the turning of the man to God. Naturally, his dependence is upon himself and not upon God; and it is as his face is turned God ward his back is turned upon himself. Thus repentance, the soul's judgment of itself according to the Word, is never absent where faith is-comes as it were with it, and yet is the fruit of it.

But it is as the soul is thus turned from its self-confidence,-as it receives and bows to the judgment of God upon itself,-that the gospel becomes clear, suitable, necessary, and how precious! None could have imagined it ever. The greatness of our necessity is no argument in itself that God could come so far to meet it,-no revelation of the way by which it could be met; but the way being revealed, and the love of God declared in the gift of His Son, the knowledge of our necessity prepares us to apprehend and receive the joyful news of salvation, otherwise unintelligible and untrusted. It is then and thus it becomes simple. John the Baptist in this way comes with the baptism of repentance to prepare the way of the Lord; and the Lord Himself begins His ministry with a John-Baptist strain; and while Pharisees murmured at His grace, all the publicans and sinners drew near to hear Him.

The gospel, with all its freedom, is thus selective. There are tender arms of love for sinners:what could be freer? But the "sinners" that drew near, were they the whole mass of a guilty world? " The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost;" but out of a hundred in the wilderness, one sheep is lost, one sinner repents.

Yet the gospel is free, as the heart of God is gracious, and as the work of Christ is infinite in value. He has "made peace through the blood of His cross," and the gospel of peace is to be preached, not simply at large in the world, but individually " to every creature."The grace to all is emphasized to each. It makes no demand but for reception. It does not preach of effort to be put forth, or experiences to be learned, or attainment to be made. The story of man is ended with the cross; it is now the story of over-abounding grace that is being told out; and grace is not claim, but gift,-gift yours if only you will have it, with all its blessedness, which no apprehension or experience can ever reach to, "the unsearchable riches of Christ," the fullness of a " love, that passeth knowledge."

There are two aspects of the proclamation of peace which the gospel makes which I desire to consider now, and by the putting of which to-gather, some may find, that have not yet found, real apprehension and enjoyment of it in their These two aspects give us two things which greatest importance to keep together- the supremacy of God and the blessing of man. Condition of the world at every point subjection to God being thrown off. only through the grace of God is a return from condition practicable at all, and only by the power of the Spirit of God is it ever effected; but in no way which does not involve a return to the spirit of obedience could blessing for him be found. It is this that conscience insists on with us, and rightly; but if that be all, legality in some shape will become our vain resource. The gospel alone can really deliver us from our own ways, and, by a proper reconciliation, put us in the place of blessing.

When Israel of old went against a hostile city, they were to proclaim, according to the word of the Lord, peace unto it; and if it made answer of peace, and opened its gates, it became tributary and served. Here there was no original duty of service; but the world has revolted from a yoke obnoxious to it, and refused just obedience to the divine claim. They have turned every one to his own ways-so dear to pride, as that. How plainly do we see it in Israel's refusal of that law which by every tie of interest and gratitude bound them to One who had shown openly His power before their eyes, and in their behalf. Yet their history is little more than one of wanderings from Him. Nor is this even merely human fickleness. Those who served other gods were not thus fickle:"Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods? but My people have changed their glory unto that which doth not profit."

And when Christ came, after the rejection of a long series of God's messengers, as the last resource He had, and He sends His best-beloved, saying, "They will reverence My Son:" what was the answer? "This is the Heir:come, let us kill Him, and let us seize on His inheritance." Thus the cross was the final expression of long-manifested enmity, not on Israel's part only, but on that of the world:"Now is the judgment of this world," the Lord says; and " the friendship of this world is enmity against God." (Jas. 4:4.)

From the grave, in which man would fain have sealed Him up, He comes forth with all authority in heaven and earth His, and to take His seat at the right hand of God. "God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified," says the apostle, "both Lord and Christ."

He is Lord, and every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue confess that He is such; but He is Christ, a Saviour, and whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Into this judged and hostile world a message of peace is sent, antedating the sure day of coming judgment. God preaches peace by Jesus Christ, and where an " answer of peace " is returned, the soul owning in Him its rightful Lord, judgment is removed, and peace established as its proper possession.

Pause here, beloved reader, and ask yourself, have you in truth of heart owned this blessed One ? Is He to you, in more than name, " Master and Lord"? To repeat those titles formally, as do so many, is of course worse than worthless; but if in deed and in truth you have surrendered to Him, if you have confessed with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believed in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (Rom. 10:9).

Peace then is yours from God. His controversy with you is over. It is not a question of your feeling about it, although He tells you of it, that you may enjoy it without suspicion, that no contrary thought may arise in your heart. Give Him full credit for what He has said, who could not possibly deceive you, and then you will realize it as peace within your heart, unchallengeably and inalienably yours; for " whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
The world is divided into two hostile camps. Neutrality is not possible to any. "He that is not with Me is against Me." And this of course must be real:it is not profession but confession that is called for; and belief with the heart and confession with the mouth the apostle links together; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. If, then, you have truthfully accepted Christ as your Lord, He will be your Saviour also. Peace is proclaimed in His name, that if you return an " answer of peace," submitting yourself to Him, you may know on God's part that His controversy with you is over, and be practically at peace in your own soul.

But observe, that while these are the terms upon which peace is yours, and you have positively nothing more to do than to throw down your arms and surrender to Christ to have this wonderful mercy shown you, yet on God's part much was needed to be done in order that He, might righteously be able to assume this attitude toward you. This peace proffered had first to be made; and it is made:He hath " made peace through the blood of His cross." That which for us is free, involved for Him this wonderful sacrifice. On man's part, the cross was the very height of desperate rebellion ; on His own, " No man taketh My life from Me," He says, " but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again:this commandment have I received of My Father." Judgment is pronounced upon the world for what is man's act; but for that which is His own in it, not judgment but divine grace to man flows out. "Therefore doth My Father love Me because I lay down My life, that 1 might take it again." By One dying a sinner's death, a work of infinite value is accomplished which not only God can accept, but in which He finds the fullest delight. No place but His own right hand for Him who has done this work can express worthily His delight in it; and this flows out once more in the welcome every returning prodigal receives. Who that believes that it is the fruit of Christ’s work that he receives can wonder at the freeness or the greatness of the gift bestowed ? And the work of the cross, for whom was it ? death and curse, for whom did the Holy One take these?

The character of this work makes it humility as well as faith to own that for us He died. The value of it is our title to all the wealth that Scripture reveals as the portion of the believer. Faith in it is the destruction of legality in our approach to God. " Christ is the end of the law for righteousness" to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that doeth these things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise:Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven ? (that is, to bring down Christ from above;) or who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)"-And this is the work needed, if work is to be done! What a rebuke of the thought that by legal effort aught can be attained! Don't think of bringing Christ down to do once more His blessed work! or of raising Him from the dead, after His work accomplished! It needs not, blessed be God! it is already, and once for all, done.-" But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy heart and in thy mouth; (that is, the word of faith which we preach:) that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

It is to the call of grace, then, that we are bidden to surrender. The throne to which we bow is a throne of grace; and herein is its sweet effectual compulsion found; hence is its power to mold our lives by engaging our affections, and winning our hearts to the God whom it displays. " We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation. The fruit we are to produce springs from the seed of the gospel, necessarily first received in order to produce it.

Peace is proclaimed:to enemies, that they may bow and so receive it; to those no longer enemies, "that they may enjoy the assurance of what is theirs, but theirs through the work of Another, dying even for His enemies. " Peace I leave with you " were the words which anticipated the work of the cross; "Peace be unto you," the words with which He returned from the dead; and then showed them His hands and His side, the wound of that conflict by which the rest of victory is assured to us. How sweetly sovereign the manner in which He thus makes over the fruit of His work to His beloved people! It is the relation in which they stand eternally with God; stable as the value of that by which it has been made:"being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

It is proclaimed to you, beloved reader, whoever you are :reconciliation on the basis of Christ's accepted work, if only on your part you will be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20). It is no question whether He will be reconciled to you, but only if you will be to Him. If your heart can say, How glad would I be-how thankful to accept this! you need have no doubt whatever of this happiness being yours. Peace He publishes to you through the work of His Son, and it is for you to say whether there shall be peace. If you accept His terms,-if you bow indeed to the Lord Jesus Christ,-if you will be reconciled, then God is at peace with you, and Christ is your peace:He has made it by the blood of His cross; made it for sinners, for enemies, that you may be no more such, but reconciled to God through the death of His Son. How dear and tender a pledge of what is in His heart toward you-" For God hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him "!

"Leaky vessels hold no water. If in Christ, you will be full of water. A vessel with no bottom to it can be kept full of water if in a fountain. Out of Christ, we are broken vessels, holding none. There is nothing in the vessel apart from Christ."

"How little our hearts love things according to their nearness to Christ! How little thought we have of the preciousness of Christians because they are dear to Christ! We ought to love good things for Christ's sake, and not only for the dew that distills from them for our refreshment." G.V.W.

The blessedness of one forgiven, with God his hiding-place from trouble, and guided by His eye.

[A psalm] of David, for instruction. Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

2. Happy is the man to whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

3. While I kept silence, my bones wasted, because of my roaring all the day.

4. For day and night Thy hand was heavy on me:my sap is turned into a summer drought. Selah.

5. I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not covered:I said, " I will confess my transgressions to Jehovah," and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

6. On this account shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee, in a time Thou mayest be found:surely in the flood of many waters, they shall not reach unto him.

7. Thou art my hiding-place; Thou shalt preserve me from strait:Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou goest; I will counsel [thee], Mine eye upon thee.

9. Be ye not as the horse [or] the mule, which has no understanding; its ornament bit and bridle to bind fast [or] it will not come near thee.

10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in Jehovah, mercy shall compass him about.

11. Be glad in Jehovah, and exult, ye righteous ; and shout for joy, all ye upright of heart.

Text.-(9) Some would have as the Authorized Version, "lest it come near thee."

Remarks.-(Title.) This is the first of the Maschil psalms, or psalms for instruction. Now considering that the whole book of psalms looks on specially to the last days, and that in Israel in that day there are divinely raised-up teachers who are given this same name of Maschilim, (Dan. 11:33, 35, "they that understand ; " 12:3, 10, "the wise,") and considering the peculiar character of these psalms themselves, it seems to me that they are special instruction for this very class. Revelation 13:18 and xvii 9 are, I believe, distinctly marked as similar instruction :nota bene for their eyes; while of course this in no wise prevents our use and application of them. Compare the Maschil psalms lii-lv, which reveal the character of Antichrist. But then how beautiful is it to see the first page turned down for them here, in which both the blessedness of forgiveness is dwelt on, and Jehovah their hiding-place, and His guidance for them. First lessons for Maschilim of all time to receive and give!
(i, 5) When I have not covered, God covers.

(5) "I said, 'I will confess'"-not "did confess." Divine love, prompt to meet us ("he ran" anticipates the confession. (Comp. the father and prodigal, Luke 15:17, 18, 20, 21.)

(7) The "music and dancing" of Luke 15:

Matthew has seven main divisions, which again are subdivided into a number of sections.

I.* THE KING (CHAP. i, 2:)

* The figures appended to these sections, whether the larger or smaller ones, are always given as significant, according to the principles already established from the Word. It is not to be expected that their significance will in general be dwelt upon. They are given to be tested by those whose habit it is to test by the only standard all that is presented to them. Let ray readers remember the apostle's words as to all Christians:" Ye have an unction from the holy One, and need not that any man teach you,"- 1:e., are not dependent upon the teacher as an authority.*

I. (Chap. 1:) His title proved. The first chapter reveals to us the titles and glories of the King. The genealogy is placed first, for it is the Son of David and of Abraham who is to be before us. But this is but as the outer court of the temple; His true glory is that He is Immanuel, " God with us." The genealogy is no doubt Joseph's-the legal one, His title naturally. Joseph, not Mary, is prominent in these chapters, and carefully reminded of his royal birth. That it is the legal genealogy, only makes the more "impressive its containing (just in the undeniable part too, for any one claiming to be king in Israel,) the four women's names mentioned in it. All are probably, -most, certainly, Gentiles. And in each case their connection with the Lord's descent brings out some striking feature of the gospel. Tamar's sin connects her; Rahab's faith; for Ruth, the law is set aside; while Bathsheba, specially mentioned as Uriah's wife, shows us a believer's sin unable to set aside the purposes of God toward him. Thus the Lord is shown as the true Seed of Abraham.

And this is a specimen of Matthew's way of stating the gospel, in the vailed style of the Old Testament, from which of course all this is taken.

Thus far the genealogy, marking out the Son of David according to the flesh. The three divisions of the genealogy (5:17) show us, first, how God had elevated Jacob's seed into a kingdom; secondly, how they had declined into utter ruin; thirdly, God's bringing back a people to wait in ruin and darkness, without a history, Him by whom alone all could be restored.

But now we are made to know (10:18-25), in the game wondrous Person, the One " without genealogy" (Heb. 7:3, Gr.); born, as we are new-born, of the Holy Ghost, the predicted Son of a virgin, Immanuel, God with us. Such is Heaven's King, who to fulfill His divine title must be Jesus,-a Saviour. Thus we have full introduction to Him already in all the characters in which this gospel presents Him to us.

II. (Chap, 2:) The second chapter intimates at once His history. The Gentile magi, come up to do homage to the " King of the Jews," find His capital city first ignorant, then troubled by the news. They can designate Him scripturally enough as God's Shepherd-King for His Israel, out of Bethlehem, the " house of bread." But the Edomite is in the place of power, and the Edomite hatred, unchecked and against God, fulfills His word in judgment upon the guilt) people. Bethlehem that had no welcome for her Saviour, finds none from the destroyer now. He who is cast out in fact by Israel herself, departs from the guilty people.
The Gentiles meanwhile have worshiped and presented their gifts, " gold and frankincense and myrrh," significant gifts, no doubt, whether those who offered them were conscious of it or not. Gold is the symbol of divine glory; frankincense, of the precious humanity whose trial by fire only brought forth the odor of a sweet smell, acceptable to God; while the myrrh, used, in embalming, speaks of the death by which He was to save His people from their sins.

Gone down into Egypt, the Lord assumes the place of the true "Israel" (Isa. 49:3, 4), and begins again the history of the people from the beginning, as their Representative for the eye and heart of God. In this way Hosea's words apply to Him (11:i). Out of it God calls Him into the "land of Israel," (the only place in the New Testament where it is called so,) that, because it is indeed Immanuel's land (Isa. 8:8).

But He comes back to Galilee,* where, still according to Isaiah's prophecy (9:i, 2), the light breaks forth, for " Galilee of the Gentiles" is the place where, the ruin of the people being manifest, God can come in with help. *"Galilee" means "circuit." Is it because here the lost blessings return ? Certainly none of these Scripture-names without significance.* There, then, He abides, "in a city called Nazareth," the place of all others but of which comes no good. He is "sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Is God known, loved, and trusted? If He be, the heart will delight in the most absolute, dependence upon Him.