The Christian has three powerful enemies:-the flesh within him, the world all about him and the devil who is both prince and god of this world. We have however, far more on our side:-The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let us but cling to them on our side, and all is well.

Chapter 2:18-21.

(Continued from page 319, Dec. 1912.)

The apostle has now fully met and answered every question that could be raised as to his apostleship:that he had been called by God; had received a message from Him to proclaim, in no sense inferior or secondary to theirs; and that all this had been recognized by themselves.

It remains for him now to declare with the same authority what the evil results are of the attempt to judaize Christianity. This he does in the last four verses of chapter 2. In turning to those verses I call special attention to his use of the personal pronoun ""I." In his address to Peter, in verses 14-17, he says "we," because he is speaking to a fellow Jew. The "we "there is not the apostolic "we," but the "we" of believing Jews. But, in verses 18-21, he says "I " as the representative and exponent of the fully revealed Christianity. Using Paul as His chosen instrument God had completed the Christian revelation. It is important for us to remember this. Paul was " set for," or "appointed to," the defense of the full Christian gospel. As under God's authority he not only proclaimed the truth specially committed to him, but exposed and withstood every effort from whatever quarter it came to frustrate, or make void the grace of God.

To judaize Christianity is to frustrate the grace of God. An attempt was being made to do this in Galatia. Paul, therefore, as called of God for the proclamation and defense of the gospel thus fully revealed, withstands the strenuous efforts of the Judaizers, and exposes the full consequences of this Judaistic movement. He shows that it means the complete destruction of Christianity as God has revealed it.

Let us see now how he does this. Let us remember that Paul speaks, in verse 18, as a representative Christian in saying, "For if I build again the things which I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." In effect, he says :For a Christian, whether he be a Jew or a Gentile, to return to any system the principle of which is self-help, after having given up that principle, is practically making himself a transgressor in having given it up.

We have seen how the apostle in his reasoning with Peter appeals to the fact that believing Jews have given up the principle of self-help-works of law- as the way of obtaining righteousness. They had sought and obtained righteousness on the principle of faith. Now there is abundant scripture to show that the Gentile is saved and justified in the same way as a Jew (Acts 15:11, Greek; Rom. 3:30). It is just as true of a believing Gentile as it is of a believing Jew that he has "destroyed" (set aside) the systems characterized by the principle of self-effort. No one ever becomes a Christian on that principle, except professedly. All who are really Christians become such on the principle of faith.

The Galatians had become Christians by faith, not by law-works; but Judaizers were influencing them to take it up again, and the apostle argues; That means you have concluded you went beyond what is right when you believed the gospel. In returning to what you abandoned you are in practical effect destroying what you had turned to. Your present course in going on again with the principle of human effort is, so far as you are concerned, the destruction of Christianity in its very central and foundation principle.

The apostle's exposure of the evil consequence of judaizing Christianity is forceful; he conclusively shows that returning to the principle of law-works is destroying the fundamental character of Christianity. Christianity is founded on. faith, not on human effort. Let us remember this is not an opinion of certain men which we are free to entertain or reject, but the mind of God, declared by one to whom He had given authority to declare His will. We must look at verse 18 as an authoritative interpretation of the mind of God.

In verses 19, 20 the apostle points out the twofold way in which the 'judaizing of Christianity is the destruction of it. It denies, on the one side, the Christian's relation to law, 1:e., the principle of self-help ; and, on the other, his relation to Christ. These are points of vast importance and we must carefully look at them. In verse 19, the apostle, declares that the Christian is dead to law. He not only affirms it as being the fact according to God's reckoning, but shows also how it became the fact. Let us consider it.

As long as law stood as God's public method of dealing with men there was no separation of the children of God from the general mass. The children of God in Israel were thus bound to the law under which Israel was. It was a very real bondage. The law stood there as a positive barrier in the way of their taking the full place of children. It was impossible for them to receive the adoption (the position of sons) and know and enjoy the liberty of it. In Romans 7 we are taught that this bond with the law is now broken. How was it broken. "Through the body of Christ." Christ's death has destroyed for the children of God their former bond with the law. Hence the children of God now, since Christ's death and resurrection, are dead to the law.

Here, in Galatians, the apostle teaches that the Christian's death to the law has been effected by the law itself. What does the apostle mean by this ? Some will tell us he refers to the working of the sentence of death in the conscience; but when he says, in verse 20, "I am crucified with Christ," he negatives that thought thoroughly. Being crucified with Christ is not the work of law in the conscience however important and necessary that work is. Being crucified with Christ means that when Christ died for us, God identified us with Christ in His death, so that He looks at that death as being our own death. What then is the meaning of our being through law, dead to law. Simply this:that the principle of law had its full operation in Christ's death. Christ was there in death as a substitute. The law's penalty was not set aside, but borne. The law operated to its full extent in Christ-the Substitute who received the full penalty of the law-death; and through that operation of law in Christ, God considers believers as being dead to law.

What was once a positive hindrance to a believer living unto God is now removed. The bond with law is broken, the believer is under no necessity of thinking of his own efforts, ever conscious of their futility; he is free to be engaged with God and His wondrous grace, to live no longer to self, but to God.

But if Christians are not under the bond of law are dead to it, they are in a new bond, in a new relation. It is not the full truth to say, We are dead to law- we are crucified with Christ. If God identified us with Christ in this death, He also identifies us with Him as alive from the dead. We therefore live; yet it is not ourselves, it is Christ living in us. What springs merely from ourselves is not life in God's, eyes. God looks upon all that as having been crucified with Christ. But the risen, living Christ is the source of life to us. We are alive as being in Him; and He in whom we live is the spring in us of all that God can own as being really life. Whatever is the expression of the living Christ, and only that, is what God counts as life. If, then, believers now are dead to law they nevertheless live; yet it is no longer themselves, it is Christ living in them. It is true, Christians are still living here in this present earthly life. They are still men of flesh and blood, but the life they live is not characterized by the principle that characterizes the life of the man who is according to the flesh. Self is the object of the mere natural man. He lives to himself. The Christ of the cross is the object of the Christian. It is the power of His love that is working in the believer. The life he lives is characterized by the power of faith, the faith that has for its object the Son of God that died in his behalf.

It is then a fundamental truth in Christianity that believers-that class of persons-are by grace dead to law; and it is also a fundamental truth that they are by grace living in a new life. I wish to be guarded, here, so as not to be misunderstood. When I say, "living in a new life," I do not mean merely they posses a new life. That is true, of course; and Christ, the risen Christ, is the source of the new life imparted. I am however not speaking of that but of the life lived-of what is the normal characteristic, the practical life of a Christian-the life he lives as a Christian.

Now I am aware of difficulties felt by many minds, and I do not wish to ignore them. But the difficulties we feel in our efforts to grasp what God has revealed as the truth do not in any way nullify the truth. What God has revealed is the truth, whether it is or is not perfectly clear to our minds. We need to submit our minds to the truth He reveals. We shall find this a first essential to grasping the truth. But let us accept what He reveals as being the truth, and we shall find the difficulties disappear.

If it be said:How little is it true of Christians what the apostle says here of "Christ living in" them! It is granted; but that does not mean that it is not true of them in any measure. There is a measure in which it is true that Christ lives in the believer from the moment of his becoming a believer. The " engrafted word " is in his soul giving the Christian character even though it be true he may have many lessons to learn as to mortifying " his members which are upon the earth."

Again, there are some who insist that "Christ living in me" is the subjective realization in the soul. But here again we must not forget that the subjective work in the soul is a matter of growth, and it, too, begins with the very commencement of the Christian life. When the love of Christ, as displayed in the cross, lays hold of the soul and the believer prostrated by it at Christ's feet as his Saviour, that soul has begun the Christian life. There is already a subjective work in his soul; but that inward work, begun there and then, will enlarge as he grows in the love of God which he has found in Christ Jesus whom now he owns to be his Lord. The love of Christ has captured him and he has begun to be transformed according to the image of Christ. As that love enlarges in his soul he grows more and more after that image. It is "from glory to glory." So then "Christ living in me "is not an attainment; nor is it an advanced blessing known and enjoyed only by a certain .class of Christians, but a common Christian blessing-a blessing every believer shares in, the measure of it varying according to the soul's growth in the knowledge of God. "Christ living in ma " is indeed subjective, but this begins with His capture of the soul, with the soul's bending the knee in love to Christ. The moment Christ is submitted to as Saviour He is owned as Lord. The normal characteristic Christian life begins then and there. In this life there are babes, young men, and fathers (i John 2:12-27).

In verse 19, the apostle is insisting that in maintaining these two fundamental principles or truths of Christianity he is not frustrating the grace of God. He very plainly implies that the Judaizers are. In insisting that salvation is by "circumcision and keeping the law of Moses " they were rejecting the grace of God. Such teaching is the denial that believers are by grace dead to law. It denies that by grace Christ is living in them, Christianity is based upon the grace of God. It is by the grace of God in Jesus Christ that the believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, are dead to law, are no longer in bondage to that principle, and are free to live to God-to live in the power of a love that has been fully displayed in the substitutionary death of the cross.

How essentially distinct in character and principle is Christianity from Judaism! Judaism demands of man his best effort. Christianity declares man condemned and helpless, and displays what God in grace has done for man. To go back to the principle of Judaism is to reject the grace of God. The apostle says, I do not do this.

Let us remember that if the Galatian saints were responsible to go with the apostle in the maintenance and practice of the truth of Christianity, so are we. It devolves on us as truly as it did on them to hold to and carry out in practice the revealed-truth that believers are dead to law; and it is as incumbent on us as it was on them, not to reject the revealed truth that " Christ living in me " through the power of His love, as made known in His atoning death, is the normal characteristic of the life a Christian lives.

As confirmatory of his statement that he did not reject the grace of God, the apostle adds this declaration:"If righteousness is by law, then Christ died without cause."Why was it necessary for Christ to die in order to provide a righteous basis on which righteousness might be reckoned to a believer, if law enabled men to produce a righteousness of their own ?Is it not a serious thing to teach, as the Judaizers do, a doctrine which implies that Christ's death was needless ?It is a complete nullification of the word of God! It is a direct denial of the testimony given in the law itself that "by works of law no flesh (no man) shall be justified." It thoroughly undermines the authority and reliability of the law, and so of the whole word of God.

We have then in these four verses the exposure of the evil consequences of judaizing Christianity- the attempt to mix grace with the principle of self-help. It is an authoritative statement of what Christianity is in its essential and fundamental character, showing how that character is completely destroyed by those who mix Christianity with the principle of Judaism.

Let Christians then take common ground with the apostle Paul in strenuously resisting the insidious inroads upon the Christian foundation which the enemies of the truth are constantly seeking to make. He has set us the example of defending the faith. In his defense of it he has put into our hands the means of preserving it. Modern judaizing is to be met with the same truth with which the apostle met it in his day. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

Chap. 3:13-29. ( Continued from page 45.)

If we wish to fully appreciate the emphasis the apostle here puts on the doctrine of the believer's redemption from the curse of the law, we must consider the difference between the position of believers under law and that given to believers now under grace, under Christianity. It is needful to remember that the law was not given to Abraham's seed according to faith, but to his seed after the flesh. It was given to the nation as an earthly nation, looked at as composed of men according to the flesh. It raised with them the question of man's ability to live by his own righteousness. Is it possible for a man to justify himself in the sight of God by his own efforts, or works ? The trial demonstrated the impossibility of it.

Now so long as the trial continued, when once it had been instituted, Abraham's children according to faith, in the midst of the nation, by virtue of their being a part of it, were as responsible as the rest to do the things required by the law. What then was the result for them ? What was the consequence for the true children of God of their being in this way under the law-under its obligation ?

Did they keep it ? No more than the others. Did they establish a righteousness of their own ? No more than the others. In result they were under the same penalty of failing to do so. Having broken the law, they were under the curse of the law, having to bow to being adjudged as deserving the death to which the law cursed them. The law made no provision for exempting the children of faith.

Let it be remembered that all this has no bearing on the eternal issues. It does not mean that the children of faith who died while the law was in force as the method of God's dealing with man after the flesh, lost faith's final and eternal blessing. No, in no wise. But as under the order of things God had set up for man in this world, they were guilty and deserving the curse of the law.

It is also evident that their death was not that of the law's curse. They died in faith, as the nth chapter of Hebrews makes plain. Now several questions arise demanding a satisfactory answer. How could the children of faith who died during the trial of law, and failed equally with the rest, be exempted from the law's penalty ? How can the children of faith now be exempted from the curse of the law? There is still another:God promised Abraham heirs-children of faith from the Gentiles as well as from his own-to inherit with him his blessing. How can Abraham's blessing come upon Gentiles?

One thing answers all these questions:God has provided a Substitute to undergo the curse in behalf of the heirs, to redeem them from the curse, to buy them out from under it. The children of faith who lived under the trial of law were anticipatively exempted from the death, or curse, of the law. Their pre-exemption from it was on the ground of a provision that God, in grace, was going to make for them. As anticipating Christ's being made a curse on their behalf, God did not inflict the curse upon them. Their death was not a penal death with judgment following it. Whether we speak of death as what man is appointed to, or as the curse of the law, they who were of faith-Abraham's seed-were bought out from it; the price of the purchase having been paid by Christ by dying in their behalf.

But if the death of Christ was the basis on which the heirs who lived while the law was in force were pre-exempted from the law's curse, now that the anticipated substitutionary death has been accomplished, the heirs of promise-the children of faith- are in no sense involved in the curse of the, law. Through Christ's death they are dead to the law. The death of Christ is God's justification for exempting believers both then and now from the penalty of not doing the requirements of the law.

As to the third question, Christ's being made a curse is the full carrying out of the law. The law was not set aside, it was not abrogated, but it was carried out to its full extent. It has operated even to the infliction of its penalty, though it was in the person of a Substitute; but so operating, it ends the law as God's method of dealing with men concerning their working out a righteousness of their own. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth " (Rom. 10:4).

Now this ending of the law as God's public way of procedure with men was necessary before God could fulfil His promise to Abraham-to faith. As long as the law stood as God's method of dealing with men He could neither in part nor in full give to faith her inheritance. While the law was in force no believer among the Gentiles could possess even in part the inheritance promised. For this it was necessary to end the law as the principle of dealing with men. This should be evident-for the promise is on the principle of faith-but the law is the principle of works, not faith.

Now, as we have seen, while Christianity is not the complete fulfilment of promise, it is the beginning of fulfilment. God is now giving the heirs a part of their inheritance-the Spirit, who is a foretaste, an earnest, a present pledge, of the full portion to be received later. Gentile believers, then, as well as Jewish believers, are now, through Christ, possessing faith's promise in part. The law is no longer a hindrance to this (verses 13, 14).

This is of the very greatest moment. Through not seeing it, very serious errors have been made. Among them, perhaps, none is more serious than the doctrine, prevalent in many quarters, that the reception of the Spirit is dependent upon something additional to the faith on the principle of which we become Abraham's children. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we are born into Abraham's family, we are born through faith. The doctrine that some of the family, whatever the reason given for it, have not received the Spirit of God, is a practical denial of the characteristic difference between the dispensations of law and of Christianity. God then did not give His Spirit to indwell any of His children. Now He gives Him to all-no less to all Gentile believers than to all Jewish believers. Every heir of faith's inheritance, in this present time of the beginning of fulfilment, is inheriting, or possessing, the present earnest-the gift of the Spirit. The law no longer being the principle of God's ways, is no longer a hindrance to the blessing of Abraham coming on Gentiles.

The error of which I am speaking is a subtle revival of the Galatian error. True the form differs, but the same principle underlies both. Their error was that perfection-complete fulfilment-is by attainment, by self-effort, by progress in knowledge. Call it by whatever name, even believing the gospel, it is making believing the gospel a work of merit; and that is in principle the error of the Galatians. In both an addition to faith is required, so that faith is not made the sole principle on which the believer possesses his blessing.

Another serious thing about it is, like the Galatian error, it denies the full meaning of the death of Christ; for in the measure in which something on our part is required as essential to the reception of faith's blessing, which now is the Spirit, in that measure the meaning of Christ's death is denied. The death of Christ means the end of requirement -of all self-effort.

How little the Galatians thought they were denying the meaning of Christ's death! How little the Judaizers of the present day realize they are reproducing the principle of the Galatian error! But what folly it is when looked at in the light of the apostle's doctrine of Christ's being made a curse! What a delusion to seek to establish a claim to faith's blessing! What a misconception of Christianity !

But let us turn to verses 15-18. There were those who probably argued that the law was given after promise, and so superseded it, set it aside, made it of no effect. Paul's answer is, The promise was made, not only to Abraham, but also to a particular Seed, 1:e., to Christ. Now the law, coming in between Abraham and Christ, could not disannul a promise made to Christ. Christ's inheritance it is, therefore, that was promised to Abraham on the principle of faith. Since he is the pattern, the heirs, who share the promise with him, must have it on the same principle-that of faith, not of works.

The objector may say, Why then the law ? What was the good of it ? The answer is, There was need of convicting of sin, of stopping all boasting. The conversion of sins into transgressions-violations of positive prohibitions-was the service the law did. The effect of its work was that every mouth was stopped (Rom. 3:19). Not only is the unregenerated Israelite proved to have nothing to boast of; not only is the unbelieving Gentile shown to be in guilt; but even the very heirs of Abraham themselves are demonstrated by their transgressions to have no claim to blessing. The law thus shows that faith in the sovereign promise of God is the one only way of blessing-not self-effort.

The need of this lesson is the reason why law came in between promise and Christ. It was added to promise to serve the purpose of demonstrating this necessary lesson. Its place therefore was a secondary one. It was not intended by God to abide permanently. It was His purpose that it should pass away when Christ came.

Moreover, the circumstances of its establishment were in keeping with its character. as a temporary institution. It was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. It was not like the covenant with Abraham in which God entered upon a contract where He was the only contracting party. In the law, it was two parties contracting together (verses 19, 20).

In the Abrahamic covenant God came forth in His absolute sovereignty, saying, " I will." There were no limitations upon His will save those He imposed upon Himself. It was a covenant in which promise is without conditions. No requirements are made in order to its being fulfilled. No self-effort is demanded of the one to be blessed. The blessing promised is absolutely unconditional. It is of faith only therefore.

The legal covenant has not that character. There are two parties to it. It is not God saying, in absolute sovereignty, "I will," but God undertaking obligations the fulfilment of which is to depend on the faithfulness of the other party to the agreement. Such a contract, or covenant, as this would not be suitably administered by Christ, however fittingly it was in the hands of Moses. But if Moses declares that he is to be superseded by Christ (see Deut. 18:15), he is witnessing that his administration must give place to the administration of the One who is greater than he. The law, then, plainly has an intermediate place between promise and Christ, With the coming of the Seed to whom the promise was confirmed, the administration of law gives place to another of a very different character, unspeakably higher. Christ's administration is that of the sovereign "I will" of God.

It may be thought this view of the relations of law and Christianity makes the law to be against the promises of God. The apostle insists it is not so. He affirms that God never expected man to produce a righteousness of his own. He gave him a law that demanded it, but the life which produces it is not by the law. The question raised under law was not, On what principle does God give life ? but, Can man acquire life by his own effort ? Nor, On what principle will God fulfil promise ? but, Can man work out a righteousness of his own ? Can he claim the promise on that ground ?

Scripture's answer is, All are under sin, whether under law or not, and none can show he has the slightest claim to the promise. The promise, then, is on the principle of faith. It must necessarily be so. The time arriving for the fulfilment of promise, it is given to them that believe (verses 21, 22).

Until that time the heirs under the law were like children under the watchful eyes of guardian attendants. They were on their way to Christ, waiting for the time to come to receive their promise. The law's voice to them was ever, Remember, you cannot establish your own righteousness. Christ-the coming Christ-is your righteousness. Justification is by faith, not works (verses 23, 24).

The apostle now goes on to show that with the coming of Christianity the heirs are no longer under the guardian attendant (verse 25).His work has been done, the lesson of it abides of course, but the heirs have been given the privilege of taking a new place (see John i:12).In this new place they are no longer servants, and are free to be in the practical enjoyment of the sonship, or adoption, which goes with that new place. If hitherto the children of faith were servants, they are now sons. If formerly they looked for justification through Jesus Christ, they now have the liberty of sons. If they were children of faith in old times, by the same faith they now are sons (verse 26).

Christian baptism is a witness to the change that has occurred. As long as the children remained in the position of servants they were not called upon to put on Christ. Baptism, in figure, declares our identification with Christ; not now, of course, as One who is living in our earthly life, but as having died out of this life and risen up into a new place (verse 27). We are, then, in connection with Him there. This new place is His really, but believers now belong to Him there. They are now in Christ-the risen Christ. But in Christ the distinctions of earth and the old creation have passed away. We are all one with Him, identified not only in life and nature with Him, but also with His position (verse 28).

But if we belong to Christ risen, are connected with Him in His new position, we are Abraham's seed, 1:e., we are children of faith and heirs according to promise. Even we who among the Gentiles have believed are of faith's family, and are inheritors of faith's portion (verse 29).

We have seen that now faith has begun to possess its portion. Having the Spirit is the beginning of possessing the promise. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

" Hold that fast which thou hast, that no one take thy crown" (Rev. 3:11).

To all who hear the Voice Divine,
The Master's call appeals to-day-
" Hold fast! Hold fast that which thou hast;
Let no one take thy crown away."

"Hold that thou hast!" For teachers false
The Lord they claim to serve betray:
Deceiving and deceived, they lead
Untaught, unwatchful souls astray.

" Hold that thou hast! " The foes of faith
With serpent-tongue God's word decry;
And while of "Higher Truth" they boast,
The One who is "The Truth" deny.

" Hold that thou hast! " In guise of Light,
Satanic darkness spreads apace,
And only those its power withstand
Who keep God's faithful Word of Grace.

"Hold that thou hast!" Poor puny man
Dares faith deride and grace despise;
O'er all his vaunting and his pride
Apostasy's dark shadow lies.

" Hold that thou hast! " The foe is strong,
And weak are we, and fierce the fray,
But He to whom all power belongs
Is with us ever, all the way.

" Hold that thou hast!" Whoever assail-
The foe "within" or foe "without"-
The gates of hell shall not prevail,
His angel campeth round about.

" Hold that thou hast!" Hold fast the Faith,
Delivered once in trust from God;
The glorious gospel of His grace;
The Cross, and the atoning blood.

" Hold that thou hast!" His precious Word,
His peerless and beloved Name-
Which bows our hearts in homage here,
And which the highest heavens acclaim.

" Hold that thou hast!" In loving faith,
That closer clings in faithless days;
In power whose mighty source is God;
In prayerful life, in watchful ways.

"Hold that thou hast!" Thy garments keep
'Mid earth's allurements undefiled;
Hold fast the Holy and the True,
And be not of thy crown beguiled.

" Hold that thou hast!" Oh, may His love
Our hearts constrain to do His will,
Though darkness wax and light may wane,
To keep His word of patience still.

" Hold that thou hast!" Without the camp
The path of faith and service lies-
The path divine endeared by Him
Who stooped to serve in lowly guise.

" Hold that thou hast!" It little recks
How men may judge, how men may view-
The fire will test-the Day discern
Between the servants false and true.

" Hold that thou hast! " The deepening dark
But heralds His approaching Day;
Far spent the night-the Morning Star
The pilgrim cheers with brightening ray.

"Hold that thou hast!" Thy vigil keep-
Soon, soon shall pass the darksome night-
Who sow in tears, in joy shall reap,
And walk with Him in radiant light.

O blessed Lord, till Thou dost come,
Keep near Thyself Thy loved, Thine own,
That they the overcomer's crown
May cast with joy before Thy throne.

W. I. Grant

There is no truth more fundamental to Christianity than this, that Jesus Christ is God; and for this reason, Satan is doing his utmost to nullify this precious truth and blind the minds of people to it. Such religious cults as Eddyism, Russellism, Unitarianism, Seventh-day Adventism, and Mormonism, are his most glaring ministers to this end; since, in the ultimate analysis, all their teachings will be found to deny the deity of our holy Lord. We cannot afford to be neutral or indifferent here, for if Jesus be not God, we have no Saviour, our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins, and are of all men most to be pitied (i Cor. 15:19); and to be neutral here is to be unfaithful to Christ.

The tremendous strides which this blasphemous sophistry is making towards permeating all our seats of learning, and all our pulpits and public utterances, is simply appalling, and it is high time that we '' should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation; ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 3, 4). The New Trans. is rather more exact, "Denying the only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."

But Scripture is plain enough to those who have not already given it up. What saith it? "What think ye of Christ ? Whose son is he ? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in Spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool ? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son ?" (Matt. 22:42-45). "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day:and he saw it and was glad. . . Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:56, 58). This was the name by which He would be known to His ancient people Israel, when He came down to deliver them (Exod. 3:14), There they were, a nation of slaves, in bondage to the Egyptians, and the time had come for the Lord to deliver them; so He sends Moses to them. This is evidently a crucial moment, and it is of the utmost importance that the people be assured who has sent Moses on this emancipating errand.

Moses realizes the importance of this, and seeks a definite name for Israel's God, one which shall carry weight, and express the intrinsic character of the One who had sent him, and at the same time be his credentials for coming to them.

The name given is eh-yeh asher eh-yeh, 1:e., kal first person singular imperfect of the verb hah-yah, meaning "to be," " to exist; " this is repeated with the relative pronoun between, which means "that," "I who," "he who." The sentence might very properly be rendered "I am He who is"-the self-existent, self-sufficient One. The name Jehovah is from the same root, and might in brief be well rendered " The Eternal." So when Jesus said," Before Abraham was, I AM," the Jews, not believing Him to be divine, and well knowing the import of the words, took up stones to cast at Him. (Query, Are the deniers of His deity not ready to do the same today ?)

In Isaiah 6:1-4 the prophet sees "the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up," and the seraphim crying one to another " Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts." (The reader no doubt understands that in the Old Testament wherever the word "lord" is in small capitals, it stands for "Jehovah" in Hebrew.) Again, in Isa. 53:i we read, "Who hath believed our report ? and to whom is the arm of the lord (Jehovah) revealed?" The Spirit of God, by the apostle (John 12:37-41), applies this very distinctly to the Lord Jesus, saying "These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of Him." Thus we see very clearly that Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament.

We turn now to a few scriptures which show conclusively His divine character.

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God " (John i:i). He did not begin in the beginning; in the beginning He "was." In personality distinct-"with God," and yet Himself "was God." However far science may find it necessary to push back its beginning, He was there, and was "with God." ("The same" is "He" emphatic.) "All things came into being through Him, and without Him came not one thing into being which came into being." This could not be said of a creature, however eminent or angelic, for even an archangel "came into being" through Him, and of course could not bring himself into being. Nor indeed could Christ, though from a very different cause, for in the beginning "He was." His birth and naming are the fulfilment of Isa. 7:14, "The Lord Himself shall give you a sign:Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel." " Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel; which, being interpreted is, God with us" (Matt, i:22, 23). This agrees with i Tim. 3:16-"God has been manifested in flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."

Another very clear testimony is found in Isa. 9:6, 7-"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder:and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Father of Eternity, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

The place of His lowly birth is thus designated by the Spirit of God, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Mi. 5:2). When Herod, and all Jerusalem with him, was troubled at the advent of the Messiah, and demanded of the chief priests and scribes where He should be born, they could refer him to the above scripture (Matt. 2:3-6), but they omit the portion which speaks of the eternity of His being, and do not themselves go to see Him.

"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the lord of hosts:smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered" (Zech. 13:7). Who would dare to think of a mere creature, even an archangel, as Jehovah's "fellow?" He will not give His glory to another.

Rom. 9:5 renders a beautiful testimony to the divine glory of Christ:reading with J. N. D.'s translation, "Of whom, as according to flesh, is the Christ, who subsists God over all, forever blessed." The word rendered "subsists" is the participle of the verb "to be," and is substantially the equivalent of "Jehovah" in Hebrew. (Compare with this Acts 10:36-"He is Lord of all;" and i Cor. 2:8-"Had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.")
In Heb. i:2 we have a very remarkable expression, reading with the new translation, as being somewhat more literal, and giving the sense more clearly:"At the end of these days has spoken to us in Son " (1:e., in the person of the Son). The thought being that in old time God had spoken by means of prophets, God speaking, prophets bringing the message. Now this is changed, God speaks, and God brings the message-God the Son, who "made the worlds " and "who is the effulgence of His glory and exact expression of His essential being, and upholding all things by the word of His [own] power."

" Effulgence of His glory" is just the outshining of what could not otherwise be seen, as light shows what the sun is; and so with "exact expression of His essential being," in beautiful accord with "The Word " (John i:i). A word is the expression of an idea, so is the divine Son the expression of God, God manifest. He did not become the Word when He became flesh, He was ever the Word ("in the beginning was the Word"), but in due time He was manifested. "And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we have contemplated His glory, glory as of an only begotten with a Father), full of grace and truth " (John i:14). " The image of the invisible God " (Col. i:15) is the same thing. "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:all things were created by Him, and for Him:and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist " (vers. 16, 17). " That in all things He might have the preeminence. For in Him all the Fulness was pleased to dwell" (vers. 18,19). " For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). What wilful ignorance, or blasphemy, to apply such language to a creature ? and how dishonoring to the person of Him whom the Holy Spirit has come down to glorify; "He shall glorify Me" (John 16:14).

The first man would climb presumptuously from his status as man to be God. "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" said the tempter (Gen. 3:5). But in strongest contrast with this, we read of the Second Man," subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it rapine to be on an equality with God " (Phil. 2:6). It was not something to be seized upon by Him, since He was intrinsically the Father's coequal ; but He would empty Himself of this; descend into man's likeness, and become a servant, for God's glory and for man's blessing. As a result, "Every knee" is to bow, both of heavenly, earthly, and infernal beings, and every tongue confess Him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father (vers. 6 to n). Having thus humbled Himself into man's likeness, His Person is more inscrutable than that of the Father; "No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son; and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him " (Matt, 11 :27). What creature, be he man or archangel, dare say "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30)? Only God's fellow could say it-He whose works testified to what He was (ver. 25)-He who was marked out Son of God in power by resurrection of the dead (Rom. i:4). The Jews well understood the force of the Lord's claim, for they at once take up stones to cast at Him (John 8:58, 59). Their thought being, as with many to-day, that He was a mere man, or an archangel.

Again, " I am the Alpha, and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. i:8).

Further:"And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding that we might know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and life eternal" (i John 5:20). It is the present office of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, to glorify Christ here on earth:"He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine:therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:14, 15). Satan is exercising all his craft and his power to rob Him of His glory, and he is most successful when he can use preachers, and so-called teachers of the Bible. "Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light; therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness:whose end shall be according to their works "[(2 Cor. 11:13-15). How then may one be sure that a teacher is one whom it is safe to listen to ? Does the teacher exalt Christ ? That is the great test, an absolutely safe one. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God:every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God; and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God; and this is that power of Antichrist, of which ye have heard that it comes, and now is it already in the world " (i John 4:1-3).

It is surely safe to listen to one whose general testimony is the exaltation of Christ; to honor Him is to honor the Father (John 5:23). "He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son" (2 John 9).

It is an awfully solemn thing not to believe in the deity of our Lord, as He says, " If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins, . . . whither I go ye cannot come" (John 8:24, 21). Jesus says, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). He is the key to Scripture, and no truth can be seen in its proper relation if He have not His place as God; and this is the great antidote to all errors which are leading souls astray today.

May it be ours to cultivate the spirit of the woman in Mark 14:3-9, who lavished her treasure upon the blesssed Lord Jesus, counting nothing wasted, whether of time or means, if lavished upon Him; earning that unique commendation of His,"Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." J. B. J.

When the disciples asked the Lord, "Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? " it is evident that they were not expecting an answer such as the Lord gave them. They needed to be instructed in the "kingdom of heaven," and the Lord, after His own perfect manner, teaches them His thoughts of what true greatness is.

"And Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Stirring and soul-searching words these ! What a rebuke to the pride and haughtiness so native to our hearts ! God has decreed that "no flesh shall glory in His presence." "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

How rare a thing it is, in these days of "great men " and "great things," to find those whose character answers to that of a "little child,"even though quite as intelligent as any. Yet the Lord assures us with His own "verily" that none other shall be found in His kingdom.

Man's way ever since the fall has been to "get to the top of the heap," " to be first," to "look out for number one." It was this wretched principle which the arch-usurper suggested to man in the garden when he said, "Ye shall be as God." Man, alas, acquiesced in it, and has faithfully followed it until this day.

Self-sufficiency! Self-importance! What hateful things to behold in others, and how often manifest unconsciously in oneself ! What was it that led Cain to slay his brother Abel ? He was enraged when God gave Abel the place of favor. And why did God favor Abel? Because he humbled himself before God, taking a position before Him of one who was unworthy, and seeking His face through the merits of a Substitute. Cain, on the other hand, expected God to recognize him and his gifts by virtue of merits in himself, and when God refused to allow Cain thus to glory in His presence, he wreaks his vengeance on the meek and lowly brother.

Thus early in man's history did God permit the fruit of this principle to manifest itself. And yet men applaud each other when they outdo their fellows in reaching up to positions of prominence and superiority. But, thanks be to God, there will be nothing of this kind of "greatness" in that kingdom over which the Son of Man shall sway the scepter. There, all the subjects will be in character like Him who will rule over them. All in that kingdom will be found conformed to the image of the Son, " that He might be the First-born among many brethren." There all will be as "little children," " for of such is the kingdom of heaven." This divine saying is not to be stripped of its spiritual meaning, however true it may be literally. "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." The very form of this expression shows that there will be nothing like competition found in Christ's kingdom. All who thus humble themselves are equally great. There is no rivalry there.

We do not find in God's history of His people any who were "giants." There were some of these abnormal persons both before and after the flood; but they were always found to be enemies of God and of His people, and their destruction under God's hand is a rebuke to man's greatness and pride. Neither were the children of Israel renowned for their physical, intellectual, commercial, or military greatness. Indeed they were in many respects the weakest nation on the earth; but this very fact made their dependence upon God the more evident, and He delighted to be known as the "God of Israel," yea, even as the "God of Jacob."

The very "Lord of Glory" has linked Himself with those who have abased themselves in His presence. " Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth Me." The Lord is evidently referring in this saying to those who go forth with His testimony, having no human credentials, nothing but His name to show to men as their authority for going forth. To go forth in one's own name, one must be somewhat "great" in men's eyes, but this greatness is not of Him who says, "I am meek and lowly in heart;" "I am among you as one that serves." It savors rather of him who will "come in his own name," claiming the honors that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

What an honor to be sent forth by the Lord Himself, the Sovereign of the universe! See to it, beloved servants of the Lord Jesus, that His own lowly character be found in you in all your ways with men; in all your appeals to the world for His sake; in all your ministry of love among His sheep. Oh to faithfully represent Him who humbled Himself even to the death of the cross, that He might exalt those who, counting themselves nothing, put all their trust in Him!

Beware lest you cause one of the least of His own to stumble. Oh how watchful we need to be, lest in any way we exalt self and set a false standard for Christ's "little ones." A child readily imitates a parent or an older brother or sister, and the people of God are unconsciously molded, to a large extent, by those who are their spiritual guides. What a responsibility therefore rests upon those who are the pastors and teachers of Christ's flock, and what care is needed lest they should cause " one of these little ones to stumble."

On the other hand, what a blessed place to be in as one of the Lord's "little ones! " To have the assurance of His care, of His protection, of His grace and of His love. The Lord here warns any against despising those who thus look up to Him in true dependence. He says, " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones " (a thing we are apt to do if puffed up with a feeling of our own importance), " for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father who is in ' heaven."

A comparison of this scripture with Numbers, chap. 12, will probably make clear what is in the Lord's mind. Aaron and Miriam had despised and spoken against Moses on account of his marrying an Ethiopian. Moses meekly bears their cruel words in the true spirit of one of the Lord's "little ones;" but the Lord answers for him, and shows them that Moses has an intimacy with Himself to which they were strangers. Why then did they not fear to speak against one whom the Lord so honored ? It seems to be a parallel here. Those whom men despise for their lowliness and self-abasement have an intimacy with the Father to which the world's " great " ones are utter strangers.

The Lord now speaks of these "little ones "as those who have acknowledged themselves to have "gone astray like lost sheep." It has given Him more joy to recover one of them than for ninety-nine who, in their own estimation, went not astray. If God could rejoice in Adam unfallen, how much more over those whom He has redeemed to Himself from the distance and condition they were in by the fall. Has He not as the Good Shepherd come to seek and save the lost ? Those who have owned themselves lost, and trusted as their Saviour Him who went to the cross for them, are the "little ones" over whom He rejoices. They have given Him more joy than all the so-called righteous who went not astray, and it is not the Father's will that any one of these "little ones" should perish. The self-righteous will perish, for they have no Saviour. They are sufficient to themselves.

In closing:what we have said here in no sense denies that the Lord included the little children in the literal sense of the word. But He so speaks as to take in all who humble themselves in His sight and put their trust in Him. W. H.

Dear Mr. Editor:Years ago, when Mr. Grant was coming to Brooklyn, we were studying Jonah, and he asked us all to write papers on the subject. Recently, a brother asked me to make him a copy of the one he read at that time. I did so, incorporating into it at the same time some further thoughts suggested while going over the subject with a class of girls-both Christians and unsaved. The theme is very great. This article is but an outline; and much is left out for the sake of brevity. Showing it to another, it was urged that I submit it to you for publication, if you see fit.

Yours in Christ, A. H. C.

Second in the third group of the Minor Prophets. 3 stands for witness and 3 for resurrection.

Jonah (meaning "a dove") the son of Amittai (meaning "true"),is a type of resurrection, as Jesus said:'' As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

After the flood, Noah sent forth a dove, which brought back an olive leaf, showing the storm past, and promise of favor on the renewed earth. The dove, therefore, became a messenger of resurrection; how fitting that this bird of love and peace should bring such glad news. Jonah (the dove) carries, in the power of resurrection, the truth to Nineveh. Jonah's message:" Nineveh shall be destroyed," was mingled with hope of, yea, intended mercy; for forty days (forty standing for testing and trial) were given them in which to repent. How tenderly God, in love, sends His messengers to man to save him from judgment. Judgment is God's "strange work," and He waits in long-suffering, which is salvation to many, " not willing that any should perish." Jonah knew something of God's mercy, though he showed little of that spirit himself. In this we see the failing man; God did not choose His prophets on account of their perfection. They were men of like passions with us, on whom the grace of God was bestowed, like to ourselves.

Jonah is a type in three ways :

I. The individual or personal side is for our own instruction or correction, or reproof. God spoke to Jonah. Let us be careful, when God speaks to us, to listen and obey; unless, like Jonah, we would give ourselves and others much trouble. Jonah (as we have often done) ran away from his plain duty, and he distressed a ship full of persons, who nearly perished. Disobedience to God is far-reaching ; one never knows the outcome of what may seem a very small sin. Jonah almost destroyed the ship and its crew instead of carrying the glad news of truth and mercy to them.

God's command to Jonah was, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before Me." It is not an easy matter for a servant of God to go to a great city, nor to a great sinner, with a message from God. Our Lord Jesus, God's gracious and holy Servant, came down here with such a message, and men nailed Him to the cross for it. Many of God's servants too have been stoned, burned to death, tortured (Heb. 11:35).

" But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa and
he found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."

It was not fear of the great city that impelled Jonah to flee, but because he knew God was "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness," and so he expected to be made a fool of, by going with such a message, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

God has preserved to us this account of Jonah's doings and thoughts for our profit. Who can read our thoughts but God ? Who knows the naughtiness of our hearts as He does ? He knows our thoughts afar off. Jonah started down to Joppa to flee from the presence of the Lord-how like Adam! Departing from the Lord is always going "down." In seeking to lift himself, man always falls-goes down. Jonah preferred to see Nineveh destroyed rather than have his honor brought down. Being aware of God's mercy, he felt reasonably sure that God would forgive if repentance followed the preaching. He knew that much of God's ways; so instead of carrying such a message, he turns off in the opposite direction. What will not pride do ?

Our Lord, the Second Man, from heaven, came down, down, down! He humbled Himself, "Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him."

He who was in the bosom of the Father took the body prepared Him for service-came here amongst men to suffer for us-suffer what none of us can ever know, and by His death to save from eternal torment all who come unto God by Him.

Tarshish (now called Spain) was in the opposite direction to Nineveh, where God would send Jonah,
and far away too from God's land-Palestine. He was turning away from both to fall in company of others going to Tarshish. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." But wind and waves are in God's hand, His messengers to do His will, and Jonah is finally brought back to the place from whence he started to go away from God. God can, and does, use all this to make Himself known to the mariners, brought in distress through Jonah's disobedience. '' They cried unto Jehovah; " they "feared Jehovah exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah, and made vows [to Him]" (chap, i:14, 16).

(To be completed, D. V., in next issue.)

For the children of God every trial has it compensation. Sooner or later we shall see a silver lining to the black clouds we so much feared. Alone-ness, as a trial and test for our souls has some very great compensations. Are we not justified in saying that a man or woman whose lonely life is turned to precious uses-to meditate in God's precious Word-to increased application to duty-to brighten life for others, brings precious rewards to those who exercise themselves therein? We have heard of melancholia and even suicide being laid at the door of loneliness. It may be that bereavement, unrequited affection, gross wrongs inflicted, have preyed on the mind, until in despair it has given way. But, thank God, this need not be for a child of God. Our Father is a refuge for us and a very present help in every trouble which He permits to pass over us. There is compensation through the very trial that instead of mourning over our pain and loneliness, it may be turned to a song of praise and thanksgiving in our hearts toward God.

One of the first things that occur to me as compensation for being alone is the opportunity and ability for meditation. Life is a continual rush now-a-days; duties and pleasures chase upon one another; business absorbs the thoughts from the first in the morning to the last at night, with little or no time to pray and meditate. Have we ever realized that thousands upon thousands of people are going headlong to ruin because they will not face a lonely hour with God as to the course of their life? They are building all their hopes and ambitions on this world which can last, at the most, but a little more than threescore years and ten, at the end of which they must wake up to find for all their labor-what ? A grave-a misspent life – naked of good works! Well do we read, in that grand "song" in Deuteronomy 32, "Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end." Shall not we, Christians, thank our Father that He has drawn us out from the whirl and directed our life to give us both heart for and time to commune with Himself ?And the one who can say with the psalmist, " In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul," will not then complain of being alone. For, as their Master, such have a spring of joy within which outside influences are unable to touch.

Then we have also the compensation of sympathy. We all know how easy it is to judge and arrange other people's matters for them, even when we have never been in their circumstances or trodden the path which they are treading. Yet we think we could do better than they are doing, and are quite ready with our advice, counsel, and opinion. A little later, perhaps, we find ourselves in similar circumstances, and prove we knew very little when we spoke so much, and are a bit afraid whether, after all, we shall come out at the end as well as the friend whom we were inclined to judge so hastily. So it is with the lonely path. O friends, we cannot sympathize fully where we have not trodden. Are we not reminded here of the beauty of those words in Hebrews 2:18. " For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted?" Do we covet to be a helper or comforter? Do we long to encourage the tried ones, to cheer the lonely, and to wipe the mourner's tears? There is but one way we can be fitted for this:it is the school of suffering-the lonely path. We cannot take the crown unless we bear the cross.

But there is still greater recompense than those already mentioned for the quiet and lonely life. Only in quiet with Him can we learn to know God; and surely this is the great essential in the life of each child of God. We have touched on this lightly in our previous chapter, but must now look a little more fully at it. Does not a deep, sweet joy spring up in our heart at the very thought of knowing Him -knowing Him not just by hearsay, or head knowledge, but intimately and experimentally, as One with whom we are having intercourse day by day ?

And yet what do we know of His wondrous love, that love which passes knowledge ? Reviewing our own life, even since our conversion, we have to own there has been so much of failure, so little response to His voice and His love, so many hard thoughts of His dealings with us that none but a perfect love, such as His, could ever have borne with us. Had we tried our earthly friends as we have tried Him, they would have left us to ourselves long ago. But bow is it with Him ? He loves us through all with a deep unchanging love. His love never alters, never tires; but "having loved His own which were in the world He loves them unto the end." The realization of His love melts all the hardness of our hearts, and we are humbled to loving devotion to Himself.

And what a faithful love is His! Have we ever pondered what deep, unselfish love is needed to use aright the rod of correction on the object of its love? "Faithful are the wounds of a friend," says Prov. 27:6; and how we should praise and thank Him that His love is so true that He will not hesitate to wound or smite when needful. He would rather we should bear temporal pain now than great loss in the future. He will risk our misunderstanding, and misjudging, through our short-sightedness in His wondrous dealings in love, and in spite of all will act for our greatest and eternal good, all ending to His own glory-in the manifestation to our souls of what He is. His is love worth knowing, even if it has to be through trial and a lonely pathway.

And how that love follows us in every step we take! If our eyes are open, we may see it in every earthly blessing given; in true friendships; in opportunities for doing good; in health and strength; in needed food and clothing; in sustaining grace and guidance in time of need. We have only to look back at the many deliverances He has given in times of trouble, the many answers to prayer, the gracious promises He has given us for this present life and the bright glorious hope for the future, to make us exclaim, Truly what compensations are found in His company and approval for all the loneliness and trials of our lives. Or if our hearts have met with but halfhearted sympathy from our friends, and been thrown back on our own resources, how different it has been when, within our chamber, we have poured out all our heart to Him who seeth in secret and understands all our pain! It may be that we have been unable even to express our needs-only groans, or even to kneel in silence before Him. Yet unfailingly He has strengthened, encouraged, or comforted – according to the need of the moment. So again I say, Was not the sweet consciousness of our Lord's direct dealing with us worth all the pain of loneliness which drove us to Him ?Ah, if we need real, effectual sympathy, go to Jesus ; for

'' Touched with a sympathy within,
He knows our feeble frame-
He knows what sore temptations mean,
For He has felt the same!
He in the days of feeble flesh,
Poured out His cries and tears;
And now, ascended, feels afresh
What every member bears! "

Concerning God's people of old, we read in Isaiah:" In all their affliction He was afflicted and the angel of His Presence saved them." And, in the New Testament, see Him as the widow passes out of the gates of the city of Nain with the dead body of her only son. Jesus halts the procession, touched by; the mother's deep sorrow, and restores again the son to life. See Him also at the grave of Lazarus! weeping with those who weep, but soon turning their sorrow into joy. All through the Gospels, we may trace our blessed Lord's tender compassion in active operation for the relief of sufferers. And He is the same today. If He calls us into the lonely places in life-in the house of mourning, by the sick bed, with the aged, the suffering, the poor and needy where we are necessarily shut away from much that others delight in, let us esteem it a privilege to keep company with Him there, for it is thus we may learn to know Him; and like Him to be tenderly thoughtful of others. Ah, fellow Christian there is a heavenly joy in this, far beyond anything the world can give. We crave the honor of His approval ?-let us welcome the training.

" Oh, not forsaken! God gives better things
Than thou hast asked in thy forlornest hour;
Love's promises shall be fulfilled in power.
Not death, but life; not silence, but the strings
Of angel-harps; no deep, cold sea, but springs
Of living water; no dim, wearied sight,
Nor time, nor tear-mist, but the joy of light.
Not sleep, but rest that happy service brings;
And no forgotten name thy lot shall be,
But God's remembrance. Thou canst never drift
Beyond His love. Would I could reach thee where
The shadows droop so heavily, and lift
The cold weight from thy life .'-And if I care
For one unknown, oh how much more doth HE."

M. M. S.

The next and last paper of this series will be Alone-ness Abolished.

BY G. J. S. (Matthew 25:1-13.)

We have here, in a few graphic sentences, a. parabolic history of this present period, and how it has been and is affected by the hope of the Lord's return. This history is divided into four parts, viz.:

1. They went forth to meet the bridegroom.

2. They went in again to sleep.

3. They again go out to meet the bridegroom.

4. The bridegroom comes!

Three of these stages have been fulfilled, and have become actual history. The fourth is immediately before us-at our very door.

I. THEY WENT FORTH TO MEET THE BRIDEGROOM.

This gives us the first stage of the history. "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom " (verse i).

The company is likened to ten virgins; that is, it is set forth, not in its corporate aspects, but as a company of individuals. It is those who, after the Lord's departure from this world, took up their individual responsibility in connection with His coming back again. Ten sets forth responsibility.

They were a wonderful company, whose affections had gone after their absent Lord, and whose hearts were set on His return.

They took their lamps.-They were, and it was their business to be, the light in a dark scene. Christ had been the light of the world. He said, " I am the light of the world " (John 8:12). And again, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9 :5). This the world would not have; it was too bright and searching for it. They caught Him and cast Him out of the vineyard, and killed Him ! But He has not left the world in darkness. He said to His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world." And when He is gone, they become the only moral light there is. "We all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by [the] Lord [the] Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18, N. T.). Thus we become reflectors morally of the light that shines from His blessed face. As in the case of Stephen, whose face they beheld actually shining as the face of an angel, so it is written, "God . . . hath shined in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

While it is solemnly possible for one to take a lamp-that is, to profess to be a light in this world- this is the only source of true light. It comes from the face of Christ. All else is mere profession.

They went forth,-They went out of something- out of the world that had murdered their Lord to
meet Him on His return. Their earthly possessions were given up for new and heavenly possessions, which filled their souls to overflowing.

The Holy Spirit came down from their glorified Lord to fill their hearts with heavenly things; and as they are thus filled, they can afford to sit lightly to all earthly things. So it was in the beginning.

This helped to bring out the distinction between this company and the world in those days, which was as sharp and well defined as that between white and black. Alas, now it is all grey!-all commingled! There was also holiness inside. Ananias and Sapphira are judged therefore for lying to the Holy Ghost, who dwells in the Assembly. This prevented those who loved it not from linking themselves where a lie was punishable with death.

On the other hand, "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women" (Acts 5:14). That which repels unbelief attracts faith. Persecution outside also prohibited any mere professional link with that wonderful company.

In all this we see how distinctly this company was marked off from the world in early days, and how truly they "went forth," taking nothing but a light with them. Blessed men! But the object of their thus going forth was, to meet the bridegroom.

They go to meet Him as those who know Him. They do not go as the bride, but in their individual responsibility, and as those whose hearts have been weaned from the place where He whom they love was murdered, and have been filled with the glories of the place into which He has entered, and into which He is coming to take them also with Himself. It is into this they are ushered when He comes.

There are two sets of terms used as to the Lord's coming. One set is calculated to strike terror into the hearts of His foes; as, "He shall come in flaming fire, taking vengeance; " the other, to draw out the hearts of those who love Him to Himself; as, "I will come and receive you to Myself." Our scripture is of the latter class. They would not be afraid of the bridegroom. They earnestly look to see Him. It will be to them the close of their night's sojourn in the scene of their rejection-the moment of the rising of a Sun that shall never set upon them.

This sets forth the first stage of the history of the present period. It gives the true attitude of those who took up the testimony where the Lord left it. But this state of things soon yielded to the vigilance of the enemy. Man, as ever, failing in his responsibility, the enemy succeeded first in creating division among them in heart, and then in introducing his children among them, so that their condition soon fell to what is described in verse 2, "Five of them were wise, and five were foolish." Into this state they lapse, and at the end are found thus.

The difference between the wise and the foolish is that the foolish took their lamps, but'' took no oil with them. The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps" (verses 3, 4). The lamp sets forth profession ; they who carry lamps profess to have light. Oil is what sustains light, and whenever oil is spoken of typically in Scripture it sets forth the Holy Spirit. He alone can sustain God's people as a light here. Profession is not enough. This is the crucial test of the difference between the wise and the foolish:Have they the Holy Spirit, or have they not ? "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." May we here ask our reader, "Are you a wise virgin, or a foolish one ?-a professor merely, or a possessor ?" All eternity, for you, hangs upon the true answer to the above question.

The second stage in this parabolic history is contained in the next verse:"While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept" (verse 5).

2. THEY WENT IN AGAIN TO SLEEP.

This state of things is described in Rev. 2:13:"I know where thou dwellest, where the throne of Satan [is]; . . . where Satan dwells" (N.T.). The world, with its attractions and offers of a present rest, was too much for hearts in which the glories of heaven were growing dim through lack of faith and patience; and they yielded to the serene world, and are found here again within the sphere where Satan is god and prince, where also he makes his abode. Here, alas, they dwell together. Satan dwells there. They dwell there-at a place which offered escape from the exigencies and asperities, the pressure and distress of the night vigils, and into which, with disloyalty of heart to their Lord, the virgins turned.

That they did go back into the world to sleep is evident; for when the midnight cry was raised, they had again to "go forth" to meet Him. Indeed, there was no sleep for them elsewhere. Maintaining a position of separation from the world, they could know nothing but its hatred and persecution. The only hope of escape from this was to answer to its seductions and enchantments, and faithlessly yield to its embrace. And this, helped on by the foolish virgins, who, in that declining state, had found easy entrance among them, produced the condition described in these words:"While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept."

This answers to what transpired in Constantine's days, by which time the so-called bishops-man-made-clamored for the honors and emoluments of this world. Being made great men in the empire, they put their hands upon each other's throats in shameless rivalry as to who should hold the highest places, albeit many of them were godly men and yielded their lives for the truth, as indicated by Antipas, God's faithful witness, who was slain among them where Satan dwelleth.

The world then fawned upon the Church in order to be accredited by it; and the Church smiled upon the world in return for its favors. The world lifted up its hand from its low moral platform, and the Church falsely gave its hand to the enemy of her Lord from off its high spiritual platform, and common ground was taken upon which the murderers of the Lord and those who should have testified against them, could walk hand-in-hand together. This, no doubt, was an elevation for the world, but it was a lowering of both standard and crest for the saints, and this to the falsest of friends-their most murderous enemy! Meantime, while the Bridegroom tarried, His eye was upon them and His heart yearning over them still. His Spirit was still with them to sustain and comfort them! Their eyes and heart had, alas, ceased to be wholly occupied with Him; and while He who loved them tarried, they allowed that which had sprung from the heart of the wicked servant of the previous parable, '' My Lord delayeth his coming," to enter into their hearts. The effect of evil communications soon makes itself apparent, and a listlessness and sleep, as death, seizes upon them.

Oh, why did they not maintain their position ? Why did they yield to the enemy ? Ah, why ? Alas for human hearts!

They did not maintain their position. They yielded to the enemy. They went back into the world from which they had come out, to go to sleep!

All, all alike, wise and foolish, they ALL slumbered and slept. Very little difference between them while all were thus asleep. Very little use to Him for whom they waited would sleeping virgins be, even though they had oil for sustaining light. A sleeping man is all as good as dead for any practical purpose.

Sleep! And all is lost. Sleep! And a wily enemy that never sleeps has gained his point, whatever it may be.

Sleep! Aye; and while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way, well satisfied with that day's work (Matt. 13:25).

Sleep! And the hearts of true men give up hope even as the hearts of fools! All that should distinguish and characterize them is yielded, and Christ, the Coming One, has no more a testimony held for Him in the scene of His rejection. Light may shine from His blessed face, but it shines in vain for those who are asleep, even as for those who have no eye. The eye, given of God to discern, is thus practically put out.

By the same means wherewith he holds sinners from coming to Christ for salvation does the enemy hold saints from practically taking their place in expectancy of His return.

Here's a good place in the empire for you, my lord bishop. Go to sleep! Go to sleep!

Here's a gold mine for you who love the glitter of the perishing metal! Go to sleep! Go to sleep!

Here's a general managership or inspectorship for you. Hushabye! Go to sleep! Go to sleep!

Here's a farm (five yoke of oxen) for you; a good business (a piece of merchandise) for you; a wife for you. Hushabye! Hushabye! Go to sleep!

And all slumbered and slept while the bridegroom tarried. And there, all alike are held in sleep as in death. With lamps indeed, but all untrimmed. With light, but hidden under a bed, or under a bushel. A lamp alone will do when all are asleep; no light is needed then. And so the foolish are as good as the wise, and the wise, alas, upon a common practical level with the foolish.

These were "dark ages " indeed-ages in which the light that was in them was darkness. The coming of the Lord is indeed found in the rubrics of those times, but it is relegated to "the end of the world." He delays His coming! Even then it is known only as the coming of a Judge, before whom all, even His own, must stand, to know there, and for the first time, whether they are His or not!

If any were true, they were lost amid the crowd, or persecuted for the truth's sake, and Christendom, that vast professing thing, sailed on as if they were not.
History repeats itself, and that which is true of the company becomes true at various times of the individuals that form that company. Many a man has in later years gone brightly forth to meet the bridegroom, and by reason of the same tarrying has gone in again to go to sleep in that world from which he came out.

(To be concluded next month, D V.)

(Num. 21:17.)

Substance of an address delivered in Boston, Dec. 25th 1912, by J. B. J.

'The book of Numbers has been well called "The J. Pilgrim's Guide Book," since it gives an account of the passage of the children of Israel through the wilderness; and what gives the account such immense practical importance to ourselves, is the fact that " all these things happened unto them for types" (i Cor. 10:11). Not only are they recorded for our admonition, but they "'happened" for us.

Wells in Scripture commonly have names, and the name has, of course, its own significance, it being always given in connection with some event which happened at the time:as, for example, Beer-sheba ("well of the oath"), named in connection with the oath between Abraham and Abimelech. But here is a well without a name, the word "Beer " being simply the Hebrew word for well. The well was not there when the people came to the place, for "the princes digged the well . . . with their staves" (ver. 18).

We may note with profit how they reached this well. In verses 7 to 9 we have a distinct turning point in their history:They had been murmuring against God, and against their divinely appointed leader:now they come in confession and prayer, and the remedy is provided; which remedy is in John 3:14 interpreted for us as the cross:for "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." When this point is reached there is marked progress; and it is safe to
say if we were more in the presence of that cross, more consciously under the power of it as measuring our utter bankruptcy before God, and as at the same time measuring the grace of God which has more than met our need, we Foo should make marked progress. It is indeed the heart and center of all Christian progress.

The first stage reached before this is "Oboth," and Oboth means "water-skins, "or bottles, in which water was carried when on a journey. They have not reached the well yet, but they have at least vessels in which water may be carried when they reach it. 2 Cor. 5:17 tells us that these "water-skins" are the new man in Christ Jesus-that new man who can now drink the waters of resurrection. The skin can be obtained only by the death of the animal, so that death and resurrection are forcibly brought before us here in these water-skins. The next stage of the journey is " Ije-abarim," which means "the heaps of the crossed over." "Abarim" is the masculine plural of "abar," which means "to cross over." The word "Hebrew"comes from that same root. In Joshua 24:2,3 we read:'' Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood."

Abraham '' crossed over." No doubt others crossed the river besides Abraham, perhaps before Abraham, but Abraham crossed it over in the obedience of faith -at the command of the Lord who had said, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee" (Gen. 12). His having "crossed over" meant a clean-cut separation from all with which he had been identified before:so that the people of the land, as well as his own kindred, might have said," He is no longer one of us; he does not live as we do; he does not worship what we do, nor is he seeking a place here among us; he seems to have interests in some foreign city which we know not, for he takes none in any of ours." They do not know the secret, but they know he has "crossed over," and in this way he gains from them the title of "Abram the Hebrew" (Gen. 14:13), which remains stamped upon the nation of which he was the father.

In the same way Christians got their title from the unbelieving people at Antioch (Acts 11:26). It means "of Christ," "derived from" or "associated with Christ." It was as much as to say, "These people are no longer of us; they do not live as we do; we find them no more at our revelries or our games; they speak of Christ as of one in whom they have found such profound satisfaction that they call all our enjoyments vanity and sin; they seem to have crossed over into another world altogether; indeed they speak of a glorious kingdom as belonging to them; they are indeed no more of us." But alas, the term " Hebrew " does not mean now what it meant in the mouth of those heathen when applied to Abram; nor does the term " Christian " mean now what it meant in the mouth of the people of Antioch when applied to those people who had "crossed over " from them. Let each of us, however, return to its true meaning as originally used, and ask ourselves how far those surrounding us-our relatives, our social and business associates-are constrained to apply this term to us as seen in our ways. Do they have to say,'' Surely he is not of us, he belongs to Christ ? "

Ije-abarim, or "the heaps of the crossed-over," has great significance in this connection, carrying , us on to Joshua 4 where a "heap" was set up in the midst of Jordan, and another "heap" set up on the Gilgal side; one a memorial of death, the other a memorial of resurrection.

But I will not dwell upon all the stages of the journey by which Beer is reached, significant and instructive though they are, but proceed at once to Beer. How beautiful to see that before the well springs up the people must be "gathered together." "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity" (Ps. 133). When the Spirit of God descended at Pentecost, believers were "all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2). The tendency to ignore this is sadly common. " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is" (Heb. 10:25) is little heeded. Yet the people of God cannot expect blessing collectively unless they are together, together in purpose, in love, '' Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it."

What a wonderful thing to see a number of people gathered about a tract of barren, thirsty ground, and singing to it-not to the desert exactly, but to the well which is in it. But where is the well ? Hidden in the sand, but visible to faith. The Lord has said, "Gather the people together, and I will give them water." The people believe Him, so to faith the well is there, and as they sing to it, it is brought into full view (see 2 Cor. 4:18). We have something like this in Psalm 84:6:"Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well." Note carefully the language:"Make it a well." Baca means "weeping;" they make the valley of weeping a well. It is not said that they find a well in this vale of sorrow, but they "make it a well;" the circumstance which causes the sorrow and makes them realize that the scene they are passing through is indeed a vale of tears, is accepted as a burden imposed by the hand of infinite wisdom and love, confident that if He be in it, if He be in the circumstance, blessing must be in it:thus the soul is refreshed, and can sing. We have a practical application of this in Acts 16:25, where the apostles accept their unjust and harsh imprisonment as from the Lord, and sing; and at once the "well" is apparent in the broken bonds and the salvation of the jailer.
In Jacob we see the opposite of this. When Joseph is torn from him, Simeon kept a prisoner in Egypt, and Benjamin must needs be taken from him, he moans, "All these things are against me" (Gen. 42:36). But this was unbelief:these very things were distinctly for him, as we can now see; and faith on his part would have brought in the living God and sung, confident that the well would appear in due time.

But "the princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves " (ver. 18).

What a wondrous sight:the people singing, the princes digging! The leaders are bringing their badge of office, or the symbol of their pilgrimage, down into direct contact with the desert sand, confident that water is there, because Jehovah had said, " I will give them water." They attest their faith by digging down into the very wilderness circumstance according to the word of the Lord, prefigured by the expression, "By the direction of the lawgiver. "

The well is not named, leaving room for us, for whom all these things "happened," to name each sorrow, each trial, as faith enables us to see and to bring forth the "well " which our ever faithful God is sure to have designed for us in it. "And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah."

The wilderness does not cease to be that, although we make wells and name them as we pass through. But how beautiful and instructive is the next stage, Mattanah, which means "givingness." The sense of the givingness of our blessed God produces the spirit of .givingness in the soul, and enables us to give even in the wilderness where nothing grows. "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms" (Luke 12:32, 33).

Soon Pisgah is reached, by instructive stages. Pisgah means "survey," whence the whole inheritance may be viewed, as well as the unerring ways of our faithful Guide who has brought us there.

May we seek grace, dear fellow-pilgrims, to see our giving God in every wilderness trial, and seeing Him, be enabled to sing and dig, thus bringing forth the well which faith sees in it.

We may be sure of reaching Pisgah, if we but travel the road which leads to it.

SIMPLE PAPERS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS

BY H. A. IRONSIDE

" Fear not, Paul; . . . lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee."-Acts 27:24.

STANDING AND STATE.

No believer is likely to be clear on other lines, whose mind is in confusion as to the scriptural distinction between standing and state. If those who sail with Paul would but carefully consult his inspired letters on this, as on all other subjects, they would see that the two terms are very different in their application.

Standing refers to our ability to appear before God uncondemned; state has to do with our actual condition of soul. Standing speaks of privilege and contemplates what God, in His rich grace, has done for each believer. State is the measure in which one answers to this in his own experience. Standing is eternal and inviolable. State is variable and depends on how one goes on with God.

Paul is not the first or only Biblical writer to use the term standing. Several examples from other scriptures may help to make clear its application. "The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment" (Ps. 1:5). "The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight" (Ps. 5:5), "They told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand" (Esth. 3:4). "The great day of His wrath is come and who shall be able to stand f " (Rev. 6:17). To these one might add many more, but enough are before us to show how the word is used. To stand is practically synonymous with the ability to face the throne of judgment, proving that there is no condemnation. Now compare with these verses Rom. 5:1,2:" Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Note also i Cor. 15 :i, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand."

The wicked cannot stand, but every believer has a standing that is unassailable. What is the ground of this standing ? Is it his good experience, his enjoyment of divine things, his energy in service, his happy state ? Not at all ! He stands in grace-the grace revealed in the gospel.

Our standing then is a most comprehensive term, embracing all that God has done for us in the work of His Son. In previous papers we have considered our forgiveness, our justification, our positional sanctification, our acceptance in Christ:all these blessings are connected with our standing. We cannot add to, nor take away from, what God has made us in Christ. Consequently we have for eternity a perfect and unassailable standing before God. Worlds may be wrecked and the heavens pass away, but the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ stands in absolute security, free of all condemnation.

Is this then to say that each believer's state of soul is all that could be desired ? Far from it. If it were, where would be the need for all the exhortations to godly living found in the epistles and other parts of the word of God ? Observe, for instance, the anxiety of the apostle that the state of his beloved Philippians might in measure answer to their standing.

He had no question whatever as to their standing. That, he knew, could never be altered. So he tells them he is confident that He who hath begun a good work in them will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. But he hoped to send Timothy unto them that he (Paul) might be of good comfort when he knew their state. Not all professed laborers in word and doctrine would naturally care for their state, but he knew this pastoral concern was characteristic of Timothy (chap. 2:19, 20).

Were Paul and Timothy concerned as to whether these saints were "keeping saved,"-to use an ignorant expression common with some to-day ? No, indeed. They knew God had settled forever the question of their salvation. But they desired to see fruit for God manifested in the lives of the saints. They wished to have them going on happily together as a company of redeemed ones should. And this is what state has reference to. It is experience; but experience and standing are two very different things. When God addresses believers as "saints," that is, separated or holy ones, He is speaking of their standing. When He exhorts them to be holy, even as He is holy, He refers to the state of their souls, as manifested in their outward ways.

We might think no one should be called a saint till he becomes perfectly holy in experience. But that is not God's way. He calls us saints from the first moment of our faith in Christ, and then bids us live as saints should live. He calls us His children, and then exhorts us to be obedient children'. He sanctifies us by the blood of His Son, and then washes us with the Word that we may be practically sanctified.

He forgives us all our sins and justifies us from all things when we first trust in His Son. We are then eternally forgiven. This is our standing. Yet as our actual state is often poor, there is a forgiveness we may have need of every day. That is the Father's forgiveness, as dealing with the state of His family. The moment you trusted Christ, your responsibility as a sinner having to do with the God of judgment was ended for ever. From that moment your standing has been perfect. But at that same instant your responsibility as a child, having to do with your Father, began. If you fail in this, if your state is low and your Father is dishonored thereby, do not fall back upon the truth of your standing and say, " I have no sins to confess," but go at once to your loving Father and own all the failure, judge the low state and seek His grace to rise to a higher and better condition of soul in which He will be glorified by your life. Let it always be your aim to have your state come up to your standing, that grace may be magnified in all your ways.

(To be continued.)

SIMPLE PAPERS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS BY H. A. IRONSIDE

" Fear not, Paul; . . . lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee."-Acts 27:24.

THE ASSEMBLY AS THE BODY OF CHRIST

At the time of his conversion on the Damascus turnpike, the germ of a great truth was revealed to Paul, which later became the chiefest in the galaxy of doctrines which it was his mission, as an apostle, to make known "for the obedience of faith." It was involved in the challenge of the Lord
of glory, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" For the first time it was then declared that Christ and His saints of this age of grace are one. To touch the feeblest of them is to touch Him; for they are all members of one body of which He is the glorified Head in heaven.

But this doctrine of the one body is never referred to by any other apostle than Paul. He calls it "the dispensation of the mystery" which he had especially been entrusted with. Indeed it was the characteristic truth of his large and varied ministry.

It is this that he is speaking of in Rom. 16:25-27:" Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world", began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets (or, by prophetic writings, 1:e., his own), according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith :to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen." The nature of this mystery is unfolded in Eph. 3:1-12. There he writes of the dispensation of the grace of God given him toward the Gentiles, and he adds:" How that by revelation (not through studying the Bible) He made known unto me the mystery . . . which in other ages was not made known 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:… to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God."

It is a passage of wondrous scope and blessedness, and I cannot attempt to expound it here, but what I would have the young believer note is that the truth of Jew and Gentile being formed by the Spirit into one body, upon being born of God, and by that same Spirit linked up to Christ as Head in heaven, was a truth never before made known. The Old Testament will be searched in vain for it. It is not there, because it was "hid in God." It was the secret purpose of His heart, only to be revealed after the rejection of His Son. It actually became a fact when the Holy Spirit was given on Pentecost. To this Paul refers when he writes:" For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is [the] Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."

To this one body every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ belongs. The gift of the Holy Spirit, who indwells all saved people, makes us one with every other Christian on the face of the earth. This is the only true " Catholic and Apostolic Church." At the beginning there was none other. "The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved " (Acts 2:47). There was no thought of any other membership, though until the special revelation given to Paul, it was not seen that this involved membership in the body of Christ.

The fact existed prior to the knowledge of it. Now, every saint should have clear light as to it, because it is everywhere declared, or taken for granted, in Paul's epistles.

Ephesians is largely occupied with it; setting forth the purpose of God to head up all things in Christ, and, preparatory to this, the formation of the one body. Then Colossians gives us the other side, magnifying Christ as Head, and pressing upon Christians their responsibility to own no other head, but to be in all things subject to Him. r Corinthians takes all this up in a practical way, showing what the outcome should be in our daily walk as members one of another and members of Christ.

Now, in what sense is this great truth "made known for the obedience of faith ? " Manifestly it can only mean that it is a truth each believer is expected to hold in. a practical way. And this surely involves the recognition of but one body and one Head, which necessarily leaves one outside of all human systems, and apart from all recognition of human heads. "The Church must have ahead!" was the Romanist's challenge to Luther, as he began to set forth the claims of the Papacy. "Yes," replied the mighty champion of the reformation, "and that Head is Christ!"

Never allow yourself in any association, dear young saint, where you will have to give this up. Hold the Head at all costs. And if you hold the Head, you can consistently own but one body; for one head with many bodies is unthinkable.

"To which of the various bodies of Christ do you belong ? " I was once asked by a clergyman. I could only reply," There is one body and I know no other."

Nor does this result in unkind feelings or hard, critical thoughts concerning others, equally dear to Christ, who may not be enlightened upon this great mystery. The very fact that we are all members one of another should hinder this. All may not see alike, and will not till the Lord Jesus comes; but that need not prevent fervent love going out to every member of Christ's body on earth.

" What church do you belong to ?" an evangelist was once asked by a well-meaning lady.

"I am a Christian," was the reply, "I belong to the body of Christ."

"Oh, of course," was the retort, "I know that. So am I, and I am also a member of the –church."

"Ah, my sister," he answered, "that is just the difference between us. You are a Christian and. I am only a Christian. Once I too was a Christian and; but when I learned that 'there is one body and one Spirit' I ceased to be a Christian and. I have ever since been simply a Christian."

"But," she exclaimed in evident astonishment, " in that case I do not see how you distinguish yourself from other Christians."
" Why, you see," was the quiet reply, " I have no desire to distinguish myself from fellow-Christians. I am one with them all; and I desire them all to see in me a fellow-member of Christ's body."

This is what I would commend to you. When God saved you He put you in the body of Christ. What other membership do you need or desire ? You are a member of the Church of God, the Church of the First-born, whose names are written in heaven. What more would you have ?

Before the confusion of sectarianism came in, "all that believed were together," and it was said of them on an ever-memorable occasion that "those who received his word were baptized:and the same day there were added unto them-[that is, unto those already baptized by the Spirit into the one body]- about three thousand souls. Aid they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:41, 42).

Nothing else is needed for faith to-day. God's word remains, and it is for each believer to act upon it, regardless of the ever-increasing apostasy. If only two or three do so, there is fellowship, and Christ will be enjoyed as He cannot be when His place as Head is forgotten and the truth is ignored that " there is one body."

THE ASSEMBLY IN ITS LOCAL ASPECT.

Side by side with the truth of the Assembly as the body of Christ, is the counter truth of the local assembly, the company of believers in any given locality, acting on the ground of the one body.

Perhaps it might be said that, strictly speaking, there is no declared doctrine of the local assembly, but both the Acts and the Epistles give us many illustrative incidents and historical notices which enable us clearly to see the divine method of ordering these companies of believers gathered to the peerless name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For His own words:"Where two or three are gathered together in (or, unto) My Name, there am I in the midst" (Matt. 18:20), clearly apply to all scriptural assemblings of His people. He will ever be the Center and recognized Head, who will lead the praises and worship of His saints, as it is also written, "In the midst of the Church (Assembly) will I sing praise unto Thee" (Heb. 2:12).

In the beginning the local assembly at Jerusalem and the Assembly the body of Christ were one. Every member of that body was, for a brief season at least, a part of the local assembly in that city. Then as these believers were scattered abroad, as Pentecostal visitors returned to their homes, or others were driven from Jerusalem by persecution-as the gospel also was carried to Samaria, and then to the Gentiles-wherever a company of members of Christ's body was found there was another local assembly. This was the only way in which separate gatherings were formed. "Two or three" in any given locality, were drawn together by the Spirit to the Name of the Lord Jesus, and thus a local assembly sprang into existence. To this little company others were added, as grace revealed Christ to their souls, and they in turn became partakers of the blessings of the Spirit's baptism, owning the rejected Jesus as Lord.

Thus all was simple. There was no human organization, no cumbrous ecclesiastical machinery, no sectional membership. He who was recognized as a member of Christ's body in Jerusalem, traveling or going elsewhere, upon making himself known there as one subject to Christ the Head, was at once accounted as one of them. He had found his own company. From an early period letters of commendation were given to such brethren, that they might be, at once, accredited in places where they were personally unknown (Rom. 16:i, 2; 2 Cor. 3:1; Acts 18:27). But this was all. There was no dismissing a " member " from the church in Ephesus that might "join" the church in Philippi. If a known member of Christ's body in Ephesus, he was gladly acknowledged as such in Philippi when his claim was properly attested.

As one goes over all this, how the conviction is forced upon the soul that Christendom has got far indeed from the simplicity of early days! And that very fact leads us to inquire:Is it possible now to act just as they did then?-when love was warm, and ere evil and pernicious doctrines had honeycombed what should have ever been in an outward way " The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (i Tim. 3:15). The answer is that all this declension and failure was foreseen by the Holy Spirit, and directions clearly given how to proceed when such unhappy ruin should have come in. In Acts 20, where Paul delivered his farewell address to the elder brethren of the Ephesian assembly, he warned them of the very things we have been considering; but at the close he simply says, '' I commend you to God and the -word of His grace." God's word therefore is all-sufficient, whatever the cold-heartedness and backsliding that may be prevalent.

What course, then, are we directed to take when such evil days have come ? Build sects and systems, walled about with iron-clad creeds and buttressed by human regulations ? Not at all. What then ? Go back to " that which was from the beginning." Find out how things were at the first, and act on what the word of God makes known.

But shall we not then be literally swamped by unholy errorists of every description? This does not necessarily follow; for the same Word clearly tells us who are to be accepted to communion, and who refused Christian fellowship. We are called to receive all whose doctrines and ways give evidence that they are members of Christ, and subject to Him as Lord and Head. If a man is not sound in his teaching, he may be a member of Christ but he is not subject to Him, and is not to be received till the evil is judged. And the same applies to moral questions. One who has fallen into unholy ways, may, after all, be a believer whose failure is but temporary; still, we dare not receive him in that state. We must wait till we see the evidence of his subjection to Christ in the judgment of his sin.

This is largely ignored in Christendom generally, which has become like a great house in which valuable and common vessels are all mixed up together. If a man would be a " vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use," he is called to purge himself out from this mixture, by separating himself from it. He is then to find fellowship among similar separated ones, and to " follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2 :19-22) ; and so walking together the ground of the one body is maintained. If companies in different places are similarly gathered, they occupy the same position, and thus, in principle, go back to '' that which was from the beginning."

To do so involves no pretension. It is not "rebuilding the Church." It is owning the ruin of the Church and, in simplicity, "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace " (Eph.
4:3). Difficulties may and will arise. Troubles will come up. Sorrows will have to be faced. But if there be a cleaving to Christ and His truth, the word of God will be found all-sufficient to meet every case that appears.

Owing to the broken and defiled conditions in Christendom, more care will need to be exercised as to whom fellowship is to be extended. But the heart should ever be open to all whose ways and doctrine give good evidence that they are of the one body and subject to the one Lord. Special discernment will be needed, lest by association with the unholy, such become partakers of other men's sins; for to go on with one who is in an evil course, even to the extent of greeting him in a brotherly way, is to make oneself "partaker of his evil deeds." (See 2 John.)

But if the Scriptures are allowed to be judge, every difficulty will vanish. In the beginning what applied to one assembly applied to all, as all were one; and if the same principle is recognized by believers gathering in the simple way indicated above, it will solve many perplexities and keep from isolation and independency, the twin enemies of practical fellowship between local companies of believers.

QUES. 31.-"He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now . . . He that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither lie goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes" (] John 2 :9, 11). Could this apply to a brother in Christ, or is it a brother in the flesh? For how could a brother in Christ hate his brother in Christ?-although Ephesians 5:14 refers to Christians sleeping among the dead and needing to arise out of it that Christ may give them light.

ANS.-For one who is a true Christian-a man in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells-it is hard to conceive how such can hate each other, and also how they can be said to be and to walk in the darkness. But the clause " he that saith " explains the whole. It is a mere profession, and we must never forget that while the day of grace lasts, whatever place men take, God allows it to them and holds them responsible for what belongs to it. Thus a man who professes to be a Christian, without any real work of God in the soul, is allowed the place he takes and is therefore called a brother, for all Christians are brethren.

Notice the little clause even until now in verse 9. It means that the individual, although saying he is in the light, has really never been out of the darkness. He was there, and is still there, in spite of his profession. He is a mere natural man among those who are spiritual men, and he walks as natural men do. That true Christians may also be guilty of such evil because of the evil nature which is still in them, there is, alas, but too much proof ; but as a sheep fallen in the mud seeks to free itself out of it, so the true Christian cannot live in evil. It is not his character. He is miserable while in it, until he makes a clean breast of it before God, who is ever ready to forgive and to restore.

QUES. 32.-Is it consistent for a Christian couple, gathered to the name of Christ, to be united in marriage by a clergyman, when the law of the land permits a purely civil marriage ceremony performed by magistrates and other properly authorized civil powers? Does not the clergy man arrogate to himself the title of "reverend," which belongs only to God Himself; and does be not assume a position as standing between God and His people, thus practically denying that all God's people are priests, and in this respect are on an equal footing before Him? And is not this assumption the deeds and doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which the Lord hates? (Rev. 2:6, 15). Do not clergymen have this power conferred upon them because they have assumed this unscriptural position as a special class in the Church of God ? In view of all this, how can one who knows the truth consistently call upon any of this class to unite them in marriage ? Many are interested in this question, and an early and full answer will be greatly appreciated.

ANS.-We quite agree with what you write, and it pains us not a little to do so ; for while truth demands that we bear witness against the institution of the clergy, it also demands that we mention the devotedness and self-denying lives of many individuals who have belonged to or are in the institution. Were the line of honored names called up who have spent and been spent for our adorable Lord while belonging to that institution, it would be a noble host.

But good men in an evil institution do not make the institution better. They make it but the more dangerous, The few words of our Lord in Matthew 23 :8 at once describe and condemn the institution. A clergy implies a laity-a people inferior to them in place toward God, farther off from God, needing the clergy between them and God. Nothing could be more opposed to the character of Christianity. "Ye are all brethren," says the Head and Heart of Christianity; no matter what gift or talent this or that one may have, he cannot rightly take a place above the common level of a brother among his brethren. "Be ye not called Rabbi (Doctor) for one is your Master, even Christ." "Call no man your lather upon the earth :for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Thus are both the Romish "Father" and the Protestant "Reverend" or "Doctor" condemned by the Master whose eye foresaw what His professed followers would do. The ministry of Christ-evangelists, pastors, teachers-are no nearer to God than their brethren. The special gifts which they possess do not make them a separate class from their brethren any more than the special gift possessed by the foot, or the hand, or the eye, or the ear, makes those members a separate class in the human body. Each one's special gift makes him servant to the rest, not a master.

The institution arose when the Church became Judaized and began to imitate the order of Judaism, not understanding its typical character. Thus, failing to see that the Jewish priesthood foreshadowed Christ as the great High Priest, and the whole Church as the priestly family which, being in Christ, is brought nigh to God as Christ is, and is therefore called in 1 Peter 2 :5 "a holy priesthood," and in verse 9 "a royal priesthood," they turned the Christian ministry into a priesthood, with the exclusive privileges of that order. Out of this grave error has arisen a system of mediators, and of high, higher, highest princes after the fashion and ambitions of the world, to the destruction of Christian simplicity. And what is still more serious, the system has led to the usurpation of much which belongs to the Holy Ghost alone. He was sent down from heaven at Pentecost by our glorified Lord to form the Church and take charge of her on her journey through this world, as the glory-cloud was to conduct Israel on her journey from Egypt to Canaan. The institution of the clergy as such usurps that place largely. It would be a novel thing in Christendom now to see a congregation of Christians recognizing the Holy Spirit as alone to guide their meetings in praise, worship and ministry. Such scriptures as 1 Corinthians 11 aud 14 have practically become to them a dead letter. A congregation without a clergyman at its head would be looked upon as quite out of order. Believers cannot remember their Lord with the bread and the wine without a clergyman. It would be a desecration if not administered by an " ordained " man. Even at a prayer meeting the Holy Spirit is hindered. The clergyman calls upon this one or that one to pray, ignoring the Spirit who alone knows the hearts of all men. The institution thus makes the full Christian development impossible, and has been an important reason why many of God's people have fled from the institution when they have tasted divine liberty aud the spiritual development which results from it. Those who have passed through these experiences are anxious, therefore, to maintain their testimony against the institution as such.

We have no doubt that it is. as you say, because of the assumption of this unscriptural position (as a special class in the Chinch of God) that the Governments have recognized them and conferred privileges upon them. Had they remained in their rightful place of servants of the Lord Jesus, with no title attached, they would no more be recognized than the Lord Himself. Yet is it not a proof that the Powers desire to honor Christianity, for which we can be thankful? If therefore the laws of the State require that a clergyman be present to legalize the marriage, let us leave to the clergyman himself the responsibility of being in that position aud submit to the Slate. If we are left free to choose, let us be faithful and use the civil officer in preference. The people of God invited and present there, by prayer and fellowship represent God's side of the institution of marriage (for He is the One who has instituted it), while the civil officer represents the State in its jurisdiction over it. Thus all is divinely simple and true in the acknowledgment of God and of the Powers which He has instituted.

BY H. A. IRONSIDE

JUSTIFICATION FROM ALL THINGS

Of the treasure committed to Paul, the blessedness of which God would have all who sail with him enjoy while upon their voyage, no truth is of more importance to the peace of the believer than that of justification. This is pre-eminently what Paul calls "my gospel," and " my doctrine." It will be observed by the thoughtful reader of the word of God that while the question "How can man be just with God ? " was twice asked in the book of Job, and to Habbakuk it was revealed that "The just shall live by faith;" it remained for the apostle of the Gentiles to fully develop and widely proclaim the great doctrine of justification by faith. It is the corner-stone of "the mystery of the gospel." No other apostle or apostolic writer so much as mentions it, save that Luke as the inspired historian tells us how Paul preached it. But Peter and John never get beyond forgiveness of sins-nor, in one sense, shall any of us; for our song in heaven shall be of divine forgiveness. Still there is an aspect of forgiveness far higher than that of mere pardon, and it is of this that Paul delighted to treat.

To unfold his special instruction on this soul-stirring theme would be to expound the first eight chapters of the epistle to the Romans, which has most appropriately been called " The epistle of the Forum, or the Law-court." But others have done this most ably and the young believer can here only be referred to their excellent writings.* *The best book on Romans for young Christians that I have seen is John Port's "God's Salvation." After reading that I would urge the perusal of C. Grain's "Readings on Romans."* I simply desire, as briefly and clearly as possible, to outline the subject of Justification as treated in Romans and defended in Galatians.

When I think of forgiveness, as the word is ordinarily used among men, I think of a man proven to be guilty but pardoned through the clemency of another. But when I think of justification I think of a man charged with guilt, but, upon being brought into court, cleared on every count. And this is exactly what scriptural justification means. It is "the sentence of the judge in favor of the prisoner." And yet it is the ungodly who are justified by a holy God on the principle of absolute righteousness. How can such an event be brought about ?

In the first recorded sermon by the apostle Paul he tells us in what name it is done; he strikes the key-note of the theme so fully developed in the Roman epistle:" Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man [Christ Jesus] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:and by Him all that believe are justified from all things by which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38, 39). Moses' law indeed could but condemn. Through the name of Jesus God can proclaim justification for every believer. And why? For the simplest of all possible reasons. The Lord Jesus Himself had taken the place of the guilty, borne the judgment due to sin, and having fully glorified God in this respect had been raised from the dead and seated in highest glory as Man, in token of God's full satisfaction in His finished work, He was delivered for our offences and raised again our justification. Therefore being justified by ;h we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 4:25; 5:1).

It is the very simplicity of it over which men stumble. That He, the Holy One, should have been made a sin-offering that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, is something mere human reason would never have conceived. Yet this is the very pith and marrow of the gospel.
If sin be high treason against the Majesty in the heavens-and it is-Christ has died in the traitor's ad. If sin be a capital crime against the moral government of God-and it is-Christ has borne the full punishment deserved by the offender. If sin be a debt which man could never meet-and it is- Christ has paid the uttermost farthing, and the debtor may now go free.

Look at it in what aspect you may, and you will find the word of God reveals that all that He had against the sinner was more than met in the Cross Christ; and thus God can now be "Just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Sin is not merely pardoned. It is atoned for. Guilt is not simply overlooked. It is gone forever from the eye of God in the cross of His Son. Iniquity is not only forgiven, it is purged by the blood of the Son of the Highest, and the transgressor justified from all things.

It is after fully establishing all this, that the apostle triumphantly asks:" Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth! Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us "(Rom. 8:33,34).

All the value of the finished work of Christ- ever before God-stands over against all that I was as a one-time sinful, guilty man. This is justification, and this is my standing in the presence of the infinitely Holy and Righteous One.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus " (Rom. 8:i). And the reason is this; He Himself took the condemnation, endured the wrath of God, and has made full satisfaction for all the believer's sins. Faith rests on this and fears no more.

Dear Mr. Editor:A brother inquires as to the meaning of 1 Peter 3 :18-20. As others are often perplexed about this, may I answer him through " Help and Food " ?

For greater clearness, I put it in the form of questions and answers.

QUES. 1.-Is the spirit referred to the human spirit of our Lord, or the Holy Spirit?

ANS.-The Holy Spirit, by which He was raised from the dead.

QUES. 2.-When did He preach by the Holy Spirit? "When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah."

QUES. 3.-Through whom did He preach ? Through Noah.

QUES. 4.-To whom did He preach? "To the spirits [now] in prison," for refusing His testimony.

QUES. 5.-What was the result in grace of His preaching? " Few, that is, eight, souls were saved through water ;" 1:e., Noah and his family.

QUES. 6.-Are there any other scriptures that present the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, preaching in Old Testament times?

ANS.- Yes :1 Peter 1:10, 11 and 2 Peter 1:21.

QUES. 7.-Does any scripture positively declare the Spirit would not strive with the antediluvians after death?

ANS.- Yes :Gen. 6 :3 limits His striving to 120 years ; that is, to the flood. H. A. I.

QUES. 12.-Professing Christians among whom I live assert that king Saul was once saved, but finally was lost. They do the same about Judas, saying lie must at one time have been a saved man, for he went out and preached and healed along with the rest of the Twelve, but later he lost his salvation. This does not disturb me, for I know I am saved forever; but I would like to be able to help them more.

ANS.-Your neighbors evidently do not know the grace of God. They are still in their own works, either to get or to keep salvation. It is of little use therefore to discuss with them cases which need interpretation, for wisdom to interpret aright is found only where grace is truly known. It is better to lead them in the many plain passages which need no interpretations.

God truly changed the heart of Saul (1 Sam. 10:9), but it is one thing for God to change a man's heart in view of making a king out of a lawless youth ,and quite another in view of making a saint out of a sinner. So with Judas. The Lord chose him to be an apostle in view of Ps. 41:9, referred to in John 13 :18. He also gave him, no doubt, all apostolic powers, as to the other eleven ; but to be an apostle, and to have powers for miracles, is not of necessity to be a child of God. One must be lorn of God to be that, and Judas never was born of God, as the Lord's words in John 13 :10, 11, which refer to the new birth, imply.

QUES. 13.-Is there any scripture which says that Satan is a fallen angel ?

ANS.-Yes. 1 Tim. 3 :6, correctly rendered, plainly teaches it. A correct rendering of it in the "New Translation" reads, "Not a novice, that he may not, being inflated, fall into the fault of the devil." His "fault" is described in Ezek. 28:11-17 under the figure of the king of Tyre.

QUES. 14.-When the Angel wrestled with Jacob he left Jacob lame. Was this temporary, or for all time?

ANS.-For all time, no doubt. It was the reminder of his rich blessing when his name was changed from Jacob the Deceiver to Israel the Prince. Would you like to forget throughout all eternity that you have been a poor sinner made into a saint by the death of Jesus on the cross ?

SIMPLE PAPERS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS BY H. A. IRONSIDE

" Fear not, Paul; . . . lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee."-Acts 27:24.

SANCTIFICATION

None who sail with Paul need be confused as to the teaching of Scripture on Sanctification, if they will but carefully weigh the many luminous passages in his epistles on the subject.

I can only briefly outline them in this paper, referring any who desire a more exhaustive consideration of it to what I have elsewhere written.* *See "Holiness:the False and the True." Same writer and publishers.*

It should be plain to any thoughtful person that the great apostle of the Church never divides believers into two classes, some of whom are "only justified" and the others possessing a "second blessing, "or sanctified. On the contrary he addresses all Christians as "sanctified in Christ Jesus." Nor does this mean that they are morally perfect, or sinless. Surely no one could so speak of the Corinthian assembly. All kinds of evils had to be corrected among them; they are called carnal in chapter 3:yet he addresses them as " sanctified" in the and verse of chapter i, and in verse 30 he writes, "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us … sanctification." They were in Christ, so they were sanctified though their ways were far from being all that God would have them.

There need be no difficulty here if it be known and held in mind that sanctification means separation to God. All believers have been set apart to God in Christ, and are no longer of the world even as He is not of the world.

In harmony with other New Testament writers Paul presents sanctification as three-fold:

We are sanctified by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16; i Cor. 6:11; 2 Thess. 2:13).

We are sanctified by the blood of Christ, and His one all-sufficient offering upon the cross (Heb. 2:10,11; 9:11-14; 10:10, 14, 29; 13:12.)* *I take it for granted that Paul wrote Hebrews. I see no valid reason for questioning it.*

We are sanctified by the word of God (Eph. 5:25, 26). Compare this with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 17:17-19.

The sanctification by the Holy Spirit is the beginning of the work of God in one's soul, separating him from the world and follies he once loved, turning his heart to God, exercising him about his sin-fulness, and leading him to personal faith in Christ. To this agree the words of the apostle Peter in i Pet. i:2. Sanctification of the Spirit is there shown to be the divine means used to lead the guilty soul to the blood of sprinkling. The work of Christ trusted in, henceforth the Spirit dwells personally in the believer and it is His blessed work to lead the soul on in the ways that be in Christ.
Sanctification by the blood, or the one offering of the Son of God, is positional. That is, it has to do with the new position into which the saved one is brought. His sins are purged; his conscience is free; he stands before God in all the value of the work of His Son. Thus he is forever perfected as to his conscience, and set apart from a world that lies in the wicked one, under the judgment of God. The believer can never again become part of that world. The work of Christ has come in between his soul and the judgment his sins deserved. Thus in the fullest possible sense he is sanctified by the blood of the everlasting covenant. If the profession be unreal (as contemplated in Heb. 10:29), there is, of course, no abiding sanctification; but where faith is genuine he is sanctified eternally. Note verse 14 of the same chapter.

Sanctification by the word of God is the practical outcome of the work of Christ and the Spirit's work within. Daily the Word is applied to heart and conscience by the Lord Himself, as we saw in a former paper when animadverting on John 13. He keeps the feet of His saints, cleansing them from defilement contracted while passing through this polluted scene, with the washing of water by the Word. In this sense no saint is "wholly sanctified" till he no longer needs the word of God for cleansing and instruction. That will only be at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we get it in i Thess. 5:23. Then shall every Christian be presented blameless, his sanctification completed, and nothing for all eternity shall be permitted to come up that will again defile his feet or call for the application of the Word in cleansing.

There is a passage that is often greatly misunderstood, in Heb. 12:14:"Follow peace with all men and holiness (or sanctification), without which no man shall see the Lord." Observe that in this solemn and important verse "holiness," like "peace with all men," is put as the object before the soul. But no one should presume to say he has attained what he is distinctly directed to follow. Paul's own experience, as described in Phil. 3; 12-14, might well rebuke such a thought. He says, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing; forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus " (Oxford, 1911 Version).

Such may well be the settled purpose of each young Christian reading these lines. You have been called unto holiness, and holiness is simply Christ-likeness. If He be ever before you, and you daily seek to walk as He walked in the Spirit's power, guided by the unerring word of God, you shall know the blessedness of being sanctified by the truth. And if the great adversary of your soul taunts you with failure and weakness look not in, or around you, but up into the face of Christ Jesus, exalted in glory, and cry in faith," He is my sanctification. I am in Him, and that forever! "

QUES. 21.-I would like to ask a favor of yon, as the "labor unions" have been quite active around here lately. Will you state in your magazine what you consider the proper attitude of a Christian toward unions and labor questions in general ? Some Christians seem to think all is well by paying the "fees" and having nothing else to do with them ; but my conscience is not freed by this. It tells me that if I pay fees to any association I am responsible for their actions in a greater or lesser measure, whether I take active part in them or not. But this is no light question when one has a family to support. I pray the Lord may give me faith to trust Him and grace to act accordingly, when called upon.

ANS.-It is with fear and trembling we answer your question, for while we are in the fullest agreement with your convictions, we dread exciting any Christian beyond his faith. " Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" is the pleading of Divine Love with its family. A more tender, touching appeal than is made in that paragraph in which the passage occurs (2 Cor. 6 :14-7:1) could not perhaps be found in all the Scriptures. It asks that the children of God should satisfy that love, so that the sweets of the relationship between Father and children may have no check to their outflow but be freely enjoyed. And has not God the right to expect this from His children, when it has cost Him so much to redeem and acquire them? Can He be free with them and they with Him while linked up with His enemies? Impossible ! And there, no doubt, lies a large cause of the spiritual deadness and indifference of so many. Nor is the yoke with "labor unions" the only unequal yoke. There are others. How many Christians now-a-days seem to have no conscience about allying themselves in matrimony, or business, or church, or secret societies, with manifest unbelievers.

What loss to their souls ! How little they must realize that, sooner or later, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

But, as we have said, we dread urging a Christian beyond his faith, especially when, as you say, the bread of the family is at stake. A true husband and father will feel this more than aught else of earthly things. To. see his family suffer will make him suffer. He must therefore take the step-the good and needful step-of separation, by faith. He needs to be able to say, If my Father in heaven claims this of me, He will look after all the consequences; and if I trust Him for my soul's eternal salvation, I can surely trust Him for the daily bread of my family.

Brother, beloved in Christ, though unknown to us, if you can say this to God, not only will you never regret having taken the path of separation from evil, but you will experience the realities of your relationship with God as never before. Yon will learn and acquire things which will abide for eternity as yon could not under an unequal yoke. You will also prove how true His promise is, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Read Luke 12:22-31. Those blessed words from our Lord's lips are true to the letter. Believe them. You will prove Him as truly interested in your daily temporal needs as He was in your eternal when He was bearing your sins in His own body on the tree.

QUES. 22.-Who is the " Man child " mentioned in Isaiah 66 :7, and when will the judgment announced in verse 15 take place ?
ANS.-The language is figurative in verse 7. It describes the suddenness of the deliverance the Lord will bring to the glad remnant amid the apostate nation of Israel at the time of His appearing. The first five verses of the chapter describe the condition of the apostate nation and their persecution of the faithful remnant. Then suddenly, in verse 6, deliverance comes and brings blessing with heretofore unheard of swiftness.

The judgment of verse 15 is what falls on the apostate nation at that time.

All your other questions on that chapter are easily solved in the light of the above. The day of grace has not ended of course ; that will not end till the millennium is over. But " the day of vengeance of our God" has come too in that chapter, to clear the earth of His enemies preparatory to the establishment of the kingdom of our Lord.

As to their brethren being brought as au offering to the Lord, will it not be a delight to Him to see His people brought back ? -even as to us, if any one returned a long-lost, valued treasure?

Israel illustrates the people of God now on the A earth. Their redemption from under the judgment of God by the blood of the lamb on their doors illustrates ours by the blood of Jesus. Their deliverance from bondage to Pharaoh by the passage of the Red Sea illustrates our deliverance from bondage to sin and our complete severance from all connection with the world. The wilderness to which this brought them illustrates what this world is to us. It is a place which can minister nothing to us in our character as children of God. It does minister to the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, but it has neither bread nor water for the new man. What feeds and refreshes him must come from outside this world altogether – from heaven, whence he was born when he was born of God.

The manna was given to Israel therefore for food during their wilderness journey, and the water out of the smitten rock for their drink. These to us are Christ the Bread of Life, and the Holy Spirit who, dwelling in us, not only satisfies our souls with Christ, but makes them bubble up with everlasting praise to His blessed name.

The manna was white. This tells the spotless purity of Christ. In Him was a holy, sinless humanity, delightful to God. It tasted like wafers made with honey.

" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear."

Thus if He is delightful to God, so is He to the believer also.

There is this which in the types ever comes short of the reality, that the manna could only sustain life. It could give no new life to dying men. But Christ, the true Manna, the true Bread of heaven, first gives a new life-eternal life-and then feeds and sustains that life unto all eternity. They who ate Israel's manna therefore remained dead in their sins, but the true manna is " the Bread of God . . . which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world " (Jno. 6:33). He who as one of the world comes to that blessed One, as a poor sinner dead in his sins, remains not dead:"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life."

But, says a believer, How am I so to lay hold on Christ as to find my daily bread in Him ? I realize my Christian life is weak, my testimony feeble, my fruitfulness very scant. I know there is not in my life that difference which ought to be between the life of a child of God and that of a man of the world. Often I feel as if my life was being wasted. How can I lay hold on the Lord Jesus so as to get out of this state ?

When you came to Christ as a lost sinner He gave you life. When you come to Him as a needy saint, confessing to Him your state as you have just described it, He will so minister to your soul as to lift it out of its low condition and fulfil in you the desire of your heart. But there is a lesson which nature itself teaches us here:We have to chew our food to help its digestion and secure the end for which it is intended. Chewing well, digesting well, produces a body vigorous in all its parts.

So too, feeding on Christ is giving some of our time to meditate on what we learn about Him in the Word.

"Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." This is for us, of course, but no principle connected with Christ ever failed to be practically and perfectly illustrated in His life:"Ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich " (2 Cor. 8:9). The word of God presents this to you for food. Consider for a time the marvels of such grace; think on it; turn it over in your mind as you go to your work or return from it. The result will be that you will feel like praising and worshiping the Lord, and praying for such a mind to be formed in you. It will make you & true servant of His people in whatever way the gift you possess may lead.

Again, in humility alone can you live a life of fruitfulness. Contemplate Christ washing His disciples' feet in John 13. This expresses His present, actual ministry, from the glory where He is, toward His people through their journey here on earth. This is not driving the sheep; is it ? This is not asserting authority; is it?-though His it is. This is not seeking supremacy; is it?-though supreme He is. It is the Lord of heaven and earth serving His people in their day of need. Contemplate this, think it over instead of picking up a newspaper or a questionable book, or letting your mind run on earthly schemes; and, instead of accusing them, you will be praying and caring for the lambs and sheep of Christ who stumble by the way.

Apart from love there is no Christian life. '' God is love." Christ has demonstrated this to the full. Follow Him a little in your thoughts in His wonderful course of love, till you see Him in the unfathomable sufferings of the cross on account of the sins which you have committed, and you will not be easily discouraged in any labor of love for Him, even though you may suffer for it.

Nothing preserves us from the evil that is in the world like letting our light shine before men. But the light rebukes men, and they like it not. Look for a moment or two at Christ shining upon men. It so angers them that they thirst for His blood, but it brings such as the woman of Sychar to worship at His feet. Oh feed on Christ thus, in the multitude of characters which He bears, and unbeknown to thee thy very face will shine from the bliss within thee.

Wouldst thou escape the unrighteous spirit which prevails everywhere and brings on wars and strifes of all kinds in the world and in the Church ? Consider in quiet meditation that blessed Saviour's course. It tells at every step that "the righteous Lord loveth righteousness." Our sins could not be righteously forgiven save by the righteous judgment of them on the cross. To the cross therefore He deliberately went. Everywhere, with everyone, in everything, righteousness marks His ways and guides His love. Are they going to make Him use it against a poor, sinful woman? He will uphold it by making them condemn themselves (Jno. 8:9).

Our thoughts engaged thus with the righteous character and ways of our Lord, we shall be preserved from the many devious ways in which the enemy ever seeks to lead the sheep of Christ's flock. Our souls "will be fed with the Bread of Life in such a way as to quicken every Christian virtue and produce in us a faithful testimony.

Does all this seem too much warfare with all our natural tendencies ? Beloved brethren, the results of our course here are eternal. F.

"Sailing with Paul"

Request has been made that the articles under this title, Sailing with Paul, should be reproduced in pamphlet form for wider distribution. This accords with our own mind.

God willing, they will therefore form the last number of Treasury of Truth for this year, whose price, paper-bound, will be 15 cents. One chapter-on the second coming of the Lord-will appear in that pamphlet which, for want of room, was not published in help and food. We trust a good widespread distribution will be given to the publication of these articles, which have been a blessing to not a few.

We have now in hand from the same author two articles, on "Apostolic Faith Missions and the so-called Second Pentecost," which will appear (D.V.) in the earlier months of Help and Food for the coming year, in a narrative form, telling what the author himself has been witness to. We believe they will be very helpful to such as may be in danger of that snare. He is also to furnish during the year a series of articles on Romanism. The fangs of that idolatrous system are taking hold everywhere throughout this land. Some are fighting it on political grounds -for, like Mormonism, it is quite as much a political machine as a religious one. Whilst thanking God for the liberty of conscience we have enjoyed under the government of the United States ever since we were brought under it, and earnestly praying that it may be preserved from the wiles of its enemies, we realize that our path as Christians is not in the field of politics, but of spiritual things. We rejoice therefore that our beloved fellow-worker, Mr. Ironside, is to expose Romanism, in the light of the word of God. She has tormented God's servants and children, and they who do such things cannot escape His judgments. So His Word warns all to escape its approaching end (Rev. 18 :4).

Church Unions, etc.

We have received several marked etc. newspapers and newspaper-clippings from different persons, who desire us to say something on what is going on in the line of our subject. That the divisions of Christendom are a reproach to Christianity, nobody questions; every true and sincere Christian feels their shame. If one is truly exercised about them before God, he mourns and seeks God's way in the midst of the conditions which they produce. If we are more ashamed before men than before God, we will be more anxious to have things suited to man's taste than to God's; and here, we judge, lies the snare into which many are falling.

When faithful men, such as Luther, Calvin, and a host of others, had their eyes anointed to see the frightful corruption and idolatry of the Church of Rome, there was only one path open to them by the word of God, " Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity " (2 Tim. 2:19). This, of course, made division. The faithful men were not the ones responsible for it, but the iniquity of the Church of Rome. She figures prominently in the efforts made toward church union. Has she repented of her iniquities, or are there no more faithful men to stand against them ?
The Unitarians figure in this too. According to the word of God they have no claim to the name Christian:"He that hath not the Son of God hath not life " (i Jno. 5:12). A man who has not life is yet a lost sinner. Do such have a place in Church fellowship ? When such features mark a return together of the divided people of God, we unhesitatingly say such a return is not of God. Its success could only produce a proud, self-righteous, corrupt, idolatrous church, much worse in the sight of God than before, though praised by man who loves big and powerful things.

We have strong illustrations in the word of God concerning such things. Because of its iniquities, the nation of Israel broke in two; ten tribes on one side, two on the other. Rehoboam tried to mend the mischief- God opposed it; for an unrepentant condition in the nation would have made them only worse by their return together. Nor have they been fit to return together ever since. It will be only when that "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matt. 24:21) comes upon them that they will judge their evil course and repent of it. Then God will bring them together by the attractive power and grace of their coming Messiah. What light this sheds upon us in like circumstances! Let any Christian people who were once united, and have become divided, attempt to re-unite without genuine repentance, their coming together will only be for the worse, though it may gratify their desire, and bring upon them the praise of men.

One of the papers sent us gives a report of the speeches made at the dedication of a Roman Catholic college for girls in New Jersey. The burden of the speeches is that the Roman Catholics are very fond of education. Query:Why is it then that the people are so frightfully ignorant (a large majority of them being unable to read or write) in the countries where she has sway ? Another feature in them is,, that the Roman Catholic church should have schools of its own, because the public schools are irreligious. Who has made them so ? Who has labored assiduously to drive from the schools the only book that gives a true religion ? Is it not the Roman Catholics ? No doubt some little figure of Mary put in a niche of the school-house wall would be far more pleasing to them than a Bible on the desk. That little figure does not accuse the Church of Rome:the Bible does-in no mistakable terms. Let the reader carefully peruse chapters 17, 18, and the first part of 19, of the book of Revelation and he will find her there well described and suitably named. In the face of such facts, it takes no little nerve for the Bishop of Trenton and his fellow-preachers to accuse the public schools of being irreligious.

Oh, that the people of this beloved land would cling to the Bible and refuse to let its enemies drive it out of their schools!

QUES. 1.-An explanation of the words " I create evil " in Isaiah 45:7 would be much appreciated by several of us.

ANS.-2 Thess. 2:11 explains it. So also Dent. 28:58-68. It is not an essential creation as in Gen. 1, for out of Him who is Light and Love nothing evil can proceed. It is a summoning of the suitable evil powers in existence for judgment upon such as deserve a judgment at the hand of God.

QUES. 2.-Would be thankful for an exposition of 2 Tim. 2:21, 22.

ANS.-You will find it in a very full way in an article by Mr. Crain, page 68 of our last year's volume. The same is also in pamphlet form, "An Examination of P. Mauro's tract on Christian Fellowship," postpaid, 10 cents.

QUES. 3.-Why does the Lord, in Luke 9:21 forbid His disciples to tell that He was "The Christ of God " ?

ANS.-Because while He was indeed the Christ of God in His Person, He must needs pass through death and resurrection to enter into the great offices of that title. How could He reign over Israel with their sins upon them ? He must first bear their sins in His own body on the tree and thus put them away before He can identify them with Him as His own nation. His words to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:25-27) show this. Throughout His ministry our Lord ever seeks to hide His Messiahship, except to those who were of faith and could therefore be carried through the times of His humiliation. Even these fainted in a measure as we pee in the two disciples above mentioned.

Thus, while our Lord was as truly the Christ before His death and resurrection as after, He could not be proclaimed abroad as such till the work which is the foundation of that office was accomplished.

And what is true of that office is true of every other. Saviour, King, Priest-every one of His offices rests upon the work of the cross. In His Person, however, every one of them is true of Him from eternity to eternity, and He could exercise them when and as He pleased. Long before the cross He could, on the ground of it, carry an Enoch and an Elijah straight to heaven bodily.

QUES. 4.-Will you kindly say who were the sons of God of Gen. 6:2, 4? also of Job 1:6 and 2:1? Were they angels as some assume, or were they God's chosen of that day? Were the "sons of God " mentioned in both Genesis and Job the same class at the different periods of time?

ANS.-For an answer to your questions see Help and Food 1910 volume, pages 190 and 324. Also the article, "Concerning the Nephilim" p. 81 of the 1911 volume.

Three Great Steps

The first, out of death in to life, out of darkness into light, out of Adam into Christ, out of the old creation into the new, out of condemnation into the Father's bosom. Blessed, most blessed step!

The next. The man in a prison at Rome who has been one of the most faithful witnesses of our adorable Saviour; who has suffered all manner of insult from the world and from the church because of his faithful and loving witness, is about to take it. He is soon to be executed. He says, " I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." That step carries him to the third heaven-into Paradise-where he will hear "unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." This is far better indeed. It is blessed advance.

The third, the final one; The Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with archangel voice, with trump of God, and the dead in Christ rise first. Then we which are alive and remain are caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We shall be like Him then. The eternal purpose of God will be fulfilled. We shall see and enjoy forever the love and the glory of it. Blessed, thrice-blessed steps which lead to such an end!

The Master's Voice, or Man's ?

If we have not that faith which can walk alone with God, which can act alone for God, and independently of all men-saints as well as sinners-we shall fail as His witnesses in the day of testing.

If we have to wait to see what others are going to do, to decide as to our own steps, we are leaning on an arm of flesh ; our eye is no more on the Great Leader of His people, and our spiritual power is gone. God does not act on the crowds. He acts on the individual conscience ; He convicts it; He makes each one hear Him, obey Him. Whatever others may do, this is not the concern of the man who walks with God. He does not despise his brethren. He is not independent of them. He is not self-sufficient. He loves their fellowship and seeks their counsel when once in that path with them which God appoints by His word, but that path he must find for himself alone with God, and take it for himself alone with God, regardless of any and every other man. It is the individual conviction; this walk alone with God ; this obedience of faith which is the very power of Christian fellowship. It binds the heart to God, and God it is who binds the hearts of His people together. In that condition the soul drinks at the Fountain-head-the Source of all power. If we wait on man, look to man, move because he moves, wait for the crowd that we may hide ourselves in it, we are fallen ; we are neither cold nor hot ; it is no longer the voice of our Lord we hear ; it is but the voice of man. " O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee!" (Ps. 84:12)

Referring to Ques. 8 in our February No., a correspondent from a foreign country writes:"It seems to me your answer to that question may not be sufficient-to enlighten your enquirer. May I suggest the following? In that passage (Matt. 8:12) the Lord expresses surprise at the faith of a Gentile who shows himself more ready to enter the kingdom of heaven than the Jews in general. These, as Abraham's seed, had the chief right to that kingdom. They had been separated from the nations and formed in view of it. It is because of this the Lord calls them here the sons (υιoι) of the kingdom (sons, not children). By virtue of this calling of God they had right to the kingdom; but now, under grace, the matter becomes purely individual. By faith alone could each individual come into the kingdom, and by being born from above, become the children of the kingdom (John 8:39; Gal. 3:29). These will come from all the ends of the earth when the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all nations, and they will have their portion in its blessings upon the earth, while the greater part of the so-called children of Abraham will be swept away in judgment." S. C.

We thank our brother, and trust we have translated his letter correctly.-Editor.

QUES. 15.-Does the word Perfect in Philippians 3:15 refer to Christian standing, or is it attainment?

ANS.-"Perfect" refers here to Christian maturity or growth, as in 1 Cor. 2:6 and 14:20. Literally translated, this last passage reads:"Brethren, be not children in understanding:howbeit in malice be children, but in understanding be full grown (τελειoι -perfect). Compare also 1 Cor. 3:1, 2 ; Eph. 4 :13 ; Col. 1:28 ; 4:12; 1 Jno. 2:13, etc.

QUES. 16.-Is it necessary or suitable that the brother who gives thanks for the bread aud wine at the Lord's Table should take the elements in his hand at the table while giving thanks?

ANS.-Read carefully the article in this issue entitled, "Some Thoughts on what is Due to Christ." Note especially the end. Some find it difficult to get rid of formalities.

QUES. 17.-In a former issue you referred to instrumental music. You in no wise allowed its use in Christian worship or service, but only for training voices to produce good congregational singing. I am not sure this is right. Would you kindly say if 1 Cor. 14:15 and Rom. 15:9 do not imply the use of an instrument in singing?

ANS.-We believe not. Nothing is said there but about singing; not a word about playing, nor anywhere else in the New Testament that we know of. The character of the present dispensation is against it:"They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." There is to be nothing mechanical, nothing ritualistic, nothing sensuous now.

We are no foe to instrumental music. We love it if kept free from the immoralities which often attach to it, and if kept where it belongs-in the circle of home social life. But in the Christian circle-the circle of the heavenly people, who know God and approach Him in all the reality of what He is, we believe it inconsistent and irrelevant. It has been a means, we believe, of degrading Christianity to a great degree. Look at the effect of it in Christian congregations:It was to help them sing at first; now, dumb in praise to God, they are, instead, getting a treat for themselves from musical art. Is it any wonder if they can after that associate the theater with the church ? One place gives them pleasure, and so does the other.

Again look at its effects in modern evangelism. It has made it a new sort of entertainment, and instead of converts marked by having wept in repentance over sin, by keen separation even from the garment spotted by it. and by a spirit of prayer and devoted-ness to Christ, it has formed in them a trifling, pleasure-loving mind, destructive of true Christianity. There are doubtless other influences at work productive of these conditions, but believing this is one of them we resist it as we would the others.

QUES. 18.-Does Scripture teach definitely that there will be literal sacrifices before the end of this age according to Dan. 9:27 and 12 :11 ? Are they literal or spiritual sacrifices mentioned in Ezekiel, chaps. 40 to 48 ?

Will sacrifices be resumed in millennial times? If so, where? by whom ? and for what purpose ? In unbelief, or in faith ?

ANS.-Not "before the end of this age" (the age of the Church); but during the age following this and preceding the millennial, yes, most assuredly. The two passages you quote in Daniel show this conclusively. The Church has then been translated and the Jewish age has come back as it was in the days of our Saviour. The temple rebuilt at Jerusalem will have its order of worship restored in some fashion till "the abomination that maketh desolate" is set up in it by the "Beast" of Key. 13 who interrupts that order. The sacrifices offered are of course the literal Jewish sacrifices of lambs, etc., with the appertaining ritual.

Ezekiel, chap. 36, speaks of God's new covenant of grace toward Israel as a nation. The 37th tells of their restoration as such, in their own land and in unity then-no more two kingdoms. Chaps. 38 and 39 are the judgment of their final, great enemy Gog-presumably Russia. Chap. 40 is the rebuilding of their temple under divine instruction and supervision. The one which had been rebuilt by the nation in unbelief and which Antichrist had defiled by setting up the abomination of desolation in it will have been destroyed, and made room for this final glorious millennial temple, built under the plan of the divine Architect.

The remaining chapters are devoted to the divine order established. The glory has returned-the throne of God from which the whole earth is now to be governed is again in that temple, at Jerusalem, and the Jewish order of worship is afresh set up, with its literal sacrifices and services carried on, not in unbelief, but as set up of God, in the obedience of faith; not of course as having any value for salvation, but like the Lord's supper with us, in proclamation of what the Lord is to them and has done for them and for all creation. Oars is a feast in lowliness and reproach during our Lord's rejection; theirs will be a magnificent, royal celebration of His then universally acknowledged glories and virtues as expressed in figure in the Jewish ritual.

QUES. 19.-Matthew 27:32 ; Mark 15:21 and Luke 23:26 bear witness to the fact that Simon the man of Cyrene was the one who carried the cross of Jesus.
How is it then that John 19:17 says that Jesus went forth bearing His cross? I have not the shadow of doubt as to the perfect consistency of Scripture, but it is good to have difficulties settled in one's mind.

ANS.-They leave Pilate's judgment hall bearing, each man, his cross. On the way to the place of crucifixion they meet Simon the Cyrenian returning to the city from the country. Possibly out of pity for the Lord they compel this man, probably a strong laboring man, to carry His cross the rest of the way. John does not take notice of this. The others do.

"Make your calling and election sure" (2 Pet. 1 :10).

It is not so long ago that a believer who was assured of his salvation was generally considered a very presumptuous man. Law being the characteristic preaching rather than grace, human merit was the chief part of salvation, and so to be sure of one's eternal salvation meant, of course, to have reached a much greater degree of goodness than those who were full of doubts and fears.

The wave of blessed light, however, which has swept over the whole earth these eighty years past, has wrought a great change. Men of God broke through human traditions; returned with a prayerful spirit to the Holy Scriptures; learned to rightly divide them; proved that law was ordained of God not for salvation but for condemnation then Christ came, suffered and died in atonement for sin, and thus provided a full, free and eternal salvation, bestowed in pure grace upon all who repent of their sins and believe on Him.

That grace now declared that all believers had eternal life, that they could therefore never perish, and none could pluck them out of that Hand which, once crucified for their sins, now held them in its almighty grasp of love.

What an outburst of praise rose through these and other glorious truths from the great host of souls long in mournful bondage, now set free with a freedom that came from the Son of God. They were "free indeed." And, thank God, this has not ceased. It is going on daily. It has created missionary activity all over the world. It has made and is making an army of devoted souls forsake much and suffer much to make known to their fellows the riches of this grace, while waiting for the coming again in glory of Him by whom it came.

The opposite of legal bondage, however, is now what threatens to mar the grace. It is found in a host of people who have caught on the grace and are using it to quiet their consciences while going on in friendship with the world. They seem quite oblivious to the fact that, " If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (i John 2:15, 16). And again, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God " (Jas. 4:4).

One is amazed at times to hear people calmly tell you that, O yes, they know they are saved, while leading -lives quite suited to the world, sharing its ways and pleasures, and showing little, if any, devotion of spirit to the Lord Jesus by whom they profess to be saved. Is this making one's calling and election sure? What when the testing hour comes ? "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." What then f If only those who walk in communion with God, and therefore apart from the world, can stand in the ordeal (Eph. 6:13), what of those who have flippantly used the grace which cost our Saviour the agonies of the cross ? Where can they turn in that day when, instead of having through a life of piety made themselves at home in the Father's bosom, they have sought to find a place in the bosom of the world ?

May the Lord stir up "His own," that since "they are not of the world," they may manifest it in their works, their character, their ways, their dress, their words, their object in life, their all.

Making our calling and election sure is by a daily life of piety and growing acquaintance and intimacy with God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. We may be well acquainted with the doctrine of God, but it is not with the doctrine we are going to spend eternity. It is with God Himself. His doctrine serves to reveal Him, and we are jealous of the doctrine, because we are jealous of what He is. By becoming thus acquainted with Him, the affections are formed which bind us to Him. Then, whatever betide, we nestle ourselves in His bosom. The doctrine indeed is the expression of Himself, but it is Himself who is our hiding-place, our refuge, our friend, our resource in all circumstances.

O fellow-believer, waste not the precious moments, but use them devotedly to this end, making thus thy calling and- election sure. If thou hast wasted them, repent and waste them no more.

Human Claims and God's Ends

Every man-made religion claims gradual growth and progress until it will swallow up every other, and reign supreme in all the earth.

God is the only one who predicts decrepitude and final apostasy in the religions of His establishment. In Deut. 31:16, 17, He predicts the end of what He had committed to the nation of Israel in the following words:"And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us ? "

In the same manner, concerning the Church, He prophesies her downfall in 2 Tim. 4:3,4 thus:" For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

What hope then is there ? And why toil in suffering at what is foretold to end so disastrously? Moses, who knew the sad end, toiled devotedly to his last breath for Israel's welfare. Paul, who perceived "the mystery of iniquity" already at work in his day for the final ruin, toiled abundantly and in much suffering for the welfare of the Church.

What sustained those men and gave them such courage? Ah, they saw beyond all the failure and downfall of what was entrusted to man. They saw the purpose of God. -They knew His ability to carry it out. Their faith rejoiced in the triumph at the end. Moses saw Israel's Messiah, like himself returning to the nation which had once cast Him off- returning to it from heaven in power and glory in the hour of its greatest extremity. A God-fearing remnant among them will be made to pass through the furnace of affliction, as illustrated in Daniel's three young friends. Messiah then appears for their deliverance, and that remnant becomes the nation as described in Psalm 45, "The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold." She is prosperous beyond all former measure; at the head of all the nations; their lovely Jerusalem, "beautiful for situation," is then "the joy of the whole earth," for it is "the city of the great King " (Ps. 48). That day will show that to have served such a nation in patience and love during her dark days was no waste of time nor of talents.

In like manner Paul saw the Church, once persecuted, despised, hated of the world, vilified by base imitations, split up into fragments as a flock of sheep driven by wolves, plagued with antichrists-he saw that Church as described in Rev. 19. There, in the presence of the hosts of heaven she is, as a bride on her wedding-day, reflecting the glory of her glorious Bridegroom, forming with Him the central figure in the noblest assemblage of the universe of God. "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready."

The Lord of heaven and earth, worshiped by all, makes manifest then what He thinks of the Church, and how she stands in the sweetest and nearest of all relations to Him. That day will show that to have served the Church, the Lamb's wife, in love and self-denial in the time of her widowhood and sorrow, was laid up in the heart of God for all eternity.

When the remnant of Israel appears in glory as referred to in psalm 45, the nation in apostasy, as prophesied by Moses, has fallen under the judgment of the returned, triumphant Messiah (Matt. 21:44). Likewise, when the Church, which is Christ's body, appears, as in Rev. 19, the apostate Church, described there as "the great whore," has also been judged, as seen in chaps. 17 and 18.

In view of such absolute and everlasting triumph, God can afford to tell the truth-all of it-even though it may seem to give Him an under place for a time, and cast a gloom over that with which His holy Name is so intimately and livingly associated.

QUES. 26.-We are told in the Word that Jesus died, was buried, and the third day rose again. But He said to the thief, " To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." Will you kindly explain how this can be?

ANS.-Death ends existence on earth, but not in the world of spirits. Every man, saved or unsaved, continues to live on in that world when dead to this one (Luke 20 :38). And if this be true of mere men, how much more of Him who " is the true God and eternal life" (1 Jno. 5 :20). None of His attributes and great offices were interrupted by His body lying in the grave. He died before the converted thief died, and He was in Paradise-the "third heaven" (2 Cor. 12:1-4)-to welcome that convert the moment he parted from his body on earth.

QUES. 27.-Is the passage in 1 Cor. 1 :17, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel," intended to set baptism aside altogether ?

ANS.-How could it be so construed in the light of all Paul's practice and teaching? One might get such a thought by considering that passage alone-apart from all the rest of his teaching and practice-but when seen together, that is impossible.

Paul was entrusted with more than what was committed to the Twelve. They were to disciple the nations into " the kingdom of heaven," bringing them as subjects into it (Matt. 28:19) ; he with the dispensation of the Church, the body of Christ, a heavenly thing altogether, formed by the Spirit out of the true subjects of the kingdom (1 Cor. 12 :13). One is not baptized with water as a member of the body of Christ, but only as a subject of the kingdom. Baptism therefore is linked with the ministry of the Twelve, and not with that of Paul. But Paul's ministry did not deny that of the Twelve. It did not set it aside. It is going on now as well as in their day. Nor did it separate Paul from the Twelve. If Paul's special ministry was union with Christ, that of the Twelve was subjection to Christ, and surely no right-minded Christian would divorce these things from each other. Paul did not. And lest (because of his special mission and the greatness of the blessing at Corinth) he should be thought to be forming a party of his own, he did not himself baptize his converts there, but he saw to it that they were baptized (Acts 18:8). The union of the wife to her husband, above all other relationship as it is, does not set aside her subjection to him. Let us then not be one-sided, but give all truth its due place.

Some, inflated by Paul's special ministry, have belittled that of the Twelve, and denied the indwelling of the Spirit to such as knew little or nothing of Paul's-the great mass indeed of Christians-but the Spirit of God sealed believers under the ministry of the Twelve as well as under that of Paul. Let us hold fast to the whole Word-to baptism as part of it, not shrinking from the subjection to our adorable Lord which it calls for. Then let us also drink into the depths of grace and the heights of glory unfolded by our own special beloved apostle Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles.

QUES. 28.-Should there be any restrictions in addressing either the Father or the Son in our meetings for the remembrance of our Lord?

ANS.-We know of no question to which we could more deliberately and strongly answer:No, none whatever. Any such restriction on one side or the other could only be grief to the Holy Spirit. We praise and worship the Son for having given Himself for us, and we praise and worship the Father for having sent His beloved, His only Son. "That all should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father"-not one above the other.

QUES. 29.-It was taught where I once was-and the people seemed to accept it-that the soul of a Christian was given its spiritual or new body immediately after the death of the natural body, and he was thus complete. Does not this do violence to much scripture?

ANS.-Yes, it does. It annuls the resurrection itself, which in Scripture is not the impartation of a new-created body, but the quickening [making alive] of that same body in which we have lived, and transforming it into a body like that of our Lord- suited to heaven (Rom. 8 :11; 1 Cor. 15 :51-53; Phil. 3 :20, 21).

It denies also the time of our resurrection, which is at Christ's coming (1 Cor. 15 :23). No more complete exposure of the fallacy of such teaching can be found than the passage in 1 Thess. 4 :15-17.

"We had been reading some scriptures to her; when we noticed that she lay with her eyes looking fixedly upward.

"What do you see ? " I asked. She raised her thin arms straight out, as if to receive some one, and said, ' I see Jesus! ' She then fell asleep, to awake in His likeness."

Things Incongruous

A book recently issued by our publishers and sent to a customer was returned. It was on the loveliest subject that can ever come to the ears of man-a book on "The Four Gospels"; and the author, Mr. S. Ridout, had certainly brought to the surface enough of the marvelous depths of those wonderful Gospels to make his book attractive to every lover of Christ.

Besides, the mechanical part of the book seemed faultless inside and out. Why, then, was it sent back ?

The reason came pretty soon. The customer wrote, " Your binders have introduced into the book (by error, no doubt) a section of a novel by Marie Corelli, and the subjects are too incongruous to go together."

This brought on a train of thought:That book is like a worldly Christian. All seems right, yet his heart has let the world in, and this spoils him for the Lord as that book was spoiled for the customer. A worldly Christian is compared in Scripture to a wife who has set her heart on another besides her husband. Is it a wonder, then, if such be addressed in the following strong words:

"Adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? Whosoever therefore is minded to be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God " (James 4:4, Num. Bible).

Valuable Publications

A second pamphlet has just been issued by "The Old Gospel Publishing Co.," exposing the teaching, of "Pastor" Russell on the coming of Christ.

With all who are submissive to God and familiar with the Scriptures, this "Pastor" and his work can excite little else than pity or contempt:pity at the thought of the rendering of account to God; contempt at the charlatan character displayed. " Elijah II." was certainly no more fond of distributing his picture than is this "Pastor."

A more antichristian movement could scarcely be conceived. Yet it possesses features which are attractive, and which may entangle true Christians who are ill-taught in the word of God; for such are easily carried away by every wind of doctrine.

This series of pamphlets, clearly exposing the evil, is therefore valuable, and we trust it will be largely distributed. The two already published can be had of our Publishers at 5 cents each, postpaid; 50 cents per doz., postpaid; $2.50 per hundred, carriage extra.

Three excellent pamphlets have also been received from Australia:"The Sanctuary," "The Divine and Eternal Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ," and " Melchizedek the Crowned Priest;" 6 cents each; postpaid, 7 cents.
We have seen nothing better on the subjects of which they treat.

Apostates

The newspapers report a stormy time at a recent meeting of the Presbyterian Ministerial Association at Philadelphia.

It seems they had invited the Rev. Dr. Milton G. Evans, Dean of Crozer Theological Seminary-a Baptist institution-to take part. He aired his views very plainly there, in denial of our Lord's true and essential deity. Jesus was divine, he says, but so by human consent-not by origin.

It is refreshing to see there was yet faithfulness enough left in some of the ministers present to protest vigorously against the teaching offered. Others, alas, defended him; while others, apparently, only saw a deviation from long – accepted Christian teaching.

How little power the plain statements of the word of God seem now to have over many! Yet Satan flees when God's battles are fought with God's weapons-"the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God "-instead of accepted theological tenets, true as they may be! " Thus saith the Lord " must forever drown every other voice. Were God thus allowed to speak alone, how soon men would see that apart from the essential and eternal deity of our Saviour there is no Christianity whatever! It is the rock on which it is built.

But what kind of ministers can such a dean send out to the Baptist pulpits ? Christian ministers ? What! Men called Christians, and yet deny the deity of Christ! Scripture calls them antichrists-a sign of the nearing end. " Even now are there many antichrists ; whereby we know that it is the last time " (i John 2:18). How can children of God make spiritual progress in a religious atmosphere with such deadly poison ?

"Be not deceived:evil communications corrupt good manners" (i Cor. 15:33).

"There is evidence abroad of more anxiety for what is external-less for what is internal. If things are smooth outside, though the moral condition may not be changed, it seems all that is wanted and quite satisfactory. Soul recovery where there has been departure, and godly exercise seem small matter. We need truly to spread out our hands to God, because of the moral state this indicates."

Darkness and Light in New York

The New York Presbytery is in trouble again. Its trouble now, as formerly, is through the work of that heretical institution-The Union Theological Seminary. It turns out for the so-called Christian ministry young men who are sufficiently imbued with hypocrisy to declare that they "accept both the Old and New Testaments as the rule of faith and practice, and believe that God is able to work miracles," and yet who cannot accept "the virgin birth of Christ as related in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, or the raising of Lazarus from the dead as related in the Gospel of John."

And when such men have the effrontery to present themselves as Christian ministers, or as Christians at all (for Christians are men, the very foundation of whose faith is the virgin birth of Christ), and faithful men protest, some Judas steps up and makes complaint that "just at a time when Christian unity is making a little progress, and missionary zeal is beginning to bear fruit, the theology hair-splitters get in their work."

What is " Christian unity " apart from the eternal deity of our Saviour? What is "missionary zeal" if it bring not men as worshipers at the feet of Him who, if not born of the Virgin, is but a^man as we are, and incapable therefore of being our Saviour ? Think of calling men hair-splitters who object to the removal of the foundations!

Such institutions as "Union Theological Seminary" are fast hastening the hour when Christendom, having cast off the Christ of God, will open its arms wide to the other Christ-the Antichrist. While noting the hypocrisy with professed superior knowledge of these deniers of the Saviour, sent out under cover of the Christian name, how refreshing is the voice of a man in the ordinary affairs of life, whose grasp of mind was surely nothing behind theirs, setting at the head of his Will the following humble confession:" I, John Pierpont Morgan, of the City, County and State of New York, do hereby make, publish and declare this my last will and testament in the manner and form following, that is to say:-

Article I. I commit my soul into the hands of my Saviour, in full confidence that having redeemed it and washed it in His most precious blood, He will present it faultless before the throne of my heavenly Father; and I entreat my children to maintain and defend, at all hazard, and at any cost of personal sacrifice, the blessed doctrine of the complete atonement for sin through the blood of Jesus Christ, once offered, and through that alone."

And even though many be too proud to join heartily with that confession, yet will the secret conscience of man from one end of the earth to the other, honor the man who made it far above all the divinity doctors who labor to destroy it; for, deep down in his soul, man knows he is a sinner, and that a sinner needs a Saviour, and that none but Jesus is that Saviour.

Contrast Capt.

Ross who in 1829 sailed in the steamship Victory, with the purpose of finding a north-west passage to the Pacific Ocean, describes their rescue and welcome by the Isabella, as follows:"Though we had not been supported by our names and characters, we should not the less have received from charity the attentions we received, for never was seen a more miserable set of wretches:no beggar that wanders in Ireland could have outdone us. Unshaven since I know not when, dirty, dressed in the rags of wild beasts, and starved to the very bones, our gaunt and grim looks, when contrasted with those of the well dressed and well-fed men around us, made us all feel, I believe for the first time, what we really were, as well as what we seemed to others."

How welcome to men in such a state is the cleansing bath, and the hair-clipping, and the new clothing, and the richly-spread table. How easily the mind enters into the scene of joy, not only of the rescued party taken out of death and misery, but of the rescuers who ministered such good things to fellows in such dire necessities.

Such is the work of the gospel. As the ship Isabella was to these perishing men, so is Christ as presented by the gospel. As the contrast between these dirty, ragged, starving men and the crew of the ship, so is the contrast between the righteousness of man and the righteousness required for admittance before God. As all that the rescued needed was ministered to them by their rescuers, so the gospel of the grace of God declares that everything we need for the presence of God, in all the glory of His person and of His surroundings, we have in Christ, every believer alike, the least appreciative as well as the most. Is it a wonder if, from the great and beloved apostle Paul down to the present, the supreme passion of many a soul who has passed through the rescue the gospel brings, has been to proclaim it wherever there is an ear to hear it?

The vilest of sinners met with no such denunciations from the lips of our Lord as the sanctimonious scribes and Pharisees who resisted and stood in the way of the grace of that gospel. None of these caused joy in heaven; but even a poor thief, repenting at the eleventh hour and putting his trust in Jesus, stirs the Father's house above as he is welcomed in its courts. Far, far from making light of a past wicked life, those there must celebrate the virtues of the Cross, which glorifies their Lord in bringing wretched sinners there.

"The Gates of Hell" (Matt. 16:18)

The Lord had asked His disciples, "Whom say ye that I am?" and Peter had answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." The subject of this confession the Lord declares to be the rock on which He would build His Church. "The Son of the living God " has gone down under our sins and for sin, has come up again without them and blotted them out forever, has ascended into heaven, has communicated His life to every member of His body, sent us the Holy Spirit to unite us to Himself; and in all the power which is His both in heaven and earth He nourishes and keeps and preserves every one of His members. "The gates of hell " can never prevail against that body. His Church cannot possibly be obliterated from the face of the earth, or overthrown, whatever be the wrath of the devil and of the world combined. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." For every one cut down, He, the Head, would raise up two in the face of the enemy.

It is the Greek word Hades, not Gehenna, which is used here. Gehenna has to do with the individual, at the end of time, when the final judgment takes place and the subjects of that judgment have been raised from the dead (Rev. 20:12-15). It 's "soul and body" when Gehenna is spoken of. Not so with Hades. A man is never there in his body. He can be there only out of the body-in the unseen state- for Hades expresses not torment necessarily, but the unseen, disembodied state. Our Lord said, "Thou shalt not leave My soul in Hades," that is, in the unseen, disembodied state. Whole communities, because of the sins of the community, might go down to Hades. "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to hell" (Hades). Accordingly the city has gone into oblivion, though there may have been in it persons who are now in heaven.

If is a great pity that the two original Greek words, Hades and Gehenna, have not been preserved in their Greek form in every translation of the Holy Scriptures. The confusing them in the translation has hindered the true understanding of the word of God in some parts, and given great advantage to the deceivers who trade upon public ignorance.

"The gates of hades" then cannot prevail against the Church of God. The Jewish persecutions at her very beginning, the fierce and mighty powers of the Roman empire following, the devilish cruelties of the counterfeit Church during the " dark ages" and for a long time after the Reformation, all the cunning and craft of Satan in the assaults of " Higher Criticism," of "science falsely so called," of "antichrists," of "false teachers," of "Cains" and "Balaams" and "Korahs; " none of them, nor all of them put together, can obliterate the Assembly of God from the earth, or check her march onward to the glory. She cannot be hid while it pleases God to leave her upon the earth.

What holy courage it gives to all who, for love of Christ, serve His Church on her way. Their service of love, no matter how dismal or discouraging the circumstances may be, abides as surely and eternally as the Church herself, and when her foes are all fallen and she is enthroned in glory with Christ, then will the smallest and most hidden "labor of love" appear in all the value that God has set upon it.

It is this going into our closet and shutting the door; it is this that is wanted, brethren-secret prayer. This is the mainspring of everything. And yet we make excuses, and say we cannot find time. But the truth is, if we cannot find time for secret prayer, it matters little to the Lord whether we find time for public service or not. Is it not the case that we can find time for, I may say, everything except this getting into our closet and shutting the door, in order to be alone with God? We can find time to talk with our brethren, and the minutes fly past unheeded, until they become hours; and we do not feel it a burden. Yet, when we find we should be getting into our closet to be alone with God for a season, there are ever so many difficulties standing right in the way. " Ten thousand foes arise " to keep us from that hallowed spot, "thy closet."It would seem as if Satan cares not how we are employed, so that we seek not our Father's face; for well the great tempter knows if he can but intercept the communications between us and our God he has us at his mercy. Yes, we can find time for everything but this slipping away to wrestle with God in prayer. We find time, it may be, even to preach the gospel and minister to the saints, while our own souls are barren and sapless for lack of secret prayer and communion with God! What saints we often appear before people! Oh the subtilty of this Adam nature! When we go into our closet and shut the door, no one sees us, no one hears us, but God. It is not the place to make a fair show. No one is present before whom to make a little display of our devotion. No one is there to behold our zeal for the Lord. No one is there but God; and we know we dare not attempt to make Him believe we are different from what we really are. We feel that He is looking through us, that He sees us and knows us thoroughly. If evil is lurking within, we instinctively feel that God is searching us; for evil shall not dwell with Him (Ps. 5:4) Ah, it is a searching spot- alone in the presence of God. Little wonder so many beg to be excused from it. But, beloved, it is the lack of it that is the secret of much of the lifelessness and carnality which abound. The prayer-meeting will not suffice us, blessed privilege though it be. "Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray " (Matt. 6:6). How many there may be who have gradually left off secret prayer, until communion with God has been as effectively severed as if for them there were no God at all!

That God has His praying ones we believe-yea, we rejoice to know. He is never without faithful ones who cry day and night unto Him. Yet the terrible downward current of these last days is carrying the many of God's, people before it; and the great enemy of souls could not have hit upon a more deadly device for making merchandise of the saints than by stopping their intercourse with the throne of grace.

The lack of secret prayer implies a positive absence of desire for the presence of God. Such fall an easy prey to temptation. Satan gets an advantage over them easily.

If a brother is not at the prayer meeting for a time or two, you can speak to him about it and exhort him. His absence is a thing you can see. But if he is absenting himself from the closet, that is a thing beyond your observation. You only feel, when you come in contact with him, that something is sapping his spiritual life; and who shall estimate the eternal loss that follows the neglect of secret prayer!

"I missed prayer by a time, "said one who had tasted of heavenly joys, "and then I missed it oftener; and things went on in this way until, somehow, everything slipped through my fingers, and I found myself in the world again." How different it is with those who watch with jealous care that the Lord has always His portion, whoever else may have to want theirs. Their going out, their coming in, their whole manner of life declares that they have been where the heavenly dew has been falling. Their Father, who saw them in secret, is rewarding them openly. They carry about with them, although all unconscious of it, the serenity of the secret place, where they have been communing with God as friend with friend. Where this is wanting, it is little wonder that saints get as worldly as the very worldling. Little wonder the plainest precepts of the word of God are brought to bear on them in vain.

It is an Abraham in sweet communion with God that knows the fate of Sodom, long before the dwellers in that city are dreaming of danger. And it is the same Abraham who hastens and rises early in the morning to do the thing the Lord had commanded, although that thing be the severing of nature's tenderest tie (Gen. 22). Men of communion are men of obedience. It is men delighting to be near the king, who are ready to hazard their lives to fetch him a drink from Bethlehem's well (i Chron. it:17). And it is men of prayer who have moved the arm of Omnipotence in all ages; while they who seemed to have least need to pray, have been the very ones to whom the closet has been dearest. Our great Example was a Man of prayer. We read of Him rising a great while before day and departing into a solitary place to pray (Mark i:35). Let us follow Him whithersoever He goeth. If He needed the aids of heavenly power to help Him in the evil hour, how much more do we ? Then let no uncertain sound be given in this all-important matter. Let secret prayer be urged on God's people as one of the great essentials of spiritual life, without which our grandest services will be barren and fruitless in the eyes of Him who looketh on the heart.

Beloved brethren, let each one of us ask himself the question, "Am I delighting in the secret place- to plead with the Lord-to renew my strength-to have power with God and prevail ?" If not, let us confess our neglect. God will forgive and renew our spiritual energy.

Truth in Question

Recent communication between two Christian men has been passed to us because of principles of truth involved therein. It has been edifying to us to meditate upon them, and to speak of them may also be of value to some of our readers. One writing to the other speaks of the conversion of the thief on the cross as a "gloriously unique case." If we understand the expression aright, it means that his case was a glorious proof of the abounding grace of God, but that, being unique, it is not repeated-is not therefore to be used to illustrate the grace of God toward sinners now; for in general a long line of experiences must be looked for before a sinner is made fit to be in paradise.

We used to think and speak so before we knew the grace of God, and what that grace flows from, but since we have learned it we take delight in considering and preaching the thief's conversion as a rich and perfect illustration of the grace of God for all time. Once we thought men were saved by the work of the Holy Spirit in them, improving and improving them till they were acceptable to God. But in reading Romans 3 we found that it was by the work of Christ on the cross that men were saved. The Holy Spirit produced in us the conviction of what God lays to our charge in chapters i to 3:23 of that epistle, and then faith lays hold of chaps. 3:24-31; that is, what Christ by His atoning sacrifice on the cross has obtained for us. By the one unfathomable stroke of divine justice on the spotless Lamb of God because of what we have done, we who repent of our sins and believe on Christ our Saviour are righteously cleared forever of all guilt before God. And this does not violate the law of God; on the contrary, it establishes it. It demanded of us a perfect obedience, and if this was not given it inflicts death as the penalty. We had not been obedient, and so were under the sentence of death. Christ, against whom law could find no fault, met our sentence, paid the penalty, satisfied justice, and set us forever free. As long as God values the sacrifice of His Son, no one can lay effectively any charge against those who are of faith-His elect.

Chapters 4 to 5:11 go on in the further development of this most blessed as well as fundamental truth. The thief on the cross showed his genuine repentance toward God when he rebuked his fellow and said, " Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation ? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds" (Luke 23:40, 41). Then his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ:First, he declares Him free from all sin:"But this Man hath done nothing amiss." Then he sees the King in that crucified, thorn-crowned Man:"He said unto Jesus, "Lord remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom" (ver. 42) The immediate answer of the Saviour is, "Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." No experiences required, no lengthened process of spiritual exercises demanded. Grace transfers him from a brigand's cross to the paradise of God. The infinite distance between the two is filled up full by Him who came from that paradise to die on that middle cross. That one awful blow of divine justice on the Saviour makes the repenting, believing sinner as perfect in the sight of God as Christ Himself at the right hand of God. Such, we believe, will be found to have been the grace of God toward every man who will be in the paradise of God.

This is the true grace of God, reigning through righteousness fulfilled at the cross of Christ. It were sweeter to give up one's life than such grace as this, for nothing else can meet man's need. The moment we introduce experiences here we put upon them value which belongs to the work of Christ alone. We rob Him, and this is serious enough. Moreover the bringing in of experiences here argues self-righteousness in us, that dreadful Philistine ever ready to invade God's land and rob His people of their God-given blessings.

Another expression occurs in the same correspondence. It calls the man going through the experience described in the 6th and 7th of Romans "an unbelieving believer." Knowing what lies behind such an expression we most decidedly refuse it. We do not accept for a moment the idea that the condition expressed in that scripture is the normal Christian condition, but we are equally certain that it is a necessary work in the believer toward his normal condition.

So far from the man in the toils of Romans 6 and 7 being "an unbelieving believer" we have invariably found that it is those who show the most marked conversion and the most active faith who get first into that painful experience. The salvation they have found in chaps. 3, 4 and 5 has made them acquainted with God and brought them to Him. And now they long to live in uninterrupted communion with Him. But here is an obstacle-the flesh, the native sin in them. There it is, and whatever they do-pray, weep, fast, lament-it is there asserting itself and hindering their communion and fruitfulness. Through all this struggle the precious delivering truth is learned:that, as the cross of Christ righteously put away their sins from the presence of God, so also the death of Christ makes an end of the flesh in God's sight:they are in Christ, have died to sin and to the law, and are no longer in the flesh which torments them-no longer identified with it. It is there-will be there till Christ transforms our body of humiliation into the likeness of His body of glory when He comes again-but it is no longer a part of oneself before God-the death of Christ has severed the link. We therefore reckon ourselves dead to it, and, spite its presence, we goon in undisturbed peace with God, while judging in us every proof of its presence and every desire for its activity. The cross of Christ has severed us from all our guilt, and His death from all association with the first Adam. Knowing this we go on our way with God joyfully. We are "like a tree planted by the rivers of water." God, the source of all blessing, has found a way to make us at home in His holy presence, and that not because of any fine experience in ourselves, but because of the cross of Christ. Is it a wonder if thinking of Christ fills us with praise and worship ? These convictions, formed by the word of God, have led us often to desire more of the seventh of Romans' experience in God's people. It wilts the love of the world and produces the love of Christ and joy in God. Besides, they who have been through the Rom. 7th experience according to God, have no wish to return to it, and are most jealous to preserve the true grace of God which has delivered them from it.

They of Israel who felt most the awfulness of their position between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea would be the most steadfast on the way through the wilderness, and the most thankful for that sea between them and Egypt.