"Whenever we look around to shun a mortal's frown or catch his smile, we may rest assured there is something wrong; we are off the proper ground of divine service."

THE DIVINE ACCOUNT OF CREATION.
The first verse of the Bible tells us of an undated beginning when God created. Millions of years ago the earth may have existed in light and perfection. We say may have been; but most certainly no human voice was ever heard, nor human foot trod its walks. Scripture does not inform us as to the antiquity of the globe, but it does as to the age and origin and history of the race.

Perfection characterizes the earth of ver. i:ruin as certainly distinguishes the earth of ver. 2. The former was the creative act of God; the latter, the result of judgment. The weeping prophet, Jeremiah, uses the very terms of ver. 2 to describe the utter judgment and desolation of Israel. (Jer. 4:23.) "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void" While Isaiah as distinctly informs us that God did not create it so. "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain (or void), He formed it to be inhabited." (Isa. 45:18.) The conclusion seems plain, the evidence irresistible, that the earth was created in perfection; then, from causes unrevealed, it came under the just judgment of God, which is not so as to the heavens. Now we have the shapeless, waste, desolate earth, submerged in the restless, heaving mass of waters-a dark and lifeless scene, yet the subject of intense regard and of loving interest to the Spirit of God, who "moved upon the face of the waters."

What a beautiful idea is here suggested! The Spirit of God-not a breath, impulse, wind, or influence, but a divine Person-"moved," rather "was hovering," or "fluttering" over the awful desolation. It is the same word and thought as, in Deut. 32:II-"As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young," etc. How this sweeps aside the cold and heartless thought that the making and preparing of this earth out of chaos, merely (!) displays the sovereign power of the Creator!

First day's work (10:3-5). The first day of the world's history was ushered in by one of the finest utterances ever penned or spoken. The first historical utterance of our God, "Let light be, and light was," for power and sublimity, there is nothing we know of like it. Both light and sun-the work of the first and fourth days, were created long before, being part of the system which in the beginning God created (5:i). It is evident, too, that the celestial luminaries are not the source of light, but simply the home or receptacle of it. The light was the distinguishing work of the first day; the luminaries, of the fourth. For three days the earth enjoyed light apart from the sun. Scripture says it was so; science demonstrates the possibility of it, and infidelity retires from that old battle-field-her strength in the early part of last century-utterly discomfited. The light instantly produced was full and brilliant, and was at once called "day" We need not say any thing about the nature of light-others have done so.

Second day's work (10:6-8). Light revealed the utter desolation. The earth stood a confessed and hopeless ruin before the full blaze of day. Now heaven is formed. The restless, heaving mass of waters are divided, and an expanse formed between. The atmosphere-absolutely indispensable for the life and growth of the animal and vegetable kingdoms-naturally precedes the interesting work of the third day. The earth was not formed by the concourse of particles of matter,-all matter lay in the stillness of death till "moved" or acted upon by the Spirit of God ; nor was the atmosphere produced by the action of the sun's heat,-it was a distinct work of the Creator.
Third day's work (10:9-13). In the previous day, the waters were separated by the heavy atmosphere, consisting of a body of invisible fluids, enveloping the whole earth, revolving with it, and which extends upward for forty-four and a half miles, and which presses upon every square inch of substance-living or inanimate, with a weight equal to about fifteen pounds. The dark, heavy clouds of rain and mist, formed by evaporation, were pressed upward by the weight of the atmosphere. Now, however, the third day opens with the waters beneath being bounded; restraints are put upon their course, and they flow in their divinely appointed channels; "they are gathered together unto one place," forming about one hundred and thirty-eight millions of square miles, to about sixty millions of dry land. The second action of this resurrection-day (as the "third" implies), is the resurrection of the earth out of its watery tomb, where it had lain buried for, perhaps, countless ages. This, like all else, was accomplished instantaneously by the fiat of the Creator, for as yet there was no sun's heat to dry the earth, or to harden it into needed consistency. All this demands the divine note of approval, "God saw that it was good," But the third action of the third day is surely a grand and fitting close to the first half of the creative week. The earth is now clad with rich and luxuriant vegetation. Life in its lowest form is now produced, but produced in perfection. This must have been so, for "there was no man to till the ground," and as yet no sun to contribute, by light and heat, to the growth and maintenance of the vegetable world. The order of vegetation is on the ascending scale-from the lowest to the highest:grasses, herbs, and fruit-trees-all appear in maturity, and all as parents, having seed in themselves. This beauty and fruitfulness was preparation for the higher forms of life created on the fifth and sixth days, of which man was the perfect type. The vegetable kingdom would be needed to sustain all animal life. The fecundity of certain plants is truly amazing. The botanist tells us that there are thirty-two thousand seeds on a single poppy plant. Wilkinson discovered a vase, hermetically sealed, in an Egyptian tomb, and which contained, amongst other things, certain seeds, supposed to be three thousand years old; yet the germ of life was there. They were planted under favorable conditions, and in course sprung up bearing fruit. It is believed that there are from eighty to one hundred thousand different species of plants. Again, the Creator pronounces His work "good."

Fourth day's work (10:14-19). This day opens with the usual creative formula, "And God said" -ten times repeated. In ver. 3, it is "Let there be light;" here, it is "Let there be lights, [or luminaries]." The language does not imply that the solar system was then created, but merely that it was assigned a special place in the heavens, and appointed to perform certain functions toward the earth and especially to man. "He made the stars also" is a kind of incidental expression. The adjustment of the celestial orbs to the new and physical conditions of the earth,-set in mathematical precision as to distance, etc., so as to secure just the necessary heat and light by the revolutions of our planet, seems to us the leading idea presented in the work of the fourth day. They are also God's indicators of time. The sun is the center of a mighty system. It has a fixed place, as a center should, although it has a revolution on its own axis every twenty-five days and ten hours. It is ninety-five millions of miles distant from the earth. Our planet performs its daily journey on its own axis once in twenty-four hours,-thus we have day and night. She travels, too, attended by her pale and beautiful satellite-the moon, on her yearly circuit round the sun at the rate of fifty-eight thousand miles an hour, and performs the journey in three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours,-thus we have "years" and the various seasons (see chap. viii, 22). Thus we have "seasons, days, and years" ac-counted for. But why for signs?-signs of what? Yes, the sun, moon, and stars are not only faithful indicators of time, lamps too of light, and sources of heat; but they are signs, to the terrestrial world, of God's glory (Ps. 19:1-6); silent yet eloquent teachers of Jehovah's faithfulness to Israel (Jer. 31:35, 36); signs of the enduring character of Messiah's kingdom (Ps. 72:17), of Christ in His majesty and glory (Rev. 1:16). The stars also tell their tale, and point to Him who alone is worthy (Num. 24:17), etc., etc. It will be observed that the light of the first day is now gathered up, and makes the sun her palace and her home.

Fifth day's work (10:20-23). We come now to the creative wonders of the animal world. The seas, oceans, and rivers have been prepared for their aquatic inhabitants:"the open firmament of heaven," with its rare combination of gases, compounded with a nicety which bespeaks the skill and wisdom of the Creator, becomes one vast aviary for every species of winged fowl. As we near perfection, it is positively beautiful to trace, in the progressive character of the work, the admirable wisdom, the infinite skill, displayed in the most minute act of these marvelous days of creation of which Moses unfolds the historic origin, while John discloses the prophetic close.

Here, then, for the first time after the primal creation (5:i), we meet with the word "created" (5:21), which in itself would be sufficient to show the special importance attached to this day's work. Life alone belongs to God. Hence, He creates from the largest sea-animal, about three hundred feet in length, down to the tiniest insect. It will be observed that there are two distinct creations of life-fish and fowl; the point in ver. 20 is the respective spheres assigned to each-the seas and the open firmament. It is worth careful notice that the words "after his," or "their kind" occurs ten times in the course of the narrative. It is three times used of the vegetable world, once of species of aquatic creatures, once of every winged fowl, and five times of all land-animals and creatures. Most certainly, all attempts to cross the numerous forms of life, whether in the vegetable or animal world, has no support in Scripture, and such practices should be shunned by all obedient to the Word; besides which, these attempts to im-prove the species only tends to their deterioration. God's order is always best. Propagating power is not inherent. The extraordinary multiplication of fishes and fowls is due to the expressed blessing of the Creator (5:22). Of existing species, there are about four thousand kinds of fish, and about three thousand kinds of birds.

Sixth day's work (10:24-31). Here, as might be supposed, the record is more full, more lengthy. The first week of the new world's history is drawing to a close, and what a fitting conclusion to such a work is the creation of man, in the image and after the likeness of God-the Creator's viceregent and representative in authority on the earth. The seas swarm with life, while many a bird of song and beauty wings its way in the open firmament of heaven. The earth, too, is clad with its carpet of green; the trees, fruit, and flower fill the balmy air with their delightful aroma. As yet, there is no scared leaf, no withered rose, no taint on the beauteous scene. Now again God works, or rather creates, so as to fill this beautiful world with life. As on the previous day we had two creations of life-fish and bird, so we have here two distinct creations, only of a much higher order and character of life than before. It will be observed that the divine word of power, "God said" occurs on the sixth-the closing day-four times. This is interesting, as it is purposely intended to bring into prominence the special acts of that unique day. "God said,"-and instantly the earth was occupied with creatures of every shape and size and species (10:24-25). "God said"-and man-the noblest work of the Creator, and subject of special God-head counsel," Let Us make,"-takes his place of intelligent lordship over the ordered scene (10:26-27). "God said,"-and the fruitfulness and multiplication of the species are thereby assured, as also the continuance of man's dominion over the animate creation (5:28). "God said,"-and the resources and wealth of the vegetable kingdom are placed at the disposal of man and animal for food (10:29,30). It may be remarked in passing that this latter appointment remained in force for sixteen hundred and fifty-six years-till the flood. Only vegetable food, and that for all, was the provision for the ark-inmates (Gen. 6:21). Flesh-meat to man only was added after the flood (Gen. 9:3).

The threefold order of land Mammalia is, first, "cattle"-domestic animals ; second, "creeping thing"-invertebrates; third, "beast of the earth" -animals of prey. Each are created after their kind. The theories of evolution and of development have not been proved by science, and Scripture condemns them, for each species of vegetable and animal life was created "after his kind."

The creation of man completes the work of God. There is now a creature intelligent, morally responsible, and competent, moreover, to represent the Creator in the vast and sinless scene. One who could lead creation's praise, enter into the moral perfections displayed by God in His beauteous workmanship, and be the vehicle of the divine thoughts to the lower creation. Surely, it was fitting that a moral link should be established between the Creator and His work! The whole terrestrial sphere came under the gaze of its Creator:all was perfect and sinless. He beheld it with complacent delight, and pronounced the whole "very good." "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." We may remark that while an "evening" is said to precede the distinct creations of each day, it is not so as to man. No evening is said to precede his creation:in kind, in character, in purpose, it was entirely unique, and quite distinct from all else. We take the eleventh verse of the twentieth chapter of Exodus as conclusive proof that the creative week consisted of six literal days-days of twenty-four hours each. On the seventh, God rested, blessed, and sanctified it. It is not said to have been a day consisting of an evening and a morning-Jewish and eastern mode of reckoning. Sin came in, and misery with it. God then wrought in love and righteousness in midst of evil, and holds out to faith the grand and eternal state as" His rest." W.S. (Scotland.)

THE DIVINE ACCOUNT OF CREATION.
It must be self-evident that the Creator alone can answer the questions How? and Why? which the human mind from earliest infancy gives utterance to, as to our and other worlds. Neither man nor angel-themselves the subjects of creation -can, in the nature of things, supply the needed information. Man can guess, conjecture; angels never do ; every act and thought of theirs has certainty impressed upon it, for they are "hearkening unto the voice of His word" (Ps. 103:20.)

Now God has communicated to mankind, through Moses, an orderly and succinct account of creation within the compass of thirty-four verses in the fully inspired and most venerable document in existence-the book of Genesis. The style is so simple that a child can understand; yet so majestic in its very simplicity,-so Godlike the utterances, as to carry conviction to the intellectual faith of the civilized world. The manner, too, in which "creation's story" is told stamps the narrative as of God. Man would have given labored arguments and ingenious proofs in truth of his assertions. But not so God. His spoken or written word is enough, and the spiritual instincts of all say so also. Hence, we have no reasoning, argument, nor proof advanced. Who does not fail to see how worthy, how suitable in God, how unlike man?

Let us note a few of the verbal and other peculiarities of this interesting narrative. The first three verses of chap. 2:complete the account of creation commenced in the first verse of the Bible; this gives us in all thirty-four verses. The name of the Creator-"God" ("Elohim"-plural) occurs just thirty-four times. "Jehovah," "The Almighty," "Most High," etc., are titles. "The LORD," or "Jehovah-God," expressing moral relationship to the creature, occurs in chap. 2:eleven times, when man was in innocence; while in chap, 3:, which shows man in sin, it is equally insisted upon, occurring nine times. The circumstances in which the creature may be placed, or in which he may be found, never touch, nor weaken, in the least degree, his direct responsibility to God. That truth, so vital to all, and which neither grace, government, nor law can ever set aside, having been established in those two chapters, the relationship-title alone is used by the Spirit in chap. 4:"The LORD," or "Jehovah, "is found ten times. It is interesting to observe that Satan is the first to deny the moral relationship of the creature to God; the woman followed suit (see 10:I and 5 of chap. 3:for the former, and 5:3 of same chapter and 5:25 of chap. 4:for the latter).

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The third word in the Bible, which gives name and character to the first of the sixty-six books of the Bible, is used in some interesting connections. "In the beginning was the Word" (Jno. 1:i) refers to eternity; "In the beginning God created" (Gen. 1:I) refers to the primal creation of the universe; "From the beginning" refers to the incarnation of Christ (I Jno. 1:I); "The beginning of the gospel" (Mark 1:I) refers to the commencement of the public ministry of our Lord.

Thus we have eternity, creation, incarnation, and public service of Christ, each used in association with this word. "God created" then matter is not eternal, nor has it been produced by evolution. "Created:" certainly pre-existing material is not supposed. The primary meaning of the word "create" is allowed by all to signify the production of what in no sense previously existed. The popular phrase is not so far astray in thought as it. may be in expression-"something out of nothing." But we greatly prefer the apostle's explanation in Hebrews 11:3-"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made [or, had not their origin] of things which do appear."

"The heavens and the earth" is an expression for the universe. The "heavens," not heaven. In the first thirty-five verses of the Bible, we have nine occurrences of the word heaven, or heavens; but in all those various instances of the word, it is in the dual number in the original-two heavens, not the plural three or more.

The first verse of the Bible is a comprehensive statement of weighty truth. Those ten English words rest the human brain, and scatter, like chaff before the wind, the speculations, the baseless theories of ancients and moderns, and sets creation upon a ground worthy of it, for no world has a moral history such as ours. Yet, as to number and magnitude, there are other worlds beyond human ken. They are, says Herschel, "scattered by millions, like glittering dust, on the black ground of the general heavens." But in our planet, small as it is compared to Saturn or Jupiter, the grandest counsels of eternity, the most magnificent facts of time, have their accomplishment. Here Christ lived, walked, wept, loved, and died. Here the voice of Him who, in majestic tones, said, "Let light be, and light was," uttered on the cross the morally grander words," It is finished," and bowed His head in death for sin.

The first verse of the Bible is an absolutely independent statement. It is in no wise a summary of what follows. The when? God created is undefined in Scripture, and incapable of solution by science. The first and subsequent dates of Scripture refer to man and his history in responsibility on the earth. (Gen. 5:3.) The antiquity of the globe is alone known to the Creator, and probably to angels. (Job. 38:7.) That the heavens and the earth were created in light, beauty, order,- yea, perfection itself, should not, we suppose, require proof." God is light" and would necessarily create according to His nature. "His work is perfect" is the sure testimony of Scripture, and that whether in the moral or physical worlds. (Deut. 32:4.) Here, several questions suggest themselves to inquiring minds, to all of which we can only reply, We know not. When did God create? How long did the heavens and earth abide in their perfection? Was it Satan who brought the earth into the ruin and desolation as witnessed in 5:2 of the Bible? We know he effected the ruin of man. How long did the earth exist as a ruin till acted upon by God? In the primal creation of ver. I, man had no place, nor had he existence in the material ruin of ver. 2. Man, having no existence then, could have no responsibility or blame in the desolation which overtook the primeval earth. We are glad to accept facts from whatever quarter they reach us, be the source infidel or Christian; but we are chary in accepting the statements of science. We do not fear for the Bible, for the God who made the stones wrote the Bible, and it is an ABSOLUTE IMPOSSIBILITY that there can be a conflict between the facts of science and inspired statements. Man has not been found fossil in any strata formed previous to the historical period, and never will be, while the state of the rocks clearly enough demonstrates that there were many and successive creations of animal and vegetable life before man was created. W.S. (Scotland.) (To be continued, D. V.)

Among all, creation beside, there was found no helpmeet for Adam. God makes all the creatures pass before him that he may see this for himself,-a fact which we shall see has its significance for the after-history. Adam gives names to all, as their superior, and in the full intelligence of what they are; but for Adam himself there is found no helpmeet.

Yet that "it is not good for the man to be alone" is the word of his Creator as to him. Looking at the circumstances of the fall, he who has learned to suspect God every where may suspect Him here. He provides in the woman one whom Scripture itself pronounces inferior naturally in wisdom to the man, but on the other hand supplementing him otherwise. The rib out of which she is made is taken from the breast; and if man be the head of humanity, woman is its heart. Even spite of the fall, this still is clear and unmistakable; and man's heart is correspondingly drawn out and developed by her. The awful perversion of this now shows but the fact the more; and the perversion of the best thing commonly produces the worst. For Adam, where all was yet right, here was not only a spiritual being with whom was possible that interchange of thought and feeling which our whole being craves, but also an object for the heart. Pledge of his Creator's love was this fair gift, in whom love sensibly ministered to him and drew out his own, redeeming him from self-occupation as from isolation:surely it was not,-"is not good for the man to be alone," and the help provided was a "help meet for him."

If unbelief still object that by the woman sin came in, and that inferiority of wisdom exposed her to the enemy:she was "beguiled," and ate;- Adam too ate, though he was not beguiled. The woman's strength did not, and does not, lie in wisdom, but in heart:and the instincts of the true heart are as divine a safeguard as the highest wisdom. It was here-as it is easy to see by the record itself-the woman failed, not where she was weakest, but where she was strongest. And with her, as still and ever, the failing heart deceived the head. There is an immense assumption, growing more and more every day, of the power of the mind to keep and even to set right the man morally. It is a mistake most easy of exposure; for are the keenest intellects necessarily the most upright and trustworthy of men? or is there any ascertained proportion between the development of mind and heart? The skepticism that scoffs at divine things revealed to babes is but the pride of intellect, not knowledge. It is itself the fruit and evidence of the fall.

Enough of this for the present, then. Along with all other provision for his blessing we must rank this-too little thought of-that Adam was to be taught mastery also, even in a scene where moral evil was not. He was to "replenish the earth and subdue it;" to "dress and keep" even the "garden of delight." The dominion over the lower creatures he was also evidently to maintain, making them to recognize habitually the place of lordship over them which was his. All this implies much in the way of moral education for one in whose perfect manhood the moral and mental faculties acted in harmony yet, with no breach or dislocation.

Surely we can see in all this a kindly and fruitful training of Adam himself, as in a scene where evil threatened, though it had not come. The full and harmonious play of every spiritual and bodily faculty was provided for, that the man himself, to use language antiquated now, might "play the man;" language truer in its application to him than to any of his natural issue since the fall.

But to that fall itself we must now go on. Its brief but imperishable record is full of the deepest instruction for us, for every day of our life here;- nay, who shall forbid to say, for our life hereafter also? The lessons of time, we may be assured, will be the possession of eternity; of all that we gather here, no fragment will be lost forever. In this history we shall find, too, I doubt not, what we have been considering as to Adam abundantly confirmed.

First, then, as to the instrument in the temptation. Scripture leaves us in no possible doubt that the one who used in this case the actual serpent was the one whom we too familiarly recognize as the leader in a previous irremediable fall-the fall of the angels. Thus lie is called "a liar from the beginning," and "a murderer," "that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan."

The use of the serpent here is noteworthy in another way from that in which it is generally taken. No doubt in the fact that it was "more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made" lay the secret of his selection of it. But why appear under such a form at all? For myself, I cannot but connect it with the fact that Adam had before named every creature, and found no helpmeet for him among them all. If evil, then, would approach, it was not permitted to do so save only under the form of one of these essentially inferior creatures, refused already as having help for man. It was a divine limit to the temptation itself. Man listening to the voice of a creature over whom he was to have dominion, and in whom there was recognized to be no help for him, was in fact man resigning his place of supremacy to the beast itself. In all this, not merely the coming of the enemy, but the mercy of God also, may be surely seen.

Again, as to the form of the temptation itself. It was a question simply-apparently an innocent one -which, entertained in the woman's mind, wrought all the ruin. Here again, surely the mercy of God was limiting the needful trial. Evil was here also not permitted to show itself openly. The tempter is allowed to use neither force nor allurement, nor to put positive evil before the woman at all until she has first encouraged it. "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"

Here was affected surprise-a suggestion of strangeness, no doubt, but no positive charge of wrong. Such an insinuation, if it were even that, a heart true to God need scarcely find much difficulty in repelling. This was in paradise, where all the wealth of blessing which the munificent hand of God had spread around her filled every sense with testimony of His love. Was reason demanded? or did intellect need to find the way through any difficult problem here? Assuredly not. A heart filled with divine goodness would be armor of proof in such a conflict as this. The effort of the enemy was just to make a question for the reason what ought to have been one of those clear perceptions not to be reasoned about, because the basis of all true reason. As a question for the mind the woman entertained it, and thus admitted a suspicion of the divine goodness which has been the key-note of man's condition ever since.

She thus, in fact, entered upon that forbidden path of discriminating between good and evil, which has resulted in a conscience of evil within, in the very heart of the fallen creature. Around was naught but goodness-goodness which they were not forbidden but welcomed to enjoy. Every thing here had but to be accepted; no question raised, no suspicion to be entertained. To raise the question was to fall. And this was the meaning of the forbidden tree, as it was the point to which Satan's question led. In the midst of a scene where was naught but goodness, there could be no question entertained where there was no suspicion. By entertaining- the question, the woman showed that she had allowed the suspicion. Thus she fell.

How differently now we are situated is most plain. In a mingled scene where indeed divine goodness is not lacking, but where also the fruit of the fail, and Satan's work is every where, suspicion becomes continually a duty, and conscience a divine preservative. The knowledge of good and evil is no longer forbidden, but we have our "senses exercised to discern" these. Innocence is gone; but, thank God, who is supreme to make all things serve His holy purposes, righteousness and holiness are things possible, and, in the new creature, things attained.

If we took at the woman's answer to the serpent, we shall easily find these workings of her soul. "And the woman said unto the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'"

Here is the wavering unsteadiness of a soul that has lost its balance, and flounders more in its endeavors to regain it. What tree had God put into "the midst" of the garden ? According to the inspired account, it was the tree of life. Prohibition -was that at the very heart of paradise? Did every thing there radiate, so to speak, from the threatening of death? Alas! slight as the matter may seem, it tells where the woman's soul is. The first words we hear from her are words very intelligible to us, far gone as we are from innocency. For how easily with us does one prohibited thing blot out of our view a thousand blessings! Alas! we understand her but too well.

And her next words are even plainer. When had God said, "Neither shall ye touch it"? The prohibition has got possession of her mind, and to justify herself as to her conception of it, she adds words of her own to God's words. A mere "touch," she represents to the devil, might be fatal to them. They might perchance be the innocent victims of misfortune, as it would seem according to her. Who can doubt how dark a shadow is now veiling God from her soul? All the more that her next words make doubtful the penalty, and as if it were the mere result of natural laws, as men now speak, rather than direct divine infliction,-"lest ye die."

God's love is here suspected; God's truth is tampered with ; God's authority is out of sight:so far on the swift road to ruin the woman has descended. The devil can be bolder now. Not "ye shall not surely die" is what he says, but "certainly ye shall not die;" and closes with one of those sayings of his in which a half truth becomes a total He,- "for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, [or perhaps, "as God,"] knowing good and evil."

And there is no more tarrying as to the woman:her ear and her heart are gained completely. She sees with the devil's eyes, and is in full accord and fellowship with him, and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life come in at once. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."

Thus was the fall consummated. Conscience at once awoke when the sin of the heart had been perfected in act. "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked ; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons." But we are now in another scene from that with which we started, and a new age now begins, even before Genesis 3:is closed. We shall therefore look at this in its place separately when we consider, if the Lord will, the dealings of God with man under the next economy.

God Glorified and Glorifying Himself. We have seen the work of atonement as a work needed by man, applicable and applied to him for his complete justification and deliverance. And this involves, as we have seen, God's satisfaction with the blessed work done on man's behalf, of which the rent vail and the resurrection are the prompt witnesses on His part. But we have reserved to this place, as the fittest for it, the full divine side of the cross, so far as we can utter it. In our review of Scripture, it has necessarily often occupied us; but in this sketch of the doctrine-now very near conclusion,-it needs to be afresh considered and put in connection with it. It is indeed, and must be, the crowning glory of the whole.

We begin, naturally and necessarily, with that which meets our need as sinners, and yet even so that need is never rightly met until we have seen, not merely our sins put away, but whose hand it is that does this. Nor must we stop here even with Christ for us. It must be " God for us." "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us."

Quite true, if we have come to Christ we have come to the Father; if we know Christ we know the Father:and so our Lord replies to Philip's words which we have just quoted. But we need to understand this. It is no long road to travel, from the Son to the Father. The Father is perfectly and only revealed in the Son. Yet many stop short of this for long; using Christ's work more as a shelter from God than a way to God:like Israel on that night in Egypt when God says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you;" but how different from the Psalmist's deeper utterance -"Thou art my hiding-place." To be hidden from God, or hidden in God-which is our faith's experience, reader?

It is evident that in these two thoughts God is in contrasted characters:to pass from one to the other involves a revelation. And as Philip's words truly say, nothing but this last suffices the heart. God has made it for Himself; nothing but Himself will satisfy it.

It is true "the Son of Man must be lifted up:" here is a necessity. Yes, but "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son:" here is God Himself revealed. It is the cross in each case that is contemplated, but how differently! And it is this divine side of the cross that is now to occupy us.

God glorifies Himself in revealing Himself. He shines out. Clouds and darkness no more encompass Him. He is in the light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

And we, blessed be His name! are in the light. The darkness is passing, if not wholly passed. The true light already shines. Through the rent vail of the flesh of Jesus the divine glory shines. It is of His cross our precious Redeemer says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God be glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will straightway glorify Him." These words may well serve as the text of all we have to say.
"Now is the Son of Man glorified." No ray of glory shone upon Him:all was deepest darkness, profoundest humiliation; yet in the cross the Son of Man was glorified. Well might He say to Peter, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now." Who but Himself could have gone down into the abyss where was no standing, to lay again the misplaced foundations of the earth? Who but He could have borne the awful trial of the fire of divine holiness, searching out all the inward parts, and in that place have been but a sweet savor to an absolutely holy God? Who but He could have assumed those sins of ours which He calls in the prophetic psalms "My sins," and risen up again, not merely in the might of a divine person, but in the power of a thoroughly human righteousness?

Yes, verily, "the Son of Man was glorified;" but more-" God is glorified in Him." There are two ways in which we may look at this.

First:God was glorified by the perfect obedience of One who owed no obedience, as He had done no wrong. He restored what He took not away. He confessed fully a sin He had Himself to measure in infinite suffering and alone. He confessed and proclaimed a righteousness and holiness in God to which He surrendered Himself, vindicating it against Himself when God forsook Him as the bearer of sin. And He presented to God a perfect humanity, fully tried and beyond question, in which the fall was retrieved, and God's thought in man's creation brought out and cleared from the dishonor the first man had cast upon it. And goodness triumphed in weakness over evil; the bruised foot of the woman's seed trod down the serpent's head.

But secondly:when we think of the mystery of His person, it is God Himself who has taken- truly taken-this earthen vessel of a pure and true humanity, that He might give to Himself the atonement for man's sin. It is God who has coveted and gained capacity for weakness, suffering, and death itself, that He might demonstrate eternal holiness, and yet manifest everlasting love to men. It is God who has "devised means that His banished should not be expelled from Him." And it is God who has cleared up all the darkness of this world by this great joy found at the, bottom of a cup of awful agony; who has brought out of the eater meat, out of the strong sweetness, out of death and the grave eternal life!

It is this revelation of God in the cross that is its moral power. In all that He does, the Son of God is doing the Father's will, keeping the Father's commandments, making known the Father's name. The gospel is the "gospel of God"-His good news,-in which "glory to God in the highest" coalesces with "peace on earth, delight in men." And so it is "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." Every way it becomes true, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." This is that moral power of the cross which some would make the whole matter, but which can only be when found in a true atonement for our sins. Mere exhibition would be theatrical, not real, and could not do the work designed in it. A real need really met, a just debt paid at personal cost, guilt measured only and removed by such a sacrifice,-this alone can lay hold upon the heart so as to be of abiding control over it. And this does control:" O
Lord, truly I am Thy servant:I am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds."

But the moral effect of the cross, the power of the display of divine glory in it, is not to be measured merely by what it accomplishes among men. Scripture has shown to us, clearly if not in its full extent, a sphere which is far more extensive than that of redemption. Into the "sufferings of Christ and the glories which should follow," says the apostle Peter, "the angels desire to look." And while by it the Redeemer, "gone up on high," has "led captivity captive," and "having spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it,"-on the other hand, "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." And more precisely the same apostle speaks of God's "intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God." (Eph. 2:4-7 ; 3:10.)

Not to us only, nor only for our sakes, is the glory of God revealed! Would He hide from others the glorious face which has shone upon us? On the contrary, if "the Lamb" be "the light of" the heavenly city of the redeemed, the light of the city itself is "like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;" for He that sits upon the throne is "like a jasper and a sardine stone," and the city has the glory of God (Rev. 4:3; 21:2:"Unto Him," says the apostle, "be glory in the Church, in Christ Jesus, through all generations of the age of ages" (Eph. 3:21).

God, then, being glorified in Christ, glorifies Him in Himself, giving Him a name above every name. "By His own blood He enters in once into the holy place, having- obtained eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:12). Not simply as the divine Person that He always was does He enter there, but now as the One who has by Himself purged sins He sits down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (chap. 1:3). He is Head over all things, Head of all principality and power, Head to the Church which is His body (Col. 1:18; 2:10; Eph. 1:22). His request is fulfilled:"Father, glorify Thy Son," and the end in which His heart rests He names, "that Thy Son also may glorify Thee" (Jno. 17:2).

The end and object of all is the glory of God. It is perfectly, divinely true, that" God hath ordained for His own glory whatsoever comes to pass." In order to guard this from all possibility of mistake, we have only to remember who is this God, and what the glory that He seeks. It is He who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,-of Him in whom divine love came seeking not her own, among us as "One that serveth." It is He who, sufficient to Himself, can receive no real accession of glory from His creatures, but from whom- "Love," as He is "Light,"-cometh down every good and every perfect gift, in whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Of His own alone can His creatures give to Him.

The glory of such an one is found in the display of His own goodness, righteousness, holiness, truth; in manifesting Himself as in Christ He has manifested Himself and will forever. The glory of this God is what of necessity all things must serve,- adversaries and evil as well as all else. He has ordained it; His power will insure it; and when all apparent clouds and obstructions are removed, then shall He rest-"rest in His love" forever, although eternity only will suffice for the apprehension of the revelation. "God shall be all in all" gives in six words the ineffable result.

Christ, then, is the One in whom God has revealed and glorified Himself-glorified by revealing Himself. Upon Him all the ages wait:"all things were created by Him and for Him." He is the "Father of eternity:" Head of the Church His body; last Adam of a new creation.

And in this eternal purpose of God we have our place, therefore, and how blessed an one!-" chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love "(Eph. 1:4). "That in the ages to come He might show forth the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus"-"God, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ; and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

The cross of Christ was an absolute necessity for the salvation of men; but it is more,-it is an absolute necessity for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose to show forth the exceeding riches of His grace. In it already has been accomplished that which is the wonder and joy of heaven, the fullest song on the lips of her adoring worshipers. But the grace in this must have full expression-the fullest. He who has become a man for our salvation cannot give up again the manhood He has assumed. Service is the fruit of love. He has taken the place of service, and will keep it:the love is not temporary, but eternal, in His heart; the expression of it should be as eternal as the love.

And if He come down to this place, and as man lead the praises of His people, men must be in the nearest place to Him; that it may be, not merely compassion seen in Him, but love; and love, free, unearned, divine, the exceeding riches of the grace of God.

Thus, too, the cross is honored, exalted, lifted up before the eyes of all the universe. That He died; for what He died; how gloriously the work has been achieved. While the arms that thus are thrown around men encircle all; for it is God in Christ who has done this, and who is this,-God, the God and Father of all.

There are various circles and ranks among the redeemed in glory. There are earthly and heavenly, and differences too among these. This of course implies no difference in justification, in the atonement made alike for all. A common salvation has been taken generally to mean a common place for every one of the saved; and the special place and privileges of the body of Christ have been assumed to belong to all of these. But Scripture is as plain as need be that this is not so. There will be, of those whose names are written in heaven, a church of first-born ones, as there will be a company of "spirits of just men made perfect"-a suited designation of Old-Testament saints (Heb. 12:23). There will be a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, as there is an "inheritance reserved in heaven" for believers now (i Pet. 1:4; 2 Pet. 3:13). I cannot dwell upon this here, and yet if it is not seen, there must be real and great confusion. But all in these different places are blood-washed ones alike:the same sacrifice has been made for all; His name under whom Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely will be, for them as for us, "The Lord our Righteousness". (Jer, 23:6). Yet Israel's promises are earthly, and not heavenly. We see, then, that to have "Christ made unto us righteousness" involves no necessary place in heaven.

And yet the cross is the sufficient justification of whatever place can be given to a creature; and it has pleased God to take out of the Gentiles a people for His name, to make known the value of the cross and show forth the exceeding riches of His grace. In Christ we are already seated in the heavenly places, and where He is to be our place forever. This we know; and it is part of the blessed plan in which God in Christ shall be fully made known, to the deepest joy and adoration of His creatures.

We are reminded here of the unequal offerings of the day of atonement,-the bullock for the priesthood, and the two goats for the nation of Israel. They are types of the same sacrifice, but in different aspects; and the priesthood clearly represent the heavenly family, as the holy place to which they belong represents the heavenly places themselves. We have considered this already, however, in its place.

And now we may close this brief and imperfect sketch of an all-important subject by reminding our readers of the way in which the Lamb-the atoning victim-fills the eye all through the book of Revelation. Not only by the blood of the Lamb the saints' robes are washed and the victors overcome; not only is it the Lamb that the redeemed celebrate, while the wicked dread His wrath; but He is the opener of the seven-sealed book, the interpreter of the divine counsels; His is the book of life, and the first-fruits from the earth, and the bride the Lamb's wife; the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of the city; the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light; while the river of the water of life flows eternally from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

"Soon shall our eyes behold Thee,
With rapture, face to face;
One half hath not been told me
Of all Thy power and grace.
Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,
The wonders of Thy love
Shall be the endless story
Of all Thy saints above."

written when I learned the sweetness of

"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

My God, my soul enraptured is
With love and grace divine
Which brought me from my lost estate
And made me wholly Thine.

My cup with blessing Thou hast filled–
I can but Thee adore,
And from Thy ceaseless love to me
My cup doth oft flow o'er.

No effort now to worship Thee-
New life the heart expands,
And praise flows forth to Thee, my God,
And glory to the Lamb.

My heart has treasured up Thy love-
So vast, boundless, and free,
My raptured soul with joy exclaims,
My springs are all in Thee !

August 1886

TAKE Thine own way with me, blest Lord," I said,
Kneeling in prayer at midnight by my bed;
And then upon my heart there fell deep dread.

What if He take me at my word, and lead
Into the wilderness, from verdant mead
And pastures green in which His flocks do feed ?

What if His way winds o'er the desert sands,
A road of pain and loss, through sun-scorched lands,
Where not a palm with grateful shadow stands ?

A whisper came :Not loss; there may be pain,
But al His dealings must be to their gain
Who are His own."My trust surged back again.

"To shaded Elim He doth lead."Once more
Peace swept upon my soul, as on the shore
A noiseless summer-tide. The dread passed o'er.

I spake the words again, and faith said" Yes;
The Father's loving hands can only bless,-
God for His own hath naught but tenderness !"

October 1886

In taking up the lessons of the dispensation of law, we must carefully distinguish-two different and, in many respects, contrasted elements. As a trial of man, which, in the highest degree, it was, we have already seen it to be the working out (in a divine way, and therefore to a true result) of an experiment which was man's thought, not God's. God could not need to make an experiment. Man needed it, because he would not accept God's judgment, already pronounced before (as a fallen being) he had been tried at all, in the proper sense of trial; "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil, and that continually." God's way of acceptance for him had been, therefore, from the beginning, by sacrifice, in which the death of a substitute covered the sinner before Him, closing his whole responsibility naturally in the place in which he stood as a creature.

The "way of Cain" was man's resistance to the verdict upon himself, and so to the way of grace proclaimed. God then undertook to prove him, taking him on his own ground, and bidding him justify his own thoughts of himself by actual experiment.

But this is only the law on one side of it. It was what made it law, and gave its character to the whole dispensation. Yet underneath, and in spite of all this, God necessarily kept to and maintained His own way, and to the ear of faith told out, more and more, that way of His, although in "dark sayings," from which only Christianity has really lifted off the vail. Thus, and thus alone, a sacrificial worship was incorporated with the law, and circumcision, "a seal of the righteousness of faith," remained as the entrance into the new economy.

First, then, let us look at the law as law, and afterward as a typical system.

As law, or the trial of man, we find him put in the most favorable circumstances possible for its reception. The ten commandments appeal, at the very outset, to the fact of the people having been brought out of the land of Egypt; it was He who had brought them out who bade them"have no other gods" before Him. He had made Himself known in such a way as to manifest Himself God over all gods, His power being- put forth in their behalf, so as to bind them by the tie of gratitude to Himself. How could they dispute His authority, or doubt His love? His holiness, too, was declared in a variety of precepts, which, if burdensome as ceremonial, appealed even the more powerfully on that account to the very sense of the most careless-hearted. There were severest penalties for disobedience, but also rewards for obedience, of all that man's heart sinlessly could enjoy. The providence of God was made apparent in continual miracles, by which their need in the wilder-ness was daily met. Who could doubt, and who refuse, the blessing of obedience to a law so given and so sanctified?

A wall of separation was built up between them and the nations round; and inside this inclosure the divinely guarded people were to walk together, all evil and rebellion excluded, the course of the world here set right, all ties of relationship combining their influence for good; duty not costing aught, but finding on every side its sweet, abundant recompense. Who (one would think) could stumble? and who could stray?

Surely the circumstances here were as favorable as possible to man's self-justification under this trial, if justify himself he could. If he failed now, how could he hope ever to succeed?

That he did fail, we all know-openly and utterly he failed, not merely by unbidden lusts, which his will refused and denied, but in conscious, deliberate disobedience, equal to his father Adam's, and that before the tables of the law had come down to him out of the mount into which Moses had gone up to receive them.

The first trial of law was over. Judgment took its course, although mercy, sovereign in its exercise, interposed to limit, it. Again God took the people up, upon the intercession of Moses-type of a greater and an effectual Mediator. Man was ungodly, but was hope irrecoverably gone? Could not mercy avail for man in a mingled system from which man's works should at least not wholly be excluded ?

Now this, in fact, is the great question under law, rigidly enforced:it is easily allowed that man must fail, and be condemned. He does not love his neighbor as himself, still less love God with all his soul and strength. Is there nothing short of this that God can admit, then? He can show mercy; can He not abate something of this rigor, and give man opportunity to repent, and recover himself?

And this is the thought that underlies much that is mistaken for the gospel now. A new baptism may give it a Christian name, and yet leave it un-regenerate legalism after all. For this-only correcting some mistakes-is what the second giving of the law takes up. It is an old experiment, long since worked out, an anachronism in Christian times. "The law is not of faith; "these are two opposite principles, which do not modify, but destroy, one another.

A second time the tables of the law are given to Israel; and now, along with this, God speaks of and declares the mercy which He surely has." The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, for giving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." It is the conjunction of these two things that creates the difficulty. We recognize the truth of both, but how shall they unite in the blessing of man? This doubt perplexes fatally all legal systems. How far will mercy extend? and where will righteousness draw the line beyond which it cannot pass? How shall we reconcile the day of grace and the day of judgment? The true answer is, that under law no reconciliation is at all possible. The experiment has been made, and the result proclaimed. It is of the law thus given the second time, and not the first, that the apostle asserts that it is the "ministration of death" and "of condemnation."

One serious mistake that has to be rectified here is, that the law can be tolerant to a certain (undefined) measure of transgression. It is not so. It is not on legal ground that God "forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin." The law says, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." If on other ground (in this case, as ever, that of sacrifice,) mercy can be extended, and even forgiveness,-if man be permitted to cancel the old leaf and turn over a new, yet the new must be kept unblotted, as the old was not. "When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness," he must do "that which is lawful and right," to "save his soul alive." And thus the commandments, written the second time upon the tables of stone, though now by the mediator's hand, were identical with the first. Here, the law cannot give way by a jot or a tittle, and therefore man's case is hopeless. The law is the ministration of condemnation only.

That was the foreseen issue, and the divine purpose in it, and God, to make that issue plain, (that man might not, unless he would, be a moment deceived as to it,) lets Moses know, as the people's representative, that Hfs face cannot be seen. He does indeed see the glory after it has passed- His back parts, not His face. God is unknown:there is no way to clear the guilty, and therefore none by which man may stand before Him.

Thus the law, in any form of it, is the "ministration of condemnation" only. That it was the "ministration of death" also, implies its power, not to produce holiness, but, as the apostle calls it, "the strength of sin." His experience of it-"I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." Forbidding lust, it aroused and manifested it."Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of lust"-thus "deceived me, and by it slew me."

Of this state of hopeless condemnation and evil, that physical death which God had annexed to disobedience at the first was the outward expression and seal. In it, man, made like the beasts that perish, passed out of the sphere of his natural responsibility and the scene for which he had been created, and passed out by the judgment of God, which cast, therefore, its awful shadow over all beyond death. The token of God's rejection of man as fallen is passed upon all men every where, with but one exception in the ages before Moses. Enoch had walked with God, and was not, for God took him. That made it only the plainer, if possible, what was its significance. It was actual sentence upon man for sin, and all men were under it as sentenced, not under probation.

If God, therefore, took up man to put him under probation, as in the law He manifestly did, He must needs conditionally remove the sentence under which he lay. "The man who doeth these things shall live in them" meant, not that he should die, and go to heaven, as people almost universally interpret it, but the contrary-that he should recover the place from which Adam had fallen, and stay on earth. Faith in Abraham, indeed, looked forward to a better country-that is, a heavenly. But the law is not of faith, nor was Abraham under it. Faith, owning man's hopelessness of ruin, was given in measure to prove the mystery of what, to all else, were God's dark sayings. To man as man, resisting God's sentence upon himself, the law spoke, not of death, and a world beyond, which he might, as he listed, people with his own imaginings, but of the lifting off of the sentence under which he lay-of the way by which he could plead his title to exemption from it.

Thus the issue of the trial could not be in the least doubtful. Every grey hair convicted him as, under law, ruined and hopeless. Every furrow on his brow was the confirmation of the old Adamic sentence upon himself personally:and the law, in this sense also, was the ministration of death, God using it to give distinct expression to what the fact itself should have graven upon men's consciences. It is this (so misunderstood as it is now) that gives the key to those expressions in the Psalms and elsewhere which materialism would pervert to its own purposes:"For in death there is no remembrance of Thee; in hades [it is not "the grave"] who shall give Thee thanks?"

God would have it so plain, that he might run that reads it, that upon the ground of law, spite of God's mercy (which He surely has), man's case is hopeless. "By deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

Yet, God having declared His forgiveness of iniquity, transgression, and sin, the second trial by law could go on, as it did go on, for some eight hundred years, till the Babylonish captivity. Then the legal covenant really ended. The people were Lo-ammi, a sentence never yet recalled.
As law simply, then, the Mosaic system was the, complete and formal trial of man as man, all possible assistance being given him, and every motive, whether of self-interest or of gratitude to God, being brought to bear on him, the necessity of faith almost, as it might seem, set aside by repeated manifestations of Jehovah's presence and power, such as must force conviction upon all.

The issue of the trial, as foreseen and designed of God, was to bring out the perfect hopelessness of man's condition, as ungodly, and without strength, unable to stand before Him for a moment. But then, the truth of his helplessness ex-posed, the mercy of God could not permit his being left there without the assurance of effectual help provided for him. In this way, another element than that of law entered into the law, and the tabernacle and temple services, taking up the principles of circumcision and of sacrifice, of older date than law, incorporated there in a ritual of most striking character, which spread before the eye opened to take it in lessons of spiritual wisdom which in our day we turn back to read with deeper interest and delight the more we know of them.

The language of type and parable God had used from the beginning. As yet, He could not speak plainly of what, these bear abundant witness, ever filled His heart. Unbelief in man had damned back the living stream of divine goodness, which was gathering behind the barrier all the while for its overflow. In the meanwhile, the Psalms-the very heart of the Old Testament-declare what faith could already realize of the blessedness of "the man whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." Faith tasted and declared, as the apostle could take up such words afterward, to show, not the blessedness of keeping law, but of divine forgiveness. "It shall be forgiven him" was indeed said, with perfect plainness, in connection with that shedding of blood for man, which testified at once to his utter failure, and of resource in God for his extremest need. It was not, and could not be, perfect peace or justification that could yet be preached or known, but a "forbearance," of which none could predict the limits. Still, faith had here its argument, and, in fact, found ever its fullest confidence sustained.

Very striking it is, when once this dealing of God with faith is seen, how the very burdensome-ness of the rigid ceremonial changes its character, and becomes only the urgency of an appeal to the conscience, which, if entertained, would open the way to the knowledge of the blessedness of which the psalmist speaks. These continual sacrifices, if they did indeed, as the apostle urges, by their frequent repetition, proclaim their own insufficiency, nevertheless, by the very fact, became continual preachers, in the most personal way, to the men of Israel, of their ruin, and of its sole remedy, and how the constant shedding of blood would keep them in mind of that divine commentary, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls:for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." (Lev.17:11.)

How striking, too, that circumcision, which was clearly before the law, was express!
– the only way by which even the Israelite-born could claim Jehovah as his covenant-God, or keep the memorial feast of national redemption! For, as the apostle says, it was " the seal of the righteousness of faith" not law-keeping, as the covenant of which it was the token was "of promise"-the promise of an "almighty God," when in Abraham, almost a hundred years old, all natural hope was dead forever. To walk before that omnipotent God in confessed impotence, trusting and proving His power, was that to which he was called. As yet, there was no law to saddle that with conditions; and in memory of this, in token of its abiding significance, the Gentile "stranger" could still be circumcised, with all his males, and keep the passover as an Israelite-born.

How tender, too, the goodness which had provided that whoever of Abraham's seed should turn to the history of his forefather after the flesh, should find written there, and of this very depositary of all the promises, such plain, unambiguous words of divine testimony as these:"He believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness." Of no other was this in the same way written. What hand inscribed it there, just when it should speak most plainly, and to those most in need? Just where, on the incoming of Christianity, I should be ready with its unmistakable testimony to the central principle of Christianity itself. Such is the prophetic character of the inspired Word. The same presaging Spirit who dictated to Peter in men's thoughts, the first authority in the church those two doctrines which are the death-blow of ritualism, new birth through the word of the gospel, and the common priesthood of all believers (1 Pet. 1:23-25; 2:5-9), recorded by Moses this testimony as to Abraham. Blessed be God for His infinitely precious Word!

It was in connection with law that all the books of the Old Testament were given, and Israel, as is plain, were they to whom all was committed. It seems, therefore, here the place to speak briefly of their general character as affected by this. There are certain things, at least, that one may indicate as of special importance, in view of many things around us at the present time.

In the first place, it was not yet the time for that "plainness of speech" which, as the apostle says, belongs to Christianity. This we have already seen, but it is not superfluous to insist on it still further. The vail between man and God necessitated a vailed speech also-not, indeed, altogether impenetrable to faith, but requiring, in the words of Solomon, "to understand proverb and strange speech,* the words of the wise and their dark sayings." *Not, as in the Authorized Version, "interpretation, "interpretation," but " what needs interpretation*." Even as to man himself, while his trial was yet going on, there could not be the full discovery of his condition. We have not yet the New-Testament doctrine of "the flesh," nor of new birth, although there was that which should have prepared an Israelitish teacher for the understanding of it when announced. Election was only yet national, not individual, and therefore to privilege only, not eternal life. Adoption, too, was national:the true children of God could not yet claim or know their place as such. No cry of "Abba, Father," was or could be raised. The heirs differed not as yet from servants, being under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. (Gal. 4.) As to all these things, there were preparatory utterances, and all the more as the ruin of man came out, therefore, in those prophetical books which fittingly closed the canon of the Old Testament.

Even the types had in them the character which the apostle ascribes to the law:"having a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things." The unrent vail, the repetition of the sacrifices, the successional priesthood, as he points out, had all this character. They were the necessary witnesses that the "law made nothing perfect,"-that under it "the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest." Of these was the intermediate priesthood of Aaron's sons, which was the provision for a people unable themselves to draw near to God ; which, with all else, the Judaizing ritualism of the day copies, and maintains as Christian. The apostle's answer to it is, "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us; for after that He had said before, . . . ' Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, His flesh, and having a High-Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith." (Heb. 10:14-22.) Sin put away, and distance from God removed, ritualism, in all its forms, becomes an impossibility.

In the second place, as the law dealt with man here and now, and did not relegate the issue of its own trial to another time and place, where its verdict could not be known by men in this life; the earth is that upon which man's attention is fixed, and that whether for judgment or reward. There are hints here also of the fuller truths which the New Testament unfolds; but manifestly there is no promise of heaven to the keeper of the law, nor even threat of hell-that is, of the lake of fire-to the transgressors of it. Judgment there is, and eternal judgment, but death is rather the stroke of it-the horror of this shadowing the eternity beyond. Job speaks of resurrection, and the prophets also, though in them it is only applied figuratively to national restoration ; yet this shows they held it as admitted truth. Outside of the Old Testament we learn, from the epistle to the Hebrews, that the patriarchs expected "a better country-that is, a heavenly," but we should not know it from Genesis. Faith penetrated, in some measure, it is clear, the "dark sayings," and found all not dark. A recognized body of truth was received by the Pharisees, which embraced, not only resurrection for the just, but of the unjust also, and spoke, not merely of hades, but of Gehenna also-the true "hell." This only makes the more remarkable the constant style even of the prophets. The confounding of judgments upon the living, by which the earth will be rid of its destroyers and prepared for blessing, with the judgment of the dead at the "great white throne," is one of the errors under which annihilationism shelters itself most securely.

On the other hand, this earthly blessing, still further confused by Israel being (as commonly) interpreted to mean the Church, has been by current "adventism" made to take the place of the true Christian expectation of an inheritance in heaven. And this, too, has linked itself with annihilationism in its extremest and most materialistic forms. We must keep the stand-points of the Old and New Testaments-of Israel and the Church, earthly and heavenly-clear in our minds, and there is no difficulty. "My kinsmen according to the flesh" says the apostle; "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" (Rom. 9:3,4.) All of these for them earthly blessings. Christians are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 1:3.)

If this should seem at all to take the Old Testament away from us who belong to another dispensation, we must remember two things:first, that if it has not so directly to do with us, it has, most assuredly, with Christ no less on that account. His glories run through the whole; history, psalm, and prophecy are full of Him. But what reveals Him is ever of truest blessing for the soul. Oh to be simpler in taking in all this, in which the Father gives us communion with His own thoughts of His Son!

And then, when we look at the typical teaching, now fully for the first time disclosed, when even the things that happened to the favored nation, and are recorded in their history, "happened to them for types," we find what is in the fullest way ours-"written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come." (I Cor. 10,11.) How wonderful this! and how sad to think, on the one hand of the disuse, on the other of the reckless abuse, of that precious teaching!

We have now to look at the history of the age of law.

If there be in us any anxiety of conscience as to our acceptance, we may be quite sure that we are not thoroughly established in grace. It is true there may be the sense of sin in one who is established, but this is a very different thing from distress of conscience as to acceptance. Want of peace may be caused by either of two things-my never having been fully brought to trust in grace, or my having, through carelessness, lost the sense of grace, which is easily done. The "grace of God" is so unlimited, so full, so perfect, that if we get for a moment out of the presence of God, we cannot have the true consciousness of it-we have no strength to apprehend it; and if we attempt to know it out of His presence, we shall only turn it to licentiousness.

If we look at the simple fact of what grace is, it has no limit, no bounds. Be we what we may, (and we cannot be worse than we are,) in spite of all that, what God is toward us is love!

Grace supposes all the sin and evil that is in us, and is the blessed revelation that through Jesus all this sin and evil has been put away. A single sin is more horrible to God than a thousand sins-nay, than all the sins in the world are to us; and yet, with the fullest consciousness of what we are, all that God is pleased to be toward us is love! It is vain to look to any extent of evil. A person may be (speaking after the manner of men,) a great sinner or a little sinner, but that is not the question at all. Grace has reference to what God is, and not to what we are, except indeed that the very greatness of our sins does but magnify the extent of the "grace of God." At the same time we must remember that the object and necessary effect of grace is to bring our souls into communion with God,-to sanctify us, by bringing the soul to know God and to love Him. Therefore the knowledge of grace is the true source of sanctification. J.N.D.

"And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth."(John 1:14.)

But what attractiveness there would have been in Him for any eye or heart that had been opened by the Spirit! This is witnessed to us by the apostles. They knew but little about Him doctrinally, and they got nothing by remaining with Him-I mean, nothing in this world. Their condition in the world was any thing but improved by their walking with Him; and it cannot be said that they availed themselves of His miraculous power. Indeed, they questioned it rather than used it. And yet they clung to Him. They did not company with Him because they eyed Him as the full and ready storehouse of all provisions for them. On no one occasion, I believe we may say, did they use the power that was in Him for themselves. And yet there they were with Him,-troubled when He talked of leaving, and found weeping when they thought they had indeed lost Him.

Surely, we may again say, What attractiveness there must have been in Him for any eye or heart that had been opened by the Spirit or drawn by the Father! and with what authority one look or one word from Him would enter at times! We see this in Matthew. That one word on the Lord's lips, "Follow Me," was enough. And this authority and this attractiveness was felt by men of the most opposite temperaments. The slow-hearted, reasoning Thomas, and the ardent, uncalculating Peter, were alike kept near and around this wondrous center. Even Thomas would breathe, in that presence, the spirit of the earnest Peter, and say, under force of this attraction, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him."

Shall we not say, What will it be to see and feel all this by and by in its perfection! when all, gathered from every clime and color and character of the wide-spread human family,-all nations, kindreds, people, and tongues are with Him and around Him in a world worthy of Him! We may dwell, in memory, on these samples of His preciousness to hearts like our own, and welcome them as pledges of that which, in hope, is ours as well as theirs.

The light of God shines, at times, before us, leaving us, as we may have power, to discern it, to enjoy it, to use it, to follow it. It does not so much challenge us, or exact of us; but, as I said, it shines before us, that we may reflect it, if we have grace. We see it doing its work after this manner in the early church at Jerusalem. The light of God there exacted nothing. It shone brightly and powerfully, but that was all. Peter spoke the language of that light when he said to Ananias, "While it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power?" It had made no demands upon Ananias; it simply shone in its beauty beside him or before him, that he might walk in it according to his measure. And such, in a great sense, is the moral glory of the Lord Jesus. Our first duty to that light is to learn from it what He is. We are not to begin by anxiously and painfully measuring ourselves by it, but by calmly and happily and thankfully learning Him in all His perfect moral humanity. And surely this glory is departed! There is no living image of it here. We have its record in the evangelists, but not its reflection any where.

But having its record, we may say, as one of our own poets has said –

"There has one object been disclosed on earth
That might commend the place:but now 'tis gone:
Jesus is with the Father."

But though not here, beloved, He is just what He was. We are to know Him as it were by memory; and memory has no capacity to weave fictions; memory can only turn over living, truthful pages. And thus we know Him for His own eternity. In an eminent sense, the disciples knew Him personally. It was His person, His presence, Himself, that was their attraction. And if one may speak for others, it is more of this we need. We may be busy in acquainting ourselves with truths about Him, and we may make proficiency that way; but with all our knowledge, and with all the disciples' ignorance, they may leave us far behind in the power of a commanding affection toward Himself. And surely, beloved, we will not refuse to say that it is well when the heart is drawn by Him beyond what the knowledge we have of Him may account for. It tells us that He Himself has been rightly apprehended. And there are simple souls still that exhibit this; but generally, it is not so. Nowadays, our light, our acquaintance with truth, is beyond the measure of the answer of our heart to Himself. And it is painful to us, if we have any just sensibilities at all, to discover this.

"The prerogative of our Christian faith," says one," the secret of its strength is this, that all which it has, and all which it offers, is laid up in a Person. This is what has made it strong, while so much else has proved weak; that it has a Christ as its middle point, that it has not a circumference without a center; that it has not merely deliverance, but a Deliverer,-not redemption only, but a Redeemer as well. This is what makes it fit for wayfaring men. This is what makes it sunlight, and all else, when compared with it, but as moonlight; fair it may be, but cold and ineffectual, while here the light and the life are one." And again he says, "And oh, how great the difference between submitting ourselves to a complex of rules, and casting ourselves upon a beating heart,-between accepting a system, and cleaving to a Person! Our blessedness-and let us not miss it-is, that our treasures are treasured in a Person who is not for one generation a present Teacher and a living Lord, and then for all succeeding generations a past and a dead one; but who is present and living for all." Good words, and seasonable words, I judge indeed, I may say these are.

A great combination of like moral glories in the Lord's ministry may be traced, as well as in His character. And in ministry, we may look at Him in relation to God, to Satan, and to man. As to God, the Lord Jesus, in His own person and ways, was always representing man to God as God would have him. He was rendering back human nature as a sacrifice of rest, or of sweet savor, as incense pure and fragrant, as a sheaf of untainted first-fruits out of the human soil. He restored to God His complacency in man, which sin or Adam had taken from Him. God's repentance that He had made man (Gen. 6:6.) was exchanged for delight and glory in man again (Luke 2:14). And this offering was made to God in the midst of all contradictions, all opposing circumstances, sorrows, fatigues, necessities, and heart-breaking disappointments. Wondrous altar! wondrous offering! A richer sacrifice it infinitely was than an eternity of Adam's innocency would have been. And as lie was thus representing man to God, so was He representing God to man.-(From "The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ" by J.G.B.)

II. " Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (I Cor. 6:2:) The truth of justification is variously given in Scripture, nor is it always the same thing. It is always a sentence of righteousness pronounced in favor of the person justified, but in different ways and at different times. Paul's justification by faith without works is, for instance, entirely different from James' by works; and to confound them is the destruction of both. Paul inserts a note, as if it were on purpose, to guard against such a mistake. "If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God" (Rom. 4:2). James, on the other hand, asks of the same person, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?" (Jas. 2:21.) The time of which they speak is different. Paul speaks of Gen. xv; James, of Gen. 22:But also Paul speaks of justification before God, and denies James' justification by works to be before God. The latter speaks of justification before men:"A man may say, Show me" And there is no confusion.

The "justification" of our text is neither of these, but a third thing distinct from either, and I think in our day little understood. The passage that explains it is i Tim. 3:16, where the same expression is used of our Lord:"was justified in the Spirit." The preposition is the same in both passages, the instrumental "in," or "by." This clearly refers to the descent of the Spirit upon Him at His baptism, when the Father's voice testified its delight in Him. He Himself speaks of this as the Father's seal:"Him hath God the Father sealed" (Jno. 6:27). It was the divine confirmation of what He was,-His public justification thus.

If this be so as to the Lord, our own justification as given here is by the Spirit received:the seal of the Spirit is the witness given by God to us, of course, and as is said here, "in the name of the Lord Jesus." But what precisely does this mean? The apostle's sermon on the day of Pentecost furnishes the answer. Peter there takes Joel's words for his text, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." He proclaims Jesus the Lord:"God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ." They are pricked to the heart, and cry out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" He answers, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" Baptism is "unto the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 8:16). They thus call on the name of the Lord, owning Jesus as this, and in His name receive remission of sins*, and the gift of the Holy Ghost in confirmation of it.*Of course, only the authoritative witness to it on earth, and conditioned upon the reality of their confession of Christ (comp). Acts 22:16 Jno. 20:23).*

We have only to remember now that in Cornelius' case-the first Gentile, and pattern for the Gentiles afterward, the gift of the Holy Ghost is not dependent upon baptism, and that the apostle of the Gentiles (the first preacher of justification,) is not sent to baptize, and this text in Corinthians becomes quite plain. The person owning Jesus as his Lord is justified in His name and by the reception of the Holy Ghost, then and there bestowed, the mark set on those who belong to Christ.

Is this the peace of God -this strange, sweet calm?
The weary day is at its zenith still,
Yet 'tis as if beside some cool, clear rill,
Through shadowy stillness, rose an evening psalm,
And all the noise of life were hushed away,
And tranquil gladness reigned with gently soothing sway.

It was not so just now. I turned aside
With aching head, and heart most sorely bowed;
Around me, cares and griefs in crushing crowd;
While only rose the sense, in swelling tide,
Of weakness, insufficiency, and sin;
And fear, and gloom, and doubt, in mighty flood rolled in.

That rushing flood I had no strength to meet,
Nor power to flee:my present, future, past,
My self, my sorrow, and my sin I cast,
In utter helplessness, at Jesu's feet;
Then bent me to the storm, if such His will.
He saw the winds and waves, and whispered, "Peace;
be still!"

And there was calm !O Saviour, I have proved
That Thou to help and save art really near;
How else this quiet rest from grief, and fear,
And all distress? The cross is not removed ;
I must go forth to bear it as before,
But, leaning on Thine arm, I dread its weight no more.

Is it indeed Thy peace? I have not tried
To analyze my faith, dissect my trust,
Or measure if belief be full and just,
And therefore claim Thy peace. But Thou hast died:
I know that this is true, and true for me,
And, knowing it, I come, and cast my all on Thee.

It is not that I feel less weak, but Thou
Wilt be my strength; it is not that I see
Less sin, but more of pardoning love with Thee,
And all-sufficient grace. Enough! And now
All fluttering thought is stilled ; I only rest,
And feel that Thou art near, and know that I am blest.

F. R. H.