"Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth" (Haggai 2:6). These prophetic words refer to what will precede the filling of "this house with glory" and began to be fulfilled, in their spiritual import, by the Lord Jesus. All history indicates the character of the agitation which has vibrated through mankind in consequence. The sound of the gospel goes out through all lands and wherever it is heard a revolution begins. The powers of evil offer opposition; children of darkness pass into the light; prejudices and customs disappear; laws and constitutions sink in the vortex of change. Wherever the gospel has penetrated, shaking has been the order of the day and it continues till this time. The agitation which commenced in the world with Christ's entrance was not confined to the earth. The heavens, too, were shaken. What a movement was there when He endured the shameful death of the Cross! What a movement was there, when, as the antitype of the high priest, He entered into heaven itself! That movement has continued as many sons are being brought to glory and will continue until"the times of the restitution of all things."The epistle to the Hebrews points out that the communication through Haggai covers more than a simple statement of the shaking which should accompany the institution of the Kingdom of God in the world."Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain" (Heb. 12:27).

There is in the material world only that which is evanescent in design, and subject to change, as having been called into existence for a period and then, having served its purpose, it will disappear. To that order of things pertained the Levitical types and shadows. But the Jews in their blindness clung to them as though they were immovable. Whence arose their despair when the fires of dissolution fell upon them? They had not the slightest idea that what was imperishable was to be found in the lowly dwelling of a Simeon or of a Zacharias. They were fascinated by what was splendid to the eye- the temple and the priesthood. They perished by thousands in vainly anticipating the re-establishment of what was shaken. To this category belongs the entire system of the world, glittering and durable as it seems to be. History conducts us over the sites of endless ruined states,, extinct princely families, and subverted religious systems. The dust of oblivion covers them. At every point we are confronted with the truth that the things that can be shaken pass away. We see it inscribed on political systems, on official appointments, on the family circles where the acme of temporal happiness is attained. Here likewise is the flower of the grass. It is written on our own foreheads, for we, too, are passing. Splendid as anything under the sun may be, it fulfils but its appointed span and the chill blast of time sweeps it away. The earth will be burned up and the heavens rolled together like a scroll! What foolishness then to let the affections rest on what is unstable. Let us fix ours on what is imperishable. Is there such a thing? Yes, it exists in the midst of all the secular change.

In the midst of the general upheaval which has marked the flow of time, something has survived and risen on every wave of change that has threatened its destruction. Century after century it meets us. At one period hemmed in to one particular spot of earth, but in the last nineteen hundred years it has spread all over the world. It is a living temple which no Nebuchadnezzar can desecrate and into which no Roman soldier can hurl the torch of destruction. It is a community of saints who are indeed in, but not of, the world, whose proper function is that of pilgrims with their citizenship in heaven. Such a phenomenon on this earth is, and always has been, the kingdom of grace invisibly sustained by the Holy Spirit and the merits of eternal redemption. Truly, this peaceful kingdom with its immunities, possessions and prospects is the only immovable thing in this world of change. It will outlive this age and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. True it is that many of its forms are changeable; the outward structure is transient but the real essential thing does not change, it will live when symbols, catechisms and institutions have faded away.

"Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear" (Heb. 12:28). Therefore let us not follow the example of those who after being the recipients of wonderful grace, turn back to dead works, making their peace depend upon the degree of holiness to which they have attained. They misunderstand that which is unchangeable. They misrepresent the kingdom of grace. They seek to change it into a realm in which the insidious spirit of bondage reigns. Let us then pray that the light of grace may shine in us so that we may rejoice in the assurance of the unchangeable in this world of change. T. Oliver (Galashiels)

"The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me" (Job 3:25). So cried Job of old in the midst of sorrows which seemed overwhelming. And his utterances in the midst of his calamities have been echoed by many afflicted ones all down the centuries. But "the end of the Lord" at length was reached. The object He had in view was attained. Then Job was doubly blessed. It is for the comfort and encouragement of tried believers that his story is given to us, so as to assure our hearts that "the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy" (James 5:11).

Let us not forget that God ever has an END in view. That end is His glory and our good. It is "for our profit" on the one hand, and "that we may be partakers of His holiness," on the other. And if He chastens us- and He chastens all-it is because He loves. In His love He will bring "the end" about, and when we see what His object has been we shall but praise Him for all the way He has brought us. Love, His perfect love, has' ordered, does order, and will order every detail for our richest blessing.

"His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower."

The old story of the farmer who built a new barn is worth repeating. At one end of the building he had a weathervane placed, and under it, the words, "GOD IS LOVE." Some of his neighbors asked the old Christian, "Do you mean that the love of God is as changeable as the wind?" "Indeed, I do not," was his reply. "What I mean is this, 'GOD IS LOVE,' whichever way the wind blows."

Yes! whether the wind blows from the cold North, or blows from the sunny South, from the East, or from the West, all is, and all must be, well for the one who is cared for by Him who "spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." The cross of Calvary shows the greatness of God's love. To it we should look ever, and not to our circumstances. These are at times inexplicable to us, but the day will dawn soon when we shall "know as we are known" and see the why and the wherefore of that which we cannot understand at present. The words of our Lord, "That which I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter," may gladden our hearts, and so in confidence in God we may say, "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out" (Song 4:16). We have not wisdom to determine what will be the best way to promote the issuance of the aromatic odor from our lives; but our God knows, and we may leave ourselves in His hands, and fully trusting in Him, believe and cry, "God is love."

This thought has been expressed beautifully in a hymn, too little known,

"We cannot always trace the way,
Where Thou, our gracious Lord, dost move;
But we can always surely say-
That 'God is Love.'

When clouds hang o'er our darkened path,
We'll check our dread, each doubt reprove;
For here each soul sweet comfort hath-
That 'God is Love.'

Yes! Thou art Love, a truth like this
Can every gloomy thought remove,
And turn our tears and woes to bliss-
For 'God is Love.' "

Many of the occurrences in our pathway may seem contrary to this truth. Painful events in our lives may argue on the opposite side. The details of our Father's dealings with us may be distressing for the time. But each and all will be made somehow to "work together for good to them that love God." A well-known preacher was seeking to encourage his hearers with regard to this glorious truth. He held in his hands, before the audience, the reverse side of a perforated cardboard text which had been worked skillfully and beautifully in varied colored silks. Being the back of the text, however, it could not be read. The many silks were crisscrossed as though spiders dipped in differing inks had crawled over the card. There appeared to be no scheme or reason whatever in the work. When, however, the right side was presented before them they could see what had been wrought. "GOD IS LOVE" was plainly to be descried. I need hardly apply the moral.

Ah, is it not so with us all? We look at the wrong side of the details of our lives. The stitches cannot be understood. By and by we shall see the right side of everything, and say, "As for God, His way" was "perfect." Then shall we praise Him for all that is past, and say, "He hath done all things well." Short-sighted, as we are, we know not the end from the beginning, but our God is acquainted with all, and works for us, and with us, and in us, for our ultimate benefit. In this confidence we may sing;

"Let good or ill betide,
All must be good for me,
Secure of having Thee in all,
Of having all in Thee.

In Thee I place my trust,
On Thee I calmly rest;
I know Thee good, I know Thee just,
And count Thy choice the best."

Inglis Fleming

RUSSIA

"To the Jew first and also to the Gentile." The following extract of a letter from a missionary laboring amongst the Jews on the borders of Soviet Russia is a reminder for us all to continue in prayer, not only for Christians, but for the afflicted Jews within the borders of Soviet Russia.

Ostrog. On the borders of Soviet Russia. We decided to obtain permission to visit the frontier, which is about a mile off the town. Convoyed by two gendarmes we were allowed to cross the border, and walked as far as where the red-green pillar with the emblems of the sickle and hammer stood, marking the Soviet frontier. Very near from where we stood we could see the houses and people of Bolshevia. You can hardly imagine the feelings of one who had such varying experiences in a country, now standing on the very soil of that land which treated him with all the severities of a Red Terror, where he had to face death in the dungeon, knowing that there are still dear ones suffering many hardships for the Lord's sake. Our hearts went out to them afresh in love and sympathy, yearning with compassion. Gladly I would have stretched out my hands to our own dear children who, despite all our efforts to rescue them, and all it has cost, are still there. The little ones suffer from all kinds of sickness as a result of starvation. We trust the Lord will answer and deliver them in His own time from the land of terror and death. A little distance off we saw a house demolished by the Bolsheviks as a penalty for the owners, who refused to join the Collective. The poor woman was bound and thrown on a cart; some time ago her husband had been sent off to Siberia for the same reason.

While in Ostrog we visited refugees from South Russia who escaped from the land of slavery. Living near the frontier they took advantage of the harvest-tide, when the wire fence in the border was temporarily removed, to five more space for the turning of the harvest-carts. They furnished a wagon, similar to those used by the Soviet peasants, and twenty-four people, men, women and children, broke through the borders. The soldiers opened fire at once, one was killed, and two badly wounded, but the rest escaped. They have a shocking story to tell about their experiences there. With a heavy heart we left Ostrog, feeling more than ever the burden for more earnest prayer for the poor sufferers for Christ's sake, just beyond that green pillar in Soviet Russia.

We were much struck by the attitude of a Russian priest, the prior of the monastery in Ostrog, to Christ, the Word of God and the Jews. He told us that he loves the Jews for Christ's sake, who is the Messiah of Israel, and who gave him salvation through Israel.

SOUTH AMERICA

Brother Monttlau writes as follows:

On November 2nd, eleven years ago, we were sailing towards Puntaremas, Costa Rica, with ten children, the oldest eleven years, and the youngest one year old. We landed at Puntaremas on Nov. 16th, 1920, and twelve days later our baby Samuel was born. Among the seven souls baptized a few days ago, there were our two last boys, Daniel and Samuel, who gave a public testimony of their faith in the Lord Jesus before a crowded hall. We wish you to join us in praise to our gracious Lord in this joyful eleventh anniversary. Now it is our privilege to seat all eleven around the Lord's table with a few more added to us, every first day of the week. We praise Him for His grace during eleven years, seven in Costa Rica, two in Spain and the last two here.

We take this opportunity to thank our dear brethren and sisters in the States, Canada, New Zealand, etc., who have shown their Christian love and fellowship in our pilgrimage, wishing you the Lord's richest blessings for 1932, should He tarry.

AFRICA

We are glad to print the following encouraging letters from brother Robert Deans and Gordon Searle:

Dear brother:Lolua, Oct. 18th, 1931.

We all had a fine season of blessing at our conference at Mambasa at the end of September when we worked into the Word, having the First Epistle of Thessalonians before us. We do pray that its profiting may appear to all, for what is the gain of Bible study if the soul is not exercised thereby? The thought of that Blessed Man having redeemed us, and then never satisfied until all the company of the redeemed be with Him filled our souls with holy joy at such condescending love. Praise God, it is a blessed thing to know Christ.

Our building is going on slowly here, but knowing that the things we look upon are only temporal, we can afford to build slowly. He might come for us in the midst of it all.

We have very much to encourage as the people are exceedingly interested and come long distances to hear the gospel.

At the close of our services today, after the meeting was dismissed, three grown-ups accepted Christ Jesus. Yes, we rejoice, beloved brethren, for out of the midst of this gross darkness the people see a light that is Christ; and the gospel is presented in all faithfulness so that, Ezra-fashion, they are made to understand the meaning, and even when they say they have taken Christ as their Saviour we question them individually to be sure they know what they’re talking about.

Our school is in full swing just now, and as the story of the Cross is daily given, we have great hopes, should the Lord be pleased to tarry, of reaching hundreds with this glorious emancipating truth.

We are glad to say they all show an eagerness to learn to read, so that they may understand "Kitabuya Hunger," namely, "The Book of God."

We have one hundred at our daily school, with many more coming in. Their ages range from five to forty. There were one hundred and forty at the services today, which is encouraging.

We are all praying for the saints at home in their trying hour of depression, that our Lord will intervene on their behalf.
We all send our love to all the saints and thank them for their continued remembrance of this work in the Lord. Dr. Woodhams and family, and Miss DeJonge and Miss Creighton, are all well. So are our brother and sister Searle and their families. Love in the Lord to all,

Robert Deans.

From Gordon Searle:

At the end of September we all met together for conference, fellowship, and Bible study at Mambasa, and spent the week-end and Monday very profitably in the study of 1st Thessalonians. We hope to meet again, if the Lord will, at the end of December and for the New Year here at Nyangkundi, and will probably study 2nd Thessalonians together.

Our brother Bill Deans is not teaching further at Nyangkundi, feeling incapacitated by his rheumatism, so that he is now staying at Mambasa under Dr. Woodhams' care, -and will probably be with his parents for a time at Lolua. Ella and Bob Deans are resuming their educational studies at Rethi School for missionaries' children.

Our return is not directed for this time, as the Lord has shown us to stay for the present. When He shall have opened the way we may follow. There is much work for Him here, which may not be left alone.

We would call attention at this time to the pressing need of a furlough for brother Searle and family and hope it may be possible for them to leave Africa this coming spring, should the Lord tarry.

INDIAN WORK

Inasmuch as for years work has gone on in Arizona and New Mexico with little apparent result and blessing, we are now glad to report encouraging news from our brother J. P. Anderson, of Valentine, Arizona, who writes:

Have had much encouragement in the work here of late, and good interest at our out-station at Peach Springs. We go there every other Lord's Day to remember Him in the breaking of bread, and find a good many coming in to look on as well as some old Indians who have confessed the Lord and are in fellowship. They can't read or write, but love Him, and are undergoing some severe trials and tests from their own people. The Lord has sustained them in it all.

We are looking for our brother Steeple in a few days, who is on his way to the San Diego Conference. We have arranged several meetings for him, and expect a great deal of interest from the Indians because he is a blind preacher, and a large number of these Indians are blind, and a great number of them have gone blind since we have been here, which is a most pathetic thing. This particular tribe is diminishing, while some other tribes are increasing rapidly. The Walapai tribe is considered one of the hardest tribes to work with, but the Lord is able to save unto the utmost, and we are thankful for that."

And in another letter Mr. Anderson says:
One old Indian man who was saved last summer is to be the speaker to-night, giving his testimony in that crowded chapel, and oh, I know it will stir our hearts, for he has had to suffer much for the Lord since coming out of heathenism, and so has his wife. But it means much to us to have these older Indians break away from the old life, and it's a big break too. Again we thank you all in His Name.

HARBOR WORK IN NEW YORK

"Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters."

Our brother Ralph West has been enabled to continue in this service for the Lord during the whole of 1931. While it is impossible to give an account of all ships visited and amount of literature distributed, our brother reports that this field is so great that it would require several workers to fully cover it. As a general rule the work is much in the nature of seed-sowing, but from time to time our brother has been much encouraged and cheered by seeing definite results of his labor. We are reminded of the word in Ecclesiastes which says, "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." We pray that this may be so in connection with the work carried on at our great seaports.

Mrs. W. P. Knight, Luan, Shansi, writes in Young China:

A little while ago two little twins were born in the Hospital here, a boy and a girl. Now, it is very lucky to have two boys, and somewhat satisfactory to have two girls, but to have one of each sex is unlucky indeed, and the mother was very displeased. She did not want one baby, let alone two!

She had made no provision in the way of clothing and, when the time came for the twins to go home, the question as to what they were to wear became important. The mother was not perturbed; she produced a warm pair of trousers and popped the boy into one leg and the girl into the other, then she turned the top over like a coverlet, and what more could you wish? Wouldn't you like to have had a photograph of those two little heads peeping out?

There have been many patients who have shown great interest in the Gospel during the last few months. One, blind through cataract, recovered a fair degree of sight, and after her return home, sent another in similar case up to us telling her, "The hospital is good, the people are good, and their Jesus is good; so you go up for treatment!"

Another blind woman of seventy was very interested in all she heard. As she could not read I used to have her memorize, using her fingers to help her. In this way I taught her, among other things, the main points of Revelation 21:4.

I found her crying quietly one day. She told me that the doctor had told her he could do nothing for her eyes and she felt she had wasted the ten days' expenses. I asked her if she had received any good through coming. "Oh, yes," she said, "I have heard about Jesus, the Saviour."

I asked her to tell me the five points about heaven, and she repeated, "No death, no mourning, no crying, no pain, no tears." Her old face lighted up; she wiped away her last tears and said. "There won't be any of these there!"

Pray for her. She has gone back to a village where there is no Christian to help her. The children have evidently been in the habit of frightening her by saying, "There comes a big snake"-or it might be a dog, or something else. She took great comfort in Isaiah 41:10. Notice how it lends itself to five-finger exercise! It all appealed to her from the "Fear thou not" at the beginning to the "upholding hand" at the end.

A missionary laboring in the Island of Haiti describes the fearful superstition in which the mass of the people there are still enslaved. What an incentive to prayer such things should be!

The uneducated peasants who constitute seventy-five per cent of the population of the Republic of Haiti are voodoo worshipers, they live in constant dread of the spirits of their ancestors. For the worship of these spirits the Haitians build private or family temples, and public temples called "Houmforts." There are also sacred trees under the shadow of which sacrifices are offered with the object of appeasing the spirits. The voodoo Priests are called "Papa Loi," and "Mama Loi." On the altars in the temples may be seen a human skull, a wooden cross, a. model of a serpent, and sacrificial offerings of food and of drink. The sacred serpent is called "Dambala Oveddo." The family temples are small houses built in the compounds of the homesteads, these temples are furnished with a bed, a table, and a chair, for the unique use of the spirits which are supposed to visit the "Houmforts" at night. The walls of the temples are decorated with plaster images and colored pictures of the saints of the Roman Catholic Church! When the ancestral spirits have shown their displeasure by bringing accident, sickness, or death, on any member of the family, they must be appeased by the sacrifices of one or more white-cock fowls, goats, pigs, or bulls. After the sacrifice, some of the cooked food must be deposited on a plate, and bottles of wine, rum, or Kola, must be placed on the table in the temple, for the use of the spirits. The worship in the public "Houmforts" has a much more elaborate ritual attached to it. The "Papa Loi" is robed, three tom-toms of different size and tone are used, the sacrificial bull is brought in garlanded, and with lighted candles tied to its horns. While the worshipers are drinking rum, chanting and clapping their hands in unison with the drumming of the tom-toms, the white-robed and turbaned medium indicates the kind of animal demanded for the sacrifice by the evil spirits, which may be any domesticated animal, or even a human sacrifice, a child! In the latter instance, as human sacrifices are now illegal, the worshipers usually ask to be excused by chanting in unison, as follows:-

"Please excuse us,

If you ask for a goat we will give it to you If you ask for a bull, we will give it to you But if you ask for a goat without horns (meaning a human sacrifice) from where will we take one to give you?" -(Translated from the Haitian patois.)

At this juncture the medium proposes the substitution of a goat in the place of a child, which is carried out as follows:A young girl is placed "on all-fours" in front of the altar, facing a goat, the worshipers continue to chant in unison, until the spirit of the girl is supposed to have passed into the goat, and the spirit of the goat into the girl, which is indicated by the girl bleating like a goat, and nibbling the leaves of a sacred twig held between the head of the goat and that of the girl! At this psychological moment, the "Papa Loi" cuts the throat of the goat, "Maitresse Ezilie" catches the blood in a vessel, makes the girl drink of it, the priest sprinkles the worshipers with the blood, drinks some himself and passes the rest round to be drunk by all present, The goat is roasted and eaten. Further sacrifices are offered, the hot blood is drunk, more rum is imbibed, and the dance is kept up all night in a clearing in the forest near by.

(Continued from p.340, Dec., 1931.)

Unitarians and others reject this essential article of belief. In this they are no whit in advance of the Jews who denied Jesus' claim of equality with the Father. They lack, however, the consistency of the Jews, who saw that if Jesus was not equal with God, then He was an impostor and an antichrist. Indeed, it was for this that they caused Him to be crucified. Modernists and all other present-day rejecters of the Deity of Christ, as in every sense equal with the Father (1:e., Personally considered), are illogical in their method of reasoning. Many of them allow that Jesus was a "good man," but in effect they make Him a liar. They virtually deny that He told the truth when He said, "I and My Father are One." A certain interpretation is given which satisfies them as to this; but it lacks that "sound speech which cannot be condemned." The Jews of His day delivered Jesus to Pilate, declaring to that ruler:"We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." They knew well what Jesus meant when He made this claim, and they would have been right in condemning Him as an impostor, of His claim had not been in the fullest sense true and valid.

He would be a bold and arrogant person who made claim that this sublime and glorious truth of the Trinity is one which can be fully grasped by the human mind. It would be like saying that the creature can comprehend the Infinite One! There must remain impenetrable mysteries concerning the Being of God, hidden forever from the gaze of the creature. God "dwells in the light unto which no one can approach, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting." The study of Psychology discloses the fact that man, as to his own being, is a mystery to himself. How much greater, then, must be the mystery of God.

While this is fully acknowledged, we are surely intended to avail ourselves of all that God has been pleased to reveal of Himself. When, therefore, the Lord spoke of His Father, as He did so constantly, we know that He was referring to a Person other than Himself, of whom He said:"I and My Father are one." In this wonderful declaration the Son distinguished between Himself and His Father. He did not confound Himself with the Father, so as to give the impression that He was the "Father." He declared that He was God, but He never declared that He was the Father, but, rather, the Son of the Father. Though distinguishing the Persons, He declared that there was a Unity between Himself and His Father which constituted them in the most essential sense one. The same is true in regard to the Holy Spirit in His relation to the Father and the Son. Scripture carefully distinguishes the Eternal Spirit, both as to His Personality and His office, from the Father and the Son. The Lord said to His disciples:"Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will" send Him unto you" (John 16:7). Here we have a divine Person (the Son) declaring that He was leaving the earth, in order that another divine Person (the Holy Spirit) might come in His place. It is not that He was not here already, as dwelling in the Son, but He could not come to the disciples as the Comforter, to indwell them, unless the Son returned to the Father.

When the Lord was replying to the Pharisees, who charged Him with bearing witness of Himself, and that therefore His witness was invalid, Jesus replied:"Though I bear record of Myself, yet My record is true; for 7 know whence I am, but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. … It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am One that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me" (John 8:13-19). This scripture is very important on this point. The Lord had declared Himself as "the light of the world," adding, "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." The Jews saw in this a claim of Deity, and charged Him with bearing witness of Himself. Note that the witness is to that of which none can testify except God, inasmuch as none but God can know Him in the absolute sense. If therefore the Son can bear witness, it is because He 'is God, 1:e., is one with the Father. Further, it is to be noted that unless there is the "testimony of two men," 1:e., the "two or three witnesses" demanded by the law, there could not be adequate witness at all to God. In other words, all deniers of the Deity of the Son (and likewise all who reject the Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit), make themselves responsible to show how God can make Himself known to man. For it is evident that if the law requires the "testimony of two or three witnesses," since this is a matter concerning which none less than God can testify, He is left without means to communicate the knowledge of Himself to man, unless it be true that the Son and the Spirit join with the Father in that revelation. Creation bears witness to God as Creator; all His works bear testimony to the power and wisdom of Him who made them; but if it be a question, as here it is, of the character and nature of God, He cannot be known personally, except by a personal manifestation, involving god as a Trinity.

"What else, then, can be the meaning of the Incarnation, but that God was seeking to reveal Himself to man? In the divine eternal counsels the Son was sent from the Father, as it is written:"And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory- glory as of an only-begotten with the Father-full of grace and truth. … No one has seen God at any time:the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." In connection with this, we have the confirmation given by the Father to the Son which was shown in various ways during the Son's visit to earth, and at Jordan and in the holy mount. We have also the Witness of the Holy Spirit joining with the Father and the Son in the Scriptures. To reject this threefold divine Witness is to leave the one so doing without hope of blessing, since it leaves Gad without further means of revealing Himself. Man cannot be saved, or be in a right and happy relationship with God, except through God personally making Himself known to him. We read that, "This is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."

From this we learn that there is not in man the will or desire to know God. Nevertheless, in infinite love, He who made man in His own image would have him brought back to Himself, and the means He has taken in redemption is the only way by which that can be wrought. Hence we hear the Lord Jesus declare Himself as the "Way, the Truth, and the Life," adding, "No one comes unto the Father, except by Me."

There have been many illustrations given of the trinity, as for example, the one body of light in the sun, made up of the three rays. There is the old illustration, said to have been used by St. Patrick, in the three-in-one leaf of the shamrock. Perhaps there is also, as often pointed out, the illustration of this sublime truth found in the constitution of man himself, as "spirit, and soul, and body."

The question has often been asked, "How can there be three Persons in the Godhead, and yet but one God?" We read in 1 Tim. 3:16:"Great is the mystery of godliness:god was manifested in flesh." It is the eternal Son in manhood who is before us here. And yet it is said that in Him, Jesus of Nazareth, god was visible. It is not only that the Son was here, as the second Person in the Godhead-that, of course, is true in a real and special manner-but God in all His fulness was here, manifested. The fulness of the Godhead was manifested in one Man, even as we read, "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." And again we read, "For in Him all fulness was pleased to dwell" (Col. 1:19; 2:9). Here then we seen the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit manifested as One, in the one Man, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus spoke of the "Father that dwelleth in Me." The Holy Spirit too was there in Him in all His fulness, for He was given to Him "without measure." Thus god was seen as one in the Man who alone could "declare Him."

While the mystery of the Godhead lies forever beyond the gaze of the creature, how blessed to know that as to His heart of eternal love-yes, and also as to all that lies in His eternal counsels of grace-He has fully made Himself known. The Son brought to us all that is in the Father's heart; for He came Himself as the "exact expression" of His Father. The Spirit too is here to reveal to our wondering eyes the very "depths of God" as to those counsels of redeeming love, and we are told by the Son Himself that the "Father seeketh worshipers to worship Him." It is only in a personal knowledge of God that we can become worshipers, and none can reveal the Father to us but the Son.

That the great Comforter may be pleased to make these feeble lines a means of blessing to the reader, is the prayer of the writer. Wm. Huss

"HITHERTO" is a retrospective word.

As Christians we look back and say in the words of Samuel, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (1 Sam. 7:12). We have proved His faithfulness thus far. Trials and troubles have beset our goings. Waves of difficulty have hurled themselves against our frail bark. Tempest-tossed and storm-driven we have been inclined at times to cry, "We perish! We perish!" But we have reached the present, and "there has not failed one word of all His good promise."

"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." He who said, "Certainly I will be with thee," has made His presence known. In the love of His heart and in the skilfulness of His hand He has guided us, and He has shown Himself "wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." Amid all our weakness He has been strong. Amid all our unfaithfulness He has been faithful. Amid every fierce attack of the foe He has been our_ strong fortress.

Now, from our "Hitherto," we look back and see something of the way which the Lord our God hath led us in the wilderness. Rightly we may be a wonder unto many who know something of us. And we may well be a greater wonder to ourselves, who know something more of the treachery of the flesh within, of the plague of our own hearts:were it not for "the Saviour's present grace," for His advocacy and priesthood, His ceaseless intercession and unfailing ministry on our behalf, we should have swerved from the path and been overcome by the power of the foe. So, gladly we say, "Hitherto!" So, gladly we sing, "Hallelujah!"

'"HENCEFORTH!" With this word on our lips we have the future before us. The prospective view is wrapped up in the exclamation. The journey is not completed. The race is not yet run to its finish. The goal is not yet gained.

Looking forward, we delight to know that all the future is in the hands of our gracious Lord. It is "the God of all grace," who has proved Himself to be such throughout our way, who has called us to His eternal glory, by Christ Jesus. And that is our ultimate.

A young man about to give up his earthly calling for conscience sake, visited an aged, weather-beaten servant of God to consult with him. As the younger man unfolded something of his fears for the future, he was interrupted by the veteran believer with the words, "There's no future but glory for the Christian." That is our certain future. The inheritance is reserved for us in heaven. We are preserved for the inheritance while on earth.

As we say "Hitherto" we exclaim:

"Thus far by grace preserved, Each moment speeds us on."

And as we utter "Henceforth," we add:

"The crown and kingdom are reserved, Where Christ is gone."

"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8).

We see "that day" approaching. May it be ours to be "like unto men that wait for their lord." Inglis Fleming
"ASK, AND YE SHALL RECEIVE"

"Yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God"-Rom. 6:13.

Is your heart aglow with worship
When you think upon His name?
When His glories are unfolded
Does your love with ardor flame?
Is your tongue His worth proclaiming

To your fellows all around?
Are your lips His praises singing-
Do you in His love abound?

Are your eyes beholding in Him
Glories none beside possess?
And in sweet communion with Him
Learning your own worthlessness?
Are your ears in tune to listen
To the music of His voice?
Does the word of His instruction
Make your being all rejoice?

Do your hands perform His bidding-
Working for Him day by day?-
Thus by constant dint of labor
Proving you would Him obey?
Do your feet pursue the pathway
He has marked for pilgrim feet?
Is His presence on the journey
To your soul surpassing sweet?

Does your taste for God's own Manna
Keener grow with passing years?
Does the juice of Eshcol's cluster
Sweeten as your Canaan nears?
Oh, to yield our members gladly
To His blessed will alone,
And to show by willing service
We are His, and not our own.

If the heart be won, captivated, and constrained by the love of Christ, He will motivate the life; the eyes will see enhancing beauties and glories in Him as He is traced through the green pastures of Inspiration.

The ear will be charmed at the sound of His name, and be listening for the rapturing shout of the returning Lord.

The tongue will be caroling His praise, and proclaiming His saving grace to the perishing.

The soul will be crying out in its ecstasy of joy, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him!"

To the finer sensibilities of the inner man, "His name will be as ointment poured forth." He is Heaven's Alabaster Box of ointment – broken at Calvary that the uniquely sweet odor of His love might flow to the end of time, and perfume the eternal ages that follow.

The feet will be patiently pursuing the unerring footprints of the heaven-gained Forerunner through the rough valley of time.

And the hands will be faithfully toiling for Him in time's needy field-knowing that "our labor is not in vain in the Lord."

Thus – if the love of Christ captures the heart, the citadel – the whole diversified "troop" of our being is brought under His sway for His glory.

"My son, give Me thine heart" (Prov. 23:26) is the father's trenchant admonition to every ransomed soul.

Christian, are we responding to the request of His heart?

C. C. CROWSTON.

When the Scripture states, "There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek," it is evident that it refers to their standing before God. In his own eyes the Jew is much better, 1:e., superior to the Gentile, and the Gentile, likewise, supposes he is far in advance of the Jew. These comparisons, before God, who looks upon the heart, are worth nothing. Neither the Jew nor the Greek have any standing whatever in His presence. The declaration of the Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul is that "there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:22, 23; 10:11-13).

We learn then, from the Word of God itself, that in the sight of God the Jew is not a whit superior to anyone else. Tested by divine standards he has failed, just as has the Gentile. The latter never had any standing before God, whereas the Jew did have a national status based on his blood-relationship to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-not to Abraham alone, for this would have included Ishmael; nor to Abraham and Isaac only, for this would have allowed Edom to come in also. But God had said to Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth," and He added, "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2).

But the standing Israel had as coming through these patriarchs was forfeited by them, for they depended upon their own faithfulness to the covenant given from Sinai. When they accepted the terms Moses brought to them three months after they had left Egypt, they virtually took the same position as that occupied by the nations. Leaving the "principle of faith" by which the "fathers" lived before God, they adopted the "principles of the world" as a means by which to walk.' But this was to renounce dependence upon God Himself, and to take up "with the "weak and beggarly elements" of "law-keeping." It may be asked, "Did not God Himself propose the covenant of works to Israel?" He did. And full well He knew the desire of their hearts to relinquish faith as the only means of relationship with Himself, that they might claim blessing from God on the ground of self-merit. In fact it is recorded by the Lawgiver himself, "They are a perverse generation; children in whom is no faith" (Deut. 32:20).

God took up the Jew in order to show that the culture of a "degenerate vine" cannot produce "good fruit." When God said to that people, "I had planted thee a noble vine; wholly a right seed," He was referring to what the patriarchs were, men of faith in Him. The nation that sprang from them ought to have produced something for God if natural heredity is of any spiritual value. The whole history of that people shows that it is worthless from the divine standpoint. After this trial, if any boast, it is but vain-glory (Isa. 5:1-7; Jer. 2:1-22). There is a tendency with some today to speak as if the Israelite had a certain superiority over the Gentile, but we have seen that before God he has none. It goes without saying that the nations had nothing to boast in at any time. They were idolaters from the beginning of their existence as nations. What good could be expected from people who left God entirely, for false gods? That is what the whole earth did at the time of Babel. (We except certain individuals preserved by faith in the primitive revelations, as Job, Melchisedek, etc.). It was then that God revealed Himself as the "God of glory" to Abraham, separating him from idolatry, establishing in him a pure worship, giving to him promises to be made good entirely by reason of His good pleasure. These promises, in no wise conditioned on anything in Abraham, either past, present, or future, will all surely be fulfilled in their own time.

To attempt to make anything more of the Jew than of others from a spiritual standpoint-and there is nothing else worth noticing-is virtually to deny that God has passed judgment upon them along with the rest of mankind. It was to one of the highest representatives of Israel that the Lord declared:"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." All that the Lord said to Nicodemus, as to the worthlessness of the flesh, would be admitted by the Jew if said concerning Gentiles only. The Jew is shrewd enough to see that the nations, having cast off God, can have nothing before Him to their credit. But it is harder for him to realize that he is no better. Yet the Lord taught Nicodemus that what is "born of the flesh is flesh." We know that the underlying boast in the heart of the Israelite in regard to his ancestry, is that he is of the "seed of Abraham." But with all the national distinctions belonging to the race, the same evils came out in the Jew as were found in other men. The degenerating tendency to idolatry followed them all through their history, from Egypt till they returned from the Captivity in Babylon. At that time, as the Lord declared, the "unclean spirit" left them for a season, to return later with "seven other spirits more wicked than himself" (Matt. 12:43-45). When this takes place that same people will furnish the dwelling-place for this awful combine of wicked spirits, when the final apostasy from God is fulfilled. But that will be the end of apostate Israel. They will be succeeded by a "nation bringing forth the fruits" of the Spirit, in all of whom God's law will be written in the heart (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:16-38). When a Jew is converted, to Christ, while he may retain certain marks peculiar to the race, these are not the things which the Spirit of God' works in him, being but remnants of what .belong to the "flesh," which (the Lord says) "profiteth nothing." To make anything of these, is to give recognition to that which stands condemned before God. The main point in all this, is that God has set man, as coming from Adam, wholly aside, to make way for the "new man in Christ." Therefore we read, "If any man be in Christ, it is new creation. Old things passed away; behold, all things have become new, and all things are of God" (2 Cor. 5:17, J. N. D., New Trans.). The superiority of the Jew was one of the "old things," but it is a distinction which, before God, has passed away. In the new creation such distinctions have no place. Any tendency therefore to renew them is to lose sight of the truth of the new creation.

God loves the Jew as He loves all men. It would have well suited Nicodemus if Jesus had said that "God so loved Israel, that He gave him the place of His firstborn son." But the truth is that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." This wonderful declaration was made to a representative Israelite, and was to him a divine revelation concerning God. A Jew might easily suppose that God would love him, because of his being of the favored people; but that He should love the world, was an entirely new revelation. It gave that Jewish leader a wholly new conception of God and of His love.

But God does not love the Jew more than others. When it says they are "beloved for the fathers' sakes," we are to understand that God has not abandoned them as objects of mercy. Because of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God will not cease to work in grace among them to save those who believe, nor fail to fulfil His promises toward them. But He will not allow man to interfere with His sovereign right to go beyond the limits of Israel, to call whom He pleases to partake of His mercy.

It is said of God that He would "have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." If the Jew supposes that God has no desire beyond the limits of his own people to bring men to know Him, he is mistaken. The fact is that God desires to save both Jew and Gentile. The time is drawing near when God, to fulfil His Word to the fathers, will again work in the heart of the nation, and gather them together for blessing under the reign of their Messiah. But that very time will witness the incurableness of the heart of unregenerate man, because multitudes of that very people will follow the lead of Antichrist, fulfilling the words of the Lord Jesus, who declared to them, "I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not. If another come in his own name, him ye will receive." Will there be anything in this in which the Jew can boast? (John 5:43).

We must beware of setting aside the truth in order to follow what is pleasing to the flesh. There seems a certain glory to make more of the Jew than of other men; but if it be to make anything of the Jew as such, it is giving place to the flesh, and robbing Christ of what belongs to Him alone! Instead of making anything of a people who have in every respect hated and denied and slain the One they ought to have loved, there should be the sole desire to honor Him whom God delights to honor. In saying this, we do not attempt to degrade the Jew, or to place him in any sense inferior to the Gentiles. The latter could not have sunk lower than when they set God, aside voluntarily for idolatry. But the Jew sank to the same level, as we have seen.

Doubtless God will raise up Israel to the pinnacle of glory in the coming day of His power (Isa. 52:1-10); but it will be those of the nation who are first brought to the dust before Him, who receive His sovereign mercy. Neither the Jew nor the Gentile, either now or at any time, have any ground for boasting, except as Paul, when he said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but new creation. And as many as walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:14-16).

There is abundant evidence, both from their own Old Testament Scriptures, as well as from the New, that God has purposes of blessing yet future for that people who have come from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which will then place them in a position superior to the Gentiles. And at that time, during the whole of the Messianic age, when our Lord Jesus Christ will reign visibly over the earth, the same Scriptures show plainly that the Gentiles themselves will openly acknowledge the superiority of the Jew over them. But this is due to their peculiar relationship to the King of kings, who acknowledges them as His "brethren." That age, which we speak of as the Millennium, will witness the exaltation of those who, having come through unequaled tribulation, will have learned repentance, and shall "look upon Him whom they have pierced," and mourn for Him with genuine sorrow which is the fruit of the Spirit of grace which shall be poured upon them at that time (Zech. 12:10-14; 13:1).

To ignore or to deny these things would be as wrong as to suppose that the Jew at the present time has any superiority over others, as far as God's estimate of man is concerned. To exalt any race or nation of men over others in the present period during which "grace reigns unto eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord," would be a slur upon that grace, as it would also be a denial of the truth as expressed in God's Word.

It is largely the result of failing to see where sin has brought man-whether Jew or Gentile-into the place of irreparable ruin, out of which nothing can deliver him but the sovereign grace of God in an entirely new creation in Christ Jesus, that causes some to suppose that God looks with more favor upon one class than upon others. But the Word is most decided and clear upon all this; even as it declares that throughout this whole period of the display of the riches of His grace, "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).

And the same Word is just as clear that in the "age to come" when the Messiah's glory shall be revealed, Israel shall have a place of special honor and power throughout the earth, being restored to their land under the righteous rule of their once-rejected King. And Scripture also makes it most clear that God will do this, not for Israel's sake at all, but for His own Name's sake, to exalt His Name throughout the earth, in the eyes of the heathen (1:e., the Gentiles), among whom that Name had been dishonored and defiled by the former wickedness of the people of Israel (Ezek. 36:16-38). Let us learn from His Word both the place in which man is seen during this present time, whether Jew or Gentile, as ruined through sin, and the object of sovereign mercy by God; and also the special place to be given to Israel as the dispenser of blessing to man in the age to come. But this latter could not be, unless that people first be brought themselves to God, and as thus regenerated, go forth as the vessels of God's purposes of blessing to the whole earth.

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36). Wm. Huss

"O groundless deeps! O love beyond degree!
The offended dies to set the offender free."

At the time of the late war, a young man, a husband and a father, was called to serve in the English army, upon which a fellow-countryman of his, who was unmarried, presented himself saying, that he having no wife or children dependent on him, his life was of less importance than that of the other, and that he was willing to serve in his stead. Such an offer, under the circumstances, was not likely to be rejected; he accordingly took the place of substitute for his friend, went forth into the field, and fell in battle.

After this there was another conscription, and the survivor, through an oversight on the part of the Government, was again required to serve. Now, however, he had a plea in his favor, which at first he had not. How, do you suppose, he answered the summons? He answered it thus-"I am dead-I have lost my life in serving my country, and she has no further claim upon me:" and so it actually was. lie had died in the person of his substitute, and hence, a living man as he was, he could reckon himself to be dead, and therefore exempted from exposing his life in the field.

So it is with us whose hope is in Christ. We reckon ourselves to be dead. And why? Because He, the Son of God, has died in our stead, because the penalty due to us has been borne by our Surety (see Rom. 6:11). On the cross He was made sin, forsaken of God:all, all to satisfy the justice of Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, who required that sin should meet its due punishment. This, and this alone, is our plea. By faith we identify ourselves with Him who first identified Himself with us, so that we realize ourselves to be dead- dead to sin, in two ways, dead to it both judicially and morally, simply because, in the person of our Substitute, we have suffered, and can therefore say with the apostle, "I am crucified with Christ:nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

And now how is this? Has every one a right to speak thus of himself? No, in no way, we answer. No one can do so but the true believer, he who with the HEART BELIEVES UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS. He who by the Spirit is united to Christ, who lives because He lives, who is alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord; he alone can speak of himself as dead, as having the old man crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth he should not serve sin (see Rom. 6:6).

Such is the position of the believer, though often, unhappily, through weakness of faith, he cannot speak with the full confidence that he is entitled to do. But let him only look away from himself, and cast his eye upon Christ, and it will be otherwise with him. Let him, as in the case of the young man who gave that remarkable answer when called to risk his life in the field, simply realize the fact that Another has died in his stead, and that consequently he is dead, and he will be perfectly fearless; no judgment, no wrath, he will feel, can reach him. Identified, as he is in resurrection, with Him in whom the Father is well pleased, the sufferings of that infinitely worthy One are imputed to him, as well as His worthiness. This is the ground of his confidence, hence he knows himself to be, not only delivered from death, but also entitled to perfect, infinite happiness in "that day" when Christ shall reap the reward of His work; of that devotedness which brought Him down from His true home above into the midst of the darkness and desolation of this sorrowful world; which caused Him, in the likeness of sinful flesh, to give His life a ransom for the lost and unworthy (Rom. 8:1-4).

What does it mean to follow Christ
In self-effacement, all the way?
E'en He who pleased not Himself,
But lived for others, day by day-
From Bethlehem's manger lived for us,
E'en to His last breath on the cross.

He lived to serve, not to be served,
Spared not Himself, but spent His all,
And lavished kindness everywhere.
On those He came in love to call,
For "God so loved the world, He gave
His only Son," lost souls to save.

"Come, follow Me." Where does He lead?
Not where the world in thoughtlessness
Its pleasures seeks, forgetting God,
And Him who only came to bless;
The "Man of sorrows" here below
For sinners to the cross must go.

So to that cross we follow Him,
To find our sins all put away
By Him who gave Himself for us,
That we might live eternally;
'Twas to the cross He ever led,
Where He a willing Victim bled.

And there's no other way to life
Than through Thy death, O Son of God!
For Thou, the sinless, wast made sin,
And bore for me Jehovah's rod:
Thus in my stead, Lord, Thou wast tried,
And in my Substitute I died.

Life is not made of things so great
That we may hold them up to view,
But little things that none may see,
That we, forgetting self, may do.
If thou wouldst not the glory dim,
Cross out thyself and follow Him.

Helen McDowell

Calendar:May 16th to June 15th

DAILY BIBLE READING ………. May 16th, Isa. 2; May 31st, Isa. 17; June 15th, Isa. 32.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING … May 16th, Luke 18; May 31st, John 9; June 15th, Acts 3.

"Christian Devotedness" was the title of a pamphlet published by Anthony Norris Groves in 1826. Its theme is:"Unreserved dedication to God, and the surrender of all we possess, and of all we can by diligence in our several vocations procure, for the extension of Christ's Kingdom upon Earth."

The following extracts are well worthy of serious consideration:

"Why has this spirit for so many centuries been slumbering? Because men have been seeking every one his own things, not the things of Christ. It is not meant that every man is to become a missionary in the usual sense of the term. But while one has that ministration of the Spirit which leads him to go and preach the gospel in person, another shows that he is guided by the same Spirit in carefully supplying the wants of him who thus goes, 'taking nothing of the Gentiles,' from the abundance yielded by devoted diligence in his honest vocation and by rigid habits of self-denial. If we call on those among the heathen, who know little, to give up all for Christ, let us, who thus call and profess to know so much, do likewise, that they may catch a kindred spirit from a living exhibition. The Christian motto should be-'Labor hard, consume little, and give much.' There is no means, humbly laid at the foot of the Cross, which He, who hung there, does not bless and send forth, with His blessing resting on it, to accomplish purposes of mercy. In this world's history great things are not accomplished save by great sacrifices. The Christian merchant lives and labors as a servant purchased by his Lord, and considers his gains as designed for his Master's service, not his private emolument. If he so acts, whatever his station may be, he has given up all for Christ. He remains where he is, not for his own private advantage, but that, as a faithful steward, he may pour forth the rich abundance which God grants to his labors, to nourish and build up the Church and to enlarge the confines of his Master's Kingdom.

"Every Christian is a steward; and his stewardship includes everything belonging to his Lord. 'It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful' (1 Cor. 4:2). We are to use everything that we have always and only for the highest glory of God, and for the best good of every one of our fellow-men, and this obligation extends even to our eating and our drinking, as well as to every other act besides. Such a style of living will leave us no surplus whatever to expend on self-indulgence or self-pleasing. The smaller the sphere of service, the more beautifully shines the faithfulness which devotes itself heartily to it. Two mites, which make but one farthing, may seem a small gift in the eyes of the holder of them, but because her faithfulness was so great, while yet her gift was small, see how gloriously it was commended!" -Extracts from Echoes of Service.

"The Lord God is a sun and shield:the Lord will give grace and glory:no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee"-Ps. 84:11,12.

As I pondered over these wonderful verses, I questioned myself:What do they mean to me? And I tried to analyze them.

"The Lord God is a Sun and Shield." The sun not only makes the flowers grow, it also nourishes and strengthens them. But it can have no such effect on flowers that are dead. If I am redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus, and know that He suffered on Calvary's cross for me, I have life in Christ Jesus. It is His free gift (John 10:28). And having life I can say of this Sun:"The Lord is the strength of my life." But He is not only this:He is the Nourisher of my life; the Sustainer of my life; the Light of my life, and He is my daily food. But if I have never been born again, I will be like the flowers that are dead, upon which the sun has no life-giving effect. It only withers them the more.

Then, after this great gift, God has others for us as we go along our way. We need grace, and "He will give grace and glory"-grace to bear all things, grace to endure all things, grace to be patient to all, grace to say, "Thy will be done," grace to be loving to those that are unlovable, grace to be bright and cheerful when the heart is sad, and grace sufficient to meet all my need. "Grace begun will end in glory." This was God's eternal purpose for us:"Whom He justified He also glorified" (Rom. 8:30). So our Lord said, "The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them, that they may be one, as We are One" (John 17:22). That gift of glory is ours now, though its fulness is in the future.

And that is not all-"No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." If He denies us anything, we may be sure it would not be good for us to have it; but He desires us to make known our requests to Him, for "the prayer of the upright is His delight" (Prov. 15:8).

What more do we want? "He is a Sun and Shield." A Sun to strengthen, a Shield to protect me from danger and fear. "He will give grace and glory," both for present need and the future with Himself, and, "No good thing will He withhold." So we can well exclaim with the psalmist:"O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee." L. A. Byford

"It came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul or Jonathan:but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found" (1 Sam. 13:22).

What a tragic state of affairs! Apart from the king and his son we have a sword less army in the hour of battle, and this army composed of God's people! We voice our surprise in the question, "Why?"

One reason is given us (5:19). On account of the national and spiritual paralysis prevailing in Israel, the Philistines are in control. They have a boycott on Israel's weapons, and the people which were to dwell alone are dependent on their enemies for even the necessary instruments of agriculture (ver. 20). What a national disgrace, and what a solemn demonstration of God's displeasure in them and their leader, Saul!

Is not this, however, the case with multitudes of professing Christians today? They seem to be sword less. The Philistine world has snatched their only offensive weapon (see Eph. 6:17) from them, and they are either servants of men or of men's theories. The world, the flesh and the devil assail, and the believer, instead of using the "It-is-written" blade of the Holy Spirit, cowers and goes down in defeat. Like a sword less soldier in the thick of the battle he becomes an easy prey to the adversary. This is always the case when the Word of Christ is not dwelling in us richly. The enemy can out-argue us; he cannot resist the inherent power of the keen-edged Word of God. Therefore it behooves us to emulate the example and courage of Eleazar, who had such a grip of his weapon that he discovered at the battle that the weapon gripped him, for "his hand clave unto the sword, and the Lord wrought a great victory" (2 Sam. 23:9, 10).

But now look at Saul, the leader of Israel. He is one of the two who does possess a sword. But what is he doing? He sits under a shady pomegranate tree surrounded by a body-guard of six hundred men, with a good blade on his knee but lacking the courage to use it. Why? He is out of touch with God!

There are plenty of Christians pictured in this gloomy king. They sit under some ecclesiastical pomegranate tree, nursing the Book and congratulating themselves on their knowledge of it, but doing nothing. Why does God often set us aside and use some other group of believers possessing perhaps less light? Is it altogether because He is sovereign? Or may it not be because of our carnal orthodoxy? The Spirit of God is the Spirit of power, but it is well to remember He is the Holy Spirit and cannot tolerate sin or use the believer who is going on in ways displeasing to Him. The surgeon would not think of using a soiled instrument for the delicate operation, nor can our God pick up an unclean vessel in which to display Himself. "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me," is our Lord's word.

Saul's responsibility was much greater than that of his sword less followers. And shall we not be held responsible for the use we might make of God's blessed Word or God's blessed Son?

In the Cross the character of God has been fully and finally displayed. The heart of the blessed triune God has been unveiled. And now the knowledge of His glory radiates from the face of the risen Son to find its reflection in our own hearts.

Does His glory, meekness, grace and power in my life rebuke the Philistine pride, pleasure and pomp all around me? Or am I useless to God, like Saul, on account of unjudged sin?

But how refreshing to turn to Jonathan and his armor-bearer ! Here is a young man who has a sword and God. His life and his blade are wholly surrendered to Jehovah. He sees not the hosts because his eye is on the Lord of Hosts, and because he fears God he fears not man.

The thrilling account of Jonathan's faith, courage, warfare and victory is indelibly recorded (1 Sam. 14:1-23).He was indeed a vessel unto honor, meet for the Master's use, for he gave all diligence, and added to his faith courage, reminding his helper that, "There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few" (ver. 6). With what contempt the enemy regarded these two warriors who dared to approach! How disdainful must have been their tone as they cried out, "Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves!" and again, "Come up to us, and we will show you a thing!" Little did they realize that the God of the Hebrews was behind these men. ' "And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and feet" (ver. 13).Before he got up he got down. This is always the way to victory. Service that does not flow out of all humility of mind is not acceptable to the Master. Like those seven hundred left-handed men of Benjamin who "could sling stones at an hair-breadth and not miss," we should find in our weakness His strength.

Are we surprised that the Philistines "fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer slew after him," and "so the Lord saved Israel that day?"

And can He not take that little life of thine, O fellow-Christian, and use it as a mighty weapon in His hand? He can! He would! He will! Hearken:"Yield yourself unto God"-"till He come." C. Ernest Tatham

*The above article, as well as the following:"I acknowledged, Thou forgavest," Your Own Salvation, In Secret, The Gum Trees and the Storm, and The Briar and the Rose Garden, which have appeared or will appear in this magazine, are to be had separately in booklet form, with attractive covers, at 5 cent each.*

The life that overcomes was God's gift to us when we believed on our Lord Jesus Christ, for "the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23), and its greatest triumph, when at last we leave the field of conflict and depart this life to be with our Lord, is also God's gift to us, for we read, "Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. 15:57. And, thanks be unto God, His Word cannot fail us, we have taken our stand in fearless faith upon it, and this we will continue to do. His gift of life He will never recall, and in the life that He has given His saints must always triumph through Him that loves us. The final victory is over death, the last enemy. The King of Terrors we used to call it, but no longer does that name apply to it for the children of God – for death has met its Master, it is a defeated, throneless, crownless king; wrenched from its hands are the keys of its stronghold; annulled is its greatest power, and delivered are those who through fear of it were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For if by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection from the dead, and it is because Christ died and rose again that we have the victory. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures," and we can say, "Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

An old Christian, and a valued friend of mine in Adelaide, Australia, was stricken with paralysis, and it was clear that his service for Christ was done and his life on earth was drawing to its close. The last hour had come, and his family, Christians every member of it, were gathered in his chamber. The paralysis had robbed the dying man of the power of speech but not of his joy in the Lord; his family could see that, and had no misgivings for him. Yet they longed for some final word, some cheer and comfort that would abide with them when he was gone, and it was quite natural and right that they should. In the hope that at the very last his speech might be restored to him, they asked if he had anything to say to them. But he could say nothing with his mouth; articulate he could not, yet they were not to be disappointed, for his last word was to be given to them in a more deliberate and thrilling way than by mere speech. He had learned to spell out the deaf and dumb alphabet upon his fingers in order to preach the Gospel to some deaf-mutes who lived near his home, and now this knowledge came into blessed use, for upon his fingers he spelt out one word-just one word, slowly and with emphasis-and his family, as they eagerly watched the dying fingers, read all they desired, for the word spelt upon them was G-L-0-R-Y. No wonder they were able to say, "Thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

I was spending some days in the city of Aberdeen, and having an afternoon at liberty, I went to the Infirmary to visit one of the men's wards. Every bed in it was occupied, and I spent a few minutes chatting with each patient until I came to the last bed in the ward. Here was lying a youth who could not have been more than eighteen years of age. His eyes were closed and he looked very wan and 99:I sat quietly by his side until he opened his eyes and turned them on me with a look of surprise that plainly said, "Who are you?" I said, "I. have been giving some Gospel books to the men in this ward, but I am afraid you are too ill to read." "Yes," he answered slowly, "and the doctor says there's no hope for me, but I'm in the Lord's hands."

I had not expected an answer like that from him; his words moved me, and brought the lump into my throat. When I was able to command my voice, I said:"Then you are in the very best possible hands, for He has said, 'My sheep shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.' "

"Yes, He did say that," he responded, "and He also said, 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.' " Then he closed his eyes again, and as though oblivious of my presence he repeated to himself, "everlasting life, everlasting life." I withdrew from his bedside, and the last words that I heard from his lips were, "everlasting life." No disappointment, defeat, dread, were at that lad's dying bed, but everlasting life-VICTORY. Yes, thanks be unto God who gives us the VICTORY.

Whether in the far north or under the Southern Cross; whether with the youth in his teens, a babe in Christ, or in the septuagenarian who had known the Lord for half a century, the life is the same, and its victory is the same through our Lord Jesus Christ. Where, then, O death, is thy sting, and where, O grave, is thy victory?

It is thus that His saints triumph one by one, and march in a continuous procession to be with Christ, which is far better; but we who are alive and remain are waiting not for death but for Himself, and the sky not the grave is our goal. We have a blessed hope, it is the coming of Christ:for "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, DEATH is SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY." That is our hope, and therein will be displayed the victory of God in which all His saints shall share, and the final triumph and blessedness of the life that overcomes.

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, un-moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58). J. T. Mawson

(Heb. 13:14)

With no place to lay Thy head,
Just a manger for Thy bed:
So "without the gate" with Thee,
Where Thou'st suffered, we would be.

By Thy death, O Son of God,
By Jehovah's chastening rod,
By Thy blood once shed for us,
We are sheltered by Thy cross.

"No continuing city here,"
For Thine own Thou countest dear;
No abiding place we'd know
Where Thou wast despised so.

Yea, "without the camp's" our place,
Where Thou'st led us in Thy grace,
There we would abide with Thee,
Serving, till Thy face we see.

Then, Lord, like Thee, with Thee, yea,
On, e'en through eternal day;
All our hopes at last fulfilled,
Every hungry longing stilled.

Oh, to see Thee on Thy throne!
Hushed forever every moan,
All creation then shall own
Thou art Lord, and Thou alone!

H. McD

Remarks on Jephthah. Abridged from "Lectures on the Book of Judges," by Samuel Ridout.

Jephthah had made a vow that if the Lord should give the children of Ammon into his hand, whatever came out of his house, he would offer it up for a burnt offering to the Lord.

I have never been quite able, though I would be glad to do so, to think that the stern, self-righteous, self-opinionated man-and there is no tyranny like the tyranny of a self-righteous conscience, there is no suffering like the suffering inflicted upon oneself under the goadings of a legal conscience-that a man of Jephthah's makeup, who a little later on could take the fords of Jordan, and with a good conscience cut the throats of forty-two thousand of his fellow-Israelites, was a man too tenderhearted to do, just what he said he would do, to his daughter, offer her up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

What is frequently taken as the explanation of this, is that he dedicated his daughter to perpetual virginity. But it seems to me that Jephthah's whole character was such that he was perfectly capable of carrying out such a vow. He knew about Abraham. How a distorted conscience might very easily make a wrong use of God's commandment to Abraham, might forget that God arrested Abraham's hand, so that he did not do what He told him to do. A morbid, self-righteous conscience, and one who had all the time felt the galling character of his brethren's scorn of him; one who was self-occupied and self-centered to a good degree personally, was not above having a wrong conception of such a thing as this.

The man, apparently, reduced everything to a dead level. He had his sword drawn, and as he had slain the Ammonites, he would slay his daughter, if he promised God to do it. As he had slain his daughter, he would take the fords of Jordan and slay the Ephraimites.

Need I interpret that for us? Need I speak of that spirit which, alas, we have seen so much of, which makes no discrimination; which, as the epistle of Jude says, does not make a difference of some, saving them with fear? Have we not seen something of treating foe and friend alike? Have we not seen too much of that, of treating the people of God just exactly as we would treat the enemies of God?

A hard and fast use of Scripture makes no discrimination at all. Here is one who loves Christ, whose heart is filled with love to Him, one who desires to please Him. Am I to treat such an one in the same way that I would a teacher of blasphemy, one who brings in all kinds of false doctrine as to the Person of the Lord? Are Ammonite and Ephraimite to be the same? And is the same judgment to be meted out to both? Surely not, brethren.

I can deal with Ephraim, as I surely should, but it is quite another thing for me to take the fords of Jordan, and compel everyone that goes through those fords to say just thus and so. To compel him to say Shibboleth, and if he cannot quite say it, to cut him off. "Shibboleth" is the flood, that which divides. It refers to that stream which divided Gilead from Ephraim. So if those of Ephraim cannot quite pronounce as to what divides, to treat them simply to the sword, that surely is faithfulness gone mad; it ceases to be faithfulness, and comes to be destruction. And I think, dear brethren, that just as we had in Abimelech (Judges 9) the failure of man's rule when he is seeking his own aggrandizement, so in Jephthah we have the like failure of man's rule when the conscience is under the power of legalism. It is harshness and sternness without a bit of light to relieve it. It is simply the claim of an ascetic. Because it is unhappy itself, it will make everything and everybody around it unhappy; and this is all the sadder when it opens up the Scripture, with which it has dealt out judgment to heretics, and applies that Scripture relentlessly to those who may not see eye to eye with itself.

Here again you can find in the history of the Church much that would answer to Jephthah. I am sure, as we speak of Roman Catholic persecutions of the people of God and are horror-struck at them, we must not forget Protestant persecutions of the people of God. We must not forget the hard, harsh laws of those who fled to America for religious liberty, because they wanted freedom of conscience to worship God, and yet who made laws of such a character that some of the best people in the colonies, such as Roger Williams and others, were banished, under their edict, to the Indians.

If we are going to exercise rule for God. there has got to be something more than a half view of Scripture. Jephthah seemed to think that God wanted him to do what was unpleasant to do, simply because it was unpleasant. That is the reason why he would slay his daughter-or banish her from his home; the principle is the same, whichever interpretation we take-and, once get a taste of blood, and forty-two thousand of his brethren cannot quench the taste.

Is it not solemn, and is it not a fact, that in the history of the Church, those who have met and overthrown heresy, are those who have then crossed swords with their brethren, and fought to the very knife, over things that were not a vital question of truth?

You remember how Luther, who delivered God's people from the errors and heresies of Rome, turned round and contended with his brethren about the real Presence in the Lord's Supper, and would not under any consideration yield a single point. We can apply these things; yes, brethren, we can apply them today, and if we are going to do better than Jephthah, we must beware of just this morbid conscientiousness which is really that of an undelivered soul in the bonds of legalism, which presses upon the people of God that which is not His test, that which after all simply divides the people of God from one another, and does not divide them from their enemies.

I have not forgotten, in speaking of Jephthah's harshness, that there is need of faithfulness amongst the people of God. We find the remedy in Jephthah's successors. After his death Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. The meaning of "Ibzan" is probably "purity," from a root meaning "to be white." That is the remedy for harshness and relentlessness. The wisdom which cometh from above is first pure, and there can be no peace without purity. In contrast to Jephthah, Ibzan has thirty sons and thirty daughters. This seems to intimate the growth and multiplication of that which stands for God. Here is a judge who, instead of slaying his brethren and his one daughter, who, instead of putting an end to any hope of growth of the principles for which he stood, gathers in, and is able in that way to multiply his family. He is thus able to carry out in increased measure the principles for which he stands, and those are the principles of purity. There is nothing mentioned of his rule except this.

After him you have Elon the Zebulonite, who judged Israel for ten years. Zebulon is the tribe that speaks of abiding in communion with God. And Elon, the "strong," shows how after purity comes strength, and in that way prosperity. There must be strength in the government of the people of God. Indifference to the will of God cannot be thought of.

The last judge mentioned in this connection is Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, "service, the son of praise"-service that springs out of a heart filled with praise. He dwells in a place that speaks of redemption and deliverance. That is not a Jephthah. It is not one who has but one rule by which he measures people, and if they do not come up to it cuts them off. But if you have the spirit of service, of which we have already been speaking, and that which is the only spirit of rule and service, there will be love that flows out of a heart filled with praise. And where there is that, where God's people are overflowing with praise, dwelling in His house, and so still praising Him, there will be service to their brethren, and there will be the government of God's house, which will be maintained, not by violence, but in the power and strength of purity. Let us remember, then, these things as that which is the antidote to Jephthah's harshness. The antidote to sternness is not carelessness. Oh, that we might learn that in our souls, that the reaction from sternness has this threefold characteristic-purity, strength and service. Let us hold fast to the purity of God's truth; let us be firm where His truth is in question, and then in the service of praise, a heart filled with praise, we shall find that it is not necessary to be Jephthah’s in order to stand fast for God.

AFRICA

The following extract from a letter written by a missionary in the Belgian Congo will show how the state of unrest which characterizes the whole world has also penetrated to the so-called "heathen lands:"

The spirit of unrest which is characteristic of the world today has penetrated to the dark recesses of the forest. The neighboring tribe of Dengese has been in revolt for some time. The native warriors are proving a difficult problem for the Belgian military forces. Their
country is very extensive, and for the main part forest, so that warfare with them is no simple matter. Their weapons are chiefly bows and arrows, but as they hide behind the trees of the forests and shoot their arrows silently, they can do considerable damage, especially as these arrows are poisoned. They also plant sharp pointed sticks in the paths along which the white men and their retinues must pass. Those sticks are poisoned so that a scratch on the foot or leg with one of them generally proves fatal. If the head fetish men could be arrested there would be an end to all the trouble, for it is they who are inciting the people to oppose and withstand the Government. I came across one fetish man a little while ago whose father was one of the leaders. The administrator had arrested him, and was attempting; to obtain information from him as to the movements and whereabouts of his father. He was a man of about forty years of age, and his father was evidently one of the oldest fetish men of the tribe. He refused to give any information, and when I saw him was in a dying condition, having stabbed himself in order to escape further interrogation.

We hope some day, if the Lord tarry, to carry the Gospel into the Dengese country. It covers a large area bordering on five or six different territories. The nearest point of contact with Loto is about ten miles away. All the frontiers are well guarded by soldiers and every effort is being made to surround and centralize the rebels. We shall all be glad when they have been persuaded to submit to the powers that be. They prefer their freedom and cling to their old customs, but as those customs involve cannibal feasts and poison ordeals they could not be allowed to continue.

NYANGKUNDI-1925-1932

"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him"-Ps. 126:6.

With the sailing of our brother Searle and family from Africa on April 16, 1932, and the continued illness of our brother Bill Deans, the station at Nyangkundi has been left in charge of the native brethren. It is surely a cause for rejoicing and thanksgiving to our God that in the place where our brethren started their labors just under seven years ago there is now a flourishing native assembly, which is not only able to care for the station, but also continue a testimony in the preaching of the Gospel and having fellowship one with the other in the things of the Lord. As a matter of interest we give below brief extracts from letters written since the arrival on the station in 1925 to the present time, showing how the work of the Lord has prospered in that place.

December, 1925. Brother Searle writes:You will be interested to hear that building operations have already commenced. We are laying the foundations, and bricks are being made at the rate of 1200 to 1400 per day.

We are praying that the Lord will open up a girls' and women's work here. As yet there are none presenting themselves, and it may take a little time before they understand and start coming. If only a few would come others may be expected to follow. Village work will come as we know the language better, though some has already been done. We long with you for the salvation of these people, and earnestly desire the prayers of all.

April, 1927. We are putting in long hours, and have the satisfaction of seeing the work grow, and evidence of reality and interest and some response amongst the natives. We shall have put up three large permanent houses within two years of our arrival, and thank the Lord who has enabled us in spite of many obstacles.

(Shortly after this reports came to hand of the first converts openly confessing the Lord.)

April, 1928. We have been much rejoiced to have five natives ask for baptism. We are planning, D. V., for a baptismal service at the end of the week. The truth of this was taught them in classes for Christians during the past few months, and we believe that these have asked to be baptized as a result of exercise. We trust that this is the earnest of what the Lord may be doing among these people.

August, 1928. Last Lord's Day it was our pleasure to baptize eight natives in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This was a very happy occasion for us all, and we are thankful to the Lord for these who shall be the Lord's throughout the eternal day.

December, 1928. The Lord is working here, as also is Satan. There have been a number lately who have confessed Christ, several today in the meeting. "Blessed be the Lord who alone doeth wondrous things.

April, 1929. There have been increasing interest and attendance at our recent meetings, besides several have confessed the Lord. We are seeking to bring believers into the full knowledge of the Lord's mind regarding gathering and ministry, also the relationship of Christ and His Church.

May the Lord lead them on, and reveal His mind to them and to us.

July, 1929. The Lord's table we have had at Nyangkundi for some time with the natives, and it has been a happy occasion with a number gathering, including three native sisters.

March, 1931. Four young men and their wives, with one exception, have lately gone out into the Lord's work preaching the gospel and teaching in out-stations. Besides these there are several others similarly employed and faithful, and from time to time there are those being brought to the Lord by their word. We thank God for laying the work on their hearts and for giving them grace to go and do it.

December, 1931. We now have over 300 enrolled in the school, 100 of whom are women and girls. Interest grows fast, and we only pray that His hand, His power, and His glory may be completely manifest. That, and that only.

January, 1932. The work of the Holy Spirit is in evidence here in the hearts of the people on the station. Not a few are confessing Christ as their Saviour lately, some twenty persons confessed Him at a recent gospel service, some previously who had confessed Him await baptism, but we desire to wait, "not laying hands suddenly on any man." We seek your prayers that the Lord will greatly edify and establish His saints here, and to this end may He raise up among them gifts whereby to strengthen them in the Lord.

February, 1932. We expect to leave for England in April or May. In the meantime we are seeking to assist our native brethren in the taking over of the responsibility as to the local-assembly meetings and school, and running the station generally until we come back, if the Lord so will.

Surely we can say, "This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."

INDIAN WORK

From Valentine, Arizona, our brother Anderson writes as follows:

Dear brother:-Many thanks for the ministry just received. We do appreciate the fellowship of our brethren in this work. In that Day we shall all share alike, and what rejoicing there will be to have some crowns to cast at His feet!

We hope to have some extra meetings next month and have asked to have some of the Mojave Christians to come up and spend a week with us. It helps us to have Christians from other tribes at this time.

It has often been said that "the wheels of God's government grind slowly but surely." This comes out in a remarkable way in two incidents in the life of Jacob. While in the land of Padan-Aram the word of the Lord came to Jacob, "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, where thou vowedst a vow to me. Arise, depart out of this land and return to the land of thy kindred" (Gen. 31:13). To this Jacob willingly responded, but every fresh circumstance in the path of a saint brings new exercises. Well for us if the heart thus tested turns to God alone, and we prove "What is that good, perfect and acceptable will of God."

Jacob's flight from Haran was attended by the mercies of God, who tenderly preserved him and was greater than his fears, giving him favor in the sight of Esau, the brother he had so deeply wronged. One would think such signal mercies would energize the soul, so that nothing short of God's call to return to Bethel would suffice! But in Genesis 33:17-20 Jacob-"halted at Succoth, not as a pilgrim merely-as were his fathers, of whom we read in Hebrews, "By faith- Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise." But Jacob, we read, "built him an house, and for his cattle he made booths." Here was manifest declension, a giving up of the pilgrim character, a conformity to the world. He adopted the ways of the uncircumcised and yielded to the desire for ease and more convenient modes of living. Expediency took the place of absolute obedience to God's command, and Jacob and his family found a place among the Shechemites.

All this might have appeared trivial, and in the eyes of some Jacob's astuteness might be commendable, but the servant's business is to obey, and let us ever remember that happiness lies in obedience. One downward step from our God-given position may lead to disastrous consequences and bring untold sorrow.

Jacob's buying the land of the Hivite and building a house, led to a ten-year sojourn among the uncircumcised, and it is evident that while Jacob did "set up there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel" (God, the God of Israel) , thus recognizing God in the land, yet it was short of "Bethel," and did not rise to the height of God's revelation to the patriarchs. It was not purpose or promise that ruled him, but experience and expediency.

During this sojourn, Jacob's family were growing up. Little wonder that his one daughter, Dinah, attracted by the ways of the Shechemites, broke the bonds of propriety, and "went out to see the daughters of the land." The disastrous consequences as recorded in Genesis 34 brought life-long sorrow to Jacob; caused deepest shame and humiliation to his family, and (as he said to Simeon and Levi) made him "stink among the inhabitants of the land." Such was the painful reaping of what Jacob had sown.

And all this sorrow and trouble was necessary to arouse Jacob from his lethargy, and shake off the shackles with which he had bound himself and his family, that he might betake himself to Bethel. The memory of this dark and hateful day remained with Jacob until his dying bed, when he said:"Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united, for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel" (Gen. 49:5-7).

The second incident, from which we may also learn a lesson, carries us back to the time when Jacob and his wives and children fled from the face of Laban; but here Jacob was not the aggressor. Rachael had stolen her fathers' teraphim and hidden them under her camel's saddle (Gen. 31:32-35). Jacob evidently had no suspicion that his beloved Rachael was guilty of this shameful act, shameful not merely because she was a thief, but she had not hesitated to gratify her evil desire for "other gods" and thus shame Jacob's house. Perhaps Jacob was largely to blame in the matter. Possibly he had not raised the standard very high, while sojourning with Laban. Evidently his house was not so ordered before God as to make idolatry hateful to her in every way, so that she did not hesitate to deceive her father and play false to the God of Israel.

For the moment, God overruled in mercy, but it is a sad spectacle to see this chosen family carrying away idol-images stolen by the. wife, unknown to the husband.

This sorrowful experience of Jacob's remained with the patriarch, so that when the word, came to "go up to Bethel, and dwell there," the strange gods are still m the family possession. "And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there; make an altar to God that appeared to thee, when thou fleddest from the face of thy brother Esau." And Jacob said to his household, "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments; and we will arise and go to Bethel, and I will make there an altar to God that answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way I went" (Gen. 35:1-8).

At last Jacob is aroused to the seriousness of his lapse in Shechem! Ten valuable years had he wasted, years which ended in humiliation and sorrow. Instinctively Jacob feels he has to do with a God whose faithful love can brook no rival. If God's presence and blessing is to be known, every idol must go and His servant must be before Him in true self-judgment. The God of Bethel now made Himself known to Jacob in a new way. He is the "God of God's house," for we read, "Jacob built there an altar and called the name El-Bethel." This was a better, fuller, richer, title than El-Elohe-Israel, which limits God to Himself. Thus God in over-ruling mercy and in faithful love brings blessing out of failure. But His government remains. "And they journey to Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed.. . and the midwife said unto her, Fear not; for this also is a son for thee. And it came to pass as her soul was departing, she called his name Benoni (son of my sorrow), but his father called him Benjamin" (son of my right hand).

The name "Benoni" suggests at once God's moral government. Rachael had grievously sinned against God and her husband, and we have no evidence of any self-judgment on her part. She is now removed, a sad chastening for Jacob, as we see in Genesis 48:7, where on his dying bed the patriarch laments:"Rachael died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath."

The name she gave her son seems to express her sorrow, but Jacob has at last learned his lesson, and whatever may have been his sorrow at the loss of his beloved, he looks forward in hope-Benjamin is the son of his right hand.
Thus God brings blessing out of chastening, and leads our hearts from earth to heaven. It is surely significant that in Gen. 48:7, in speaking of Rachael's death, Jacob says of Ephrath, "the same also is Bethlehem." It would certainly appear that Jacob looked for the fulfilment of God's promise made at Luz (afterward called Bethel), through his beloved Rachael, but when there was but a little way to come to Ephrath (fruitful) his hopes were shattered by the death of his beloved. "The same also is Bethlehem" at once suggests the coming of the One in whom "all the promises of God are Yea and Amen." In Micah 5:2 we read, "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." J. W. H. Nichols

-A BIBLE STUDY-

God's blessed Word-"Meditate therein… make thy way prosperous. . .have good success"-Josh. 1:8.

"Blessed" may be translated "happy" or "joyous."

His Joy

Heb. 12:2; Matt. 13:44; Luke 15:7; John 15:11; John 17:13; Zeph.3:17; Jude 24.

Our Joy

Acts 8:39. …………at beginning of life.
Acts 16:34. ………..
1 Pet. 1:8. …………throughout life.
John 13:17. ……….."" "
Acts 20:24. ……….. at close of life.
John 16:22. ……….."

Source of Joy

Ps. 16:11………… God's presence.
Rom. 5:11 ………..God Himself.
Ps. 43:4 ………….."
Rom. 14:17 ……….. The Holy Spirit.
John 15:11 ……….. Christ.
Phil. 3:3…………." "

Experiences of Joy

Ps. 32:1………….. Forgiven.
Prov. 8:34………… Hearing.
Ps. 34:8…………..Trusting.
Ps. 84:5. …………..Strengthened(2 Cor. 12:9).
Ps. 1:1; 4:3………. Separated (Jer. 15:16).
Job 5:17; Ps. 94:12…Disciplined. John 13:17. ………. .Obedient.
James 1:12. ………. Enduring.
Tit. 2:13; John 16:22.. Hoping.

Benediction

Rom. 15:13.
Contrast
Job 20:5; The wicked. Rom. 2:9; Isa. 6:5.

E. J. Checkley
"I HAVE GIVEN YOU AN EXAMPLE'

"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not Yea and Nay, but in Him was Yea. For all the promises of God in Him are Yea and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts"-2 Cor. 1:19-22.

Weighty are the truths brought together in these four verses. Glory after glory comes into view, while grace shines forth in its fulness.

Let us consider something of the detail of this comprehensive passage. First of all,

THE PERSON

of our Lord is presented as "the Son of God, Jesus Christ." His Godhead and His Manhood glories are here-full Godhead in full Manhood.

"The Son of God" is God the Son. Right well the Jews had understood His claims when on earth. They had taken up stones to stone Him, saying, "Thou being a Man makest Thyself God." This was blasphemy in their sight. And their judgment would have been a true one if He had not been what His words conveyed. He being God became that which He had not been. He became flesh, came into Manhood, and dwelt among us.

"Jesus," His God-given name as the Babe of Bethlehem, tells of His lowly grace as come of a woman in order that He might accomplish redemption. "Jesus," Jehovah-the-Saviour of His people from their sins.

"Christ" tells of His being the Anointed One-the Anointed Prophet like Elisha, the Anointed Priest like Aaron, the Anointed King like David. Thus we have His divine glory, "Son of God;" we have His moral glory, "Jesus;" we have His official glory, "Christ." How varied are the glories that focus in Him!

Now He was the great subject of

THE PREACHING

of Paul and his companions Silvanus and Timotheus. And He, Himself, should be the theme of every preacher. Perhaps there is a danger of presenting almost exclusively the value of His finished work. But it is the Person who lends value to that which He has done.

It is to be noted that "the preaching of Jesus Christ" was the burden of the apostles and evangelists. For instance, to the Samaritans Philip preached "Christ;" to the eunuch he preached "Jesus." The long-looked-for Messiah, for whom the Samaritans looked, had come. The lowly, rejected Saviour, Jesus, was needed by Queen Candace's treasurer. A little later we find Paul preaching, in the synagogue in Damascus, that "Jesus is the Son of God." "The full glories of the Lamb" were now declared. "The Scorned, the Despised, the Rejected" is the Son of God. The work of Christ meets the demands of conscience. The Person of Christ charms the heart. The work is a past act of ever-abiding value. The Person is One who lives and loves and cares for His own, claiming their affections for Himself, and seeking the allegiance and loyalty of their lives. Seeing our Lord is who He is

THE PERMANENCE

of everything He undertakes is secured in Him. He "was not Yea and Nay, but in Him was Yea." There is no uncertainty. All is positive. The "Yes," the fulfilment of all, has come about in Him.

Israel had said "Yes!" but had acted "No!" And this had been the case in the history of man all down the years. In every dispensation, in every dealing of God with His creatures, His creature had failed and sinned, and said "No!" in language which could not be mistaken.

Now Christ had come, the Man of God's pleasure, "the Man of His right hand," whom He had "made strong" for Himself. In Him all God's thoughts are verified. The "Yes!" is given to every one of them.

THE PROMISES

made aforetime directly by the word of God's mouth or indirectly by type and shadow, all have found their answer in Him.

The Seed of the Woman to bruise the serpent's head, the Lamb to be the Sacrifice, the Seed of Abraham in whom all nations should be blessed, the Prophet like unto Moses, the Priest of the Melchisedek order, the King who should reign in righteousness-all these are made good in Christ. He is the Center of all. In His death He has laid the foundation for the righteous carrying out of all that was promised. And today we, according to that promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell. To ALL

the promises of God Christ gives "the Yea and the Amen." The affirmation and the confirmation of all are found in Himself. He is "the Amen" (Rev. 3:14).

"Praise Him, again, again! For us the cross He bore; Now all is 'Yea' and all 'Amen' In Him for evermore!"

THE PURPOSE

of God now comes into view. And Christians are found to have part in the wondrous plan of God for the praise and glory of His Son, "Unto the glory of God by us." The Son of God is to be the Head and Center of all. He is the great Sun of the spiritual universe; all the planets of blessing will revolve about Him, and He will be the controlling force of each and every one. The Church, composed of every true believer, will be for the glory of God and for the delight of Christ, as radiant in His beauty she shines as a bride "adorned for her husband." The true Eve will then have been brought to the True, the Last, Adam, to be His complement in the day of His glory.
For this we have been plucked as brands from the burnings of the judgment which was our due. For this we have been new-created in Christ Jesus. For this we are being established in Christ, firmly attached to Him. For this we have been anointed that we may know that which is ours. The Holy Spirit is the seal that we are His, and He is

THE PLEDGE,

the earnest of the coming glory into which we shall be introduced at the return of our Lord from heaven.

Wonderful-is it not?-that we should be brought into such a place before our God and Father that we may delight in His communications and revelations concerning His beloved Son. Well may our hearts rise in praise and adoration as we contemplate something of the breadth, length, depth and height of His scheme of glory, of which Christ is the Center.

"Oh, mind divine, so must it be,
That glory all belongs to God!
Oh, love divine, that did decree
We should be part, through Jesus' blood!

"Oh, keep us, love divine, near Thee,
That we our nothingness may know;
And ever to Thy glory be,
Walking in love while here below."

Inglis Fleming

All lost and gone astray, Lord.
But on Thy Paschal Lamb
Thou'st laid my heavy burden,
Thus I am what I am.

I knew not how He loved me,
Nor yet my Father's Name,
Who gave His Son, His loved One.
To bear my sin and shame.

Like every son of Adam,
"No difference," saith God's Word;
For none have reached His standard,
"None seeketh after God."

The shepherd sought the lost one,
And on His shoulder laid
The foolish sheep, that knew not
That He its ransom paid.

Then glorify the Saviour,
Oh, lift Him up today,
And show all wilful wanderers,
The Life, the Truth, the Way.

No word of commendation
For all I am, and have,
I owe it to my Saviour
And His exceeding love.

I want His commendation,
For me there's nothing higher,
If I but hear His "Well done,"
What more could I desire?

His voice-I'm sure I'll know it,
Triumphant, quickening word!-
Twill be the sweetest music,
My ears have ever heard.
Come quickly, blessed Lord!

Helen McDowell

Or, The Place, the Peril and the Power of the Christian (2 Cor. 12.)

The possibilities of a Christian come before us in a most striking manner in this chapter. The height to which he may be taken and the depths to which he may fall, alike are presented. Here we may discover the wonderful privileges of the believer as "a man in Christ" and the awful dangers to which he is exposed as having the flesh in him, himself.

"I knew (or, "I know" rather) a man in Christ," says the apostle (referring no doubt to himself), "such an one caught up to the third heaven…. How that he was caught up to paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one I will glory:yet of myself I will not glory but in mine infirmities" (2 Cor. 12:2-5).

A remarkable utterance truly, and worthy of our most careful consideration.

"A MAN IN CHRIST"-HIS POSITION

This is the portion of every child of God. The believer on the Lord Jesus is "in Christ." Some well-known passages show this conclusively. And, mark it well, they are written of all Christians. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (Eph. 2:10). "Of Him (of God) are ye in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor. 1:30). "To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). "Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is God" (2 Cor. 1:21).

From these and other scriptures we may see that the "man in Christ" is wholly God's workmanship. He is what God has chosen to make him. He is "complete in Christ" (Col. 2:10). Nothing can be added to him for he is "blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ." And he is seen to be part of a new creation altogether, as it is written, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature" (a new creation).

"A man in Christ" thus is in a new position before God, entirely. He was "in Adam" as to his standing. There he was linked up with his first father, in sin and condemnation and death. Now the translation has taken place. He has been taken out of that association and is linked up with Christ and His obedience and with justification, and life and glory.

Our attainments differ. There are various stages in spiritual growth. We may be babes, or young men or fathers. Our experiences may and do change. Feelings and realizations may come and go. But every believer is at all times "in Christ" before God.

A servant of the Lord would sometimes ask young Christians the question, "Are you in Adam or in Christ?" Falteringly the answer would come, "I suppose that I am in Christ." To test further, the next question was put, "How often are you in Christ? "Not very often I fear," would sometimes be the reply. Then the truth would be unfolded, the glorious truth, that we are always in Christ.
The Christian is never put back into his old place in Adam. He stands for ever associated with the Lord Jesus, beyond death and beyond judgment. Five words express this great truth "Christ's place is our place." Or as another has said, in another sentence of five words, "In Christ is as Christ." Until this precious fact is known a soul is kept in uncertainty. Doubts and misgivings will fill the mind and it may be at times despair may distress the most earnest seeker after a consistent walk.

"A man in Christ.. .caught up to the third heaven… caught up to paradise." Here our great ultimate is seen. The terminus of our pilgrim pathway is to be with Christ, in paradise. But the "man in Christ" of our chapter anticipated the day of glory, when all Christ's own will be there. It pleased God that His servant should be in ecstasy. "Whether in the body or out of the body" we are not told and need not conjecture for all such conjectures are profitless. He was rapt away from the things of time and sense. For the duration of that period of bliss he was in the innermost presence of God, "in the paradise of God" (Rev. 2:7). There Christ is everything and the world around us and the flesh within us, while here, are nothing. Thoughts of the body therefore have no place.

It was the sovereign power of God which translated this "man in Christ" to that scene of unspeakable glory. And before long it will translate every Christian to that same scene, at the coming again of our Lord. In Paul's case his visit to the home of eternal life was of limited extent and was for the purpose of confirmation in his service and to extend his usefulness. In our case it will be of everlasting duration, "for ever with the Lord."

Such is the surpassing value of the precious blood of Christ, that a poor thief could come forth from prison on the morning of his execution, careless and callous; he could, later on, join in the curses of the mob against the crucified Son of God; but turning to Him at last and his sins being cleansed, he could pass with the Saviour into paradise at the close of the day, fitted to be the companion of Christ in His glory. And this is our prospect through grace. All blessedness is summed up in being like Christ and with Christ in His own home – the Father's house. There in perfect suitability, conformed to His image, our souls will know the delights in fulness of which the "man in Christ" tasted when caught up.

"A MAN IN CHRIST"-HIS OCCUPATION

When in the third heaven, in his ecstatic state, Paul was in conscious enjoyment. No "sleep of the soul" was his. He heard unspeakable things. He listened to revelations which it was not possible to convey to men in their mortal condition. Entranced with the vision he was not aware of his bodily form at all. Whether in it or not he could not tell. He was engaged altogether with the communications which were being made to him. What these communications were we are not told. Their character was such that they could not be uttered on earth. What will engage us there? Perhaps we may learn something of this from the transfiguration scene on the holy mount. Moses and Elias appearing there in glory, spake with the Lord Jesus of the decease which He would accomplish at Jerusalem. Calvary with all its wonderful teachings may be the subject of consideration in that home of glory when "talking with Jesus!" Blessed occupation!

And there our prayers will be ended, and praise will fill our lips, as we enjoy fulness of blessing in the presence and likeness of our Lord. No more curse, no more sighing, no more crying, no more pain, no more death-all the former things will have passed away. The groaning within ourselves (as here we share with a groaning creation, travailing in pain) will be hushed for ever and exchanged for the Hallelujah chorus of the redeemed.

Unspeakable words falling on our ears, unspeakable sights charming our vision, unspeakable joy filling our hearts! All will be according to the mind of God, and the presence of our Saviour and Lord will give character to everything around. And there, too, the power of the Holy Ghost will be unhindered. Nought within or around will mar the realms of glory.

"But who that glorious blaze,
Of living light shall tell,
Where all His brightness God displays,
And the Lamb's glories dwell?"

"God and the Lamb shall there
The light and temple be,
And radiant hosts forever share
The unveiled mystery."

Inglis Fleming

(To be continued, D.V.)

The Church, according to the mind of God, is a stranger on the earth. Her portion, her hope, her home, her inheritance, her all, is heavenly. It would make no difference in the current of this world's history if the Church had never been heard of. Her calling, her walk, her destiny, her whole character and course, her principles and morals, are or ought to be heavenly. The Church has nothing to do with the politics of this world. Her citizenship is in heaven, from whence she looks for the Saviour. She proves false to her Lord, false to her calling, false to her principles, in so far as she meddles with the affairs of nations. It is her high and holy privilege to be linked and morally identified with a rejected, crucified, risen, and glorified Christ. She has no more to do with the present system of things, or with the current of this world's history, than her glorified Head in the heavens. "They," says our Lord Christ, speaking of His people, "are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

This is conclusive. It fixes our position and our path in the most precise and definite way possible. "As He is, so are we in this world." This involves a double truth, namely, our perfect acceptance with God and our complete separation from the world. We are in the world, but not of it. We have to pass through it as pilgrims and strangers, looking out for the coming of our Lord, the appearing of the Bright and Morning Star. It is no part of our business to interfere with political matters. We are called and exhorted to obey the powers that be, to pray for all in authority, to pay tribute, and owe no. man any thing; "To be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation," among whom we are to "shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life." From "Notes on Deuteronomy, " Vol. II., C. H. M.

Calendar:July Kith to August 15th

DAILY BIBLE READING:…….. July 16th, Isa. 63; July 31st, Jer. 12; August 15th, Jer. 27.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING:…. July 16th, Rom. 6; July 31st, 1 Cor. 5; August 15th, 2 Cor. 4.

"Meditate therein-make thy way prosperous-have good success"-Josh. 1:8.

ONE ANOTHER

"Members of Christ"-Ephesians 5:30. "Members one of another"-Rom. 12:5; Eph. 4:25.

For manifesting this wondrous union, divine instruction in the Word of God abounds.

Grace turns "haters of one another," Tit. 3:3, into lovers, John 15:7; "with abounding love"-1 Thess. 3:12.

As "debtors," Rom. 13:8, owing debts one to another to be discharged in the lowly spirit of John 13:14, at each other's feet. Seeking to enrich another-1 Cor. 10:24.

Looking not "every man on his own things, but on another's," Phil. 2:4; imbued with the "mind of Christ," aspiring to be "chief by serving all," "even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister"-Matt. 20:28.

Each "taking the lead in paying honor to the other"- Rom. 12:10 (truer translation).

Meditate on the many "one another" scriptures "that thy profit may appear"-1 Tim. 4:15.

Love fervently………… 1 Peter 1:22.
Comfort ……………….1 Thess. 4:18.
Fellowship…………….1 Jno. 1:7; Luke 24:32; Mal.
Forgive ……………….Col. 3:13. [3:16.
Serve ………………. ..Gal. 5:13.
Consider ………………Heb. 10:24.
Exhort ……………… .Heb. 3:13; Heb. 10:25.
Admonish …………….. Rom. 15:14.
Edify………………… "14:19.
Provoke……………….Heb. 10:24.
Forbear ……………….Eph. 4:2.
Receive………………. Rom. 15:7.
Greet …………………1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12.
Care for ……………… 1 Cor. 12:25.
Pray" ………………Jas. 5:16.
Minister to…………… 1 Pet. 4:10.
Confess " ……………..Heb. 10:24; Jas. 5:16.
Submit" …………….. Eph. 5:21.
Be kind "…………….. " 4:32.
" compassionate………. 1 Pet. 3:8.

" hospitable ………….. 1 Pet. 4:9.
" at peace…………… Mark 9:50.
" like-minded………….Rom. 15:5.
" burden-bearers ……… Gal. 6:2.
No evil-speaking ……….. Jas. 4:11.
Lie not ………………. Col. 3:9.

E. J. Checkley

NOTES OF A MEDITATION

In Matt. 26, when the whole current was going against Christ, there was a woman who showed her love for Him in a remarkable way, and her commendation was that wherever the Gospel would be preached this that she had done would be spoken of as a memorial of her. She was in the current of His mind, and though what she did was in all human weakness, the Lord took notice of the spring of her action.

There is no power in corporate action, unless the individuals are personally strong. The strength of a chain depends upon its weakest link, and therefore we must be strengthened by the personal love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Epistle to the Ephesians with all its height finishes with the words, "Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." If this is right, everything else will be secured.

Do you love the Lord to take you by the hand and lead you? Peter, in his first Epistle, speaks of Him as the One "whom not having seen, ye love."

Deut. 6:4, 5 shows that the Lord our God, Jehovah, requires the affection of the whole heart. The reason is found in chap. 10:12. Chap. 11:13-15 shows if they would only love the Lord with all their heart, everything they could wish for they would have. Thus the important thing is to love the Lord. Deut. 30:1 shows the backsliding heart finds the power of the world too strong, but He is faithful and just to forgive. If reality of heart is there, the Lord is ever the same. He allows chastening to come in that we may be restored. Then in the 15th verse of the same chapter, life is spoken of and contrasted with death, and good with evil, and then we are exhorted to choose life. That is the antidote. Again in Ps. 18:1, "I will love Thee, O Lord." It is David's autobiography, his own history. Solomon also loved the Lord, and he could speak of Him as the chiefest among ten thousand. He is easily first against 9,999 rivals, and then the writer becomes lost in the sense of His love, and takes Him out of all comparison by saying, "He is altogether lovely." If we realize this then it will be easy to serve Him. It is not naturally easy to be insignificant, but if we become such we shall be glad to sweep a crossing in His interests.

His dealings with men are all in order that His will may be accomplished. Jacob's thigh was put out of joint. Saul became Paul. Self becomes pulverized in order that He may use us. We are so apt to look at the object or result of ministry rather than the source from which it springs, and so are apt to place first our instrumentality in the conversion of many souls rather than the doing of His will. The branch of the apple-tree is never fruitful, unless it abides in the stem. There is no effort on the part of the vine, and there should be no effort on our part either, except that of exercise. The sap of the new life must pass clean through us. T. Oliver (Galashiels)

Upon his return from Russia John Haynes Holmes reports to the press that "Christianity" in Europe is in a bad way; that the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant churches are being "driven together in confused retreat before the on-sweeping forces of triumphant atheism," and that

ATHEISM IS SWEEPING GERMANY TODAY

among the finest younger generation he has ever seen. Probably Mr. Holmes exaggerates, but, even so, any semblance of disaster such as he reports is alarming. But let us seek its cause.

When Mr. Darwin laid down his "hypothesis" seventy years ago, Christians cried out that it was atheistic in principle and would prove destructive in practice. But "the Higher Criticism" succeeded in making room for it in the church seminaries, with the result that today many of the clergy hold it. These are termed Modernists.

But when the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy was at its height six years ago, representatives of the latter protested against the charge of conducting the youth to atheism. They declared that, far from so doing, they were safeguarding them from such a peril; that they understood and sympathized with them, and by training and outlook were able to serve them as Fundamentalists could not; that if the latter would cease from clamor and observe what was transpiring before their eyes, they would discover that the men they were traducing were doing a safe and sane work among a generation that understood their message because expressed in modern terms.

Let us then appraise the results. Mr. Holmes will point them out to us.

Passing over his remarks regarding Roman and Greek disaster, we will consider his report of Protestant disaster. He says:"Atheism is sweeping Germany today among the finest younger generation I have ever seen." Heretofore that country had been lauded by Modernists as the best exponent of their theories. But Mr. Holmes, as an observer upon the ground, assures us that its youth is being swept into atheism. Of course, he has the temerity to blame this upon orthodox Lutheranism, affirming that the swamped generation "has no use whatsoever for the Lutheran Church, which cannot speak its language and makes no attempt to." But he conveniently forgets that the orthodox are invited to look on and see what a fine job Modernism is doing, seeing that it does speak the language Lutheranism cannot speak. Nevertheless, he is the reporter who reveals that Modernism at home, and speaking the language of the lost generation, could not save it. He exhibits that generation engulfed beneath the shadow of schools reputed as its guardians.

Why did not Modernism save this generation from the abyss? It could not, because it had no message with substance in it. When put to the test, it was revealed as a system that had mortally injured the young, turning their ears from the truth, and making them susceptible to stark atheism. Young Germany, imbibing its theories, proceeds as directed and arrives in atheism.

None are less astonished at the Holmes' report than Christians (even while discounting its wholesale character), for they know that the repudiation of God's testimony to His Son in pulpits formerly dedicated to its maintenance is the seed-sowing of atheism. This report reveals the common-sense of Thomas Huxley long ago when, as one of his biographers says, "His intellectual honesty caused him to sympathize less with the 'half-and-half sentimental school,' represented by divines of the type of Dean Farrar, than 'with thorough-going orthodoxy,' as represented by the late Mr. Spurgeon." For, although a rejecter of God's gospel, Huxley readily discerned that the new theology was a thing of sentimentality without the semblance of substance. But Christians see now, what they foresaw seventy years ago, that it is an atheist-producing thing. But that is not all. They see it at work before their eyes as a fostering agency of

CRIME AGAINST THE STATE.

In these days when many of the young are being enticed to shady conduct by tales of a wealthy "business underworld," the response to this glamor is in great part traceable to the absence of that instruction which our fathers received, the conscience of the young having become dulled by a systematic repudiation of the government of God as revealed in the gospel of His grace. That gospel proclaimed by the majority of preachers in the successive generations of Whitefield, Finney, and Moody, is now confined to narrower limits. It may be replied that some very good gospel is still being preached; but it is also true that a large percentage of pulpits that proclaimed it fifty years ago, subvert it today. And in result a vast population, otherwise fairly well informed, are steeped in darkness as to the terms of the gospel, to say nothing of ignorance of its power. The church seminaries sending out fewer and fewer speakers with the knowledge of God and with ability to address the human conscience, no longer secure those steadfast audiences that exercised a restraining influence upon the trend toward crime. Need we be surprised, then, that many of our young men and women are becoming increasingly responsive to the lure of a treacherous underworld? The theology that produces atheists in reference to God, cannot produce law-abiding citizens regarding the State. Nor can there be permanent recovery from present lawlessness while the gospel that shows the individual's proper relations with God is set at nought.

WHAT GOD PROPOSES IN THE GOSPEL

is the recovery of lawless sinners to Himself. This recovery is necessary because "sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4, N. T.). Let us explain this by an old illustration. As the sun is the center of the solar system and controls its movements, the planets move in their orbits in obedience to the power of that great central body. That is law, or rule. But if a planet could get out of control and take an independent path, it would start upon a lawless course and head toward destruction. That is what our parents did in Eden; they rejected divine control, and began to make their own movements; they became lawless.
But the sinless Son of God came into the world to save sinners, to save us. This He could only do by maintaining the rights of God, by meeting our liabilities and bringing us under divine control by subjecting us to Himself. Thus He took our place vicariously upon the cross, enduring the wrath of God against sin, and ending our history in His death for us. Consequently He is presented to man as Lord-"He is Lord of all" (Acts 10:36). But mankind is called upon to acknowledge this, to submit to Him, to confess Him as Lord and thus come under His beneficent control. Otherwise there is no deliverance from lawlessness nor escape from destruction. Thus it is written:"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [Jesus as Lord], and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). R. J. Reid

With two cities, Jerusalem and Shushan, we find associated two feasts, both kept with joy, but for very diverse reasons. We read of them in Ezra 6:15-22 and Esther 8:15-17. These feasts were held practically at the same time. The book of Ezra gives us the religious decree of King Cyrus, a man marked out by God for this special purpose, nearly 200 years before his birth (Isaiah 45:1-7; 2 Chron. 36:22,23).

In Ezra 9:8,9 in prayer, Ezra acknowledges that the iniquity of God's people had brought them into bondage to a Gentile king, but God had shown grace "to leave a remnant to escape, and to give a nail in His holy place." Thus a reviving in their bondage is given to set up the house of God.

In chapter one of Ezra we find the proclamation of the king, who declares that God had charged him to build Him a house at Jerusalem, and Cyrus calls upon the willing-hearted among the Jews to do it. About 42,000 responded (Ezra 2:64), and the Spirit of God attaches so much importance to these, that the names are repeated in Nehemiah 7. In chapter three the returned people are seen around Jerusalem (at that time a blackened ruin), and their first act was to set up the "altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of God." They also kept the feasts, though as yet the Temple foundation was not laid.

It is interesting to notice all was done "as it is written," and "together." Keeping the Word of God and happy, holy unity marked this remnant. No walls surrounded Jerusalem, no temple was yet builded, but the setting up of the altar and the offering of the burnt-offering was a most blessed evidence of entire trust in God, and this made them more secure, "abiding under the shadow of the Almighty," than when Jerusalem was surrounded by walls.

At the close of chapter three the foundation of the temple was laid. The younger generation, regarding the mercies shown, and the reviving in their bondage, trusting that a brighter future was at hand, shouted for joy; while the ancient men, who had seen the temple in all its magnificence, realizing the sin, the ruin, the shame which had overtaken the nation, wept with a loud voice, so that the noise of the weeping could not be discerned from the noise of the shouting (vers. 12,13).

In chapter four the work is stopped, through fear of the enemy, but in the next chapter, admonished and encouraged by the words of Haggai, the prophet (see Haggai, chaps. 1,2), they make a fresh start, obeying the Lord's voice and fearing Him, counting upon His assurance, "I am with you," and "Fear ye not." What a blessed incentive was His promise, "My Spirit remaineth among you, fear not!" And again, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts, and in this place I will give PEACE, saith the Lord of hosts" (Haggai 2:9). What assurance must the words of Jehovah, "From this day will I bless you," have imparted to those who, though so feeble, desired to keep His Word and not deny His name. God ever delights to bless His people, but obedience must ever precede the blessing, for happiness lies in obedience.

Turning again to Ezra we find, in chapter six, the house finished. The watchful eye of God had been upon that feeble band, and every machination of the enemy had been brought to naught. They had wrought, sustained by the Word of God through His servants, and now, the Temple finished, there comes the dedication. The priests and Levites were there in their courses, according to the law of Moses. We read that they "offered at the dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a SIN OFFERING FOR ALL ISRAEL twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel."

And here be it noted how this remnant clave to the written Word! The city was a ruin, no stately walls surrounded it, enemies abounded on all sides, and the mass of the nation were not with them, but still scattered throughout the vast dominions of the Persian king; yet they offered for ALL ISRAEL, and "killed the passover for all the children of the captivity," though absent, and perhaps disinterested.

At the close (ver. 22) comes the FEAST. It was kept by two classes of persons, we are told. First, "The children of Israel which were come again out of captivity," and secondly, "All such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen of the land" (ver. 21). They were helpers of one another's joy, and we read, "The Lord had made them joyful." It was a divine joy, the joy of communion shared at the divine center-Jerusalem, where God had been pleased to place His name. They are privileged, while fully owning the complete failure of Israel and without ignoring their fellow-Israelites, to keep God's feast, as in days of old, according to the divine pattern. How eloquently all this speaks to us today, and what analogy exists between the past and the present.

Another city is before us in the book of Esther. Shushan was the city of a great king, but a heathen king. How impossible to compare it with Jerusalem, city of the great King! Here, too, a feast was kept. Those who kept it were the same race and people as those who returned to Jerusalem and built the house. Those in Shushan were those for whom the sin-offering was offered at Jerusalem and for whom the passover was killed. The question might naturally be asked, "Why did they not return with their brethren to the land of Jehovah and His center, as their brethren had done?" No one can answer this question, but one thing is certain:they did not cease to be the children of Israel, the people of God, through lack of faith and faithfulness. But certain it is they were the losers, and their names go unrecorded in God's memory book!

Read the book of Esther. It has been pointed out that while the providential care of God appears on every page, the name of God is not once mentioned. God is, so to speak, hidden; and the people of God have lost their true name. They are throughout the book called "Jews." No words of encouragement are here. No "I am with you." No promise "I will bless you." They are scattered, dispersed (chap. 3:8) through the provinces of the King's dominions, and all doomed to death (chap. 3:13). Had they gained anything by refusing to accompany their brethren to the land? It must be readily conceded that this doom came upon them through the faithful stand of Mordecai, and that they, themselves, are spoken of as having diverse laws from all people (these were God's laws) which made them unacceptable and unwanted by the Gentiles around them (answering to the position of the believer now, John 15:19). But they had fallen woefully short of their calling and their true place.

In the fourth chapter of Esther there is great mourning, fasting and weeping, but how different to that of the fathers in Ezra 3. In that book we find the decree to go up to Jerusalem and build the house of the Lord, whosoever were willing-hearted. Those who refused this privilege, unwilling perhaps to bear the exercise it entailed, find themselves under another king's proclamation, sentenced to death. Those who went to Jerusalem wept at the condition of the nation and dishonor done to God. Those in Shushan wept at their own dishonor and condition. Still they are the people of God, and in their anguish they turn to Him with fasting, and Mordecai is to them what Haggai was to the remnant. He encouraged them with words of confidence and faith. We need not pursue the story further, save to notice the active intervention of God, through Esther who found favor with the king. We read, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as rivers of water; He turneth it whithersoever He will" (Prov. 21:1). A new decree is made, which for the Jews meant life out of death. Mordecai is rewarded with the king's favor and is clad in royal apparel, and "the Jews had light and gladness, and joy, and honor… a least and a good day" (Esther 8:16,17). Later, when deliverance was finally accomplished, there was another season of feasting and rejoicing, which has been perpetuated to this day and called "The Feast of Purim." Is there not something analogous to this in our day? Like Israel, the Church has woefully come short, miserably failed; the fine gold has become dim, and the glory has departed. For many centuries of Church history, during the dark ages, almost every vital truth of Christianity was obscured or lost. But has not God graciously recovered to His people much precious truth, and has there not been a remnant return to God's center-not an earthly city where God has recorded His name, but to a heavenly Christ as the true Center of gathering, where the Holy Spirit unfettered can lead out the hearts of those gathered to the Lord's name, in worship and praise?

But multitudes of the people of God know nothing of this, and are still in captivity to the forms and ceremonies of men, many, like those in Esther's day, taken up with their experiences, needs and deliverances-in short, God's providential ways (good in their measure)- but falling short of "fulness of joy."

Through God's mercy, there is often a "feast and a good day" when "personal experience" is told, and such may be instruments of blessing to others as in Esther's day ("Many of the people of the land became Jews"), but there is a lack, the soul has stopped short of true and fullest blessing; the "I am with you" of Haggai can only be known as there is entire and joyful obedience to the revealed Word and the Lord Jesus becomes the supreme Object of the heart, and the sweetness of Matt. 18:20 is enjoyed.

May we not therefore rightly enquire which feast are we keeping? Grace has written every believer's name in the Book of Life. But are we exercised about our names being written in what we may say answers to Ezra 2 and Neh. 7? There is no one company today able to claim it is Philadelphia (Rev. 3), but Philadelphian faithfulness to His Word and Name we should surely covet. To such He has promised an open door which no man was shut, and comforts with the words,"! come quickly." May we hold fast that which we have in these days of departure from the truth and of Laodicean lukewarmness, that no man take our crown! J. W. H. Nichols

To learn, in a day of grace, to be still, and know that God is God, is-completely above the education of the flesh.

The spirit of the age affects many Christians, who labor to restore old things for the service of God, instead of being broken before Him by the sense of their downfall.

To confess openly that which we are in the presence of that which God is, is always the way to peace and blessing. Even when only two or three are together before God, if it be thus with them, there will be no disappointments nor deluded hopes.

The word for the remnant is "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." He is the only center of gathering.

The Holy Ghost does not gather saints around mere views, however true they may be, upon that which the church is, upon that which it has been, or that which it may be, on the earth, but He always gathers them around that, blessed Person who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).

We need to be watchful against boasting, need to be still, in the presence of God. There is much independence and self-will almost everywhere.

If anyone speaks of separation from evil, without being humiliated, let him take care lest his position becomes simply only that which at all times has constituted sects, and produced doctrinal heresy. Nearness to Christ would keep us from sectarianism, the most natural weed of the human heart. Sectarianism is getting an interest in a little circle round ourselves.

Now I know of no service which is worthy of Him, if it is not done in humiliation. This is not the time to speak of a place for ourselves. If the church of God, so dear to Christ, is dishonored in this world; if it is scattered, ignorant, afflicted, he who has the mind of Christ will always take the lowest place. True service of love will seek to give according to the need, and because of their need, he will never think of slighting the objects of the Master's love because of their necessity.

Men taught of God, for His service, go forth from a place of strength, where they have learnt their own weakness and their own nothingness. They find that Jesus is everything in the presence of God, and Jesus is everything for them in all things, and everywhere. Such men, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, are real helps for the children of God, and they will not contend for a place, or a distinction, or for authority, amongst the scattered flock. The communion of a man with God about the church will show itself in a willingness to be nothing in himself, and such an one will rejoice in his heart to spend and to be spent.

There is great instruction in the conduct of Zerubbabel, recounted in the book of Ezra.

Heir of the place which Solomon had occupied in days of prosperity and glory, he spoke not of his birth, nor of his rights. He is, however, faithful in all the path of separation, of sorrow, and of conflicts he is obliged to pass through.

If we speak of our testimony upon the earth, it will soon be evident that all is but weakness, and, like the seed lost upon the wayside, the testimony will likewise end to our shame.

Neither the anger, nor the prudence, nor the pretensions of man can do anything, in the state of confusion in which the church is now. I freely own that I have no hope in the efforts which many make to assure themselves an ecclesiastical position. When the house is ruined in its foundations by an earthquake, it matters little how one tries to make it an agreeable dwelling-place. We shall do better to remain where the first discovery of the ruin of things by man's deed has placed us-with our faces in the dust. Such is the place which belongs to us by right, and, after all, it is the place of blessing. I have read of a time when several were gathered together in such sorrow of heart, that for a long time they could not utter a single word; but the floor of the meeting-room was wet with their tears. If the Lord would grant us such meetings again, it would be our wisdom to frequent these houses of tears. "They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy" (Ps. 126:5).

It is not only for the earthly remnant that this is true, it is also written for us. I would willingly take a long journey to join these afflicted ones; but I would not go a step with the object of receiving from the hands of most excellent men power to overturn all today, and reconstruct tomorrow.

We need to watch over ourselves, lest, after having been preserved from the corruption of the age by the very precious truths revealed to us in our weakness, we should be taken in the net of presumption, or thrown into insubordination.

These are things which God can never recognize or tolerate, since we are called to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," J. N. Darby

"There is a path which no jowl knoweth, and -which the vulture's eye hath not seen" (Job 28:1). The path which the sharpest natural perception, as symbolized by the vulture's eye, has not perceived must be a remarkable path. Such was the Lord's path here.

"There is but that one in the waste,
Which His footsteps have marked as His own."

That one path was a lonely one for the Lord while He was on earth. Foxes had holes, and birds had nests, but He had no pillow. But the lowly path of shame as a stranger and foreigner led upwards to His Father-the source of that river, the streams whereof make glad the City of God. Even as there is now one place for us in Heaven where He sits on His throne, there is in this benighted earth but one place for us, and that is in the path where His footprints are left.

The apostle Paul could say, "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus… 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" (Phil. 3:12-14). Ittai the Gittite answered King David, "In what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be" (2 Sam. IS:21). If we know the rest in Heaven in which our Lord dwells then we rejoice in tracing out His footprints here.

"The pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them:and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these:so that the one came not near the other all night" (Exod. 14:19, 20). The cloud in this connection may be taken as symbolizing the death of Christ, which comes in as a mighty barrier between the world and us. The marked-out path is on the resurrection side of the death of Christ. Hence the sharpest intellect cannot apprehend it. The Egyptians could not see through to the Israelites because of the cloud which was darkness to them, but the cloud was light to the Israelites. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God… they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). T. Oliver (Galashiels)