Q. 5.-" Please explain Jno. 20:22 in connection with Acts 1:8."

Ans.-In the passage in John we have a symbolic act. In creation, God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. In this passage we have the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit. The Lord as risen, and head of a new creation, confers that in the power of which alone we can walk according to that rule (Gal. 6:16). It is not necessary, however, to suppose that the Spirit was actually bestowed by the act of breathing, or at that time. Pentecost was the appointed time, and then they received, not till then, the promise of the Father. The blessings indicated in the gift of the Spirit in Acts and John are not different. There is no hint that the one is preliminary to the other. In both, power for service is the prominent thought, as may be seen from the context.

Q. 6.-"Explain the difference between 'fruit of righteousness' (Jas. 3:18) and 'fruit of the Spirit' (Gal. 5:22, 23)."

Ans.-The first gives us the outward manifestation-the character, the second gives us the source and power.

Q. 7._"What is the sin unto death (1 Jno. 5:16.)?"

Ans.-It is the sin of a brother, and of such a character that he must be removed under the chastening of God (1 Cor. 11:30). This of course does not mean that he is lost, but that his life here is no testimony for God, and he is taken from a scene where he fails to honor Him.

What rest unspeakable!-
To lay the weary head and the more weary heart
On Jesu's breast, where John so oft reposed ;
To feel the throbbing of that mystic heart-
The only heart that comprehends my own.
For often those who're nearest do not understand,
And fail to enter into thoughts expressed,
And there's a want which cannot be described.
But here is perfect confidence :-
Not even need of words-He knows it all
Before we've time to tell. And oh, to feel
Our sorrow is His own !
Yet He hath sorrowed many times, and wept,
Without one human heart to answer.

Our weakness makes us objects of His care,
And draws out all the tenderness '
That's in the Father's heart for every child,-
The helpless babe, the tottering little one
Just learned to step; for childhood's lesser sorrows
Ever find a ready answer to each feeble call.
And deeper griefs of older hearts,
Who 've learned to measure sin by sorrow s depths-
[The awful depths of that most awful cross
On which our Savior died]
Find healing in the same sweet fount of love.

Oh, blessed storm that drives our shattered bark
Into this haven of eternal peace,
To press more closely to that hallowed breast
The hearts that sigh for rest!

H. McD.

Man's hatred crowned Jesus with thorns, in mockery of His kingship. It had nothing to give the Lord of glory, the Maker of earth, but the fruits of the curse which sin had brought here. Man's love binds that blessed head in a napkin, as Jesus was to be laid away in the rich man's tomb. It spoke of love and care and reverence, but also of utter helplessness and hopelessness-the laying away of One whom they were never to see again-here at least. trusted that it had been He who would have redeemed Israel."This love, human and mistaken as it was, was marked by the Lord. The napkin lies by itself God has crowned Him with glory and honor. He has given Him"beauty for ashes."He wears now what either human hatred nor love put upon His head, but what divine glory has put there." We see Jesus, . . crowned with glory and honor."

FRAGMENT The voice behind us and the object before us.–We have a calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. That is the object before us. No matter what the attainment in knowledge or grace, we press toward the mark. Nothing short of resurrection and a place with Christ where He is will satisfy God's purpose for us. Surely, with such an object, our steps onward should be neither few nor feeble. But should the eye be turned from Christ, and earthly things absorb us, how soon the walk becomes faulty, and we wander from the path! It is then we hear a voice, not before us, but behind, recalling us to forsaken path, and saying, "This is the way; walk ye in it." In the path agin (never out of it), the eye is directed to Christ on high. The voice is behind us when we turn to the right hand or t the left. We can only walk with God in His path. The moment we forsake that, we turn from Him, and find Him no longer alongside of us, but behind, recalling us to Himself. How great is his faithfulness, who thus not only has set a mark on high (and what a mark!), but who watches each step we take here, and provides for our restoration!

FRAGMENT
Child of the Eternal Father,
Bride of the Eternal Son,
Dwelling-place of God the Spirit,
Thus with Christ made ever one;
Dowered with joy beyond the angels,
Nearest to His throne,
They, the ministers attending;
His beloved one:
Granted all my heart’s desire,
All things made my own;
Feared by all the powers of evil,
Fearing God alone;
Walking with the Lord in glory
Through the courts divine,
Queen within the royal palace,
Christ forever mine;
Say, poor worldling, can it be,
That my heart should envy thee?

G. Tersteegen (From "The Quiet in the Land")

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII. PART III.

THE TRINITY OF EVIL, AND THE MANIFESTATION OF THE WICKED ONE.

Commencing Fulfillment of the First Promise [to the Woman's Seed](Chap. 11:19-12:)

The trumpets, as we have seen, carry us to the end of all. What follows here, therefore, is not in continuation of them, but a new beginning, in which we find the development of details,-of course as to what is of primary importance, and involving principles of the deepest interest and value for us. Through all, the links between the Old Testament and the New are fully maintained, and we have the full light of the double testimony. On our part, we shall need on this account a more patient and protracted examination of that which comes before us.

The last verse of the eleventh chapter belongs properly to the twelfth. It characterizes what is to follow rather than what precedes, and, when we remember that Israel is upon the scene, is of greatest significance. The temple of God is opened in heaven, and there is seen in His temple the ark of His covenant. From the world below it had disappeared, and the temple itself been overthrown, -the testimony of His displeasure with an apostate people. Nor, though the temple were replaced, as after the Babylonish captivity had been the case, could the ark ever be restored by man's hand. It was gone, and with it the token of Jehovah's presence in the midst-a loss evidently irretrievable from man's side. Yet if Israel had no longer thus the assurance of what they were to Him, in heaven all the time, though in secret, the unchangeable goodness of God remained. The ark abode, as it were, with Him, and the time was now come to manifest this:the inner sanctuary of the heavens was opened, and there was the ark still seen.

To us who are accustomed to translate these types into the realities they represent, this is all simple. The ark is Christ, and, as the gold outside the shittim-wood declared, is Christ in glory, gone up after His work accomplished-the work which had provided the precious blood which had sprinkled the mercy-seat. Israel had indeed rejected the lowly Redeemer, and imprecated upon themselves the vengeance due to those who shed it. Yet, though the wrath came, Israel was neither totally nor finally rejected. The blood of Jesus speaketh better things than that of Abel, and is before God the justification of a grace that shall yet be shown them. The literal ark is passed away, as Jeremiah tells us, never to return; but instead of that throne of His of old, a more magnificent grace has declared that Jerusalem itself shall be called "the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart." (Jer. 3:16, 17.)

The ark, then, seen in the temple in heaven is the sign of God's unforgotten grace toward Israel; but the nations are not yet ready to welcome that grace, nor indeed are the people themselves, save a remnant, who on that account pass through the bitterest persecution. To that the chapter following bears decisive testimony, as it does of the interference of God for them. Therefore is it that when the sign of His faithfulness to His covenant is seen in heaven, on the earth there ensue convulsion and a storm of divine wrath:"there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail."
And now a "great sign " appears in heaven, "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered."

The sign appears in heaven, not because the woman is actually there, but because she is seen according to the mind of God toward her. Who the woman is should be quite plain, as the child she brings forth is He who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. That is Christ, assuredly, and the mother of Christ is not the virgin, as we see clearly by what follows, still less the Church, of which in no sense is Christ born, but Israel, " of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came," says the apostle. (Rom. 9:4.) Thus she is seen clothed with the glory of the sun,-that is, of Christ Himself as He will presently appear (Mal. 4:2) in supreme power, for the sun is the ruler of the day. As a consequence, her glory of old, before the day-dawn, the reflected light of her typical system, is like the moon here under her feet. Upon her head the crown of twelve stars speaks naturally of her twelve tribes,-planets now around the central sun.

The next words carry us back, however, historically, to the time before Christ. She is in travail with Messiah,- a thought hard to realize or understand, except as we realize what the fulfillment of God's promise as to Christ involved in the way of suffering on the part of the nation. To them while under the trial of law, and with the issue (to man's thought, of course,) uncertain, Christ could not be born; the prosperous days of David must go by; the heirs of David be allowed to show out what was in their heart, and be carried to Babylon; humiliation, sorrow, captivity, fail to produce result, until the voice of prophecy even lapses with Malachi; until the long silence, as of death, is broken by the cry at last, "To us a child is born." Here is at least one purpose, as it would seem, of that triple division of the genealogy of the Lord in Matthew, the governmental gospel, in which the first fourteen generations bring one to the culmination of their national prosperity, the second is a period of decline to the captivity, the third a period of resurrection, but which only comes at last, and as in a moment, after the failure of every natural hope. Thus in the government of God Israel must have her travail-time.

But before we see the birth of the man-child, we are called to look at " another sign in heaven," a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads." These heads and horns we shall presently find upon the fourth beast, or world-empire, but we are not left doubtful as to who the dragon is. Here we find the first in all this part of those interpretations which are given henceforth here and there throughout the book:the dragon is "that ancient serpent which is called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." Thus as the dawn rises upon the battlefield the combatants are discerned. It is Satan who here as the " prince of this world " appears as if incarnate in the last world-empire. "Seven heads" show perfection of world-wisdom; and every one of these heads wears a diadem, or despotic crown. The symbolic meaning of the number does not at all preclude another meaning historically, as Scripture-history is every where itself symbolic, as is nature also. The ten horns measure the actual extent of power, and infer by their number responsibility and judgment.

The serpent of old has thus grown into a dragon-a monster-"fiery red,"as the constant persecutor of the people of God, and he draws with his tail the third part of the stars of heaven, and casts them to the earth. The analogy of the action of the little horn in Daniel (8:10), as well as the scope of the prophecy before us, would lead us to think here of Jews, not Christians, and certainly not angels, as to whom the idea of casting them to the earth would seem quite inappropriate. The "tail" implies the false prophet (Isa. 9:15), and therefore it is apostasy among the professing people of God that is indicated. False teaching is eminently characteristic of satanic power at all times, and far more successful than open violence.

And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she was delivered of a son, a man-child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron:and her child was caught up to God, and to His throne."

The power of Satan, working through the heathen empire of Rome, was thus, with better knowledge than Rome had, in armed watch against the woman and her seed. The census mentioned in Luke as to have gone into effect at the time of Christ's birth, and which was actually carried out after the scepter had wholly departed from Judah, was in effect a tightening of the serpent-coil around his intended victim. Divine power used it to bring a Galilean carpenter and his wife to Bethlehem, and then, as it were without effort, canceled the imperial edict. Only from the nation itself could come the sentence which should, as far as man could do so, destroy it, and that sentence was in Pilate's handwriting upon the cross. But from the cross and the guarded grave the woman's Seed escaped victoriously:" her child was caught up to God, and to His throne."

All is thus far easy of interpretation. In what follows, there is more difficulty, although it admits of satisfactory solution. " And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand, two hundred, and threescore days."

There Daniel's seventieth week comes in again, and evidently the last half of it. But the prophecy goes on immediately from the ascension of Christ to this time, not noticing a gap of more than eighteen centuries which has already intervened between these periods. How, then, can we explain this omission ? and granting it can be explained, what is the connection between these two things that seem, in more than time, so far apart,-the ascension of Christ, and Israel's flight into the wilderness for this half-week of years?

The answer to the first question is to be found in a character of Old-Testament prophecy of which already we. have had one example, and that in the prophecy of the seventy weeks itself. The last week, although part of a strictly determined time on Israel, is cut off from the sixty-nine preceding by a gap slightly longer than that in the vision before us, the sixty-ninth week reaching only to " Messiah the Prince." (Dan. 9:25.) He is cut off and has nothing:the blessing cannot, therefore, come in for them; instead, there is a time of warfare-a controversy between God and the people which is not measured, and which is not yet come to an end. Of this the seventieth week is the conclusion, while it is also the time of their most thorough apostasy-the time to which we have come in this part of Revelation.

This lapse of prophecy as to Israel is coincident with the Christian dispensation, the period in which God is taking out of the earth (and characteristically out of the Gentile nations,) a heavenly people. True, there are Jews saved still,-"there is," as the apostle says, "at the present time also, a remnant according to the election of grace." But these are no longer partakers of Jewish hopes:blessed be God, they have better ones; but the nation as such in the meanwhile is given up, as Micah distinctly declares to them should be the case, while he also declares to them the reason of this, and the limit which God has appointed to it. His words are one of the clearest of Old-Testament prophecies to Christ, so clear that nothing can be clearer, and are those cited by the chief priests and scribes themselves in proof of "where Christ should be born." " They shall smite the Judge of Israel," says the prophet, " with a rod upon the cheek." It is His people who do this,-His own, to whom He came, and they " received Him not." Then he declares the glory of the rejected One:"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 of old, from everlasting." (Chap. 5:i, 2.) But what wilt be the result then of His rejection? This is answered immediately:" Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth; then the remnant of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel."

The last sentence of this remarkable prophecy is a. clear intimation of what we know to be the fact, that in this time of national rejection there would be "brethren" -Jewish evidently-of this Judge of Israel, whose place would not be with Israel; while at the end of the time specified, such converted ones would again find their place in the nation. Meanwhile, Israeli being given up, the blessing of the earth which waits upon theirs is suspended also:the shadow rests upon the dial-plate of prophecy; time is as it were uncounted. Christ is gone up on high, and sits upon the Father's throne:the kingdom of heaven is begun, indeed, but only its "mysteries," unknown to the Old Testament, " things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 13:ii, 35.)

Here, then, where we return to take up the thread of Old-Testament prophecy, it is no wonder if the style of the Old Testament be again found. We have again the gap in time uncounted, the Christian dispensation treated as a parenthesis in God's ways with the earth, and the woman's Seed caught away to God and to His throne. Then follows, without apparent interval, the Jewish flight into the wilderness during the three and a half years of unequaled tribulation.

But this does not answer the second question-that as to the connection between the catching away of the man-child and the woman's flight. For this we must look deeper than the surface, and gather the suggestions which in Scripture every-where abound, and here only more openly than usual demand attention.

That which closes the Christian dispensation we have seen to be what is significantly parallel to that which opens it. In the Acts, the history of the Church is prefaced with the ascension of the Lord:that which will close its history is the removal of His people. This naturally raises the inquiry, If Christ and His people be so one as in the New Testament they are continually represented, may not the man-child here include both, and the gap be bridged over in this way? The promise to the overcomer in Thyatira links them together in what is attributed to the man-child-the ruling the nations with a rod of iron; and the mention of this seems to intimate the time for the assumption of the rod at hand.

This, then, completes the picture and harmonizes it, so that it may be well accepted as the truth; especially as this acceptance only recognizes that which is otherwise known as true, and makes no additional demands upon belief.

The man-child caught up to God and to His throne, the woman flies into the wilderness, into a place prepared of God, where they nourish her for the time of trouble. The woman is the nation as in the sight of God; not all Israel, nor even all the saints in Israel, but those who are ordained of God to continue, and who therefore represent it before Him. The apostate mass are cut off by judgment (Zech. 13:8, 9; Isa. 4:3, 4). The martyred saints go up to heaven. Still God preserves a people to be the nucleus of the millennial nation; and this, of course, it is the special desire of Satan to destroy. They are preserved by the hand of God, though amid trial such as the " wilderness" naturally indicates, and which is designed of God for their purification.

And now there ensues that which in the common belief of Christians had long before taken place, but which in fact is the initial stage of final judgment,-Satan is cast out of heaven.

"And there was war in heaven:Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out,-that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."

As I have said, the simplest interpretation of this is counter to the common belief of Christendom. Satan has, according to the thought of many, long been in hell, though he is (strangely enough) allowed to leave it and ramble over the earth at will. To these, it is a grotesque, weird and unnatural thought that the devil should have been suffered all this time to remain in heaven. Man has evidently been allowed to remain on earth, but then – beside the fact of death removing his successive generations – toward him there are purposes of mercy in which Satan has no part. The vision-character of Revelation may be objected against it also, so that the simplest interpretation may seem on that very account the widest from the truth. Does not our Lord also say that He saw " Satan fall as lightning from heaven"? (Luke 10:18.) And the apostle, that the angels which sinned, He cast down to hell? (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6.) Such passages would seem with many decisively to affirm the ordinary view.

In fact, it is only the last passages that have any real force; and here another has said, " It seems hardly possible to consider Satan as one of these," – the angels spoken of, – "for they are in chains, and guarded till the great day; he is still permitted to go about as the tempter and the adversary, until his appointed time be come."* *Principal Barry, in Smith's Dictionary. The question as to the class of angels here referred to, this is hardly the place to entertain.* As to our Lord's words, they are easily to be understood as in the manner often of prophecy, "I saw," being equivalent to " I foresaw."

On the other hand, that the "spiritual hosts of wickedness" with which now we wrestle are "in heavenly places" is told us plainly in Ephesians (6:12, R. V.); and in the passage in Revelation before us, no less plainly. For the connection of this vision with what is still future we have already seen, and shall see further, and the application to Satan personally ought not to be in doubt. The "dragon" is indeed a symbol; but "the devil and Satan," is the interpretation of it, and certainly not as figurative as the dragon itself.

Scripture implies also in other ways what we have here. When the apostle speaks of our being "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance," he adds that it is to be that "until the redemption of the purchased possession,"-that is, until we get the inheritance itself (Eph. 1:14). But we get it then by redemption, not our own, but of the inheritance itself. Our inheritance has therefore to be redeemed, and this redemption takes place manifestly when the heirs as a whole are ready for it. Now redemption, it is plain, in this case, like the redemption of the body, is a redemption by power,-God laying hold of it to set it free in some sense from a condition of alienation from Himself, and to give his people possession. And if the man-child include " those who are Christ's at His coming," then the purging of the heavenly places by the casting of Satan and his angels out is just the redemption of the heavenly inheritance.

Elsewhere we read, accordingly, of the reconciliation of heavenly as of earthly things (Col. 1:20). And this is a phrase which, like the former, implies alienation previously. And here it is on the ground of the cross:"having made peace through the blood of the cross." In Hebrews, again, as "it was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens"-as in the tabernacle-"should be purified with" sacrificial blood, so must "the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." (Heb. 9:23.) The work of Christ having glorified God as to the sin which has defiled not the earth only but the heavens, He can come in to deliver and bring back to Himself what is to be made the inheritance of Christ and His "joint-heirs."

All is, then, of a piece with what is the only natural meaning of this war in heaven. The question of good and evil, every-where one, receives its answer for heaven as for earth, first, in the work of Christ, which glorifies God as to all, and then, as the fruit of this, in the recovery of what was alienated from Him, the enemies of this glorious work being put under Christ's feet. This now begins to be, though even yet in a way which to us may seem strange:strange to us it seems to hear of war in heaven,-of arrayed hosts on either side,-of resistance though unsuccessful, the struggle being left as it would seem to creature-prowess, God not directly interfering:"Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not."

After all, is it stranger that this should be in heaven than on the earth? Are not God's ways one? And is not all the long-protracted struggle allowed purposely to work out to the end thus, the superior power being left to show itself as the power resident in the good itself, as in that which is the key of the whole problem, the cross of the Son of Man? If God Himself enter the contest, He adapts Himself to the creature-conditions, and comes in on the lowest level,-not an angel even, but a man.

Let us look again at the combatants:on the one side is Michael-" Who is like God ?"-a beautiful name for the leader in such a struggle! On the opposite side is he who first said to the woman, " Ye shall be as God;" and whose pride was his own condemnation (i Tim. 3:6). How clearly the moral principle of the contest is here defined! Keep but the creature's place, you are safe, happy, holy; the enemy shall not prevail against you:leave it, you are lost. The " dragon "-from a root which speaks of "keen sight"-typifies what seems perhaps a preternatural brilliancy of intellect, serpent-cunning, the full development of such "wisdom" as that with which he tempted Eve, but none of that which begins with the fear of God. He is therefore, like all that are developed merely upon one side, a monster. This want of conscience is shown in his being the devil-the " false accuser;" his heart is made known in his being Satan- the adversary.

These are the types of those that follow them; and Michael is always the warrior-angel, characterized as he is by his name, as Gabriel-" man of God "-is the messenger of God to men. If God draw near to men, it is in the tender familiarity of manhood that He does so. How plainly do these names speak to us!

In the time of distress that follows upon earth, Daniel is told that "Michael shall stand up, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy people; . . . and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Here in Revelation we have the heavenly side of things, and still it is Michael that stands up as the deliverer. The tactics of divine warfare are not various, but simple and uniform. Truth is simple and one; error manifold and intricate. The spiritual hosts fight under faith's one standard, and it is the banner of Michael, "Who is like God?" Under its folds is certain victory. F.W.G.

(To be continued.)

AS CONTAINED IN DR. SUNDAY’S LECTURES ON ''THE ORACLES OF GOD."

I. The Present Contention.-Continued.

Dr. SUNDAY next calls to witness the Babylonian versions of Creation and the Flood:-

"With all their uniformity," he says, "the resemblance of these to the corresponding biblical stories was striking, and needed to be accounted for"!

In a note he adds,-

"It would seem that traditions in respect to the Creation and the Flood were originally the common property of the Semitic races, developed by each in accordance with the genius of its religion. We shall see later (Lect. 5:) that they were not of a kind to be referred directly to revelation; at the same time, in the Hebrew version, the Spirit of revelation is clearly visible, not on the side which belongs of right to science (!.'), but in all that concerns the nature and relations of God and man. Even from the point of view of science, when allowance is made for the simple mode of presentation which alone was possible when the early chapters of Genesis were written, we may see an approximation to the truth which the believer in Providence (!) will easily refer to its origin; but we must be careful not to exaggerate the extent of this approximation. The history of science reveals plainly that God has permitted the evolution of true ideas on scientific subjects to be entangled in a mass of fantastic error. In the biblical account, this appears to be reduced to something like a minimum. More than this we cannot safely say."

This argument, if one can call it such, derives all its force from the unbelief which it expresses. That the Babylonians, dwelling at the original center of dispersion, as we see from Scripture that they did, should have traditions both of Creation and the Flood nearer the truth than others of the nations round is in no wise wonderful. The few generations between these two events would render a tradition of the former coming down from Adam easily preservable, and it is not strange that God should at the beginning have instructed His creatures in the important matter of their own origin. Moses may have even used this under the guidance of the Spirit of God, and in that economy of miracle to which Scripture itself testifies, without the least derogation to his being in the fullest way inspired. Luke speaks expressly of his own accurate knowledge as qualifying him to write his gospel, and was none the less, and needed none the less to be, inspired for his work. There is not the slightest difficulty in all this; and it is hard to know why Dr. SUNDAY should make any. It is well that he yet sees "in the Hebrew version the influence of the Spirit of revelation," although it be "not on the side that belongs of right to science"-does he mean over which the Spirit of revelation has not right ? If so, will he tell us how, or why ?

"Even from the point of view of science," however, "we may see an approximation" to the truth which "the believer in Providence will easily refer to its origin," and the "fantastic error" in which other accounts have been allowed to be entangled, in the biblical one "appears to be reduced to something like a minimum." Then God did not leave Moses to himself even in this respect! Why should this " minimum " be necessary in that case? If the rights of science are not infringed by this, why should they be by the preservation of absolute truth ? Surely no reason can be given. Would not the interests of man- would not the glory of God-be better served by truth than by error? Why, I ask again, should this minimum of error be necessary ? The history of science it is, no doubt, that "plainly reveals"-to our author-"that God permits" it to be so! Which only amounts to this, that there the mistakes are, as he supposes. But will Dr. SUNDAY show us this ?

We must not expect it. General assertions are easier to make and harder to repel. It would need a volume to go over this well-tracked ground, and show the truth of the Scripture account; and it is usually thought very hard to prove the negative to which Dr. SUNDAY would compel us. We deny that any mistake can be shown ; and we deny it after careful and prolonged and open-eyed examination. According to our author, perhaps, as we have no claim to be specialists, and none else can speak with authority, our opinion will be of no value. But it will stand until something has been produced against it,- until that has been done, indeed, which lips that spake like no other have pronounced impossible.

"The critical investigation of the Bible itself" is the last thing to which the author refers at the close of his first lecture; and he thinks that the "results obtained- or at least thought to be obtained" are "of more far-reaching significance " than any thing of which he has yet spoken. But here we are merely given the results that have been reached on the continent of Europe, and among that class of specialists evidently who have committed themselves to those theories of inspiration which naturally bear such fruit.

"It is agreed on all hands that the Pentateuch is formed by the dove-tailing together of different documents; it is agreed by the great mass of inquirers that nearly all of these documents in their present shape are not earlier than the time of the Kings." " Similar problems arise in respect to the historical books. The other most prominent questions are, the assignment of large parts of Isaiah and of the last six chapters of Zechariah to writers other than the authors of the main body of the book-in the case of Isaiah later, and in the case of Zechariah earlier; and the dates of the composition of many parts of the Psalter and the books of Joel, Jonah, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Daniel."

How many questions more are involved in these questions of date and authorship the lecturer does not at present inform us. That will be made plain as we go on. Meanwhile, Dr. SUNDAY sees no cause for alarm in all this; and the best sign of which he is aware is the prevalence of so calm a spirit in that younger generation that is coming to the front in these matters. Faith is stronger than it was. It will not be disturbed by the fact of "laws of the Levitical code" being "presented as ordinances of Moses, though when they were first promulgated every one knew that they were not so," or to learn that "what is quite certain is, that, according to the prophets, the Torah (Law) of Moses did not embrace a law of ritual:worship, by sacrifice, and all that belongs to it, is no part of the divine Torah to Israel." "According to the prophets, Jehovah asks only a penitent heart and no sacrifice. According to the ritual law, He desires a penitent heart approaching Him in certain sacrificial sacraments." These are some of the statements of a well-known "higher critic" (Prof. Robertson Smith). If they be true, what about the atonement of Christ?

Faith may be strong enough to look calmly at such " far-reaching results " of modern criticism. On the other hand, Dr. SUNDAY may refuse such extremes. Yet they must be contemplated, for who will bid this sea to know its bound ? But believers need not be afraid :the pyramid has been long firm upon its base :what matter if it be stood now upon its apex? A more recent writer of the same school has told us that " there is no passage in the Old Testament that refers directly and predictively to Jesus Christ." "The literal fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy is an assumption that has been transmitted to us from the early ages of the Christian Church."

Why should we stop there? why any where? Who has any right to say how deep, how fundamental, may be the mistakes discovered ? On the other hand-for all is uncertain here :the view shifts as the stream carries us on- they may not be discovered. Says Dr. SUNDAY once more,-

"I propose . . . to do what I can to estimate the effect upon a Christian's faith of the changes which seem to be in progress. There must be in this an element of anticipation. I do not say that all that I regard as possible is as yet completely proved. It may perhaps never be proved. If that is so, our course is plain. We only have to keep where we are. But it is right for us to keep in view contingencies which will seem to some, at least, more or less probable."

And of course it will be always right; and as the future may be conceived to have multitudinous " contingencies more or less probable," our faith must hold loosely much -how much, who can tell?-that by and by we, or our descendants after us, may have to give up as error. Dr. SUNDAY, in a note, quoting the Dean of Peterborough, refers to "an authority no less unprejudiced than Haeckel, as affirming that 'from Moses, who died about 1480 B.C., down to Linnaeus, who was born 1707 A. D., there has been no history of creation to be compared to the biblical.' " Yet the biblical is now exploded, and Prof. Haeckel himself has written another ! Must we not have the long vision of prophets in order to know, then, how much of the New Testament, not yet two thousand years old, will remain for another millennium ?

Unfortunately the higher criticism is getting less and less to accredit the prophets ; and it would seem that the principal thing left for us to believe in is just that infinite possibility of the future, which somehow seems to be so disastrous to the present. Under these circumstances, Dr. SUNDAY will certainly find that there are many unprepared to invest their capital in that terribly uncertain bank of the future, and, seeing that even he, after all, like others, " must be content to take a great deal upon trust," will trust Moses still. For over three thousand years he was more trustworthy (Haeckel himself being witness,) than any body else. Many think him worthy of credit yet, and that all real discoveries, even in this day of scientific victories over nature, have only the more proved him to be so.

But above all this, though blending with it in a blessed . harmony, there is One Voice which, as long as there are Christians, will have authority over them, and which says, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, HOW SHALL YE BELIEVE MY WORDS?" F. W. G.

He liveth evermore. . The heart once assured of the perfection and fullest ground for blessing laid through the one offering made, the blood shed- without which, no remission-no room is left for vague misgivings, anxious thought for the welfare of others ; but such can truthfully and candidly say, in the face of cruel mockings, "All's well." One is in torment, we read in Luke 16:, for whom there is no balm. He did not esteem himself a poor and afflicted man ; Lazarus did, whose trust was in Jehovah's name. But this one is not indifferent to his father's house; yet what a tale do the lives of such as our picture gives tell in this scene of their responsibility, and where God shows grace, while in their wantonness they feast without fear! in splendor they live-in all luxuriance, yet to find such lives have been a hollow, shameless, unceasing revel, running to excess of riot, whose kindred are led on to desire this pride of life, where humility and want is unknown, and when known, no Lazarus or father Abraham, no Moses or prophet to minister to the need so awful, because not temporal but eternal. " If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." How solemn the reply!-"If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from among the dead." How fully does the opening of the Acts attest to this! He who occupies a place on His Father's throne, who was displaced here, given a cross,-no tomb could hold Him, for that Holy One was not suffered to see corruption, and all judgment is committed to Him. Men have had faithfully, in the power of the Spirit, told home to heart and conscience what they are and what they have done. Those who were alarmed at the desperate length to which they had gone ask, " Men and brethren, what shall we do?" The reply so prompt, "Peter said unto them, ' Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the prom-is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

This grace and mercy so far-reaching did not stop at a privileged people who dwelt in the vicinity of Jerusalem, as another was raised up of Him to testify. " The love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead ; and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh :yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." Do we know Him as Head of new creation, of His body the Church, who was made sin for us, who knew no sin, who knows how to succor and sympathize, who helpeth seasonably- the One who liveth evermore, who serves at present interceding, granting mercies, and will serve in a time to come in blessing vicious, who in His name and through grace and strength vouchsafed overcome and do valiantly, refreshing, as in Abram's case after the slaughter, owning so fully relationship as instituted of God, subject to His Word, obedient and faithful, loving righteousness, hating iniquity, delivering his brother and his goods, and the women and the people. Do we come in through faith of Jesus Christ, and range along with such worthies as Abraham? But, oh, to be found doers, to know Him who delights in truth in the inward parts-King of righteousness, King of peace, "and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever" ! that instead of fleshly knowledge, there might be no longer knowing after the flesh, no longer serving with puffed-up mind, but through the love of Christ constraining, esteeming members of His body worthy of care, interest, loving, gentle, nurturing, acquainting them with good marks for feet to tread in through following hard after Him ; showing wisdom from above has been vouchsafed that is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Overcome evil with good. Troublers, dissimulators, gifts turned as side to evil work, but why? This spirit of murmuring one against another often encouraged, the behavior so rude is either let pass unrebuked and not feeling the reproach or seeking grace to remove it, evil goes on unchecked ; but if we knew and gave the fullest credit to the truth that old things had passed away, and sought to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God ; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness ; giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, how blessed ! let it be for His name's sake, provoking unto love and good works. Oh, may He lead to judgment of ways, and enable to walk and work that He has praise, and that men and angels may see what grace has wrought. W. B.

(London.)

But "five barley loaves, and two small fishes,"
Among the five thousand, with all my wishes,
Seemed very small indeed.
"Two hundred pennyworth " was not enough that all "
A little" might "take." But thy gifts, however small,
Shall meet this pressing need.

"Bring them hither to Me," and with My blessing,
And with thine impotence frankly confessing,
" Give ye then? to eat."
Thy "seed " shall "multiply," thy bread shall not lack ;
And though it be but crumbs, I will bring it back-
Thy need I'll surely meet.

Then with my little I laid me at His feet,
And though it was my all, less were incomplete
For the service of love.
But hungry souls were fed with the bread of life,
While the bread for my food was " gathered " without
By strength from above. [strife

If I ate my little-brought it not to Him,
My " loaves" I would not have, nor yet to the brim
Of crumbs "twelve baskets" full!
There is, then, withholding, to poverty tending ;
But love distributes-"good works" commending,
And thus grace shall rule.

(Ezek. 16:8; Song 2:10-13.)

In seeking to touch the heart of the nation, God goes back to the time of their first love-the love of their espousals. Hard as their heart may be now, there was a time when it was tender, when it felt the thrill of joy at knowing it was loved and of loving in return. In the Song of Solomon we have the voice of the Beloved calling away from all else to the enjoyment of Himself. The time of love for Israel had past, but for the Lord it still remained. Coming to ourselves, is it now "the time of love? or is it only as we think of the past that we see that time ?For Ephesus, it was past, and no works, diligence, and correctness could take its place with the Lord. Let us hear him telling us that it is His time of love now. He loves us just as much now as when He bore judgment for us on the cross. He would do as much again if necessary. Blessed forever be His precious name! His love knows no change. He speaks to us in love's own language, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away."Think of His calling you His fair one? Are we fair ? are our hands clean ?We are that to Him, and if not practically that, what a shame to us! He must have us with Himself. Love wishes to be alone with its object, so He says, " Come away." Whatever your heart is occupied with to the exclusion of Him-come away from it.

What a fair scene lies before the eyes of love ! "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come ; the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land." To sight, this earth is a barren waste, as far as true joy is concerned ; but if our hearts are in communion with the Lord, it is a "time of love" for us. We see the winter and rain of judgment over and gone-borne once for all on Calvary-the flowers of heaven are seen and its music heard in the soft quiet notes of the " heavenly Dove."

Dear brethren, is it thus with us-are we in our time of love ! Oh, how much we are missing if this is not true ! How much too we are robbing the Lord of, who longs for us even here to share His joy. In a little while it will be the time of love for all His people, let us anticipate that and pass on through this world with hearts filled and overflowing with His love, waiting only for one thing,-"to see His face and hear His voice."

Lord, our restlessness we own,-
Fully own.
How we wander here and there,
All alone.
When we should have walked with Thee,
In childlike simplicity;
Nor have left the even way,
Thus to stray.

Oft we think our restless mind
Like the wind.
Wandering over mount and glen,
Like the hind
Of the wilds Father, gather
All our roving thoughts together,
Into the restraining band
Of Thy hand.

Restless hands that toy and play
Every day.
Oh! how oft we check, and fold,
As we say!
Teach these hands to work for Thee,
Laboring for eternity,
For the bread that shall endure
Sweet and sure.

Restless hearts! Ah, yes, 'tis so.
Well we know
How they oft forget Thee, Lord.
Bending low,
Sadly we confess, with tears,
Though Thy grace hath crowned our years,
Oft our hearts forget to be
Near to Thee.

Savior fill us with Thy love,
From above,
Then our hearts, our hands, our feet,
All will move
Only at Thy bidding, Lord;
Joyful to obey Thy word.
Only thus can we fulfill
All Thy will. H. McD.

"Salvation" is a word of such breadth of mean-Sing that we need to see its connection before we can rightly understand its significance in any particular passage of Scripture. For instance, in Jude 5 we have the salvation of the people out of the land of Egypt spoken of. Here it is evident that a physical and temporal deliverance from evil is the thought. Likewise in i Tim. 4:10 the apostle speaks of God as "the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe," evidently referring not to spiritual but to bodily preservation ; God, by maintaining in life, providing for and preserving from danger, is the Saviour of all men. In an especial sense can the believer say this.

On the other hand, in Acts 16:30, 31, we have an entirely different use of the word. In the question of the jailer we see, not a desire for any physical deliverance, but salvation from the wrath of that God whose power he had just felt and seen. It is the salvation of his soul that he asks for, and which he receives at once, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. A similar use of the word is seen in 2 Tim. 1:9,-" Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling;" and in i Pet. 1:9, where believers are said now to receive the salvation of their souls. In this use of the word, salvation is always a present possession. It would be a contradiction to all that brings peace to the anxious sinner to tell him that salvation of the soul was future for the believer.

But the salvation spoken of in the passage before us has neither of the meanings we have mentioned. Along with i Pet. 1:5, it refers to what is "reserved for us in heaven," and "ready to be revealed in the last time." Phil. 3:20, 21, also speaks of the "Saviour" in this sense, specially linking His coming with the transformation of our " vile bodies." It is in this complete sense of the word that our salvation is " nearer than when we believed." Let us now seek to get some idea of its fullness. What does "salvation" mean in this sense? We may not learn any thing new by dwelling upon it, but if old truths come freshly before us and cause us to be indeed waiting for salvation just as Anna and Simeon were waiting for it in Jerusalem, the object of the apostle in the passage will have been gained, so far as we are concerned.

The first thought of salvation is, being brought into a scene which answers to the spiritual condition of the saved. The wicked cease from troubling, the effects and influences of sin are seen no more. Earth, with its sorrows, trials, and groans, is a thing of the past. Our surroundings, instead of witnessing as they do now to the ruin sin has made, will witness to what God has wrought for us. The curse which stamps all things here is then removed, and in its place we have "all things new." Secondly, our body will answer to this new scene. No longer a mortal body, dead because of sin, to be kept under, and often best showing the power of Christ in its own weakness and infirmities (2 Cor. 12:)-no longer such a body, but one made like unto His glorious body, in which at last our ransomed spirits will have, not a prison, as now, but a vehicle adapted to all their enlarged capacities. " It is sown a natural body, (1:e., suitable to an animal life here,) it is raised a spiritual body (1:e., suitable to the spiritual life there)." Those who through weakness or sickness or age feel specially the burden of their earthly house surely are warranted in taking special comfort in this aspect of salvation. But thirdly, both of these would be but shadows did they not suggest and necessitate the blessed fact that sin, whether in transgression or nature, is gone forever. This is not the case now, save to faith-as we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin; but with our mortal body goes the sin which can only have sway there. He who came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself will then, when the redemption of the body takes place, see the full result of His work accomplished.

" No more as here, 'mid snares, to fear
A thought or wish unholy."

Lastly, to which all that has been said is but the introduction, we will be "forever with the Lord," to behold Him, commune with Him, share His glory, and to worship Him and the Father. God and the Lamb! Oh! what will not that mean-at last to. be in His presence, where there is fullness of joy! Let us pause, and dwell upon it:words fail, but may the Spirit of God, whose work it is, show us more of these things to come!

And, dear fellow-believers, this glorious salvation is " nearer than when we believed," nearer than last year, nearer than yesterday. What a future to contemplate!

Notice how our gaze is directed,-not backward, at our past life, which would beget only discouragement in every right-thinking person-for we have all come far short of what we should have been. The backward look would be likely to link us with earth; we are to be "forgetting the things that are behind." Neither are we told to look forward at the time which may yet remain, proper enough in its place, but dangerous to one tempted to have "confidence in the flesh." Plans for the future, needful to some extent, are after all but subordinate. Nor does the apostle lead us to think of the judgment-seat of Christ in this passage, where every one is to receive a reward or to suffer loss. It is sobering and healthful to remember that too in its place. Indeed, all three of these thoughts are right in their proper connection. Here, however, we have the one thought – " the day is at hand."

In the light of that fast-hastening day, the believer is called upon, in the most practical way, to awake:as with the virgins the cry, "Behold the bridegroom cometh! " is to make him arise and trim the lamp. If Zion, in view of her speedy deliverance (Is. 52:), is called to arise, and shake herself from the dust, how appropriate is the call here in view – not of an earthly deliverance, but of an eternal and complete salvation – to " put off the works of darkness," and awaken out of the sleep of the night! As the light of that " morning without clouds " shines into our hearts, how these works of darkness – whether the grosser forms here mentioned or those more subtle ones of strife and envy – will be put off, and that light into which we are so soon to enter clothe us as with a panoply!

Is not this a proper motto for the new year upon which we have just entered:"The time is short." "The coming of the Lord draweth nigh"? There may be but a few days left for service or suffering. Did we but realize what awaits us, did it but come with power to us, how changed the lives of many of us would be! Things which now seem of great importance, and which occupy much of our time and thoughts, would be seen in their true light. Things which perhaps are to us insignificant now would then appear in all the value of eternity. What calmness in the presence of evil, what joy amid trial, what growth in grace, did we hear this word with power in our souls:" Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed"!

Q. 11.-"In what sense are we to understand 1 Tim. 6:17, 18, 19 ?"

Ans.-The passage is an exhortation to the rich, if there were such, pointing out their dangers and responsibilities. One correction may be noted in ver. 19. Let it read, "That they may lay hold of what is really life." Their riches were in this present age-would not last forever, and even here were uncertain. The two dangers to which they were specially exposed were, high-mindedness and trust in riches. How natural are these dangers! Money begets pride. We think ourselves better than others because richer than they, too often forgetting that God has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith. Or how easy to trust in our means rather than in God-to know we will be fed and sheltered, all our needs met, not because we have a Father, but because we have money. These are the two dangers of the rich,- dangers, not confined to the unsaved, but real to all who have any means. Indeed, it is wonderful on how slender a prop man will lean. Opposed to the trust in uncertain riches is that in the Giver of all things. And what a view we have of His kindness ! " He giveth us richly all things to enjoy." He is a liberal giver -even when it is but a crust, had we eyes to see it, it would be a liberal gift. All is given, too. for our enjoyment; no ascetic gloom casts its shadow over His temporal mercies; we are to eat our meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Then as to the responsibilities, – they are to use God's gifts for Him, to share with those who need; and in so doing, they will be exchanging gold for enduring riches. They will be laying up treasures in heaven. They will be making to themselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness – the god, the idol, of the unrighteous ; so that, when it fails, they shall find its fruits in the life beyond, – or, as in our passage, they will "lay hold on what is really life, not what the world calls such, but that which endures eternally. This will be a good foundation for the future – a well-spent life here, the 'fruit of faith, being the opposite of one used in selfish enjoyment and pandering to the flesh. It need hardly be added that this in no way conflicts with the great fundamental truths of the gospel – salvation by faith, on the ground of the work of Christ,- as it refers to the fruits of life, not the root.

Q. 12. – "Please give a few scriptures showing the difference between endless being and eternal life, to refute annihilationists."

Ans. – "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." The life here is God-given, and has never been taken back – never will, for a punishment that is everlasting must be for those only who live everlastingly. Endless being, then, is what all men have in contrast with the "beasts that perish." Death, as spoken of in Scripture, never affects this endless being, but refers either to the body – the "mortal body" of Rom. 6:12, or to the moral state, as in Eph. 2:1. If those dead in trespasses and sins are yet alive, so those in the lake of fire – the second death – are also alive, for "their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched." Existence is then not the question when life or death are spoken of in the Scriptures. This is the first thing to note with regard to the expression "eternal life." It does not mean endless existence, though, of course, it includes that thought. Eternal life is the gift of God through our Lord Jesus Christ – or in Him. It is characterized by knowledge of the "true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent." (Jno. 17:) It begins at regeneration, and may generally be described as the opposite of that moral death the condition of all the unsaved. As possessors of eternal life we are "partakers of the divine nature," we are children of God. Of course, along with this go the related truths that we are justified and accepted in the beloved. Endless being, then, is the common lot of all, eternal life of those only who believe in Jesus.

"Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues, for their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant." (Ps. 78:36, 37.)

To flatter a person is to speak well of him, in a way we do not really believe, in order to get his favor, or secure something to our advantage. It is the language of the lips, not of the heart. It is falsehood, and, as Scripture says, " He that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet." It is seeking to gain by cunning rather than by real worth, and it degrades the one who receives it and shows the character of the one who offers it. But how can man flatter God ? He is infinitely above all we can conceive Him. No attribute, no excellence which we can ascribe to Him is an exaggeration ; all falls short. But the flattery lies in the motive. Here was Israel in the wilderness, doing as they pleased, and doubting and murmuring all along the way. Every now and then they would turn to the Lord, for it was not their desire to break entirely with Him. Poor souls, in their blindness they thought God was like man to be flattered, to be soothed, and turned from His anger by a few words of praise and promise.

This has not ceased. There are flatterers of God to-day -men who wish to go on as they please but who will, as they think, keep God on their side by a little religiousness. The Roman Catholic will sin all the year, and once at its close flatter God by going to the confessional. The man of the world will live as he pleases, and offer his flattery by an occasional contribution to some " good cause." The awakened soul even is tempted to do the same, and by making unrealized professions seek to dull the vigilance of a justice he fears.

But passing from these too common cases of flattery amongst the unsaved, is there not much for our own conscience in this word ? We are not in the enjoyment of full communion, perhaps, or we have something we want to do, and we are not sure of His approval; so we come with words on our lips, words of love, praise, and worship; but, alas! there is no heart there. Unconsciously, perhaps, we are trying to flatter Him. But He that is holy, He that is true, will receive nothing of this kind. He will have heart worship or none at all.

Let us remember this, in our prayers, our songs of praise, our service. But on the other hand, let us not be morbid or self-occupied. The verse quoted shows why the people flattered God, " Their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant." It is holding something in the heart which is contrary to God's mind that would make us flatter Him. Steadfastness of heart in His covenant will prevent untruth. Then the feeblest groan is vocal with prayer, and the faintest whisper of trust is sweet praise, to His gracious ear.

(Continued from p. 111.)
Having briefly examined the word "love" (agape), and the various connections in which it is found, we come now to one which gives character to God's love:Hagios, hagiazo, "holy, to sanctify." True love, divine love, is holy. God never sacrifices His holiness for His love. Indeed, love would cease to be truly perfect did it dim in the least the bright shining forth of that holiness. With us, alas ! it is different:love means too often the sacrifice of right principles, of faithful testimony ; it means allowing sin to be unreproved in our brother, looseness in all the relationships of life-the home, the place of business, the assembly. But this is not true love ; it is weakness. The careful examination of the word now before us will show that there is no such element of weakness in that love we have been dwelling upon. The cross, the greatest exhibition of love, is at the same time the full manifestation of God's holiness. He loved the world, and gave His Son:He was holy-that blessed One must die.

The name "saints" (hagioi) is given to His people to show what they are in Christ, and in God's mind,-what, therefore, He would have them carry out in the life :(chap. 5:3) " Let it not be named among you, as becometh saints." This is the Scripture-thought of sainthood, so contrary to all man's thought on the subject. Man says he must act in a certain way in order to be a saint; God says we should act thus because we are saints. What a beautiful name to be known by-"saints"-"sanctified ones"-"holy people"! So God looks upon us and speaks of us. "They envied Aaron, the saint of the Lord." (Ps. 106:16.) Looking at Aaron's personal life, there would not seem to be much ground for him to lay claim to sainthood. He made the golden calf, and taught the people to worship it. This at the beginning of his career. He, with Miriam, envied Moses during that career; and to close it, he had the melancholy record of anger at the waters of Meribah, shutting him as well as Moses out of the land of Canaan. Yet, failing at the beginning, middle, and end of his life, Aaron is a saint- God set him apart for Himself. The importance of the word in the epistle is seen from its frequent use- chaps, 1:i, 15, 18; 2:19; 3:8, 18; 4:12; 6:18. His people are clothed in clean raiment in His sight, let it be practically so. If this is true individually, it follows necessarily that it applies collectively. So the temple is a holy one, formed of such living stones. This work of building, as well as of sealing (the individual work), is by the Holy Spirit (chaps, 1:13; 4:30). So, looking on to the end, where God's glory will be fully manifested, holiness is "there too (chaps, 1:4; 5:26, 27). Linked with these are the kindred words "without spot" (aspilos), or "wrinkle" (nitis), and "blameless" (amomos). How blessed to know that this was God's purpose for us when He chose us in Christ,-that this purpose will be perfectly accomplished. By grace we have been freed from the guilt of sin, another having borne it; through grace we can walk free from the power of sin by reckoning ourselves to be dead to it and alive to God in Christ Jesus ; but do not our hearts yearn for that time when we shall be freed from the presence of sin, when holiness will describe our character both positively and negatively !

Chap. 4:24-Hosiotes-" holiness of truth " shows the character of this holiness, that it is no mere negative absence of evil, but according to and produced by the truth. This is most important. What is called devotion, even prayerfulness, is not necessarily holiness of truth. These may be merely the exercise of human will; but the truth is what sanctifies, and by the truth all professed sanctity must be tested.

"Hence we find the word "truth" (aletheia) prominently used. In chap. 1:13, it is that which begins the work, which lies at the foundation-"the word of the truth of the gospel." "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth." (Jas. 1:18.) Then as to the pattern of the walk, the truth as it is in Jesus (His spotless, true life down here,) is the guide. The result of learning effectually the truth as it is in Jesus will lead to truth in our life (chap. 4:25). The fruit of the Spirit (chap. 5:9) is in truth, and that which is to gird us for warfare is truth,-God's Word encircling my life, not applied here and there as it may suit, but the loins -the inner man-"the loins of the mind" girded with sober truth-the whole truth of God. " The truth in love" (chap. 4:15) gives us what we have been dwelling upon, not these two separated so as to conflict, but each acting with and through the other. Similar words follow:phos, "light;" photizo, "to enlighten." In chap. 5:8 it is used both to show the standing and walk of the saint, contrasted with his former condition of darkness (skotos) and walk (chap. 5:ii), when the works were "unfruitful works of darkness." This light is what we are in the Lord ; as we noticed before of the word "saints," we are to walk in a manner corresponding to what we are-" walk as children of light." It is this which links us with the day which will soon dawn ; even now we should be as lights in a dark place, reproving and manifesting the darkness by the light. Should any have closed the eyes, how arousing the call, "Awake, thou that sleepest! and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light"! Soon we will have nothing but light within and about us; let us have it now shining undimmed upon us and from us.

Thus from these two classes of words examined we get at that which gives character to the whole epistle -Love, Holiness, God is light, God is love. In this book we have Him thus presented. God is manifested in it. Light and love too are what should be found in us, hence the frequent use of these words in that connection.

It is interesting to notice that in the epistle to the Galatians we have not the word "holiness" at all. The contents give the reason. The saints were under law, and the law never produces holiness. The Spirit of God occupies those saints with their low state, and so there is little room for either love or holiness to be mentioned. How different in Ephesians! God's thoughts, not our perversion of them, are before us ; hence, as a natural consequence, love and holiness flow forth.

VI.

The sixth covenant is with Abraham at his tent-door I (Gen. 18:) in the plains of Mamre, when visited by the three men. He was privileged to entertain the Lord Himself ; and this tells us he was walking in communion with God ; and no sooner are we ready to receive the Lord than is He in grace and love ready to visit us, and assure our hearts of His fellowship and approval. "We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." (Jno. 14:23.) And Enoch " had this testimony, that he pleased God." (Heb. 11:5.) "And if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me." (Rev. 3:20.) "I will come in to him, and will sup with him" comes first-before "and he with Me." This is grace. So Mary goes to Elizabeth,-the one who has the greater revelation and honor to the other. So the one who knows most of grace and fellowship is the one who will be the first to manifest love and fellowship to others, and kindle in other hearts an answering warmth-a manifestation of what it is to "dwell in God" (i Jno. 4:12), and "walk in love," as "imitators of God." (Eph. 5:i-R. V.)

May we have the door open, then, to fellowship with God, and we shall have the heart open toward one another. We shall truly love one another, and have the wisdom of God in all our ways with one another.

Let us note that Abraham was " in the plains of Mamre" -that place where he dwelt and worshiped after he had gained a victory over the temptation that drew Lot away to Sodom (Gen. 13:18).

It is holy ground-associations of victory and communion-"Mamre," "in Hebron," meaning "vigor in company" or, may we not say, "communion" (Young's Concordance). Thus "the plains of Mamre" link the third and sixth covenants together in some way; and is it not (in this, at least,) prominently that God is the God of resurrection? s to the third, the number suggests it. As to this one-the sixth, the assurance of a son when naturally there was no hope, because nothing was " too hard for the Lord" very plainly declares it. Where, then, is the difference between the two covenants as to their teaching? Is it not this, that in the third it is simply the complete manifestation of the power, of God (promised), whereas in the sixth it is the assurance of this manifestation in the face of death(Abraham and Sarah being beyond hope,) and of unbelief (Sarah's laughter), as at the grave of Lazarus there was the groaning and the weeping and unbelief, but just there and then the word of the Son of God went forth, " Lazarus, come forth!" Man comes forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, the evidence of the awful power that had been holding him captive-the power of an enemy; but the power of a greater delivers, and in the hour of his apparent victory Satan is overwhelmingly defeated.

Thus in the sixth covenant the evil significance of this number is very clearly present; it is short of seven, it is imperfection-sin-Satan's work. But in this portion, as elsewhere, the prominent thing is nevertheless the power of God above sin and Satan; to keep within bounds, and reap glory to Himself by entire victory and blessing at last.
This good side in the meaning of the number may be reached as suggested (in "Numerical Structure,") by the meaning of 2 (strife, division, evil,) multiplied by 3,- that is, evil subject to the power of God. But however it may be, this position in Gen. 18:is certainly, as a matter of fact, the sixth covenant. It is a sixth, and its teaching is surely distinctly and prominently the power of
God over sin and death and unbelief-the work of the enemy.

Another thing to note is, that man is here brought into fellowship with God about all this; which agrees too with its occurring under the last four covenants, not under the first three. But whatever the teaching numerically, there is an interesting comparison between this scene at the tent-door and the one at the grave of Lazarus as to this point. However different the circumstances, the scenes are after all similar in their teaching, naturally enough of course. Abraham is a pilgrim and a stranger, and, according to nature, has no hope; so those at Bethany are brought face to face with death and the grave. But there where hope is gone, and hearts are smitten and broken, the Lord draws near, and brings man into fellowship with His power and His love. The enemy seems to be about to carry all before him, but it is only that his defeat may be the more signal and overwhelming.

This is illustrated in the pursuit of Pharaoh and his host after Israel-Israel in helpless weakness shut up apparently to a dreadful doom, when suddenly all is changed-the awful waves of God's judgment close in, and the enemy is seen no more. And this portion of Exodus, as has been shown to us of late, is a sixth part among the seven parts into which the divine record of Israel's deliverance naturally falls. All this falls remarkably into line with what we are now considering, and tends to assure us that whatever is real in these numerical teachings will be abundantly confirmed as we get better acquainted with our subject through a deeper acquaintance with the Scriptures, and so with the relationship of its parts to one another in this way.

Another notable illustration of this point is found in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew,-where the Lord, for the sixth time in this gospel, in His path of service, is spoken of as upon a mountain, as already shown in a previous article. That is after He begins His ministry,- after the Temptation.

What, then, is the subject of the Lord's discourse in the twenty-fourth of Matthew, as He sat upon the mount on this sixth occasion ? Just that which is typified by the destruction of Pharaoh at the Red Sea,-that is, the power of Antichrist and of Satan threatens the destruction _of the people of God. The "abomination of desolation " stands in the holy place; and "except those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved." All is dark and terrible,-woe has followed woe, and distress has continued to increase, and the storm has caused His own to cry out, when, suddenly as the lightning, the judgment has fallen, and their deliverance has come. The Lord appears in the clouds of heaven in power and glory, and the enemy is destroyed with judgment. All this is clearly in harmony, and parallel ; whether the type at the Red Sea, in ,Ex. 14:or in Matt, 24:, the narration of what will answer to the type,-all is a consistent and remarkable testimony as to the meaning of this number.

But how suggestive are these solemn and blessed scenes at the Red Sea, and in Israel's final great deliverance, of God's dealing with us now, individually and collectively ! In these scenes His present dealings are reflected. Ere the repentant soul finds rest, he may seem about to be overwhelmed by Satan; and throughout our pathway here, in conflict with Satan, how often does the Church seem threatened with entire overthrow at one point and another, in one place and another, and in spite of faithlessness and failure, we see the Lord's deliverance at last ! "Always darkest just before dawn " will be fearfully but triumphantly illustrated at the millennial dawn ; but in some measure it is so now with us again and again, by the long-suffering and great mercy of our God. For our sins, we are exposed to chastening; and for our discipline, for our good, the enemy has got a foothold-he is allowed for a time to win :but let the faithful wait,- it is the old experience over again, which will be repeated until the Lord comes-until the final victory and triumph-"shout," "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." But there is more than that:there is an exhortation that precedes. It is this:"Fear ye not."-"Fear ye not. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." (Ex. 14:13.) If our hearts are not steadied by the first exhortation, through faith in God, it is impossible to take heed to the last. We do not stand still ; nor have, in such a case, eyes to see what God is doing. Oh that we might not so quickly distrust Him on the next occasion,-that we might have more rest of heart in Him at all times, and not increase confusion by our own folly and unrest and ignorance ! If we are not habitually waiting on the Lord, we will not do it in the time of testing and fiery trial. May His name be not so much dishonored by us as in the past. Cut His mercy endureth forever.

There is a good comment of Luther's on Mary's song, when God gave him grace to abide in peace in face of the threatening power of Rome :-

" ' He hath showed strength with His arm. He hath put down the mighty from their seats. . . .' 'His arm,' continues she, meaning by this the power by which He acts of Himself, without the aid of any of His creatures. Mysterious power! . . . . which is exerted in secrecy and in silence until His designs are accomplished. Destruction is at hand when no one has seen it coming; relief is there, and no one had expected it. He leaves His children there in oppression and weakness, so that every man says, 'They are lost!' …. But it is then He is strongest; for where the strength of men ends, there begins that of God. Only let faith wait upon Him.

…. And on the other hand, God permits His adversaries to increase in grandeur and power. He withdraws His support, and suffers them to be puffed up with their own. He empties them of His eternal wisdom, and lets them be filled with their own, which is but for a day. And while they are rising in the brightness of their power, the arm of the Lord is taken away, and their work vanishes as a bubble bursting in the air."* *D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation," in one volume. Page 229.* E.S.L.

Weakness is always touching. Cold indeed were our hearts, could they contemplate unmoved Him who was crucified through weakness. Our selfishness might lead us to dwell rather upon the benefits we receive through His death,-these surely we never can nor should forget,-but love will remember that He said, "Could ye not watch with Me one hour ?" that He seemed to ask for sympathy when He said, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." We know He wishes us now to look back and see not merely what He suffered and secured for us, but how He passed through it.

Isaac was bound by his father and laid upon the altar. There is no struggle, as though he were unwilling, but there is the suggestion in the cords, of strength all gone, as our Lord says, " He weakened My strength in the way."

Joseph, when he came on his mission of love, was bound by his brethren. In their repentance they say, ' We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us and we would not hear." That anguish was but the type of the deeper anguish of Him who said, in view of being in the hands of enemies, " Reproach hath broken My heart; . . and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none." As His enemies surround Him, divine power flashes forth, they fall to the ground, but it is at once succeeded by that weakness of submission in which He yields Himself into their hands. So all the way through that dark scene, at the priest's palace, in the judgment-hall, it is in weakness we see Him. " He is led as a lamb to the slaughter." The derision of the crowd before Him, and of the thieves beside Him, fail to bring out the strength we know is there. It is the perfection of weakness. Death comes, the culmination of all weakness. He lies in the loving hands of Joseph and others without a throb or motion in answer to their loving ministrations. It is the weakness of death.

Can the soul fail to worship and adore, as we see Him thus crucified through weakness ? We may not say much here, but how holy, how solemn is the thought! The Son of God lies here in the weakness of death. We well know why. The strong man held us as his goods. This One frees us, but only, though stronger than he, by becoming weak. As we see that tomb, and the One who lay there, can we fail to say, " Thou art worthy, for Thou wast slain " ? and as we think of that " wondrous cross," can we fail to say and mean, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" ?

"By weakness and defeat
He won the mead and crown,
Trod all our foes beneath
His feet By being trodden down."

Just for today, my Savior,-
Tomorrow is not mine;
Just for today, I ask Thee
For light, and help divine,
Tomorrow’s care I must not bear,
The future is all Thine.

Today I bring my measure
To Thee, that thou mightest fill
And bless it, Lord, and teach me
To trust and to be still.
Today I’d be, my God, for Thee,
And do Thy holy will.

Just for today, my Savior,
For ever the morrow break
Thy voice may call me unto Thee,
And I shall no more walk
The desert path with need of faith,
But face to face shall talk.

And if I have enough, Lord,
Today, why should I grieve
Because of what I have not,
And may not need to have.
Each day, I pray thee, have Thy way,
And I will trust Thy love.

H. McD.

I. THE WORD OF GOD.

" The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." "Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." (Ps. 12:6; 119:89.)

The most important part of a building is its foundation. If that be weak, unstable, the whole superstructure is insecure. Hence, in giving an outline of Scripture doctrine, it is fitting at the beginning to see what that scripture is whose doctrines we would exhibit. If it be a human production, fallible and incomplete, the doctrines, drawn from it will be the same, human doctrines, to be judged like any other teachings of men. If the scriptures contain mistakes, if they cannot be fully received in every particular, neither can the doctrines they teach.

Again, blemishes here and there, mistakes, incorrect statements, are not only themselves to be rejected, but the whole Scripture loses its divine authority and power. It is just here that we must have a clear understanding; for it is just here that Satan is making one of his sharpest and most insidious attacks. Formerly, it was the avowed infidel, the blasphemer, who rejected the Scripture. But a few years ago, and "The Mistakes of Moses," was the theme of a lecture by a notorious and wicked man. Now the same theme is handled by men held in reputation in the churches, men of moral character, clinging to their church, and professing to do and teach in the fear of God. Under the name of " Higher Criticism," this infidelity has come into the very fountain heads of teaching, defiling and poisoning all that comes from them.

Sad enough it is that such teachers should have a following; sadder still that those who see the error should still lack firmness to denounce it, to judge it, and at all cost purge themselves from complicity with it. In times past, men have assailed the person of the Son of God, the Word who is God. Now they are assailing that Word which speaks of Him. If the soul jealous for the honor of the Lord will not brook a hint or whisper of question as to his perfect, spotless humanity, neither can it brook a like question as to the divine Word. Either it is perfect, or it is not His Word at all.

But how are we to know that the Scriptures are the Word of God ?

Many earnest and faithful souls have laboriously collected from history and monuments and elsewhere, those evidences which are in many ways proofs of the fact that these writings are authentic-that they are what they claim to be. But if God has spoken, is He going to leave it to man, fallible man, to prove that He has spoken ? Do we need argument to prove to us that the sun shines, or will we need to search all ancient monuments and relics to search for evidence that it shone in times past, and must therefore do so now ?

No; the sun speaks for itself, by its shining; and that Word which is compared to the sun in the nineteenth psalm, speaks for itself to all who are not blind. Its glorious light must come from God. The divine power it exerts can only be His. As the man in the ninth chapter of John needed no labored proof to know that the One who had opened his eyes was from God-his opened eyes were proof enough for that-so we, too, need no proof that this Word is God's. It has enlightened us.

The Bible, then, is its own proof. We can calmly listen to all the attacks of unbelief upon it, and the mockings of those that know not God, just as we would be uninfluenced by the arguments and jeerings of blind men that the sun does not shine. But what a relief this is! It requires no profound knowledge, no long study, to reach this assurance. Nay, the wise and prudent often err by their own wisdom, while babes have these things revealed to them. It is simply, " He that hath an ear, let him hear." What then, does God's Word warrant us in believing about ?

First, its inspiration, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." By this is meant that He is the author of it. " Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." What they wrote was not by hearsay, nor at second hand. God used them as His instruments. He took the men as they were, fitted often by special dealings, and then used them, their minds, hearts, and bodily powers,-used them in such a way that, while free, they could make no mistake, for they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And just here is the difference between the ordinary guidance and superintendence of the Spirit in the believer, and the inspiration of the Scriptures. In the latter case, all is perfect, for it is revelation from God; in the former, that revelation is before us, and we are seeking to make use of it, and here comes in the weakness and imperfection of man. All is to be tested by that Word, which, tested by itself, proves itself consistent throughout, the product of one Mind. Along with inspiration, let us note the question of the perfection of Scripture. "The Scripture cannot be broken." " One jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. "Jot" is the Hebrew letter yodh, or "y," the smallest letter in the alphabet-being little more than a dot. A " tittle " was a little horn, or mark, on some of the letters, used to distinguish them from others. So then we might paraphrase it thus-" no dot to an i or cross to a t shall fail." But this means the most absolute and entire perfection.

In the text at the head of this paper, God's Word is compared to silver purified seven times – the perfect number-so that there is no dross, only the pure metal. We sometimes hear the expression "The Bible contains the Word of God," just as we would say such an ore contains silver:but it contains dross also, and if the Bible only contains the Word of God, who shall tell the dross from the silver ? No; the Bible is the Word of God. By this is not meant the English Version as we have it; but the Scriptures as originally given in the Hebrew and Greek. We cannot be too thankful for the wonderful preservation of the manuscripts, through centuries of persecution and of darkness, for the remarkable accuracy of the translation into our own tongue, so that, practically, the most unlearned of us all has in his hands God's pure and precious word. Small errors of copying or translating there may be, for no uninspired human work is perfect, but these are but as motes in the air, which do not prevent our being preserved and refreshed as we breathe it in.

Next, we come to the authenticity of the Scriptures. "The Law was given by Moses." ' He wrote of "Me." This tells us plainly that the books of Moses, so-called, were written by him-not by several unknown authors ; that when Scripture says Isaiah or Hosea wrote such and such books, they did write them ; that they are not the product of some later age, as the higher critics would teach. Paul wrote Paul's epistles, Peter and James theirs, and God the Spirit inspired each one to convey God's mind in an infallibly perfect way.

As to the credibility of these books-can we believe all they teach, every statement they make ? Unquestionably we can, and must. Inspired of Him who is the Spirit of truth, all their contents are truth. Every miracle recorded, every doctrine stated, – all is true, eternally true. Even the apparent contradictions but offer to the prayerful student of the Word fresh opportunities to discover new beauties in the Word.

We come, then, to the Scriptures as God's infallible When we read it God is speaking to us. We more its judges than we would be judges of what might say aloud to us. It judges and searches us. with what confidence, then, we can come to this precious Word. What holy fear becomes us too. It is God, in His still small voice, speaking to us. Let us beware how we refuse any of its teachings, or add any thing to it. Let us prove all things by it, and hold fast that which is good.

(To be continued.)

There are two kinds of imitators:imitators of God I as dear children, and imitators of the works of God's servants. The first all saints are to be. God has presented Himself as a model for our imitation, and in such a way that we cannot fail to understand. In His blessed and perfect Son as Man we have One who has left us an example that we should follow His steps. Christ is the object before us, to imitate Him is our life-work, and to do this we are to be occupied with Him ; we all with open face beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory." When His people are before us, it is not them, but their faith we are to imitate-"whose faith follow." In the account before us, we have, of course, mere imitation, without any faith. These godless Jews will use the names of Jesus and Paul to conjure with merely to gain notoriety and power. The satire of the evil spirit is striking:"Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you ?" Satan does not recognize sham power. While this is true in its fullest sense for the unsaved, there is a lesson for all the servants of the Lord. We hear an evangelist who is gifted with the power of presenting the truth in a bright attractive way, and we seek to imitate him, only to find the power and brightness have all gone. Or a brother is walking on the waters calmly and surely, and we step forth only to sink. These, and numberless other cases, only show us that faith is an individual thing, that we must imitate none, follow the Lord only. What a relief, if one has perhaps been trying to imitate a brother, to come down from the stilts, to lay aside Saul's armor, and to trust the Lord for himself-to let Him work by His Spirit in His own blessed way, using us as His instruments according to His will. Effort ceases, and now, instead of a colorless imitation, there is power. God would use every one of us, but often He is hindered from the fact that we want to be used as others are :so often we remain idle and silent, or, worse yet, are but as sounding brass.

Does not this explain why many of His dear ones who might help the saints are silent in meetings. They speak freely in social intercourse, but in the meeting their lips are sealed, because they may not speak as well as others-their prayers may not be so well expressed ! Away with such thoughts ! Oh, let us be more simple, willing to be used in a small way if He use us. Thus God's Church would be refreshed by thousands of channels which are now choked and dry, pouring forth the water fresh from the fountain.

Two gentlemen went to see an exhibition of paintings. They were connoisseurs, and one of them held in his hand a catalogue of the various pictures on view. As they moved along the gallery, one of them touched his companion, and said, "Look here! Did you ever see such a daub as that? What could have induced any one to send a thing like that to an exhibition ? What a wretched production! And yet, no doubt, he considers himself an artist! What a pity that some folk should be so blind to their own deficiencies !"

The friend who held the catalogue in his hand drew back a little, and rolling it up in the form of a telescope, looked through it at one special point in the picture; and the more closely he examined it, the more he discerned the evidence of real genius. He said to his friend, handing him the rolled-up catalogue, "Just stand here, and look through this at that one spot." He did so; and after a while exclaimed, " Well, that is beautiful! after all, he is an artist."

Now this little incident conveys a most valuable lesson to us all, and one much needed in our intercourse with the Lord's people. It is a grand point, in looking at the character of any one with whom we may have to do, to look out for some redeeming feature, some good point, and dwell upon that. Too often, alas ! we do just the opposite. We take a hasty view of a person, or our eye rests upon some flaw, some defect in the temper, disposition, or conduct, and we keep perpetually dwelling and harping on that, and lose sight of some most excellent trait in the character.

This is a most serious mistake, and one in which some of us are sadly prone to fall. There are few of us who have not some weak point, some drawback, some little inconsistency, something or other which calls for patience and forbearance on the part of those with whom we come in contact in daily life. Let us all remember this, and be on the look-out, not for the weak point, but for some redeeming feature. Let us, when looking at others, "just roll up the catalogue" and concentrate our vision upon some Christian virtue, some good quality, some amiable feature. Let us dwell upon that, and speak of that, and nothing else; and we shall have to exclaim, "Well, after all, he is a Christian ! " This will help us marvelously to get on with people ; and it will minister to our own happiness in a way we have little idea of.

For example, there is a person who is naturally of a close, miserly disposition. He likes to drive a hard bargain ; he would dispute with a cabman about a few pence; he can hardly ever make a purchase without trying to get a reduction in the price. This is very miserable indeed, very sad, very humiliating, greatly to be deplored ; but just let us " roll up the catalogue" and look closely at this person's character, and we shall find him most liberal in the Lord's cause, and in helping the poor. Perhaps on the very day on which he bargained with the cabman about sixpence, he gave a sovereign to a poor family. Let us think and speak of his liberality, and draw the curtain of silence over his niggardliness.

This is Christlike. Let us cultivate this lovely habit. It is very terrible to allow ourselves the habit of dwelling upon the weak points in our brethren. It is really of Satan, and we must earnestly watch against it, and pray against it. Let us "lay aside all evil-speaking." How deplorable to find ourselves indulging in the unworthy practice of exposing the foibles and infirmities of the Lord's people, or turning them into ridicule! May the Lord deliver us from all this! May we judge it in ourselves, and then we shall have moral power to discountenance it in others. Whenever we hear any one speaking disparagingly of another, let us gently suggest to him to "roll up the catalogue," and fix his eye on what is of Christ in the person, and lose sight of all beside. C. J. D.

(Gen. 1:and Jno. 20:)

A comparison of these two chapters will reveal much of contrast and much of similarity.

The former affords a perfect picture of the old creation;* the latter gives a no less perfect picture of the new. *The term " old creation," although not quite accurate, is restricted here to the six days' work.*

In Gen. 1:2 we see that what had left the Creator's hand in a perfect condition (comp. 5:i and Is. 45:18) is now desolate-waste ; while in Jno. 20:, first part, we see that man whom He had made upright, made to hold sweet communion with, was so utterly a ruin (tohu-"ruin" is the word used both in Gen. 1:2 and Is. 45:18), that he did not recognize his Creator; even the people He had singled out for Himself, and especially favored, would not have Him.

In Gen. 1:we get physical ruin and creation, as we say; in Jno. 20:we get moral ruin and new creation.

In Gen. 1:2 we read, "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep." If we allow " the earth " to typify Israel, and " the deep " to typify the world as such, what could be more desolate or formless than that loved and cared-for people, who, when their Messiah came to them, could say, " Not this Man, but Barabbas" ? and what more dark than the human heart, as manifested at the cross (Jno. 19:) ? But in Gen. 1:2 the Spirit of God hovers over the waters, so in Jno. 20:Jesus does not go instantly to heaven, He Singers, although not a soul to welcome Him as He emerges from His borrowed grave (see Prov. 8:31).

In Gen. 1:God is about to display His wisdom And power in fashioning from those unpromising materials an abode for man, indeed, an abode for Himself, may we not say? In Jno. 20:the blessed Head of the new creation is about to form, out of such materials, "a habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph. 2:22.)

In Gen. 1:there is a sevenfold process, six days of work and the desolate scene is made to blossom and bear fruit, so that on the seventh, He can view it all with perfect satisfaction and rest. In Jno. 20:there is also a sevenfold process, seven utterances of the Risen One, leading on to millennial rest. Marvelous utterances, these first words of the First-born from the dead ! Each utterance, we shall find, corresponding with its numerical place :-

I. " Woman, why weepest thou, whom seekest thou ? "(5:15)

Light has come in. Why did the blessed Lord ask Mary why she wept, and whom she sought? Did He not know? Surely, He did. Why do we ask our children, as they begin to lisp their first word, "Whose dear little baby are you?" but to hear them say, as we well know they will say, " Papa's " or " Mamma's " ?We love to hear those words, and the blessed Lord longed to hear the confession from Mary's lips, "If thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away."How precious to the Lord must have been that threefold confession of "Him" whoso filled her heart!

II."Mary!" (5:16.)

Only one word, but how much is expressed by it !

"He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out." (Chap. 10:3.)

"For I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine." (Is. 43:1:)

On the second day of creation, waters were separated from waters. Thus the number 2 is easily read here, speaking of redemption or salvation (see Exodus, second book of Moses), separation to, or relationship, not the ground of it, but imposition, the fact.

She therefore owns Him Master.

III. "Jesus saith unto her, 'Touch Me not ; for I am not yet ascended to My Father:but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.'" (5:17.)

On the third day of creation, dry land appeared, the waters being gathered together, and there was grass, herbs, fruit. The third book of Moses speaks of the sanctuary, of access to God.

3 is the number which speaks of solidity (length, breadth, and thickness); the sanctuary is a cube, as also the holy city-"the length, breadth, and height of it are equal." Jesus arose on the third day; thus it speaks of resurrection and the manifestation of God's power. It is also the number of persons in the Godhead. God thus fully revealed in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

If we take Mary to be typical of the Church, in the chapter we are looking at, the number 3 is very fruitful as showing the Church's place.

(a) She stands on resurrection-ground. Not now linked with an earthly Messiah. She is not to touch Him, for He is not yet ascended to His Father. This implies (b) that her proper contact with Him will be when He has ascended. Meantime she (c) is sent forth to tell where He is gone.

This series of three,-1:e., the first three utterances, gives the Church's place very fully.

Called, chosen, and sent, to speak of Him who has brought her into His own relationship with His Father ' and His God. '

IV. " Peace be unto you." (5:19.)

On the fourth day of creation, the sun, moon, and stars appeared. They were to "rule the day and to rule the night, and to divide the light from the darkness" (see Jno. 8:12; Eph. 5:8).

In the fourth book of Moses, we have the ordering of Jehovah's camp. In this fourth utterance of Jesus, we have a perfect picture of the assembly, viewed from the subjective, or practical side. The assembly is gathered, the world, the religious world, outside, Jesus in the midst, peace is proclaimed, and they are reminded of His death. Peace here, is peace with God, that peace which is made by the blood of His cross.

"Jesus in the midst." "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt, 18:20.)

On the fourth day of the old creation, the sun was put into his place as center of our planetary system, the solar system,-1:e., his system. And what an important place ! No light, no heat, no day, no summer, no season, no life indeed without the sun; and even night itself would be blacker still without his reflected light. Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all revolve around the sun as their center, who can imagine the ruin which would ensue upon his displacement! There is a lesson for us here of deepest practical importance.

If the number 4 is the first number which allows of simple division, and speaks thus of weakness, yet here we may learn how in our very weakness His strength is made perfect (2 Cor. 12:9 cf. Rom. 6:19), just as on the other hand, in the fourth book of Moses, we see failure on every side where, thinking themselves strong, His people displace 'Him.

V. "Then said Jesus to them again, 'Peace be unto you ; as the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.' " (V. 21.)

On the fifth day of creation, the waters are made to bring forth abundantly. "And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let fowl multiply in the earth' " (Gen. 1:22).

In the fifth book, responsibility is pressed :" Go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers." (Deut. 1:8.)

So here in this fifth utterance of the risen Head of the new creation, we have responsibility, stewardship (comp. chap. 17:18) and the peace of God.

VI. "And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost:whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.' " (10:22, 23.)

On the sixth day God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

So here, in this sixth utterance of the risen Lord, we get a picture of the Church's privilege and responsibility, leading on to the seventh day, the rest at the end, and how near that end we may be!

" Peace be unto you." (5:26.)

In the old creation, the seventh was the day of rest; here, it speaks of millennial rest, the remnant (Thomas, type of the saved remnant of the Jews at the end of this dispensation), not present till then, comes in at the end. They are unbelieving now, but ere long will see Him, as He comes to the earth, will see His wounds, and will say, " My Lord and my God " (comp. Zech. 13:6; 12:10-14; Rev. 1:7).

VIII." Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (5:29 )

This is the eighth utterance, but like the octave in music, it carries us back to the beginning.

To sum up :-

The first three utterances appear to give the objective side, the Church in His mind. This is perfect in itself. The remaining four give the subjective, man's side(4- earthen vessel).

We have the new day-first day,..vers. i, 19, 26.
new name, …..ver. 16.
new relationship,…ver. 17.
Peace with God, ……..ver. 19.
Peace of God,………ver. 21.
Peace at the end-millennial,…ver. 26. .
I cannot do better in closing this superficial study than use the words of another :-

" Good and precious Savior, we do indeed rejoice that Thou hast now fulfilled all things, and art at rest with Thy Father, whatever may be Thy active love for us. Oh, that we may know and love Thee better ! But still we can say in fullness of heart, Come quickly, Lord ! Leave once more the throne of Thy rest and of Thy personal glory, to come and take us to Thyself, that all may be fulfilled for us also, and that we may be with Thee and in the light of Thy Father's countenance and in His house. Thy grace is infinite, but Thy presence and the joy of the Father shall be the rest of our hearts, and our eternal joy."-(Synopsis, vol. 3:,p. 454.) J.B.J.

"Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same." (Heb. 2:14.)

If Satan has turned the truth of God into a lie, that is no reason why we should neglect or overlook any thing that is really God's:especially when that truth is concerning the blessed Son of God. Blasphemies have been taught regarding His humanity in more ways than one; some asserting that His nature was subject to sin and decay and death; others, that He was man from all eternity. Shocking as all this is to the worshiper of Jesus, we must not be deterred from dwelling with adoring wonder on " God manifest in the flesh." " The Word was made flesh." In the manger at Bethlehem, in the carpenter-shop at Nazareth, weary at the well, asleep in the storm, agonizing in the garden, we see not only that eternal life which was with the Father, but which was manifest to us through the vail of a real though perfect humanity. He whose delights were with the sons of men would be made like unto His brethren. Yet the carefulness of the Spirit of God in shielding His holy person from the faintest suspicion of taint, is seen in the use of the word " took part," in the passage quoted at the beginning. The children " had communion in " flesh and blood-they were in it of necessity. He voluntarily, as One from without, " took part,"-a different word. Still He was a man,-a perfect man; One fitted to sympathize with His people. He is not ashamed to call us brethren. But though this is the first strand in the threefold cord, of itself it was entirely insufficient. " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." The body which was prepared for Him was a body in which to die. " He took part of flesh and blood that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death." All thought of men being united with Him in His incarnation,-of their being elevated to His level by that, or any thing of the kind, is therefore vain. So His death is the second strand in that cord of love. He who knew no sin, was made sin for us. Those whom He came to save were dead, so He takes His place there; they dead in sins, He dead for sins. As the Samaritan came where the wounded man was, so our blessed Lord came where we were-at a distance from God. But oh! how His death has annihilated all distance! how it has slain all enmity! That love which sought us thus, grasped us to Himself; and the third strand, His resurrection, is the full manifestation of the power of that cord which binds us fast, held to His bosom, by One who will never loose His hold. Blessed be His precious name!

As has been frequently noticed, it is after His resurrection that He calls us "brethren." . " Go to My brethren," (John 20:) " I will declare Thy name unto My brethren." (Heb. 2:) The gift of the Spirit, uniting us to Him, is God's seal upon the perfectness and strength of this threefold cord. Flowing from such relationship is our heavenly position, our heavenly destiny. As the power of this cord is felt, it will draw our hearts out of the world as not belonging to it, up to heaven where He is. Let us have our minds fixed on Him, to " know the power of His resurrection."

" Drawn by such cords, we'll onward move,
Till round the throne we meet,
And, captives in the chains of love,
Embrace our Savior's feet."

Just seven times-no more, nor less,-God covenants with Abraham before Isaac is offered up; and the eighth and last time when Isaac is received in a figure from the dead. In this the meaning is plain-completeness of testimony, and all founded on resurrection. Let us now consider each covenant (or repetition of the covenant) in detail, and see whether each one does not fall numerically into its place. Both the first and second are found in the following verses:-

I. Gen. 12:1-7.-" Now the Lord had said unto Abram, 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, . . . and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.' So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, . . . and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land . . . unto the plain of Moreh. …"

II. "And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, 'Unto thy seed will I give this land:' and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." I dwell but briefly on these. In the first, appropriately to the number one, we have the announcement in sovereign grace of what God will do; nothing even as to how He will do it. It is the one perfect thing presented to the mind,-God's call and promise, and Abram's perfect obedience. In the second covenant, "unto thy seed will I give this land," we have the way of redemption announced, that is through the Seed, that is Christ (Gal. 3:16). This answers to the second book of Moses,-Exodus-where redemption is the subject, and the Redeemer is the Second Person in the Trinity (Matt. 28:19). The necessity of redemption (though the less prominent thought here) suggests the evil meaning in this number, -sin,-alienation from God,-and so not oneness, but division. But blessing is the subject here-blessing through the Son.

III. The third covenant is beautifully instructive. "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, 'Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever; and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. . . . Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.' Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.", Here we reach the plains of Mamre, the place where Abraham afterward (chap. 18:) entertains the Lord (the three); that is, we have reached communion with God, as in Leviticus, the third book of Moses, we have the sanctuary and priesthood. And " walk through the land " and " seed as the dust" show liberty and fruitful-ness on resurrection-ground, to which our number brings us.

It is when we see that we are alive unto God in Christ risen, that we know the liberty in which Christ has made us free, and have our fruit unto holiness (Rom. 6:22). Communion, liberty, and holiness. None are free but those who have the living God as one to whom they live in holy fear. Otherwise it is bondage in some form.

On the third day Jonah was cast up upon the dry land of liberty. Before that, it was the depths where all was darkness and helplessness, and the cry for deliverance. It is inasmuch as Christ was raised from the dead that we can walk in newness of life, having been baptized unto His death. Either we walk in the way of death, or else in newness of life in Christ risen from the dead. Every Christian should say, The doctrine of Romans 6:has set me free. (Rom. 6:17, 18.) We are alive in Christ in Romans 6:We are told to " walk in Him " in Colossians 2:In no other atmosphere can we breathe and live. " From the place where thou art" was the word to Abram. The standing being known, he could look to all points of the compass. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ in heavenly places (our Canaan). We belong to heaven, let us freely enjoy our possession, but it must be " from the place where thou art." Abram had overcome and turned away from what had overcome Lot; otherwise he would have had no " ear to hear," and no power to see the "vision of the Almighty." (Num. 24:4.) God could not tell Lot to view the land. May our eyes not be closed to the heavenly vision.

IV. In chap. 15:we have the fourth renewal of the covenant. Now this portion is separated from the three foregoing covenants by the words "after these things," a phrase which does not occur again until just before the eighth and final covenant. We can therefore group the first three and the last four of the seven, and then the eighth. This being the case, there must be something that characterizes the four as a group in comparison with the three. It is this, prominently, whatever else there is, namely, that in the four, man's responsibility, or exercise of soul in the believer comes in; for such is the case from the fourth to the seventh, Abram or Sarah have a question or a doubt, whereas in the first three God alone speaks, man is silent. First, God declares His purpose, then accomplishes it in and through man in the seven as a whole. God manifest in the flesh is the great mystery of godliness, and all is based upon the eighth. He is "received up into glory." The Old Testament answers to the four and the New Testament to the three, the order reversed in the whole history of redemption; first, man is on the scene, then God; yet in the Old Testament, by itself, the order is the same as in the three followed by the four,-that is, the promise is followed by the law. God announces His purpose, then His people (Israel) are tested and redeemed through faith, and all by Christ risen from the dead.

Taking the whole seven (covenants) together, the three followed by the four, we have this:"We are saved by ' grace (the first three), through faith " (the last four).

It may be well to note at this point the tests and exercises of man's heart in the last four. In the first three, as already seen, there is an entire absence of it. But in the four we have the following:Abram says (chap. 15:), "I go childless;" God says, " So shall thy seed be," pointing to the stars. " He believed in the Lord " and was counted righteous. He says, " How shall I know I shall inherit the land?" and then, called to offer the sacrifice, gets a glimpse of the cross, enters the deep sleep and darkness, and has a vision of the furnace and lamp, -trial and guidance of his people, and the announcement that after four hundred years, in the fourth generation his people would be redeemed.

In the fifth covenant (chap. 17:) Abraham laughs at the thought of Sarah having a child, cleaves to Ishmael (like Paul to Jerusalem in bondage), is circumcised with his house.

In the sixth (chap. 18:) he entertains the three, answers to his responsibility, but Sarah doubts and laughs.

In the seventh (chap. 21:12) Abraham is grieved that the bondwoman and her son are to be cast out, but submits to God and to the word, " In Isaac shall thy see be called." In all this God's people are portrayed in their exercises and failures and final rest of faith.

But in the first three not a hint of this, it is purely the sovereign purpose of God declared.

In the first eight chapters of Romans we have what answers to the four, only in the latter part of the eighth we have the three, " Whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified." Romans being thus linked with Ephesians, but ending where Ephesians begins. On the whole, Ephesians is like the first three, Romans the last four.

How marvelous is this frame-work of Scripture! men (as Abraham and others) living their lives through events, ordinary events of the day as well as extraordinary, and these events coming to pass and following into their place in a scheme of lessons for our instruction, with exact precision in each minute detail.

The Lord willing, we may dwell more particularly upon the covenants that follow, from the fourth onward. E.S.L.

"Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." "Lest there should be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; and it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination (stubbornness) of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst" (Heb. 12:15; Deut. 29:18.)

The book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book, is the one I which speaks of man with God-communion, and the results of obedience. It deals, therefore, with the question of responsibility, and, as a natural consequence, is largely hortatory. Based upon the teachings and experiences recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, it draws from them lessons to warn and guide as to the path in time to come. So too with various portions in the epistle to the Hebrews. Itself a Levitical book devoted to priesthood, sacrifice, and kindred themes, with the eleventh chapter, which treats of the path (the wilderness journey), it has now and again, notably in this chapter (12:), a strain of Deuteronomic warning and exhortation- based on the teachings and experiences recorded in previous chapters. Corresponding, thus, in their themes, it is natural to find a quotation from the Old-Testament book. It will be interesting and helpful to examine both passages, and note as well their differences as their resemblances. Deuteronomy is a book of the Law, and " the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things," is as well a contrast to as a figure of those things. The theme of Deuteronomy is obedience and communion, but the way to obey, the way to keep in communion, is by keeping the law; so while we have a similar theme in this portion of Hebrews, the way is not by keeping the law, but by continuing in grace. And this is most important and helpful to note. We all boast in grace, and claim freedom from law; yet nothing is easier than, in principle, to leave the former for that law which, now as ever, " gendereth to bondage." In the passage before us, therefore, we are exhorted to look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. Let us, then, first see what is that grace specially brought before us in this epistle.

Christ the Son, as God (chap, 1:), Man (chap, 2:), Son over God's house (chap, 3:), High-Priest (chaps, 5:, 7:), is the Person set before us. In all the precious and amazing perfections of this blessed One, other objects are set aside, whether angels, Moses, or Aaron; and, as the apostles on the holy mount, we see "no man, save Jesus only." Next, the work of this blessed Person is set forth -"When He had by Himself purged our sins."-"That He, by the grace of God, might taste death for every man." And, coming to the ninth and tenth chapters, we have the precious doctrine unfolded in all its beauty and sufficiency-"Without shedding of blood is no remission."

" Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.

" But Christ the heavenly Lamb
Took all our guilt away,-
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they."

The covenant too under which this grace is administered is put in contrast with the " law of a carnal commandment." It is a " better covenant" whose laws are written on the heart,-an "everlasting covenant" sealed in the blood of the faithful Mediator, not dependent on man's infirmity, sin, and unbelief. Therefore it is a covenant 'ordered in all things, and sure." Lastly, the place to which this grace introduces us. We have our High-Priest who has "passed through the heavens," "set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Christ has entered " into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Heaven, closed as it was to us, opened only upon that lowly spotless One, is now, by virtue of that sacrifice of His which rent the vail from the top to the bottom, opened to our believing gaze, and " we see Jesus, . . . crowned with glory and honor." This is the tabernacle of our worship " which the Lord pitched." But more than this:we not only see Jesus our High-Priest entered within the vail, but we are permitted by grace to follow Him there, and, as purged and clean worshipers, to offer "the sacrifice of praise to God continually." " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus."

All this has not been a digression from the subject before us. In guarding against the springing up of roots of bitterness, we are to see that none fail or are lacking in the grace of God. That grace presents to us Christ in His person and work, the covenant under which we enjoy this, and the place where we draw nigh unto God, If under the law the people were to teach its precepts "diligently unto their children,"-"And thou shall talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest clown, and when thou risest up " (Deut. 6:7),-none the less under grace are we to go over its precious truths to one another at all times, under all circumstances.

Let us next see the force of the words, "looking diligently." They translate one Greek word-" episcopountes " -literally, " overseeing," or acting as bishops. We are our "brother's keepers," and "members one of another;" as such, we are to oversee, to care for one another. The passage in Deuteronomy goes more into detail-".Lest there should be among you man or woman or family or tribe." No one is so exalted as to be exempt from this care, none so insignificant as not to require it; whether a single individual be concerned or a family, or even a whole tribe, as in the case of Benjamin (Judges 19:, 20:), they were to see to it that no root bearing gall and wormwood should be allowed to spring up. And how needful all this is ! Evil is contagious :" a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump"-"thereby many be defiled." As an illustration of the spreading nature of evil, see the history of Israel at Kadesh (Num. 14:etc.). The ten unbelieving spies bring back an evil report of the land :this finds ready lodgment in hearts only too willing to doubt God, and the whole nation turns away from the " pleasant land." Nor does the evil end there. Next comes the rebellion against the authority of Moses and Aaron by Korah and his company, involving many others :then the whole congregation murmur and are judged, and finally Moses and Aaron are dragged down by this evil.

And what is the "root" which bore all this gall and wormwood ? It was that unbelief which would not continue in God's goodness – a root starting in the hearts of the spies, and throwing its baleful branches over all, and poisoning the nation with its bitter fruit. So too to-day, and in the history of the Church. The whole assembly at Corinth was infected by known evil in the midst unjudged. How often do we see a little thing spreading and involving large companies of God's people ! How needful, then, the exhortation to look diligently, or to act as bishops-overseers ! But what are we to watch for ? Not this or that failing, this or that shortcoming, but " lest any man come short of the grace of God." This is the root which bears all the bitter fruit:grace lacking, holiness will be lacking. So in our Lord's word to Peter, making him a pastor, or care-taker, of His sheep. Thrice He tells him to care for them- "Feed My lambs :shepherd My sheep :feed My sheep." What is the main duty of the shepherd ? To see that the sheep are fed; not, primarily, to recall the wanderers- that is but an incident, but to lead them in green pastures and by still waters. This we see in the word to Peter. Once he is told to shepherd the sheep-involving the restoration of wanderers and needed discipline, but twice to feed them-sheep as well as lambs. So too the true pastor, while careful to restore the wanderer, will chiefly be watchful to prevent such wanderings, by seeing that every heart is "established with grace."

This prevents legality, knits the saints together, makes Christ more precious and sin therefore more hateful. What must be the effect on a brother or sister, for instance, who is never visited except when some failure on their part requires it, and who is sure, whenever any approach is made in a pastoral or care-taking way, that "something must be wrong" ? On the contrary, let it be plain that the great object is, "building one another up on our most holy faith,"and often unjudged things will come to the surface and be firmly and thankfully put away.

Let it not be thought for a moment that the pastor should wink at sin:this he dare not, cannot do. But all power comes from grace,-all holiness too, and the soul rejoicing in grace will be holy in walk. The root, then, which bears the defiling, poisonous fruit of sin is, departure from God as known in the perfect grace of Christ. A cold heart soon leads to a wrong path. Such a state nourished will defile a whole company,-nay, such a spirit has defiled the whole Church at large. It is the spirit which says, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness (R. V.) of my heart."-Nothing shall interfere with my enjoyment, although Christ and His grace are not precious. " To add drunkenness to thirst,"-to allow the desires to express themselves in the actions :this is the Laodicean spirit of to-day,-" I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;" the opposite of that chastened spirit which finds its rest, as well as food, (" He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,") in the fullness of that grace »upon one view of which we have been dwelling.

God calls us back-back from any thing and everything which may have taken up our hearts-to His simple, full, and perfect grace,-to a glorified Christ who is the embodiment of that grace. Let us exhort and help one another to know more of it. Let us all be overseers in this precious sense, to turn one another into these pastures -to set some of the King's dainties before His guests (2 Sam. 9:). How soon frictions would disappear, irreconcilable troubles be healed, the wanderers be restored ! Lord, teach us all to learn of Thee !

The times of the Judges, in the history of Israel, offered special opportunities for exhibitions of faithfulness to God. From the very fact that "every man did that which was right in his own eyes," those who would please the Lord were brought out into all the greater prominence. The sphere of their usefulness, too, instead of being diminished, was rather enlarged, there being but too few to help the multitudes, who were "as sheep without a shepherd." So we find some of the most vigorous examples of faith in the book of Judges,- Gideon, Deborah, Othniel, Shamgar, Ehud, and, as we shall see, Samson, in a certain degree.

From the fact that his birth and manner of life were announced beforehand, and the work he was to do, it is evident that Samson was to be especially prominent as a deliverer of the people. Indeed, the superhuman strength with which he was endowed, and the invariable success he met with when fighting the enemy, would confirm the thought that he was specially favored with gifts to this end. This would mean that he had special responsibilities. . How he met them, we will see as we trace his life.

Samson was to be a Nazarite. As we know from the threefold vow in the book of Numbers, such a man was to abstain from wine and from death, and was to let his hair remain uncut. Wine, with all other products of the vine is a natural as well as scriptural symbol of festivity, exhilaration and joy. Spiritually, it means the joy of earth as contrasted with the joy of the Spirit,-the animation of artificial stimulus as contrasted with the steadfast strength supplied by the Spirit,-the celebration of a rest here rather than of the time when new wine shall be drunk in the Father's kingdom. From all such stimulus the Nazarite was to abstain. How easy to apply the lesson to ourselves ! how difficult to carry it out in our lives ! The long hair tells the same thing in another way,-weakness, dependence, subjection :the woman's place is to be taken. Such a place is humiliating to the natural man. " It is a shame for a man to wear long hair." But such must be the place of one truly separated unto God.

The defilement of death is to be guarded against most jealously, not even the nearest and dearest being allowed to cause an exception to be made. Here too it is easy to read the lesson :death comes by sin, it reigns in the world, and all about us is that which is tainted by this, even in our homes perhaps is what we can "see but dare not touch-intercourse with that which is death. We have been dwelling upon the negative side of the Nazarite's life. Naturally, this is what the law makes prominent. But negatives will never form the character. Subtract all that is bad from a person, and you only have a coldness which is "faultily faultless, splendidly null." So grace gives us the positive side of the true Nazarite. In place of the wine of carnal joy, we have the "joy of the Lord," "joy unspeakable and full of glory."-"Then were the disciples filled with joy and the Holy Ghost." What earthly joy can compare with this ? what earthly pleasure with "the river of Thy pleasures"? So too the badge of shame, the relinquishment of our strength of our wills is met by that which infinitely exceeds all human strength and dignity:" I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."–"My strength is made perfect in weakness." While in place of that which has the stamp of death upon it, we have life-eternal life in and with Him who is the Life. But for the enjoyment of these blessed substitutes, there must be a denial of self. This was the key-note of the Nazarite's life-self-denial; and this brings us back again to Samson.
We have seen what manner of man it was God's will for him to be-a Nazarite, we come now to see what manner of man he was. Prominently in it stands forth the fact that there was a lack of cohesion, of unity, in it. Brilliant deeds there were, but all was desultory. Let us enumerate those acts which are recorded :Slaying a lion ; killing thirty Philistines in order to get clothes to pay a bet; catching three hundred foxes, and with them setting fire to the corn of the enemy; killing a thousand with the jaw-bone of an ass; carrying away the gates of Gaza; overthrowing the temple of the Philistines. We look in vain here for any earnest purpose running through his life. Contrast his slaying a lion merely to deliver himself, and David's act to deliver his sheep. Some of his feats of strength seem almost ludicrous, and some are so closely linked with his own sins as to serve as signs pointing to them. We are compelled to say, What a useless life ! It serves for warning, but there is but little to imitate in it. Doubtless there were many points of excellence in him, or he could not have judged Israel twenty years; but the prominent facts are those we have mentioned. The question naturally arises, Why was a life of such promise-so rich in endowment-so apparently useless ? We believe the answer lies in the subject of this paper. There was a crisis-a turning-point in his life, when he should have turned the opposite way from the one he pursued. That crisis in his life is marked by one word-self-pleasing. "Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well." The law of the Nazarite has "self-denial " written all over it:the life of Samson has "self-pleasing " written all over it. The crisis of his life was when he chose a wife from the people he was to destroy. It may be objected that the Lord thus sought an occasion against the Philistines, and so permitted it. True, He permitted it; as He did in the case of Balaam, of the twelve spies, of the selling of Joseph into Egypt, above all in the betrayal of our Lord ; but this, instead of lessening responsibility, increases it- makes the sin greater, as in the case of Judas. God permitted Samson to please himself:because that was in his own hands, it was his responsibility. He got glory out of it, spite of Samson's self-will; but this does not affect the quality of his choice. He pleased himself, and his whole after-life had the taint of this about it. He dallies with Delilah in self-pleasing until she gets the secret of his strength from him; and even in his death he seems to be seeking for revenge merely, not to please God. One is surprised to see him keep his strength so long. It only shows us the long-suffering of God, who thus would recall His poor servant by showing that He was still with him. It was only when Samson showed he no longer prized this strength-when he imparted this secret to a stranger, that he lost it. Ah ! what awful lessons are here! Doubtless he had not the remotest intention of parting with his secret; but Delilah had his heart,-he tampers with the danger, and is awakened out of his sleep of self-pleasing to find that it has at last culminated. Darkness closes in upon him, never to be lifted in this world.

What is it to tell the secret of our strength ? Is it not to be at ease with the world,-to be enjoying the world as Samson was, and then to talk about the things of God-about our own secret of strength ? The enemy is on the look-out for this :there is a time when the last act of inconsistency is done, and all power is lost. "So-and-so is a great talker, but I find he likes the world about as well as any one." Our power is gone, and it is only in the mercy of God if it is ever in any degree recovered. But let us remember that Delilah's lap was only the last step in a course of self-pleasing which began when he took the woman of Timnath to wife because she pleased him. We have spoken of this as a crisis. Doubtless there are such in all our lives-distinct turning-points -times when we took a course which has characterized us ever since. That crisis may be in itself a small matter, just as, on the summit of the Alleghenies, a rock or small rise of ground determines the direction of a stream toward the Atlantic or the Gulf. For the young Christian especially is the admonition needed, Beware of taking the wrong turn in the crisis of your life. Beware of self-pleasing, instead of meeting the enemy. It was fitting that Samson's bones should lie among his people, as a constant reminder not to misuse God's gifts and opportunities. Perhaps older Christians may feel as though they have taken the wrong turn, and their life has been, as a result, blighted. For such, God has blessing in spite of their failure even, if there is true turning to Him. Having learned where our self-pleasing has brought us, we can then find that He can bring good out of evil-that He can bring Samson's riddle to pass, "Out of the eater came forth meat." Doubtless Jacob's closing days furnished such an exhibition of God's goodness ; and no matter where His people are, if they truly bow to Him, they will find their wilderness to blossom as the rose.

In that wonderful prayer of the apostle at the close of Eph. 3:, we have the knowledge of Christ's love linked with our being filled with (or rather unto,- the limit being, not the infinite resources, but our capacity,) all the fullness of God. In other words, that love is like God-infinite, inexhaustible. It is good to place the "breadth, length, depth, and height" here along side of the similar passage in Rom. 8:There, all creation is ransacked in vain to find any thing that is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord :" neither height nor depth, nor any other creature." Here we have the love measured as far as possible, only to find it surpassing all measure-it " passeth knowledge." We look at the depths-of guilt, sin, Satan's power ; it seems like a fathomless abyss; surely something in those dark depths might succeed in separating us from God's love. Here is our answer :Deeper than our guilt, than our sin, than Satan's power, is the love of Christ. It sought us when we were engulfed in those awful depths. He entered the "horrible pit," and, passing through all the realities of wrath-bearing and Satan's rage, and the hatefulness of being "made sin"-His holiness linked even in name with it,-passing through all this, He has shown a love deeper than it all. Down at the bottom, at the cross, we find His love. So we can look calmly, though not without sorrow and shame, at our past, and say, His love is deeper than it all; and, led by that love, He has taken our guilt away through His blood, annulled sin and Satan's power. Looking upward then into the heights-the region where principalities and powers are, we find His love higher, " far above all principality and power." No room, then, for them to overcome us. Mount higher-into the "holiest of all," Love is before us, and the sprinkled mercy-seat tells us it has made a way for us to enter with boldness. Even look upon the throne, and we see Him seated there. Higher we cannot rise than the throne, the Father's house, the " city prepared as a bride." But all these only witness that the love of Christ is there. Surely the soul is well-nigh lost as we think of that love "which passeth knowledge."

" Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing."

His love for the Church is here set before us-from the time when He gave Himself for it, to that when He shall present it to Himself in glory. The effect is seen- "sanctify and cleanse it." For a holy Lord, nothing short of a holy Church would do. He gave Himself for it. This tells of His death-His wrath-bearing on the cross. In glory, we see the Church without spot or wrinkle. No defilement-all has been cleansed away, no wrinkle-nothing that speaks of age or care or decay. If of our blessed Lord it is said, " Thou hast the dew of thy youth" (Ps. 110:3), so also will it be true of His bride the Church. Think of the earthly history of the Church,-oppressed, divided, overcome by the world,-think of her thus, and then think what the love of Christ has in store for her-reigning, glorified, associated with Himself. As of God with Israel, so Christ with the Church; He will "joy over her with singing, He will rest in His love." His love will never rest till He has His Church with Himself, to share in that love the fullness of which it will not know till then.

But a third verse gives us another application of the love of Christ. " Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20.) Here our attention is called, not to the infinite fullness of His love as in Eph. 3:, nor to the Church as the object of that love, but to the fact that it is to me individually. All will agree, of course, that His love passeth knowledge; but if this is merely owned as a doctrine, it will of course have no power in the life. Even where that love is realized, there may be a vagueness and indefiniteness about it. We may think of Him as an infinitely loving Person, and yet not realize that the fullness of this love is toward each of us individually. So too with regard to His loving the Church-most blessed it is to realize this. But we might think of the Church as a great whole, and ourselves overlooked, as it were. But when we say, with Paul, "Who loved me," there is no room for vagueness, no thought of being overlooked. The bright light of His face is for the time turned upon me alone. I am loved. Every day the Israelite could see the lamb offered up as a burnt-offering, and could say, " That is for the acceptance of the whole congregation;" but when he brought a lamb for his own offering, his thought was, "This is for my own acceptance." How good it is in our God thus to give us to know, not merely the ocean of the love of Christ, but to let us hold it fast to our hearts-just for ourselves-" He loved me, and gave Himself for me." In this connection, we are reminded of two things-our lost condition and our helplessness. "He gave Himself for me." This was because I was a sinner,-because I was guilty, condemned by the law. And by His death for me, I have been, not merely delivered from wrath, but set free from that law which brought me into bondage. Instead of being under law, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me. Here Christ's love to me takes the place of the law; and, constrained by that love, we can do what under law we never could. Blessed exchange !-not under law, but able to say, "Who loved me." Now the love of Christ is something we can grasp; and with precious knowledge of it as a personal thing, we can look at the Church, realizing that we are members of that Church, each loved with the love to the whole. We look at that love which passeth knowledge, and as we search its height and depth, we can say, "For me." There is no selfishness in this. Where Christ's love fills the heart, selfishness can have no place. Have we not here, then, stepping-stones?-(i) Christ's love to me personally; (2) His love to His Church, His body; (3) The infiniteness of that love which is the fullness of God. May we mount on these stepping-stones to know more and more of that love !

But there is one step still lower for the one who is not yet a beginner. He may say, "I cannot say He loved me, for I am a sinner, and have never loved Him." Well, if you truly say you are a sinner, you can be sure of Christ's love to you if you will receive it; for He came into the world to save sinners, He died for the ungodly, and He was rightly called the Friend of sinners. Your sin, then, truly owned as such, is your first step-not a high one- into the knowledge of the love of Christ.

If these lines are read by any one still unsaved, will you not now test that love which, though it fills heaven, yearns over you, and knocks at your heart ?

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII. PART III.-Continued.

THE TRINITY OF EVIL, AND THE MANIFESTATION OF THE WICKED ONE.

Antichrist.(Chap. 13:11-18.)-Continued.

With this picture in Revelation, we are to connect the prophecies of Antichrist which we have elsewhere in the New Testament, and which we have briefly considered. The apostle John has shown us distinctly that he will deny the Father and the Son,-the faith of Christianity,-and (not that there is a Christ, but) that Jesus is the Christ. He is thus distinctly identified with the unbelief of Israel, as he is impliedly an apostate from the Christian faith, in which character the apostle plainly speaks of him to the Thessalonians. He is a second Judas, " the son of perdition," the ripe fruit of that " falling away " which was to come before the day of the Lord came,-itself the outcome of that " mystery of iniquity " (or "lawlessness") then at work. He is the "wicked," or "lawless one,"-not the sinful woman, the:harlot of Revelation, but the " man of sin."

Every word here claims from us the closest attention-. The sinful woman is still professedly subject to the marry antichristian, because in fact putting herself in Christ's place, claiming a power that is His alone. Nevertheless, she claims it in His name, not in her own. The pope assumes not to be Christ, but the vicar of Christ. The real " man of sin" throws off this womanly subjection. He is no vicar of Christ, but denies that Jesus is the Christ. He sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Yet, even as Christ owns, and brings men to worship, the Father, so Antichrist brings men to worship another, as Revelation has shown us. There is a terrible consistency about these separate predictions, which thus confirm and supplement one another.

We see clearly now that the temple in which he sits is not the Christian church, but the Jewish temple, and how he is linked with the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel and by the Lord, an abomination, which brings in the time of trouble lasting till the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven as Savior of Israel and of the world.

The abomination is mentioned three times in Daniel, the only place that is equivocal in its application to the last days being that of the eleventh chapter (5:31). The connection would refer it there to Antiochus Epiphanes, the Grecian oppressor of Israel, who, near the middle of the second century before Christ, profaned the temple with idolatrous sacrifices and impure rites. It is agreed by commentators in general that the whole of the previous part of the chapter details in a wonderful manner the strife of the Syrian and Egyptian kings, in the center of which Judaea lay. From this point on, however, interpreters differ widely. The attempt to apply the rest of the prophecy to Antiochus has been shown by Keil and others to be an utter failure. The time of trouble such as never was, yet which ends with the deliverance of the people (chap. 12:i) corresponds exactly with that which is spoken of in the Lord's prophecy on the mount of Olives ; and the "time, times, and a half" named in connection with the abomination of desolation, and which the book of Revelation again and again brings before us, are alone sufficient to assure us that we have here reached a period future to us to-day. The connection of all this becomes a matter of deepest interest.
That the whole present period of the Christian dispensation should be passed over in Old Testament prophecy is indeed not a new thing to us ; and the knowledge of this makes the leap of so many centuries not incredible. If, however, the "time, times, and a half," or twelve hundred and sixty days, from the setting up of the abomination, contemplate that abomination set up by Antiochus, more than a century and a half before Christ, then the reckoning of this time is an utter perplexity. Yet, what other can be contemplated, when in all this prophecy there is none other referred to ? To go back to chaps, 8:or 9:to find such a reference, overlooking what is before our eyes, would seem out of question. What other solution of the matter is possible?

Now we must remember that the book is shut up and sealed until the "time of the end,"-a term which has a recognized meaning in prophecy, and cannot apply to the times of Antiochus, or to those of the Maccabees which followed them. It assures us once more that the prophecy reaches on to the days of Matt. 24:; and that the abomination of desolation there must be the abomination here. Yet how can it be? Only, surely, in one way:if the application to Antiochus, while true, be only the partial and incipient fulfillment of that which looks on to the last days for its exhaustive one, then indeed all is reconciled, and the difficulty has disappeared. This,«therefore, must be the real solution.

What we have here is only one example of that double fulfillment which many interpreters have long since found in Scripture prophecies, and of which the book of Revelation is the fullest and the most extended. There maybe a question here as to how far the double fulfillment in this case reaches back. With this we have not to do, for we are not primarily occupied with Daniel. It is sufficient for our purpose, if we are entitled to take the abomination of desolation here (as it certainly appears that we are bound to take it,) as in both places the same, and identical with that which we find in the New Testament.

Going an in the eleventh chapter, then, to the thirty-sixth verse, we find the picture of one who may well be the same as the second "beast" of Revelation. If at the first look it might appear so, a further consideration, it is believed, will confirm the thought of this. We must quote the description in full.

"And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the Desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honor the god of forces ; and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain."

If we take the prophecy as closely connected, at least from the thirty-first verse,-and we have seen that there seems a necessity for this,-then this king is described in his conduct after the abomination of desolation has been set up in the temple ; and this strange, and it might seem contradictory character that is ascribed to him, would seem to mark him out sufficiently, that he sets himself up above every god, and yet has a god of his own. This is exactly what is true of the antichristian second beast :and there can scarcely be another at such a time, of whom it can be true. But let us look more closely.
First, he is a king ; and the place of his rule is clearly, by the connection, in the land of Israel. Thus he fills the identical position of the second beast. Then he does according to his own will, is his own law-"lawless," as in Thessalonians. His self-exaltation above every god naturally connects itself with blasphemy against the God of gods, spite of which he prospers till the indignation is accomplished,-that is, the term of God's wrath against Israel, a determinate, decreed time. This is the secret of his being allowed to prosper, that God wills to use him as a rod of discipline for His people. Israel's sins give power to their adversaries.

The next verse intimates that he is a Jew himself, an apostate one, for he regards not the God of his fathers. It is not natural to apply this to any other than the true God, and then his ancestry is plain. Then too the " desire of women," put as here among the objects of worship, is the Messiah, promised as the "woman's seed." Thus his character comes still more clearly out.

Yet, though thus exalting himself, he has a god of his own, the "god of forces," or "fortresses." And we have seen the second beast's object of worship is the first beast; a political idol, sought for the strength it gives, a worship compounded of fear and greed. Thus it is indeed a god whom his fathers knew not, none of the old gods of which the world has been so full, although the dark and dreadful power behind it is the same :the face is changed, but not the heart.

Indeed strongholds are his trust, and he practices against them with the help of this strange god :this seems the meaning of the sentence that follows. "And whosoever acknowledges him he will increase with glory, and cause him to rule over the multitude, and divide the land for gain."

In all this we find what agrees perfectly with what is elsewhere stated of the "man of sin." There are no doubt difficulties in interpreting this part of Daniel consistently all through, especially in the connection of the "king" here spoken of with the setting up of the abomination in the thirty-first verse. For it is the king of the north who there seems to inspire this; and the king of the north is throughout the chapter the Grecian king of Syria, and the part he plays is clearly that which Antiochus did play. From this it is very natural that it should be conceived (as by some it is) that the king of the north and Antichrist are one. If this were so, it would not alter any thing that has been said as to the application of the prophecy, although there might be a difficulty as to a Grecian prince becoming a Jewish false Christ.

But there is no need for this ; nor any reason that I am aware why the perpetration of the awful wickedness in connection with Jehovah's sanctuary should not be the work of more than even the two beasts of Revelation. It is certainly striking that in chap, 8:, where the rise of this latter-day Grecian power is depicted, the taking away of the daily sacrifice is linked in some way with his magnifying himself against the Prince of the host (5:ii). It may not be positively asserted that it is done by him, (as most translators and interpreters however give it,) yet the connection is so natural, one might almost say, inevitable, that, had we this passage alone, all would take it so. How much more would one think so when the eleventh chapter seems so entirely to confirm this?

Let it be remembered that Greece was one of the provinces of the Roman empire, and as such would seem to be subject to it upon its revival, whether or not the bond with it be broken before the end. Why not a combination of powers and motives in the commission of this last blasphemous crime, even as in the cross Jew and Gentile were linked together?
The instrument is no doubt the antichristian power in Judaea, but the Grecian power may none the less have its full part, and both of these be in subordination to the head of the western empire. F.W.G.

(To be continued,)

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII. PART III.-Continued.

THE TRINITY OF EVIL, AND THE MANIFESTATION OF THE WICKED ONE.

Commencing Fulfillment of the First Promise [to the Woman's Seed]. (Chap. 11:19-12:)-Continued.

'The dragon is cast out:the war in that respect is over; I heaven is free. But he is not yet cast into hell, nor even into the bottomless pit, but to the earth; and thus the earth's great trouble-time ensues. Satan comes down with great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time. How terrible a thing is sin! How amazing that a full, clear view of what is before him should only inspire this fallen being with fresh energy of hate to that which must all recoil upon himself, and add intensity of torment to eternal doom! Even so is every act of sin as it were a suicide; and he who committeth it is the slave of sin (Jno. 8:34).

A great voice in heaven celebrates the triumph there. " Now is come the salvation and power and kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night." The salvation spoken of here is not, apparently, as some think, the salvation of the body; for it is explained directly as deliverance of some who are called " our brethren" from the accusation of Satan. The voice seems, therefore, that of the glorified
saints, and the " brethren" of whom they speak, the saints on earth, who had indeed by individual faithfulness overcome in the past those accusations which are now forever ended. Satan's anti-priestly power, as another has remarked, is at an end.

Yet he may, and does, after this, exercise imperial power, and stir up the most violent persecution of the people of God, and these still may be called not to love their lives unto death. It is not here, then, that his power ceases:they have conflict still, but not with " principalities and powers in heavenly places." (Eph. 6:12.) Heaven is quiet and calm above them, if around is still the noise of the battle. And how great is the mercy that thus provides for them during those three and a half years of unequaled tribulation still to come! Is not this worthy of God that, just at the time when Satan's rage is greatest, and arming the world-power against His people, the sanctuary of the soul is never invaded by him:the fiery darts of the wicked one cease; he is no more "prince of the power of the air," but restricted to the earth simply, to work through the passions of men, which he can inflame against them.

Accordingly to this he gives himself with double energy:"And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man-child." But God interferes:"And there were given unto the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the face of the serpent."

The words recall plainly the deliverance from Egypt. Pharaoh king of Egypt is called thus by the prophet, "the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers," (Ezek. 29:3,) and is himself the concentration of the malice of the world-power; while God says to delivered Israel at Sinai, "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians; and how I bare you on eagle's wings, and brought you to Myself." (Ex. 19:4.) The reference here seems definitely to this:it is not, as in the common version, "a" great eagle, indefinitely, but "the" great eagle,-the griffon, perhaps, than which no bird has a more powerful or masterly flight. Clearly it is divine power that is referred to in these words:in the deliverance out of Egypt there was jealous exclusion of all power beside. Israel was to be taught the grace and might of a Savior-God. And so in the end again it will be when He repeats, only in a grander way, the marvels of that old deliverance, and " allures " the heart of the nation to Himself.

Miracle may well come in again for them, and it may be that the wilderness literally will once more provide shelter and nourishment for them. Figure and fact may here agree together, and so it often is; the terms even seem to imply the literal desert here, just because it is evidently a place of shelter that divine love provides, and sustenance there; and what more natural than that the desert, by which the land of Israel is half encompassed, should be used for this?

That which follows seems to be imagery borrowed from the desert also. Like the streams of Antilibanus, many a river is swallowed up in the sand, as that is which is now poured out of the dragon's mouth. If it be an army that is pictured, the wilderness is no less capable of the absorption of a nation's strength. The river being cast out of his mouth would seem to show that it is by the power of his persuasion that men are incited to this overflow of enmity against the people of God, which is so completely foiled that the baffled adversary gives up further effort in this direction, and the objects of his pursuit are after this left absolutely unassailed.

But those whoso escape, while thus securing the existence of the nation-and therefore identified with the woman herself,-are not the whole number of those who in it are converted to God; and " the remnant of her seed " become now the object of his furious assault. These are indeed those, as it would seem, with whom is the testimony of Jesus, which is, we are assured, " the spirit of prophecy." (Chap. 19:10.) These are they, perhaps, who amid these times of trouble go forth, as from age to age the energy of the Spirit has incited men to go forth, taking their lives in their hand that they might bring the word of God before His creatures, and who have been ever of necessity the special objects of satanic enmity. They are the new generation of those who as men of God have stood forth prominently for God upon the earth, and have taken from men on the one hand their reward in persecution, but from God on the other the sweet counterbalancing acknowledgment. It is of such the Lord says, "Blessed are ye when they shall reproach and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you." (Matt. 5:ii, 12.)

Noticeable it is that it is in heaven still this new race of prophets find their reward. The two witnesses whom we have seen ascend to heaven in a cloud belong to this number; and those who in Daniel as turning many to righteousness, shine as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. 12:3). Earth casts them out, and they are seen in our Lord's prophecy as brethren of the King, hungering and athirst, in strangership, naked and sick and in prison (Matt. 25:35, 36, 40). Heaven receives them in delight as those of whom the earth was not worthy,-a gleaning after harvest, as it were, of wheat for God's granary,-a last sheaf of the resurrection of the saints, which the twentieth chapter of the book before us sees added to the sitters upon the thrones, among the "blessed and holy" now complete. How well are they cared for who might seem left unsheltered to Satan's enmity! They have lost the earthly blessing, they have gained the heavenly; their light has been quenched for a time, to shine in a higher sphere forever. Blessed be God!

We may follow, then, the new development of satanic enmity without fear. We shall gain from considering it. Their enemy and ours is one and the same:it is Satan, the old serpent, the ancient homicide, and we must not be " ignorant of his devices." His destiny is to be overcome, and that by the feeblest saint against whom he seems for the present to succeed so easily. F.W.G.

(To be continued.)

From the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer."

He sitteth o'er the fining-pot
With patient tender love.
He doth not set another there
The work to bend above.
But on the molten surface rests
His ever loving eye;
His hand doth gauge the furnace fire,
Nor doth He heed our cry.
But at the perfect moment, when
Upon that molten mass
He seeth there reflected bright
The impress of His face,
His own right hand removeth it.
" It is enough," he cries;
And thus from out our broken hearts
All nature's dross He tries.

H. McD.

SINS AND SIN.

We may be said to know persons and things just in proportion as we discern how they differ. It is easier to see where Paul, for instance, may resemble John, than to perceive in what respects John differs from the Apostle of the Gentiles. So in regard to the meaning of the phrases, " House of God " and " the Kingdom of Heaven." Many could point out the resemblances, who would find it a much more difficult task to describe the differences. But real knowledge, even in natural things, depends largely upon the clearness with which we make and the keenness with which we appreciate distinctions. So it is with regard to truth and divine things. Progress will be made very much in proportion as we learn to distinguish things that differ.

Thus it is said that the natural man knows not spiritual things. The carnal, likewise, are not able to bear their being fully communicated. On the other hand, the spiritual discerneth all things. (i Cor. 2:14, 15 ; 3:1-3.) About the things to be added to faith it is said, " He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off." (2 Pet. 1:9.)

But if any one wishes to learn, there is every encouragement, since the believer has received the capacity in obtaining a new nature. He also received the Spirit, which is of God, that he might know the things that are freely given to Him of God. (i Cor. 2:12; i Jno. 2:27.) Then, as all spiritual things, as well as the power to enjoy them, are ours, we ought to have interest and purpose of heart to set ourselves to discern things that differ.

It may be safely affirmed that none of the distinctions of Scripture are unimportant. One of the most conspicuous of these is the distinction between sins and sin. In the New Testament, especially in the Pauline Epistles, the difference between sins and sin is carefully made and constantly kept in view. That this fact is little regarded, notwithstanding its prominence, and the practical results depending on its apprehension, is truly remarkable. But ignorance and negligence bring forth fruit after their kind. Many sincere Christians are consequently deprived of the enjoyment of peace, rest, liberty, and power. Some who long for better things, through fear of extravagance, remain in life-long bondage. The ardent aspirations of others carry them over such scruples, and often lead them to adopt one-sided, wrong, and even dangerous views of sanctification.

For instance, one of the Perfectionist School thus puts their view that if a sinner "will confess his lost condition, ' God is faithful and just, not only to forgive, but also to cleanse from all sin, 'actual and original.'" With varying expressions, they leave no doubt as to their meaning being that "the carnal mind is beplucked up by the roots and the tendencies to evil taken away." They affirm that God is able to do that for the believer now, and consider any thing less a limiting of divine power. Death, they say, does not sanctify, so God must do it while the believer lives.

God's plan of deliverance is confounded with His power. One need scarcely say that such error will here receive no countenance. The distinguishing between sins and sin strikes at the very root of such false teaching. But doubtless the unsatisfactory experiences of many Christians, the feats and prejudices against the reception of truth, which would be like sunshine in their hearts, and the hazy, questionable teaching on Christian progress, can all more or less be traced to the neglect of the distinction between sins and sin. The importance of knowing and observing the difference, therefore, cannot be easily over-estimated. Indeed, the knowledge of, and attention to, this distinction, become a fair test of a satisfactory Christian experience, and a criterion as to whether or not what is taught on the subject of holiness is according to Scripture.

We may therefore inquire :Wherein lies the difference between sins and sin ? At the outset we remark that there is a difference in the facts. Yes, and " facts are stubborn cheils that winna ding." Though so closely related, sins and sin are more distinct than the singular and plural of the same word. They represent different things. The distinction is not made conspicuous in the Old Testament. This may be accounted for by the fact that man was never fully treated according to his lost condition until Christ was on the cross. It came out, indeed, before God, previous to the flood-"God said unto Noah:The end of all flesh is come before Me." (Gen. 6:12,13.) But God in patience left man to be tested four thousand years before He brought out the utter ruin of man by condemning sin in the flesh. This was what was done when His Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, was crucified. (Rom. 8:3.) Transgressions are always condemned ; from the time of the fall, man was regarded as a sinner, liable to punishment. The Jewish ceremonies and sacrifices referred chiefly to sins actually committed. But the full revelation of the great remedy for sin brought out more distinctly the depth, the danger, the deadliness of the malady. Hence, in the New Testament, we find man not only treated as a sinner, but he is shown to be lost. In the one case, it is a question as to what he has done; in the other, it is what he is in his nature. Having acted contrary to God, he has sinned ; but there was something anterior to this which was the cause of his doing what was wrong. The thing in him which produced the sins demands his attention. In the one case it is a question of his guilt; in the other, it is the ruin of his nature. This is a much darker view of his condition. He has not only done wrong, but he has got that in him as part of his very self which makes it impossible for him of himself ever to do right. In short, for the doing of good, he is without will, without strength ; he is ruined-lost. Apart from any sins actually committed, he finds that the malady has reached his inmost soul, and that, do as he may, he bears about with him a ruined nature, ready at any moment to manifest itself in positive transgressions.

It is just as if his horse may not be stumbling now, but he keeps a tight rein and has to be watchful, because he knows that the animal has got the bad capacity of stumbling. So as to man's own nature, if it is not acting, if he is not sinning now, he requires to watch, because the thing which produces the sins is in him. Merely to obtain forgiveness, blessed as that is, leaves the source of all the evil untouched. The inherent bad capacity, the evil nature, requires to be reached and judged. Yea, even suppose he never sinned again ; if a man is not renewed in nature, he has in him that evil potentiality, which will not only keep him out of God's presence, but it will in the end shut him up with Satan. There is, therefore, something more wrong than his being a sinner, having sins ; he is without hope, except by new creation, for he has an irrecoverably ruined nature. This nature, or the evil principle within him, is called sin, while its fruits, in overt acts, are spoken of as sins. That they are distinct may be further seen by the fact that the one may be found without the other, at the same moment, in connection with the same person. Take, for instance, a newborn babe, before it is thought to have willed and acted contrary to God. The child, strictly speaking, cannot be said to have sins; but as connected with Adam, the head of the race, it has inherited a ruined nature,-that is to say, it has sin. "By one man sin entered into the world." " I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Rom. 5:12; Ps. 51:5.) This is brought out by the words of the Lord Jesus in a manner which, from its connection, is at once striking and suggestive. In speaking of Zacchaeus, the publican, one who had doubtless been guilty of many sins in going astray, the Lord says, " The Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10.) By his personal activity in will and waywardness, the man has made it necessary that he should be sought. Whereas, in reference to the children, "These little ones," He says, "The Son of Man is come to save that which is lost." (Matt. 18:2:) There is no hint as to the children having gone astray, yet they are said to be lost. This throws light upon the distinction before us. The wandering is connected with conduct; being lost is on account of having been born with a corrupt nature. Hence, the babe may be said to have sin, but not sins.

Our distinction may be further illustrated by looking at the scene of the crucifixion. There were three victims, " On either side one, and Jesus in the midst." Then, think of them after sins have been imputed to Jesus as the substitute ; also, after the thief has confessed Him, and has heard that assuring word, " To-day shall thou be with Me in paradise." While the spotless victim was being made an offering for sin, before He said " It is finished," and the vail of the temple was rent, think of the three persons there amid the darkness, Begin with the central figure, and it must be acknowledged that personally, though numbered with the transgressors, He is still "holy, harmless, and undefiled." He "offered Himself without spot to God." But He also "bare our sins in His own body on the tree." (i Pet. 3:24.)

There, then, He has sins on Him; but He has no sin in Him. Thus we find the sins apart from the sin. Then, think of the thief who had confessed that "this Man had done nothing amiss!" Though His hands were now nailed to the cross, the faith of the penitent also recognized Him as the One who would wield the scepter of the kingdom. That malefactor's sins are taken away; he is made meet for paradise. But, being still in the body, though he has no sins on him, he has sin in him.

Again, though in the opposite way to what was noticed with the Saviour, we see that sins and sin are distinct-so distinct that they can be separated. If the case of the other malefactor is considered, he has sins on him and sin in "him. Then, in this momentous event, the Substitute, the believer, and the unforgiven sinner, afford a striking illustration of the difference between sins and sin. Sins are overt acts, which ought not to have been done, or the omission of acts which ought to have been done; sin is a state or condition. Things had been done by the penitent thief which brought him to the gibbet. When forgiven by the Lord, till released by death, he was still in the condition of one having an evil nature. The impenitent thief could do no more acts of thieving, nor could he now live honestly; but he had still the nature which made him a thief. The law condemned the acts, and punished him for committing them; but the law could not change, restrain, or even touch, the will, or the bad capacity, in the thief's nature. That evil potentiality is beyond the domain of law. Hence, it is said that "sin is lawlessness," as this is allowed to be the proper rendering of i Jno. 3:4. Instead of the evil principle within, therefore, being curbed by law, it is only provoked thereby. Hence, the apostle says, "I had not known lust, expect the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet.' But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence." (Rom. 7:7, 8.) So, also, he says, " The mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom. 8:7.) In such thoughts, he has before his mind the state of the evil nature rather than its acts. In other words, he is writing of sin rather than sins. Thus, though quite distinct, a ruined nature and actual guilt stand in the relation of cause and effect. There is all the difference and relationship between a man's nature and his guilt that subsists between a cloud and its rain-drops, a fountain and its streams, the root of a tree and its fruit. The difference in the facts of sin and sins is thus apparent:sin in the nature is the cloud, the fountain, the root; sins in the practice are the raindrops, the streams, the fruit.

Since there is such a difference in the facts, may we not anticipate that there must be a difference in God's way of dealing with sins and sin ? This distinction needs only to be pointed out now to be discerned and appreciated. Once known, it may be welcomed as the missing key to unlock the mystery of many a perplexing experience on the part of believers bowed down with the sense of inward corruption.

Then we observe that both sins and sin are wholly condemned as opposed to the righteousness and the holiness of God. The cross is God's answer to both. But it is an answer in two distinct ways. If one may so speak, what comes out from the sinner, in positive acts as sins, is met by what comes out from the Surety, in atoning blood. On the other hand, what is proved to be in the sinner, as an evil principle of sin, is met by what is done in the Surety, when in Him sin is condemned in the flesh. (Rom. 8:3.) Not for a moment is it to be thought that there was evil in the flesh of Jesus, but that on the cross, "in the likeness of sinful flesh" and as identified with it, the evil principle was condemned in His death. This is easily understood. The wicked workers in the old world before the flood were apart from and untouched by Noah when he began to build the ark. Yet the Spirit says that in preparing the ark " he condemned the world." (Heb. 11:7.) They were thus judged by Noah's work. Likewise, though apart from Christ, the evil principle of sin, the world and its prince, were judged in Christ on the cross. (Jno. 12:31; 16:2:) The sentence was passed upon them on Calvary. The execution of the sentence is a different thing, as the court-room is not the scaffold, nor the judge the executioner. Then the evil principle, sin in the nature, though judged at the cross, may, and indeed does, still exist in the believer. But it is like a prisoner under sentence of death ; he is restrained, and society freed from his evil power, while he awaits execution. But the illustration fails. To the law and the world he has died judicially already :yet in fact he still lives. Such is the case with the evil principle of sin in the Christian, though he may fail to realize deliverance.

There is deliverance for him since God has brought in the answer of death-death with Christ. It is said that Christ has died unto sin, and His condition as to sin is the condition of every Christian (Rom. 6:10), since all Christians are in Christ. But the man who is in Christ has still the evil principle of sin in him. So Paul found, even after being in the third heaven, that he needed a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being exalted above measure. Before he had time to have any such feelings of pride he had not sinned in this respect. It could not be a question of forgiveness. There was as yet no pride to be forgiven. But he needed deliverance that the tendency to pride might be so held in check that he might not sin in that way. Then, instead of the blood of Christ, on account of which he had forgiveness, he had to think of the death of Christ, by which he found deliverance. To the inward evil tendency, not the outward acts to which it might lead, the only answer was death and judgment.

So the believer finds deliverance from the bondage and power of sin by reckoning himself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.(Rom. 6:2:) From the presence of sin he will not get free till he actually dies or the Lord comes. But he may live such a life of holiness as to have Christ magnified in his body. Sin, the evil nature, has been condemned in the flesh; yet there it is like a prisoner in a condemned cell, and faith may and ought to carry the key, so that the convict should be prevented from doing further injury. . We repeat that sin is there, and if allowed to act, it may have sway ; but the believer is entitled to reckon himself dead to it, and, in faith, he may turn the key, and say, Sin shall not have dominion over me, for I am not under the law, but under grace. (Rom. 6:11-14.) Then it is no inward cleansing, or eradication of evil from the heart, as so many seek and set themselves to attain. As already noticed, God's way is not to purify or remove sin, the evil nature, from the believer. Deliverance from its power is what is meanwhile held out in Scripture, so that, as set free from its power, though having sin within him still, he may serve God, and have his fruit unto holiness. (Rom. 6:22.) But words, or flesh and blood, cannot reveal the secret; yet to the one who seeks, the Lord will make it known, and the after life will manifest that the change is as great as giving up hand power for the power of steam. "Ask," " Seek," "Knock," in this respect are energizing words for believers longing after deliverance. Sins, therefore, are borne by the Substitute. In His death, sin is condemned in the flesh, so that the fruits and the root of evil, are equally judged. The same mighty stroke of divine justice visits the sins committed and the evil nature possessed by the sinner. There is, nevertheless, a twofold result. The sins are forgiven :the evil nature is given over to death and judgment. Atoning blood washes away the guilt, all at once, and once for all, so that no second cleansing in this respect is required, nor are any believers more thoroughly cleansed than others. Each and all are equally once purged, and perfected forever. (Heb. 10:) 'Their sins are to be remembered no more. But the presence of sin, the evil nature, must be ever kept in mind, along with the thought that it has been met and stripped of its power when our old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be annulled, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Rom. 6:6.) But the illustration and application of the difference between forgiveness and deliverance we must leave to be taken up, if the Lord will, in another paper. W. C. J.

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.

PART IV. THE EARTH-TRIAL. (CHAP, 14:)-Continued.

The Fall of Babylon,(5:8.)

That the message of judgment is indeed a "gospel" we find plainly in the next announcement, which is marked as that of a "second" angel, a "third" following, similar in character, as we shall see directly. Here it is announced that Babylon the Great has fallen :before, indeed, her picture has been presented to us, which we find only in the seventeenth chapter. The name itself is, however, significant, as that of Israel's great enemy, under whose power she lay prostrate seventy years, and itself derived from God's judgment upon an old confederation, the seat of which became afterward the center of Nimrod's empire. But that was not Babylon the Great, although human historians would have given her, no doubt, the palm ; with God, she was only the type of a power more arrogant and evil and defiant of Him than the old Chaldaean despot, and into whose hands the Church of Christ has fallen,-the heavenly, not the earthly people. It is an old history rehearsed in a new sphere and with other names,-a new witness of the unity of man morally in every generation.

The sin on account of which it falls reminds us still of Babylon, while it has also its peculiar aggravation. Of her of old it was said, "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth drunken :the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad." (Jer. 51:7.) But it is not said, "the wine of the fury of her fornication." This latter expression shows that Babylon is not here a mere political but a spiritual power. One who belongs professedly to Christ has prostituted herself to the world for the sake of power. She has inflamed the nations with unholy principles, which act upon men's passions, (easily stirred,) as we see, in fact, in Rome. By such means she has gained and retained power; by such, after centuries of change, she holds it still. But the time is at hand when they will at last fail her, and this is what the angel declares now to have come. Babylon is fallen, and that fall is final:it is the judgment of God upon her ; it is retributive justice for centuries of corruption; it is a note of the everlasting gospel, which claims the earth for God, and announces its deliverance from its oppressors. But we have yet only the announcement :the details will be given in due place.

The Warning to the Beast-Worshipers, (10:9-13.)

A THIRD angel follows, noted as that, and belonging, therefore, to the company of those that bring the gospel of blessing for the earth. That it comes in the shape of a woe, we have seen to be in no wise against this. Babylon is not the only evil which must perish that Christ may reign ; and Babylon's removal only makes way at first for the full development of another form of it more openly blasphemous than this. The woman makes way for the man,-what professes at least subjection to Christ, for that which is open revolt against Him. Here, therefore, the woe threatened is far more sweeping and terrible than in the former case ; there are people of God who come out of Babylon, and who therefore were in her to come out (chap, 18:4). But the beast in its final form insures the perdition of all who follow it:"If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink"-or "he also shall drink "-"of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest, day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."

It is the beast who destroys Babylon, after having for a time supported her:his own pretension tolerates no divided allegiance, and in him the unbelief of a world culminates in self-worship. Here God's mercy can only take the form of loud and emphatic threatening of extreme penalty for those who worship the beast. In proportion to the fearful character of the evil does the Lord give open assurance of the doom upon it, so that none may unknowingly incur it. Here "the patience of the saints" is sustained in a "reign of terror" such as has never yet been.

Faith too is sustained in another way, namely, by the special consolation as to those who die as martyrs at this time:"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, ' Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth.'" That is clearly encouragement under peculiar circumstances. All who die in the Lord must be blessed at any time ; but that only makes it plainer that the circumstances must be exceptional now which require such comfort to be so expressly provided for them. Something must have produced a question as to the blessedness of those that die at this time ; and in this we have an incidental confirmation-stronger because incidental-that the resurrection of the saints has already taken place. Were they still waiting to be raised, the blessedness of those who as martyrs join their company could scarcely be in doubt. The resurrection having taken place, and the hope of believers being now to enter alive into the kingdom of the Son of Man at His appearing,-as the Lord says of that time, " He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved " (Matt. 24:13),-the question is necessarily raised. What shall be the portion of these martyrs, then, must not remain a question ; and in the tenderness of divine love the answer is here explicitly given. Specially blessed are those who die from henceforth :they rest from their labors; they go to their reward. The Spirit seals this with a sweet confirming "yea"-so it is. Earth has only cast them out that heaven may receive them ; they have suffered, therefore they shall reign with Christ. Thus accordingly we find in the twentieth chapter, that when the thrones are set and filled, those that have suffered under the beast are shown as rising from the dead to reign with the rest of those who reign with Him. Not the martyrs in general, but these of this special time are marked distinctly as finding acknowledgment and blessing in that "first resurrection," from which it might have seemed that they were shut out altogether.

It may help some to see how similar was the difficulty that had to be met for the Thessalonian saints, and which the apostle meets also with a special "word of the Lord" in his first epistle. They too were looking for the Lord, so that the language of their hearts was (with that of the apostle), " We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." They had been "turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven ;" and with a lively and expectant faith they waited.

But then what about those who were fallen asleep in Christ? It is evident that here is all their difficulty. He would not have them ignorant concerning those that were asleep, so as to be sorrowing for them, hopeless as to their share in the blessing of that day. Nay, those who remained would not go before these sleeping ones:they would rise first, and those who were alive would then be "caught up with them, to meet the Lord in the air." This for Christians now is thus the authoritative word of comfort. But the sufferers under the beast would not find this suffice for them; for them the old difficulty appears once more, and must be met with a new revelation.

How perfect and congruous in all its parts is this precious Word of God! And how plainly we have in what might seem even an obscure or strange expression -" blessed from henceforth"-a confirmation of the general interpretation of all this part of Revelation ! The historical interpretation, however true, as a partial anticipatory fulfillment, fails here in finding any just solution.

The Harvest and The Vintage. (10:14-20.)

In the next vision the judgment falls. The Son of. Man upon the cloud, the harvest, the treading of the winepress, are all familiar to us from other Scriptures, and in connection with the appearing of the Lord. We need have no doubt, therefore, as to what is before us here.

The "harvest" naturally turns us back to our Lord's parable, where wheat and tares represent the mingled aspect of the kingdom, the field of Christendom. "Tares" are not the fruit of the gospel, but the enemy's work, who sows not the truth of God, but an imitation of it. The tares are thus the 'children of the wicked one,' deniers of Christ, though professing Christians. The harvest brings the time of separation, and first the tares are gathered and bound in bundles for the burning, and along with this the wheat is gathered into the barn. In the interpretation afterward we have a fuller thing:the tares are cast into the fire, and the righteous shine forth as the sun in their Father's kingdom.

Here the general idea of harvest would be the same, though it does not follow that it will be a harvest of the same nature. In the harvest-time there are crops reaped of various character :the thought is of discriminative judgment, such as with the sheep and goats of Matt. 25:There is what is gathered in, as well as what is cast away, and hence the Son of Man is here as that. The vintage-judgment is pure wrath:the grapes are cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God, and thus it is the angel out of the altar, who has power over the fire, at whose word it comes. The vine of the earth is a figure suitable to Israel as God's vine (Is. 5:), but apostate, yet cannot be confined to Israel, as is plain from the connection in which we find it elsewhere. But it represents still apostasy, and thus what we have seen to have its center at Jerusalem, though involving Gentiles also far and near. Thus the city also outside of which the wine-press is trodden is Jerusalem, as the sixteen hundred furlongs is well known to be the length of Palestine. Blood flows up to the bits of the horses for that distance-of course, a figure, but a terrible one.

Both figures-the harvest and the vintage-are used in Joel, with reference to this time:" Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war:stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears:let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together:hither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord ! Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat:for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe :come, tread ye, for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. And the Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter His voice from, Jerusalem ; and the heaven and the earth shall shake :but the Lord will be a refuge unto His people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel."

Thus comes the final blessing, and the picture upon which the eye rests at last is a very different one. " So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain :then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord and water the valley of Shittim. . . . And I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed :for the Lord dwelleth in Zion." F. W. G.

(To be continued.)