"In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth " (Ps. 90:6).

Our life, brief and uncertain as it is, seems to be long as we look upon it as a whole. A year seems a long time, and ere we are aware, it has slipped through our fingers; and so with the entire life. The scripture we have quoted gives the day, the briefest natural division of time, as the figure of that life. How quickly does morning pass to noon, and noon darken to evening. How brief is life. "We spend our years as a tale that is told."

And yet procrastination would rob us of its brief hours with the thought that "to-morrow shall be as
to-day and much more abundant." It is this that encourages the sinner to despise the offers of grace and to be heedless of the warning, " to-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts;" nor are saints less exempt from the snare. True, through grace, they have been saved, their future in heaven is assured. But this only exposes them to the snare of the enemy, who would prevent in every way their usefulness in this world.

How solemn is the thought that "we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ." With what unavailing sorrow will the Lord's redeemed ones look back upon a misspent life.

But may there not be help in the thought suggested by our subject? Our life is but a day; and each day is a sample of our whole life. Do we wish to know how we are spending our life? let us examine the history of a single day. It will be found to give a miniature of the life. Are the loins girded, are opportunities seized, are temptations resisted? What place has Christ in our hearts this day ? what place has the word of God in our thoughts? It will be found that the history of a day will give the history of the life.

Take the current of a river at any point-the direction in which it is flowing-and you will have the general course of the river. Is there not mercy in this? Does not God thus give us an opportunity of, as it were, testing our lives daily-not surely for self-complacency-but to know how our life is passing.

Dear reader, this day's record of your life tells its whole story. Is it what it should be? Do you expect at some time to make a change? Ah! to-day, not even to-morrow, is the time to let our life be what it should be. How many lives are being practically wasted by the aimless drifting that is so common.

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

(Continued from page 146.)

CHAPTER VII. The Last Adam.

It is the first epistle to the Corinthians alone, and in the same passage, which gives us the two important terms, so closely related as they are to one another, of "Second Man" and "Last Adam" (15:45, 47). The one looks backward; the other forward. The "Second Man" implies that before Him we have only the first man, repeated and multiplied, in his descendants; now a new type has appeared; and that this, which is the full and final thought of man, may become the true heir of the inheritance, the "Second Man " is the " Last Adam." He is the "last " not " second," because plainly there is no other to succeed Him. " The Last Adam " (in opposition to "the first man Adam," (who "became a living soul") becomes "a Spirit giving life."

The apostle does not say that the Second Man became a Spirit giving life, for an obvious reason. The Second Man, as such, brings before us the new humanity, in the likeness of which every one of the new race will be ultimately found; but the Last Adam is the Head of the new race, and to be a " Spirit giving life " is peculiar to Himself. Man as man, and not merely the first man, has the mysterious power imparted to him of propagating his kind; but the new humanity is of too high a nature to permit this to the men of it. Only the Last Adam can communicate the new "life" which is its characteristic; and He, inasmuch as He is, what they are not, above man altogether. We cannot think of the Last Adam aright without explicitly taking into account His Deity,-that He is the " Word made flesh."

Noticeable it is in this way that we who are Christ's, and to whom Christ is life, are yet never spoken of as the children of Christ. Of the first Adam we are naturally children; of the last Adam, and as implied by that very relationship, we should be children also, in a higher and so a fuller way:yet we are never taught to call Christ "Father." For this there must be reason, and therefore that in it as to which we may rightly and reverently inquire why it is.

In the Old Testament, and not the New, we come nearest to the thought of children of Christ. In the fifty-third of Isaiah, the abundant seed-field of New Testament truth, we find first of all Messiah come and cut off, without posterity. "Who shall declare His generation?" asks the prophet:"for He was cut off out of the land of the living:for the transgression of my people was He stricken " (ver. 8). Thus there seems utter failure of blessing:cut off Himself, He has none who spring from Him,-who perpetuate His name and character.

So it naturally would appear; but the question has other answer before the prophecy ends; and in that very death in which for the sins of others He has been cut off, there is at last found the secret of a blessing such as seemed to be gone without remedy:" When Thou shalt make His soul a sacrifice for sin, He shall see a seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand'' (ver. 10). This "seed" and prolonging of His days are the double answer to the question which His death had raised.
Christ really then has a seed; the Last Adam as a quickening Spirit points to nothing else:but this only makes it more certain that there is a reason for the avoidance of such expressions as we naturally look for. We are taught by Christ Himself to speak of His Father as our Father (John 20:17), though this, of course, is not inconsistent with His relation to us as Last Adam. Of the first Adam it could be said also, as has been before remarked, that he was a " first-born among many brethren," without prejudice to his relationship to these as father.

In the Gospel of John it is that the Lord is seen as the Eternal Life, the Son, to whom " the Father hath given to have life in Himself," just as the Father hath life in Himself (ch. 5:26). The words show that it is as Man He is speaking, and that thus in manhood He becomes a Source of life:"as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will" (ver. 21). Thus it is in John's Gospel also that we find Him, after His resurrection, in character as Last Adam, (so much the more as in contrast with the first,) "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (20:22). John's is the Gospel of His Deity, and yet this remarkable characteristic action is reserved for it.

So, too, in his epistle John links them :"This is the true God send, eternal life " (i John 5:20).

"As the Father . . . quickeneth, so the Son quickeneth." "The Spirit" also "is life" (Rom. 8:10). It is a divine inspiration, of which the breathing into the first Adam (Gen. 2:7) was but a significant type. Even by that, man became the "offspring of God" (Acts 17:28), and thus by creation (not position] in His " image " (Gen. 1:27), as the son is in the father's image (Gen. 5:3). Man received thus (what the beast has not) a spirit; and God is the "Father of spirits" (Heb. 12:9). But this is only what is natural, and what has been debased by the fall; we need, therefore, a new begetting of God, a new communication of life :"that which is born of the flesh is flesh "-not merely human nature, but human nature degraded, as it were, to its lowest point, "flesh":as if the spirit had left it, " dead" therefore, while living.

So, with a sad harmony, Scripture everywhere asserts:man must be born again.

The breath of a new life enters into him, and he lives. This is no mere moral renewal. If "that which is born of the flesh is flesh,"-flesh has produced flesh ; there has been a real communication of nature, as shown in the being brought forth. So also " that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," partakes of the nature of that from which it is derived. Divine parentage is shown in participation in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), and we are become true children of God, with His likeness. " Passed from death unto life" (John 5:24), the life we have received is eternal life :which means, not that it will always last, for so will the wicked always live-if you call it "life"-but that it has always been also, not in us, but in God. This is the life that deserves to be called eternal; and this is the life in which we have begun to live. In us it has its beginning, its growth, its practical expression :this imperfect at the best, and varying from that in the infant to the young man and the father, it is nevertheless eternal life all through, whether it be as yet indiscernible by man or making a possessor of it a shining light amid the darkness of the world.

Much of what I am here saying is in contention by many; and there are perhaps few things of equal importance that are held more variously than what new birth is, and its connection with or disconnection from eternal life. It would carry us too far to discuss these variations :it is enough, perhaps, to say that, on the one hand, the signs of it given in John's first epistle show plainly that righteousness, love to God and to the brethren, and faith in Christ, characterize all who are born (or begotten) of God ; and on the other, that he writes to all that " believe on the name of the Son of God " that they may know that they have eternal life. I may be told indeed by some that these things are quite different; that faith in the Son is more and later than faith in Christ; but the gospel of John assures us that he that believeth not on the Son is one still under condemnation and the wrath of God. It is not the saint but the sinner who passes from death unto life; and that change, momentous as it is, cannot be a long process.

Thus, then, the "quickening Spirit" acts in every one born of God. As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, just so the Son quickens; and none the less it is of the Spirit we are born again. It is a divine work, and Father, Son and Spirit all partake in it. Thus it is manifest that we are by this birth children of God; and while the Son as Mediator is He in whom life is for us, and the Spirit is the positive Agent in communicating it, the Father it is whose blessed will the Son and Spirit alike work, and "of whom every family in heaven and earth is named " (Eph. 3:15, Gk.). "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things and we for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him " (i Cor. 8:6).

Thus, although we have been very recently told that there is no new communication of a new nature in new birth, yet the Lord Himself has taught us, on the contrary, that "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,"-that it partakes of the nature of Him who has brought it forth. And He says, "that which is born," (not "he who is born,") because the new life communicated does not as yet (as we have already seen) pervade the whole man. The body is still, in this respect, "dead, because of sin" (Rom. 8:10), even " if Christ be in you ; " and the " flesh " also thus (it must still be asserted) "because of sin," remains, even in the man delivered from its dominion, a cause for constant watchfulness and self-judgment.* *As the "thorn in the flesh," needed by a man who had been in the third heaven, and needed on that very account, will surely prove for any who have an ear to hear.* But the youngest babe born of God has nevertheless the nature of its Parent :even though here there be as much difference between the new-born babe and the man, as there is in the physical prototype. Abundant room for development must be admitted, while the development itself proves but the essential sameness of the nature in these wide extremes

The Second Man, then, is also the Last Adam ; but in the latter term much more is implied than in the former, and that the result of that union of the divine and human which faith can joyfully accept while it acknowledges the inscrutability of it. " No one knoweth the Son, but the Father." No human mind can think out the divine-human Person who is here before us; but to seek to have the value of scripture statements is another matter, and is the part of faith. It would be wronging the love which has enriched us with them, not to seek to appropriate our riches.

The connection of truth in this chapter in Corinthians which furnishes us with our present text is noteworthy. The apostle is writing to us of the resurrection, and has been contrasting the natural body as sown in the grave with the body of the saint in resurrection. "It is sown a natural body," he says; "it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening" Spirit."

The connection here is very much obscured by the translation:what connection could one suppose between "a living soul " and "a natural body"? None at least that one could argue, from the language used; and in fact, as elsewhere said, we have in English no clear way of making apparent the connection. If we were at liberty to use the word "soulual," (which is not in the dictionary,) we should be able to do this:we should then read, "There is a soulual body," . . . "the first man Adam was made a living soul; " as, on the other hand, "There is a spiritual body," and "the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit."

The first Adam had a soulual body, a body characterized by the soul its tenant:for he was himself a living soul. It is remarkable, while quite intelligible, that, though a man's spirit is his highest part, and it is by this he "knows the things of man" (i Cor. 2:u), and is in relation to God, yet while here in the body he is never called a "spirit," but only what the beast is, a "soul." On the other hand, as soon as he has left the body, he rises to the measure of his distinctly human part, and is now a "spirit." Common usage recognizes the same difference. In some sense the connection of soul and body is a shrouding of his higher nature. The same word psychical or soulual, is translated in our common version "sensual " (Jas. 3:15; Jude 19), though this, of course, is a use of it which is not due to man's condition as created but to the sin which has entered in. It is similar to the use of "flesh" for a condition in which fallen man, as if the spirit had departed from him, is characterized as "dead." Yet the psychical or "soulual "body, as in contrast with a "spiritual" one, is easily understood as that which hems in and disguises necessarily man's spiritual nature. In the babe this is sunk entirely at first in its fleshly wrappings. By degrees it emerges, with slow and painful labor freeing itself from the bonds of the material, the humbling discipline which God has ordained for it, but still "seeing as through a glass, in a riddle" (i Cor. 13:12). In the future only is to be its "face to face" knowledge.

This is what it means, as I take it,-or at least it is part of what it means,-for man to be a "living soul." It implies a life of sense, which may be yet, and should be, even on that account, a life of faith; of struggle which may be defeat or victory. Out of which we do not pass until the body is left behind, or fashioned by the last Adam into a "spiritual body," fit instrument for and no clog upon the enfranchised spirit. Only with this redemption of the body will the "sons of God" be fully manifested (Rom. 8:19, 23). F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

A few examples of the use of the number seven in the Bible, and its division into three and four, and into four and three-and sometimes an eight added-brought together, will present to the sober mind, a bright evidence of God's voice in His word, plain enough to confound the infidel.

1. After God has covenanted three times with Abram – Abram silent – the divine sovereignty of grace – (Gen. 12:i; 12:7; and 13:14) a group of four more covenants, begins with "after these things" (Gen. xv, xvii, xviii and 21:12), in which man responds in faith or in doubt each time-the whole seven suggesting "by grace (3) through faith (4). Then after the seventh we have again the- "after these things" (22:i) and then follows the eighth and final covenant when Isaac is received in a figure from the dead;-who could have arranged this but God ?

2. Joseph communicates with his brethren three times in the land-(twice about his dreams and a third time when put in the pit,) and four times they come to him long afterwards in Egypt, and the eighth and last time when Jacob has passed away (Gen. 1. 15)-new creation blessing for Israel, through a rejected Saviour when natural hope through descent has perished.

3. In Lev. 23:, seven "set times" are proclaimed. The Sabbath,-the Passover, etc., First-fruits, and Pentecost. Then a long interval until the seventh month, when there are three more mentioned- trumpets, day of atonement, and tabernacles; the latter three the recall, the repentance and establishment of Israel. If we apply this latter "three" individually, it tells of the work in us, whereas the first four speak rather of the work for its. We might have thought the " three " and the "four" would have been reversed, but there are depths to be sounded in Scripture.

As to the first four we have:

1st. The Sabbath-God's rest that remains to be reached in eternity.

2nd. The Passover and feast of unleavened bread as the way to reach this rest, that is redemption and a holy walk.

3rd. First-fruits, Christ risen, and-

4th. Pentecost, the offering of the Church; these two joined to one another, as the former two by the dividing words "and Jehovah spake unto Moses." Then, as above, the latter three referring to Israel in the future.

4. In Sam. xvi, seven sons of Jesse pass before Samuel, before David appears-the eighth, type of the risen Christ,-as Israel's and the world's hope. The first three sons are named, the latter four are not.

5. Passing over the occasion when the devil takes the Lord up into a mountain;-the Lord in His path of service is seven times in the mount before the cross in Matthew's Gospel, and an eighth time when risen from the dead. The latter three times before the cross He is on the Mount of Olives.
6. In Matt. xiii, we know how the first four parables show the world-wide aspect of the Kingdom of heaven (of Christendom), and then how after they go into the house the Lord unfolds to them the latter three-God's estimate of what is good in the Kingdom.

7. In the 3d chapter of Acts, Peter presents the Lord to us in seven characters; as the Servant (J. N. D.'s translation) ver. 13, as in Mark; the Holy and Just one, ver. 14, as in Luke and Matthew; the Prince or Author of Life, ver. 15, as in John.

This one so manifested in the world, in this fourfold way, they had "denied " and "killed." But the decree of God had declared that He would suffer; the prophets spoke of Him, Peter tells us, as the Christ, ver. 18, as a Prophet ver. 22, and as Abraham's "Seed" ver. 25-thus in three characters, as announced in Divine purpose of old, and in four as manifested among men.

8. In i Cor. 3:22, we have as a brother has noticed a remarkable seven, and an eight. " For all things are yours, whether (1st) Paul who plants; or (2nd) Apollos who seconds (waters); or (3rd) Peter, a stone, (the temple suggested) a beautiful suggestion under the Divine number, like Leviticus. So far we have persons. Now follows a group of four things, or (4th,) the world; or (5) life (plainly responsibility and God with us); or (6) death-the well-known number of evil and its terrible work-but victory through grace; or (7) "things present," and a good seven, completeness-and now we have an eight, "or (8) things to come."

How in a single verse we have thus the wondrous exact numerical structure that pervades the Bible, and stamps it as the handiwork of none but God, a "three" and "four" added, and at "eight" each word or phrase having its meaning according to the number of its place with unerring exactness, and filling our hearts with Divine blessing, – "open thy mouth and I will fill it," How the humble can repose in God while the men of this world are groping in thick darkness. Note "the world" under its number four!

9. In 2 Pet. 1:5. the seven things to be added to faith, or to be had in our faith, are plainly four and three. Virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, four things in us. Then we have added three things as to our attitude, towards God and towards men- godliness, brotherly love, and love, clearly a four plus three again.

10. In Hebrews the blood of Christ is spoken of just seven times, 1st. (Chap. 9:12.) "By His own blood has entered in once for all into the (holy of) holies, having found an eternal redemption."

2nd. Ver. 14, " how much rather shall the blood of Christ-who by the eternal Spirit offered Himself spotless to God-purify your conscience from dead works to worship the living God," like Israel in Egypt, in Exodus – set free from fruitless toil of bondage to the world-the conscience purified "from dead works to worship the living God." This is redemption enjoyed.

3rd. In 10:19, we have "boldness by the blood of Jesus to enter into the holiest," truly, a thirds as Leviticus-the divine number-access to God.

4th. Ver. 29. "Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing." Man tested and found wanting, the world's estimate of the Son of God, and the world's judgment.

5th. Chap. 12:24, "We are come . . . to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh." Here we have plainly the meaning of five-God with us, and we having to answer to Him.

6th. Chap. 13:12. " Wherefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people with His own blood- suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, hearing his reproach." Truly, we have here victory-over awful manifestation of evil.

The world is ever the same. Let us not be deceived. May we expect and rejoice in the reproach of Christ, and dread the world's favor.

7th. Chap. 13:20. "Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus-that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen."

"The blood of the eternal covenant" and God making His people "perfect in every good work" -God who wrought this perfect work, working in us what is well pleasing in His sight, making us perfect to do His will through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen!-this is perfection. May it be our joy to yield ourselves to Him, who works in us so mightily, with fear and trembling.

May these few examples of God's handiwork in His word, lead out our hearts in joyful worship, and may we search the Word and explore our possessions Gen. 13:14-18, Prov. 2:45. E. S. L.

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

(Continued from page 12.)

CHAPTER IV. His Human Spirit and Soul.

We come now to consider the deeper question of spirit and soul in Christ."Docetism," which denied the reality of His flesh, needs now no argument to be spent upon it, for it has no adherents at the present time; but that to which we are now come involves, to begin with, the question of what spirit and soul are in many and many are not yet clear as to this. We can hardly therefore understand what true humanity involves in the Lord, except we first understand what it is in men at large.

If, for instance, we take up such a book as "Hodge's Outlines of Theology," (a book which has been praised by a justly celebrated man, lately deceased, as a "Goliath's sword – none like it "for the Christian armory,) we shall find the writer saying:-

"Pythagoras, and after him Plato, and subsequently the mass of Greek and Roman philosophers, maintained that man consists of three constituent elements:the rational spirit, (nous, pneuma, mens;) the animal soul, (psuche, anitna;) the body, (soma, corpus.) Hence this usage of the word became stamped upon the Greek popular speech. And consequently the apostle uses all three when intending to express exhaustively in popular language the totality of man and his belongings:'I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless' (i Thess. 5:23; Heb. 4:12; i Cor. 15:45). Hence some theologians conclude that it is a doctrine given by divine inspiration that human nature is constituted of three distinct elements."

To which view he objects:-

"That the pneuma and psuche are distinct entities cannot be the doctrine of the New Testament, because they are habitually used interchangeably and often indifferently. Thus psuche as well as pneuma is used to designate the soul as the seat of the higher intellectual faculties – (Matt. 16:26; i Pet. 1:22; Matt. 10:28). Thus also pneuma as well as psuche is used to designate the soul as the animating principle of the body-(James 2:26). Deceased persons are indifferently called psuchai, (Acts 2:27, 31; Rev. 6:9; 20:4); and pneumata, (Luke 24:37, 39; Heb. 12:23)."

These are all his objections, and at the first glance they are very unsatisfactory. How much of the precision and trustworthiness of Scripture must disappear if we are at liberty to credit apparent distinctions of this sort to popular phraseology! On the contrary, the Old Testament is as clear as to these distinctions as the New, long before philosophy had molded the speech of Greece, and outside altogether the Greek that it had molded.

All through Scripture, from the first chapter of Genesis on, the beast is credited with a "soul." " Everything wherein there was a living soul" is the designation (in Gen. 1:30, Heb.) of the mere animal as distinct from man. True, man also is made a living soul; but that is not his highest-his special character. God is the "Father of spirits" (Heb. 12:9), not of souls; and as the son is in the image of his father, man is thus by a special work created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Thus also it is the "spirit of man that is in him" that "knoweth the things of a man" (i Cor. 2:ii); and this spirit is therefore never ascribed to the beast. The writer of Ecclesiastes in his early "thoughts " raises a question about it, but which he answers at the close (3:21; 12:7), and it is merely the doubt of a man in a fog, not divine truth, as is evident, nor given as that.

The spirit and soul are always viewed in Scripture with perfect consistency in this manner. Scripture is always self-consistent, and never loose in what it says. The faculties proper to man, the mental and moral judgment are ascribed to the spirit; the sensitive, instinctive, emotional nature is ascribed to the soul. Yet there is a knowledge that can be ascribed to the soul, as there is a joy of the spirit; and if "heart" be substituted for "soul," and "mind" for '' spirit," we can understand this without realizing any confusion or inconsistency in the matter.

As to the death-state, if spirit or soul be absent the body will be dead, and either may be mentioned in this way; yet here, too, Scripture will be found perfectly at one in all its statements. In the body, (and through its connection with it, doubtless, in the natural "or " psychic " condition already spoken of,) man-though he has a spirit-is a "soul;" so that "soul" becomes, as in our common language also, the equivalent of self; while out of the body, though he has a soul, he is a "spirit."

This will explain all passages, except perhaps those in Revelation, where also that in chapter 20:4 is only a somewhat emphatic use of soul for self or person; while the "souls under the altar," as applied to martyrs, are but figured as persons whose lives had been offered up in sacrifice. The usage is not really different.

"Spirit and soul and body," then, make up the man; and here the spirit it is that is the distinctive peculiarity of man, as is evident. To be true Man the Lord would surely possess both these; and both are accordingly ascribed to Him in Scripture. He can speak of His soul being troubled and sorrowful (Matt. 26:38; Mark 14:34; John 12:27); and it can be said of Him, that "His soul was not left in hell" (or hades), (Acts 2:31). On the other hand, in His youth He waxes strong in spirit (Luke 2:40); He perceives in His spirit (Mark 2:8); He rejoices and is troubled in spirit (Luke 10:21; John 13:21); He commends and gives up His spirit to His Father (Luke 23:46; John 19:30).

Thus the proof of His true humanity is complete. Here too He is in all things made like unto His brethren ; and how much, in fact, depends upon this! That, we must seek to get before us later on; but first, we must turn to certain denials or explanations otherwise of what these texts seem to teach; old speculations having been revived of late, and calling for fresh examination. It will be of use to trace it first in its older form and then in its modern phases. The older form is known (in Church history only) as Apollinarianism; the later is all around us to-day in what is known as Kenoticism.

Apollinaris was a man in high esteem among the orthodox, and in opposition to Arianism a zealous Trinitarian. It was, in fact, in opposition to Arianism that his views seem to have been developed. "The Arian doctrine of the person of Christ," says Dr. Bruce,* "was, that in the historical person called Christ appeared in human flesh the very exalted-in a sense,-divine-creature named in Scripture the Logos [or Word],-the Logos taking the place of a human soul, and being liable to human infirmity, and even to sin, inasmuch as, however exalted, he was still a creature, therefore finite, therefore fallible, capable of turning, in the abuse of freedom, from good to evil. *'The Humiliation of Christ," pp. 42, 43.* Apollinaris accepted the Arian method of constructing [conceiving?] the person, by the exclusion of a rational human soul, and used it as a means of obviating the Arian conclusion."

He did not deny a human soul in Christ in the scriptural sense of soul, but a rational human soul, which was the philosophic term for which Scripture uses the term "spirit." The spirit of Christ he maintained to be His Deity; and in this way he thought not merely to escape the Arian doctrine of moral frailty in the Lord, but to obtain other results of the greatest importance.

Of these the first was the avoidance of all possibility of supposing a dual personality in Christ, such as in fact some of his opponents fell into. Quoting Dr. Bruce again:In his view "Christ was true God, for He was the eternal Logos manifested in the flesh. He was also true man, for human nature consists of three component elements, body, animal soul, and spirit;" and all these Christ had. "True, it might be objected that the third element in the person of Christ, the nous [mind] was not human but divine. But Apollinaris was ready with his reply. ' The mind in Christ,' he said in effect, 'is at once divine and human; the Logos is at once the express image of God and the prototype of humanity.' This appears to be what he meant when he asserted that the humanity of Christ was eternal,-a part of his system which was much misunderstood by his opponents, who supposed it to have reference to the body of Christ. There is no reason to believe that Apollinaris meant to teach that our Lord's flesh was eternal, and that He brought it with Him from heaven, and therefore was not really born of the Virgin Mary; though some of his adherents may have held such opinions. His idea was that Christ was the celestial man; celestial, because divine; man, not merely as God incarnate, but because the divine spirit is at the same time essentially human."

"This," Bruce remarks, "was the speculative element in the Apollinarian theory misapprehended by contemporaries, better understood, and in some quarters more sympathized with, now."

And here is our interest in all this matter, that in the ferment of men's minds at the present time so much of the dead and buried past is being revived; oftentimes in fragments which it is useful to put in their place therefore again, that we may see their natural connection, and realize their significance.

But Apollinaris would have urged, no doubt, that this last part of his view was not simply speculation. He might have appealed to John 3:13, "the Son of man which is in heaven," or better still to i Cor. 15:47, "the second Man is (ex ouranou) out of heaven.*" *So the editors read it now.*

Nevertheless, "made in all things like unto His brethren " could not be said, as is manifest, of Christ as he has pictured Him, except we admit a self-emptying so great as that this divine humanity shall be able to take the true human limitation, be tempted as we are, increase in wisdom as in stature, be the new Adam, Head of a new race of men:without this it is plain we have not the Christ of the Scriptures. He is so unlike us that we would not have courage to claim Him for ourselves. Nor can we think of Him as in the agony of the garden, or in the darkness of the forsaken sorrow upon the Cross. The whole mental and moral nature of man, Apollinaris rightly conceived to be in that spirit of man, which he denied the Lord to possess. Spirit, He had brought (according to this theory) from heaven with Him ; or rather this was the very One who came. Thus it became now indeed "the spirit of a Man"; but a human spirit it could not be called, except by an argument which leaps over an infinite difference as if it scarcely were one, while in the interests of the theory, (that is to provide against the mutability of the creature,) it is appraised at its full worth.

But there was a third advantage that Apollinaris conceived to arise from this divine humanity of Christ, that it made God Himself to stoop to suffering and death, as no other view did, and this he believed to be essentially necessary to give power to His redemptive work. But the view he took of this is in contention.

On the whole, there can be no right question that Apollinarianism, though it had long disappeared, and only for a short time indeed maintained itself, was none the less a step towards Kenoticism, which has of late been spreading in many quarters, and which was needed to round out the elder doctrine to any consistency. An American writer of this school even "founds his theory on the basis of the essential unity of the human and divine"; "the incarnation, according to him, being the human element (the Logos) eternally in God, becoming man by taking flesh, and occupying the place of a soul." (Bruce.)

Of Kenoticism, in connection with our present theme, a very slight notice will suffice. Its main position is that the Son of God, in becoming man, contracted Himself really within human limitations, so as either actually to become the human spirit of Christ, or else to take place along side of this in one human consciousness. Always the aim is, as with Apollinarianism, to escape the attribution to the Lord of dual personality, to make the Christ of the Gospels more simply intelligible, while conserving His actual Deity. Deity can, they say, without real self-impairment, lay aside what belongs to it except essential attributes; and omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence are not these, but only expressions of free relation to the world which He has made. " Incarnation is for the Son of God, necessarily self-limitation, self-emptying, not indeed of that which is essential in order to be God, but of the divine manner of existence and of the divine glory which He had from the beginning with the Father, and which He manifested or exercised in governing the world. Such is the view," says Thomasius as quoted by Bruce, "given by the apostle in the epistle to the Philippians, such the view demanded by the evangelic history; for on no other view is it possible to conceive how, for example, Christ could sleep in the storm on the sea of Galilee. What real sleep could there be for Him, who, as God, not only was awake, but, on the anti-Kenotic hypothesis, as Ruler of the world, brought on, as well as, stilled the storm ? "

The writer quoted here does not go the extreme length of Gess and others, who reproduce the Apollinarian view of the Lord's humanity; but we need not cite more to show from what questionings Kenoticism has arisen, or the answer which essentially all forms of it supply. Who does not know these questions? and does not know also how we are baffled by them? Is this difficulty after all capable of satisfactory solution? or does it show us that we are face to face with the inscrutable, only affirming to us the Lord's own declaration that "no man knoweth the Son, but the Father"?

It must give us pause, at least, to realize how truly hypothetical all the answers are,-how little Scripture can be even pleaded in their behalf:and here surely is the very subject upon which we should fear to hazard a word without the safe-guard of Scripture. We may, however, look at what is advanced, if only with the conviction that the feebleness of all our thoughts is what will be demonstrated by it. Even this may have its good also in keeping us within the limits of trustworthy knowledge, that with the psalmist we may not exercise ourselves on things too high for us, and incur the sure penalty that follows presumption.

Kenosis is indeed a word taken from Scripture:it is the "self-emptying" of the second chapter of
Philippians, the real force of the word which in our common version is poorly rendered, " He made Himself of no reputation " (heauton ekenosen). It thus professes to be based upon Scripture-indeed to be the only adequate interpretation, as we have seen, of the passage referred to:a wonderful passage indeed, with which we cannot do better than refresh our memories and our hearts. Wonderful it is that it is an exhortation for us to the imitation of Christ in it:-

'' Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, did not esteem it a thing to be grasped at, the being equal to God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men; and, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

The alteration from "thought it not robbery" to "esteemed it not a thing to be grasped at" is in accordance with the alternative in the margin of the Revised Version and with what is preferred by many at the present day. The point evidently that the apostle insists on is, not that Christ could claim to be equal with God, but that He did not hold fast that claim:He emptied Himself-gave up the form of God for a servant's form. The point that the Kenotic theory invites us to consider is what is involved in this self-emptying.

The fact itself is manifest:He was here a Man, in a servant's form. He did not come in the form which was proper to Him as God, though He was God. That is surely plain. It does not seem necessary to go back of the simple truth with which every Christian is acquainted, to understand this emptying. There is no fresh revelation apparent in it:rather, it is to this general Christian knowledge that the apostle appeals.

We are entitled to seek the full worth of these expressions:that is surely true. He emptied Himself of the form of God to take a servant's form:there is the antithesis; but it only implies the actuality of His manhood. When in manhood He Himself speaks of "the Son of man who is in heaven" (John 3:13). Was He in heaven, then, in the servant's form? Nay, one could not say so. But then the servant's form which He had assumed did not limit Him to that; the kenosis was not absolute and universal, but relative to His appearance upon earth; it was only what was necessarily implied in His coming into the world as Man, and not to be carried back of this. It agrees perfectly with the passage in Philippians as an appeal founded upon the facts of Christian knowledge, and not a new revelation for the first time communicated.

Again when the apostle assures us in Colossians (1:19,) that "it pleased all the fullness (of the Godhead-the whole Godhead) to dwell in Him," this is impossible to make consistent with the Kenotic view of self-contraction within the limits of mere manhood. We may be indeed very feeble in understanding what is meant by this, but it is not contraction at all but expansion of our conception of Christ as Man. It is not Kenoticism, nor consistent with it.

But, apart from Kenoticism, the Apollinarian conception of the Lord's humanity does not present a basis for a human life capable of faith, of temptation, of sympathy with ordinary human experience, of growth in wisdom such as is explicitly attributed to Him. The singleness of personality which is indeed very manifest in it-and which is its attraction to the perplexed intellect-is gained at too great a cost. We must assert against the Apollinarian His true Manhood, and against the Kenoticist His complete Godhead; even while we own that the connection between these is inscrutable, and must remain so:comforting ourselves with the assurance that is after all what our Lord Himself has declared. We know not the Son in the mystery of His nature; but we do know Him in His union of Godhead and manhood the living Link between God and His creatures, which can never be undone, and will never give way whatever be the strain upon it. In Him before God, accepted in the Beloved, we are "bound in the bundle of life with the Lord our God" in a way no human thought could have dreamed in its highest imagining. But it is no imagination, but the assurance that He Himself has given us:"Because I live ye shall live also" (John 14:19.) F. W. G.

(To be Continued.")

A Lecture by S. R. in New York, Aug. 13th, 1897.

The subject of the whole epistle is Christian ministry, its sources and its character:and the first subject in Christian ministry, as to its nature, is its stability; there is nothing uncertain about the ministry of Christ as there is nothing uncertain about the person of Christ. The apostle puts it in a most forcible way:he says, Christ was not yea and nay, and therefore neither was the gospel which I preached to you yea and nay, it was the everlasting yea, the eternal certainty connected with the person of the blessed Christ of God Himself.

But if the gospel is stable and certain, so also is the truth for the people of God equally unwavering and sure. There is no yea and nay in the ministry of the word of God for the edification of the saints. There is no such thing as divers weights and divers measures,-there must be one standard-the absolute inflexible holiness of God, whether it be in the salvation of sinners, or in the building up and the guidance of the saints.

Then most beautifully we see how in spite of this absolutely inflexible character of the truth of God, when it comes to be ministered to the saints, if there were one who had dishonored Christ, but had been through grace led to see this, the grace of God could go out in all its fullness to him. He was to be restored, and the saints who in the first epistle had been told in the most forcible way to put away the wicked person from among themselves, are exhorted with equal force now to confirm their love to him and to welcome him back.

What a perfect blending there is in that way of the grace and holiness of God. His light flashes into our hearts, reveals our condition, brings us on our knees, brings us into the dust in shame and confusion of face. We say there is no more hope that the Lord will ever use us, we dare not think that we can ever be associated with His people again, when lo! the very word which smites, comforts, heals and witnesses to us of God's willingness to forgive and to restore His beloved, wandering, but penitent child.

This brings us to that wonderful third chapter, where we have the contrast between the ministry of the law and the ministry of Christ. The law could only bring condemnation and death, because it made its demands upon man-demands which he could never fulfil.

The law always put him at a distance with a veil between him and God; and this is most forcibly illustrated in the fact that Moses himself, with the glory shining upon him, had to put a veil over his face, for the children of Israel could not look upon it. They dared not look upon the glory of God, even a partial revelation of that glory. For the glory which shone in Moses' face was only a partial revelation of God, because the full glory could not be manifested in that which made a demand upon man.

Now see the lovely contrast. We look upon what? not the glory of God manifested in the law, not the glory of God in any partial way. Nay, dear brethren, we gaze into the full cloudless brightness of divine glory as it is shining out in the face of Jesus Christ, and instead of there being a veil upon that face-hiding its glory, it shines in all its wondrous effulgence, right down into our hearts, and transforms us into the likeness of Christ. Oh, what a wondrous display, and what a glorious ministry. Therefore the apostle can say "we use great plainness of speech ";-the veil is taken away, and we behold unhindered now the brightness of divine glory.

Now that brings us to our subject, the fourth and fifth chapters, which contain the kernel of this entire epistle. Here we have the great truths which are enlarged upon later on.

Let us notice at the very beginning, that you have in the opening verses of this fourth chapter, and in the closing verses of the fifth chapter, a solemn word to the unsaved. First of all the apostle says, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost;" it is hid-not because there is any veil upon the face of Christ, not because there is any partial revelation of the glory of God in the gospel, not because there is any hindrance on His side; no, if our gospel be hid, it is because "the god of this world "-the god of this age-"hath blindeth the minds of those that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them." That is the only reason why there is any hiding of the glory of God.

This world ought to shine with the glory of God; it ought to be fairly resplendent; men's very faces, their lives ought all to catch the light of that glory and to reflect it abroad. Why is it not so? why are there so many dark hearts with absolutely no light in them? why are there so many lives, that instead of reflecting the glory of God below, gather the darkness out of care and sorrow in a world like this? why is it that we hear groans instead of songs of praise, cursing instead of blessing? Ask the god of this world. Ah, brethren, the veil is upon man's unbelieving heart, the veil is there, not on Christ.

But look at the close of the fifth chapter. He says there that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. These very people who are lost, upon whose hearts the god of this world has put a veil, who are blinded by Satan,-to these very people he speaks as an ambassador for Christ, '' as though God did beseech you," he prays them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. How beautiful is this ! Satan puts a veil over man's heart, and blinds him to the beauties of Christ ; the faithful minister of Christ takes the veil away if they will only let him, and entreats them to be reconciled to God. The first word of the ministry of the gospel declares man's lost condition, and the last word is one of entreaty. "Be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." That is the gospel. We speak of the glories of God, but before we go into that, let us have a word for the poor sinner. Is the veil upon his heart ? let him listen to the word of divine entreaty:Christ was made sin, Christ came for the lost, Christ came to do away with that darkness of your heart ; He says if you will but hear the word of reconciliation and accept it you will know something of that glory of God which shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Is not that blessed, beloved ; is it not a precious thought ? And what a divine motive power behind the man who has all the glory of God to present to sinners with the solemn earnest entreaty for them to be reconciled to Him. Oh for hearts to hear the gospel!

Now let us take up just a few of the things in this portion for us as believers, and see how beautifully the apostle unfolds to us not only the glory of the treasure, but the earthen vessel in which the treasure is contained. He begins here, as you notice, with a contrast. He had been speaking of the darkness of those who are lost, and he passes into happiest contrast, and you will notice it here in the sixth verse " For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Do you think of the darkness of the sinner's heart ? The first word is that which God uttered on the morning of creation, when darkness covered the face of the deep ; "God said, Let there be light, and there was light." So in our poor hearts there was that awful darkness of sin ; into that darkness the voice of the living God pierced. Ah, the commanding power of that divine word in the soul, how it woke us out of our indifference, and made us feel first of all the desolation which sin had wrought! But it was the beginning of that new creation of which the apostle speaks in the next chapter, "if any man be in Christ there is a new creation." The darkness fled, the light shone. Where did it shine from? It was the glory of God, but it shone from the face of that blessed Lord who had gone into the darkness of the cross of Calvary,-a darkness just as great, just as awful as that in man's ruined heart. Into that darkness-from which God, who is light, had withdrawn-the Lord went. He bore the full penalty of sin ; and now risen and glorified at God's right hand, that Light of the glory of God shines down into our hearts, and illumines them forever with the brightness of His perfect love.

Oh what a light is that, dear brethren ! We talk about heaven being a place of light, and we say well; we talk about there being no need of the sun, nor of the moon there, and we say well, for the Lamb is the light thereof. Do you see Jesus, beloved ? then you see God's likeness. Do you see Him ? then you know what the happy secret is, of which the apostle speaks here,-the light of the glory of God, which shines in His blessed face. The Lord give us to realize that more fully, and to walk in the joy of it here, and we will be indeed lights in the world.

But I want you to notice another thing. You have here the reason why this light has shone in our hearts. It is not merely in order that our hearts may be illuminated by it. It is supposed we are illumined ; but the reason why the light is shining is " to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." And that word "to give the light" means that we are to give out the light which has shone into us.

The glory of God has come down here into my poor breast. Is it to be imprisoned there as a captive? No, beloved, you can no more imprison that light, than you can shut up a sunbeam in a closet. If it has shone in, it must shine out. That is just God's order for the carrying of the precious news of the gospel to this world. The light comes to my heart, it illumines my life, it scatters the darkness there and then shines out in my life that others may see the image of Christ and be led to Him. Oh that we may realize this, our responsibility that there should be nothing to hinder the out-shining of the light any more than there is to hinder its in-shining. And it is the same thing; you get your eye off Christ and the light does not shine in clearly, you get your eye off Christ and the light will not shine out clearly.

You are busy perhaps with your tract distribution, your visitation, your gospel work, and you say what a weariness it is, what a routine it is. So few come to hear the gospel, so few will listen to what I have to say to them, my tracts do not seem to bear any fruit. Is it the glory outshining in your life, or is it the mere effort of nature ? Is it your own puny strength ? Are you going through the forms of happy service, rather than the living reality of that constraining love of Christ ? As he tells us here, "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 who died for them and rose again." Show me a man who realizes what the love of Christ is, show me one who knows what it is for Christ to have taken his heart captive, and I will show you one who like Paul can say "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved."

The love of Christ took possession of his soul, and if saints were indifferent, nay, if they despised him, if they turned from his message, it did not change the constraining power of the love of Christ, and he would go on loving and loving ; and if he could not love in any other way, he would die for them, as he says to the Philippians " yea, and if I be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." But what was the secret of this ? Oh, the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ had shone in his heart and had shone out again, for he could not keep it in. He lived as it were only for the One who loved him, in service for His saints.

You and I can be the same in our measure, dear brethren. We are not different from Paul, for he goes on just here to tell us what kind of a vessel the treasure was hidden in. When we read in the epistles, of his saying for instance, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me,"or, I will glory in the cross, I will glory in that which has crucified me to the world, we say, oh, but that is Paul ! Beloved, that ought to be us too. If it were Paul, he tells us here that the treasure was of God, and that the vessel was an earthen vessel.

Let me give you a little illustration, which struck me most forcibly the other day. I was driving with a brother along the foot of a mountain, near sunset ; and as we looked up on the crest of the mountain, the sun had gone down below it, and was out of sight. But there were floating, just over the top of the mountain, clouds, the mists of earth, floating there in the bright pure air. Do you say, they spoiled the lovely view, they simply reminded us of the exhalations of the earth ? On the contrary those clouds looked like liquid gold, they shone with all the brightness of an absent sun. They shone because they were in the light, and there was no hindrance between them and the sun; its brightness illumined them and they illumined the valley below. We could not see the sun, we could see the clouds. Analyze those clouds. Do you say what wonderful clouds they were? They were nothing but the mists, nothing but the exhalations perhaps of some marsh in the neighborhood, or from the salt ocean, which speaks of death and desolation. What made those clouds reflect ? nothing in the nature of the clouds, but in the glory of that sunshine, in which they were bathed.

So with the Christian. He is common clay. If you think you are some precious alabaster box of ointment, you are very much mistaken; we are nothing but common clay. God formed man out of the dust of the earth ; that is unfallen man, and in addition to being formed out of the dust of the earth, we are fallen creatures as well. Is there anything to boast in ? is there anything to glory in ourselves ? Made of clay and fallen at that! But what is it that makes us different from all others ? It is the treasure, the glory of God Himself in the face of Jesus Christ. And the fact that we are poor earthen vessels only emphasizes the wonder of the glory that could display itself in us. Just as those clouds shone with the sun's brightness and beauty, so with the Christian. He is the poor vessel of earth, but if Christ's light shines into his heart, he exhibits the perfection, he exhibits the character of his Lord- he resembles Him. What a treasure ! Can he not rejoice in the fact that he is an earthen vessel ? Let us go a step further; I say it reverently. God's glory could not have been otherwise so manifested, as it is manifested in these vessels of earth.
Let us suppose an illustration, which I have heard given. Let us suppose that a person had discovered some wonderful elixir, we will say, which if one took it, would give him the power of a giant; he could overturn houses, could pluck up trees by the roots. He is going to prove the power of the elixir. What kind of a person would he select? Oh, you say, he will go to some place of athletic training, and ask for the strongest man they have there, one who can do the greatest feats of strength ; he will give him his elixir and with his natural, and imparted strength, he will be a wonderful giant. Is that what he does ? Nay, he will go to yonder hospital, and pick out the weakest, the most helpless person there; he says now, If my elixir is of any value, it will take this perfectly helpless person, and make him the giant. I will not ask him for any strength of his own, but all strength will come from what I will give him. He gives him the elixir, the man takes it, and lo! he is quickened with mighty strength, and does all that the other claimed for him. What will the people say? Will they say, what a wonderful man in yonder hospital? No, they will say what a wonderful man to have discovered that mighty power, which can use such human weakness and make it strong.

So, dear brethren, are you moaning because you are weak? are you thinking you are so helpless that you cannot do a single thing for the Lord ? I believe you are the very person He wants. I believe, that your very weakness and helplessness will give Him all the glory ; therefore you are the very one that ought to lay claim to the secret of power, which Christ will give you, for the excellency of it is of God and not of us. None can boast.

Look at Paul. Did he boast, could he boast in anything that was his own? Nay, he could not, and if you will turn to the third chapter of Philippians, you will find him there breaking the earthen vessel.

There he speaks of what he was by nature, " circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, of the stock of Israel, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless." What a beautiful vase! What is he going to do with it? Set it on his mantle and admire it?

What a genealogy I have! What rectitude of life mine has been! Is that what he does with it? He sets that vase out before us and then with one blow he shivers it to pieces. "What things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ, yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things." That is having the treasure in an earthen vessel, and as you notice, it is a broken one at that. Break that beautiful vessel? It has perhaps upon it the delicate tracery of the potter, that looks so attractive. Break that vessel ? Smash it to pieces? Do we hesitate ?

Gaze up there at that blessed Man in the glory of God; look at all the brightness of God's eternal glory shining in his face and you will rejoice to see the vessel broken, smashed to pieces, that people may see, not you, not your love, not your diligence, not your faithfulness, but see the epistle of Christ, and His love appealing in its constraining power, drawing and winning men to Himself. That is the secret of Christian ministry, and that, dear brethren, is what it is to have the treasure in an earthen vessel and the vessel broken too.

You remember Gideon's men and the light which they had. That light was to be a testimony for God; they were to hold their lamps in their hands and to cry out "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." It was not their sword that was to gain the victory, but the Lord's sword. How was the light to shine? It could not shine in the pitcher, the pitcher had to be broken, that the light might shine out. Oh, to learn that lesson, to learn that it is not I that serve but Christ that lives and serves in me.

And so if we trace on through these chapters, you will find that the precious truth is unfolded in all its beauty for us. Paul goes on to say that we, who live are always delivered-unto what? " always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." Think of it, dear brethren, here is a man, who is engaged in Christ's service, he is going here and there, everywhere, preaching the gospel. People say, Paul, take good care of yourself, be careful that you do not injure that vessel, which holds the treasure. He says, do you know how it is with me ? I am delivered to death for Jesus' sake; I am bearing about the dying, the putting to death, of the Lord Jesus. It is the life of Jesus then, not my life, not my power; it is the life of Jesus manifested in my mortal flesh ; and so far from thinking that the excellency of the power is in me, it is all of Christ, and I am to reckon myself dead, and to bear about that putting to death of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be displayed.

Now, that is beautifully illustrated in the twelfth chapter of this very epistle. The apostle, you remember, had been previously speaking of the glorying of others. He was surrounded by many
who were professing to be wonderful apostles and wonderful teachers, particularly those who were bringing the saints back into Judaism. He had been saying he could compare himself with the best of them. This is in the tent hand eleventh chapters. He is glad to get through with this, so he says, It is not expedient for me to glory; Ido not want to be comparing myself with these men of earth. I have something better than that, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. He casts his eye upward and says, Fourteen years ago I had a sight of what I am in Christ. I was caught up to the glory, where I will soon be forever with the Lord, and there I saw manifestations of power and blessing that I cannot tell you of, for you would not understand it. I saw that, and it was simply a man in Christ that I saw; but if you come to what I am on earth, I cannot glory in myself; I will not compare myself with the men of this world. If you want to know what I am on earth, it is these infirmities that you see besetting me day by day. He then shows the link between these conditions. He had seen himself in Christ. It was a wondrous sight; and lest he should be exalted above measure, there was given him-what? A beautiful vessel, in which to display this wondrous man in Christ ?Is it an attendant host of angels to guard his steps ?Is it people who are saying, There is the wonderful man in Christ? No beloved; when Paul gets to earth, what he hears of is the messenger of Satan, sent to buffet him, and special infirmities, which make him realize the sentence of death upon himself. What is he to do? He says, Lord, Lord, takeaway this thing from me. Am I going to be hampered in my usefulness? Am I going to be hampered in my ministry by this messenger of Satan buffeting me? Lord remove it.

Three times he says this. But oh, the wisdom of that blessed Lord, who loved his servant too well to take from him that which was the proper vessel in which the treasure was to be manifested. It was the proper vessel to manifest His glory ; it was a vessel of earth, beset by afflictions and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. And Paul says, Is that it ? Is it my weakness that is going to let the power of Christ be manifested? Is it my nothingness that is going to let Christ be all in all ? Welcome affliction ! welcome Satan's messenger ! welcome all the buffeting of. this world ! If the power of Christ is manifested, I can rejoice in it all. Dear brethren, think of it ; our afflictions, our persecutions, the things that we groan under, these things are but the occasions for manifesting the excellency of the power of the Lord in the poor vessel of earth ! Oh, for more ministry like that, which distinctly sets Christ before us.

But I must say a word or two as to another side of this ministry ; it is an intensely practical thing. People have a way of thinking that heavenly truth is a very mysterious thing; that you live up, as it were in a cloud-land ; that you float in a sort of balmy ether without one thing to trouble you. This is quite the reverse of the truth; what does Paul speak of in connection with this?

I will mention only two things that you have in this epistle. In the sixth and seventh chapters, he speaks of the absolute necessity of separation from the world. He goes on to tell them that his heart is enlarged toward them, and that he longs to see them enlarged, and he adds, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Now, if you and I had wanted to enlarge the saints, we would not have said anything about that; we would have said, Let us feed them, let us nourish them up with the heavenly side of things. Very well, Paul says, that is just what I have been doing. I have been giving them a glimpse of the face of Jesus in the glory, but the practical effect of enlarged hearts is a" narrow path; the practical effect of a heart set at liberty in the things of Christ is to have the feet withdrawn from every way which dishonors our blessed Lord. And if you want to see saints enlarged, do not expect to find them shouting. Do not expect that people will say about them, They live in a kind of a dream land. You will find them very practical. Every one that nameth the name of the Lord, let him depart from iniquity ; or, as the apostle says, as I have partly quoted, " Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols, what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever." That is enlargement; and I think it is as practical a word as you could get. But where does the power for it come from ? How do we get power for practical separation ? Always by the glory of God.

You remember when Abraham dwelt in far Mesopotamia, in that land of Shinar, noted for its idolatry, surrounded by idolaters, perhaps an idolater himself-there a light shone into his heart, there the glory of the Lord appeared unto him; and what is the effect of it? "Get thee out, get thee out;" that is the practical effect of it, separation from evil by the power of the glory of God:and with that glory shining in his heart, Abraham can leave kindred and home and country, and be separate. Let me ask ; had not the God of glory appeared unto him, could he have left country and all that was dear to nature and have gone unto a land he knew nothing of ? No, beloved, it was the glory that told him to separate, that beckoned him on to the place where it could shine unhindered upon him. These two things go together, the light of the glory of God and the separate path upon earth. That is practical, is it not ?

Now let us note another practical thing in the eighth and ninth chapters of this same epistle. The apostle had been talking about the shining in of the glory, he had been lifting them up into heaven, what does he say next? "Take up a collection." Just about as practical and earthly a thing ; just about as commonplace as you could imagine. People would say, What a descent! In one chapter you were talking about the glory and the treasure, and then you turn round and talk about filthy lucre, and ministering to the necessities of the saints. Is that not a descent from heavenly truth ? Beloved, it only shows us that the character of a heavenly ministry is to take note of everything, to take note of our possessions, to take note of our associations, of everything, for it reaches to every part of our life. In the light of that glory of God, could there be any darkness, could there be any selfishness, any indifference ? Nay, once let that light shine and everything that is inconsistent with it must be done away. So you find throughout two entire chapters of this epistle, the most practical exhortations as to taking up a collection for the need of the saints,-yes and stimulating them too, by making them understand that others are far ahead in this matter.

So much for the practical side of a heavenly ministry. How full it is, how varied ; how it meets the need, and satisfies the craving of the heart. It lifts me up with joy, it lets me pass along in the midst of afflictions with the heart free and glad, but it keeps my feet in the narrow way, and the affections in full activity.

We have only to look at the last side of this ministry, here in the latter part of the fourth chapter, which I read. This journeying through a vale of affliction, this having the earthen vessel broken here, is it to go on through the whole life? Can we hope at last to gain some point where the vessel will not be broken ? Does Paul look forward to the time when with calmly folded hands, he can say, It is all over, and now I can glory in myself ? He does, but where ? Up there where Christ is ; he looks forward to a rest up there that he cannot look forward to here. Take the very body I live in, it is only an earthen vessel-"the earthly house of this tabernacle"; that has got to break after a while. But he does say, beloved friends, "we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." So he looks forward to the treasure being in its proper sphere, and in its proper vessel, only when we are clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. How lovely that is. I begin my Christian course by the breaking of the earthen vessel; I carry it on all my journey, through the agency of a broken vessel. I look forward through the vista of life and I see a broken vessel all through. I look to the end of this life and I see that it will end with the shattering of this frail body of clay in which I dwell, or should the Lord come, entirely changed. I look forward a little further, and what do I see then ? God's house, the building of God, a house not made with hands, a body like Christ's glorious body, who went into death for us. I see at last the place where the vessel no longer needs to be broken, but where with Christ Himself we are gathered, and show out in all its effulgence the wonder of that grace which took us poor lost sinners and set us up there in God's own light.

Oh the ministry of the gospel of the glory of God ! What a theme! Does it not indeed set the heart free ? And if we think of affliction by the way, of our circumstances, are we going to be cast down by them ? are we going to be overwhelmed by them ? In the sixth chapter Paul puts them side by side; he says "as sorrowful but always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Does he think of his afflictions ? he says they are light afflictions. They would seem to crush him down ; he says in one place, I despaired even of life ; but with his eye on Christ, he says, "our light afflictions." Was it through a long weary course ? he says, they are only for a moment. Forty years-it is only a moment, and they work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. That thing which you would wish out of your life, that trial that you would give your right hand to get rid of, that trouble, those circumstances, they are the things which, if you are exercised about them, will yield an eternal weight of joy and glory when you are risen, and at Christ's right hand. Do not then, think of your afflictions, of your nothingness, that which hampers and holds you down ; but if the heart be free, if the heart be open for Christ, dear brethren, you may have your feet in the stocks, but I defy all the powers of earth to keep you from singing the praises of God.

This joy is for us all ; not, as I was saying before, for the favored few. God has no classes of His people-no favored classes. It is for all ; and you and I, as well as Paul in his day, can even now shine with the brightness of Christ's glory.

Do yon not covet to do that ? do you not covet to exhibit His perfectness ? May our hearts indeed long for it, for so we will find that indeed it is ours, and the hindrances be removed by the grace which never disappoints.

May the Lord give us to enter into these things, and to glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon us.

The more we go on, the more we shall find that most Christians will not follow. They do not give up Christ, but have not faith to go on in the path He would. The Christian world looks for great results. It is not the time. In the midst of the evil surrounding, the first point is to have what is true and solid, especially to begin thus. In a closing dispensation this is specially the case. This was the Saviour's work. J. N. D.

O Lord around me oft I find
So much to draw my heart from Thee;
The impulse of the fleshly mind
Is earthward, and will ever be.

I may not love the gaudy show,
Nor walk in paths of grosser sin,
But to a thousand things below
I give a lodging place within.

But thou didst know me long before
The year my infant life began;
Thou knewest all I know and more
Of that poor heart Thy love has won.

And realizing this I praise
Thy grace 'mid failure so complete,
The mercy that attends my days,
The love that keeps my wandering feet.

When Thou dost bid me hence to rise,
If shame could then possess my heart,
'T would be when first my wondering eyes,
O Lord, behold Thee as Thou art.

And as the blissful ages roll
Within that light which ne'er grows dim,
He'll fill the vision of a soul
Forever satisfied with Him.

"We have long been familiar, to a greater or less extent, with the typical or symbolical teaching of the historical and ceremonial parts of the word of God. Scripture has not left us in doubt as to many of these, giving us, in the plain language of New-Testament truth, the inspired interpretation of many Old-Testament narratives. The spiritual meaning of Noah and the ark; the Passover; the conflicts in Canaan ;-to say nothing of the sacrificial ordinances of Leviticus, explained in the epistle to the Hebrews,- have been unfolded by the divine teacher, and no one hesitates to use them freely. We have almost forgotten that they are types, so familiar have they become.

Similarly, a number of passages which we would never have suspected of being typical are distinctly declared to be such. Hagar and Sarah (Gal. 4:21-31), Abraham's interview with Melchizedek (Heb. 7:), are striking examples of this.

But a reverent mind will be encouraged to expect that these are not all the typical passages of Scripture, and with the method, if we may use the word, used in the application of the passages we have alluded to, will take up other portions to find the spiritual meaning concealed within them. Nor will he be disappointed.

Who, that is in the least acquainted with Scripture truth, will fail, for instance, to see the beautiful gospel picture presented in the history of Naaman the leper in the chapter just preceding ? Not merely do its general outlines present the gospel truth, but details are equally accurate, so that we are constrained to see the design in it.

On the other hand, those who have drawn most freely from this fruitful source of instruction will be most careful to guard against extravagances of interpretation, which are not merely unedifying, but raise questions as to all figurative interpretations. Bearing this in mind, let us endeavor in a sober spirit to gather some of the lessons from the portion before us.

It comes in fittingly after the gospel theme of the fifth chapter. That gives us the cleansing of the sinner (also, alas! the binding of sin upon the man who valued grace only as ministering to his covetousness); this portion shows the expansive power of the grace of God. " The place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us" (ver. i). When we receive the gospel we receive a living germ which cannot be confined within narrow limits. The new wine will burst nature's bottles. Nor will this be confined to personal growth in grace. In fact, usually the first activity is reaching out to others. Thus Paul immediately after his conversion preached Jesus in the synagogues at Damascus,"that He is the Son of God" (Acts 9:20). Beautifully do we see this expansive spirit exemplified in the first chapter of John, where as soon as one knows Christ he hastens to bring a brother or a friend to the same Savior. The reader will easily add other instances from Scripture, while every genuine work of grace is always marked by the same. Truly the gospel is a pomegranate, not only a delicious fruit, but filled with seed for its propagation.

Notice, their ardor does not hinder them from applying for guidance to the one who has the word of God, Elisha the prophet. Surely it is easy to discern who the Guide is to whom we should apply for the mind of God, Him of whom Elisha was but a type- our blessed Lord and Master. Good indeed would it be if all zeal could apply first to Him. There would be less zeal without knowledge, less show of work, but more actually accomplished in the extension of God's house.

Faith ever grows when in exercise. No sooner do they get the prophet's permission and approval than they desire his presence. " Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants." It is not enough to have the Lord's mind-His approval of this or that act of service-the spirit should yearn for His companionship. And as the prophet graciously answered,'' I will go," we may rest assured our gracious Lord never refuses His holy presence where it is desired. Ah! do we always desire that presence ? for it may check much in us of mere nature, much that would be used in His service which He could not approve nor accept. But who or what can take His place ?-can numbers, popularity, excitement, wealth, homage of men ? One "well clone " from Him will outweigh it all with the heart that truly loves Him. May we ever say, " Go with us ; " "if thou go not up with us carry us not up hence."

But we might notice in passing another thought suggested by the desire of these men. They wished to erect a dwelling, a habitation; and when there has been blessing in the gospel, the natural desire is for fellowship. How completely God has in mercy provided for this is not within the scope of this paper, but we believe next to the salvation of the soul and a godly walk, nothing more important can claim the attention of God's people.

But whence come the materials that are to form this habitation ? Who are the "living stones," or, as in the scripture, the " beams " which are to form this dwelling ? They grow hard by Jordan, the river of death and judgment. All are "dead in trespasses and sins," but where that fact is recognized, confessed, and Christ accepted, the tree is cut down, by the ax of divine truth, and by that same instrument prepared for its place in the building.

Blessed work, to see the proud tree, flourishing by the river of death, bow beneath the strokes of the keen ax, and fall prostrate at last. Humbling work it is indeed, but how blessed, when the proud, haughty, self-righteous soul is laid low under the truth, ready to receive the pure and perfect grace of God.

But while the work is going on happily and prosperously, the ax of one slips off its handle and falls into the stream. All usefulness is at an end, the work, so far as that individual is concerned, must cease:for hands are not axes, and mere strength cannot fell a tree. What adds to his sorrow is that the ax was not his own, it was borrowed.

We all work with borrowed tools. The truth of God is His, not ours; we are simply "stewards of the manifold grace of God." We have been entrusted with the gospel; a dispensation has been given us:with Paul we may say "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." Some may think that the thought here is the folly of dealing with truth not made our own, of trafficking in that which was unfelt, or unrealized. We believe it is rather as we have suggested. Nothing in the way of gift or endowment or truth is our own-all has been loaned to us. The parable of the talents illustrates this.

But how serious this makes the loss of the ax. It was borrowed. To lose our time, opportunities, is bad enough, but to lose what has been entrusted to us, and for use in His, not our, service-is not this double grief ?
Well now is it that the prophet has been invited to accompany them. Had this not been the case the ax could never have been recovered, the work would have been hindered, the workman laid aside. But grace, blessed be God, recovers.

Let us ere proceeding ask ourselves a few questions. Have we ever been entrusted with an ax ? As we look at the open page of God's precious Word, gleaming with precious truth, we dare not deny it. Have we used our instrument in God's service? Alas, for some of us, how little. A further question:do we know what it is to lose the ax, to see it slip away and be buried, as it were, in the very river of death ? How sad, how unutterably sad it is to see the Lord's servants deprived of their only instrument of usefulness. Here is one who once was busy in winning souls, ever ready with a loving word to help saints or point sinners to Christ. Many a time in private or public has the voice been uplifted in the cause of the Master. But that voice is silent, or lacks the power that once accompanied it-the power of divine truth. Here is a sister, once busy in ministering, in her own happy sphere to needs, both temporal and spiritual; but she no longer engages in that blessed service.

But it is needless to multiply instances. The ax has been lost. Usefulness is gone. Oh if there were but humility to own it-to go to the Lord with the words " alas, Master! for it was borrowed." For the most serious part is that our usefulness is not ours but a sacred trust from the Lord.

Let us now briefly note the recovery of the lost usefulness. First, then, is the frank confession to the Lord. Nothing can take the place of that. No matter what the failure has been, how deep, how complete, -One ear must hear the sad story of what we have done with His. The ax may have been allowed to lie out in the sun, the handle thus losing its moisture; it may have been carelessly handled. Be that as it may, we know there is always some reason for loss of spiritual power. The sun of this world too easily dries out the spiritual freshness in our hearts and makes us hold loosely our precious trust.

But how graciously does the prophet meet the trouble. Notice his question "Where fell it?" Ah that must be known. Our blessed Lord, in restoring lost power wishes us to point to the occasion when we lost it. That worldliness, that unguarded moment-When was it that the power was lost, where did it fall into the river ? Mere generalities do not suffice; the finger of shame must point to the time and place where declension began. Need we enlarge ? Let conscience rather speak to us all.

But not to shame us does our Lord thus probe. When the full truth is out, then He comes in to recover, to put back in our hand that which we had lost. The stick thrown into the river here, is doubtless the same, in type, as the tree cast into the waters of Marah, both speaking of that wondrous cross, which saves the soul, makes bitter sweet, makes iron float. For oh, who that has lost spiritual power could ever believe that nature could restore it ? But here is grace"; and when the Lord acts He doeth wondrously. Instances might be gathered from Scripture; Peter, David, and the like. Let it be ours, beloved brethren, if the need be for us, to make for ourselves fresh instances of this recovering grace.

What was Thy crime, my dearest Lord ?
By earth, by heaven, Thou hast been tried,
And guilty found of too much love;-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified !

Found guilty of excess of love,
It was Thine own sweet will that tied
Thee tighter far than helpless nails;-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified !

O break, O break, hard heart of mine !
Thy weak self-love and guilty pride
His Pilate and His Judas were;-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified !

O love of God !O sin of man !
In this dread act your strength is tried,
And victory remains with love,
For He, our Love, is crucified !

"And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold :them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock (Gk.) and one Shepherd." (John 10:16.)

"And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." (Eph. 2:16.)

The question has been raised, no doubt with the best intentions and by godly sincere persons, whether the Jew by virtue of his birth, may not continue after his conversion to Christianity to consider himself still a Jew and to observe the ordinances, such as circumcision and the passover.

It is the object of this present paper to examine the question simply in the light of the word of God. Of its importance many we believe can scarcely be aware, for it involves the very truth of the Church of God in its corporate testimony upon earth, and, if carried to its legitimate results, in its unique and heavenly glory as well.

Let us begin by asking what is Judaism and what is Christianity, and what is the connection between the two.

Judaism is the name given to that system originally established by God in relation with His covenant-people Israel, but which, as its name implies, had come to mark the disruption of the twelve tribes, and the consequent annulment of that covenant. (Jer. 31:31-34.) Naturally this annulment was, to outward appearance at least, gradual. Practically this covenant was never fully established with the nation, for they apostatized and set up the golden calf before Moses had brought the tables of the covenant into the camp (Exodus xxxii). God's relation with the people was at that time marked by the removal of the tabernacle or tent to a place outside the camp afar off (Ex. 33:7). It will be interesting later on to connect this scripture with one in the New Testament.

After this apostasy there was a re-establishment of intercourse but upon a somewhat modified basis. God was proclaimed as merciful and gracious, yet as One who would by no means clear the guilty (Ex. 34:6, 7). The first declaration permits Him to go on with the stiff-necked people; the second shows the legal nature of the relationship. The effect is seen in the fact that Moses was compelled to veil his face (Ex. 34:32-35), showing that there was no full, complete restoration to God's favor. How could there be if law entered in as a factor ? (See 2 Cor. 3:)

The removal of the ark from Shiloh (i Sam. 4:-vii), first to the Philistine's land, and, on its restoration to Israel, not returned to the tabernacle, is but another illustration of the same truth. The relationship of God with His people was in mercy, not on the basis of mere law; and all that witnessed of standing in the flesh, such as the pre-eminence of the tribe of Ephraim, had to be set aside.

David again is an illustration of this setting aside the flesh, and a fresh interposition in mercy. Saul was king according to the flesh, but was rejected for the simple shepherd called from his flocks. The eighty-ninth psalm presents all this in a most beautiful and interesting way, which is of especial value in the study of prophetic truth regarding Israel's future.
But David was merely a type-though also the ancestor of our Lord according to the flesh-and when his throne is established under Solomon God again reasserts the principle of the uncertainty of everything under law. See the solemn statement of this after the building and dedication of the temple. (i Kings 9:1-9.)

It is significant that when Stephen reaches this point in his wondrous discourse (Acts 7:) he goes no further in the recapitulation of the people's history. The highest glory which they as a nation attained did but emphasize their own alienation from God. Paul similarly (Acts 13:) leaps from David to Christ. Nothing marked the interval save instance after instance of their enmity and of God's long-suffering mercy. The darkness ever deepened. The ten tribes-long severed from Judah-were carried captive by the king of Assyria, and to this day are hidden from view, (i Kings 17:6-23.) Deeper gloom follows as Judah also is carried to Babylon, the temple burned and the "Times of the Gentiles" introduced. The " Ichabod " pronounced long ago, when the ark was taken captive, is now finally the doom of the nation, and Ezekiel beholds the departure of that reluctant glory which took its flight, never to return until the nation as a nation is born again and restored, after the great tribulation, in peace and blessing in their land, never more to go out so long as sun and moon endure. Let the reader compare the following passages for one of the most solemnly magnificent and yet most mournful occurrences described in the word of God:Ezek. 1:1-28; 3:22-27; 8:4-18; 9:3; 10:4-22; 11:22, 23; 43:1-6.

The return from Babylon was not a setting up again of the nation as such, but a provisional restoration under Gentile protection and authority, with no glory, no Urim and Thummim (Ezra 2:63). But had there been a heart for God the promise of the prophet, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former" (Hag. 2:9), would have been fulfilled. Alas when the Lord came to the temple, it was but to find it a house of merchandise, a den of thieves (John 2:13-17; Matt. 21:12, 13* ). *It is interesting to note, as an illustration of the perfection of Scripture and its absolute inspiration, that there are two cleansings of the temple :in John it takes place at the beginning of our Lord's ministry, and in Matthew at its close. This is in entire accord with the theme of each book. In Matthew our Lord is presented as King, as it were tentatively, and it is after His rejection is fully manifested that He purges the temple; in John He is seen as rejected from the beginning and thus early pronounces judgment upon that which was called God's house.* At the close of His ministry He can but weep over Jerusalem and pronounce the doom upon an apostate nation:"Behold your house" (not God's house) "is left unto you desolate; for I say unto you ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in name of the Lord" (Matt, 23:34-39).

The cross is the people's answer to God's presentation of His Son, and their words, "His blood be upon us and our children," do but state the solemn and awful judgment upon a guilty people. Surely it is the mark of Cain who slew his brother, which while it preserved his life, forever branded him (Gen. 4:15) as the shedder of blood. Blessed be God, when the nation turns to Him with the prayer, "Deliver me from blood guiltiness" (Ps. 51:14-19), that precious blood which now witnesses against them, will then speak "better things than that of Abel," and the walls of Jerusalem will be built. But meanwhile Jerusalem is "trodden under foot of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24).

The first part of the book of Acts-the first seven chapters-presents to us the wonder of God's lingering mercy loath to depart from a people still blind and hardened. We know the descent of the Spirit marked a new epoch in God's ways-a new dispensation. The Church, into whose character and destiny we will presently look, had its beginning at that time by that Baptism of the Spirit which is its distinguishing feature and glory. But though the new era had thus dawned, one last call is made. The gospel begins at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47), and in connection with the preaching of repentance and forgiveness through the name of Jesus, His return is promised. (Acts 3:18-26.)

Alas, such patience but manifests the incorrigible hardness and blindness of the people; and when Stephen addresses them in a discourse which sounds like a judicial summing up (Acts 7:) their answer- final as in any sense a nation-is to stone him, the national method of judicial execution (Josh. 7:25). Stephen, like his Lord, prays for his persecutors, and passes into the presence of a Christ rejected on earth but glorified in heaven. Most beautiful is it to see, rising as it were red handed from the murder of the first Christian martyr, the chosen vessel who, arrested by the revelation of that rejected Jesus of Nazareth in the glory of God, becomes the apostle and minister of the Church, Christ's body. But we pause, ere entering upon the subject of the Church, to ascertain the connection of the ordinances with Israel as a nation.

If our readers have followed us thus far, they will have seen the absolute rejection of Judaism as having any status whatever before God. And we have no doubt that some may say this was already sufficiently clear without taking the time to prove what all admit. Our purpose, however, has been to show that there is nothing arbitrary in this rejection, and that with it goes the whole fabric of Judaism as a system, with its ordinances as well. Let us look at this last more closely.

"Moses gave unto you circumcision; not because it is of Moses but of the fathers, and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man " (John 7:22). We have here two of the principal ordinances of Judaism- circumcision and the Sabbath-connected with the law of Moses and yet of far earlier institution. We find the Mosaic ordinances of circumcision in Leviticus (chap. 12:3, with Luke 2:21, 22):the sabbath of course we find in the fourth commandment, where its previous observance is at least suggested (Ex. 20:8-11).

As to circumcision, it was given to Abraham as a distinctive mark of the covenant God made with him and his seed to bless them and to give them the land of Canaan for a perpetual possession. (Gen. 17:with Acts 7:5-8.) It was the ordinance of Judaism, so completely indeed as to be used as the designation of the Jewish people. (See Rom. 3:i, 30; 4:9; 15:8; Gal. 2:9, 12; Eph. 2:ii; Col. 4:ii; Titus 1:10.) Any one who failed to receive it, lost caste in the nation, was to be cut off. (Gen. 17:14, see also Josh, 5:2-9.) It was the initiatory rite in the reception of the stranger (Ex. 12:48). Other nations were stigmatized as "uncircumcised" (i Sam. 17:26, 36; Jer. 9:26). . We see thus that circumcision was woven into the very structure of Judaism as a whole. They stood or fell together.

As to the sabbath, it opens up a most needful and important line of truth into which we can enter but briefly. It was commemoration of the completion of the work of the first or old creation:it is contained in the law "written and engraved in stones," which was "done away" (2 Cor. 3:7-11). Its observance was enjoined because of Israel's redemption out of Egypt (Deut. 5:15); it was particularly made known to that nation (Neh. 9:14). The sabbaths were a special sign given as a covenant to them (Ezek. 20:12, 20 etc). Any fancied violation by our Lord, as to the observation of the sabbath, always aroused the special enmity of the Jews. (John 5:16-18, and frequently. ) It is linked with other ordinances as to meat and drink, holy days and new moons (Col. 2:16, 17). It has its place with these and when, as we have already observed, the penitent nation is truly restored, the sabbath will, with the other feasts, have its appointed place (Ezek. 45:17, etc).

The same can be said regarding all the feasts or set times. They were called, when given, "the feasts of Jehovah" (Lev. 23:2, 4, etc.); in days of decline, "your new moons and your appointed feasts" or, as frequently in John, "feasts of the Jews." Any national recovery was marked by their resumption, as the passover in Hezekiah's and Josiah's day (2 Chron. 30:and 35:); or the feast of tabernacles, after the return from Babylon (Neh. 8:14-18). These will all be resumed with the restoration of the nation. (Zech. 14:16, 18, 19; Is. 66:23; Ezek. 45:21.) Meanwhile they have been set aside with the nation to which they belong, while they serve as most beautiful shadows of things to come.* *We have but touched upon the whole question of the law and the Christian's relation to it, as a subject too large for the limits of the present paper. Its importance however in this connection is immense. Where it is not understood little successful resistance can be made against the assaults of such evil systems as Seventh day Adventism. "Are you under the law?" say they, "then keep the fourth commandment." Those who desire to look carefully at the subject will find it set forth in "The Law, the Sabbath and the Christian Ministry," "What is the sabbath and what is the first day of the week," " The Seventh day Adventists and the Sabbath"-pamphlets to be had of the publishers of this magazine.*

We pass now to consider the second question of our paper, What is Christianity.

Christianity is marked by two great and related facts:-Christ glorified in heaven and the Holy Ghost upon earth. We have already seen these as marking the setting aside of Judaism; they likewise introduce Christianity. About these two great facts cluster those precious characteristics which are the unique treasure and joy of the Church:-a present and eternal forgiveness of sins, justification, access, deliverance from sin, from the law; the sealing, unction and guidance of the Spirit, with His illumination and power for a walk in the world, to witness and to suffer for Christ; Sonship and Heirship, the hope of the glory of God and Himself our joy. Such are some of the special individual blessings characteristic of Christianity, set forth chiefly in Romans and Galatians. Coming to Ephesians we find a heavenly position in Christ and the believer quickened and raised up with Him and seated in Him in the heavenly places-in heaven already, as it were. In Galatians the believer
is seen as crucified to the world; in Ephesians as in a new world; in Colossians as quickened with resurrection life, and seeking the things which are above. (Col. 3:1:) In Ephesians the great mystery of the Church as the body of a glorified Christ is presented (chap. 1:22, 23)-a mystery till Paul's day unknown (chap. 3:i-ii). In 1st. Corinthians we have that body as upon earth, formed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, with its gifts and responsibilities set before us. Hebrews is filled with the contrasts between Judaism and Christianity, presenting, among other precious themes, the finished sacrifice of Christ, His priesthood, access into the holiest and a pilgrim walk here. We must select from such themes only such matter as bears directly upon our subject, and this can be brought out in our third and final inquiry as to the relation between Judaism and Christianity.

Our answer is brief:They are mutually exclusive. This, Scripture most abundantly proves. We will present a few reasons for this, gathered from the general character of Christianity and the Church, before taking up the specific arguments so frequently set before us in Paul's Epistles.

Judaism had to do with the old creation; Christianity with the new (2 Cor. 5:16, 17). Judaism was promised earthly and temporal blessings on condition of obedience to the law; Christianity has received spiritual blessings in heavenly places, through faith in Christ alone. Judaism had to do with shadows; Christianity with the substance. The hope of Israel is to inherit their land; the hope of the Church is to be caught up to meet the Lord, and to share His heavenly glory in the Father's house.

All are familiar with the presentation of the '' no difference" doctrine in the epistle to the Romans. Jew and Gentile are alike proved to be under sin- the one under law, the other without law. Both alike are partakers of the free grace of God through the sacrifice of Christ, for faith. The advantages of the Jew (Rom. 3:) are shown to be great, chiefly because of their having the revelation of God in His word:but this only enhanced their guilt. Abraham and David, the two chief figures in the nation, are shown to have received blessing not by law but by faith, Abraham particularly having received the promises before circumcision (Rom. 4:). The third section of the epistle (chaps. 9:-11:) is taken up with showing how the doctrines of grace, while superseding the blessings of national Israel, are not inconsistent with the promises of ultimate earthly blessing when the nation shall have repented. Chapter 9:gives us the sovereign election of God as the assurance of blessing, and not the blood of Abraham. Chapter 10:contrasts the faith, which accepts, with the unbelief which has rejected the Lord; while chapter 11:declares that even now a remnant is preserved-according to the election of grace, and therefore not of the first covenant-while in a day yet to come "all Israel," Israel as a nation, "shall be saved" (Rom. 11:26).

The passage as to the olive tree is of special interest (Chap. 11:17-25). The olive tree suggests those privileges and outward blessings connected with the manifestation of God. Its root we may say was Abraham who received the promises, and its branches his natural descendants. Israel had not continued in God's goodness and therefore were cut off from the privileges and blessings of the olive tree; the Gentiles who professed faith in Christ had entered into those privileges and were responsible as the channels of blessing to others. But it is all profession:were this not real they would be broken off. As a matter of fact the Gentiles have not continued in God's goodness and will, when the Church is caught up to meet the Lord, be broken off, as containing only the lukewarm self-righteousness of Laodicea and the blasphemous iniquity of Babylon. (See Rev. 3:16; Rev. 17:) After this the "natural branches" will be grafted in again, at the time of national restoration already frequently spoken of.

In other words this olive tree does not touch the question of nationality, but of privilege. Hence circumcision and the ordinances are not in question at all. Were they, then the Gentiles now partaking of the "root and fatness of the olive tree" would have to be circumcised.

Corinthians is largely occupied with the Christian Church and as such must be noticed later. We have already alluded to the striking passage in 2 Cor. 3:where the law is absolutely set aside for the "ministration of the Spirit," and to the fifth chapter where new creation is so strikingly spoken of. We must look for a moment at this. "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after flesh:yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more" (2 Cor. 5:16). Of Israel the apostle has said (Rom. 9:5):"Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever." To know Christ after the flesh was to know Him as of the nation of Israel, as their rightful king. In Christianity, the apostle knows Him only as the risen Head of the new creation.

Galatians is so full of the subject we are considering that well nigh the entire epistle might be commented upon. The first chapter shows how Paul received the gospel, absolutely independently of Judaism, even of Jerusalem:the second shows how he maintained it clear of all such influences:the third shows, like Romans 4:, how grace antedated all law and ordinances:the fourth shows us the liberty of the Spirit and sonship as contrasted with the bondage of Judaism with its "days and months, times and years" -"weak and beggarly elements," as the apostle calls them:chapter five emphasizes the walk in this liberty of the Spirit, giving amongst much else this most pungent word, "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law " (chap. 5:2, 3). After a few practical exhortations in the sixth chapter, he closes the epistle with those "large letters" (Gk.) written with his own hand, "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised:only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh" (Gal 6:12, 13; see also vers. 14 to end).

If it be objected that the apostle in all this is referring to the attempt to Judaize the Gentile Christians, the answer must be that he is on the contrary establishing the great salient features of Christianity for all. One passage of a character similar to those to which we have alluded refers exclusively to those who are "Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles" (Gal. 2:15-21).

But if we turn to the epistle to the Hebrews we find, as its name imports, a message to those of Israel's race who had professed Christianity, and the burden of it all is Christ, setting aside all else that the Jew might glory in-angels, law, Moses, and Aaron with his priesthood, the law, the sacrifices, the first covenant, the "worldly sanctuary," yea this world. As gone on high He has opened a path for those who have believed in Him to follow, and the heavenly city and the "kingdom that cannot be moved," are just in view.

Most solemnly again and again throughout the epistle are the professors warned against going back from Christ. Who could think that there was the least thought in the apostle's mind of the Hebrews going on with circumcision, the passover and the like as he wrote, "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. . . . Wherefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come" (Heb. 13:10-16).

We can but pause to notice how the death of Christ, in Colossians, has taken out of the way the handwriting of ordinances:The only circumcision recognized is the circumcision (death) of Christ, made without hands (Col. 2:11-23). Most distinctly does the apostle declare (chap. 3:10, 11), as to the new man, that there is "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision."

This brings us to the similar statement in Ephesians (2:11-16) where the division between Jew and
Gentile is seen broken down, and a complete reconciliation in one body (the Church) effected by the cross; a new man created, ordinances all set aside.

This truth of the one Body we find presented with much fulness both in the epistle to the Ephesians and that to the Corinthians. It is the basis of all true apprehension as to what the Church of Christ is. In Ephesians it is presented as in union with Christ its head in heaven (chap. 1:22, 23); a body formed of both Jews and Gentiles (chap. 3:6); with gifts for all needed service in its upbuilding-bestowed by the ascended Head (chap. 4:8-13). This Church is destined to be the heavenly bride of Christ, and even now should have the affections and obedience which such an union suggest (chap. 5:22-33).

First Corinthians (chaps. 12:-14:) gives us the Church as formed by the Spirit upon earth (chap. 12:13) with gifts bestowed, energized and directed by the Holy Spirit. Love is the main spring of all activity (chap. 13:), while prophecy – speaking to edification, and exhortation and comfort-is to be earnestly desired. Directions as to meetings follow (chap. 14:). Previous to this we have (chaps, 5:, 6:) the exercise of ordinary and extraordinary discipline, and in chaps. 10:and 11:the privileges and responsibilities in connection with the Lord's supper. In short, in 1st. Corinthians we have the Church and its responsibilities upon earth, as in Ephesians we see it (largely) enjoying its privileges linked with Christ in heaven. We ask, Where is there room for any of the features of Judaism in either epistle? They are both explicitly and impliedly excluded. In both epistles the unity of the body of Christ is emphasized. How could that be where the distinction between Jew and
Gentile was preserved! We have Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the two ordinances (if we may use such a word) of the Church. How could we conceive of part of that church also observing the passover and circumcision, with all other Jewish ordinances?

But it will be replied this is just what we find in the book of Acts. We must then, ere closing, look at that book.

We have already alluded to the beauty of God's lingering over the nation, as seen in the first seven chapters, as though He would say "How can I give thee up." This gives the key to the whole book. We see the good Shepherd leading the sheep out of the fold, so gently and tenderly that even the weakest need not falter.

After Stephen's death the gospel is carried to Samaria-a step off the plane of Judaism (chap. 8:). Saul's conversion is then narrated (chap. 9:), while chap. 10:marks a most important step in the conversion of Cornelius, the first Gentile. Jewish persecution closes this part of the book (11:, 12:). Chaps. 13:and 14:show the gospel going freely among the Gentiles of Asia Minor, with the Gentile city of Antioch as a sort of center. When however the question of Judaizing is broached from Jerusalem, it is brought back there and settled by the apostles. Peter and James are prominent and while neither presents the truth as to the Church, both practically declare the end of exclusive Judaism; Peter even acknowledging that it was a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear (chap. 15:10).

Thus far we see gradual emancipation from the domination of Judaism. Yet, respect for weak consciences is most carefully enjoined. Timothy, as no necessity had been made of it, and unquestionably for the time being, was circumcised, in order that the gospel might go on unhindered. It reaches to Europe and great and wide-spread blessing is the result (chaps. 16:-19:).

We have no heart to appear as critics of that devoted servant of Christ, the apostle Paul, but simply applying the tests which he himself has furnished us in the epistles, his course as he turned himself toward Jerusalem seems to have been backward. We remember that he declared that once he wished himself accursed from Christ for his brethren's sake (Rom. 9:3, Gk.). His love for them was a passion. Gladly would he sacrifice anything to win them to the knowledge of Christ-to become as a Jew to Jews. In the face of known persecution, nay of what seems like actual prohibition (Acts 21:4), he pressed on, burning with love to Christ and His earthly people. Well did that faithful Lord appreciate the devotion, but alas, poor indeed was the reception given by the Jews. Instead of winning them, he stirred all their prejudices to the depths, and was thrown into prison.

Surely God overruled all this, and from the lonely prison came those wondrous epistles which set the distinctive truths of Christianity before us-notably Ephesians and Colossians-epistles which cast no uncertain light upon the mistakes of a love rarely equaled.

In the face of such an ending can we say the Spirit of God encourages compromise? Gently as God had led on His beloved earthly people, the break had to come at last, and we find Paul himself severing the last strand, "Be it known unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it" (Acts 28:28). Shortly after this Jerusalem was destroyed and the last step in the break with Israel was taken.

Judaism is at the present time absolutely cast off. The Jew must take his place with the Gentile as a lost guilty sinner. He finds Christ and in Him stands before God no longer in a righteousness which is of the law, but which is by faith in Christ. The apostle (Phil. 3:) describes the true circumcision, as contrasted with that made with hands. He arrays everything that he might have gloried in and sets it all aside. "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews . . . but what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ."

It is useless to urge that this was only for salvation. This is analogous to the reasoning that the believer is not under the law for salvation, but is under it as a rule of life, and both are similarly injurious. We can understand that the timid faith of the Jewish convert might cling to the ordinances of his fathers, and it is barely possible that he might escape persecution by so doing. He would, we firmly believe, be opening the way for less worthy ones to enter the same path. But, after all, these are not the things we are to consider. We may pray for our weak brother, but we should seek to deliver him from a yoke which can but mean a failure to understand God's ways, and his own privileges. To make provision for him to go on in Judaism is but to provide for the dividing of the Church of Christ into Jewish and Gentile.* *It may be argued that 1 Cor. 7:18, 19 warrants a continuance of Jewish ordinances for the new convert. Let it be noted that the apostle set aside both circumcision and uncircumcision. Grace takes one up where it finds him-and he cannot undo the past. If married he remains so; if a slave he remains so, though he was to seek freedom if possible. But he was to go on with God (verse 24). Now if his original position were contrary to the mind of God, he must abandon it. Quite a similar argument is used regarding eating meats offered to idols. In one sense it was nothing, in another it was eating of the table of devils (1 Cor. 10:16-22). The most that could be gathered from the passage we are considering is that a man remains a Jew just as a man remains married-neither having the slightest relation to God. But to go on with Jewish observances as unto God, would be going back to the flesh after having begun in the Spirit.*

But it may be asked what is the converted Israelite to do? The Church is divided, where can he go? Our reply must be, just where every Christian whose eyes are opened to the evil about him must go-to the Lord Himself. He never changes, and He is just as ready to meet those put out of the synagogue to-day, as when He found the man whose eyes He had opened, and revealed Himself as the Son of God.

Oh, beloved, to be at the feet of the Son of God- worshipers ! what place have ordinances here ?

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 65.)

The Son of Man.

We surely see from all the relations in which we find this title of Son of man,-if even it be that under which the Lord takes the Kingdom or assumes the judgeship of the human race,-that it implies (apart from sin and all its consequences) humanity in its complete likeness to our own. It is because of this that He is indeed the suited judge of men. Defect of any kind would here be fatal. The Apollinarian Christ would be far removed from likeness to the sons of men. The substitution of the divine for a human spirit would be the deprivation of that which gives to manhood its distinctive character. The loss of personality would make impossible "the Man Christ Jesus;" and thus the "One Mediator," who is this same blessed "Man," would disappear for us (i Tim. 2:5).

These ways in which the Lord is presented to us in Scripture show how near to dual personality we have to come in any simple apprehension of its statements. Their very boldness (when we realize who it is that is spoken of) exhibits a characteristic feature of inspiration, which does not concern itself with mere mental perplexities, in matters that are so evidently beyond us. We cannot fathom the Christ of God. We can realize how perfectly – divinely – on both sides He suits us; though we maybe quite unable to put the two sides together. Dual personality would not suit us; but we want One who is both perfectly human and truly divine,-one who can sleep in the storm on the sea, and rise and still the storm. Such a Saviour we have got-how good to know it!-if we can see nothing besides His heart of love that unites the two together.

Take, then, the Lord in His childhood life in. Nazareth, and think of His waxing strong in spirit, growing in wisdom as in stature, in favor with God and man (Luke 2:40, 52). How perfectly is He man; how really within human limits; a marvelous Child, yet a Child, as He is plainly called. Who shall adjust the divine to the human here, omniscience to growing knowledge? Shall we attempt it? What would it be but to exercise ourselves in things too high for us, and prove but the pride of our hearts? Would heart or conscience find deeper rest or satisfaction in Him, if we were able to comprehend what for all these centuries has been inquired into and speculated upon, with no more knowledge achieved at the end than at the beginning?

But assuredly it is the Son of man I find here,-a Person in all the truth of humanity; and who shall deny me the happiness of drinking in the grace that has here stooped down to the condition of a child, so that a child may realize His sympathy and adore Him for His love? Thank God that none can deny me:it is as open to one as to another; and the love is as unfathomable in it as is the Person.

The Old Testament, in a passage well-known, but to which we naturally turn in such a connection as this, to admire afresh its sublimity and beauty, brings together in sharpest contrast such oppositions as these. It is the voice of the Lord to Israel that we hear in it, but we soon recognize it as familiar to us. It asks:-

"Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?"

Nay, the Lord is not so poor. "Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves; and for your transgressions is your mother put away."

And now comes out the controversy that He has with them:"Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?"

Here is Jehovah Himself come as a Saviour to them, but there is no, response; He is not recognized, or credited with power to redeem. And we know well when this was:when One came to His own, and His own received Him not; and though the power of God was in His hand, and He used it for them without stint, yet they would not believe in His gracious visitation.

Now He openly declares Himself :-

"Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, and make the rivers a wilderness :their fish stinketh because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering."

But it was not in this guise He had come; and the voice becomes strangely altered. It drops into a softer key, and is now appealingly human:-

" The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary:He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learner."

We need not for our purpose go further. The prophet does, and shows us Christ in His suffering and rejection plainly enough. Here, however, we have already the contrast we are seeking. It is the Almighty who is come in servant's form:it is He who is strangely taking the place of obedience and acquiring the tongue of the learned for the ministry of grace to individual need, if the nation at large reject Him. For this He becomes Himself a learner, and is wakened morning by morning to "hear" as that. Yet it is the One who dries up the sea and makes the rivers a wilderness. Who shall put these things together? For satisfaction to the intellect, no one can. Yet even the intellect may be satisfied another way :namely, in the assured conviction of its inability to understand one's own being-to know how " spirit and soul and body " make up one man. Is it so wonderful, then, that there should be modes of the Infinite that baffle us altogether? or that "no man knoweth the Son but the Father?"

Let us turn reverently to another scene in which we find Him whose name is "Wonderful"-to the awful scene of Gethsemane. Here the "cup" which He took upon the cross is causing Him agony in the anticipation of it. Three times He prays that, if it were possible, it might pass from Him; and to this He adds the words so familiar to us, " not My will, but Thine be done."

The cup could not pass. He needs must drink it. But when we realize it as that which, expressed outwardly by the three hours of darkness, has its inner meaning in the agonizing cry, "My God, my God, why. hast Thou forsaken Me?" we can understand that it was the very necessity of His holy nature that He shrank from it and could not take it as of His own will, but only as the divine will for Him. Here, surely, we have a perfect and therefore a real, human will. He is as true man as any man can be; and personally man, as such a will must prove Him. We are again beyond the limit of comprehension here, if we say, as we must say, "Yes, but He is none the less divine;" but we are not beyond the limit of enjoyment or of faith.

At the cross we find the cup itself-the awful abandonment; but who shall explain it? Or who shall tell us how He is, all through, the Man of faith, yea the pattern of faith? Shall we not rather drop all such questioning, and believe, where alone belief finds its opportunity,-where we see not?

How grandly the 102nd psalm faces the seeming contradiction; putting it in the strongest way in the mouth of the blessed Sufferer, crying out:-

"Because of Thine indignation, and Thy wrath:for Thou hast lifted me up and cast me away. My days are like a shadow that is lengthened; and I am withered like grass. . . He weakened my strength in the way:He shortened my days. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days; Thy years are throughout all generations."

Thus the contrast between man and God-between God and man fading away under divine wrath -is vividly realized. And now comes the answer of God to Him:-

"Of old hast Thou laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt continue:and they all shall grow old as a garment:as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end. " Here is God, suffering as a man, and at the hand of God! the cross in its deepest mystery is told out:we see that it is recognized, faced, but not explained. Christ is Himself "the mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh." And here is all that we can Say about it. F. W. G.

(To be Continued.)

Ques. 1.-How should Eph. 3:15 be translated? Should it be "the whole family" or "every family"? If "every family" be correct, then should not Eph. 2:21 be rendered "every building" instead of "all the building"? But if it be correct to read "all the building" or "the whole building" must we not read "the whole family," as the word is the same in both passages?

Ans.-The revised version shows the need felt for uniformity of rendering as suggested in the question, and renders the phrases respectively " Each several building" and "every family." The translators evidently felt their rendering rather free, and so put in the margin the Greek, " every building." The alternative reading which inserts the definite article is by no means ill supported. We can add little to the excellent foot-note to Eph. 2:21 in the New Version of the New Testament by Mr. Darby. In this he shows that it cannot be settled by purely grammatical arguments. Both in the Septuagint and New Testament Greek he gives instances where no article is present and yet the rendering must be "the whole; "for example, " the whole house of Israel" (Acts 2:32) could not possibly be " every house of Israel," and yet the definite article is not present. In addition we might refer to Acts 1:21 where, without the article, the expression must be rendered "the whole time;" (Acts 23:1,) "all good conscience"-the whole conscience clear. The opposite of this last is seen in 2 Cor. 4:2, where "every conscience of men" would be the literal rendering; yet in neither of these cases is the article used. Again, in Gal. 5:14, with no article, the phrase is evidently "the whole law" and not 'every law." In Col. 1:23 the evident rendering is " the whole creation," yet the vast preponderance of authority is for the omission of the article. Spite of the revised rendering (also by J. N. D.) of "every scripture " 2 Tim. 3:16, we are strongly inclined to accept that of the common version "all scripture," referring to the entire page of inspiration-a similar use of the word "Scripture" is found in John 10:35; 2 Peter 1:20, and frequently.

We must therefore not depend upon an inflexible rule of grammar to decide the question, but rather, as is always safest in Scripture, upon the immediate and general context. Doing this it seems scarcely possible to render the first passage otherwise than "the whole building." The foundation is one; the result is one-a holy temple; and the building is "fitly framed together." To render it "every building" would be to throw it out of harmony with the passage, while giving no added meaning. To make it teach independency of local assemblies would do violence to the evident purport of the whole passage, to say nothing of the rest of Scripture. This building will not be complete until the Church is ready for its final display as the temple, in the glory of God. If one temple then, surely it is one building now.

As to the other passage, if, as seems most likely, the thought is of the universal headship of "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (compare chapter 4:6), it could scarcely be rendered "the whole family," as angelic beings, to say nothing of Israel and the Gentiles, are included, as well as the Church.

We would judge therefore that the two passages should be rendered "the whole building" and "every family," respectively.

Ques. 2.-Does the Lord Jesus in John 16:23,-"in that day ye shall ask me nothing"-imply that all prayer should be addressed to God the Father, in His name? Paul seems to have prayed directly to the Lord Jesus that the thorn in the flesh might be removed.

Ans.-The word here rendered "ask," έρωτάω is not the usual one for prayer. In the very verse where it occurs we have twice the ordinary word for preferring a request, άιτέω. Its primary meaning is to " inquire," then as a secondary meaning to "request." The word in 2 Cor. 12:8 is much stronger.

However it is not a question of words, though there must be reason for using each in its special place. The whole theme of this part of John is that our Lord is to be no longer with His disciples, but is going to the Father. So long as He was here, they went directly to Him and knew not the blessedness of prayer in His name. Now He was to be absent, but He made known to them the Father's name, and their privilege to go directly to Him. It does not raise the question of prayer to the Lord-it is dealing with something quite different. They had always had Him to go to, but now He was to be absent, yet they could in His name freely go to the Father whose love they had till then little realized.

As to prayer to the Lord Jesus, we are thankful to note our correspondent recognizes it in the passage in 2 Cor. 12:None would question that prayer is usually addressed to the Father- to whom should "children " go with their needs but to the Father? -but this in no way raises the question of the equal honor and power and prerogative of Him who sits upon the Father's throne.

Ques. 3.-Is it proper to say that, because we are not under law but under grace, the principles of God's holy government have changed?

Ans.-We solemnly believe that grace does not change the divine principles of God's holy government. We might quote many familiar scriptures of the New Testament in proof of this, coupled too with the most precious statements as to the grace of God. See Gal. 6:7-9; 1 Peter 1:14-19; Phil. 2:12, 13. Our readers will easily add to these and find the fullest proof that grace and government are not contradictory, but in the fullest way harmonious. This is true whether we look at God's people individually or collectively, at Israel or the Church. God never lowers His standard to us, but raises us up to it. We cannot conceive how anyone could raise a question as to this. We are also fully aware as to its solemnity. " Our God is holy." May we indeed be on our faces before Him, for we are nothing but " dust and ashes " in His sight.