Twice the judgment-seat of God, or of Christ, is spoken of in the New Testament. In Rom. 14:10 "the judgment-seat of God" is spoken of in view of preventing individual judgment of others in certain matters. The best manuscripts have "the judgment-seat of God"in Romans 14:10. In 2 Cor. 5:10 "the judgment-seat of Christ" is presented in view of provoking to do good.

The subject in itself is one of the most solemn, and at the same time most blessed, and this so much the more as we understand it rightly.

I believe that each act of our lives will be manifested there, according as the grace of God, and His ways with us in connection with our own acts will then be known.

We read (in Rom., chap. 14) that "every one of us shall give account of himself to God." In this passage the judgment-seat is mentioned in connection with an exhortation to brethren not to judge one another in respect of days, meats, or any other such thing.

I am disposed to think that the acts alone will be subject to manifestation; but all the private acts of our lives depend so intimately upon our inward feelings, that it is in a certain sense difficult to distinguish between the acts and the simple thoughts. The acts manifest the power of the unseen thought, or of the feeling.

I believe that the whole of our acts will be detailed before the judgment-seat; not, however, as if we were in the flesh, and thus to our condemnation, but to make evident to our own eyes the grace that occupied itself with us-regenerate or unregenerate.

In the counsels of God we were elect before the foundation of the world; hence I think that our personal history will be detailed before the judgment-seat, and parallel with it the history of the grace and mercy of God toward each of us will gloriously appear.

The why and the how we did this or that, will be manifested then. For us, the scene will be declarative not judicial. We are not in the flesh before God; in His eyes, by grace, we have died with Christ. But then, if we have walked according to the flesh, we must see how we lost in blessing thereby, and what loss we have incurred. On the other hand, all the ways of God towards us, all the ways of wisdom, of mercy, and of grace, will be perfectly known and understood by us for the first time.

The history of each one will come out in perfect transparency; it will be seen how you yielded, and how He preserved you; how your foot slipped, and how He raised you up again; how you were drawing near danger and shame, and how He by His own arm interposed.

I believe this is the bride making herself ready, and I consider that to be a wondrous moment. There will be no flesh then to be condemned; but the new nature will enter into the full knowledge of the care and of the love which, in true holiness, and in righteousness, and even in grace, have followed us step by step all through the running of the race-all through our life here below.
Some parts of our life, till then entirely unexplained, will be fully disclosed and become altogether plain. Some tendencies of our nature, that perhaps we do not judge to be so pernicious and deadly as they are, and for the mortification of which we are perhaps now subjected to a discipline that we may not have interpreted aright, will then be perfectly explained; and, what is more, the very falls that plunge us now into bitter anguish will be seen then as what God used to preserve us from something more terrible.

I do not think that until then we shall ever have had a full knowledge of the badness of our flesh. How blessed for us to know that while we are not in the flesh in the eyes of God now, the flesh will no longer be attached to us then.

On the other side, I doubt not, the manifestation of God's grace toward us individually will be so magnificent that even the sense of the perversity of the flesh that we had, will be overwhelmed by the greatness of the sense of divine goodness.

Oh why do we not deny and mortify the flesh when we think of that hour ? The Lord grant that we may do so more and more to the glory of His grace. This great subject of the judgment-seat brings the soul to a very full knowledge of our individual standing "in Christ" before God, through grace.
J. N. D.

How is it we see so little recovery of those who have fallen, or strayed away from Christ ? Because we feel so little grief for their sin. We fail to feel it as if it were our own; nor do we feel that unless it had been for God's upholding grace, we ourselves might be in the very thing or condition which we condemn in him. Consider the temptation that has overtaken him as your own, and remember your own weakness; it will enable you to "eat the sin-offering" (Lev. 6:26), and be better able to help him to his feet, and secure deliverance.

" Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted,"

"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:i, 2).

Few types in Scripture are so plainly interpreted by the inspired Word itself as the Jewish Passover:"For our passover, even Christ, hath been sacrificed," writes Paul to the Corinthians. As the blood of the slain lamb sprinkled on the lintel and door-posts of the Israelite's house was the symbol of redemption to him, so the shed blood of the Lamb of God is that which shelters us who trust in Christ from judgment for our sins, and faith in that sacrifice makes the grace of God operative on the heart and conscience. The Lord Himself affirms that the believer has "passed from death unto life." "Justice its victim slew," and a righteous God is able to say of believers, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more " (Heb. 10:17).

It was this " passing over," and the consequent deliverance of Israel from Egypt by Jehovah's mighty hand, that was the outstanding event in the history of Israel. It was an event which Jehovah solemnly urged His people to call to mind from year to year:"This day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations ; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever" (Ex. 12 :14). Israel's sorrowful history in the land – failing to keep the ordained feasts of the Lord, and following after the abominations of the heathen in the land, provoking chastisements at the hands of Jehovah – is but a repetition of man's constant failure when entrusted with divine things.

Note that in two revivals, all too brief, in Israel's history (in the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah), we have notable accounts of the restoration of the Passover feast (see 2 Chron. chaps. 30 and 35). Each recovery, however, was followed by greater departure from God and a total neglect of the Passover, until, finally "the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy " (2 Chron. 36 :16) ; then He allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take their city, put to the sword thousands of inhabitants, and carry a multitude captive to Babylon. The times of the Gentiles then began, and the land lay desolate, to fulfil the seventy years appointed.

At the end of that period, a remnant of the people returned to the land under the patronage of Cyrus, and the feast of the Passover was resumed in connection with the reestablishment of the house of God (Ezra 6 :14-22).

According to Jewish tradition that feast has been celebrated year after year without interruption from that time to the present. This, of course, is now but an empty form with no real sacrifice, as they are away from their land and the place where God had appointed to keep the Passover.

Joyful as the people were in the reestablishment of the Passover upon their return to the land, the reality of that observance soon waned, and corruption ensued, as we see in Malachi, the last of the Prophets.

Great outward religiousness prevailed with the Pharisees in the times of Christ; their scrupulous observances of the Mosaic rituals (to which they had added many traditions of their own-see Matt. 15 :1-6; Mark 7 :2-8), had become but a dead form. It is just one more commentary on the melancholy tendency of the human heart to lose sight of the substance and the reality by observances of external forms and ceremonies, the life of them having departed. The Feast of Tabernacles, which was one of the "feasts of the Lord" appointed to the children of Israel (Lev. 23:44), is significantly called "the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles " in John 7:2. It shows how completely they had lost the original divine conception of it.

Here is a moral lesson of weighty import:blessed, God-appointed ordinances may become mere empty forms. To the pious Jew the annual recurrence of the Passover was a real memorial. As he ate of the flesh "roast with fire" and of the unleavened bread, he was reminded of the wonderful grace of God in passing over the Israelite houses. His thoughts were directed back to the deliverance of his nation from the taskmasters of Egypt. In all this there was surely for the Jew who penetrated beyond the mere outward form, much cause for worship and holy joy; but failure to penetrate the externals of the feast would certainly result in lifeless ceremony.

The Passover, and other ordinances, have been superseded by the great reality which they represented; but all that Scripture tells us about the feast and the circumstance of its observance, becomes luminous with meaning when we remind ourselves that the death of our Lord stands in the same relation to us as the Passover did to Israel of old. To be sure, the Christian feast is infinitely
deeper in significance. The Passover meant an escape from physical death; it spoke of physical deliverance to Israel; of how much greater import therefore is the feast which memorializes the victory of Christ our Saviour over sin, death, and the grave! Yes, the consequences of Christ's victory are spiritual and eternal. The Passover was a memorial looking backward only, but our remembrance of the Lord's death is both memorial and anticipatory-it is "till He come!"

The Passover indeed falls far short of the New Testament feast, yet many of the circumstances attendant upon its observance will be found, on examination, to have typical significance of the most heart-searching character.

Ezra 6 :21 is beautifully suggestive of the characteristics which the participants in the memorial feast of the Lord are to show. "And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the heathen of the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel, did eat, and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy." They who kept the Passover were to show by the records that they were Israelites. Those who could not show it had no part in the joyous scenes associated with the reestablishment of the Passover. Those who gather around the table of the Lord trace their spiritual pedigree, their birth into the family of God, through faith in the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; for "as many as received Him (Jesus, the Son of God, our Saviour), to them gave He power [title] to become children of God, even to them that believe on His Name" (John i :12). These are sons of God and joint heirs with Christ. And this is a matter of individual faith. "The faith of our fathers " will not save nor entitle one to a place at the Lord's table. If an Israelite were challenged as to his right to partake of the Passover, he was to refer to the genealogical records to silence all question. The Christian points to Christ and God's record for his title to a place in God's family-not to experiences or an emotional state. Blessed be God, He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father-the witness that He "hath given to us eternal life."

The Israelites who remained in Babylon had no share in the celebration of the Passover. Possibly many of them had acquired business interests in Babylon. Perchance they and their children had formed relations of one kind or another with their conquerors. Others, still, may have stayed in Babylon because they did not care to incur the wearisome difficulties attendant upon the long journey back to the land, or the trials they might meet there. Whatever the reason, the fact was that those who remained in Babylon, children of Israel though they were, had no part in the Passover.

And how trivial are the reasons of one kind and another which sometimes keep the children of God from the full enjoyment of the inheritance which Christ has won for them by His death! Is there lack of spiritual joy? If so, let faith arise to sever every tie that holds captive to the world, or to religious forms that stand in the way of giving Christ the unique place which is His due. Our joy and blessing in remembering our Lord in His death will be unhindered then, and be to His praise as the very center of Christian fellowship and communion.

Together with the Israelites who had returned from the captivity there were others who shared in the Passover-" all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land to seek the Lord God of Israel." These may have been Israelites who remained in the land and who had not been carried captive into Babylon; or they may have been "strangers" who, like Ruth and Rahab, found a part in Israel by God's grace. In any case, they were characterized by the fact that they sought the Lord God of Israel, and "had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen of the land." How this reminds us of the Thessalonian saints who "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven." "The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved," we read of apostolic times; and the doors of God's house are still open for those who separate themselves to the Lord and from the filthiness in the land. Let us not talk glibly of " separation truth," with the emphasis on separation rather than on the truth, which, received in the heart, separates from unhallowed associations.

A most important feature of the law, with regard to the Passover, is the emphasis put upon the plaice where it was to be sacrificed. "Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the Lord shall choose to place His name there. . .Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee; but at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place His name in" (Deut. 16:2, 5, 6). The Israelite might not consult his own convenience or predilections as to the place where the Passover was to be celebrated. Some inconvenience might be incurred in getting there, but he was simply to obey Jehovah's command, to sacrifice the Passover in "the place which the Lord shall choose to place His name."

Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple (2 Chron. 6) indicates how well he understood that the temple, with all its magnificence, had value only in that it was a "house for the name of the Lord God of Israel." "Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt," Jehovah had said to David, " I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there . . . but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there." Therefore it was in Jerusalem alone, where God's holy temple was, that the Passover might be sacrificed.

The application of this to the New Testament feast is evident. That feast must needs be celebrated at the place, spiritually discerned, where the name of Jesus Christ (all that His name represents) forms the center of fellowship and communion. Wherever the Christ of God does not form the center of gathering, there is bound to be corresponding formalism, and failure to apprehend the blessed and holy simplicity of the Christian memorial feast. But where there is a true gathering to that Name, what joy, worship, and praise the Spirit awakes in the hearts of the redeemed!
Another injunction, always found in connection with the Passover, was to eat " no leavened bread with it." Throughout Scripture, leaven is the type of evil, and it is to be excluded in any connection with the table of our Lord, as the apostle says, '' Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth " (i Cor. 5 :7, 8).

In the feast of Pentecost, the Church is typified under the symbol of two wave loaves of fine flour "baked with leaven" (Lev. 23 :17). It is the recognition of sin in our nature. That leaven, however (as we see from the next two verses) is perfectly met by the sacrifices presented "with the bread." All this challenges our admiration of the accuracy of Scripture. The leaven of the old nature in the people of God is not eradicated, as some would have it, but perfectly met by the sacrifice of Christ.

Fleshly activities are to have no place at the Lord's table. This is again beautifully set forth in the type. " In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days" (Lev. 23:7, 8). No servile work was permitted in connection with the Passover, and our memorial feast proclaims that it is "not by any works that we have done," but by the blood of Jesus Christ, God's beloved Son, that we are cleansed from all sin and given title to take our place as children of God at His table. C. G. Reigner

CALENDAR:Nov. 16th to Dec. 15th, 1920.

Daily Bible Reading

Nov. 16th, Gen. 46; Nov. 30th, Ex. 2O; Dec. 15th, Ex. 25
Memory Work ……………… Colossians 1:2O-2 :5
Good Reading, C. H. M.'s Notes on Deuteronomy I. pp. 1 to 107
Monthly Question:-What are the chief truths typically presented in that portion of Exodus which we read this month ?

It would be fine if some of you would send in written answers to our monthly question, within the scope of about 200 words. The exercise of putting down one's thoughts in order, in as brief form as possible, is very helpful. It enables us to fasten more firmly in the mind and heart the result of our reading and study-a desirable result for us all. And why not share together a little of these things? Let us be helpers together of one another. Let us, as Christians, be co-operative in seeking the good of all.

A little while ago I had a talk with you on our missionary work, and I am thankful to hear of interest awakening in reference to it. I hope it may increase and crystallize into definite action, as the Lord may lead, and that helping hands will be found to further activity along this line.

There is another matter as to which I would like to stimulate your interest; it is that of having a book and tract depository, in connection with the assemblies in the larger cities, especially, not simply for our own convenience in obtaining what may be desired, but with the distinct purpose and effort to reach beyond our immediate circle with what we have. I believe that with a little enterprise and " push " there are many Christians who might be served and ministered to in this way, and who would be glad to patronize a book-room from which sound evangelical literature could be obtained. This would be a good service for some of you who are young and energetic to take up, if exercised and interested in it for the Lord's sake. You may only be able to begin in a small way, but the field is large, and if commenced and carried on in dependence upon the Lord, with prayerfulness, He will give expansion. Think of it as an aspect of Home Missionary effort. Few of us can take a place in the foreign field, yet I hope some among us will be led to do so; but are there not some who could more definitely take up work at home ? Might we not with a little more consultation and mutual effort realize more co-operativeness of spirit, while maintaining unimpaired what is individual to us? There maybe obstacles, and even opposition, but where shall we not find difficulties to test our faith and steadfastness of purpose ? Let us be overcomers, serving one and all in the energy of faith and the joy of love.

Some Injunctions from the Word

Be kindly affectioned one to another.
By love serve one another.
Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted.
Bear ye one another's burdens.
Forbearing one another.
Forgive one another.
Comfort one another.
Edify one another.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
Pray for one another.
Use hospitality one to another.
For ye are members one of another.
I have not given you chapter and verse, hoping that you would look each up, and read and meditate upon the context.

FRAGMENT It is delightful and profitable to carefully and prayerfully study a single passage. You may do so by considering the external circumstances which concern the writer and the subject-matter itself; by considering the scope of the context; the structure of the passage, its connection with other scriptures by use of references; meditate upon the words; endeavor to grasp the idea they present, and make the suited application.

Contentment

To have this is very important for all of us. The absence of it has led how many a Christian, young and old, into by-paths productive of sorrow and regret. The extravagance in the lives of many in these days is opposed to the quiet contentment to which God's Word exhorts us. Man's fall came by his desire for more than what God had given. But "godliness with contentment is great gain," says God's Word (1 Tim. 6:7). Note the remarks which follow this scripture, concerning present circumstances and desires or ambitions which may arise in connection with them. The thought is that of having satisfaction, of complacency. But how ? Everything around us tends to the opposite. The same Greek word is used in 2 Cor. 9:8; there rendered " sufficiency." See the connection. It is because " God is able to make every gracious gift abound toward you, that, having in every way all-sufficiency, ye may abound to every good work " (New Tr.) And this is connected with giving of our temporal things for the need of others; it has to do with our material circumstances about which we often allow much discontent. Our sufficiency, or contentment, rests upon the fact that " God is able" is realized and acted upon by us. Hence our abilities or achievements, by which we seemingly realize our purposes and ambitions, are not the source of the " contentment "of which Scripture speaks. God must be the source of it to us, and so contentment is linked with " godliness," or " God-fearing." Many are the promises God has given which, if taken into our hearts and acted upon, will produce contentment, while diligently fulfilling our responsibilities and duties in daily life, instead of the restless discontent which the spirit of the world produces. Our mind may be in a peaceful, restful state, if, like the apostle, we count that " God is able," and walk as His dear children, obedient to His Word.

To a young Christian it was said," Be a model of the believers, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity."

Opportunities and Responsibilities

Profound silence has reigned for several months along this line. I hope we are not too busy to embrace them; or careless, so that they slip away; or fearful, so that we shrink back when they are presented to us. " See therefore how ye walk carefully, not as unwise but wise, redeeming the time (1:e., by seizing every good and favorable opportunity), because the days are evil." (Eph. 5 :16, New Tr.)

Requests for Prayer

No. 7. "I wish you would join me in praying for a young sister who has broken down physically and mentally in connection with her work as a nurse, that the Lord may grant full recovery, if it be His will, and cause blessing to result through her affliction."

Are we making prayer a very real part of our meetings? But, first of all, have we private seasons for prayer, with examination of our conduct with God, for confession of sins and failures, and requests for others ? " The end of all things is at hand:be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."

The Question Box

There are five questions still before us, which appeared in the August issue. No answers have been received to any of them, nor have additional questions come in. Surely some of you have questions which arise out of your study or reading, perhaps real difficulties or perplexities. Why not present them for help, or solution? It may not only be a benefit to yourself, but also to others.

A word as to questions 25 and 26, Matt. 10:23 :Have not the cities of Israel been gone over as yet? Not in the connection referred to. The verse says, " Till the Son of Man be come." He was then present, so that the coming spoken of is His second coming, shortly before which the Jewish faithful remnant will again preach the message of verse 7-the message which the Lord sent His disciples to preach. That such a message will again be proclaimed, after the rapture, and shortly before the Lord's appearing in glory, is also shown by Matt. 24:14. The remnant testimony of the Lord's day, and that of this still future time, are looked at as one in Matt. 10.

Matt. 16 :28. How could there be some there that would not taste death before the Son of Man's return ? The transfiguration is the answer. Peter affirms they " were eye-witnesses,"-1:e.,' admitted into immediate vision of the glory;' a word used for full initiation into the mysteries of His majesty," (J. N. D. Trans.)

Let us reverently consider this lowliness of the Son of God in self-abasement, and perfection of obedience to God, here as a man among men.

While Adam's first act, after being surrounded here with blessing, was to seek his own will, involving his posterity in ruin and misery, Christ came in this world of misery, devoting Himself in love to do His Father's will.

Coming down here, He emptied Himself of all that was His by right. He came here in devoted-ness to His Father, at all cost to Himself, that God might be glorified. He was in the world, the obedient man, whose will was to do His Father's will. It was the first grand act of all human obedience and of divine glory by it. This will of obedience and devotedness to His Father's glory, spread a sweet savor on all that He did-all He did partook of this fragrance.

It is impossible to read John's Gospel, or indeed any of the Gospels, without meeting at every moment this blessed fragrance of loving obedience and self-renouncement. It is not a history of it, but Himself, what He is, that shines out everywhere. We cannot avoid seeing it; and in contrast to this, the wickedness of man which violently forced its way through the coverture and holy hiding-place which love had wrought around Him, forcing into view Him who passed in meekness through the world that rejected Him. But it only gave force and blessedness to the self-abasement, which never faltered, even when forced to confess His divinity. It was the " I AM," but in the lowliness and loneliness of the most perfect, self-abased obedience, with no secret desire to hold His place in His humiliation. His Father's glory was the perfect desire of His heart. It was indeed the " I AM " that was there, but in perfectness of human obedience.

This reveals itself everywhere. Replying to the enemy, He answers, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." " It is written" was His constant reply. "Suffer it thus far," He says, to John the Baptist, " thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." To Peter He said, Though the children be free, "that give for me and for thee." In John, where His Person especially shines forth, it is more directly expressed thus:"This commandment have I received of my Father." " I know that His commandment is eternal life." "As the Father has given me commandment, so I do." "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do." "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love."

Many of these citations are on occasions where the careful eye sees, through the blessed humiliation of the Lord, the divine nature-God the Son, only more bright and blessed because thus hidden-as the sun, on which man's eye cannot gaze, proves the power of its rays in giving full light through the clouds which hide and soften its power.

If the Son of God humbles Himself, He still is God. He does it in voluntary obedience and love to His Father.

This absolute obedience gave perfect grace and savor to all He did. He appeared ever as One sent. He sought the glory of the Father that sent Him. He saved whoever came to Him, because He tame to do the will of Him that sent Him :their coming was His warrant for saving them, for He was to do implicitly the Father's will. But what a spirit of obedience is here! He saves all whom the Father gives Him-He is the servant of His will. Is glory to be given ?-" It is not mine to give, but to those for whom it is prepared of my Father." He does nothing of Himself, but wills to accomplish all that His Father pleased.

But who could have done all this, save He who could and did undertake to do -whatever the Father would have done ? The infiniteness of the work, and capacity for it, identify themselves with the perfectness of obedience which had no will but to do that of the Father! Oh, humble, lowly Man! God's beloved Son, in whom the Father found His delight.

Let us now see the fitting of this humanity in grace for this work. This meat-offering of God, taken from the fruit of the earth, was of the finest wheat:- all that was pure, separate, and lovely in human nature was in Jesus under all its sorrows, but in all its excellence, and excellent in its sorrows. There was no unevenness in Jesus, no predominant quality to produce the effect of giving Him a distinctive character. He was, though despised and rejected of men, the perfection of human nature. The sensibilities, firmness, elevation, and calm meekness which belong to human nature, all found their perfect place in Him. In a Paul we find energy and zeal; in a Peter, ardent affection; in a John, tender sensibilities, united to a desire to vindicate what he loved which scarce knew limit. But the quality which we observe in Peter predominates, and characterizes him. In a Paul, blessed servant though he was, he assays to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered him not. He had no rest in his spirit when he found not Titus, his brother, and goes off to. Macedonia, though a door was opened in Troas. He is compelled to glory of himself to the Corinthians who were readily deceived by pretentious false apostles. John, who would have vindicated Jesus in His zeal, knew not what manner of spirit he was of, and would have forbidden the work of God if a man walked not with them. Such were Paul, and Peter, and John.

But in Jesus, even as man, there was none of this unevenness. There is nothing salient in His character, because all was in perfect subjection to God, in His humanity; all had its place, and did exactly its service, then disappeared. God was glorified in it, and all was in harmony. When meekness became Him, He was meek; when indignation, who could stand before His overwhelming rebuke ! Tender to the chief of sinners in the time of grace; unmoved by the heartless haughtiness of the cold Pharisee (curious to judge who He was). When the time of judgment is come, no tears of those who wept for Him moved Him to other words than, " Weep for yourselves and your children "-words of deep compassion, but of deep subjection to the due judgment on the dry tree, which had prepared itself to be burned. On the cross, when His service was finished, tender to His mother, in human care He entrusts her to one who leant on His bosom; but no ear to recognize her word or claim when His service occupied Him for God. What calmness, which disconcerted His adversaries! What moral power, which dismayed them by times ! What meekness, which drew out the hearts of all not steeled by wilful opposition! What keenness of edge to separate between the evil and the good!

In a word, then, His humanity was perfect-all subject to God, all in immediate answer to His will, the expression of it, and so in harmony all through. The hand that struck the chord found all in tune- all answered to the mind of God in His thoughts of grace, and holiness, and goodness, yet of judgment of evil ; fulness of blessing and goodness were sounds of sweetness to every weary ear, and found in Christ their perfect expression. Every element, every faculty in His humanity, responded to the impulse which the divine will gave to it, and then ceased in a tranquility in which self had no place. Such was Christ in human nature. While firm, where need demanded, meekness was what essentially characterized Him in contrast with others, because He was in the presence of God, His God-and all that in the midst of evil. His voice was not heard in the street-far joy can break forth in louder strains when in rest according to God, all shall echo, "Praise His name ! "

ON THE RELATIONS OF THE PERSONS OF THE GODHEAD

Introductory Note.-In Feb., 1920, a number of servants of Christ being providentially brought together in Seattle, Wash., it was suggested to ask Mr. C. Crain to meet with them for daily readings-a proposition that was agreeable to all. So much that was profitable was brought out that it was thought well to prepare the notes for publication, that others might share in the edification. Those present were, in addition to Mr. Crain, B. C. Greenman, A. E. Booth, F. J. Enefer, Win. Haigh, B. F. Elliot, N. Thompson, H. A. Ironside and occasional local brethren.

John 5:19 was read. A question was asked as to whether the words, "The Son can do nothing of Himself" referred to His humiliation, or were always true of Him.

C. C.-Such are the relations of the persons in the Godhead that no act of one can be independent of the others. Therefore it is always true that the Son can do nothing of Himself-never acts independently of the Father and the Spirit.

A. E. B.-That is illustrated, is it not, in creation ? There we have, "In the beginning God created;" it is the Trinity, as further down, "Let us make man in our image," etc.

C. C.-Yes; note carefully that God is a trinity in unity. It means, to use different terms, that the Godhead expresses the idea of an association, a partnership, a fellowship, but such terms imply unity.

F. J. E.-What of that verse in Col. i,"In Him all the fulness was pleased to dwell ? " and in Col.
2, "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ?"

C. C.-The last applies to Him in manhood. We are not dealing with that just now.

W. H.-But the other would be as the Eternal Son. Col. i is what He was from eternity.

C, C.-Yes;.but the other verse is the Son in manhood.

A. E. B.-Does not John i:i help us as a starting-point ?

C. C.-Yes; I think the important thing to be noticed in that chapter is the distinction between "was"and "became." We have first what He was, and then what He became. So we begin with the eternity of the "Logos"-the Word. He was the Creator; Himself uncreated and underived.

A. E. B.-I think that expression is in very fine form. He was uncreated, and the Creator of all things.

C. C.-He never began to be; and He brought into being everything that ever came into being.

W. H.-He was uncaused, underived and uncreated.
B. C. G.-Sometimes we have to meet one who confesses the eternity of the Word but denies the eternity of the Son. But it is written, "God so loved . . . that He gave His only-begotten Son:" He had to have a Son to give. The nature of the gift is called in question if you deny His eternal Son-ship.

F. J. E.-Some object very strongly to the expression "the eternal Son." They say it is not in Scripture.

A. E. B.-Yes; they own the eternal Logos on the authority of this verse, John 1:1. i John 1:2 cleared me as to the eternal Son. "We show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." The "Life" was with the Father.

H. A. I.-That's it. There could be no Father in the past eternity, if there were no Son.

A. E. B.-Yes; so we have the eternal Word in John i, and the eternal Son in i John 1:

"B. C. G.-He says Himself, "I came forth from the Father."

A. E. B.-But some might say an angel could do that. But the Life was with the Father; it is the clear declaration of Sonship before incarnation.

H. A. I.:-He was God the Son before He became the Son of God as a man, born of the virgin.

C. C.-Then notice:If the Godhead is a trinity, there must of necessity be distinctions in the Godhead. We speak commonly of three persons. That is, we have the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All are in perfect fellowship. But if you speak of fellowship, persons are implied. If you speak of association, persons are implied. If you speak of partnership, it is the same thing-there must be persons.

B. C. G.-What is the force of the word, Godhead? C. C.-Deity.

F. J. E.-It is different, is it not, in Romans i ? There it should be divinity instead of deity.

C. C.-Yes; that is another line. It is a different word. Now, if there are persons in the Godhead, and yet the Godhead is a unity, in what sense or senses are the three persons one ? They are one in substance; one in nature; one in life; one in purpose, plan and counsel.

A. E. B.-They are one in aim-always have the same object.

C. C.-Also one in work; none acts independently of the others.

F. J. E.-And of course they are one in power.

C. C.-We may say, also, one in wisdom; but that is perhaps implied in counsel.

A. E. B.-And so we see, as in psalm 139, the Trinity is omniscient (verses i to 6); omnipresent (verses 7 to 12); and omnipotent (verses 13 to end).
C. C.-Now, if we turn to Gen. i, and are able to read it in the Hebrew, we are struck with the very simple fact that the word for God, "Elohim," is in the plural. The Hebrew has singular, dual and plural. In the plural there must be at least three, and so is this word for God; yet it is constantly used as the subject of a singular verb.

B. C. G.-I think it is used 45 times in the first two chapters of the Bible, and over and over again we find this plural noun used with a singular verb. This would seem ungrammatical in English, yet it is the divine way of expressing the fact.

C. C.-We might say in English, "In the beginning the Trinity created." Trinity expresses plurality, but it is trinity in unity.

H. A. I.-There are those who object, and say it is simply the plural of majesty that is used here.

C. C.-But the use of it is too common for that. " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," implies unity of persons in counsel.

B. C. G.-Counsel always implies deliberation.

F. J. E.-In the New Testament we read that God created all things by Jesus Christ. Is that the same thing ?

C. C.-Yes; but what is important is that while we think of persons in the Godhead, there is no person that is independent of the rest. Neither Person thinks, speaks, or acts independently.

B. C. G.-Of course all human illustrations fail, but we might think of a firm of three partners commissioning one partner to do a certain thing on behalf of all. Thus, one might take a servant's place, but in full harmony with the rest.

H. A. I.-I have tried to illustrate it by a firm appointing one of its partners to act as receiver and straighten out the business, then hand it back to the firm. Christ became, so to speak, the receiver for this universe after sin had marred it. When all is straightened out, He hands it back to the firm.

Question-As to the Word, He was always that, was He not, but only spoken in time?

C. C.-From eternity He was the potential Word. Let us think of creation. Was not God speaking when He created ? Creation was a form of revelation. God was displaying Himself, revealing Himself. How can we think of that apart from the Son Himself as the speaker ?

F. J. E.-What is the thought of the eternal Word ?-always the expression of God ?

C. C.-Yes; I believe so. The best definition that I have seen is that given by G. V. Wigram:"A word is an idea and the expression of it." Now apply that definition to the term the "Logos" in John i :1,2. It is the title of the second person of the Trinity. In the beginning was the Word. He existed eternally as the idea and expression of Deity. Being that, He was the Expresser of the mind and will of God.
W. H.-Would you not say the eternal Expresser, whether before or after the incarnation ?

B. C. G.-Expressed or not, that is what He is.

C. C.-God was never without the ability to express Himself.

B. C. G.-Some raise the question, Why called " the Word " when there was no activity?

C. C.-He is that in Himself. John's first chap, speaks of Him as eternally living. In Him was life. Life never began in Him. It began in us. As being eternally the Living Word, we see the ability of Deity to express itself.

W. H.-We need to hold fast to that. Christ was eternally the Living Word.

F. J. E.-Would you say Christ?

C. C.-I think so. In i Cor. 10, the apostle writes, "They drank of that spiritual rock which followed them, and that Rock was Christ." He applies the term to pre-incarnation. Then Moses is said to have borne the reproach of Christ. He was the one to whom faith looked; and even in that day, as being present amongst His people, He was under reproach.

A. E. B.-The Anointed, or Christ, is more than a Jewish title. It is more than what we generally associate with the thought of the Messiah of Israel. In Prov. 8 wisdom says:" I was set up from everlasting." "Set up "is the same as anointed. He was anointed from everlasting. So He was the Christ in the mind of God in the past eternity. He was the Christ in God's purpose before incarnation. Historically He was anointed as Christ at His baptism; and God made Him Lord and Christ, confirmed Him as such, in resurrection.

B. C. G.-Even the Jews said, "We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever."

C. C.-But Jesus was His human name. It was the name given Him in incarnation. He was the Anointed from everlasting, just as He was the Lamb from everlasting-the foreordained Lamb, set apart for sacrifice. What is very important is that the young believers be brought to see that the relations of the persons of the Godhead are such that there is no independence in purpose, counsel, or activity.

W. H.-There is danger, I believe, of pressing passages like John i, Col. i, and Heb. i, as though creation were the independent work of the Son.

C. C.-The point is that in creating He was not acting Simply from Himself, just as the Holy Spirit now is said not to speak from Himself. He acted in conjunction with the other persons of the Trinity.

H. A. I.-Then are we to understand that John 5 119 has no reference to His humiliation, and refers only to Him as a divine person ?

C. C.-Well, I would not say that dogmatically. I would not say that He is limiting it to His deity. I understand that He is speaking in view of the fact that He has come down into human conditions, and as man He is in the place of dependency. But always He did nothing independently. As become man, He still has divine authority, divine wisdom, and sovereignty, but He does not act independently. It would be contrary to His relations (whether those essential and eternal, or those assumed when become Man) so to do.

F. J. E.-It says He can do nothing, not merely He will do nothing.

C. C.-The nature of the case is such that He can do nothing of Himself-the unity of the Godhead necessitates cooperation.

W. H.-Verse 36 gives us the perfection of the Son in humiliation. He speaks of the works that the Father had given Him to do.

C. C.-We must not lose sight of the fact that we are occupied with a unique man. His humanity was thoroughly unique.

F, J. E.-Is that thought of dependency all through John's Gospel, in spite of what is revealed as to His true deity.

C. C.-Yes; for He is both God and man; possessing divine sovereignty, and at the same time a submissive, subject man.

F. J. E.-Some use the term the God-man. Is it not better to say God and 'man in one person ?

C. C.-I think the expression is all right if the thought behind it is right. I have used it. But I find even Unitarians now use it. They mean He is a divine man. They deify His humanity and deny His deity. So the fuller expression is better.

A. E. B.-We need to press that. Humanity is never deified. Christ is perfect man and true God.

C. C.-There are two natures combined in one person, yet distinct.

A. E. B.-Some expressions which were once safe to use are now unsafe owing to new forms of error giving new meanings to these expressions.

C. C.-He is a real man-spirit, soul and body.

A. E. B.-Yes; many see in Him God, as to person, in a human condition.

C. C.-But there is more than that. It was not merely that Deity was enshrined in a body. Deity and manhood are united. Manhood implies spirit, soul and body.

A. E. B.-Well then, what of our opening verse, " The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do ?"
C. C.-This was always true, as we have seen. But He was here on earth, in a new position for Him. Before His incarnation, He knew nothing of obedience. He did not act independently, He acted sovereignly with the Spirit and the Father. But He became man. As having come into our condition and circumstances, as having entered . into a new relationship, that of dependence, He learned obedience-an entirely new experience for Him.

F. J. E.-What of "The Father sent the Son"? Was that not obedience before He came to earth ?

A. E. B.-In John 14 we are told that the Father would send the Spirit. In chap. 15 the Son would send Him. In chap. 16 He would come Himself. So with the Son. There is perfect interdependence.

B. C. G.-There is no independent action on the part of any member of the Godhead.

C. C.-But as man he is subject to orders, to command. The temptation illustrates it very clearly. He will do nothing without orders from His Father.

H. A. I.-It is really, "The Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness." He was impelled to go by the Spirit.

C. C.-Yes. He was taken to the wilderness to be tempted. The devil says, "If thou be the Son of God "do thus and so. But He would not exercise sovereignty, though possessing it, and He had no word from God to make stones into bread, or to leap from the pinnacle of the temple. He could not turn aside from the path of subjection, of dependence.

W. H.-John 12 149 shows He was under commandment.

C. C.-Yes; His words were the Father's words, and His works those that the Father had given Him to do. Though He exercised sovereign power, He was yet acting in subjection and obedience as under authority, as when with a word He stilled the tempest.

B. C. G.-Even in connection with His atoning death He said, "This commandment have I received of my Father."

W. H.-But it was also voluntary, for He says, "No man taketh my life from Me. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again."

C. C.-Yes; but the great point is, He was not acting independently even there. All was in accord with the counsel of God.

F. J. E.-When the wrath was borne, we are told that " He dismissed his spirit." This shows He willing fly offered Himself.

W. H.-And it shows that He was possessed of a true human spirit-which some deny.

C. C.-He says elsewhere, "Now is my soul troubled"; so we know He had a human soul.
B. C. G.-Isaiah says, "He poured out His soul unto death."

H. A. I.-And we read, "He groaned in spirit and was troubled." The denial of this is an old heresy known as Apollinarianism. It is the teaching that the Logos took the place in His body that my spirit and soul do in mine.

C. C.-Well, let us remember that He only did the works that the Father gave Him to do. I would like to speak of a few concrete examples. Take the storm again. When the terrified disciples appeal to Him, He rises and quiets the wind and the wave. It is the exercise of sovereign power, but He says, "The works that my Father gave Me to do." Stilling the storm was one of the works. He exercised sovereign power in obedience to His Father. Divine sovereignty and obedience combine in Him, just as the divine and human natures unite in perfect harmony in Him.

F. J. E.-That is a new thought to many, and very helpful, that sovereign power was exercised only in obedience.

W. H.-Do we not see the same thing in the incident where He sends Peter to get the money in the fish's mouth ? It was omniscience, but He was doing the works the Father gave Him to do.

C. C.-Yes; that is the same thing.

B. C. G.-Then what we need to see is that every miracle He wrought was in accordance with the Father's will. Therefore the Son did nothing of or from Himself.

C. C.-Yes; and so every act was the act of a divine Person, and also of a perfect man.

A. E. B.-In verse 20 of John 5 we read, "The Father loveth the Son and showeth Him all things that He Himself doeth; and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel." It is all of one piece. There is perfect harmony, fellowship, and subjection. In verse 17 He says, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." That is the past. Verse 19 is the present, and verse 20 carries the thought on to the future.

C. C.-Then we have what is strange to a great many in verse 31, "If I bear witness of Myself, my witness is not true," 1:e.,not valid. The law requires two witnesses, and He recognizes its claims upon Him. In the preceding verse He says," I can of mine own self do nothing." That is, He cannot act independently. "As I hear, I judge." His judgments were in accordance with the mind and will of the Godhead. He was in such relationship with the Father that His judgments were fully in accord with Hi's.

H. A. I.-This thought of perfect fellowship in the Godhead is a very precious one. It makes the idea of trinity in unit)'' very clear.

B. C. G.-And as a man on earth this fellowship was never interrupted. The Lord was ever receiving of the Father. That is what we have in Isaiah, is it not?-"He wakeneth mine ear morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned."
H. A. I.-It is really "as the learner"-is it not?

C. C.-Yes; and so we see Him as a man on earth receiving instruction, and taking orders daily. So He can say, "As I hear, I judge."

A. E. B.-In relationship, in dependence, in communion, He got all from the Father.

C. C.-He says also, "My judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father who hath sent Me." And as the perfect subject man, He adds, "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not valid." The law could not accept the testimony of only one witness. So He brings forward more than the law required. He cites four witnesses:John the Baptist, in verses 32 to 35; the works He did, in verse 36 ; the Father Himself, in verse 37; and the Old Testament Scriptures, in verse 39 – they all confirm His own testimony.

F. J. E. – In verse 34, "I receive not testimony from man:" what of that ?

C. C. – He does not depend on John's testimony.

A. E. B. – He says, "I have greater witness than that of John." So He cites three more witnesses.

B. C. G. – Because a man's testimony is rejected in court, it does not prove that it is not true. It may be unsupported and incompetent.

W. H. – In chapter 8 they throw it up to Him, "Thou bearest witness of thyself:thy witness is not valid."

C. C. – Yes, the Pharisees refuse His testimony as though it were unsustained. In verse 14 the Lord might seem to some to contradict Himself, "Though I bear witness of myself, my witness is valid." But notice the difference in His way of meeting them here from His way in chapter 5. Here He is bearing testimony to what He has eternally known. He is witnessing as personally acquainted with the Father from whom He had come, and to whom He was going. He was testifying to what He knew personally as the eternal Son. He says, "Ye judge after the flesh, I judge no man; yet-if I do, my judgment is just." But He says, "I am not alone – I and the Father that sent Me." So the Father confirmed His testimony. (See verse 18.)

H. A. I. – His witness was therefore valid, for the Father had confirmed it, but they would not receive His testimony.

C. C. – Yes; and as they had rejected the fourfold testimony previously given, He presses the validity of His own witness as that which had been fully proven to be valid.

W. H.-They claimed to be Moses' disciples. The Lord in effect said, "Now abide by the principles of Moses' law."

A. E. B.-In verse 26 (chap.8) He says that He speaks those things which He heard of the Father.

F. J. E.-Do we understand that while on earth He was constantly receiving from the Father ?

C. C.-Yes, it is, "As I hear, I judge." He was constantly receiving; His was ever the open ear.

H. A. I.-That shows how real were His exercises in prayer. It was no mere form with Him.

C. C.-Yes; think of His spending the whole night in prayer before selecting His twelve apostles. He went over every case with the Father.

B. C. G.-And at the grave of Lazarus, how real were His exercises.

C. C.-It is all exceedingly interesting. He does not draw on the divine resources within Himself. He is a dependent servant. As such He looks to the Father for counsel, for guidance.

A. E. B.-He knew all things, yet He took the place of dependence. In verses 26 to 29 this is made very plain:" He that sent Me is with Me;" " He hath not left Me alone; "I do always those things that please Him."

C. C.-His words expressed Himself:ver. 25:"I am exactly what I am saying" is a better translation.

B. C. G.-We may use speech to conceal thought. He was altogether what He said.

-Notes taken ly H. A. I. Corrected by C. Grain.

(2 Cor. 4 :17)

"O father! not my will, but Thine be done!"
Thus with my lips I say;
Yet lags the heart, the while the lips would run –
My heart, it sayeth "Nay."

" Be comforted, O child of My delight,
Though yet thy heart complain ;
'Tis well if thou suffer when I smite,
Or pain would not be pain.

" Were it a chastening if it were not grief ?
'Tis for a moment tears,
Then glows the spring, where fell the yellow leaf,
Of heaven's eternal years.

"For sorrow is the sorrow of an hour,
And sent in eternal love ;
The dusky bud enfolds the glorious flower
For God's delight above."

Then spake my heart :" For him who comes are
And bitter tears and scars; [pain
The briars of the wilderness remain –
Griefs countless as the stars.

"As he who from the poor his garment takes
When drives the storm and sleet,
Is he who singeth to the heart that breaks –
How then may grief be sweet ? "

Then, lo ! in vision fair did I behold
One who a psaltery strung –
Above the strings he stretched two threads of gold,
Across, and all along;

Then with the threads thus
Gave He the harp to me . . . [strings
Thus know I how the broken-hearted sings
O Lamb of God, to Thee.

H. Suso

(On Luke 15:5; 10:39 and John 13:23.)

On His shoulders ; at His feet; on His breast.

All who are the Lord's know something of the blessedness of our Saviour's love. We were straying far away, but the Faithful Shepherd sought us till He found us, and placed us on His shoulders rejoicing. It is not the joy of the sheep however, that is mentioned in Luke 15, but of the Shepherd's, for how much greater is His joy than that of the rescued sheep ! He was reproached by the self-righteous, saying, "This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them" (ver. 2), and He answers them by telling them how great was His joy in the recovery of a "lost" sheep!-"He layeth it on His shoulders rejoicing" and bids His friends to rejoice with Him. He who puts the recovered sheep on His shoulders is the One of whom it was written of old, "The government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). How safe is His poor sheep upon such shoulders!

And when we have learned a little of our Shepherd's love and care, it creates a desire to stay by Him. We learn then to "sit at His feet"-there to learn His mind, His heart and desires. Thus Mary learned what to do; learned of the coming day of trial and sorrow to her precious Lord, and before and in view of His burial poured upon Him the most precious ointment she had "kept"- "Against the day of my burying hath she kept this;" "She is come afore hand to anoint my body to the burying" (Jno. 12:7; Mk, 14:8).She had no need to purchase spices after her Lord was crucified, she had learned while sitting at His feet to do it before His death. And the Lord's acceptance of this precious work of faith is told out thus:"Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her" (Mk. 14:9).

After learning the blessedness of sitting at His feet, we seek to be near Him, like the apostle in John 13:23-where we may lean upon His breast. There, John could ask, " Lord who is it ? "-asked to know a secret unknown to others not so near to the Lord. How often it is this lack of nearness to the Lord that hinders our understanding of this or that portion of Scripture ! And must this intimacy, this nearness to the Lord, be denied us because He has gone up to His Father? Listen:"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep my words:and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). Spiritually nearer to us now He may be, therefore, than He was to them then. And, blessed be His name, His desire, expressed to the Father in our hearing, is ere long to be accomplished:"Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me :for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).

"Lamb of God ! Thy faithful promise,
Says, 'Behold, I quickly come;'
And our hearts, to Thine responsive,
Cry, ' Come, Lord, and take us home.'

Oh the rapture that awaits us
When we meet Thee in the air,
And with Thee ascend in triumph

All Thy deepest joys to share!"

M. A.

(Luke 15)

These parables are our Lord's answer to the murmuring of the Pharisees-"This Man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." They are His divinely perfect way of vindicating the love and grace of God. So far from denying the charge the Lord displays the truth and blessedness of that with which they charge Him. To do this He uses not one but three parables, each giving different aspects of the same love and grace, and all blending together to reveal the heart of God. And in this we have displayed the whole Trinity.

1. – The Lost Sheep. Vers. 1-7.

Fittingly the Lord begins with Himself, the Son. For He had come into the world for this very purpose-to save sinners. The sheep belongs to Him (as all things are His),but has gone astray, beyond all hope of recovery by its own efforts. In fact it does nothing toward that recovery; the Shepherd does it all-leaves all to accomplish this purpose. It includes His coming in flesh, His perfect life as showing His absolute sinlessness, and above all His atoning death-the finished work of divine love, in making possible its saving the lost.

"None of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed,
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through,
Ere He found the sheep that was lost."

As the work of saving was His, so the power to keep and bring home is His; and the joy in it all, and over the lost one found is His also. Indeed the joy throughout these parables is looked at as chiefly on God's part. The reflection of that is in the saved soul.

2.- The lost piece of money. Vers. 8-10.

Here the seeker is represented as a woman, and it is not difficult to think of the present work of the Holy Spirit in the people of God, seeking diligently by the light of the Word, and the zeal of love, to reach those hidden in the dust of the world-behind their business, cares, pleasures – whatever hides them. Those who believe in the truth of their sin and of Christ as Saviour are "found." The Spirit's work is accomplished in working "repentance unto life." Again there is joy in the presence of the angels of God.

3.-The lost son, Vers. 11-24. In the first two parables the lost is seen largely or entirely passive. But in the last is seen the working of grace in the person, leading to a sense of misery, a turning to God, and coming with confession to Him from the place of distance and of shame. And yet this is but, we may say, the background upon which to display the love of the Father. It is the Father who is waiting, who sees the poor wanderer at a great distance-for who has ever "repented enough" or come all the way alone? With divine haste, the Father anticipates all, and with the kiss of pardon welcomes the lost to the best in His house-Robe, Ring and Sandals, the Feast-all are the gift of the Father, whose joy He only, with the Son and Spirit, knows in its divine eternal fulness.
To God the Father be the praise now and ever, by the Spirit through Christ Jesus our Lord. S. R.

Ques. 9.-Kindly answer in Help & Food why (from Scripture) we should have "stated times" for prayer. I do not see clearly what "times" have to do with the Spirit's intercession, and taking everything to God in prayer.

Ans.- Stated times for prayer, as urged in the article referred to (Oct. Help & Food), is meant to avoid lapses in prayer-all too frequent, with young Christians especially. It is against such lapses, seemingly, that the apostle exhorts the believers in Thessalonica, recently converted from idolatry to Christ, to "pray without ceasing."

As to stated times of prayer, Scripture gives many examples. Daniel 6:10 is a notable one. That it was Daniel's usual practice is shown by the words,"as he did aforetime." David, a leader in this, did the same:"Evening, and morning, and at noon will I pray" (Ps. 55:17). "The hour of prayer," attended by Peter and John (Acts 3:1), was an established custom. The godly Jews in Jerusalem repaired to the Temple for this, according to 2 Chron. 6 :29-33. But the apostle to the Gentiles, to the Church, says to us, "I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere"-in contrast, apparently, to the Temple and the synagogues where the Jews were wont to go.

In the wilderness it witnessed,
On the heavenly pattern planned,
The alone divine oasis
In an arid barren land ;
And the ransomed of Jehovah
In their tribal tents lay spread
Round the holy habitation,
With the glory-cloud overhead.

By the blood from judgment sheltered,
Safe beyond the whelming flood,
From the Pharaoh task and bondage
Brought to serve the Living God.
But, although He dwelt amongst them,
And a mercy-seat His throne,
Still the veil remained unriven,
And the Father's name unknown.

For the tabernacle-service,
With its offerings day by day,
Could not purge the guilty conscience,
Could not take the sin away.
All the ritual but foreshadowed,
And the varied types portrayed
God the Son in incarnation,
The atonement He has made.

Holy rite and sacred symbol-
Offerings, linen fine, and gold-
Of Immanuel's grace and glories
Of the Son of Man foretold:
Of the One who, lone and lowly,
All the way of sorrow trod-
Now High-priestly Intercessor
In the sanctuary with God.

Holy mystery of His Person-
Shittim wood with gold overlaid;
While Redemption's radiant riches
Silver beauteously displayed.
Gospel grace and Kingdom glories
By the veil and curtains shown-
God incarnate, suffering, reigning-
Cross of shame and kingly throne.
When the Holiest was entered
With the incense and the blood,
All of Christ to come betokened,
Great High Priest and Lamb of God.
He, the Offerer and the offering,
He the beaten incense sweet,
Altar, ark, and hidden manna,
And the sprinkled mercy-seat.

Passed away the types and shadows-
Rent the inner veil in twain-
Yet the veil o'er unbelieving
Israel's heart doth yet remain,
While the priestly sons have access
To the Holiest on high,
God's fore-chosen earthly people,
Now Lo-ammi, scattered lie.

But the voice of their Redeemer
Shall repentant Israel hear;
And Messiah, once rejected,
Shall in glorious power appear.
All His enemies subduing,
He shall reign as Zion's King,
And to Israel and the nations
Every earthly blessing bring.

W. L. G.

My life is a wearisome journey:
I'm sick with the dust and the heat,
The rays of the sun beat upon me,
The briers are wounding my feet;
But the city to which I am going
Will more than my trials repay;
All the toils of the road will seem nothing
When I get to the end of the way.

With so many hills to climb upward
I often am longing for rest;
But He who appoints me my pathway
Knows just what is needful and best.
I know in His word He has promised
That my strength shall be as my day,
And the toils of the road will seem nothing
When I get to the end of the way.

He loves me too well to forsake me,
Or give me one trial too much;
His people He has dearly purchased,
And Satan can never claim such.
By and by I'll see Him, and praise Him,
In that city of unending day,
And the toils of the road will seem nothing
When I get to the end, of the way.

When the last feeble steps are taken,
And the gates of the city appear,
When the triumphant songs of redeemed ones
Sweetly fall on my listening ear;
When all that now seems mysterious
Shall be plain and be clear as the day,
Yes, the toils of the road shall seem nothing
When I get to the end of the way.

Though now I am footsore and weary,
I shall rest when I'm safely at home:
I know I'll receive a glad welcome
For the Saviour Himself has said, Come.
So when I am weary in body,
And sinking in spirit, I say,
All the toils of the road will seem nothing
When I get to the end of the way.
Cooling fountains are there for the thirsty;
There are cordials for those who are faint;
There are robes that are white and purer
Than any that fancy can paint.
Then with hope and with song I'll press onward,
Thinking often through each weary day,
All the toils of the road will seem nothing
When I get to the end of the way.

3.-THE LORD IN RESURRECTION

The 20th chapter of John was referred to as a starting point, and a question was asked as to the difference between our Lord's body before His death and after His resurrection.

. C. C.-First of all, we need to realize that our Lord's body when here on earth was not a mortal body. That idea is prevalent in some quarters. Some hold that He was not an immortal man until He arose from the dead. But there was in Him, as man, an energy of holiness that absolutely shut out sin, that shut out all evil, and of course shut out the power of corruption to lay hold upon His body. He was like Elisha's vessel with salt in it-salt symbolizing the preservative energy of holiness.

A. E. B.-That is the meaning of salt in the meal-offering. It is a preservative-the personal life of holiness that ever characterized the Lord in this world.

C. C.-While not subject to death, our Lord was able to die. Liability to death and ability to die, are very distinct things. In John u, as the Lord said to Martha, He was the resurrection and the life. He was that in Himself. He not only possessed in Himself the energy of holiness which shut out all evil, and therefore all tendency to corruption, but He was also the annulment of death and corruption for others.

A. E. B.-Will you give us a word on the difference between the life and the resurrection ?Would life here be the same as in John 14-"The Way the Truth, and the Life " ?

C. C.-The Son of God having become man, having assumed humanity as we have it, but apart from sin, He carried it beyond death. In Him was life and incorruptibility-possessing them in Himself, He was able to take humanity out of its present condition into a permanent condition.

W. H.-In resurrection, He speaks of flesh and bones, not of flesh and blood. He had poured out His blood on the cross, and is not said to take that up in resurrection.

F. J. E.-Thus He differs from the persons He raised from the dead when He was here. They were only raised to their former earthly condition, to a life such as they had previously known, so they were subject to die again.

C. C.-Yes. It was not to a fixed or final condition, as is His since He rose from the grave in His spiritual body,

W, H,-What about the order of verse 25-the resurrection and the life ?

C. C.-He had come into a place where sin is, where death reigns. In this scene, He is the resurrection and the life, the deliverer, the Saviour. He must be the resurrection to be the life.

F. J. E.-Does He carry the thought into the future when He says, "Though he were dead yet shall he live " ?
A. E. B.-That is our resurrection.

C. C.-There He is applying it backward:"He that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live"-they are going to be brought into that condition of life and incorruptibility. Then He says, " He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." Some would add, "when He returns:" but the Lord, it seems to me, is saying that no believer in Him shall die-as under sin's penalty.

F. J. E.-Is that in connection with John 5 :24, " Is passed from death unto life " ?

C. C.-Yes; is passed-the Lord Himself having taken the penalty.

A. E. B.-So if he actually dies it is counted as sleep.

B. C. G.-It is the same as, "Shall not taste of death," It comes not as the king of terrors to the believer.

C. C.-It comes as a friend, a servant, bringing rest after labor; so in this sense, death is ours.

W. H.-You get the solemn contrast in chapter 8:24, "If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins."

C. C.-Well then, what we need to see is that the Lord was not under the appointment to die. " It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment;" but He was not a sinful man. He was not liable, therefore, either to judgment or death. He could have gone to heaven as a man without dying; but then He must have been a man eternally alone. He must have been without human associates.

F. J. E.-That is as in John 12, " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

C. C.-Yes; so He takes the penalty in order to provide a way of deliverance for men, exposed to death and judgment, whom He would have with Himself for all eternity.

W. H.-Referring again to John 11:25, would you say that life in Him was always characterized by resurrection ?

A. E. B.-It could only be expressed as such where death had come in.

C. C.-I cannot realize how He could have been fore-ordained to be the Lamb of God if He was not characterized by resurrection life. God always knew what sin is-knew it absolutely, not experimentally. Therefore sin must always have been abhorrent to Him. He has never changed His attitude toward it. We see that attitude told out in the cross. God's abhorrence of sin was fully manifested there as it had never been manifested anywhere else. The flood told of God's hatred of sin; so did the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah; but it was only in the cross that it was fully manifested. But if He always knew sin, and eternally abhorred it, He always had in Himself resources for vindicating His attitude in respect to it. God did not need that sin should come in and actually exist in order to know it.

H. A. I.-There is a striking verse in Daniel 2:22, "He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him."

C. C.-He not only knew what would come, but He knew it in its nature and character, and provided for it.

F. J. E.-That is, redemption was no afterthought with God.

C. C.-He provided for it. It seems to me that unless what we have been saying is true we could not apply the term holiness to God. Holiness implies the knowledge of sin, but the refusal of it.

Ques.-What of the angels, are they not holy ?

C. C.-We do not speak of holiness until after testing. Men and angels were created in innocence, not in holiness. We do not properly speak of holiness until after the attitude as to sin is taken. Angels who stood the test are called "holy" and "elect" angels.

A. E. B.-Now shall we turn to John n again ? -"I am the resurrection and the life."

C. C.-It is what was ever true of Him, but manifested historically in its fulness after He arose from the dead.

B. C. G.-When it says, in Romans i, " Declared to be the Son of God with power. , . by the resurrection of the dead," does it not include both the ability to raise those sample cases in this life as well as His own resurrection ?

C, C.-Yes; He was always the Creator, so He was always the resurrection and the life. He was that essentially in Himself.

A. E. B.-Life, incorruptibility, resurrection, power to meet all the questions raised by sin, all were essentially His, apart altogether from the occasion of display,

W. H.-So, apart from all questions of manifestation or display, He was in Himself the resurrection and the life.

C, C.-And when arisen from the dead He was manifested as the Victor who could not be holden of death. In the same body that He arose, He was taken up into heaven.

A. E. B.-Now a word as to 2 Timothy 3, the last verse. It says He was received up in glory-not into. To what does that refer ?

P, J. E.-Is that going back to whence He came?

A. E. B.-Well take another passage-the last verse of Phil. 3:" The body of His glory." That
could not be said before death and resurrection.

C, C,-No; as man in this world, He had a body suited to this earth, not one suited to heaven. It was a body of flesh and blood, suited to existence here. When He arose from the dead He took up humanity in a new condition, suited to the glory.

A, E. B,-So it is written that as we have borne the image of the earthy we shall bear the image of the heavenly. As to Christ we may say that the same Person who had existed from all eternity took a body suited to earthly conditions, to die. Now, in resurrection, He has taken up humanity in a new and permanent condition.

C. C.-And now He is the Head of a new race, of humanity after a new order, and at His second coming we shall be made like Him in this. Even Adam innocent had not a body suited to heaven. Christ risen is the beginning of new creation-the creation where all things are of God,

A. E. B.-Adam unfallen had neither a nature nor a body suited for heaven. New birth was always needed,

W. H.-We are told that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

R. F. E.-Does not that passage show the necessity of the change that is to take place at the rapture? Blood is to sustain natural life and to repair waste. In resurrection, the glorified body will be of a different character.

C. C.-The difference between the Lord's body before death and after His resurrection is very clearly brought out in John's account of the visit of Peter and himself to the empty tomb. His body wrapped about with a winding-sheet (among the wealthy sometimes 120 yards long), wound round and round the body, came out of this without unwrapping it. What a proof of resurrection and the character of the resurrection-body. The great stone was not rolled away to let the Lord out of the tomb, but to let His disciples in. The napkin that was about His head was wrapped by itself, and the wrappings lying just as they had been around His body-Himself gone out of them.

H, A. I.-It is just as when the butterfly comes out of the chrysalis condition. The shell remains unchanged. Some have thought the description in John simply implied an orderly exit and lack of haste.

C. C.-But this is to miss the real truth of the passage.

B. C. G.-Nicodemus brought a hundred pounds of spices. The Lord had the burial of a rich man. This was ten times what was ordinarily used; so the winding-sheet was undoubtedly such as the wealthy used.

C. C.-Well, Scripture states we are to be like Him, that He shall change these bodies of our humiliation, and fashion them like unto the body of His glory. His resurrection-body is the typical one. We are to be conformed to His image.
W. H.-To guard against the thought of this resurrection-body not being material, we are told that He ate with His disciples after He arose from the dead, It was not needed to sustain Him, but He could do so.

A. E. B.-This however was miraculous; for we shall not need food in that new condition. It is written, " Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them." This makes it very definite that material food will not be required for the new, spiritual body. Thus we shall be like Him both morally and physically, though of course never like Him in omniscience, etc. We shall ever be learners.

B. C, G,-We shall be perfect in our sphere, not in His.

F, J. E.-We shall eat of the hidden manna, and of the tree of life.

C. C.-Yes; that is Christ Himself.

A brother.-What would be the difference between Christ's transfigured body and the resurrection-body ?

C. C.-When He arose He was in a permanent condition; unchanged He was taken up into heaven, The transfigured body was His body enveloped in glory, but it was the same as that in which He afterward died upon the cross. But no change, no transformation of His resurrection-body was required ere He ascended. Such as it was after He arose from the dead, such is it now in heaven; and such will our bodies be at His coming-bodies suited to the sphere in which we are going to be. As to His eating, it was only to convince them that He was a real man, as has been pointed out. On the Mount of Transfiguration we have a pattern of the coming kingdom. We have in vision the glorified Lord, Moses representing the saints who will be raised from the dead, and Elijah those caught up without passing through death.

A, E. B.-It was an earnest of what the kingdom will be.

H. A. I.-But there was no actual change in His body. For a moment, as it were, His essential glory was shining out, and He was enveloped in the glory conferred upon Him by the Father.

C. C.-See how Peter speaks of it. He says that by this "we have the word of prophecy made plainer" (2 Peter i:19, Greek). That is the meaning of it. It did not make it any more sure. But it confirmed it-made it plainer.

B. C. G.-It added emphasis to the Old Testament prophecy, and made the nature of the kingdom easier to understand,

C. C,-There is a word in the 5th chapter of 2 Cor. that is important here:"Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now know we Him so no more" (ver. 16). There were those living when the epistle to the Corinthians was written, who had known Christ in His earthly existence-Peter, John, and others-they had seen Him in the body suited to that existence, His flesh-and-blood body, but He will never again be seen in a body like that,
H. A. I.-That is one great difference between Christ and the Antichrist. Christ will come from heaven in the body of His glory, the Antichrist will be a man in a flesh-and-blood body, and of natural birth. People are looking for a great world-teacher, Some imagine this will be the second coming of Christ. But we shall never know Christ after the flesh.

F. J. E,-Our Lord has been on earth once as a man of flesh and blood, but never again in that condition.

W. H.-That is it; He is out of that condition forever.

C. C.-In Mark 16:19, 20 we are told that He was received up into heaven and put on the right hand of God. The word means to place, to put, to cause to sit. It was what the Father did for Him, the resurrected man.

A. E, B.-Not as in Hebrews i, where we are told that He set Himself down.

C. C.-No; in Mark He is/«/ there. It is Power taking Him up and putting Him there, In Hebrews He established Himself there. Both are blessedly true,

A, E. B.-In Hebrews it is His deity. In Mark, His manhood.

W. II,-It is the same in regard to resurrection. God raised Him from the dead. Yet He raised Himself. It was His own act.

C. C.-And He is also said to have been "quickened by the Spirit." The important thing now is that God has put Him on the throne as man. In Matthew, as risen He says, "All authority is given unto Me." But we do not get the ascension there. In Mark we see Him exalted above every thing. God sets Him as a glorified man over all, as in Hebrews 2. So there is a man on the throne of God who is going to carry out all the plans and counsels of God, who will fulfil all His purposes. He is acting from the throne. He has many offices, but the great thing to see is that He is on the throne, and is there as man to fulfil all God's thoughts.

A child of Adam-I was lost
And 'neath God's wrath and rod;
By faith in Jesus Christ I have Become a child of God-
Yea, all through Jesus' blood.

And as His child, I now may count
All earthly things but loss,
I'm separated from the world
For aye, and all its dross,
By Calvary's wondrous cross.

I turned to God, from foolishness,
To wait for Christ from heaven;
To spend my life in serving Him
By whom I am forgiven,
Through Jesus Christ in heaven.

Like Abraham I'd sojourn here,
And as Thou didst, blest Lord;
Thy cross the starting place for me,
My compass Thy sure Word,
Which help doth e'er afford.

My light along the midnight path
That same blest Word shall be;
A lamp, to show each forward step
That leads me home to Thee-
Saved for eternity.

Amid the labyrinth of snares,
My pathway runs across,
Deliver me, O Saviour, by
The power of Thy cross,
No matter what the loss.

Then let the world find fault, malign,
And sneer-'tis but their loss.
I cannot join them, for there stands
The memory of Thy cross
'Tween me and all their dross.

Yet, could I join their feasts and plays,
I'm very sure Thy cross
Would cast its shadow o'er the scene,
And I should reap but loss.
Oh, keep me near Thy cross !

Then, dear young soldier of the cross,
When tempted oft to share
In worldly pleasures, ask thyself, "
Would Jesus meet me there ?"-
O child of God, take care.

A speck in Thy vast universe,
Yet hid not from Thine eye,
Thy love, oh mystery ! didst seek,
And could not pass me by :
And, Lord, I know not why !

But gladly I accept the love
I cannot understand;
And trustful as a little child,
I'd simply take Thy hand,
Obey Thy least command.

'Tis night without Thee, blessed Lord,
But morning must be near;
And Thou-my peace, my hope, my joy-
The darkness soon wilt clear-
Thus what have I to fear ?

So may we walk together here,
The path which leads me home,
By faith; nor question this, nor that,
But, trusting Thee alone,
Just wait till Thou shalt come.

H. McD

It is of the greatest importance for every one of us to be thoroughly established in the grand truth of the divine authority of holy Scripture-its plenary inspiration, its all-sufficiency for all purposes, for all people, at all times. There are two hostile influences abroad, namely, infidelity on the one hand, and superstition on the other. The former denies that God has spoken to us in His Word; the latter admits that He has spoken, but it denies that we can understand what He says, save by the interpretation of the church.

Now, while there are very many who recoil with horror from the impiety and audacity of infidelity, they do not see that superstition just as completely deprives them of the Scriptures. For wherein, let us ask, is the difference between denying that God has spoken and denying that we can understand what He says ? In either case, are we not deprived of the Word of God ? Unquestionably. If God cannot make me understand what He says-if He cannot give me the assurance that it is He Himself who speaks, I am in no wise better off than if He had not spoken at all. If God's Word is not sufficient without human interpretation, then it cannot be God's Word at all. That which is insufficient is not God's Word.

Plainly then, we must admit either of two things, namely, that God has not spoken at all, or if He has spoken, His Word is perfect. There is no neutral ground in reference to this question. Has God given us a revelation? Infidelity says, "No." Superstition says,"Yes, but you cannot understand it without human authority." And who is that authority that claims to give infallibly the meaning of God's word? "It is the church," they answer. And who is that "church," again we ask? Ah, reader, it comes down finally to be the Pope, and his advisers!-Popes who have anathematized one another-Popes, many of whom have been of scandalous lives, and advisers intriguing as politicians.-[Ed. Thus are we, in the one case as well as in the other, deprived of the priceless treasure of God's own precious Word; and thus, too, infidelity and superstition, though apparently so unlike, meet in the one point of depriving us of a divine relation.

But, blessed be God, He has given us a revelation-He has spoken, and His Word is able to reach the heart and the understanding also. God is able to give the certainty that it is He who speaks, and we do not want any human authority to intervene. We do not want a poor rush-light to enable us to see that the sun is shining. The beams of that glorious luminary are quite enough without any such miserable addition. All we want is to stand in the sunshine, and we shall be convinced that the sun shines. If we retire into a cellar, we shall not feel his influence; just so with Scripture:if we place ourselves beneath the chilling and darkening influences of superstition or infidelity, we shall not experience the genial and enlightening power of that divine revelation.

God's Word, as well as His work, speaks for itself; it carries its own credentials with it; it speaks to the heart; it reaches down to the great moral roots of our being; it penetrates the very innermost chambers of the soul; it shows us what we are; it speaks to us as no other book can speak. As the woman of Sychar argued that Jesus must be the Christ because He told her all things that ever she did, so may we say, in reference to the Bible, It tells us all that ever we did; is not this the Word of God ? No doubt it is only by the Spirit's teaching that we can discern and appreciate the evidence and credentials with which Holy Scripture presents itself before us; but still it does speak for itself, and needs not human testimony to make it of value to the soul. C. H. M.

A little while ago, burdened with sorrow on account of sin, you were in sore distress of mind. But the precious words of our Lord Jesus, "Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest," and His " Peace be unto you," received in your heart by faith, have taken away your burden and your fears. You are now like the disciples when our risen Lord showed them His hands and feet and side:"Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." His precious blood is your shelter, and His Word is now to be your guide; for He said, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." He also says to you as He did to Peter, " Lovest thou Me ? " and you answer with him, " Yea, Lord; Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee" (Jno. 21:17).

Now a request of His stands prominently before you; it is written as it were with His own blood; it is the request which heads this paper,

" This do in remembrance of Me"

There is an especial tenderness in these words. They were first uttered at the passover table when His disciples were gathered around Him, in anticipation of the cross with all its agony and shame. It was the hour when the wickedness of man, led on by the powers of darkness, was to be manifested; and above all, the forsaking of His God because of our sins filled His suffering spirit. This same request is spoken again as it were from the heavens, when His work of suffering was over, when He was crowned with glory and honor-the object of heaven's worship-the enthroned of His Father. Read carefully and prayerfully, Matt. 26:26-30; Mark 14:23-26; Luke 22:19.20; 1 Cor. 11:23-25.

What love and wisdom of the Lord to thus repeat His request to us from the heavens! Had He not from thence reminded us of His blessed words, spoken on the night of His betrayal, we would have lacked the same assurance of His changeless love which this repetition gives-a love which neither death, nor the grave, nor the glory above, have changed at all. His words turn our hearts and thoughts to His death, and at the same time link our affections to Himself on high. Thus Jesus in the heavens, in an inexpressibly precious way, shows what value He sets upon our remembrance of Him-" Remember Me."

It is your privilege, dear fellow-believer, to do what the Lord desires:Himself has made you worthy to do this by washing you from your sins in His own blood. You belong to Him; He loves you, and you love Him. This is your title to His table; and where two or three are gathered together unto His name, He is in the midst of them. What He has done for you has made you fit to draw near to Him. It is His doing; therefore you may boldly say, Since He has made me one of His own, one of God's people, it is my privilege to gather with other Christians to remember Him. Indeed the question is whether you have sufficient love to the Master to follow Him-not whether you are fit to partake of the Lord's Supper. Put this question to yourself:Do I love my blessed Saviour sufficiently to fulfil His dying request, " Do this in remembrance of Me?"

What love must the Son of God have towards us to desire our remembrance of Him-poor as it is! And yet, despite His love, how often this, His request, is slighted by His own blood-bought people! It is thought unnecessary by some; four times a year, or even once a year is thought to be enough by others-as if the remembrance of His dying love was irksome!

Ministry is precious indeed ; it is the gift of Christ; and prayer is the atmosphere of the Christian's life- "pray always:" but these things connect themselves with our needs, and, however precious they may be, they are not what is implied in our Lord's request. He asks us to remember Him; He seeks this from His people, and it is for this that He invites them to break the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of His love to us. At His table our privilege is to forget ourselves, our trials, our joys, our things, be they what they may, and to think of Him.

Do any inquire, To whom are these words of the Lord addressed? He speaks to those that know Him. We cannot remember a person unless we first know him; therefore it is a mockery for the unconverted to partake of the feast. Yes, for those whose hearts are not turned away from sin-who do not love our Lord Jesus-to partake with His blood-bought people of the memorials of His precious death, is a sad and dreadful mockery. It is sinful in the Lord's people to partake of the Lord's supper in company with mere professors, or worldly people who "take the sacrament " as a mere form, or superstitiously as a meritorious act. It is a sin against the Lord, who forbids His people to be yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14); and it is a sin against the souls of the unconverted, helping them to rest in mere profession and lip-service.

How could an unbeliever worship the Lord at all? He cannot. God's command to Israel as to the passover was; " There shall no stranger eat thereof" (Exod. 12:43).

God's word tells us that the Church or assembly of God is one body, that its members are united to Christ by the Holy Spirit, and that through Him we are united one to the other as members of one body. The happy privilege of believers is to meet together around the Lord as our center, remember Him in His death for us; and He has promised His presence to such, saying, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). In early Christian days we read that those who gladly received the word were baptized, and continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers (Acts 2:41, 42).

And does not the word of God hold good now ? Has God changed because His people have not been faithful?

We have heard the Lord's words to us about the supper, and His desire that we should remember Him thus; and we have seen that it is only believers who ought to partake of it; let us now inquire a little into the meaning of the feast.

The unbroken loaf symbolizes the unbroken body of Christ. We adore as we consider the life of the Lord, perfect in every detail; every act, every word, precious to His Father. His whole life was like the sweet and holy frankincense that was all burnt before the Lord (Lev. 2). Yet the holy life of Christ could never bring us to God. In order to bring us to God there must be atonement for sin; so that Christ had to suffer, the

42"this do in remembrance of me"
just One for the unjust (1 Pet. 3:18). Without this the precious and perfect obedient life of the Lord would only add to our condemnation, because the very perfection of Christ as a man would be a divine standard by which to measure us; and who could stand beside Him for a moment ?

We can only draw near to God through the body broken and shed blood of Jesus; through the rent vail, that is to say, His flesh. We break the bread, and while breaking it, remember Him bruised, wounded, yea, " made sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). Our corrupt and evil nature was judged upon His cross, and now we are accepted and accounted righteous in the sight of God, for we are " in Christ." Our sins are all forgiven, for "He Himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24).

It is by the death of Jesus we freely approach God, who has raised our blessed Substitute from the grave, and has set Him at His own right hand on high, which is the unquestionable evidence of God's righteousness being satisfied, and of our perfect acceptance in Christ. In the poured out wine we remember and confess that His blood was shed – that "He hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood;" as He said to His disciples, "This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins." When we think of our blessed Saviour having been "made sin for us, He who knew no sin;" when we think of His body broken, His hands, feet, and side pierced and bleeding, and that for us; when we hear Him saying, " Remember Me," how can, how could we be unmindful of His request ?

Now, the breaking the bread is not only for our individual appreciation, but it is a collective act, in which together we "show the Lord's death, till He come" (1 Cor. 11:26). In the bread and the cup, passed round from hand to hand for mutual participation, we declare not only that we are one with Him, but with one another, in the new and everlasting life which He has given us. We are made one with Him and one another in the power of the Spirit who has baptized us into one body. We are one with Him who is in the glory; we are risen together with Him, and made to sit together in Him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2). " We"-who? A sect, a party ? No; all Christians, be they called by whatever name.

The Lord's table is the great expression of the oneness of His people:"We being many are one loaf" (1 Cor. 10:17, N. T.). We are members of His body, the Church, and therefore of one another. Nowhere do Christians enjoy and express such fellowship as at the Lord's table. " The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ?"

It is of utmost importance to bear in mind that no believer is independent of his fellow-believer, for " We are members of His body," and " if one member suffer, all suffer with it."

If we are one, if the Lord is our Head, our Master, and all we brethren, who shall take upon himself to preside at the Lord's table? The Holy Ghost records, "The disciples met together to break bread;" and again, "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." " The bread which we break," " The cup of blessing which we bless." Scripture thus teaches us that it is a mutual participation; none being greater nor less than another at that table. All are one with each other, for all are one in Him, and He is our Head and Center.
Some look around and may say, The word of God speaks of such things, but where in the present day is such simplicity to be found ?

Grievous it is to see systems established by man and under man's control, instead of divine simplicity and the Lord's authority. Well may every faithful heart lament the dishonor done to Christ in these things.

Yet the unfaithfulness of His people does not make void the faithfulness of their Lord ? He has not changed, and He has said, " Where two or three are gathered together in MY NAME there am I in the midst of them."The Holy Spirit is there to guide the obedient two or three thus gathered. They need no man-appointed minister to take the Holy Spirit's place, nor to usurp an authority which alone belongs to the Lord. "In my Name" implies all what He is in His Person and holy character.
"One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." Amid the divisions of Christians, the word and name of the Lord is a sure center around which to rally. To own the Lord as our center we must of necessity separate from human centers and names. This is not sectarianism.

As to the time of the feast. By its being called a Supper, and by the example of Acts 20:7-11, we should consider that its commemoration was the evening in early Christian days. However, it is only right to devote the best portion of the day to worship our Lord, which of common consent is the morning among western peoples. In eastern lands it may be otherwise.

As to the frequency, in early Christian days the disciples broke bread each Lord's day. They came together on " the first day of the week" for this purpose (Acts 20:7). They were also directed to "lay by in store " for ministry to the saints on every first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:1, 2). Their worship and their offerings were thus connected with the day of our Lord's resurrection and the new place we have in Him.

"The Lord's day" is so called, because upon it the Lord arose from the dead, and thus became the Head of the new creation. We Christians do not, as the Jews, keep the Sabbath, or rest-day which is the 7th day of the week (Saturday), but on the Lord's day, the 1st day of the week, we celebrate His resurrection. Consider this:The supper is the Lord's, – " the Lord's Supper;" and the day is the Lord's,-"the Lord's Day."

And what is the object of this gathering together ? It is not for prayer; it is not to preach-blessed and precious as both are in their place. It is to remember the Lord, and worship Him-to joy before Him with blessing, thanksgiving, and praise. " The cup of blessing which we bless." " When He had given thanks He brake it." Surely, if our Saviour could on the night of His betrayal, as He thought of our salvation, bless God before breaking the bread, we should be found pr Using Him as we remember His death for us. " The day is holy unto our Lord . . . neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength," may well be applied to this feast.

And now a word as to the Table. Whose is it ? Is it the children's, where every child has a right? No. Is it the Father's, where every prodigal may seat himself ? No. It is the Lord's-our Master's table. The child might be walking disorderly, or hold evil doctrine, in which case Scripture denies him a place at the Lord's table until he be purged. The table of the Lord is in no wise the place for the exercise of one's own will, for the Lord's authority is there. It is not only a place of blessing, but of discipline also. If it reminds us of what Christ suffered for sin, we cannot, we shall not, continue in it. " How shall we that have died to sin live any longer therein ? " We are bidden to judge ourselves that we be not judged; and if we will continue at the Lord's table without self-judgment as to any wrong in our ways, God's chastisement must fall upon us (see 2 Cor. 11:31, 32).

The principle of the Lord's table is holiness to the Lord, and in this day of carelessness as to the honor of Christ, we should exercise diligent watchfulness that nothing unbecoming the Lord's table may be permitted among those who partake of it (see 2 Tim. 2:20-26). " Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."

Liberality, as men call it, may glory in overlooking evil; the word of God declares "such glorying is not good " (1 Cor. 5:6). " Purge out the old leaven," says Scripture; and it bases its exhortation upon God's own character:Be ye holy, for I am holy." It is " With the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth " the feast is to be kept. " The old leaven of malice and wickedness," is to be put away. See 1 Cor. 5:6-8 ; compare with Exod. 12:15-20. It is an easy thing to excuse or pass over evil, but God requires us to judge it and put it aside. Beware of the miscalled " charity " of this present evil day; shun its easy-going " liberality." Be vigilant over yourself; never forget that God's word acknowledges no such person as an independent Christian. Remember that it teaches exactly the opposite, saying, " Whether one member suffer, all suffer with it."

We have seen that the unity of the assembly is manifested at the table in the one loaf, and it becomes the solemn duty for each believer there to see that what is practiced there is approved by Him. If evil be allowed such sway in an assembly of Christians that the authority of the Lord reigns there no longer, the table is no more the Lord's, but man's; and all believers who continue in fellowship with such are defiled. Oneness is a practical thing:we are not to use the fact of our being one in Christ for eternity to excuse our disobedience and divisions now. We are to "endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," surely, but not at the expense of yielding the truth. All will be one in the glory, but on that day there will be no more sin and therefore no more striving against it; no more dishonor done to Christ, and therefore no more need of effort to maintain the honor of His name.

Again, as to fellowship, we know in our daily intercourse how the demeanor, the dress, the conversation of our fellow-believers affects us for good or for evil in proportion as Christ is manifested or the contrary. How much more will unholiness or worldliness during the week affect our meetings around the Lord at His table. But if the power of evil be great, the power of good is greater; and this, let it be observed, is most blessedly manifested at the Lord's table. Often does the Spirit use a hymn, a word, a prayer, to lead every heart to thankful praise, holy joy, and worship.

The saints as members of Christ are many, yet one body. It is with them as with an instrument of music:if one of its notes be out of tune, the melody is marred. And if worldliness produce evil effects, what must the toleration of evil doctrine? If worldliness allowed reduces the general tone of the gathering, evil doctrine allowed in the assembly will leaven the whole lump, and with evil doctrine admitted, evil practice will follow as a consequence. " Sanctify them by thy truth " (Jno. 17:17).

In conclusion, we turn again to 1 Cor. 11:23-26. After rehearsing the Lord's tender request, the Holy Spirit through the apostle adds this closing word :"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show (or announce) the Lord's death till He come." "Till He come!" only three little words, but what bright hope they set before the heart of those who love Him! And His closing word to us is, " Behold, I come quickly." May our hearts also loyally respond, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Dear fellow-believer, the time is short; the opportunity for loving obedience to the words of our Lord is growing daily less. He who went to the cross for us now says "Remember me." Let us, then, give His request a large place in our hearts; and not only in the gathering at His table, but may it follow us in our life day by day, till we see His face.

The book of Genesis contains in germ every elementary principle which we find afterward developed in God's ways with man. It has fitly been called The Seed Plot of the whole Bible. We are not surprised therefore, to find in the fourth chapter of Galatians that Sarah and Hagar are taken as representing the two great principles of law and of grace.

It is important to understand that the law applies to man in the flesh, and produces a condition of bondage. Ishmael is a type of the natural man, "born after the flesh," who for a time dwelt in the house of Abraham, until Isaac was born. Ishmael speaks of our condition by nature, when the flesh had undisputed possession, and we lived to gratify self; while Isaac typifies that which is born of God -the new man:as the apostle says in i Cor. 15:46, " That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; and afterward that which is spiritual.

It was not an improved Ishmael that was to become the depository of God's promises, but Isaac, the new man, child of Sarah, and child of faith. But the birth of Isaac brought conflict; it soon manifested the character of the bondwoman's son.

Let it be distinctly understood that new birth is not a change of the old nature, and that new birth does not in the least alter the character of the flesh.

The flesh "is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed can be." The cultivated natural man remains a natural man still. Ishmael might become "a great nation," the father of twelve princes, but he was son of the bondwoman still.

Ishmael and Isaac in Abraham's house are a striking illustration of the two natures in the believer. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other" (Gal. 5:17). There was struggle in the house of Abraham as to who was to be preeminent. "He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit ; even so it is now" (Gal. 4:29)- there is struggle between the flesh and the Spirit in the children of God, until " he that is born after the flesh" is cast out. Of Ishmael God said, "He shall be a wild man." Could fitter words be used to describe what the flesh is ? So we must learn, as the apostle said, " I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) good does not dwell" (Rom. 7:18, New Trans.). Therefore, to walk according to the mind of God, the flesh (the Ishmael in us) must be disowned, as the apostle again says,'' They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts " (Gal. 5:24).

Armed with the truth of what God has made us in Christ, we put off the old man with his lusts, and "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:22-24). Isaac's place in the house of Abraham as the heir, was manifested on the day he was weaned. It was a day of rejoicing for all in the house. Henceforth Isaac was supreme, and Ishmael was cast out. (See Gen. 21:8-12.)

All this is full of salutary instruction for the people of God. The flesh cannot be indulged and Christ have His rightful place while this conflict continues. What a day of gladness dawns when the soul is able to say,"For me to live is Christ," and the flesh is disowned-cast out. Worldly associations, and everything that savors of Ishmael lose their hold then, and the soul seeks those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

May we be true to all this; not striving to see how much of Ishmael can be tolerated in the presence of Isaac, but absolutely refusing the flesh a place, Alas, how often we apologize for the bad conduct of Ishmael, instead of casting him out !- and while dallying with the flesh, what blessing and joy we forfeit! The day of feasting and gladness in the house of Abraham only came when Isaac was weaned, and not until Christ has His rightful place in our hearts can we know full liberty and blessing. It is one thing to be sealed by the Spirit (as in Rom. 5), and quite another to be in the liberty of the Spirit, as developed in Romans 8. J. W. H. N.

One of the most needful lessons in these trying times, and certainly one of the most precious, is to stand still and wait on God to act. "Stand still and see the salvation of the lord." God's vindication of those who are right-sooner or later-is most sure, although it may be delayed till the soul is morally prepared for it. The restlessness of spirit and impatience so natural to us, especially in persons of great energy of character, practically hinder the living God's intervention on their behalf. The living God!-oh what a stay for the soul ! Your case is in His hands, and He is fully awake to it. "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength."

(Continued from page 217)

3.-ON SELF-EXAMINATION

"And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man! " (2 Sam. 12:7.)

In this striking passage of Holy Scripture we see King David in disguise brought before his own judgment seat. His judgment, as chief magistrate of his realm, is sought by the prophet upon an imaginary case of wanton and cruel oppression, the very counterpart of that which he had himself committed. David, not recognizing himself under the disguise which the prophet had thrown over him, passes sentence of death and fourfold restitution upon the imaginary offender. No sooner had the sentence gone out of the king's mouth than the prophet unmasks the figure which stood at the bar, tears away the disguise, and says to the astonished king, "'Thou art the man."

How came it that David was so incensed with cruelty and oppression in a supposed case, when he had remained so long (since his child was born when Nathan came to him, it cannot have been much short of a year) insensible to the far greater evil of his own conduct ? The reason is that we never judge of our own conduct in any matter as we do of an abstract case in which we are not ourselves mixed up, and in which our feelings, passions, and prejudices are not interested. Moralists have questioned, and there seems some reason to question, whether a man not utterly depraved can do a bad action without justifying it to his own conscience as at least excusable under the circumstances; in other words, whether evil, without a certain pretext or palliation, can ever be accepted by the human will; but the pretexts which serve to excuse ourselves will not deceive other men. We judge them, as David judged the imaginary offender in the parable, truly, and severely enough. It is the object of these pages to give some thoughts which may be practically useful on this J subject. Self-examination may be called an arraignment of ourselves at our own bar, according to that word:" If we should judge ourselves we should not be judged " (of the Lord).

It is an essential exercise to our spiritual health, to consider seriously before the Lord our conduct, and the secret purposes of the heart, in connection with our stated times of prayer and communion with God. And let it not be thought legality to practice nightly the examination of our conduct through the day that is past. We shall find it a great safeguard for the performance of duty, as well as an excellent preparative for evening prayer.

The necessity of self-examination arises from the fact, so distinctly stated in Scripture, that "the heart is deceitful above all things," and that "he that trusteth in his own heart"-in its estimation of himself-"is a fool." It has pleased God to illustrate this by examples. We take one in the Old and one in the New Testament.

It must have been by subtle evasions and plausible shifts of his own heart, that David, after committing two of the worst crimes of which our nature is capable, so long contrived to keep his conscience quiet, but at length was convicted of the desperate folly of severely condemning in another man the very faults, which, in a greatly aggravated form, he had been palliating and excusing in himself. And it was by trusting in the assurances which his heart gave him of his own strong attachment to his Master, that St. Peter, secure of himself, was betrayed into the weakness and guilt of denying Christ.

May we say that, while all characters are liable to the snare of self-deception, those are more particularly exposed to it, who, like St. Peter and David, are of warm temperaments and quick affections ? For affectionateness of disposition readily commends itself to the conscience as that which cannot be wrong; it secretly whispers to one who is conscious of possessing it, "This generous trait in you will cover and excuse many faults," while an acrid, soured character cannot natter itself that it is right with half the facility of a warm and genial one.

But how shall we bring home to ourselves the dangerousness of trusting, without due examination, to the verdict of our own hearts ? Let me do so by supposing a case in which we are all peculiarly apt to be cautious and suspicious,-the goods of this world. Suppose that the chief agent in some great enterprise is a man who, though untrustworthy, has the art of inspiring trust-fair-spoken, prepossessing in manners and appearance, and plausible in glossing over a financial difficulty. Suppose him to be a private friend to some embarked with him in the speculation, and in habits of intimacy with all. If such a person is at the head of affairs, and entrusted with the administration of the funds contributed by all, it is evident that he might impose upon the contributors to almost any extent, until the great crash comes which announces as with a clap of thunder, that they are bankrupts. Now the peril of such trust in worldly matters supplies a fair image of the peril of a still more foolish and groundless trust in spiritual things. Our hearts are most untrustworthy informants in any case where we are ourselves interested. Not only Scripture as severs this, but we confess it ourselves when we say of a matter with which we happen to be mixed up, "I am an interested party, and therefore I had better not be a judge."

But while this is our confession, there is no one in whom we habitually place more trust than in ourselves. We think we cannot be deceived respecting ourselves; the unkind, the insincere, the untrue, is not our nature;'for we have never, as I observed above, admitted these forms of evil, without first palliating and disguising them, and making them look respectable to our own consciences. Faults are admitted-in our temper and our conduct, in our feelings and actions too, for we feel we are in account with God; but we superintend the account with the assurance that we had no very bad intention; and so the whole affair will turn out well in the end.

With these strong partialities to self ever operative within us, and incapable even in the best men, of being detached from us, to what an extent may we be imposed upon in that which most vitally and nearly concerns us, if we do not from time to time call in and examine the accounts ! What frightful arrears may we be running up, unawares to ourselves, if we do not sharply check and suspiciously watch this heart which makes the account between us and God! And how may these accumulated arrears of guilt burst upon our minds with an overwhelming force " when God judges the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the gospel,"- when the divine sentence unmasks our sin of those excuses with which we have been palliating it, and brings it home to us with a " Thou art the man ! "

The first step in real self-examination is to be fully aware of the deceitfulness of the heart, and to pray against it, watch against it, and use every help to counteract it. But what means can we use? We offer a few practical suggestions in answer to this question.
First, as regards our acknowledged sins. We must remember that their hatefulness, if they were publicly confessed, would probably be recognized by every one but ourselves, the perpetrators. There are certain loathsome diseases, which are offensive and repulsive in the highest degree to every one but the patient. And there is a close analogy between the spiritual frame of man and his natural. If the moral disease be your own,-rooted in your character, clinging to your own heart, it never can affect you with the same disgust as if it were another man's. Therefore stand as clear as may be of the sin while you sit in judgment upon it.

In the first place, in the case of exceptional and grievous sins, might not another sometimes be called in to sit in judgment, and so a fairer sentence secured than we are competent to give ourselves ? If there be the moral courage equal to a perfectly candid avowal-such an avowal as keeps back no aggravating circumstance-and if an adviser is to be had, at once holy, discreet, and considerate, why should it not be related to such an adviser-for his counsel, prayers, and sympathy ? In wisdom, surely, Scripture says, "Confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed."

If, however, we are aware that such an exposure could not be made by us in our present state with perfect integrity,-that we should be casting about, by palliating touches to regain the forfeited esteem of him on whom we threw ourselves thus confidentially-in other words, that we are not men enough to make ourselves as vile in the eyes of our fellow-creature as we are in God's eyes-then until such moral courage is attained by us (and surely we may pray for its attainment), we must attempt to secure the same end-a fair judgment upon our sin-in another way, To stop short of exposing the whole mischief in confession to a fellow-creature, would only be to deceive him as well as ourselves, and to entangle our consciences more effectually in the snares of hypocrisy. We must take another method, and this method will apply to the more usual and common as well as to the grosser sins, of forming an impartial estimate of the evil which is in us.

Let us then suppose, by an effort of the mind, that we confessed it frankly to such and such a person, known for wisdom and goodness-how would he regard us ? What is the measure of our sin in his esteem ?-which should be the measure of it in ours also. Would there not be a shrinking from revealing to such an one, not merely sins of a gross or glaring character, but such as the world calls trifles,-omissions of private prayer; little acts of dishonesty in trade or in respect of an employer's property; falsehoods which have slipped from us in the ordinary intercourse of life; impure or sensual thoughts; allusions in conversation which might lead the mind of others in a wrong direction -things not merely suggested (for we are not accountable for the suggestions of the Devil), but secretly fondled and nourished in the chamber of the heart ? If we shrink from making such disclosures to a wise and good man, -why do we shrink? Because we feel that they would lower us in his esteem, and we have such a regard of man's esteem that we cannot bear to be placed lower in it. If a person to whom we had long given credit for a blameless and pious life should come to us, and confess the very sins to which we ourselves have recently given way, that, however good the character he maintained, yet he had lived for such and such days without prayer, had practiced or blinked at little dishonesties, or had distorted truth on such and such occasions, we might (and, no doubt, should) sympathize with the distress of mind which the confession evinced, but we could hardly help saying within ourselves, "I should never have expected this from him. I should have thought that he would be true to principle, when the stress of trial came." If this be our estimate of another who had committed our sins, should it not be the estimate which we should form of ourselves ? And is not the comparatively lenient view which we take of our own case due to that self-partiality which leavens and vitiates our whole nature ? This light in which we see the sin, as it exists in our neighbor, is the true light in which we shall see it at the last day; and to see it now in that light, while at the same time we believe that the blood of Christ has entirely cancelled it, is the great end of self-examination, and the true fulfilment of the precept:"Judge therefore yourselves, brethren, that ye be not judged of the Lord."

But the probe of self-examination needs to be applied to the better, as well as to the worse parts of our conduct. The natural heart is an adept in flatteries, not only suggesting excuses for the evil, but also heightening the colors of the good which, by God's grace, is in us. If conduct stands the test of self-examination, the motives of it should be called in question. We must do in regard to ourselves what we may never do in regard to others- suspect that an unsound motive may underlie a fair conduct. Our actions take their moral value from the motives which prompt them. Thus to discriminate what is hollow and spurious in them from what is genuine, is the second branch of self-examination.

By way of giving some serviceable hints for this investigation of our motives, it may be briefly remarked that a good part of the religious conduct of persons is usually due to custom. Again; certain proprieties and regularities of behavior, whether devotional or moral, are followed through deference to the prevailing opinions and habits of the company in which we move, as is shown sometimes by the fact that, when out in foreign parts, and no longer under this restraint, those proprieties and regularities are not so carefully maintained. Again; many good actions are done, more or less, because they are in keeping with a man's position, and gain him the praise of others. Again; works of usefulness, of a social and even of a religious nature may be undertaken from that activity of mind which is inherent in some characters, because naturally we cannot bear to be standing still,' or are not constituted for a studious, contemplative life. In works of benevolence one may find very pure pleasure, and it is quite possible that this pleasure, and not any thought of Christ's service for God's glory, may be the motive which actuates in doing it. It is no necessary mark or token of the grace of God.

Gracious or supernatural motives must at the least have respect to God and Christ, the world to come, and the welfare of the soul. The highest of them is the love of Christ; its end the glory of God. But it is probable, alas! that very few actions, even of the best men, are prompted exclusively by this motive, unalloyed with any sentiment of a baser kind. Nay, generally speaking, few are the actions which are done from unmixed motives, and our wisdom is not to be discouraged if we find, upon close self-examination, as we shall assuredly find, that much which looks well before men is hollow and defective when tried by the touchstone of God's Word. Suffice it, if with trembling confidence we are able to make out that we are under the lead of grace, and following that lead. Motives more defecated from the dregs of nature, more purely and exclusively gracious, will come, if we press towards the mark, with a greater measure of spiritual attainment. If our conscience affirms upon the whole the presence in us of earnest secret prayer, that is a cause for humble thankfulness; for how can it be prompted but by the supernatural grace of God ?

But we must hasten to bring these thoughts to a close. And let the close of a chapter, whose great scope has been to render the reader dissatisfied with himself, be devoted to assure him that this dissatisfaction will avail him nothing, except as it leads him to a perfect, joyful, and loving satisfaction with his Saviour. To have probed their own wounds, and pored over their own envenomed frames, would have availed the poisoned Israelites nothing, unless, after such a survey of their misery, they had lifted their eyes to the brazen serpent. "Look unto Him," therefore, and be ye healed. Judged by the criterion of the highest motive, nothing can be more miserably defective than the best righteousness of the best man. It flows indeed from the Holy Spirit within him; but even the influences of the Spirit derive an admixture of infirmity from flowing through the tainted channels of the human will and affections. It was not so with the Lord Jesus. In His nature was none of the moral corruption of our nature. His heart always beat true to God's glory and man's salvation, as a magnetic needle ever pointing to that great pole, not shaken even for a moment from its steadfastness by the vacillation of lower and less perfect motives. God be praised! He is made our righteousness. Delight in Him, and thou shalt be agreed with God; not having thine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

( To be continued.)

(Rev. 21:3)

He is coming! our Beloved!
We shall soon behold His face,
Who hath filled our earthen vessels
With the treasures of His grace;
Who, through all our desert journey,
Leadeth onward by the light,
O'er the path of faith that shineth
Through the watches of the night.

He is coming! we are looking
For the Day-star in the sky,
And the groaning creature waiteth
The Redeemer from on high:
For He comes to purge His kingdom,
And His sovereign throne to take-
Bid the sword of God in judgment
And avenging power awake.

But, ere judgment-seals are opened,
He will come from off the throne,
With the voice of the archangel
Home to gather all His own.

And the saints of all the ages ,
His redeeming shout shall hear-
Quick and dead, o'er death triumphing,
Shall in glorious life appear.

All who trod faith's pilgrim pathway
In the ages that have passed,
Every promise of Jehovah
Shall reap blessedly at last;
And the Bride, made meet divinely
For His glory by His grace,
Shall behold, beyond the desert,
Her Beloved face to face!

When Redemption's song resoundeth
O'er creation's vast domain,
Every tongue shall tribute render
To the Lamb that once was slain-
Judah's Lion, God's Anointed,
Lord of all, by all confessed,
Heir of all, shall all inherit-

Satan shall be dispossessed!

From the heavenlies, foiled, defeated,
All his power on high overpast,
The accuser of the brethren
With his angels shall be cast.
To the earth the foe malignant
Shall in vengeful wrath descend,
For he knoweth his dominion
Draweth near its doomful end.

But, ere dawneth earth's redemption,
Comes a night of utter woe:
Unrestrained, the power satanic
As a flood shall overflow.
Though the "everlasting gospel"
Coming judgment maketh known,
In rebellious pride the creature
The Creator would dethrone.

For the worship due Jehovah
Shall the Antichrist demand;
Then apostate Jew and Gentile
God shall smite with wrathful hand:
And when passed the tribulation,
And while men's hearts fail for fear,
On the clouds of heaven coming
Shall the Son of Man appear.

He will come in kingly glory,
And omnipotent in might,
To redeem His earthly people,
And His enemies to smite.
He will come as the Avenger
Of unrighteousness, of blood,
And in fury tread the winepress
Of the holy wrath of God.

He will come His purchased kingdom
To redeem from Satan's sway,
And the nations' hosts embattled
With the sword divine shall slay:
Sin's dominion shall be broken,
And the arch-deceiver chained,
And the Light shall shed its glory
Where the power of darkness reigned.

Richly blessing and fulfilling
Every promise to His own,
King of kings He'll reign in Zion-
David's Son on David's throne;
And the nations, yielding homage
Unto God's anointed King,
Shall their glory and their honor
To His glorious city bring.

From the holy, heavenly city
There shall living waters flow,
And the Tree of Life perennial
Shall its healing leaves bestow;
And to utmost isles of ocean,
And from shore to farthest shore,
The Sun of Righteousness o'er all
Its gladdening beams shall pour.

In the light and love begotten
Of the knowledge of the Lord,
All kindreds of the earth shall dwell
In peace and blest accord:
And the jubilant hosannas
That a glorious Israel raise
Shall before His throne commingle
With the Gentile songs of praise.

When the Second Man assumeth
Over all His sovereign sway,
All defiling blight shall vanish,
And the curse be done away.
Earth shall yield in blest profusion;
Every creature-groan shall cease;
All creation bask in blessing
'Neath His benison of peace.

Ah! but e'en the age of blessing
And of glories that transcend,
Shall, like every age preceding,
At the last in judgment end.
For the carnal seed of Adam,
Born in sin, and sin-defiled,
Still impenitent remaineth,
And to God unreconciled.

E'en Messiah's reign millennial,

Though restraining, judging sin,
All unrighteousness suppressing,
Changeth not the heart within.
And the hosts at heart disloyal,
(Though they have obedience feigned)
Swell the rebel ranks of Satan
When on earth again unchained.

Long the fight 'tween Light and Darkness
Over all earth's ages spread,
But the Woman's Seed shall surely
Bruise at last the serpent's head.
And when darkness' power embattled
Dares contest God's sovereign claim,
Fire divine in judgment endeth
Earth's sad tale of sin and shame.

But of man 'neath sin's dominion
Shall the direful fruit be shown,
When the dead, arraigned for judgment,
Stand before the great white throne.
Long hath God forborne with evil,
But 'twill reap its due at last,
When the wicked from His presence
Are in outer darkness cast.

Power and place supreme were given
Unto the Incarnate Son,
Things on earth and things in heaven
All to reconcile in one.
All the will Divine accomplished-
All destroyed that held in thrall-
Christ delivers up the kingdom:
God shall then be all in all.

For Redemption's full fruition
Lies beyond time's little span;
God Himself will tabernacle
In eternity with man.
All things new, behold! He maketh;
Former things will pass away;
O'er new heavens and earth irradiant
Dawneth God's eternal day!

And the sons of God angelic,
Who acclaimed earth's primal morn,
Shall rejoice with joy exultant
O'er a fallen world re-born.
They had seen God's gracious purpose
Through the rolling years unfold,
Now the glorious consummation
They'll adoringly behold.

New Jerusalem! God's city!
Grace enthroned in light divine,
Shall through never-ending ages
To His praise and glory shine.
And within its pearly portals
Ransomed myriads shall adore-
All the glories of Immanuel,
Blest beholding, evermore!

And the earth, in new creation-
Blest abode, divinely fair-
Shall in holy, blest communion
God's eternal Sabbath share.
And the songs of earth and heaven
Shall as fragrant incense blend,
Gladsome praise and glory giving,
That shall never, never end.

O beloved, He is coming!
We shall soon behold His face,
And in highest heights of glory
Learn how deep the depths of grace.
All the triumphs and the glories
Of our souls' Beloved we'll see-
But o'er all His crowning glory
Evermore the Cross will be!

W. L. G.

CALENDAR :FEB. 16th to MARCH 15th, 1920.

Daily Bible Reading

Feb. 16th, Mark 4. 29th, Luke 1. March 15th, Luke 16

Memory Work (see notes below)…………..Eph. 1:15-23

Good Reading .. C. H. M.'s Notes on Leviticus, pages 30

QUES. 1.-If you can give me light on the following, you will confer a favor.

If leaven is universally evil, as I believe it is, how can the Lord order it used in the meal-offering of Pentecost? (Lev. 23 :15-21.) To say with Scofield that the wave loaves typify the Church, and that in the Church there is still evil, does not touch my question. Why does the Lord order what is intrinsically evil as a symbol in His worship?

ANS.-Leaven is not " intrinsically evil." The apostle says, "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself " (Rom. 14 :14). Leaven is simply fermentation-a natural law in God's economy, and " the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all Ms works" (Ps. 145:17).

But as a type, leaven pictures well the effect of the root-sin in man-pride and its attendant corruption which Satan introduced at the Fall. Therefore with all sacrifices (which in various aspects typify our Lord Jesus) leaven was strictly excluded (Lev. 2:11). The "two loaves . . . baked with leaven " (Lev. 23:17) were waved before the Lord, but could not be put upon the altar. They can but represent the people of God (of both the old and new dispensations, it would seem-two loaves),the fruits of Christ's resurrection, and accepted before God " in the Beloved." They are well-pleasing to Him as sanctified in Christ. At the same time, the evil nature in them is recognized in the loaves being baked with leaven. Note, not active leaven, but baked. Confessing sin is judging it. Thus "baked," God righteously accepts us on the ground of the atonement by the sacrifice of Christ.

There can be no question that the feast of first-fruits in Lev. 23 pictures to us what we have in Acts, chap. 2. The resurrection of Christ, fifty days before, was the divine declaration of atonement made and the sacrifice accepted. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, our Lord being glorified in heaven, He sends the Holy Spirit upon His own here, as the seal of their acceptance before God. They are the wave loaves, baked with leaven, presented and accepted in the B loved before God.

QUES. 2.–I would like to have your opinion on the Scripture which speaks of the centurion and his sick servant in Matt. 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. In Matthew our Lord speaks to the centurion, and in Luke He speaks to the centurion's servants.

Can yon give me any light on this scripture?

ANS.-Luke gives the narrative in detail, as usual in that Gospel ; whilst in Matthew (which is primarily addressed to the Jews) the Holy Spirit seems to direct the attention to the centurion's faith alone, taking no notice of the haughty self-righteous Jews who bring the first message with their own, "He is worthy for whom thou shouldst do this, for he loveth our nation, and he hath built ms a synagogue"-all recorded in Luke. All this is brushed off in Matthew. All "go-betweens" are omitted. The Roman centurion's messages are given as by himself present, prominently bringing out his deep humility and faith. We often do this. A message is sent, and the record of it is, I or we, said so and so- leaving out the messengers altogether. Thus, in Matthew, the Holy Spirit seems to cast a slight upon the self-important messengers by not mentioning them at all. " Those that walk in pride, He is able to abase."

QUES. 3.-In a magazine issued by one of our publishers I read the following:"There is not one passage of Scripture which says or teaches that the Antichrist demands worship for himself."

Is this so? Is it not opposed to what has been taught and received among us as truth ?

ANS.-Yes, it is opposed to what has been taught among us. Yet it is to Scripture we must turn as the ground of our faith. In 1 John 2:22 we read that the Antichrist shall " deny the Father and the Son," 1:e., denies God as revealed in Christianity-he shall be a complete apostate. Compare this with what is said of "the man of sin" in 2 Thess. 2 :3, 4. He is called "the son of perdition" (like Judas). He exalts himself in the place of Deity (denies the Father and the Son) and sits as God in God's temple (at Jerusalem). Is not this a demand for worship ? Thus, can there be any reasonable doubt that the Antichrist of 1 John 2 and "the man of sin," " the son of perdition " of 2 Thess. 2 are one and the same person ?-"the Wicked one" to be revealed in his time. See also .Daniel 11:36; Rev. 13 :11; Jno. 5:43 as to this same person, and his end in Rev. 19 :20.

QUES. 4.-There has been a little discussion among us as to the correct understanding of Hebrews 2 :14. In what way or extent has Satan "the power of death?" (imperio da morte, " empire of death," as it is in our Portuguese version). Can Satan kill at his pleasure? Does the passage refer to physical death in the lake of fire?

ANS.- No ; Satan has not the power to inflict death on whom he will. This is in God's hands, as Moses says, in psalm 90 :3, " Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men ; " and in Rev. 1 :18 our Lord Jesus says, "Behold, I am alive forevermore, and have the keys of death and of hades."' When God permitted Satan to afflict Job, it was with this restriction, "Only, save his life "-Satan is not permitted to touch Job's life.

Heb. 2 speaks of the destruction, or annulment of Satan's power to keep man in bondage through fear of death. By subtlety, Satan brought man into sin and under God's sentence of death (Gen. 2 :17); and he has used this to keep man in dread as if God were his enemy. How often even children of God are tormented with this fear. But Christ has annulled it for all who receive Him, as 1 Cor. 15 :56, 57 says :"The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." So completely has the death of Christ for us removed the terror of death that the very word " death " is changed to "sleep " for the saint. "Having said this he (Stephen) fell asleep" (Acts 7 :60). " Even so them also which sleep in Jesus (or, are put to sleep by Jesus) will God bring with Him " (1 Thess 4 :14).

As to the "second death," it is absolutely in God's power. The lake of fire is the second death (Rev. 20 :14), and Satan himself will be cast into it (Rev. 20 :10).

It is over thirty years ago since I first saw the truth as to the Lord's second coming. I saw it was the solution to the difficulties which man's mind had created by attempting to link the predictions about a glorified Messiah with the circumstances of earth, while in man's hand and responsibility. It threw heavenly hopes and promises open, and also gave consistency to God's past and future dealings with the earth.

I took it up whole-heartedly. What a banner for pilgrimage and conflict was this coming glory ! I held it as a choice banner, and was ready to suffer and endure for the hope's sake, and did so.

Thirty years are past:and where am I now as to it ? Well, I will speak the truth. Thirty years of wilderness and conflict have made a change-a great change. After the experience I have had of self, and of circumstances, and of God, I should sum all up in these words:-It is a very different thing to have the coming of Christ as one's choice, one's self-welcomed to-morrow, and to find oneself where all is ruined within and around-failure upon failure-but in the presence of the God who puts the return of His Son as the time when He means fully to introduce us into the glory He has prepared for us, as for those of whom He has said, "I will be merciful to those to whom I will be merciful, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." I have less movement in feelings of joy and hope, but more calmness of repose and anticipation; less thought about the contrast between the thing hoped for and the circumstances which are present, but more sense of the wonder-fulness of God's ways, who, through the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, should prepare such an end, in which many a sinner under Adam the first, and myself among the number, will find themselves shortly caught up to be forever with the Lord, and in the Father's house. I trust that in the weaning from self and circumstances, which I have in measure had, tastes, habits, ways, as well as affections and thoughts in accordance with the glory of God, have been formed by Him in me.

The above was published first in Bible Treasury of July 1857, now more than 60 years ago. This makes 90 years or more since "W" first learned the truth as to the second coming of our Lord, and the dear brother has doubtless long since "fallen asleep." But "he being dead, yet speaketh." And inasmuch as it was just thirty years ago that the present writer first learned of the Lord's return for His Church, he desires that the above testimony may reach his own heart and that of others as well. Have we, fellow-Christians, learned what "W" learned ? Have we indeed the spirit of the "weaned child ?" Ps. 131:2. C. Knapp

" Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters" (Isa. 32:20.)

Go forth to sow, O sowers,
Tis precious seed ye bear !
Where lie the plough's deep furrows,
Scatter it in with care.
Sow broadcast by the wayside;
Some among thorns may fall,
Some in god's fenced gardens-
God keepeth watch o'er all.

Blessed if,"by all waters,"
Ye have the heart to sow; See! oxen "strong to labor,"
Forth to their service go.
Though patient toil is needed,
None can too lowly be-
None should despise, O Master,
The humblest work for Thee.

O sowers, be not weary,
The Lord hath need of you;
Keep ever 'mid your labor
The harvest day in view;
Your lord will guide your footsteps,
He'll teach you where to go,
Ye shall return with singing,
Who first in tears did sow.

Whence comes the wind ye know not,
Nor whither it may blow,
Watch not the clouds above you,
Your part is but to sow.
God freely gives His sunshine,
He sends His rain in showers;
Sow ye the seed, have patience,
And He will bring the flowers.

Morn is the time of sowing;
Yet late is not too late;
No laborer, willing-hearted,
Need linger at the gate.
Go forth, go forth, O sowers!
'Tis precious seed ye bear;
Go! at your Master's bidding,
The "field" is everywhere.

H. K. B.

The harp, ere it gives forth its sweet sounds, must have its cords stretched, near to breaking, perhaps. So we who would lead others into the path of faith, and give praise to God, must know experimentally the difficulties of the way.

At last I am thankful to be able to put before you an interesting paper on the High School. I hope this is only the beginning of a series of articles on this and other practical subjects.

The High School.

" Probably the most important result to be gained from high school training is concentration and point of application. But what is our motive in training our minds ? Is it to be better fitted as a vessel of the Lord, that whatsoever we do, we may do it heartily as unto the Lord ? Is anything less than this worthy of one washed in the blood of the Lamb ? If this is our motive, and kept steadily in view, then things will fall into the right order. The Lord's things will have first place, and our studies will not intrude upon His time; neither will we deprive our bodies of needed sleep and outdoor exercise; for, as the temple of the Holy Ghost, they should be well cared for.

" Then, as to the Lord's Day :It is so easy to leave some studies for Sunday, or to read a book for English. But when so much of our time during the week must be given to other things, can we not keep this one day entirely for the Lord who loved us and gave Himself for us?" F. P. (Minnesota)

CALENDAR :April 16th to May 15th, 1920.

Daily Bible Reading

April 16, Acts 3; April 30th, Acts 17; May 15th, Rom. 4
Memory Work ……………………….Ephesians 3
Good Reading…. .C. H. M.'s Notes on Leviticus, pp. 200

" Far from these narrow scenes of night
Unbounded glories rise :
And realms of infinite delight,
Unknown to mortal eyes,

" Fair distant land! Could now our eyes
But half its joys explore,
How would our spirits long to rise,
And dwell on earth no more! "

Mr. Spurgeon, in his quaint way, relates how a poor woman when on her death-bed was assailed with fear as to har acceptance with the Lord. "Sir,'' she said, "I am afraid I am a hypocrite. I am afraid I don't love the Lord Jesus." He answered nothing, but, going to the window, took a piece of paper from his pocket, and wrote on it thus:

"Ido not love the Lord Jesus Christ."

"There, Sarah," said he, "sign that." She read it and said, " Why, sir, I would be torn in pieces before I'd sign such a thing!"

"Well, isn't it true?" he said.

" No, sir."

" But didn't you say as much a while ago ? " She replied "I thought I did not; but since you put it like that, I dare not say I do not; for I hope that I do."

"Herein is love:not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

(Continued from page 293)

"Joy in Gospel Testimony " (chap. 1:12-20)

"But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace [or, Praetorium, 1:e., Caesar's Guard], and in all other places; and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will. The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds; but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death."

It is always a sad sign, and an evidence of spiritual decline, when the heart loses its interest in the message of grace. Some there are so occupied with the deeper truths of the Word of God that they allow themselves to speak slightingly of the simplicity of the gospel. Paul was the pre-eminent teacher of the Church, but to his last hour, his heart was filled with gospel zeal, and his sympathies were with the evangelist carrying the Word of Life to men dead in trespasses and in sins. Even in his prison-house he rejoiced that his affairs had really tended to the progress of the gospel. Satan, doubtless, hoped to hinder that work by locking up the apostle in a jail, but even there it became manifest to all Caesar's court, and to all others, that his bonds were for Christ's sake. The very soldiers appointed to guard him were brought thus to hear the glorious proclamation of grace to a guilty world; and it is evident, both from the i3th verse, and the 22nd verse of the 4th chapter, that numbers of them believed. Who can fathom the joy that must have filled the heart of Paul as he led one guard after another to the Saviour's feet ! Just as when cast into the Philippian dungeon, he and his companion Silas were used to the conversion of the jailor and his household, so here, grace triumphed over all seemingly untoward circumstances, and the prison cell became a gospel chapel, where souls were being born of God, and stern Roman soldiers became themselves the captive servants of One greater than Caesar.

In the 14th verse, the apostle speaks of another cause of joy. While he was going about from place to place preaching the Word, there were gifted men who held back, feeling, perhaps, that they were in no sense on a par with him, and so they permitted the timidity and backwardness of the flesh to hinder their launching out in a work to which the Lord was beckoning them. But now that he is in durance, and can no longer go about from place to place in this happy service, numbers of these men came forward, and, for the Name's sake, went forth preaching the Word boldly, without fear. On the other hand there were some restless men, who had not commended themselves as fitted for evangelistic work, and while he was free, were kept in a place of subjection, but now that he was incarcerated they saw their opportunity to come to the front, and went forth preaching Christ indeed with their lips, though their hearts were filled with envy and strife. But no jealous or envious thoughts entered the mind of Paul. He rejoiced in those who preached the Word through good will, out of love, knowing that he was appointed for the vindication of the gospel; and, though he could not rejoice in the spirit that moved the others, he, at least, was gladdened to know that it was Christ who was being preached. And so he was thankful for every voice telling out the story of the Cross. Nor would he permit anything to rob him of this joy.

How marked is the contrast between the spirit here exhibited, and that which often prevails today. How seldom, in fact, do we see this simple unalloyed rejoicing that Christ is preached, let the aims and methods of the preacher be what they will. Untold harm is often done by harsh, captious criticism of young and earnest men, who often have much to learn, and offend by their uncouthness, by their lack of discernment and understanding of the ways of the Lord, who nevertheless do preach Christ, and win souls. And God has said," He that winneth souls is wise; " or, as the Revised Version so strikingly puts it, "He that is wise winneth souls." Often have anxious souls been really hindered by the criticism of their elders in matters of this kind. Oh, for more of the spirit of Paul that would lead us to rejoice unfeignedly whenever Christ is preached, even though there be much to exercise our hearts and lead to prayer-and it may be to godly admonition at times, so far as methods and expressions are concerned, which, if rightly dealt with now, may soon disappear as excrescences, when the earnest evangelist grows in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

The 19th and 20th verses show us how the apostle relied upon the prayers of the people of God, and how encouraged he was by this abounding gospel testimony. He felt that it presaged his own deliverance, and pointed to the time when he would again be free according to his earnest expectation, and hope, to preach Christ openly and widely if it should be the will of God, or else to glorify Him in a martyr's death. He had but one ambition, and that, that Christ Himself should be magnified in his body whether by life or by death. No matter what he himself might be called upon to toil or suffer, if the One whom he had met on that never-to-be-forgotten day on the Damascus turnpike, were exalted and honored-this would satisfy him. It is this utter absence of all self-seeking that commends any true servant of Christ. We see it strikingly in John the Baptist, who said, " He must increase, but I must decrease." It should be the one supreme characteristic of the evangelist, pastor, or teacher. And where this spirit of self-abnegation for the glory of the Lord is really found, it must commend the ministry, though it makes nothing of the minister. Oh, that one might enter more fully into it ! H. A. Ironside

(To be continued.)