"A living epistle,
A chapter each day-
By deeds that you do,
By words that you say.
Men read what you live,
Whether faithless or true;
Say, What is the gospel
According to you?"

It becomes a habit with some to call the meeting for the breaking of bread, "the worship meeting," and our Lord's saying, "I am in the midst" is applied to this meeting almost exclusively. Yet, whilst the breaking of bread should indeed call forth the worship of our inmost heart, the expression "worship meeting" is not scriptural -it tends to depreciate other meetings, and "I am in the midst" is our Lord's promise to saints united in prayer (Matt. 18:19,20).

Some also would make it a rule to have the breaking of bread the first thing, and if any ministry, it must be afterwards. A correspondent goes even further and says, "We are there for worship, and our [Lord's day] meeting should be confined to worship, and not exhortation or teaching." Acts 20:7 should correct the mistake of such views. Can 1 Cor. 14:24-26 also be ruled out of the meetings primarily convened for the breaking of bread? Let us beware of human rules which infringe upon the liberty of the Spirit. How often souls tried or distracted by various cares, mothers pressed with family duties, etc., find refreshment and composure of mind and heart by prayer or hymn or some suitable scripture read, with or without comment, before the breaking of bread.

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST'S DEITY

FIRST DIVISION (chapters 1-12).

Chapter 1:The Word of God.

"The beginning" here brings to our view a past eternity far beyond "the beginning" of Genesis 1:1. It is the Person of the Creator, the eternal existence, Personality and Deity of the Son.

The universe is set forth as the work of His hands. "All things came into being through Him." Then, "the Word became flesh," came in true and perfect humanity, which in grace and love He took. The disciples beheld His glory, as the only begotten with the Father.

The first eighteen verses are a preface to the entire Gospel. Then come the four days' ministry of John the Baptist; then that of the Lord Himself; each day has historical, moral and typical instruction.

CHAPTER 2:The Glory of God.

This chapter opens with a marriage feast. He who instituted marriage in Gen. 2:21 is here the invited guest but is really the Lord of the feast. The marriage of Gen. 2:21 and this one foreshadow the heavenly and the earthly marriage of the Lamb. The miracle* manifested His creatorial glory, and is followed by the cleansing of the temple. *Throughout this Gospel, wherever the word miracle occurs (Gr. semaion), it should read "sign." It was the display to all of His divine power and glory, hence o sign (see R. V. and J. N. D.'s Translation).*

CHAPTER 3:The Love of God.

Now, New Birth and Atonement are pointed out as necessities. The first, as the work of the Spirit in man; the second, as the work of our Lord on the cross for man. Both are an absolute necessity for any to enter the Kingdom of God. The love of God is manifested in the gift of His Son, who is and was eternal life-the present possession of every one that receives Him.

CHAPTER 4:The Gift of God.

Then He leaves Jerusalem and Judea, and turns His face towards the "Galilee of the Gentiles." In this period of absence from Jerusalem, a work of grace is wrought in other fields:first in Samaria, beside a historic well. The tender love and grace of Christ the Saviour is here displayed toward a sinner in the gift of "the living water," followed by a spontaneous testimony of the woman, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that ever I did; h not this the Christ?"

When again in Cana of Galilee, He but speaks the word, and the nobleman's son in Capernaum (26 miles distant) is healed-another display of His divine glory.

CHAPTER 5:The Power of God.
Now, beside the pool of the old dispensation, comes the display of present grace that came by Him, overshadowing the law of Moses, and divine power is manifested in the healing of the impotent man. The Jewish leaders' opposition is aroused by this, but Jesus announces His power to quicken dead souls into new life, as well as quicken and raise up the bodies of the dead by and by. Then we get the four-fold witness borne to Himself:(1) that of John the Baptist; (2) His own works; (3) that of His Father; (4) that of the Scriptures.

CHAPTER 6:The Bread of God.

The miracle of the loaves and fishes, then His walking on the sea, manifest His power and authority over His creation. This is followed by His discourse on "the bread of God come down out of heaven," of which the manna was a type, and those who eat of this heavenly bread live forever, and are assured that they shall be raised up at "the last day"-the whole resurrection period, beginning with that of the saints, then of the unjust after the 1000 years.

This faithful ministry tests the mass of those following Him, and many went back and walked no more with Him, but those drawn by the Father continue.

CHAPTER 7:The Spirit of God.

Opposition increases. They seek to kill Him. Neither did His own brethren yet believe in Him. At the feast, in Jerusalem, He announces again that He had come from the Father, and was about to return to Him that had sent Him, and that the doctrine He had taught them was of the Father.

The last day of the feast (the 8th day), His earnest appeal goes forth, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink," and from him would flow "rivers of living water;" it is the gift and effect of the Holy Spirit given by the Lord when risen.

The officers who were sent to apprehend Him returned saying, "Never man spake like this Man," and when Nicodemus raised his voice on His behalf in the council, all went to their homes, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives-a striking contrast!

CHAPTER 8:The Grace of God.

The next morning they come again to ensnare the Lord, and the Light shines upon the accusers; they cannot bear the light, but grace in Him forgives the guilty, and those who follow Him will have "the light of life." The testimony that He bears was valid, confirmed as it was by the witness of the Father. How great their unbelief! Himself was the truth, and all that He said was truth. He again asserts His Deity-"Before Abraham was I am" (Exod. 3:14; John 8:58).

In the beginning of the chapter the leaders would stone the sinful woman, now at the close they would stone Him who came from heaven to save and forgive.

CHAPTER 9:Worship of Him who is the .Light of God.

Another sign is given. He who is the Light gives light to one "born blind." By His divine touch the darkness passes away. He who in the beginning said, "Let there be light," speaks again, and the light shines. Then, step by step, comes the testimony of the one brought out of the darkness into light-"One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see," and the man now in the light worships Him as the Son of God.

CHAPTER 10:The Salvation of God.

The Good Shepherd enters the Jewish fold by the door -by God's appointed way-to become the door of salvation of the sheep; it necessitated that He lay down His life for them. Then He would gather His other sheep (Gentiles) not of the Jewish fold, and in Christianity there would be one Shepherd (Christ), and one flock (the Church) .

Once more He asserts His Deity, "I and my Father are one." This testimony was rejected by the Jews. He then passes on to other fields of labor beyond Jordan (His death), "and many believed on Him there"-typical of the day of grace.

CHAPTER 11:The Comfort of God.

At Bethany, in-the beloved family, sickness and death enter, and Jesus is sent for. In the presence of death He declares, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." "Jesus wept." His love and tender sympathy are manifested to them. Then, at His word, "Lazarus, come forth," fresh proof of His mastery over death is shown.

The opposition increases. As high priest, Caiaphas is made to prophesy of His death for the nation. Jesus then withdraws from them for a season with His disciples, near to the city "Ephraim (fruitful)-a fresh glimpse of what this dispensation will yield for Him.

CHAPTER 12:The Judgment of God.

The Lord comes to a little gathering of His own in Bethany "six days before the passover" (the first day of the week), and there they made Him a supper. There Mary pours ointment upon Him, and the house is filled with the perfume. It is a picture of worship from His people ever since.

Again He enters the city, and the Greeks seek after Him:"Sir, we would see Jesus." The cross then looms up before Him, and He announces, "Now is the judgment of this world." The whole period of man's probation was closing; the place where the world would be judged (the cross) would also be the place where salvation for all men would be found:"And I, if I be lifted up … will draw all men unto Me." The brazen altar is in view, where He offered Himself-a sacrifice most holy.

SECOND DIVISION(chapters 13-17).

CHAPTER 13:The Laver.

In the previous chapter we get the lesson of the brazen altar, the place of sacrifice. Here it is the laver-His present ministry, washing the feet of "His own"-typical of the "washing of water by the Word," and He charges the disciples to follow His example and wash one another's feet. Finally, He gives His new commandment, to "love one another."

CHAPTER 14:The True Sanctuary.

After the brazen altar and the laver, the way into the sacred precincts of the Father's presence is given:through Him we come to the Father.

Then He announces His going away to the Father's house, which was for them too. But they would have "the Comforter," and His word to guide them, and as an abiding hope, His coming again, which has been the hope of His own ever since.

CHAPTER 15:Fruit-bearing.

Israel in unbelief is replaced by "the True Vine." Living connection and communion with Himself would be necessary for fruit-bearing. Discipleship and testimony are the privilege and responsibility of His own through the world where He has left them for a time.

CHAPTER 16:The Witness of the Spirit.

Again the Lord announces His return to the Father. During His absence they would have tribulation. But the Holy Spirit would be sent into the world to bring conviction of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and He would guide the disciples into all the truth, and thus complete the revelation. Thus they would have in the Word a revelation of His mind and will. As identified with Himself, they could come in prayer to the Father with assurance of being heard. Again they are told that while in the world they would have tribulation, yet in Him they would have peace.

CHAPTER 17:High Priestly Intercession.

The High Priest (as in white linen garments) intercedes for us in the Father's presence, and we hear the breathings of His heart for His own. Let us open our ear and our heart to it again and again. Eternal life as our present portion, His Word for our sanctification, and His glory as our blessed hope are there spoken of in our hearing.

THIRD DIVISION (chapters 18-20).

CHAPTER 18:Man's hour and Satan's power.

Leaving the upper room, our Lord crosses the Cedron, and enters Gethsemane (the oil-press), where, in the shadow of the cross, He takes that dreaded "cup" from the Father's hand-not from man nor from Satan. In Luke in prayer and agony His sweat "becomes as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Lk. 22:41-44); but in John His divine glory is prominent, not His agony and sorrow, and Judas and his followers fall backward at His mere word.

Now it is man's hour:the disciples forsake Him; the Sanhedrim insult Him, and Pilate condemns Him while testifying, "I find no fault in Him," and releases a murderer.

CHAPTER 19:His Sacrifice.

Scourged and crowned with thorns, Jesus is led to Golgotha (place of a skull), to the suffering of death. What volumes might be written on this one chapter! Types, Psalms and prophecy were then fulfilled, and He cried, "IT IS FINISHED," and the Holy One was laid in Joseph's new "sepulcher wherein was never man yet laid."

CHAPTER 20:His Victory.

A new day has dawned, "He is not here, He is risen." Mary is the first witness and messenger of this. Then in the upper room to the gathered disciples (typical of the heavenly company) He appears again after seven days. At this second appearing to the gathered company, He manifests Himself to Thomas, type of the Jewish remnant. The last verses tell why the Gospel was written:That men "might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, they might have life through His name."

APPENDIX:CHAPTER 21:Shepherd Care.

The good Shepherd is again active in seeking the sheep that had wandered. He appears, the third time to them collectively, now beside the familiar lake. The fire of coals, the food prepared, may remind them all of His divine care, and Peter receives before them all his new commission:"Feed my lambs;" "Feed my sheep;" and "Till I come . . . follow thou Me."

We are once more reminded of His divine glory and infinite fulness in all things that He did. The book closes where it began-with His Godhead glory, for which man's books are insufficient.
A. E. B.

"This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as He went into heaven" (Acts 1:9-11).

There is no question that when the bride is all complete the Bridegroom will return and receive her to himself; and what we have to do, is to comfort ourselves with the hope that our Lord will surely come again. And in the full assurance that the day of the manifestation of the sons of God is coming, we are patiently to bear the cross now. We should comfort ourselves with the certainty that "He that shall come will come, and will not tarry;" and if He tarry yet a little longer, to hold fast what the Lord has taught us, and lay out ourselves to win souls for Christ, remembering that it is through long suffering to the perishing that He tarries.

Some may say, "Why make so much of the coming of the Lord?" Is not death the same thing, for it is our going to Him?" I once thought so myself; but I was led to see that there is a vast difference between the two. The hope of the Church is not death, but the return of the Lord. If I am taken out of the world by death, I myself shall be happy so far as regards the soul, but I shall not yet have my glorified, my redeemed body. But when the Lord comes, the whole family is brought into happiness and blessedness-the whole family gathered home! Then will be "the resurrection of the just," "the first resurrection;" then the whole elect family will receive their glorified bodies. Death has to do with partial happiness of the individual believer; but the coming of the Lord has to do with the complete happiness of the whole redeemed family.

So you see there is a vast difference between the two events as to the hope connected with them; and we must not yield to statements that are made to the contrary. We must be guided by the Word of God, and not frame our own notions about these things, nor follow the notions of even good people around, if their thoughts are not according to the Word of God. "The morning cometh"- "a morning without clouds," of a day which will never end, in which the whole heavenly family will share together eternal happiness.
Selected

Calendar:July 16th to Aug. 15th.
DAILY BIBLE READING:-……July 16th, John 21;
July 31st, Acts 15; Aug. 15th, Rom. 2.
MEMORY WORK:……………………..l John 5. GOOD READING:"Glories of Christ," by C. C. Crowston, pages 1-80.
MONTHLY QUESTION:-What are the characteristic words used by John in his first epistle, and what is their import in relation to his special line of teaching?

Our Memory Work

This month's portion completes John's first epistle; we young believers' department would like to receive the names of those successful in its recitation not later than August 31. Remember the conditions, not more than two slight errors in each chapter, and the recitation to be made before two witnesses.

It was encouraging to receive so many names for our last book, 2 Thessalonians. There were twenty-six in all, a marked increase over the results for several months past. It is hoped that the study of John will yield an equal or even larger number.

"Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah, God of hosts." May this be made good to us also as we study and meditate upon God's holy Word. The prophet made it his food, and he found it yielded fullest delight and satisfaction. It is also by the Word that we grow up into that life which has been begun in us by the Holy Spirit and the Word (1 Pet. 1:23-25; 2:1, 2). From the Word we also receive guidance for our path (Ps. 119:9-16); and it is our weapon for spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:17).

"How sweet are thy words unto my taste! more than honey to my mouth! From Thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false path."

Our Daily Bible Reading

This month we are engaged almost exclusively in reading the book of Acts. It fills an important place among the New Testament books:it links the Gospels with the Epistles. It sets forth historically the fulfilment of things spoken of by the Lord in His ministry. (1) The assembly is established as announced in Matt. 16-His assembly,, distinct from any other body, as He says "My assembly." It is directly connected with the confession that He is "the Son of God" who has died and is risen-not with His Messiahship, which is connected with the earth. (2) Then, as John records, He gathered together the children of God that were scattered abroad (John 11:52). He brought His sheep out of the Jewish fold, and united them with the other sheep (Gentiles) into one flock. (3) The coming of the Holy Spirit, as was promised, united believers in oneness to the Father and the Son. The realization of this depended upon the coming of the Spirit, the fulfilment of which this book records. (4) It gives an account of how the disciples fulfilled the commission given them by the Lord; for, commencing at Jerusalem, we see the testimony spreading far and wide to other parts. (5) The miracles performed were a fulfilment of the Lord's promise (Mark 17:20). Thus as a history it is the demonstration of the truth of the Lord's ministry here and of the fulfilment of His promises. In this way the book links on to the Gospels.

But it also links with the Epistles in a four-fold theme. (1) Christ, not only risen again, but ascended. It determines the place and portion of His people. (2) It links also with the second coming of Christ, and (3) with the Holy Spirit's indwelling of every believer, uniting them in one body with Christ their Head. (4) The assembly is also made the habitation of God.

We would hardly be able to understand these things without the historical introduction given us in the Acts, which records the establishment of these great facts which distinguish Christianity.

The opening chapters present the actual facts connected with Christ's resurrection and ascension; the announcement of His return; the Holy Spirit's coming, and the beginning of the Assembly. The introduction and promulgation of these great facts occupy the book throughout.

The book also presents the record of what may be called a transition period, in which we can trace the gradual weaning of the recently formed assembly from Jewish influences and prejudices, leading it into the apprehension of this new place, and into the full Christian portion.

The book opens many interesting lines of study. The student might follow in a special way the various addresses delivered by Peter, Paul, and others; or trace out how the presence, power, and activities of the Holy Spirit are presented; or take up the manifest efforts of the enemy to hinder the truth and the special forms of persecution that he used against the Lord's servant. Finally, the chronology of the book in relation to the Epistles, and the travels of Paul.

CHRISTIAN CONDUCT

SOME PRACTICAL TOPICS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS

Diligence

"As to diligent zealousness, not slothful; in spirit fervent; serving the Lord" (Rom. 12:11, N. T.).

"He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich" (Prov. 10:4).

These exhortations apply to both our soul's interests and our daily affairs, in which so much of our time is spent. It is, however, all to be entered upon as service to the Lord. We are not to think of ourselves as the servants of men, but of Christ. We are not to be men-pleasers, truckling to their worldly ways and principles, but to walk "worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work." When we take up our daily tasks with the thought of performing them for the Lord, we are at once safeguarded from unseemly behavior which would dishonor His name, and we are also spurred to diligence and fervency. How could it be otherwise when we think of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us; who in the continued exercise of that love is still serving us from the throne of glory.
To lay up treasures we must be diligent. Without a watchful spirit and diligent hand, debts will rise above our gains; evil ways overmaster those of grace, of purity and righteousness, like weeds in an unkept garden. We cannot escape constant exercise, and the use of diligence in all our ways. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with love"- a love which gives Christ the first place.

In a sinful world, labor has become a blessing to man. Idleness produces dangerous conditions, whether in the world at large or in spiritual things. "The diligent shall be made fat." "The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness." The fruits of grace will not thrive in a sluggard's garden. In our spiritual things, as well as in the natural ones, the law of labor holds good, as long as we are in this scene of contrarieties.

If we are to make spiritual progress, and develop in practical holiness, we must put our whole soul into the business. Thus alone can progress in godliness be realized. "Wake up, thou that sleepest; arise from among the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." In such sunlight alone can the precious fruit of the Spirit grow. Be sure that the cultivation of our spiritual land demands no less care and diligence than the cultivation of the earth, that it may bring forth its fruits. The husbandman finds it real work, and the hindrances many; as the pests are increasing, he finds many difficulties. So does the Christian in his spiritual husbandry. The world, the flesh, and the devil are opposing his progress, but his resources are equal to the greatest difficulties; they are abundant to sustain, to strengthen, and to equip for the conflict.

"Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus . . . endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ . . . strive lawfully . . . consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things" (2 Tim. 2:1-7).

Correspondence for the Y. B. Dept., please address to Mr. John Bloore, care of Loizeaux Brothers.

Calendar:Oct. 16th to Nov. 15th.
DAILY BIBLE READING:. ………. .Oct. 16th, Col. 3; Oct. 31st, 1 Tim. 6; Nov. 15th, Heb. 7.
MEMORY WORK:……………………… .John 15.
GOOD READING:"Christ:not Christendom, nor Judaism," 10 cents.; "The Advocacy of Christ," 15 cents.; "The Priesthood of Christ," 15 cents.-These three tracts, by W. Kelly, will be found a real help in understanding the subjects of which they treat.
MONTHLY QUESTION:-What distinction does Scripture make between Advocacy and Priesthood, and what different lines of truth connect with each?

Our Memory Work

A few names have been received for successful work in the study of John's first epistle. One writes, "I trust that the others who have memorized it have received the blessing that I have. God's word is very precious, and how few there are in these last days who value it. 'Thy word have I hid in my heart,' should be true of more of us."

This time we are sending to the successful ones, "The Captives of Judah," by J. G. Bellett, as promised in our May number. Read it with care.

Our Daily Bible Reading

Finishing Colossians, we read through six of Paul's epistles and get well into Hebrews. This carries us through a wide range in which much varied and important truth is presented.

In Colossians the glories of Christ are set forth in a special way, to show that for the Christian there is none beside Him, in every aspect, of position and relationship. We are complete in Him who is Head over all things, and our Head. Having received Him we are to "walk in Him," that is, in the truth of who He is, of what He has done, of the place He now fills and our identification with Him, sustaining and energizing us as His witnesses here. "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh" is a similar thought.

The Thessalonian Epistles have a common theme-that of the Lord's second coming and related events; but they take second place to none in setting forth the Christian walk through this world. These saints are presented as a conspicuous example of this. The apostle speaks of himself and his co-laborers in reference to their own conduct in service. Their devotion and holy life manifested the true character of Christianity. Thus these saints are spoken of as followers of the apostle and the Lord.

The epistles to Timothy treat largely of individual responsibility. In Timothy we have the example of a true "man of God." The first epistle gives us the godly order to be maintained in the assembly, both as to doctrine and practice, and the preservation of the gospel in its purity. The assembly is God's house in which His government and holiness are to be maintained, with individual purity, devotion to the truth, and unworldliness of life.

The second epistle presents rather the disorder which man has brought in the house of God, and points out the path for faith in the midst of the confusion. There must be individual fidelity to the truth, separation from what links the Lord's name with evil, and fellowship enjoyed with those who follow the course here prescribed. The truth, the Word, is the abiding resource for faith, amid abounding evil. This brings trial, testing, conflict, as the last chapter intimates.

The epistle to Titus is similar to those addressed to Timothy. Godliness of life, springing out of the grace of God received in the heart, is the underlying theme. The faith, the doctrine delivered to us, is the model to which the life is to be conformed.

The letter to Philemon is a touching example of Christian affection toward an escaped, but now converted, slave, and a holy consideration for the master to whom he is sent back. It is the result of God's grace and truth ruling the heart. This is a concrete example of the spirit and practice which are to characterize the Christian.

The epistle to the Hebrews is addressed to God's people in their pilgrim journey, with heaven in view at the end, ministered to along the way, and privileged by faith to draw near unto God. It sets aside the old Jewish order by bringing in the perfection of Christianity, with the fulfilment of the types and shadows of the old dispensation, which was as childhood to full maturity when viewed in the light of the glory of Jesus in whom now everything centers. This epistle sets forth the glory of His person as Son, His place as apostle and high-priest, His work perfecting the believer and giving access to the holiest, His leadership in the path of faith-His glories break out in every chapter, and the presentation of Himself and His work, like the incense in the temple, fills all with sweet perfume.

Correspondence

A letter from one of our readers refers to the opinion held by some that the soul or spirit sleeps with the body until the resurrection, and asks for an epitome of the scripture teaching as to it.

First, death is defined for us as a separation of body and spirit:"The body without the spirit is dead" (Jas. 2:26). The body without the spirit goes to corruption. The spirit "returns to God who gave it." Its distinctness, or individuality, is not lost in the unseen to which it departs. Its condition as to the lost is one of separation from God, with the torment this produces, whilst the condition of the saved is in bliss and rest in God's presence, as Luke 16:19-31 plainly teaches. The whole context shows that it is the state after death that the passage speaks of, in its relation to present responsibility (ver. 9). Could God be called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob after they were dead 400 years, if their spirits shared the death-state of the body? The Lord's point in Matt. 22:29-32 is that these men live unto God, though dead to us. This involves consciousness, with knowledge of the past not obliterated; and the future state is to be connected with the past.

When Peter speaks of "the putting off of this tabernacle," he speaks of his decease, or death when the body is laid aside in the grave, while the spirit is with the Lord, a? the following passages fully prove:"To-day thou shalt be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:42,43); "Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better" (Phil. 1:23).

That the New Testament term "sleep " (applied to the death of saints) refers to the body exclusively is evident from the following scriptures in which the question of soul or spirit does not enter-Matt. 27:52; John 11:11; Acts 8:2; 1 Cor. 7:39; 11:30; 15:6,18,20. 1 Thess. 4:14 is not different-sleep in Jesus, or "fallen asleep through Jesus"-for it is throughout connected with the body which is to be raised up. It has been asleep for a while, in death. If the spirit were also asleep in death, must not it be resurrected too? But Scripture nowhere speaks of the resurrection of spirits; it uniformly applies to the body. Hence the great change mentioned in 1 Cor. 15 applies to the resurrection and the Lord's coming for us. Change as to the spirit? No; but of the body, as is plain. Thus the spirit is given its new house (2 Cor. 5).

That the spirit does not sleep, but is conscious of fuller and higher blessing enjoyed with the Lord, Paul is witness in what he says when facing the approach of death (Phil. 1:20-24). It may be true that the spirit, absent from the body, lacks the vehicle by which contact is established with kindred spirits in that world unseen, and that for this the spirit awaits the resurrection, when clothed upon with the spiritual body (2 Cor. 5; 1 Cor. 15); then the fullest blessing will be realized in fellowship with all the redeemed. That perfect state is referred to in Heb. 11:40, yet this in nowise affects the truth that the state of the spirit of believers after death can be called "far better," yea, "gain." Could the state of a sleeping spirit be thus spoken of?-a spirit which, when on earth, enjoyed precious fellowship with God, trial and affliction only contributing to its blessing, then lose all of this in a deathlike sleep; could this be called "much better?" No. It is better, it is gain, to die and be "with Christ," awaiting resurrection in the sweetness of fellowship with Him.

Calendar:Dec. 16th to Jan. 15th.

DAILY BIBLE READING:…………Dec. 16th, Rev. 5; Dec. 31st, Rev. 22; Jan. 15th, Gen. 15th.
MEMORY WORK………………………..John 17.
GOOD READING:"God's Salvation," by John Fort. A simple yet thorough exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (chs. 1-11). Paper 20 cents.; cloth, 50 cents.
MONTHLY QUESTION:What different aspects of glory are mentioned in John 17?

Our Daily Bible Reading

We complete another reading of the entire Scriptures on the last day of this year. To do this we must read a little more than one chapter a day, otherwise we would only reach the end of Rev. 20. Doing this will enable us to commence with Gen. 1 on the first day of the New Year.

Let us expect blessing as we begin to re-read God's holy Book. Have you gathered encouragement from it during the past year? Let us start afresh with purpose of heart, and seek with prayer for a greater yield from its daily perusal? Let us not read in a mechanical way, or with undue haste, or with an indifferent spirit. Let us take it up daily with desire and expectation to receive, with purpose of heart to find, with prayer that God will give a portion of spiritual food to our souls as we read our chapter. Ask yourself, during the course of the day, what persons, events, or places were in the chapter; and what statement or verse seemed most precious or important. Think about these things during spare moments. The Spirit of God is ever ready to apply the Word with blessing to our souls.

The Revelation is a book of great importance. In it we find all the strands of prophecy gathered up and woven together, so that it presents to us the finished fabric, the completion of God's ways in government, judgment, and the fulfilment of His purposes, to His eternal glory.

In chapter one, the principal theme is the character, glory, and place of Christ.

Chapters two and three give the messages to the assemblies which present a prophetic history of the church's course from the beginning to the end. Note especially the way in which Christ is presented in each message; then, the things He judges; the warnings given, and the promises made.

A significant change of scene and action commences with chapter four. The church is no more seen upon earth, but is figuratively represented in the twenty-four elders in heaven; but Israel is the central object upon earth, and events all center around Israel and the nations, and Christ is presented in characters connected with the purposes in view. For example, He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the Man-child of promise, the Son of Man coming on the cloud of glory, the Warrior and Conqueror, Universal Lord and Judge. This major portion of the book treats of the destruction of those who have destroyed the earth, of the time of gathering out all things that offend, of freeing both heaven and earth of Satanic power and agencies of evil influence.

In the light of this book we may clearly discern the real character of the times in which we live, and of the world-system through which we move; thus getting God's viewpoint we are enabled to estimate it aright, be separate from it in spirit, though of necessity engaged in many affairs which concern it. Christ risen and ascended is our life. "He who possesses this life may pass through this
world and do many things that others do:he eats, works, suffers; but as to his life and its objects, he is not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world. He subdues his flesh, he mortifies it; in point of fact he is down here, but he does not live in it. The camp was always at Gilgal."

Our Memory Portion

This, our Lord's prayer, should be of peculiar precious-ness to us. What a wonderful thing for the disciples to hear Him thus speaking to the Father, especially amid such circumstances, and pressed by such sorrows as characterized the hour to which He had come.

When John wrote, some sixty years after he had heard the Lord utter this prayer, it was the Holy Spirit who brought it to his remembrance, so that we have a divinely given record, perfectly inerrant.

What relates to Christ Himself is given in vers. 1-5; it is the Son's relationship to and with the Father. Then He introduces His disciples into this relationship with the Father in vers. 6-13. This is ours also through their word. Their (and thus our) relationship toward the world is next presented (vers. 7-21). The glorious results follow.

Consider that we are given to Christ "out of the world," and though left in it, we are not of it, and so it can also be said we are sent into it after the pattern of the Son sent by the Father. We share in the world's rejection, but we are kept from the evil. We are placed before the Father in the same position that Christ held, and in this relationship, the joy which Christ possessed is for us also. Of His fulness have we all received, and grace upon grace.

A Question

The remarks in a recent issue, in reference to death and the human spirit, have brought a question from a reader concerning the relation of the soul to the spirit.

The teaching of Scripture as to the soul gives it a distinct character from the spirit, but does not separate them; so that what is true of the spirit in the intermediate or eternal state is true also of the soul. The soul in the animal is not different in itself from that of man, but in man it obtains a distinction by reason of being linked with his spirit, which is not in the animal. The difference between these two immaterial, immortal, and never separated parts of man's tripartite personality, of which the body is the third in order (1 Thess. 5:23), is quite plain in Scripture. Compare 1 Cor. 2:11; Isa. 29:24; Ps. 106:33; Prov. 29:11 and Isa. 11:3 (in the last two passages "mind" and "understanding" are the ordinary word for spirit) with such passages as the following, which relate to the soul, Isa. 29:8; Luke 12:19; Ps. 10:3; Zech. 11:8; Gen. 34:8. The difference is that understanding, intelligence, judgment, are linked with the spirit; affections, emotions, appetites, are linked with the soul. The former works out the man's problems and alone knows his things; the latter feels the conditions and circumstances, whether pleasing or otherwise; it loves, hates, lusts; while the body is the vehicle of expression. In the unity of man's personality, spirit and soul are interdependent, and the body is the instrument serving both. In the Lord's account of the rich man in hades it is evident that both thinking and feeling are unimpaired-spirit and soul are there, though the body is not, so that action is impossible. It is plain too that Scripture speaks of both spirit and soul as being within the man-in the body. In death the immaterial is severed from the material-the body returns to dust.

If I were a lamp-post,
Then whither would I go?
Where lamps are thickly clustered
In brave and brilliant show?-
Round the stateliest mansion
Within the city square,
To shed a day-like radiance
On the gay and fair?

If I were a lamp-post
Much rather would I stand
Within the darkest alley
The city can command:
Where the day is sunless,
Nor through the long dark night
E'er comes from earth or heaven
One small gleam of light.

If I were a lamp-post-
Oh how would I delight
In such a dismal corner
To bear my burden bright:
Standing where most needed,
'Twould be joy to me
Of those whose homes were brightened
The grateful joy to see.

Let me be a lamp-post,
With faithfulness and care
In some of earth's dark places
The lamp of Truth to bear:
Heavenly light upholding,
To show the one right way
To wanderers through the darkness,
Lest they fall or stray.

I. B.

2 Sam. 23:9-12; 1 Chr. 11:12.

Of David's first three mighty men, two are distinguished for exploits in defending what might seem of very small consequence, especially in relation to David and his kingdom. Eleazar strove for a parcel of ground full of barley; Shammah for a piece of ground full of lentils. These things might seem insignificant to many, but in both instances it stands recorded that "the Lord wrought a great victory," words of deepest meaning when uttered by the Spirit of God.

These actions might not advance David's accession to the throne, but they preserved and defended for him and his company the provision and sustenance required for their daily need in the time of their rejection and suffering, and suited reward would be given when the kingdom would be established. These contests were with David's enemies, who either devoured or destroyed their substance. It might be said it was a day of small things,, but these men despise it not on that account, but rightly valued all in connection with David and his claims.

It is a most suggestive lesson. Nothing of what supplies spiritual nourishment to God's people should be surrendered to the enemy. Let his efforts be resisted to the utmost, even till the hand cleaves to the sword as if it were one. Be it but barley and lentils-the food of the poor and the lowly, whom the oppressor may ridicule and speak of as "eaters of barley bread." Such indeed was Gideon in the eyes of the Midianites, but this barley cake smote and overturned their tent (Judges 7:1).

The simplest truth thus guarded and defended against the enemy may result in a great victory. In the natural man's view, or in worldly eyes, it may be of little account (Neh. 4:1-3), but the interests of the Lord and His own take a different aspect to the soldier identified with the true David, and in fellowship with His thoughts. When the world and the flesh would take away what belongs to David and his company, let no effort be spared to defend it; often much depends on small things. It was not cities that these mighty men of valor defended, but parcels of ground; yet the results were great, and they are classed in the leading three among David's mighty men. Let us be careful of our parcels of barley and lentils; their loss may ultimately give the enemy a great advantage, and for us mean growing weakness.

Let us remember too that individual faithfulness is of prime importance when there is collective failure and weakness. In both of the cases before us the men of Israel had "gone away," perhaps indifferent, or had "fled" through fear, leaving unguarded the precious parcels of ground. But the Lord had His man ready for each occasion among those who made the cave of Adullam their dwelling, and the rejected David their Lord.

The heart that values the small things will best value the great, for we must prove our faithfulness in little things before we are able for larger responsibilities in service. Let us set a right value on all that relates to Christ and His interests here.

A comparison of the text in these passages may present great difficulty, and hinder in a detailed interpretation; yet we may think of these two portions as supplementary to each other, and not contradictory. Shammah is not mentioned in Chronicles, and his exploit seems attributed to his fellow-soldier Eleazar; but note that the plural form of verse 14, taking in account the passage in Samuel, might warrant us in thinking that Shammah was associated with Eleazar.

If Christ is not Thy fellow-not my God;
If He (like one who sought to take Thy throne-
Proud Lucifer, "son of the morning") trod
The robber's pathway, claiming as His own
The glories which alone belong to Thee-
Thine attributes, Thy majesty, Thy power-
Then, O my God, there is no hope for me;
I'd stand condemned forever from this hour.

If He is not Thine equal, not the Son
Who from eternity was in Thy form;
If 'tis not true that He and Thou are one,
If He stilled not the waves, nor calmed the storm,
If all He said and all He claimed to be
Were but the words of one of Adam's kin,
Then I'm undone, for He is all my plea-
I still were left polluted in my sin.

Let others boast of character achieved,
Of Teachings after God, of love to man,
Divine and human in their natures weaved,
Thus sharing with Thee in redemption's plan:
From all such boasts I stand aloof in shame,
Pride crushed by what Thy word inerrant saith,
My one and only hope is in His name;
With that hope gone, I'd face eternal death!

But, oh, Thy Spirit tells me it is true,
Jesus, my Lord, for ever is Thy peer;
Thy living word comes to my soul anew,
Dispelling every trace of guilty fear;
I bow before Him as before Thee now,
My Lord, my God, confessing Him to be:
I rise, Thy Spirit's seal upon my brow,
To testify that Christ hath set me free!

M. S. Gallagher

*Lectures given in Toronto by F. W. Grant in 1880.*

Lecture I. EGYPT.-EXODUS, CHAPTER 2.

The historical books of the Old Testament present to us a regular series of types, each book having a set of its own, connected with a special line of truth, upon which in perfect order the separate gems are strung. To read them aright, therefore, we must see first what is the truth which characterizes each, and then each individual type will find its place.

For instance, in the book of Genesis, a series of seven lives is given exemplifying the life which God gives to man-not the life which is now natural to him, but, in contrast with that, the life which we have as born of God, shown in its different stages and features from the first point where it begins with conviction of sin, in Adam, to the time when, in Joseph, it is master of the world. A series of seven lives gives its whole history.

In Exodus we have a fresh beginning, and a new line of things. It begins a little later than in Genesis; for we must first of all have life before we can be redeemed. It is His people whom God redeems out of bondage, redemption being this actual deliverance, which must be accomplished in order for any practical Christian life.

In Leviticus we still find an advance on this. We enter as priests into the sanctuary, and are instructed in all that suits His presence there. The theme of the book is sanctification, having learned which, we are prepared, in Numbers, to go out into the world, and walk with Him there.

I need not go any further, but the order in which they are given is to be as much observed as anything else. And we must not run these things one into the other. Each is a picture by itself, and we must be careful how we join together even things which are apparently the same, until we have learnt their peculiar significance in the separate books. We shall have, no doubt, examples of this as we proceed.

To come now to the book before us; It has two main parts. In the first part, the first eighteen chapters, we have the redemption or deliverance out of bondage itself. In the last part, from the 19th chapter onward, we have the other part, so to speak, of redemption-we are re^ deemed to God.

In the first part, the tyrant who rules over us naturally is dispossessed; in the second part, we are brought under the yoke of our true Master. Each part is the complement of the other. It is absolutely necessary, in order that deliverance should be realized, that the Deliverer should become the Sovereign. His service is indeed the only perfect freedom. It is necessary for the house not only to be emptied of its former occupant, but the way whereby he will be kept out is by One stronger than he being in possession.

Before we speak of the deliverance itself, let us first look at the land of bondage, the state to which this deliverance applies.
Egypt is a very remarkable land in itself, and in every point peculiarly fitted for the type for which God uses it. As we think of it we realize how true it is, as the apostle says in 1 Cor. 10, speaking of the history of Israel:"All these things happened unto them for types," God controlling things that really happened, so as to make them fit representations of the greater things which He has in His heart through these to communicate to us. What a wonderful thing it is to be permitted to look upon these things thus unveiled!-to have things which were kept so long waiting till God could reveal them, now made known to us "upon whom the ends of the ages have come!"

The land of Egypt is a remarkable land in this way; that it is a little strip of country along the great river which makes it what it is, and is in perpetual conflict with the desert. This desert runs on both sides, and a little strip through which the river flows alone is Egypt. The desert on each side hems it in, blowing in its sands in all directions, and the river is as constantly overflowing its banks and leaving its deposit upon the sand, and renewing the soil. The Scripture name is not Egypt but Mizraim; and Mizraim means "double straitness." This doubtless refers to the two strips, one on each side of the river. Mizraim was son of Ham, the Ammon, or Khem, of profane history-a very significant name in this connection. It means black or sun-burnt-darkened by the light. Ham is the father of Mizraim. That is, what we call the natural state is not what is really natural; for it is not the mere absence of light, but the effect of the light itself. And such is the darkness of the world.

For instance, the heathen often are spoken of as groping after the light and unable to find it; and it is looked upon as their misfortune, not their sin, because they are bound down by circumstances too hard for them. Now that is not really so. The truth is, "There is none that seeketh after God." God's account of it in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is a totally different one. God states there by His apostle that, "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." That was the beginning of heathenism. It is man, not seeking God, but endeavoring to escape from God, and has escaped, so to speak, into the darkness. The darkness is the darkness of resisted light, not the absence of light. The light has not been absent. The very character of the darkness shows that it has not.

The land and river of Egypt present a scene of perpetual conflict between death and life. While the mercy of God is feeding that land by the rain of a far country, no rain comes, or seldom falls in Egypt. The rain falls far off. The people know nothing about it. It comes rolling down in the shape of a mighty river, and that perpetual stream ministers unfailing plenty to the land. It is, so to speak, independent of heaven. I do not mean it really is independent; but that it is watered not from the clouds, but from the river. In their thoughts the people do not look up for it, but down. It is the very thing God points out in contrasting the land of Canaan with the land of Egypt, that Canaan, Israel's portion, drinks in the water and the rain of heaven. Canaan is a land of dependence. Egypt is a land of independence, figuratively.

And that is the serious character of our natural condition, alas! what is natural to us now-that we are independent of God! God indeed supplies the streams of plenteous blessing, and none else than He; but they come so regularly, so constantly, that we speak of natural laws, and shut God out. Just as for long years men were sent to find the sources of that river, so men have been constantly seeking to explore the sources of natural supply, and have hardly succeeded yet. They are taking up as new a very old question, "Canst thou by searching find out God?" to settle it in their own fashion (Job 11:7).

From the side of so-called science, they are beginning to say "God is the Unknowable." God said long ago, that would be the result of their unholy efforts to remove His veil. But they did not believe it; and now, when they find it out themselves, they vaunt it as a new discovery, and yet will not believe. They only decide that, if science cannot find out, He is not to be found at all. The gracious revelation, by which He has come near to put away the darkness, they will not accept; but putting forth their very ignorance as knowledge, prate of Him as Unknowable.

Egypt worshiped her river. The river came to her so constantly that she was practically independent of heaven; yet heaven was the source of her supply. She did not see the blue hills which shed down the blessing they received. And they worshiped but the river. It is our state of nature away from God. God was far off to us. We did not realize the blessed hand from which all things came, and we took the blessings in willing ignorance of the hand upon which both they and we really depend.

This Egypt was remarkable in other ways-as the abode of science and civilization. To that wonderful country people go now to study her monuments and her architecture. Egypt built as if she had eternity before her to enjoy it in. Her buildings were made to outlast by ages the people of a day, who builded them; they could not make the people last, yet tried their best at that. They embalmed their dead; and sent their dead down to the generations yet to come side by side with what their hands had made, as if solemnly saying:"Here are the mighty works of those over whom a mightier has triumphed." What a comment upon all her grandeur! Her main literary memorial is a "book of the dead." In her monuments death is stereotyped. The desert, after all, has vanquished the river. The land of science and of art is a land of death, not of life.

And that is the history of the world. Death is what is stamped upon it everywhere. It is the stamp of "vanity" upon a fallen creation. It is more; it is the stamp of Divine reprobation. For "in His favor is life." Could He repent and unmake, unless we had given Him cause for repentance? Surely He could not. What a solemn thing that we should have given Him a reason! When God is able to rest in His love, as He will by and by, that will necessitate the eternity of the condition in which He can rest. All that in which He can rest, will be stamped as eternal. When He "rests in His love," nothing can deprive Him of the object of it.

The religion of Egypt was remarkable. They had a religion in which were embalmed the relics of another religion, the dead tradition of a life that had been. It is remarkable that the very expression which God employs when He tells Moses His name, "I am that I am," is attributed to God in the monuments of Egypt. Yet, with all that, what did Egypt worship? Emphatically, and universally, the creature-not the Creator. Egypt, which testified of the true God, took up everything that was His total opposite, and deified a hundred bestial objects-the images of their own lusts, debasing themselves by the service of these!

Their worship was a deification-as all heathen worship is-of their own lusts and passions. That is everywhere what controls man naturally. In the garden of Eden, Satan said to the woman, "Ye shall be as gods." It was the bait he presented to her:and man has sought after this ever since. There is a craving in man's heart for what will satisfy; and not being able to find satisfaction in God, not able to trust God's love and care, lust and care devour him. He worships himself, in a way continually more and more brutalizing and degrading.

Let us now look at the king that reigned over Egypt. Pharaoh is a title, as "king" or "kaiser." A very absolute king he was. The key to the interpretation of types is found in Scripture itself. The types of Redemption in Exodus, for example, are interpreted for us in the epistle to the Romans. There we find one from whom we are delivered, who is exercising a despotic power over man his captive, and the steps of the deliverance are there de tailed. "Sin hath reigned unto death." How that ex presses Pharaoh's iron rule over the Israelites in Egypt! Verily, it was a reign unto death. And then, for deliverance, "Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed; that henceforth we should not be the slaves of sin." There you find truly and exactly what answers to Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his host were cast into the sea.

We have looked at the land, and its king who rules over the land; let us look at the state of bondage in which we find Israel.

It is striking how the book opens. "Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt. Every man and his household came with Jacob." Jacob means Supplanter. His other name, which God gave him, is not given:it would be out of place here. They are indeed the "children of Israel," but "every man and his household came with Jacob." We also came into the land of bondage with our father Adam.

The bondage itself does not begin at once; for bondage is not the expression of our mere natural state. You take the man in the 7th of Romans. Some say it is the natural state, but it is not so. In the natural state you will not find a man crying out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" That is an expression of felt bondage. There was a time when Egypt pleased us well enough, as for a time it pleased Israel. We know how in the wilderness they not only lusted after the good things of Egypt, but went after its gods too. The golden calf was made in imitation of the worship of Egypt. They had a flourishing and happy time, a time when they were not slaves, but the very contrary. And it was God, who, as He says, "raised up Pharaoh," and thus brought about this state of bondage. God promised Abraham this very furnace of affliction in the vision of Gen. 15. This iron furnace is God's representative, along with the lamp, when it passes between the pieces of the sacrifice. It was the necessary means to bring them out for the inheritance He promised them. It is His way to make them the people He wants them to be. God pledges them they shall have this fiery furnace, and they get it.

And it is surely part of God's faithfulness to us when He allows us to know what real bondage is; and although in the first place we do not cry to God, God hears. Mark that, in this 2d chapter, it does not say they cried to God because of their bondage; but "they cried," and the Lord heard them. And when we wake up to find out what this world is, what a place of useless conflict with death, what an iron hand rules over us-when we wake up with yearning at last after some better condition, when we begin to find out where we are, and a little what we are, it is God that is producing that in our souls already. It is light breaking in, though the discovery is of darkness. Thus the life of God begins. It enables us to feel even death. We never know really what it is to be dead, until we are alive. It is when we come to live, when life begins, that we learn what death is.

And so here, and always, it is God that makes us open our eyes to see-if it be not, at first, so much a yearning after Himself, as yearning after relief. And when we do come to Him, is it not, as the prodigal, for the bread in our Father's house, rather than for the Father's sake? Yet He receives; for He says simply, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." He does not say, "Come in such a way"-nay, not even, "Come, feeling your sins." In fact there are different ways in which God draws men to Himself. On the one hand, a sense of guilt which needs a Saviour; and on the other, through hunger and thirst and weariness, which need rest and satisfaction. But the Lord says to just such, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

We may take the Lord's words in the largest way. We can say there is no weariness to which the Lord's words would not apply; no state of desolation and unrest and evil in which and by which He is not calling souls unto Himself. Yet sin must of course be felt; and this will come. And bondage to sin is what is typified here.

Let us look at this a little more closely.

You find in the first chapter, "There arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people:Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them . . . and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pi thorn and Raamses."

They built "treasure cities"-magazine cities, cities of warlike provision. Pharaoh sets to work to keep the people down and in bondage; and for this purpose he uses their own strength against themselves. He makes them labor to rivet their own chains:for these cities were in Goshen, the land allotted to themselves. And that is what is being done everywhere the world over. Men are riveting their own chains; are building Pharaoh's magazine cities to enable him to hold them fast. Take the drunkard:every cup he takes makes him more and more a slave to it, although he knows what a hard and bitter service it is, and what a terrible master he is working for. "He that committeth sin is the slave of sin," says the Lord. He cannot give up his master's service, when he pleases. There is One surely ready to hear his cry; but that is another matter. If it is money that man covets, every dollar that he puts into his treasury only makes his heart more set upon it. The very heathen had a proverb:"The love of money increases with the increase of money." And so it is; the more you succeed in getting what your heart prizes, the more it will attach your heart to itself.

And this is true of Christians too. If we allow our hearts to go out after the world in any shape, the more we gain of it, the more its weight will drag us down to earth.

Now let us look at the deliverer. We have Moses brought before us in the 2nd chapter. I need not say that Moses is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is son of a Levite:and Levi was the third son of Israel. The third speaks of resurrection, and of Divine display. Leah says when her third son is born, "Now will my husband be joined to me," and she calls him Levi, "joined!" The true Levite is He who really joins God to man, and man to God. Need I say who He is?-the Risen One who, having passed through death for us and gone on high, is thus our Daysman, the "One Mediator between God and man." We find thus the genealogy of Moses and Aaron carefully given in the early part of Exodus, in order that we may know these men as the double type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Moses is exposed to the death-sentence under which Israel lies in Egypt:he of course by birth. We must distinguish and contrast, however, for here we have the shadow, not the very image. The Lord only came to put Himself under our sentence, in grace, not being exposed to it naturally, I need not say. Nor did it have title over Him at any time. He could have gone to God in that sinless, perfect humanity of His with twelve legions of angels from the garden where He delivered Himself up into His creatures' hands. "Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," but no principle of mortality lurked in the body prepared Him. It was only when He came into it for others that He could die. He took of course a body capable of dying. That is truly so:but He did not take a body with a seed of death in it. He took a pure spotless humanity; a true humanity, of course:truer than our own because it was humanity without flaw or defect, entirely according to God's thought of what humanity should be. Even in the grave the Holy One of God saw no corruption.

Moses was naturally exposed to death; but the Lord went down into it in grace. In this sense too His zeal for God was what devoured Him.

Before Moses becomes a deliverer, he has to be exposed to death and taken out of it. He does not actually die, we know. He could be spared, as Isaac too was spared. Only His own beloved Son God could not spare. Sentenced to death at the world's hand, Moses is taken out of it; then he has to take his place in rejection at the hands of his own people, else he would not be properly a type of the Deliver here. He is not only cast out by the world, but rejected by his brethren, as was our Lord. True, there was failure on Moses' part, however much the affliction of his brethren was in his heart. There was a true desire for them, and a presentiment that God had chosen him to be the deliverer. As you find in Stephen's words to the Jews, he thought they would recognize him as such. They
did not recognize him. They say, "Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?" and Moses fled into Midian, rejected by his brethren. It is in that character that we have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ now.

We find Moses then in the land of Midian, and soon with a Gentile bride. But his son's name tells us that no real home is yet found by him. He names his son, "Gershom"-"a stranger"-for he says:"I have been a stranger in a strange land." Beautifully here Moses reflects our character and position in the world, and of Him to whom we belong. The wife belongs no more to Midian, but to her husband. The "stranger" son becomes no resident of the land in which he is born. These things should want no interpreter to any of our hearts. God grant us only to be more Gershoms in the land of Midian -strangers in a world where, if Christ can find a bride, He cannot a home.

In the next chapter, Moses will appear distinctly as the divinely appointed Saviour. This, tonight, is a preliminary sketch, by way of introduction to that which is the great theme of the book. The story in Exodus itself is so far brief and rapid. We shall have soon abundant details of the deepest interest-details of our own history as God's redeemed:a history which transcends this wonderful story as the antitype must needs transcend the type. From the Passover to the Land, the wonderful and majestic dealings of God with a people whose weakness and waywardness made them the objects of his tenderest care, and the subjects of the display of His power and grace, are our types, "written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have come." What must we be to Him who has written our history in the records of these by-gone ages! Oh, may we adoringly accept the love, and bow our hearts to receive the admonition!

(To be continued.)

The last passover had been celebrated, and the Teacher had passed to the Eleven with Him a broken loaf with these words:"This is my body which is broken for you;" then the cup of wine, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; as oft as ye drink it, do it in remembrance of Me." After this He had engaged their minds and hearts with tender words and instructions, as one about to go away and leave them, whilst they expected He was about to re-establish the kingdom of David which had fallen. Only six days before, a multitude had joined with them in exultant acclamations, as they came down Olivet, and entered Jerusalem with shouts of, "Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord! Blessed be the kingdom of our father David! . . . Hosanna in the highest!" the children themselves joining in the joyous acclamations.

True, they saw the malice and rage of the priests and rulers against their Teacher, especially in those last few days when He had driven out all the traders from the holy precincts, openly charging that they had turned God's house of prayer into "a den of thieves!"

So the Master's ways and words on that night weighed heavily upon their spirit. He understood them well ; He felt the pain which thoughts of His going away, they knew not where, had produced in their hearts; so He said, " Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth:it is profitable for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you;" and, "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you."

Thus He comforted them:but who shall comfort Him? -when all that was signified by the bread and wine which He had given them, was now hanging over Him? And, as if some unseen power pressed upon His soul, He said, "Arise, let us go hence."

But hark! a voice of song comes from that upper room, "And when they had sung a hymn, they went to the Mount of Olives."-Sing, in view of Gethsemane!- where soon, in agony prostrate upon the ground, "with strong crying and tears"* He would plead, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!"* Heb. 5:7.* Sing, when they were about to "smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek"(Mic. 5:1)-spit upon Him-drag Him from one place of insult to another-falsely accuse Him and urge His death before the Gentile ruler-take Him to Golgotha, crucify Him between thieves, and mock and taunt Him there where He is to yield up His life, "bearing the iniquity of us all!"

Sing!-how could it be? Scripture alone can explain the mystery:"Who far the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame;" and again, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied;" and yet again, "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." Was He not "the merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it?" He looked through the ages to that fair scene when His dearly-bought and loved ones shall be gathered unto Him, when,

"Like the stars of the morning,
His bright crown adorning,
They shall shine in His beauty-
Bright gems for His crown."

O Christian reader, shall not such love compel our hearts to yield themselves unreservedly to Him, and say,

"Thine, Jesus, Thine, No more this heart of mine,
Shall seek its joy apart from Thee;
The world is crucified to me, And I am Thine!"

Desiring to make the Sunday School Visitor as useful as possible for the various classes in which it is used, we wrote to a number of those who take special interest in, and have charge of Sunday-schools, asking them to express their judgment and offer suggestions as to what might make the "Visitor" more helpful to both teachers and scholars.

We are thankful for the many expressions of satisfaction with, and of help received through its pages, and we appreciate those suggestions, which it shall be our endeavor to profit by through the coming year (D.V.). The space at our disposal is very limited however, and retrenchments there must be in some parts to enlarge in others.

The proposed changes for 1924 are as follows:

First, to give only the yearly record of letter Box answers-omitting the monthly record-but continue the weekly resume as heretofore.

Second:The bible class lessons are intended to be of subjects, or outlines of lessons, rather than a verse by verse or section by section exposition, thus reducing it considerably in length, and leaving to the teacher and the class the enlargements and research on the subjects considered.

Third:The intermediate lessons are to remain by questions, largely, answered by Scripture references searched out by the scholars, but to have as much of a gospel character as possible. It is the general judgment of our correspondents that the same portion of Scripture (adapted to the different needs) be used in all classes-except the "Little Ones."

For the little ones we cannot speak very positively. Illustrations for these can hardly be considered, because of expense and lack of space. But hints for teachers may be given, drawn from Scripture narratives. The first page articles might often furnish a subject which an intelligent teacher could adapt to the little ones' capacities.

Let us remember that knowledge of Scripture is what we all need-children and all; for it is a deplorable thing to see how ignorant of God's Word, even of the facts recorded therein, the generality of people are. May Christian parents see to it that their children, at "the family altar," receive such instruction as will forearm them against the disbelief and infidelity that has invaded the schools of the present day. For, on every hand, the facts and statements of Scripture are being denied; the Creator is being refused in the very scene of His creative power, wisdom, and glorious works, while the guesses and suppositions of miscalled "science" are gulped down as facts, and used for self-glorification.

As to the memory verses we purpose to take up again (as we did one year, sometime ago) something in the nature of a catechism; that is, the question is put by the Superintendent and answered by a verse of Scripture memorized and repeated in concert by the whole school. The questions, with verses answering them, thus form an outline of Scripture-teaching.

In conclusion let us emphasize that our studies must be accompanied with prayer for guidance, help, and blessing if we are to apprehend and profit by what the Lord has for us in the portions of His Word which we take up. Let us be diligent in our reading, and perseveringly earnest in our supplication at the throne of grace. Let us avail ourselves also of the many valuable helps which God has given us, and which we intend to point out in connection with the Bible Class.

PROPOSED LESSONS for 1924. '

Jan. 6. Who the Saviour is……………… .Lk. 1:1-38.
13. What the Saviour will do………….Lk. 1:39-80.
20. Fulfilled promise ……………………..Lk. 2
27. The power of the Saviour………Lk. 3:1-4:13.

Feb. 3. The ministry of the Saviour…….. .Lk. 4:14-44.
10. The forgiveness of the Saviour… .Lk. 5:1-6:11.
17. Fruits of salvation………Lk. 6:12-49. [7:1-50.
24. Life and peace through the Saviour's word… Lk.

Mar. 2. Different effects of the Word………Lk. 8:1-21.
9. The fulness of salvation…………Lk. 8:22-56.
16. The disciple's path……………….Lk. 9:1-36.
23. The testing of the disciple………..Lk. 9:37-62.
30. Full provision for the saved………. Lk. 10:1-37.

Apr. 6. The way to enjoy God's blessing.. Lk. 10:38-11:13.
13. Forms of opposition to God's work. Lk. 11 :14-12:12.
20. The right object to seek………… Lk. 12:13-59.
27. What it means to know and believe God.. .Deut 1.

May 4. What it means to have God on our side. .Deut.2-3.
11. There is one God, and obedience to Him is required
18. God's law……………….. Deut. 5-6. [Deut. 4.
25. God's ways to be remembered ………. Deut. 7-8.

June 1. God judges the wicked………Deut. 9:1-10:11.
8. God's claim ……………. Deut. 10:12-12:28.
15. God alone to be served…….Deut. 12:29-14:27.
22. Kindness and justice…….. .Deut. 14:28-16:22.
29. God's king and prophet………….. Deut. 17-18.

July 6. Respect for life. .Deut.19:1-21:9. [1-12; 23:21-25.
13. Some lessons for daily life (1) .Deut.21:18-23; 22:
20. " " (2) Deut.24:l-22; 25:1-6,13-19; 26:1-19.
27. God's government ……. .Deut. 27:1-8; 28:45-68.

Aug. 3. God's goodness……………….. Deut. 29-30.
10. The fear of God……………….Deut. 31-32.
17. God our refuge and strength…….Deut. 33-34.
24. God's object in our difficulties and trials.2 Cor. l-2.
31. Law and grace contrasted…………… 2 Cor. 3. [2 Cor. 4.

Sept. 7. The power and grace of God in a human vessel
14. The resurrection-body and the judgment-seat of Christ………………….. 2 Cor. 5. [6-7:1.
21. Separation to God as condition of approval. .2 Cor.
28. A sample of the Spirit's work…… 2 Cor. 7:2-16.

Oct. 5. Giving of our means as God's stewards.2 Cor.8-9. 12. Christ and His servant…………2 Cor. 10-11.
19. The sufficiency of grace…………2 Cor. 12-13.
26. Christian diligence and knowledge…….. 2 Pet. 1.

Nov. 2. The wickedness of opposition to God….. 2 Pet. 2.
9. The ignorance of the wicked-the intelligence given to faith………………………….2 Pet. 3.
16. The common salvation…………….. Jude 1-4.
23. Warnings about wicked men……….. Jude 5-16.
30. What the Christian is to remember and do. Jude [17-25.

Dec. 7. Repentance …………………….. Psalm 51.
14. Forgiveness……………………… Psalm 32.
21. Faith……………………….Heb. 11:1-16.
28. Salvation ……….. Eph. 2:1-10; 1 Pet. 1:1-12.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS FAITH (Heb. 11:24-27.)

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews has been called the "picture gallery of faith," inasmuch as in it God has furnished His beloved people with an inspired account of personal acts of faith in Old Testament worthies, from Abel to Rahab; thus to encourage and stimulate faith in us by their example. May our hearts be stirred up to follow in the wake of these dear saints of old, for the same Spirit that enabled them to overcome in days of trial and difficulty is with us, and in us, as the needed power in conflict and the walk of faith, while pointing us to the hope before us.

Important characteristics of faith are exemplified in the life of Moses, as leader and deliverer of God's chosen people from Egypt to Canaan. He is the first saint called in Scripture a "man of God" (Deut. 33:1). As God's messenger, he appeared before Pharaoh and said:"Let my people go that they may serve Me" (Exod. 5:1); as their deliverer he opened the sea to pass out of Pharaoh's dominion (Exod. 14:21); thus he became the honored instrument of God's deliverance for Israel. As "man of God" he stood for Jehovah's honor when His covenant people had turned away from Him.

The "man of God" is one who stands true to God; true to divine principles in a day of declension. This Moses did with all his heart. In the present day of unfaithfulness in spiritual things, the man of God is one to whom Christ and His truth is everything. Timothy, in the New Testament, earned for himself that honored title. May both the reader and writer seek to maintain the rights of our absent Lord in this day of His rejection; and thus be practically men of God. (See 1 Tim. 6:11,12; 2 Tim. 3:14,15.)

The first out-shining of Moses' faith to which Scripture calls our attention is his REFUSAL of the world's honor:"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (ver. 24). The man of God must first disentangle himself from what hinders or prevents the activities of faith. Herein lies the first great hindrance to faith:we are not sufficiently in the good of our spiritual blessings in order to refuse as worthless what the world may have to offer. In Genesis 14:17-24, we get a beautiful example of this in the life of Abraham. How was it that the victorious patriarch could say to the king of Sodom, "I will not take anything that is thine?" It was that Melchizedek had filled the vision of Abraham's soul with greater and higher blessings than all that the king of Sodom could offer. Being strengthened and cheered by Melchizedek, "priest of the Most High God," coming to meet him with bread and wine (type of our Lord's sacrifice for us), he was able to meet the king of Sodom's offer like our Lord in Matt. 4:1-11-refuse all that Satan could offer. It must have cost Moses much to refuse the emoluments and dignities of Egypt, and it will cost us something to refuse this world's offers, but if we accept them, it will cost us more at the judgment-seat of Christ. May our hearts be in the joy of our heavenly inheritance with our Lord in glory, that, like Moses, we may refuse the world's attractions here.

In verse 25 we see the CHOICE which Moses' faith made:"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Our hearts must have an object, and the object of our choice will form our character and direct our walk. "Lot lifted up his eyes on the well-watered plains toward Sodom," and his feet soon carried him there (Gen. 13:10,11). Joshua chose to serve the Lord, because His heart was right with God (Josh. 24:15); and our blessed Lord could choose the poor of the flock as those in whom He found His delight (Ps. 16:3). Is it so with us, dear reader? Is the Lord's choice our own? Have we cast in our lot with them? Were the children of Israel so attractive as to draw out the heart of Moses? In themselves they were no more so than the Egyptians. Why then did Moses choose to associate himself with them? Ah, here is where Moses teaches us a lesson:he looked at them as the people of Jehovah's choice, and said, in effect, "Jehovah's people is my people;" and if we look upon our brethren today as the people of God's choice (Eph. 1:4)-if we look at the saints with the anointed eye, would not we choose them and their company, as the objects of our affection? I believe we would. May we, then, like Moses, " the man of God," view God's people from His standpoint.

Then we have his FAITH'S ESTIMATE (ver. 26):'Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." Through faith, Moses was able to estimate things aright- like our dear apostle Paul, who was able to count all that was dear to him according to the flesh, as loss, for Christ (Phil. 3:4-7). It is a moral impossibility for a child of God who is walking after the desires of the flesh, to have the divine estimate of things, inasmuch as his spiritual perceptions are clouded; his mind is not above the sordid things of the world; he "cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (2 Pet. 1:9). But Moses was not that sort of a man. Faith enabled him to enter into the sanctuary, and to form his estimate according thereto. Faith sees eye to eye with God; it views things as God views them. May we too form our estimate of things here according to the value which our all-wise Lord puts upon them; then, like Moses, we shall esteem the reproach of Christ of more worth than the pleasures and smiles of the world.

Next is the REWARD that Moses' faith looked to:"For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward" (ver. 26). It does not mean that the motive of reward governed Moses. No. The glory of Jehovah and the good of His people, was what controlled Moses, but God sets the glory before us as encouragement to faith; like Paul in his day, who served the Lord in a way that draws out the admiration of every heart that loves the Lord. Let any read 2 Cor. 11:16-33, and see what that dear servant of Christ suffered; and what reward did he have here? Alas! "All they which are in Asia have turned away from me," he has to say (2 Tim. 1:15); yet listen to his joyful note from his Roman prison on the eve of his martyrdom:"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness" (2 Tim. 4:8). The Lord's reward to His faithful servants will be a worthy and glorious one, for as the same apostle says, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18).

Lastly, we notice the COURAGE of faith in Moses:"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king:for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (ver. 27). This courage was not of human resolution, but in the sense of God's presence, who had appeared to him in the burning bush, and would be with him in the conflict with the king of Egypt. "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence"(Prov. 14:26). Thus the fear of God in the heart of Moses imparted to him that courage and calm confidence which is essential in service for the Lord. The wrath of the king was little to him, for he knew the Lord was with him, and thus "he endured." Oh that we knew more of this heavenly courage which frees from the fear of man, while we walk before the face of God!

Dear young fellow-believer, beware of the sunshine of the world's smile; it would fain seduce thee from the path of loyalty to our absent Lord; but with the courage which faith begets, say with the apostle:"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14). James F. Turnbull

For nearly three months we could only buy the most indispensable things, cut down to the utmost limit. But, oh, in such pressure how sweet the varied and daily interventions of the Lord. One afternoon as we had nothing for dinner, I went to the near woods, put myself into a large sack on account of the mosquitoes, and pleaded our condition before the Lord, laying great stress on His word in Heb. 13:5, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Half an hour after I had returned home, a lad knocked at the door and brought two young turkeys-the first occurrence of the kind in the six years we have lived here.

We were guided and cheered in a remarkable way, by scriptures on the calendar. Since these leaves tell a tale, I have kept them, and here are the texts with dates:- Nov. 21st, Ps. 5:8; 22nd, Matt. 6:34; 23rd, Ps. 34:9,10; 24th, Ecclesiastes 11:6; 25th, Heb. 13:5 and Ps. 37:7- on this day the Lord sent the first pledge; we received $20.00 from an assembly in –; on the 29th we received $50.00 from a brother in C–,and the text was 1st Kings 17:16 with Ps. 86:10. Read these scriptures in your Bible and see the marvel of the Lord's care and faithfulness.

Thus we were enabled to pay out some deferred duties connected with the school-house at Cabory Lake, and the rentage of the house we live in here, and I used about $20.00 for buying clothes for my children and wife. For the present we had to stop the work on the house at Cabory Lake. We are assured that "our times are in His hands," and to Him only we look and plead-with the only exception of yourself, whom we let into these things, that you may help us in prayer before the throne of our God and Father.

The other day I went on a short visit to our sister Baptista, on the Aicurapa river, where she has a small day-school. What she is doing there for the Lord is very precious to Him. She has only ten pupils, nearly all girls from 10 to 13, She also teaches them a few hymns which they heartily sing and the parents are hearing the gospel. The people of the house where she lives are getting ready for baptism. I was impressed with the gladness, beaming on the faces of them all as we sang, and preached and prayed together. Surely the Lord does use women in His work.

The hope of the coming of the Lord to take us out of this world has been foremost before us these days, and with this hope in view we get more than encouraged. Of this world we have nothing, so that if the Lord were coming to-day we are ready to say farewell to this old world without the least lingering look behind.

The writer of this letter wishes to have his name withheld should we use any part of his letter for encouragement to others.-[Ed.

"These were the divisions of the children of Israel by their hosts:and they set forward.

And Moses said unto Hobab the son of Reuel, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, We are journeying unto the place of which Jehovah hath said, I will give it unto you:come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for Jehovah hath spoken good concerning Israel. And he said unto him, I will not go, but I will depart to mine own land and to my kindred. And he said, Leave us not, 1 pray thee, because thou knowest that we encamp in the wilderness; and thou shalt be eyes for us. And it shall be, if thou come with us, that whatever good Jehovah doeth unto us, the same will we do unto thee."

The hosts of Israel start in good order, at the commandment of the Lord, and His presence with them, every tribe filling its place. So with the church; it had its Pentecost-too brief, and never to return on earth; but only the faint image of what shall be, when He who is last Adam shall present her to Himself "a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing."

At the very beginning, however, there is a portent of the future, and failure in him to whom the people have been committed. Constantly we see failure at the very beginning; and that, even, with those in places of fullest responsibility, and upon whom, under God, all seems to depend. So Noah failed after the flood. The priesthood failed on the day of its installation, when two sons of Aaron offered "strange fire which Jehovah had not commanded," and perished for their temerity. Scripture re cords these things that we may learn from them the needful lesson, that no man, be he who he may, can we trust implicitly, or blindly follow. Leaders there must be, and confidence ought to be given them, but with the reservation always that we follow them as they follow Christ. The sins of the most godly, the errors of the wisest, are in their consequences to be dreaded more than the greater follies and sins of lesser men; our weak idolatry of those through whom God may have ministered to us largest blessing, is ever productive of disastrous results. "Esteem them very highly in love for their works' sake" is the Scripture rule, and "whose faith follow."

Israel were going under the guiding care of Jehovah. The first of all duties was that of implicit confidence in Him; yet Moses turns to a child of the wilderness, that, with the competence derived from natural acquirements, he may be to them "instead of eyes."

Commentators explain this as quite consistent; and followers of "higher critics" see in it a sign of contradictory documents, which, if we will allow them, they will settle with the scissors. In truth, there is a contradiction; but the fault is not in Scripture, but in man, who so easily forgets his resource in God. It is easy to see influences at work in Moses' natural link with the Midianite chief. Easy too it is to cover it with fair names, for "Hobab" means "lover," and he is the son of Reuel, "the friend of God." How often human piety and friendship come in as arguments with us in the wrong place!

All this evidently illustrates the danger of which we are speaking in connection with "guides." The Midianite, the "man of strife," may well remind us of the fierce controversialism of so many who assume to be guides . Controversy is often needed, but one characterized by a spirit of this sort is no fit leader for the people of God.

"And they departed from the mount of Jehovah three days' journey; and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days' journey to seek out for them a place of rest. And the cloud of Jehovah was over them hy day, when they went out of the camp."

Accordingly we never see Hobab in such a place at all. On the contrary, the divine comment on Moses' request is found in the ark moving out of its usual place in the midst of the camp, and going at their head:"And the ark of the covenant went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting-place for them." Thus the Lord vindicates Himself from the reproach which the unbelief of His people would cast upon Him. He is the actual, the only and all-sufficient Leader, the Shepherd of Israel, whose eyes are never weary, whose heart is never at fault, "who never slumbereth nor sleepeth. "

"And it was so, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Arise, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered, and those that hate Thee flee before thy face! And when it rested, he said, Return, Jehovah, unto the many thousands of Israel."

How thoroughly God identifies Himself with His people is seen in the prayer which Moses, as taught of God, utters as the ark sets forward. The enemies that he anticipates are now but Jehovah's enemies, and they scatter as He advances. And when it rests, and the cloud settles down once more, then His face is turned with satisfaction toward His own, who in that sheltering cloud-canopy recognize the brooding wings under which they may rest securely, and not a note even of alarm find how to penetrate.

Extract from Num. Bible

When I see Thee face to face,
Know the wondrous depths of grace,
Know the precious love that sought,
And the countless price that bought
My poor soul from Satan's sway,
That will be a glorious day!

When mine eyes behold, above,
All the trophies of Thy love,
See the glory of Thy Throne,
Then I'll know, and there alone,
What the lessons by the way
Could not teach me of that day.

When Thy word, which held my heart,
Though discerned but in part,
Shall burst forth in fullest bloom,
Filling all with sweet perfume,
Then with joy my soul shall say,
Oh, the glory of that Day!

Then the mystery of
Thy Cross Shall at last be known to us
As it could not by Thy Word-
For it must be seen and heard:
Then truth's penetrating ray
Shall burst forth in that great Day.

Thy blest Head, once crowned with thorn,
Many crowns shall then adorn;
Owned preeminent at last,
Before Thee our crowns we'll cast;
Then, both heaven and earth shall say,
Oh, the glory of that Day!

Lord, the glory of Thy grace
Makes me long to see Thy face;
To be with Thee, to be like Thee-
Glad through all eternity!
All the sorrows of the way
Lost in that most glorious Day!

Satan chained forevermore-
Closed for aye temptation's door-
Evil made to give Thee praise!
Peace shall reign through endless days:
God shall manifest
His sway In the glory of that Day.

Heaven and earth shall rest at last-
The arch enemy outcast.
All God's purposes fulfilled,
Every thought of evil stilled,
And unhindered the display,
All the glory of that Day.

Mortal sight could ne'er behold
All the glorious things foretold;
Mortal mind could ne'er conceive
E'en the half; yet we believe
Thou wilt in Thy rightful sway
Be the glory of that Day.

H. McD.

(1 John 3:l-3.)

I am going to be like Christ in glory; then I must be as like Him now as ever I can. Of course, we all fail; but we are to have our hearts full of it.

Remember this, that the place you are in is that of an epistle of Christ. We are set for this, that the life of Christ should be manifested in us. Christ has settled the question with God:He appears in the presence of God for us, and we are in the presence of the world for Him. "In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." If I know He is in me, I am to manifest the life of Christ in everything. If He has loved me with unutterable love, which passes knowledge, I feel bound in heart to Him; my business is to glorify Him in everything I do.

"Bought with a price"-that is settled:if bought, I am His. But, beloved friends, I press upon you that earnestness of heart which cleaves to Him, especially in these last evil days, when we wait for the Son from heaven. Oh! if Christians were more thoroughly Christians, the world would understand what it was all about. There is a great deal of profession and talk:and thank God, there is the activity of the Spirit of God:but do you think if a heathen came here to learn what Christianity meant, he would find it out?

The Lord give you to have such a sense of the love of Christ, that, as bought with a price, the only object of your souls may be to live by Christ and to live for Christ; and for those who do not know Him, that they may learn how He came down in love to seek us, and, because righteousness could not pass over sin, died to put it away. J. N. D.

(Psalm 150)

Oh for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer's praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy Name.

Jesus!-the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease,
'Tis music in the sinner's ears,
'Tis life, and health, and peace!

He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean-
His blood availed for me!

He speaks-and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive:
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf! His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongue employ!
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy!

Charles Wesley.

In this particularly fine and solemn chapter, we may see the Lord in four connections, so to speak,-with the sorrow itself that was awaiting Him,-with His disciples, with the Father, with the Enemy.

Verses 1-23.-As far as He is seen here, He is seen as looking directly and advisedly at the sorrow that was awaiting Him. He sits at the Paschal Table, the witness of His coming sufferings, and He tells of His body given, and of His blood shed; at the same time refusing for the present the paschal cup, the expression (as I judge) of Israel's joy on the accomplishing of their redemption.

Thus we see Him in full, advised anticipation of His sorrow, looking at it directly and without the least shrinking; refusing a single thought that could qualify or reduce it.

Verses 24-38.-In this part of this great chapter, we see Him with His disciples, but we must remember, carrying in His bosom the full sense of the sorrow He had just been foreseeing and counting on.

But it is, beloved, a great sight which these verses give us of Him. I mean in this character. When any trouble is upon us we judge right easily, and without rebuke, that we may think of ourselves. But here Jesus thinks of others. The condition of His disciples is the anxious, diligent object of His various affections and sympathy. He warns them where their souls are getting wrong. He lets them know that He was praying for them, and providing strength for a coming hour of need and weakness. He teaches what changes they must now reckon upon, and how they must get themselves ready-thus while carrying a grief which might well have commanded or absorbed, He, as though all were quiet within, spends His various cares, His sympathies and attentions, on those who, were around Him.

If there be a moment in human history when selfishness is even vindicated by our moral sense, it is the moment of personal grief. We instinctively allow a person to think of himself in such a moment. But at no other moment was the Lord Jesus even more thoughtful of others than here, in Luke 22, when trouble and grief beyond compare was before Him!

It was not the hour of Sychar's well-it was not the two days spent amongst the Samaritans-it was not the season when Mary was sitting at His feet, or when the family of Bethany was at the table with Him. It was not such a moment as when the Centurion accosted Him in the language of a faith greater than what He had found in Israel; or as when the poor woman touched Him in the crowd; or as when the Syrophenician clung to Him in spite, of apparent slight and indignity. Such occasions
were moments of deep joy to the heart of Christ, and no wonder. To speak as a man, He was free to wait on the occasion then, and serve them, and think of others in them and through them. But it is Jesus at the Paschal table we get here. It is the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. It was natural for Him at the house of Bethany to sit and teach,-but this was at the last Passover; and knowing, as one does, the absorbing selfishness of times of sorrow, this path of the mind of Christ through this part of this solemn chapter reflects something perfect and beautiful.

Verses 39-46. Here we have the same Jesus in company with the Father-the same Jesus.
He had just been serving His disciples in all the various conditions and need in which He found them:warning them, praying for them, teaching them, providing for their blessing in every way; so now He is surrendered to the Father's will, with the same self-sacrifice as He had been serving them. The hour is full of terribleness, but the surrender of Himself to it is perfect. The mission of the angel to strengthen Him, tells that the cup was not to be taken out of His hand. He knew this, and felt it in the agony of that solemn hour. But nothing turned the spirit of self-sacrifice. The will of the Father was supreme with Him now, as the need and conditions of His poor disciples had just been, and He surrenders Himself to it all.

Verses 47-71.-In these closing verse, we find our Lord as the prisoner of His enemies. We have already seen Him in the gaze and near sight of the sorrow itself,-then, in company with His disciples, making their need and blessing all His thought as though He had no sorrow of His own. Then in communion with the Father, and now in the midst of His persecutors. There was nothing
here for Him. A mad and rude rabble, set on wickedness, was making Him their sport and their captive; and then a wily and murderous, though in its way refined, Court of Elders (in its character more contrary to His spirit even than the others), purposing His death under guise of law and religion. But in Him it is a blessed path we trace! He had been in communion with the Father. He had met this hour there. He had surrendered Himself, as we saw, and in that surrender there is victory; in that communion there is strength. And now that He is in the battle-field itself, He is more than conqueror. He may be led through files of the enemy. He may meet the occasion in its different characters, but all is strength and calmness of spirit. He challenges Judas the leader. He restores the wounded ear of one of the servants. He addresses the heads of the multitude. He has His eye upon Peter for good, when Peter was giving Him to feel at that moment that His disciples would cower amongst His enemies. He answers the elders and priests whilst in the full triumph of His soul He anticipates His kingdom and glory!

This was treading the field of battle like a Conqueror. All was perfect calmness of heart. There was no agony or sweat of blood here. No falling on the ground now. Oh how deeply the soul judges that that could not have been His way among the people, though perfectly His way before the Father! He had indeed already met the occasion in communion, and now He is only above it.

Such was His journey which we trace through this chapter; we see the path of His soul through these distinct stages. Was ever anything like it? We have need to be set to right in the time of trouble-at least if one may speak for another. The Psalmist had such need in Ps. 73, and again also/in Ps. 77. Poor Job was conquered. It touched him and he fainted, though he had often before strengthened others. The stoutest, as an old writer says, are "knocked off their legs." Peter sleeps, and Peter lies-and our own poor hearts again and again have told us secrets of ourselves in such moments. But in sorrow, the like of which never was tasted, Jesus is borne through every change of circumstance and connection, and all is in full perfection. Pure gold it was indeed; and when cast into the furnace, it comes out the same mass as when cast in, for there was no dross.

What a sight! What faith! It is found unto admiration in our eyes, beloved; and unto what acceptance was it found with God!

I feel as though I could not look at it, or speak of it longer. Having just traced this brilliant path of faith, tried in the furnace, to the end, I must leave it. My own heart is so unacquainted with it. May the good Lord strengthen us with might by His Spirit! "If thou faintest in the day of adversity thy strength is small"-but not so with Jesus!

The reader should always turn to the Bible and read the passages referred to.

QUES. 8.-Is it consistent with the Christian's calling, to sit on jury if called upon to do so? Please answer in "Help and Food."

ANS.-If it be a question of becoming a juryman of one's own will, it is mistaking the Christian's calling and place as a citizen of the present world, whilst our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). But the peremptory call of the Government to serve as a juryman is another matter. "The powers that be are ordained of God," and we are to be subject to all its orders which are not in conflict with our fidelity to God (Rom. 13:1-7). If it really conflicts, then we are still to obey God, and suffer for it if needs be (Acts 4:18-21).

Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" was the first question asked by Saul of Tarsus when the Lord first revealed Himself to him on the road to Damascus. And such was the sense of the Saviour's grace toward him afterwards, that he became the most devoted of all His devoted servants; and is justly considered as the most perfect model of following Christ.

When God sent Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt, he was to tell Pharaoh these memorable words from Jehovah, :'Let my people go, that they may serve Me." Their deliverance from Egyptian bondage was to be their freedom to serve the Lord Jehovah. Now service to our Lord is not the privilege of a few only, but of all God's children. In saying this we have young believers particularly in mind, as they have the needed physical and mental energy which usually is waning in those advanced in age. Yes, young Christian, the time to serve the Lord is when our energy and first love are at flood-tide, and the new-born soul walks in the flush of the "happy day" that will find its full development in the happier day of eternity with Christ.

In speaking of Christian service we have not in mind the duties of life that naturally fall to our lot, whether we are Christians or not. These, truly, may all now be performed as unto the Lord, and if so discharged they will in no wise lose their reward. But we have in mind definite and distinct service, apart altogether from that which as men in the flesh we cannot avoid. Each young Christian, we believe, should seek some particular line of work for Christ, such as the taking of a Sunday-school class, visitation of the poor and the sick, the hospitals, the jails, or if fitted, preach the Word, or testify for the Lord, in the open air, in our halls, or county school-houses.

But the department of Christian work of which we wish particularly to speak is that of tract distribution-a ser-ice for all, as our caption says. There are a number of very good reasons why the circulation of tracts should commend itself to Christians desirous of furthering the knowledge of the truth among men.

First, it is open to all. No special gift is required, nor is it necessary to possess an unusual degree of physical strength. Any one with a heart for it can do it. Some have little knowledge of men and are not apt at approaching strangers. This should be no hindrance, for only a kind word is usually necessary; sometimes the least said the better-especially so when dealing with Roman Catholics, who often wish to dispute if you stop to converse with them; and if great tact is not used it will end with their handing back the message of life which you had put in their hands. All workers for the Lord should do so in a polite, courteous way. If you lack in this, say little, sow your seed, and pass on. Some who have the rare gift of a winning address and voice, yet may lack courage. Another may be over bold. Both may be in large measure overcome. Timothy, Paul's dear child in the faith, was naturally of a timid nature, evidently, yet the apostle could say of him, "I have no man like-minded." Besides, no great courage is required in certain forms of tract work. They may be laid quietly down on park benches, or, left on car seats, with prayer to the Lord of the harvest to watch over the seed thus sown. Tracts in booklet form may be dropped in letter boxes of apartment houses, which in most cities is not against the law. In large cities, an assortment of languages is desirable as you meet foreigners, or judge of what nationality by the name on the box. They may be slipped un der doors, or put in any place where they shall almost certainly be picked up. Of course, the better and most effective way is to hand them to the person directly with a wise and kind word. Think of the Lord's gracious eye upon you, and the value of the soul to whom you present God's way of salvation; it will enable you to rise above timidity and thoughts of yourself. Let not therefore your diffidence, dear young Christian, prevent you from serving your precious Saviour in ways we have pointed out, or any other that the Lord may put in your way.

Second, we should be encouraged in the circulation of the printed ministry by the results it is sure to bring. These may not be always seen; but whether seen or not, life is in that Word we circulate; it is ours to get it out, and the Holy Spirit will do the rest. God has promised to bless His gospel, His Word, and it is He that "'giveth the increase."

We do not mean to say that every tract put out will bring a blessing. We may learn a lesson from nature here; God causes His rain to fall on the vast oceans and earth's great deserts where it appears to be lost or wasted, as well as on the fields yielding fruit to the cultivator; so in our efforts to bring the knowledge of Christ to men, much of our sowing may seem wasted. But "sow ye beside all waters," is the word; and in the parable of the sower, much of the precious seed was non-productive, though the sower was the Son of God Himself! And if only a small part of our feeble sowing bring real result, will we not, when with the Lord, realize the unspeakable value of it?

But apart from the direct results of conversions by means of tracts, how many Christians are helped and settled in their faith by the reading of the printed ministry. We may never hear of it, never know it here, but there is abundant proof that tracts have been very largely used of God to strengthen the faith or dear off doubts from the souls of His children. Only last Lord's day I learned of two ladies that have been lately settled in their souls by the reading of the booklet, "No doubts." The last edition of "How to get Peace" was gotten out at the instigation of a brother who reported to me a most marked case of deliverance from tormenting doubt by the reading of that tract. Whole volumes could, in fact, be written of blessing to souls through the medium of the printed page.

And apart from the results above mentioned, is it not true that a sense of responsibility to God is kept alive by these reminders of eternity and of judgment after death? We all know the immense and effective use made of the press to mould public opinion; in a similar sense, every tract read in which the sinner is reminded of God, helps towards nullifying the efforts of Satan to destroy in men's souls all sense of their responsibility to God, their Creator and their Judge.

Lastly, the chief reason why we should engage in the circulation of tracts is because we are commanded to make the gospel of God known to men. It is a duty, devolving upon us all, to spread the knowledge of God's grace and love as revealed in the gospel. "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise," the apostle says. He viewed it, not only as a privilege, but as an obligation laid upon him, to make Christ known to men. "Necessity is laid upon me;" he writes, "yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" We are not apostles, neither can we all travel and preach as he did; but we may all in our measure publish the glad tidings. And the obligation rests upon each one of us to do what is in our power to further in the world the knowledge of the gospel of the grace of God. There is blessing in obedience, and leanness of soul, and a bad conscience, if we neglect or are remiss in it. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself," is the divine declaration in this connection.

Our own souls shall be blessed as we ourselves endeavor to be under God a blessing to our fellow-men. "We do not well:this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace," said the lepers in the gate of Samaria; "if we tarry till the morning light some mischief will come upon us," or as the margin reads, "we shall find punishment" (2 Kings 7:9). Let us not hold our peace in this day of blessed gospel tidings, but seek to make it known, far and wide, while opportunity and an open door are given us by the publication of the gospel through the printing press.

I close with a few general remarks on this subject.

(1) Always get the best tracts obtainable, both as to subject matter, of good print, and neat. The subject demands the best; the gospel is a matter of dignity; let its presentation be worthy of the God whose gospel it is.

(2) Be discriminate in your choice of subjects. Do not unnecessarily antagonize a Romanist's misbeliefs. The young require narratives, and there are few older ones who will not read them.

(3) Be specially concerned for the foreign populations in our larger towns and cities. Has not God sent them to our shores to be evangelized by us through the printed ministry? Tracts may be had in nearly all the European languages to-day; and may He speed His light and truth through us His witnesses, Amen. C. Knapp

"I believe the time is coming, if not already come, when it will no longer be a question of professing to be Christ's, but of whether we are living the life of Christ "

"Where is Christ now?-Gone to heaven, and out of the world:by "the world" I do not mean the earth, but the system set up by Satan all around us now. O Christian, art thou in spirit out of it too?"
G. V. W.

(Continued from page 275)

Lecture IV.

THE BREADTH OF SALVATION (Exod., chaps. 8:25;10:8-11,24-26.)

Moses is now commissioned and authenticated as Israel's deliverer. Still he hesitates. "O my Lord," he says, "I am not eloquent neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue."

How hard it is, amid what we call "second causes," to trust simply in God alone! All God's power, for a Moses even, is not sufficient without an eloquent tongue! Paul was wiser when he came to the Corinthians "not with excellency of speech or of wisdom," that their "faith might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." Our idolatry of means thus affects and characterizes our work. The work will show the workman. The motives, the thoughts, which influence us, and which we suppose hidden in our hearts, will manifest themselves in those who are the fruit of our labor.

God does not gift Moses with an eloquent tongue, but He allows part of his honor to be transferred to Aaron, who becomes his spokesman to the people. Thus provided, Moses starts; but before he reaches Egypt, the divine holiness which cannot pass over the uncircumcision of his house is made manifest. At the inn on the way, Jehovah seeks to kill His accredited messenger, whose life is only saved by Zipporah's performance of the neglected rite. Thus he is warned as well as commissioned. Now, he and Aaron gathering the people, deliver their message and show the signs of their authority:and the people believe with a facile faith, soon to be tested as to its depth and reality, for Pharaoh does not mean to let his bond-slaves step so easily out of his hands. Here begins that prolonged contest between Jehovah and the king of Egypt, in which God's judgments fall with increasing severity upon the devoted land, until He finally brings His people with a strong hand and an out-stretched arm through the sea itself, overwhelming their enemies in it.

These plagues represent the judgment of God upon the natural man, as the eye, divinely opened, sees it:they expose the hopeless evil of man's condition; and the world, stripped of its bloom and attractiveness, is turned into a desert under Divine wrath, until the one so convicted is forced to abandon it and accept rejoicingly God's deliverance from it all. Then the wilderness path begins indeed. And, while the world is thus being exposed as under condemnation, the beauty, extent and purport of God's salvation become more and more told out.

It is a "feast to Jehovah" that they are to hold in the wilderness. Gladness' is characteristic of His presence, when once the heart is free to enjoy that presence. Then we learn that the feast is to be connected with a sacrifice -a sacrifice which alone averts God's judgment, and enables the heart to be in His presence without fear.

"The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword."
Thus, first, God's heart is revealed, then man's guilt and need, which the blood of sacrifice alone can meet.

Not in Egypt, however, can that feast be held; for on the ground of nature no true joy in God or worship in the Spirit is possible. From this there must be three days' remove-the distance between death and resurrection alone can carry us into our place of blessing and intimacy with God. But this will be developed hereafter.

At once, however, Pharaoh's spirit is declared:"I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." The flesh in us never does; its obduracy, allied with the prince of this world, Pharaoh fully exemplifies. At the very outset, when faith begins to move in us, and the good news of salvation begins to be really that, we find the opposition of that in which "dwelleth no good thing," and is but enmity to God as revealed in Christ and the gospel. Sin's reign is a despotic one, and terrible it is to find, from the first moment in which we would do good, evil present with us, and how "he that committeth sin is the slave of sin." Israel, beginning already to think salvation come, find instead augmented labor and the stripes of taskmasters. So that their transient joy is swallowed up in worse sorrow, and unbelief takes the place of faith:"The Lord look upon you and judge," they say to Moses and Aaron, "because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us."

And even Moses betrays his impatience in a bitter complaint to God. How many a worker since in like manner would have salvation at once realized, not understanding the necessity of all this parleying with Pharaoh-in experience of sin and of sin's bondage.

But as God assures them, if they are made afresh to realize the burdens of the Egyptians, it is only that they may realize redemption out of them by His own hand, and that they may know Him in their salvation, bringing them out from under these burdens. Fresh promises, however, fail to revive the drooping hearts of the people, and Moses himself is discouraged. God, however, gives to him and Aaron a solemn charge to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

And here it is that the genealogy of Moses and Aaron is introduced, the double type of a Saviour whom accumulated types fail fully to express. The sons of Reuben and Simeon are also given here, though set aside for Levi, the third son; and how plain the spiritual purport of this is, which looked at superficially seems without meaning. Reuben is the eldest, and his four sons have beautiful names, full of promise; but it is "first that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual." So he is set aside. Simeon, too, with his six sons is passed over; and Levi is chosen-the third son (spiritually, child of resurrection) in whose name, "joined," the mediatorship of Christ, only fully reached in resurrection, is surely implied.

And now ensue the plagues which are to manifest Jehovah's power, and make His name known throughout all the earth. Long and stubbornly Pharaoh resists, but is at last, though unchanged in spirit, over-powered. Upon the history in detail I cannot dwell, but we may look at the compromises which Pharaoh attempts to make with God or with Moses as to the people; they illustrate not less the breadth of His salvation than the treachery of the heart which would impose limits to His sovereign grace.

The first attempt is to secure the retention of Israel in Egypt. They may sacrifice-he will permit that-but let them do it in the land, and not leave it. His object is to retain his hold upon them, which three days' journey into the wilderness would assuredly loosen. The spiritual meaning is also manifest. Worship in Egypt is worship in the flesh, Cain's worship, which owns not our ruin, nor Christ as meeting it. Death and resurrection have no place there. Redemption there is none, and, therefore, practically no Redeemer. Moses' answer shows this:"It is not meet so to do, for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God:lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?"

The word "abomination" stands here as often elsewhere for idolatry, as Chemosh "was the abomination of the Moabites, and Milcom of the Ammonites." The worship of Egypt was that of Apis-the sacred bull. It was paramount amid their animal deities; and it came up in the minds of the children of Israel when they worshiped Jehovah in the golden calf. It is throughout Scripture the type of the laborer, and is pre-eminently seen in the sacrifices as God's Laborer, who to do His will in behalf of man, laid down His life.

But of such a Worker, and of such a work, Egypt knew nothing; and to maintain the truth of this will ensure decisive rejection at the hands of those whom the Egyptians represent. That cross by which the world is crucified to us, and we unto the world, can never be but an offence in it; and the true place of witness to this, as the only possible place of keeping the sacrificial feast, is three days' journey into the wilderness-the full remove of death and resurrection.

By His death Christ has passed out of the world, and in resurrection has taken a new place for us before God. We therefore, who in His death have died, are by His resurrection put also into this place, and according to His own words, "are not of the world, even as He is not of the world." The old standing is gone; the place is changed. The separation is not of our own effecting, but of His, who has cancelled for us the long dark history of what we were, and instead of our place of distance, has given us His of nearness to God:"Who died for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father." Thus our feast is connected with His sacrifice.

This new place with God is given us (apart from anything of our own) by the death and resurrection of our Lord; but it is ours to find, through faith in this work of His, our place in the wilderness, where alone the feast is to be kept. Here Israel is our type. Their journey to Sinai is a picture of what must be a veritable journey (spiritually) on our part, though by faith alone we travel it-not by sense nor in any mystical way. Faith's acceptance of the work of Christ puts us upon this road, and carries us into a place of actual separation from the world -the sign of our practical apprehension of our position. The wilderness-place is not positional but practical; not "standing," as we say, but state; the state resulting from a believing appreciation of the position which God's grace has given us-apart from and not measured by our apprehension of it. Let us not ignore the actuality of this journey. Let us not confound it with the position which Christ's work secures and which faith apprehends. And again, let us not suppose any mystical realization, but what faith produces. Faith is a reality, connecting the soul with the living God. It is not content to accept a heavenly inheritance without setting its face, pilgrim-wise, towards it. Unseen things become substance and reality to it, and every truth received by it becomes living and fruitful. Hence the journey. The Word is not a description of lands separated from us by impassible seas, but is a pilgrim's guide-book, meant for use and to be put to use. The things we shall have put before us are like mile-stones, which measure so much actual travel, or they have no meaning.

Let us keep faith and practice ever thus together:they will not live divorced. For if faith without works is dead, works that are not of faith are "dead works" also.

It is plain how to this first device of Pharaoh the large proportion of Christians have yielded themselves up. They are worshiping in Egypt without the knowledge of redemption:therefore not free. And they have so assimilated their worship to Egyptian patterns, that instead of being stoned for it they have taught the men of the world to join in with them. But this, alas, is no victory, but defeat.

Salvation, in God's thought of it, takes you out of the world. You are no more of it than Christ is. And though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more; for Christ has passed out of the world altogether, and left it under the condemnation of the cross. We are either in Him before God, and so outside it, or involved in its condemnation.

But let us look at the second compromise:-

"And he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God:but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go:for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones:look to it; for evil is before you. Not so:go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire."

Thus the limits of salvation are attempted to be narrowed in another direction. The men may go; the little ones must remain. In God's plan, however, the little one's place was with the parents. Pharaoh's thought was to retain hold of the fathers by means of the children; God's thought is to save the children with, and by means of, the fathers. Noah's house, in the ark with him, is the first example; then the blessing of Abraham's seed, and circumcision of the Israelite's house gives the divine rule for the old economy. The new is still more full of this:"This day is salvation come to this house," says the Lord as to Zacchaeus. "The promise is unto you and to your children," says the apostle on the day of Pentecost. To Cornelius the angel says:"Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." And once again to the Philippian jailor:"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

This then is the universal tenor of Scripture. God's all-embracing love would make His people reach out to others, and of the human ties which He has established, He forms links toward the new creation. He would thus claim for His own that which, with no acquiescence of His, has departed from Him, and use for this the natural affection which, fallen as it is, is not incapable of being renewed and spiritualized. Thus He meets and satisfies the deepest instincts of our manhood; the Divine Father manifesting Himself as not strange to what is best in human fatherhood, and teaching us to feel in ourselves the original likeness in which at first He created us to Himself.

The children of believers are of course like others:we impart to them the old nature; the new is only given of God. In this respect they differ in nothing from others. The universal law, "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" applies to them as to others." Nor does it follow as a matter of course, that if a man is saved himself, his house will be. In Abraham's case-pattern as he is in so many ways for the believer- God says:"I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord . . . that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him."

Thus we have a clear testimony of Abraham's exercise of authority over his household and their keeping the way of the Lord connected with the fulfilment of the promise to him. The wise man's saying also is, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Here is the thing which tests us; and here, as elsewhere, what we sow, especially in the ductile mind of a child, we do not fail to reap. But it is not our words only that bear fruit:it is the combined influence of our words and ways. That three days' remove from Egypt, if really taken, will have immense effect. If not, teaching as to Egypt will not avail. The coming out to keep a feast to the Lord will give the positive side of this, and prevent the other from being a cold and hard asceticism. Let but this be real, it will not fail to have its effect; and though we may have short-comings to mourn over, and faith too may be tried in us, the Lord we serve is tender and pitiful, and faith that counts upon Him will not count in vain.

These things are our types, and the God of Israel is as full of power to-day as ever He was. Let us credit Him with it, and fear not.

Now we come to the third and last compromise:-

"And Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and herds be stayed; let your little ones also go with you. And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us, there shall not an hoof be left behind:for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither."

Thus if Pharaoh cannot prevent their going out, he would make them as poor as he can. Their flocks and herds were the main part of what as a shepherd-people they possessed. They are thus the type of our possessions -that which we have in the world. Our business relations are evidently connected with things termed "secular," which so often are divorced from the "sacred," and in relation to which we may be, and are, something other than "men in Christ."

How successful is this snare among us! How few in fact have their all out of Egypt, honestly owning God's title to all! How few are in relation to their business or worldly connections just what in the Assembly they claim to be! How few have the riband of blue, the mark of heavenly character^ right down to where their garments touch the earth!

A certain claim upon their worldly things, no doubt, every one recognizes the Lord to have; but the things are theirs, outside this tax on them. They do not look on it as connected with their salvation, as part of their deliverance itself-that what they have should be the Lord's as they themselves are. But does not the one involve the other? Does it not show that we know little what it is to be in Christ, while we have another self with independent aims and motives?

This then is the salvation of which we are the subjects. We have yet to trace it out in detail; but it is plain that Israel's deliverance was from the power of Pharaoh under which they groaned. And for this there was much more needed than the display of power, even Divine. There was needed the Passover night as well as the Red Sea deliverance. They had to learn in the blood applied, that grace alone, through atonement, could take them up and rescue them from the enemy's power. And their rescue was not complete until the other, side of the sea was reached. Then it was, when horse and rider had been cast into the sea, and their proud tyrants were carcases upon the shore, that they sang how the Lord had triumphed gloriously.

And so the apostle does not stop with justification by Christ's blood, in the Epistle to the Romans; he rests not till in His cross we know "that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve (or be slaves to) sin." This is the bondage, and this the deliverance; and we must keep this steadily before us if we are to penetrate these shadows, and possess ourselves of their divine realities.

(To be continued.)

"Let everything that hath breath Praise the Lord Hallelujah!"

When the Christian life is real, in living communion with "Christ who is the fountain," there is a joy and sparkle about it which they never know who are drinking of old experiences and past memories. How is it with you, brother? Is it fresh with you every morning? -EXTRACT.

FRAGMENT

Calendar:April 16th to May 15th.

DAILY BIBLE READING:……..Apr. 16th, Malachi 2; April 30th, Matthew 12; May 15th, Matthew 27.
MEMORY WORK:-…………….1 John 2:12-3:3.
GOOD READING:-"The Son of God," by J. G. Bellett, (paper, 25 cents. at our publishers.)
MONTHLY QUESTION:-What length of time elapsed between Malachi and the appearing of John the Baptist, and what was the general history of the period? ("Four Hundred Silent Years," by Mr. Ironside, is an instructive book on this period.)

Our Daily Bible Reading

This month we pass out of the Old Testament into the New, and almost finish the Gospel by Matthew.

Malachi reveals the moral decline of the people after their return from Babylon. The prophet arraigns them for their unrighteousness, heartless formality and departure from God by both priests and people. His word and service were neglected and despised. Yet there was a faithful remnant. The coming of John, of Christ, and of the day of Jehovah are foretold. In opening Matthew, we are at once introduced to the One in whom centers all the promises, and the glory of the kingdom-Son of David and Son of Abraham, Jehovah-Saviour, Immanuel (God with us), His personal glory, His lowliness and grace, His mighty power. The holy and righteous principles of His kingdom are made known in His teaching- all pass before our view as we peruse this Gospel, impressing us with His kingly character in which Matthew especially presents Him to Israel, and the nation's definite rejection of Him.

Broadly speaking this occupies the first twelve chapters, at the end of which we find Him outside, calling to Himself those who have ears to hear, in separation from the unbelieving mass. From this point through chapter 25, the character of the whole period following His rejection is developed, until His victorious appearing. His sacrificial work is then set before us-the basis for the fulfilment of every promise and the manifestation of His glory.

Our Memory Portion

This is full of precious instruction for our growth in the truth, with warnings about hindrances to this.

Ver. 12 gives the basis of all; next the three grades to be discerned in the family (vers. 13,14). The apostle then warns against the world, clearly defining its character (vers. 15-17). Warning against false teachers follows, with the blessed assurance! that the believer is fully equipped through the anointing of the Holy Spirit (vers. 18-21). He then defines the nature of what is the opposite of the truth, warns about abiding in that which they have received from the beginning, and affirms their entire independence of mere human wisdom, because of the Spirit's ministry (vers. 22-27). Finally, our relationship with the Father and the Son is that in which we are to walk.

*From "Man and the Future State," F. W. G.*

The thought of a hope after death suits men well, and they are drinking in this delusion. It is that which those who trifle with a Saviour's mercy will take to hang themselves over that awful abyss of hell, till they prove it, not the fire of love, but the awful and eternal fire of wrath, which answers to the undying worm within.

Is man willing to have God's salvation, and God lacking in will or in power to save him? Never, surely. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Is salvation a doubtful, laborious process, arrived at by long effort, by prayers, by strivings, which may have to be eked out after death by some supplementary process? Nay, but being "justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," "justified through the faith of Christ, and not by works of the law." Is hell-fire God's process of salvation for those who look to Him?-or God's wrath upon those who reject His salvation? It is the latter, and not the former. Did Christ tell the "poor in spirit" that theirs was the lake of fire or "the kingdom of heaven"? Did He tell the mourners they should be "comforted" or tormented?

The preaching of this hope is really infidelity as to fundamental truth-as to Christ and grace. Those only could find encouragement in it who are ignorant of grace, or else those who want comfort to go on in sin as long as they can. The apostle asks, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" The Lord bids, "Fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell."

It is not an exceptional thing that the question of God's love and the denial of His truth should go together.

Let us consider the passage which is largely made the basis for this delusion.

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water" (1 Pet. 3:18-20).

Let us carefully examine this passage, therefore, and see what it really says and teaches. First, it was by the Spirit that Christ went and preached-not personally. It has been sought to make "the Spirit" signify Christ's human spirit; with this necessary effect, that if He were "quickened in His human spirit," that human spirit must have itself died, in order to be quickened. On this account it has been attempted to substitute "quick," or "alive," or "preserved alive," for "quickened:" meanings which the word cannot possibly bear. "Made alive by the Spirit" can only refer to resurrection, and thus it is not Christ as a disembodied spirit that is spoken of at all.

But they urge that "He went and preached" shows a personal going. It has been answered that in the same way He "came and preached peace," in Eph. 2:17, must be (what confessedly it is not) a personal coming. "By the Spirit He went" excludes the thought entirely.
Then further as to the "spirits in prison." They are in prison now (that is the force of it) as having been once disobedient in the days of Noah. But disobedient to what? Why, to the Spirit's preaching. It was of these that of old God had said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." Plainly it was in that time of old that Christ had preached to them, and what should make it certain, without any nice questions of translation, is that the limit of God's striving with these antediluvians is plainly set:My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh:but his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." It is strange that some should think this a limit put to human life, which was for generations afterwards far longer. It is the limit of the Spirit's striving with that generation, at the end of which the flood came. With them the end of the Spirit's striving and of their life came together. And it is just to these, these teachers claim, that Christ specially preached more than two thousand years afterward, in direct contradiction of the divine assertion that His Spirit would not strive.

The text is an unfortunate one for such a hope as is advocated. It is unfortunate that the very examples of probation protracted beyond the grave should be the very examples given us by the word of God itself of the precise opposite! And if the fate of these dead sinners was irrevocably fixed by death, it must be obvious that we have no good reason to suppose that ours is not as much as theirs. Nay, it is unreasonable to imagine that they are an exception to, instead of an illustration of, the universal rule.

Another similar text, however, in the next chapter of the first epistle of Peter is also used. Let us take it, and see if it will lead us to any other conclusion.

"For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit" (1 Pet. 4:6). Are we to infer that the people were dead when preached to? The passage reads literally "to the dead;" and we must gather the rest from the context.

The apostle has been speaking of the altered conduct of those converted from heathenism, and of how the Gentiles around mis-judged them. "Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you; who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." Thus sinners in their fleshly way were judging the spiritual life of those approved of God by it. Christians were judged after the manner of men in a fleshly way, but lived according to God in a spiritual one. And for this -to separate them from the ranks of these mis-judging ones, themselves the objects of God's righteous judgment-had the gospel been preached to them. So far all is plain; but why "to the dead?" Surely because the apostle would bring in the very thought that death fixed the condition in which it found men. These righteous ones had got the good of that preached gospel, which had made them anticipate the coming doom of sinners, and accept the judgment of men in the flesh, rather than God's final and eternal one. But could they possibly be "dead" before they were preached to? Certainly not, if they were being judged according to men in the flesh for their changed lives! The context is conclusively against the Restorationist interpretation.

We must yet say a word as to another scripture, where the "great gulf fixed" assures us of the impossibility, in the death state at least, of any passing from the flame of torment on the one side to the comfort in Abraham's bosom on the other. No doubt the expressions here are figurative; yet they express very plainly what they figure. It is Christ who has fixed it. He has ordained that none shall pass it, and that settles it, for the death state at least, that none shall. After this, eternal judgment allows no escape. So the fact remains of a "great gulf fixed" already in the intermediate state between the two classes of just and unjust-a gulf which cannot be traversed from either side. "After death, the judgment," and the nature and duration of that final award we have considered.

But all Scripture assures us of the momentous fact that the significance of the present life is just this, that here and now is decided man's eternal destiny. He is called to repent to-day, lest God swear "he shall not enter into His rest" (Heb. 4:7,11). And who shall say that brief as indeed it is, the present life may not as fully test the individual man as indefinite ages of probation or eternity itself? The judgment after death it must be allowed is according to deeds done in the body, and no other. If these did not after all characterize the man, that judgment would be partial, and therefore false. It is in vain then to plead for the extension of a day of grace beyond the present, which brings with it no extension of responsibility such as the day of judgment would take notice of.

In conclusion, as to the arguments and scriptures advanced by those advocating Restorationism in its various forms, it may simply be said that they are based upon a wrong interpretation of the many statements or promises of earthly conditions, opportunities, and blessings of millennial character and time, dealing largely with the restoration of Israel, and in connection with her, the blessing of the nations. They confound national with individual restoration, and national with individual resurrection. Then failing thus to distinguish, they make national conversion, deliverance, etc., also of individual application. Some New Testament passages are then forced into supposed accord with the Old Testament scriptures, but once see the false principle of this system of interpretation, which has been, I believe, sufficiently shown, and the whole building falls with the removal of its foundation.

The familiar passage, Acts 3:21, upon which so much is built, as though it meant a restitution of the universe, speaks plainly of things, not persons, and (according to what we have seen to be the scope of that Old Testament to which, of course, the apostle refers) it is upon the earth-and nowhere else. "Restitution of all (the) things of which the prophets have spoken" is the true force of the word. Likewise in Ephesians and Colossians, it is things, not persons, and in the latter place the persons reconciled are named apart. In none of these passages is hell named or by any possibility included; neither fallen angels nor lost men, but heavenly and earthly things. Reconciliation in Scripture in no way involves what Restorationists try to make out of it. Nor in the light of the testimony of Scripture as we have considered it, can the subjection of Phil. 2:10,11 be construed to mean virtually salvation.

It must suffice now to say that there is nothing in the whole array of argument and scriptural quotations presented by any of the Annihilationist, or Restorationist schools, in their various individual or combined forms, which affects the plain teaching of Scripture as we have presented it in these pages.

These systems of error deal capriciously with the Word of God, and do not hesitate to set it aside by supposing copyist errors, etc., where its voice is to plainly against them. The judgment of sin is lowered, the person of Christ and the Spirit seriously attacked, atonement too, in fact all vital to Christianity becomes affected by these views.

Last month I traced evidences of the Trinity in the numerical structure of this first chapter of Genesis. Now, when God reaches the culmination of His works in man's creation, there is a deliberation as to it not seen in His previous acts, which is, surely, very significant.

Bacon has said, "The work of days is the light of sense; His last work is the light of reason." If the Third Person of the blessed Trinity brooded over the waters at the first, and made them pregnant, as Milton puts it, in accord with the Hebrew, and the Second Person, the Word, was active in all of God's work, the whole Trinity is seen in council in the creation of man:for God, Elohim, said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The counsel and creative energy of the Triune God is called forth when, as we are told, "God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." Not for nothing does the Holy Spirit repeat his profound word "create" three time in this impressive manner. To "create," or call into "existence that which was, not, is not to be confounded with make-which means to mould or fashion out of pre-existing material.

To create is the prerogative of Almighty God alone. By its forceful repetition three times in this short verse, it would seem that God not only calls attention to the Trinity (which we have seen so pertinently hinted at throughout the chapter), but as prophetically to forestall the infidel teaching of the wise and the learned of these latter days upon whom a spirit of delusion has come to believe a lie. In the opinion of Principal Dawson The under an accumulation of facts too vast for generalization, Earth and Man, ch. xiv), "The human mind, staggering has revamped a system, not original, destitute of any shadow of proof, and supported merely by vague analogies and figures of speech, and by the arbitrary and artificial coherence of its own parts"-a system indeed more indicative of dotage than of scientific acumen and philosophic ability.

On the contrary, we have the emphatic declaration of Holy Writ that man is God's immediate, direct, and noblest handiwork-His creation, made to present and reflect his Creator, as lord over the earth, and master over all creatures on earth as their sovereign lord, in allegiance to his Maker alone. The image in which man was created has been marred by sin; but even so, abundant traces of his origin, in position and faculties over all other creatures, remain. In his very being, man is a trinity-body, soul, and spirit, and is linked to God by his spirit (which the brute has not) and is thus "the offspring of God" (Acts 17:29). The communication of his thoughts by speech is man's prerogative; he alone of all creatures on earth can look up and commune with God as the Author of his being, to whom he may express his sorrows, his joys and worship; for even in his fallen state he carries the stamp of his origin, both in his spiritual nature and physical competency. Even in the communication of his thoughts a form of trinity is expressed-a subject, predicate, and object are his means of enunciation, showing plan, action, and result contemplated.

Such is man by creation, clearly shown still in his fallen state. In his restored condition, or re-creation, the lost "image" will not only be fully restored, but far enhanced for the sons of God, when we shall bear the image of the heavenly Man, as we have borne the image of the earthy (1 Cor. IS:47-49; 1 John 3:2). Even the dominion lost through the Fall shall be restored in the Son of Man, "the last Adam," and those associated with Him, as we are told in the 8th psalm. "Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet-all sheep and oxen, yea, all the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." Well does the Psalmist sing of Him, "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. The whole earth is full of thy glory."

The denial of the complete divinity of our Lord, Christ, the new Head of a renewed race, is intimately and logically connected with the denial of man's creation by God. The two go hand-in-hand. Those who would rob us of these two great facts, rob us of our highest dignity and noblest destiny. They would debase us to the level of the beast. They would leave us without hope and without God in a world of sense and despair! G. Nash Morton

(Ps. 147:5.)

Great, great indeed, O Lord, art Thou,
As all Thy works so fully prove:
Thou didst the countless worlds create
And make them in their order move;
And still Thou dost their course direct,
And from destruction them protect.

At Thy creative power and skill
We stand astounded, and adore;
But when we gaze at Calvary,
And all its wealth of love explore,
We prostrate fall before Thy face
And worship Thee for boundless grace.

For man's redemption Thou hast died
Upon that suffering cross of shame,
And all whose hearts are won by grace
Rejoice and triumph in Thy name:
And soon thy saints with Thee above
Shall praise Thee for Thy matchless love!

Then, from those heavens Thou shalt come
To this dark scene where Thou wast slain;
Thy mighty power shall conquer sin,
And o'er creation Thou shalt reign.
All men, and demons, then shall see
How great Thy power and majesty.

What mortals will not now believe,
Thy power shall then compel to know;
Proud unbelief shall pale and die
When rocks and hills reel to and fro;
Thy presence and Thy flaming sword
Shall vanquish Satan and his horde.

With foes over thrown, and Satan cast
Into that fiery, dark abyss,
Thou shalt be LORD o'er worlds above,
And king and sovereign over this:
Thy kingdom-boundaries shall extend
To countless worlds, and know no end.

Faith longs to see Thee crowned and throned,
And all creation own Thy sway-
All hostile strivings hushed and quelled,
Sin, death and darkness swept away!
Then, come, O Lord! Thy kingdom claim,
Let boundless honors crown Thy name!

C. C. Crowston