By W. Easton & S. Ridout, at Plainfield Meeting, July,'89).

By WM. EASTON (Jno. 17:)

I have read this chapter, beloved friends, not with the idea of expounding it, but just to set forth a few thoughts about it, in order to make the Lord Jesus "Christ Himself a little more precious to us. We can never make too much of Him. I shall never forget the remark of a dear old servant of God many years ago, when he asked me on one occasion to supply a pulpit for him. As I was leaving the house, he said,-

" Remember, now, God delights to hear any one speak well of His Son."

I have never forgotten that, beloved friends, and through God's mercy I try to the best of my abilities to speak well of His Son. And I want so to set Him before our hearts to-night that the very youngest Christians in this tent shall find that the Lord, in however feeble a measure, has been endeared to their hearts; and if we succeed in that, it will be an immense thing.

And here let me say another word before going further. It is not God's gift to us that we are to speak about. Were we speaking of that, and unfolding that, we should turn, in all probability, to the third chapter of John's gospel, where we read that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." That is God's love-gift to the world. Blessed one it is, surely. Would to God that every one in this tent knew it! Would to God that every one in this tent could say, "I have got that; I have stretched out the hand of faith, and have taken hold of that gift, and now I can say, ' Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift;' I have eternal life. I know the Father, and I know the Son of the Father; and my heart is acquainted with both." What a thing to say! Many times I am positively astounded, in preaching the gospel, at some of the simple truths-truths that we call elementary-that we almost feel ashamed to talk about before a company of saints, because of their simplicity, and yet how profound their depths ! The sacrifice of the Son of God ! or the love of God ! what do we know about them, beloved brethren? Next door to nothing. There is a depth in such themes that our souls have never yet fathomed. There are heights we have never yet reached. May the living God give us to enjoy more even the so-called elementary truths, such as " God so loved the world." Beloved brethren, we have never exhausted that theme, therefore we need not be ashamed to preach from it. We have never got to the bottom of it yet, and all true-hearted saints will be delighted to hear it, and to pray for it.

We commence, then, with this:God has not only been pleased to give a love-gift to us, but He has been pleased to give a love-gift to His Son. He has given something to Christ, as well as given Christ to us, and therefore our theme is not, " God so loved the world, that He gave His Son; " but it is, God so loved His Son, that He gave the saints to Him. What a wondrous thought! And beloved brethren, that is just what I want to set forth tonight, so that even the youngest Christian here may have larger and grander thoughts of the Saviour, and be able to enjoy Him more than ever.

I want, then, to get fastened in our minds this blessed thought, that God has given us to Christ. " Oh," you say, "we knew that years ago." I know that, my friends, but remember you haven't sucked all the honey out of it yet. God has been pleased to take hold of you and me; and, to show the fullness of His heart's love for His beloved Son, He has given us to Christ. Tell me, how does such a thought affect your soul and mine? Can you estimate the value that the Lord Jesus Christ puts upon
you as the Father's love-gift to Him? Can you tell what the thoughts of His heart are toward us? What must He think of us? This is the way to look at His love. And, dear young Christians, never let us forget this :every thing depends upon the person who gives the gift. It is not a question of the value of the thing itself. It may be very trifling and insignificant-any thing but a costly thing; but the question is, who gave it ? I can tell you, I carry a little thing in that pocket-just a tiny little thing, yet money won't buy it. Another person perhaps wouldn't give ten cents for the thing itself. All the cents in America could not buy it from me. Why ? Simply because of the giver. How blessed, then, to think that the eye of the Lord rests upon every saint in this wide world with affection and delight, because they have been given to Him ! Yes, that blessed One looks down from the heavens into this tent to-night, and sees and values and loves even the feeblest of His own. Beloved brethren, it is the most wonderful thought imaginable ! God has given you and me to His beloved Son ! What a revelation this is to us ! It was the gift of the Father to the Son. It was just as though He said to the Son, " You see how I love You, and I am going to give You something that I know You will value." Thus the thoughts and feelings of the Saviour toward us are molded, if we might so speak, by this blessed fact, that we are the Father's love-gift to Him.

Now if you take and read this chapter at your leisure, you will find that the words, " give," " given," and "gavest" occur seventeen times,-the same number as the chapter. They give a character to it. And it lets us see that the Lord Jesus Christ looks upon the saints with this thought in His mind. Just as though He said, " This is the gift that My Father in His love has given to Me, and now I will tell out My heart, so that they may hear what the thoughts and the feelings and the desires of My heart are about them." He might have whispered that prayer into the ear of His father about us without letting us know, but the blessed Lord would not do that. That would not satisfy His loving heart; hence we hear Him saying, "These things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves (5:13). He would have it communicated, He would have it written down too, so that you and I might listen to the breathings of His heart into the ear of the Father, and learn the wondrous fact that they were about us-He was praying for us. What a wonderful thing! Beloved brethren, do we enter into it ? Oh, does it not endear Him to our hearts? It is occupation with Him that endears Him to our hearts, as we sometimes sing,-

" I look to Him till sight endear
The Saviour to my heart."

Oh, what a blessed thing it is, just to get the eye of faith upon that blessed Object, and drink in the revelation there unfolded to us in this seventeenth of John, and listen to the breathings of His blessed heart, and to put ourselves in the midst of that hallowed circle that He calls " His own." Just think of it, and take it home to your own heart. Me, a poor, weak, worthless thing in myself, perhaps just converted, and to think I am dear to the heart of the Lord! Who could express it but Himself? No one. But He has made it all known to us in this chapter, that we might have the enjoyment of it all now, and be with Him forever and forever by and by. How true is that word, " Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end "! (Jno. 13:1:)
Now what is the first thing He gives us when He thinks of us as the Father's love-gift to Him ? Well, He says, the first thing I will give them is eternal life, "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him" (5:2). He knew that our poor wretched hearts could never understand these things unless He gave us a new nature capable of understanding and enjoying them, therefore He says, "I will give them eternal life;" "and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (5:3). Now do not let us forget that the Lord is not here defining what eternal life is,-He is not giving us definitions of eternal life ; He is telling us the characteristics of it. The man that has it knows the Father and the Son:" That they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." I understand human life because I am a human being myself, and have the same life that every man has. In like manner I understand and am able to enjoy, according to my measure, the Father and the Son, because I have the same life in me-eternal life. Isn't that a wonderful thought, beloved friends? Isn't it a marvelous thing to begin with ? He says, " I will give them eternal life." Every child of God has it; they could not be children of God if they hadn't it. They never did any thing for it. It was the pure sovereign act of God in giving it to them. The Lord says, "I will give them eternal life." We have got it, thank God. We are not putting it far away over yonder, and hoping that some of these days we shall get it. No ; we have it, and enjoy it now. Then there is another thing:"I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world." Here there is relationship, and knowledge of it. I am not speaking of how far they entered into it, but merely of the fact itself; for all through, the Lord was revealing the Father. Isn't it a wonderful thing to know the Father,-to know the heart of that One that gave His well-beloved Son to us, and gave us to His Son ? And that is what all young Christians know. Even the babes know the Father (i Jno. 2:13). The Lord Jesus is here speaking of His disciples, but the application is equally true to us, as He says further on in the chapter, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word " (5:20); so that all believers come in, and may have the enjoyment of it. And it seems as though the Lord knew that Satan would try to steal that away from us, and that some long-headed individual would come in with his reasoning, and say, " Oh, that was only for the disciples," and. He put that little word in for our comfort, " Neither pray I for these alone, but for those that believe on Me through their word." Oh, what a blessed thing it is to know the Father! There are many of the dear children of God who seem afraid to say, " Father." You hear them speak about God, and sometimes in their prayers they address Him as the Great and Holy, and Almighty Lord God, and use all those great and glorious titles of God;-titles which are all true in their place, but which are not the familiar but reverent utterances of a child to its Father. Ah, it is another thing to know God as Father ! To be able to say that the Father's name has been revealed to my heart, and I know that He is my Father. That gives the boldness-the affectionate and holy boldness of the child. And such a thought, beloved brethren, does not give license, but it keeps us steady and sober; for we know that while that One who is up there is our Father, we know that our Father is God. What an important thing that is ! Never let us forget it. That blessed God is our Father, but He who is our Father is God. This gives Him His place, and keeps us in ours. It is well for us to keep these things clear and distinct, beloved brethren, especially in these days, when people are attacking the Word of God on every hand, and taking or leaving just what they please; and when some are making every thing of the universal Fatherhood of God, without the new birth, and various other notions which men spin out of their own brains.

Again, you find Christians speaking about the blessed Lord, and calling Him their Elder Brother. This is a shocking thing ! I hope none here will ever do it. If the Lord Jesus, after having borne all our sins, and the penalties due to us because of those sins, upon the cross, and having been raised by the glory of the Father, and ascended to His right hand,-if He in grace associates us with Himself in resurrection, and deigns to call us brethren, let us adore Him for the grace that could do it; but never let us seek to bring Him down to our level, and call Him "Brother." Thomas did not say, "My dear Elder Brother;" but " My Lord and my God." Oh, see to it that we give the Lord His true place. Let us not use language that even unintentionally lowers Him.

Then there is another thing:the Lord's care for His own comes out here so beautifully. "While I was with them in the world, / kept them in Thy name; those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled " (5:12). And then in the ninth verse, " I pray for them:I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine." And in the eleventh verse, " Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we are." Is it not blessed, beloved friends, to see the value that the Lord Jesus attaches to us, and the interest He has in us ? He gives us eternal life, makes known the Father's name to us, and then, in view of His going away, makes the fullest provision for our being kept, by putting us into the care of the Holy Father. It is just as if He said, "These poor things are so precious to Me that I couldn't intrust them to any one else, so I will hand them over to the care of the One who gave them to Me, for I know His heart, and He will look after them:' Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me.' (5:ii) 'While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name'" (5:12). And in the ninth verse, " I pray for them . . . which Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine. And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine." Isn't that a wonderful thought ! Think of our being put into the care of a holy Father! Sometimes we forget this, beloved friends. Sometimes we forget the character of the One that is looking after us. It is well to bear it in mind, and to walk in the sense of this solemn but blessed fact:my Father is the holy Father, and as such, He would have His children in keeping with His own character; so I must think of that, and seek to act accordingly. It is not, beloved friends, that it makes us melancholy. I don't believe that having the sense of the Father's love makes us pull long faces. I don't believe that God ever meant His people to pull long faces and appear miserable. I believe that holiness does not tend that way at all. That is legality, and, alas ! many of the saints of God are legal to a degree; but legality is not liberty, and liberty is not license. There is holy reverence when we approach the presence of God, but there is a freedom without levity. God means us to be natural and real. We are not all cast in the same mold, so we need not try to imitate each other in any way; only let us be real, and keep before us the fact that our Father is God,-that He is the holy Father. And if we know this, do not let us seek to get out of it in any way, but let us seek to be consistent with it, and at the same time to be joyful and real in our hearts before Him. God looks for reality, and He will have it. Let us therefore beware of assuming any thing.

Well, He is keeping us, caring for us. What should we do if He wasn't ? I am not speaking now of the Lord looking after us as the High-Priest, etc., but of the care of the holy Father. May our hearts enter more into it.

But there is another thing, beloved friends. The Lord is going to have us with Himself. He has given us eternal life; He has revealed the Father's name to us; He has put us into the Father's hands while He is away; and now He says, " I am going to have these poor things, that I love so much, with Myself up there;" and He says, "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory" (5:24). Isn't that a beautiful thought, brethren ? that there is a glory which the Lord Jesus Christ cannot give to us, but He knows we shall be delighted to behold it. He counts, as it were, upon the affections of our hearts. He knows we shall be delighted with the thought that there is that which is His which He never could communicate, but which we shall be delighted to behold, while we worship and adore. And that corrects some strange thoughts that are going about to-day. People are getting into serious errors in this connection. Some are saying that the saints are on an unqualified equality with the Lord; others, that everything that the Lord Jesus is and has as man, the Christian is and has; and others, that all His acquired glories the Christian will share with Him. Beloved brethren, I deny it. To me, it is an awfully solemn thing to make such statements. Yet I have even seen such a statement in print, and handed round to meet supposed current errors, that "all that Christ is and has as man, the Christian is and has." I say again, I deny it. It is false. Will he who made that statement have the bride ? Christ as man will have her. Will he sit upon the throne of David ? Christ will sit upon that throne. Will he have the glories of the first and second of Hebrews ? Never. Yet Christ has them. Yes, He has glories peculiar to Himself, even as man, which we can never share. Blessed be His name forever and ever! But there is one thing absolutely certain, that there is not one single thing that the heart of the Lord can give to us or share with us that He will withhold from us-not one. He will give us everything His loving heart can give. But let us beware, and not rob Him to exalt ourselves.

And when it is a question of seeing Him, and being with Him, He says, "I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am." How is that going to take place? Is He going to send for us? No. Is it the angels that are coming? No, not even the highest of them. He will not even send Michael or Gabriel. The saints are so precious, so valuable, that He says, as it were, " I must go after them Myself." When, therefore, the time comes that He must have us with Himself, (and this verse is to have its fulfillment,) it is Himself who comes. As the apostle beautifully puts it, "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven," etc. (i Thess. 4:16.) It is not another Jesus:it is the "same Jesus." The One who "bore all our sins in His own body on the tree" (i Pet. 2:24); who bears all our sorrows on His heart on the throne. Yes, it is the same Jesus. The One whom God "raised from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body." (Eph. 1:19-23.) Far above what? Name any thing you like, or any name you like:He is far above every one and every thing. And it is that Jesus whom we know and love. We have not lost Him because He has gone in there. No, no; blessed be His name ! By faith we have seen Him go up to the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, and take His seat there. There is where Jesus is tonight. Don't we know Him ? Surely, we do ! And He occasionally pays us visits, in ways so marvelous that all we can say is, you must experience it for yourselves:it cannot be explained. He says, " I will manifest Myself to him" (Jno. 14:21). You must know it for yourselves. It is so wonderful, you cannot explain it. People may say, "I don't believe it." Well, be it so. But when once you have tasted it, my friends, you will believe it then, and you will want others to taste of it likewise. Peter speaks of it when he says, "We rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified." It is not fanaticism either, but the sober teaching of God's Word. Would that we all had more enjoyment of it! And that is the One we are going to see. We are going to be with Him and like Him forever.

He has expressed His will about us, and that will shall have its accomplishment soon.
Beloved brethren, He is coming Himself. Who is it we are waiting for? Jesus. He might be here to-night. "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself," He said. How shall we go? Shall we fly? No! though we sometimes sing, "Then as we upward fly." We shall be " caught up." The same mighty power that raised the blessed Lord, and took Him up there, will be that by which we shall be raised, and we shall pass into the presence of the Lord that has loved us so long and so well;-loved us with a love that is inexpressible, because He has taken us from the Father's hand as the love-gift of His Father's heart to Him. Dear young Christian, isn't He a blessed Saviour? Don't you feel that your heart is drawn out to Him more, through this brief glance at His love? And if you should feel inclined to say, "O Lord, how very little do I love Thee, in view of such a display of Thy love to me !" take courage and comfort from this fact, that there is One who loves Him perfectly. "The Father loveth the Son;" and remember, the more we see of His love, and the more we are occupied with His love, the more will our love flow forth to Him. "We love Him because He first loved us." May the Lord give us a greater enjoyment of these things, and make them good in our souls.

The second parable of this chapter, brief as it is, is undoubtedly the most difficult of the three, and that not merely because of its brevity. The thought of the woman, and that of the house, seem to introduce elements which if intelligible from a Christian are all the less so from a Jewish stand-point. Yet we may not omit them as of no importance. Scripture is no where less than perfect, and to impute what is our own ignorance to defect in it is irreverent folly. Let us see, then, what light maybe gained by patient examination of the parable in dependence upon Him who alone can teach effectually.

It is certain that in all the three the joy of recovery is set before us,-the joy, blessed to hear of, in the presence of the angels-divine joy in the fullest sense. In the first parable, it is that of the Shepherd-of Christ Himself; in the last, it is the Father's joy who receives,-yet not only receives, for the son is yet "a long way off" when He sees and has compassion, and runs, and falls upon his neck, and kisses him. The second parable must give us, then, one would say, the joy of the Spirit, and thus the whole heart of God be manifested to us.

The central figure here-that of a woman-at first sight may present a difficulty here. A woman might well be a picture of the Church of God,-of the saints of God,- and such we have elsewhere in the Word. But then these thoughts are after all not so far asunder. The Spirit of God works through the Word ; the Word is carried by the saints ; thus indirectly He may be represented in what is directly their picture. And how else, indeed, one may ask, could He be more fitly? While most graciously thus redeemed sinners are not only themselves joyed over, but taken in to share the joy of heaven also over the salvation of others.

Thus the " woman " seems intelligible, and the figure of wisdom in the book of Proverbs may remind us that after all it is not altogether foreign to the Old-Testament Scriptures. Here, as we might expect in the gospels, the object of her search is more helpless, more absolutely dependent upon the love that goes out after it; and this does not in the least affect the suitability of the story here. Rather is it all in divine harmony.

So is it in keeping that we hear now of a lamp lighted for the search,-the figure, of course, of the Word of God as lighted amid the darkness of the world. Yet the Spirit of God must light it up if it is to manifest where the lost soul is,-often in corners dark and secret enough, and sadly covered with dust and smut of sin, so that you would not recognize it at all as having the value that it has for God. A lost piece of silver speaks of this value ; a lost soul may easily overbalance the whole world gained. The atonement-money in Israel was paid in silver ; and atonement it is that exhibits the true value of a soul gained for God-regained, for He all through is the owner of it. "Behold, all souls are Mine," He says. Ah, what diligent search would we not make if we thought of the stamp of the royal mint upon the lowest and most degraded among men, and saw the value of souls with God in the price paid for them-saw the sheen of silver glitter in the lamplight out of the dust of some neglected corner!

We must sweep the house ! But the dust will fly, and this sweeping is not a pleasant occupation. To make a stir about sin is unpleasant enough, no doubt, but the broom turns, if it be a little roughly sometimes, the king's money out of its hiding-place.
The house must be swept. It is the place of natural ties and relationships-those links by which God would bring us together and make us objects of interest to one another. It is within this circle that we shall find most profit in sweeping-most readily come across the precious coins for God's treasury. Many are ready to do street-sweeping, and testify abroad for Christ, who have no heart for it in the familiar circles in which after all are the nearest and most recompensing fields of labor. The witness of the home, of the place of business, of the familiar and accustomed life, is the most fruitful-the God-ordained first place at least of labor, which if we occupy, we may be promoted, but not else. Ah, if we would sweep the house!-nothing so marks the work of the Holy Ghost as this, in which the good work will be measured, however, not by the amount of dust that is raised, but by the pieces of silver that we find. For if " he that winneth souls is wise"," he that is wise, too, shall win them. This close and homely work God blesses :the house is cleansed by it; but more, that which has been lost is found. Oh, be sure, this woman at her housework may read us a true gospel-lesson, and every woman at her housework may thus have the joy of the evangelist, and the labor of love that fails not; for love's labor is never lost.

What characterizes the day is so much official evangelism, with so little simple natural testimony according to the apostolic order-"I believed, and therefore have I spoken:" the necessary outflow of full hearts, of those that have been in Christ's company, and cannot forbear to say to those around what it costs no education, no special gift, to say,-"Come, see a Man which told me all things that ever I did ; is not this the Christ?" A great and effectual preacher was that poor Samaritan woman! What had made her so ? What she says herself,-the company of Christ. Christ had been speaking to her. It is this that looses the tongue and gives it eloquence indeed.

Is it not striking that when the Lord would give us here the share which His people can have in the joy of heaven, that He gives us, not a crier in the market-place, but this quiet and unseen toiler in the house. "It is only an illustration," same will say. Well, it is an illustration out of which the thoughtful and the humble will get help and courage, and thank Him for it. Let the crier cry too in the market-place, and thank God for that! But if it were a choice between the two (which it is not), better would it be to have the necessary testimony of faith-" I believed, and therefore have I spoken,"-in every private Christian than the more public testimony even. Could we have this aright, how would the Old-Testament scripture be fulfilled, " The Lord gave the Word :great was the company of those that published it "-as the words imply, the "women that published it" (Ps. 68:ii). This woman-preaching would indeed be effectual work.

The joy is here as in the other parables:" And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, ' Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.' Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

And the joy of the Holy Ghost, will He not make it felt in the hearts of His people? "Friends" He must have with whom to share it. It is diffusive, multiplying itself as it travels from heart to heart, as a fire increases with fresh fuel. Such shall be the joy of eternity,-the joy of one the joy of all,-the pervasive joy of love, than which there is nothing sweeter, nothing purer, nothing higher. It is indeed the joy of God Himself, for " God is love."

CHAP. I.-(Continued.)

What occupied the Old-Testament prophets was, the Spirit's testimony to the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow (5:ii). For them, history was filled up with the events of this earnest expectation. Therefore, were they living now, what would fill their minds, the cross having been accomplished, would be, the looking for the coming glories-not for what man has attained to and boasts of in civilization. Let this have weight with us. In the degree of our sympathy with the hopes of the men of this world are we out of communion with the spirit of those holy men of old who were subject to God. Eighteen hundred years of more or less of civilization and great achievement, would not their spirits have been awed by it, and have acknowledged a certain obligation to show some interest in the march of so great events ? Well, the Scripture gives the answer. There were great empires and human expectations in their day, but their minds were set upon the mystery of the cross-the humiliation and atoning death of a glorious Sufferer, and then the glory. So "Daniel also disposes of this whole age in a few words:" Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase; " but what was all that ? His whole book is occupied with other things-the purposes of God for His people, and the glory of Christ's kingdom, when man's development will have met God's power, and have been forever abased.

We pass on now to the thirteenth verse, to have our minds too set upon the same coming glories:"Wherefore gird up the loins of your find, be sober, and hope to the end (or perfectly), for the grace that is to be brought into you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." This is the opening exhortation of the epistle. It is followed by so many exhortations that it would be a labor to count them, however happy and profitable a labor it would be,- such as, "Be ye holy," " Love one another," "Laying aside all malice," " Desire the sincere milk of the Word," " I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man," "Wives, be in subjection to your own husbands," "Rejoice," "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God," "Be sober, be vigilant," and many more; so that we may say that Peter, among the writers of the New Testament, is an "exhorter." He says, "I exhort" (chap. 5:i); "I beseech" (chap. 2:ii); "I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying" (chap. 5:12); and in the second epistle, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance;" "Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;" and "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles." In behalf of all Scripture, then,-Old Testament and New Testament,-this apostle declares himself an exhorter. With all earnestness he pleads ; filled himself with the love of Christ.

Reference to the Revised Version will show that ver. 13 is the beginning of a new paragraph, or division. Vers. I and 2 form the introductions, and from there to ver. 13 is a second paragraph; from ver. 13 is a third. "Wherefore," refers to the salvation just unfolded in the previous verses, and the example of the prophets, and of the angels. Note, now, the characters of this opening exhortation of this part of the New Testament, presented to us by the Spirit of God. In it we are exhorted to do what we have just been told the prophets did. They set their minds on the coming glory; so we are to hope for the revelation of Christ.
The revelation of Christ will be when He is revealed from heaven,-when. He will appear in glory with His heavenly saints, for the blessing and establishment of His earthly saints in the millennium,-that is, for the blessing of Israel restored to their own land, and of the Gentiles, who to the ends of the earth will share the blessings of that day, of which Jerusalem will be the center, as regards the earth.

The glory of Christ and His heavenly saints will then shine upon the earth and upon the earthly saints. " When Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4). Israel-1:e., a remnant- will be waiting for Him in their own land when He appears; but we shall not then be here, for, having been caught up to meet Him before the tribulation of Israel, we shall be seen with Him in glory at its close. Christ in (or among) you the hope of glory" (Col. 1:),-that is, Christ, being the life of these Gentile Colossians, that was the assurance of glory when He came. Col. 1:5 shows it will be heavenly glory by the words "the hope that is laid up for you in heaven," and chap. 3:4, already quoted, that the glory will be at His second coming, when He will appear to all the world, and every eye shall see Him.

This is the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let us lay fast hold of it, for many reject the hope of the Lord's coming, and many who accept it have given up the hope of heaven.

The Holy Scriptures present us both. Let, therefore, the loins be girded, the thoughts gathered in from worldly purposes, and fixed upon our proper hope.

In Egypt (Ex. 12:ii), when in type they are redeemed by blood, they were to eat of the passover-lamb with the loins girded, staff in hand, and shoes on their feet. So we, having been redeemed, the first thing is, again to have the girded loins, as in Luke 12:-" Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately." The Christian must reject unbelieving and worldly thoughts by occupation with his heavenly hope, as the fish that were clean (Lev. 11:9) were those that had fins to propel themselves onward, and scales to shut out the element that surrounded them. All that had not these were to be an abomination to Israel. Such is the hatefulness of sin in God's sight. The hope of glory with Christ of necessity shuts out from the heart those things that all the world seek for with the whole heart. But this demands decision of purpose-"diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Heb. 6:ii).

Let the heart be true and firm, and let us habituate ourselves to a steady contemplation of the unspeakable joy that awaits us, and refuse all those things that so easily make inroads upon our souls when the mind has lost its steadfastness.

In Rom. 5:2-5, we find how this Christian hope is confirmed in the heart by a godly walk, and daily victory in trials :"We rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."

"Maketh not ashamed,"-that is, the Christian is not confused by the sorrows of the way, like the speculator whose dreams have been disappointed ; but in these very difficulties and distresses, the tender love of God, by His Spirit, so strengthens the heart, that future and unseen glories are made more and more real to us now. This is the joy that, as Peter says, is full of glory.

There is a very beautiful summing, or brief expression,' of this Christian experience in Rom. 2:7 :" To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory; "-that is, a beautiful way and shining path-" patient continuance in well-doing." This is the way God marks out the path to glory, and the glory at the end shines down upon us, and richly sustains on the way to it.

But impatience, unrest, the hands hanging down, the knees feeble, murmurs against God in the secret of the heart, and against man, and yielding to the lusts of the flesh,-not glory, but shame is at the end of that path.

The glory is hidden from us then, and we have taken things into our own hands, deluded by Satan.

Let us make haste to confess our sin, and cast out the intruder, and return to the Lord, and He will pardon; and glory and virtue will again sustain us, the mountain of trouble will be removed, and " every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth." E.S.L.

The words which are in our common version, " the glorious gospel of Christ," should be rather (as now in the revised) "the gospel of the glory of Christ." This is not only the literal translation, but also the one required by the context, whether we glance back at "the glory of the Lord" in chap. 3:18, or forward to "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," in the verse but one following. In either case, it is the Lord Himself in glory, risen from the dead, and at the right hand of God, that is spoken of. It is His glory there as man, although much more than man, and even as man the "image of God," which is "gospel"-that is to say, " good news "-to fallen man.

To Paul himself, let us remember, the first revelation of the truth had been the revelation of Christ in glory. With a brightness which eclipsed the glory of the noonday sun, it had shone down upon the persecutor, lighting, up the depths of his soul, and bringing him face to face with One upon the throne of heaven whom he knew not, -face to face with himself, whom he never yet had really known. What a meeting! What a discovery! The Lord, his Lord, Lord of heaven and earth, unknown up to that moment; he in that moment stricken from the heights of Phariseeism into a deeper "ditch" than Job's, but now "touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless," a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and now sinner among sinners-the very chief of sinners !

What effected this mighty change ? Just what will do it equally for you, reader, or for any one in his position,- one moment's sight of the glory of the lord. You may have heard abundantly before :so had Job,-" I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;" how different when he could say, "but now mine eye seeth Thee"! Then alone it is, "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Aye, no flesh can glory in His presence, whether revealed in vision as to Paul, or simply by the entrance of the Word in the power of the Spirit bringing divine light into the inner man of the heart. If one might have whereof to glory, yet " not before God." The true test of whether a soul has been before God is here.

And let it be noted well, the hinge of the controversy between God and man is now the God-man in the glory. Why there ? It is where He belongs, you say. True; He had left that which He had with the Father before the world was, to be in the world the Minister of Christ to it. All power in His hand to turn back into paradise again the ruin man had caused on earth. The sick healed, the deaf hearing, the dumb tongue loosed to sing, the lame whole, the devil's captives with a word delivered, the dead with one mighty word raised up,-He is attested by all this the Son of Man with power on earth to forgive sins,-to reach down to the very bottom of man's condition, and set all upon a new footing of grace and blessing before God. He was in the world, by whom the world was made, by whom the world could be again restored :what was the issue? The death of agony; the cross of shame; and so out of the rich man's tomb, not to be holden of death, up to the place from which He had descended.

What, then, of the world ? " O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee" (Jno. 17:25). That is still its characteristic. He that has known Christ has known the Father. He who owns Christ passes by this out of the world; the world is crucified to him, and he unto the world. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also." Yea, "whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God" (i Jno. 2:23; 4:15). Once more:"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). Surely there is "good news " in a glory which, when revealed to the soul, is the salvation of him to whom it is revealed !

But let us not mistake the matter :there is an essential difference between receiving a tradition, or accepting a belief in which one has been educated, and the in shining of the light of which the apostle speaks,-just as much difference as between beholding the sun shine, and accepting, like a blind man, the warrant of others as to it.

Have you ever beheld His glory, beloved reader? Have you "believed with the heart unto righteousness' ? Is there heart-interest in the matter with you at all ? Have you ever confessed Jesus Lord ? Does your soul own Him as its Lord indeed? It is a question of life and death; for "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

But what direct "good news" does "the glory of Christ" bring?

What would it be to you if, in the pinch of poverty and famine, you suddenly heard of the exaltation of one whom you had known, and well known-a companion, a friend, an intimate-to the throne of the land ? Need I ask?

Just such a friend-aye, a friend of sinners-has been Jesus. None such ever trod this earth beside. When He says, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth," is there no good news there? Ah, the more power His, the more help mine. I am rich if He is,-at least, if. He be the same Lord Jesus that was once the Man of sorrows for us here.

But that is not all. Suppose the friend I just now spoke of had taken for me the burden of my sins upon himself; suppose I had actually seen him sign the bond and assume the responsibility of them all. Multiply all that a thousandfold. Let it be sin, not debt. Let the cross be the place of the assumption of my responsibility,- the death he died, my actual penalty. This is the simple, literal fact for the believer. What, then, to him the resurrection, ascension, and glory of the Son of God in the heavens?

The glory of Christ-of a Man:"the Man Christ Jesus." , Manhood in Him, not drawn merely out of the slough of degradation and damnation of sin, but taken up to God and glorified with the glory which He had before all worlds !

Not only, then, is condemnation gone, penalty endured, justice satisfied; there is infinitely more,-a positive and not a negative blessing only. For as man He is gone up; as man He is in glory, He has conquered and won for man; for man earned and deserved; for man acquired and possessed. " The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them."

Moreover, it is " the glory of Christ, who is the image of God"

That completes the blessedness.

He is "the image of the invisible God." If "no man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him " (Jno. 1:18). We are not left to ask, with Philip, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." The Father is not one God and He another :He and the Father are One.

Nor are His attributes divided; as if justice were the Father's, love the Son's; as if the Father merely received what the Son offered; as if the cross of the Son were but a shield from the wrath of the Father. No; God loved and gave,-" so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jno. 3:16).

If God gave Him up to die, He raised Him also from the dead,-took the side of those for whom He suffered, whether He gave Him up for them in love, or took Him up for them from the dead in righteousness. Thus His righteousness is on our side as well as His love, and whether I look up to Him who is on the throne of glory, or remember Him in His unparalleled humiliation upon earth, it is God I see in the man,-God-man as He must be, for who but God could thus show forth God?

All this the "gospel of the glory of Christ" preaches to me-to all who believe in Him. How is it has been so much forgotten ? May no reader of this be blinded by the god of this world, so that the light of it should not shine in upon his soul.

IN YOUR HEARTS TO THE LORD."

(Col. 3:16.)

"So God alone attunes the heart
His holy name to praise,
For nature, though refined by art,
True worship ne'er can raise;
The voice is tuned, alas! in vain:
Of praise it still is void,
Unless a man be ' born again,'
And truly 'taught of God.'"

"HOWARD LAKE, MINN., Sept., 1889.

"Dear Brother,-

"Brother L.'s business takes him through the villages and towns of this state, and he has many an opportunity for sowing the seed of the gospel. One Saturday evening, having entered the town of G–, and made preparations for staying over the Lord's day, he was asked by a friend to come to the barn, to look at a horse. On entering the barn, an open oat-sack met his eye, and into it he quietly dropped a tract. This tract was put into the sack in the hope that this friend, whom he knew to be a stranger to God's love, would find and read it. But ' God moves in a mysterious way,' and as this oat-sack belonged to a minister who kept his horse in the same barn, the minister found the tract and took it home to read. Knowing the town to be an ungodly one, his curiosity was excited, and he wondered much by whom the tract had been dropped. The next day, as he was having a vacation, he attended services held by a minister of another denomination. Looking over the congregation, he saw a man turning to his Bible, and perceiving him to be a stranger, he thought, 'There is the man who put the tract in the oat-sack.' After meeting, he spoke to him, and finding him a follower of the Master, invited him to his house. The acquaintance then commenced resulted in the blessing spoken of in the following letter addressed to him lately. M.F.S.

"My Dear Brother,-

" It has been some time since I wrote you, and some strange things have transpired since then ; one of them is that a preacher should be brought out into the light as shed forth by Jesus in His Word. A small beginning ofttimes, under God's care and guidance, has a very great and worthy ending. For instance, a tract dropped in the mouth of an oat sack is a small thing-a small beginning, but the conversion of forty or fifty sinners, and perhaps more, and the blessing and upbuilding of a number of God's weak children-among them a preacher,-and the gathering together of a company of God's children as the result thus far, is a great ending; and the end is not yet. Who can tell whereunto this work, begun so simply, will grow. Go on, my brother, with your distribution of gospel-tracts:try another oat-sack,-it seems to be very fruitful ground. The great result of your work in that respect only eternity will reveal…… W.H.S.

The conviction of sin, and consequent confession of two men, these scriptures record. The former speaks of David, the latter, of Judas Iscariot. In this life they both confessed that which was pressing on their consciences; and the history of each has something to teach us, for whose instruction and profit they both have been recorded in the passages of Holy Writ (i Cor. 10:ii).

Turning first to the case of Judas Iscariot, ensnared by the enemy through his love of money, he was led on till he committed the sin of betraying the Lord. Peculation, it would seem, though unknown doubtless to the other disciples at the time, was not an uncommon thing with him. " He was a thief," writes John (12:6). Nettled by the Lord's rebuke administered in the house of Simon (of Bethany) six days before the passover (Jno. 12:7), he became the willing tool in the enemy's hand. That it was the rebuke then administered which incited him to turn traitor seems pretty plain from the juxtaposition, out of chronological order, of that scene at Bethany with his interview with the chief priests and scribes, as recorded by Matthew (26:3-16) and by Mark (14:i-ii). And perhaps Matthew's statement, after reciting that incident at Bethany, "Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests," etc. (26:14) may imply it. Without, however, building any thing on the adverb, then, in that passage, the events as related by Matthew suggest a motive for the treachery of Judas.

He went to the chief priests and scribes, not they to him. Sitting in conclave to determine how they could best apprehend the Lord without stirring up a popular movement in His favor, Judas appeared in their midst, and offered to effect that which they desired. Unexpected on their part was such treachery. But when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money (Mark 14:ii). The price was agreed upon- thirty pieces, or shekels, of silver-between three and four pounds of our money. Unconscious, probably, were all the parties to this infamous transaction of that passage in Zech. 11:12, prophetic of this event in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The terms arranged, within two days the compact was to be carried out, for the passover was nigh at hand. At the paschal feast with the Lord, Judas learnt that his purpose was known to the Master, though till then concealed from the rest. Whilst the others in their bewilderment were asking the Lord, "Is it I?" Judas had kept silence, it would appear, till doubtless very shame made him speak, saying, not "Lord," like the rest, but,"Rabbi, is it I ?" (Matt. 26:25.) To have remained silent would have betrayed himself to all. The Lord's immediate rejoinder, "Thou hast said," showed plainly that the plot was known to Him. Gehazi, in a past age, had learnt by Elisha's words that his duplicity and covetousness were known by the prophet. Judas must have understood that his plan, however carefully he had tried to conceal it, was not hidden from the Lord. Now, his treachery exposed, would he recoil from it? In what light the others would henceforth view him must have been apparent by their concern at the Lord's announcement of a traitor in the midst. That did not stop Judas in his career. If any thing would have done it, surely the Lord's solemn words, uttered before Judas asked the question – "It had been good for that man if he had not been born"-would have had a deterring effect. But no. Satan had put it into Judas' heart to betray Him ; and after the sop, Satan entered into him (Jno. 13:27).

Impelled by the desire for gain, he went out to fulfill his bargain, that the coveted prize he might grasp. All went on as well as he could have wished. The plan made for the Lord's apprehension was carried out without a check. No obstacle hindered its accomplishment; for Peter's stroke with the sword, though it hurt Malchus, did not further the release of his Master. Judas must that night have got his money ; clutched it, doubtless, eagerly, and carefully counted it, we can well believe, to see that it was correct. The chief priests had got their prisoner in safe custody, and quietly. Judas thus enriched, how long did he keep his money? The time might easily be counted by hours. Nobody snatched it from him. Nobody coveted, that we know of, that ill-gotten gain. With none was he asked to divide it. It was all and exclusively his own. Yet he could not keep it. That for which he had bartered away his soul he now loathed, detested, and threw from him.

Conscience, hitherto dulled, awoke and spoke. No one, do we read, reproached him ; no one accused him. He accused himself. His work as the enemy's tool was over; his service to the chief priests was a thing of the past; nobody now wanted him. And on the morning of the Lord's crucifixion-day, Judas was thoroughly wretched. He saw that the Sanhedrim had condemned the Lord:His death, then, was sure. The Roman governor would yield to the wish of the populace at such a time, and
the plans of the chief priests seemed in process of fulfillment. Now it was just at that moment, humanly speaking the most unlikely, that Judas repented himself. Humanly speaking, seeing that all was working in the way in which he had assisted, he would have persuaded himself that he had wrought a service to his countrymen, and that he had ingratiated himself with the leaders of the Jews. It was just at that time that his conscience spoke, and in tones to which he was compelled to give heed.

There is a time when conscience will exert its sway, and insist on being heard. That time for Judas had come. A solemn moment indeed it was for him-a warning now for any who need it. Conscience cannot be deadened forever. Judas proves that, and his history shows it. In his case, conscience roused up and spoke whilst he had on earth the possession of all his faculties. In some cases, it may only speak when opportunity for intercourse with others around has ended. But speak it will, assuredly, unless peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ is the individual's blessed portion. Conscience-the inward, silent monitor-will speak, and the individual at some time or other, as the Judge of all men may determine, must hearken. Surely it is for man's instruction that in the case of Judas it spoke while he was still in life, and able to confess.

Was it with him just a momentary waking up of conscience, ere the sleep of death was to silence it forever ? No ; memory is not impaired, though the body lies in the tomb in which it has been buried. Now this was taught us by One competent to teach-the Son of God. The secrets of the other world God can disclose. In both Testaments has He in measure done that, distinctly teaching us that unconsciousness and slumber are unknown in that region.

The soul does not sleep, though the body does. In this, both Old and New Testament agree. Witness the graphic, though poetical, description of the descent into the under world of the king of Babylon (Isa. 14:9, 10) and of the king of Egypt (Ezek. 32:21-31). Witness too the story of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:23-30). Figurative language, perhaps some may say, these passages present. Well, but of what ? God does not deal in unrealities, however figurative may be the language in which the truth is expressed. The Spirit of God in the Old Testament, and the Lord in the New, impress upon us that the spirit of man slumbers not when it enters the abode of the departed. Nor is the past there forgotten. "No peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isa. 57:21) will be found awfully true. But the righteous who die do enter into peace, the same prophet tells us (57:2); and the story of Dives and Lazarus illustrates and emphasizes both these statements.

Judas, now woke up to the enormity of his guilt, confesses it, and confesses it openly. " I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood" (Matt. 27:4). Only in the gospel of Matthew have we any account of that wretched man's confession. But mark, he makes it to men, not to God. Had he injured the chief priests by what he had done, confession to them would have been in place. The One he had injured he did not seek out, and make confession to Him of his guilt:to God he did not turn, and acknowledge what he had done. Confession to men without confession to God was not- is not enough. Against God he had sinned ; His Son he had betrayed :but to God and His Son the traitor was silent.

And now the money, the silver, once so precious in his eyes, has become worthless,-nay, positively hateful. He casts it from him, throws it down in the sanctuary, and would have nothing more to say to it. It could not be a salve to his conscience; it could not purchase forgiveness for his sin. All he had coveted he himself threw away, proclaiming to any one who might be tempted to act the traitor's part against God and His people, that the reward of iniquity is just like dross and clung, when contrasted with the interests of the soul for eternity. " I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood " (Matt. 27:4). Such a crime God does take notice of (2 Kings 24:4). It is an offense in heaven's statute-book which is grievous in God's eyes, and when the guilty one wakes up to that, he needs no array of witnesses to convict him; he convicts himself. Many a hardened criminal, aware of his guilt, has boldly challenged his accuser to prove it. Between the conscience and God, however, when the former is aroused, it speaks, and the person is self-condemned, and, as here, may turn to be openly his own accuser.

Most welcome must Judas have been when he first visited the chief priests, and offered, unsolicited, as we have seen, to betray his Master. They were glad, and eagerly listened to his plan for the accomplishment of their cherished object (Luke 22:5, 6). Again he visits the chief priests and elders, making full confession of his guilt, but found a very different reception. "What is that to us? see thou to that" (Matt. 27:4) was the answer they gave him. Heartless indeed was their conduct, What an opening of eyes to him ! He had not a friend on earth ; certainly he had no one to befriend him in heaven. " He departed, and went and hanged himself," is the brief record of his last act in this scene. " To go to his own place " is the significant and awful acknowledgment of his fate both in the present and in the future, of which the disciples were fully aware after the Lord's resurrection. (Acts 1:25.)

Now we have called attention to this history, not to dwell on it as mere history, but to cull instruction from it. We see in it a finally lost soul, wretched, self-condemned, compelled, as it were, to witness against itself. What caused this? Conscience spoke, and insisted upon being heard. Conscience condemns, but cannot save. Conscience too, if it works, makes its guilty possessor to feel his unfitness to be in the divine presence. The accusers of the woman taken in adultery attest that (Jno. 8:9). And Judas has left on record that a time comes when conscience speaks to the finally impenitent, and leaves them in all their nakedness without any excuse.

What would have been the prospect of any one of us, if divine grace had not wrought in us, and the atonement had never taken place? The prospect would have been black indeed-just that of Judas when he stood in the temple court. We should have been self-condemned, hopelessly condemned, without a friend to turn to in heaven or on earth. An awful position. Conscience accusing, no excuse admitted, no waiting for others to prove the guilt, nor taking the chance of a possible acquittal. The awful reality of eternity surely broke in upon him. At some time or other, that will, that must break in on the finally impenitent. Such must have been the only prospect before us had the Lord not died upon the cross.

Turning to the record of David, the resource that a guilty one needs, and its perfect sufficiency, is brought before us, and that in the language of David himself, who had proved it; for in both cases it is the guilty one who speaks and unbosoms himself, so there can be no misunderstanding about it. A bystander might of course exaggerate in the one case and minimize in the other:when those guilty speak each for himself, that is out of the question. We have heard the utterance of Judas, now let us attend to the words of David.

" Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile" (Ps. 32:i, 2). True this is. No one will dispute it. But who is the man that partakes of the blessedness ? and how can he share in it? Two important questions. David first speaks, it will be observed, of the one who is forgiven. He speaks, as we afterward learn, of that which he had found, and then enjoyed. His language, however, is in the third person at the opening of the psalm,-"The one," etc.,-though he was the illustration of it; for he writes not of himself, his words implying that the grace he had found others might also enjoy. A hope thus is held out to the reader of the psalm, if he needs it, and that at the very threshold of this inspired composition. Forgiveness can be known, the sin committed may be covered, and the non-imputation of guilt may be assured to an offender. If David had found that, others might find it likewise; for if God can righteously act in grace toward one who has sinned, He can, as far as His nature is concerned, act in grace toward all.

Why such favor can be extended to any of Adam's race the New Testament must explain. That it does in Rom. 3:and 4:, quoting in the latter from this very psalm. The blood of Christ before God enables Him righteously to justify the ungodly; and the one who believes on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification (literally, "justifying"), that one is justified by faith (4:24-5:i). Well then might the Psalmist write, " Blessed is he," etc., for others besides that king of Israel might be assured of such favor on the authority of God's Word.

Now, passing from the Old Testament to the New, we mark a change in the language, the apostle enlarging the expressions in harmony with the dispensation under which he lived. Under the law, one and another might know the forgiveness of a transgression and the covering of some sin ; so in the psalm all is in the singular. By the gospel, all believers should know the fullness of divine grace; so the apostle wrote in the plural, both of the persons blessed and of their iniquities forgiven. Dispensational teaching required the singular in the psalm :the freeness and fullness of grace proclaimed in the gospel called for the plural in the epistle. Yet it is personal blessing, and must be individually known, so the apostle goes on, " Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Far and wide can such blessing extend. " Blessed are they," etc., proclaims it. Individually it must be taken up and enjoyed, so the language reverts to the singular, "Blessed is the man," etc. What Judas never knew, David had proved, and in it all believers now have part.
But how? Here David's history affords light. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me :my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." No rest had he, no rest could he have, till he had confessed to God. Till then, wretchedness of spirit he knew; no rest could he find for his soul. He did confess, and that to God -the One against whom he had sinned-and found relief. The burden was gone. "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin."

Judas confessed to men, and found no compassion nor relief; David confessed to the Lord, and forgiveness was accorded him. " Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." David, then, went to God. To Him every sinner must go if he would be forgiven. Both Judas and David have left earth, and are in the place of the unclothed, waiting for the voice of the Son of Man to call forth their bodies from the tomb. Judas has left behind him the record of wretchedness of soul without relief, a conscience burdened with unforgiven sin. David has left on record his happiness, and his enjoyment of divine forgiveness, and has told how he got it. " I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." God ready to pardon is a character of Him given in the Old Testament (Neh. 9:17). God ready to pardon is illustrated in the history of David. David's confession resulted in the divine and conscious forgiveness. " For this," he writes, his heart full, "shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found:surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him." Divine judgment, like an overflowing flood which carries irresistibly all before it, will never reach that person. He is delivered from the wrath to come. Thus wrote David in the enjoyment of the divine forgiveness.

And now to whom does he turn but to God?-"Thou art my hiding-place." Had he not sinned against Him ? Yes; but having confessed, he was forgiven. His hiding-place, his refuge, was in God, against whom he had sinned. Judas had no refuge. The sinner's refuge is in God, when truthful confession has been made to Him, the person thus showing that in him is no guile. " Thou art my hiding-place," says David. "We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ," says Paul (Rom. 5:ii). "Thou shall preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance," confidently wrote the Psalmist. "If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life," wrote the apostle.

Conviction of sin, followed by truthful confession to God, insures everlasting blessing. Conviction of sin without confession to God must land the sinner in hopeless, irremediable despair. C.E.S.

Oh, happy house! where Thou art loved the best,
O Lord, so full of love and grace;
Where never comes such welcome, honored Guest;
Where none can ever fill Thy place;
Where every heart goes forth to meet Thee,
Where every ear attends Thy Word,
Where every lip with blessing greets Thee,
Where all are waiting on their Lord.

Oh, happy house! where man and wife in heart,
In faith, and hope are one;
That neither life nor death can part
The holy union here begun ;*
Where both are sharing one salvation,
And live before Thee, Lord, always,
In gladness or in tribulation,
In happy or in evil days.

*This is only true of union in Christ:marriage is, of course, dissolved by death.*

Oh, happy house! where little ones are given
Early to Thee in faith and prayer-
To Thee, their Lord, who from the heights of heaven
Guards them with more than mother's care.
Oh, happy house! where little voices
Their glad thanksgivings love to raise,
And childhood's lisping tongue rejoices
To bring new songs of love and praise.

Oh, happy house! and happy servitude!
Where all alike one Master own;.
Where daily duty, in Thy strength pursued,
Is never hard nor toilsome known;
Where each one serves Thee, meek and lowly,
Whatever Thine appointment be,
Till common tasks seem great and holy,
When they are done as unto Thee.

Oh, happy house! where Thou art not forgot
When joy is flowing full and free ;
Oh, happy house! where every wound is brought-
Physician, Comforter-to Thee.
Until at last, earth's clay's work ended,
All meet Thee in that home above,
From whence Thou comest, where Thou hast ascended,
Thy heaven of glory and of love.

Spitta

' Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you" (Jno. 16:23).

What liberty is given here, my brethren! "Whatsoever " ! Were it alone, it would be boundless, and the Lord would thus have opened the door to all the desires of unbroken wills among His people, But He adds, " in My name." This is His limit-the barrier He sets up.

If we apply to God for any thing in the name of Christ -and He will accept no other,-it must needs be in keeping with what Christ is. It is as if Christ Himself were asking it of His Father. He does not want us to make Him the messenger, as if we had not the liberty to approach. We have the same blessed liberty which He has, for grace has made us sons, and we are loved of the Father with the same love wherewith He is loved. He wants us to realize that holy liberty, and go ourselves with our request straight to the Father in His name,-that is, as if it were Himself presenting it-He who is always heard, because He always does what is pleasing to the Father. How could Christ present any request to His Father in any thing inconsistent with His own character and ways which were ever within the circle of the Father's will ? To pray in His name, then, involves our presenting to God only that which Christ could and would present. It calls for a real setting aside of our own wills, and for moving only within the circle of God's will, where Christ always was and is. Setting up our own plans, then making use of Christ's name with God, as if He were pledged by it to obey us, is an awful mistake, which He will rebuke to our shame.

But oh, for more of that lowly, broken spirit which finds its home in the Father's will, its delight in Christ's interests here, and which, burdened with that, knows how to plead with God, and never give up! And though He tarry long, victory is as sure as His throne. " Scripture cannot be broken," and He has said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you."

But, alas ! how much more earnest we are apt to be when our will is at work than when it has been surrendered! How much more earnestly men will work in a business of their own than in the employ and interests of others ! It but reveals that in us (that is, in our flesh,) dwells no good thing. Yet, though we be only servants as regards our service here, and, as such, owe absolute obedience to our Lord and Master, and should perform our service as pleasing Him and not ourselves, are we not sons too ? are we not going to be sharers of His glory, and partakers of every fruit of His obedience and of ours? Does He not call us "friends"? Does He not mingle with us ? And while we call Him " Master and Lord," and rightly so, is He not even our constant Servant? Surely, surely ! Let us, then, take courage. Let us lay hold of His business, carry it in our hearts, make it our own, plead with God about it according to the measure He has given. If Christ be our object, let us ask of God-ask much-and we will receive much, and our joy will be full here, and our reward great there. P.J.L.

"The Lord will give grace and glory." All blessing, I both for time and eternity, is folded up in these two words. Both come from Him, and both are the fruit, or expression, of His love. Grace was exhibited in David, and glory in Solomon. It was grace that raised David from his low estate to the highest honors, and it was the same grace that restored him when he wandered, that comforted him when in sorrow, that sustained him when in conflict, and that kept him safe until he reached his journey's end. But when grace had done its work in David, glory shines forth in Solomon. Glory was stamped on every thing under his reign ; yet grace shone in all the glory. The two things are inseparable. All the glories of the rose are folded up in the bud, but it is chiefly in this world that grace has to do with us. This marks the great difference between grace and glory. Grace has to do with us in our weakness, failure, sorrow, and willingly brings the needed strength, restoration, comfort, and holy joy. It is the sweet and needed companion of the days of our humiliation. Oh! what a friend, what a companion, what a portion grace is for a soul in this world ! and what an unspeakable blessing to know the grace of God in truth ! The Lord will give grace and glory. Forget not this, O my soul! reckon on both-on grace now, on glory hereafter. They can never fail.-(Med. on Psalms.)

" God of all grace, each day's march He'll bestow
The suited grace for all they meet below;
The God of glory, when their journey's done,
Will crown with glory what His grace begun."

A.M.

THE POWER OF AN ASSEMBLY TO BIND AND TO LOOSE. (Matt. 18:15-20.)-Continued.

3. THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY.

We need now to consider more closely the assembly itself. It is the only place in Matthew,-and in the gospels-in which the assembly is spoken of, this passage that we are now considering, except where, two chapters before, the Lord announces to Peter that upon that Rock which he had confessed He would build His Church. The reference is evident to that very passage ; for it is there that the power to bind and to loose is committed to Peter which here is committed to the assembly:not, however, to the whole Church, of which He there speaks, but to the local church (or assembly). The reason should be plain :the local assembly is the only practical means by which the Church as a whole can express itself. The Church at large is the whole membership of Christ all over the world. Such a body would be of course impracticable to bring together upon any occasion and unite in a common judgment. The assembly at any one spot is thus empowered by the Lord to act for Him, even though they be but two or three, the lowest possible number of which an assembly could be formed.

It is, moreover, as actually come together that they have authority:this is expressly stated both here and in the epistle to the Corinthians (i Cor. 5:4). Only thus could it be said, "There am I in the midst of them." Those actually gathered together, and no others, have power to bind and to loose.

This is of importance in connection with what some have maintained-that all gatherings in a city or town are but one assembly, and that for any one of these gatherings to act for itself apart from the rest is simple independence. It may not seem needful to mention it here, but as a principle that has proved itself fruitful of evil, it deserves to be considered still. Many yet hold it, who know not what it is they hold,-have not examined its consequences in the light of Scripture, nor even been aroused by what one might suppose abundant experience.

The plea for it is that Scripture speaks only of " the assembly" in a city, of "assemblies" in a district like Galatia. It has been answered that the now-accepted reading of Acts 9:31 speaks of "the assembly throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria," while in many cities no doubt there was but one assembly. Even in Corinth, a large city for the times (when cities were by no means what they are to-day), the whole church is spoken of as coming together into one place (i Cor. 14:23); so that the language cannot be pleaded in the very place where it would be of most importance to the argument, in the epistle namely in which the order of the church on earth is the special subject. If at Corinth they could all come together into one place, there must have been few cities, one would say, in which they could not.

But the true answer is that there is no doctrine in all this, and that the doctrine which we have in Scripture as to assembly-action is different and contradictory to the thought. The question is simply to what kind of an assembly is the power to bind and to loose intrusted by the Lord; and then the answer must be that it is such an assembly as actually assembles, and no other. This, is evident:it is "where two or three are gathered together in My name," says the Lord, "there am I in the midst of them." If such an assembly pronounces as to any matter within its province, where is the warrant for saying it does not bind ? or that which in a country place would be right and incumbent upon them to do, would be in a city mere independency ?

Scripture has no idea of an assembly composed of assemblies, but ever and only of an assembly composed of individuals. Membership is only in the body of Christ, and the local assembly, according to the idea of it, before schism had rent the Church, as it soon did, was just the " one body " in whatever place,-the practical working representation of the whole body of Christ. But if so,- and the first epistle to the Corinthians makes it undeniable,-there is then no possible place for another kind of assembly, whose units shall be assemblies and not members:the body of Christ gives us quite another thought. This kind of city-church contended for is really the beginning of an ecclesiastical system like to those around us, and far from the simplicity of Scripture. Its influence is morally evil, for we cannot violate Scripture without suffering the consequences of it.

The first effect is, that there must be some unifying third kind of a meeting to enable the whole to work unitedly; and since this cannot be a meeting of the whole, it must be a meeting of representatives, whether self-chosen or chosen by the gatherings. If the latter, a new kind of official is created; if the former, it is worse by so much as they act upon their own account, and without being responsible in any proper way to those they represent.

Other consequences are sure to follow. The representatives come to be the men of leisure, and, as naturally connected with this, the men of means, and not the better is it if they are, along with this, the men of gift; for so all the more readily is a clerical caste established,-the ruin of all divine order in the Church of God.

You have now a parliament, or congress, not an assembly such as the Word contemplates or the Lord authorizes here at all; and yet in their hands is the final decision practically left. And after in perhaps a dozen really competent assemblies-competent, it is owned, in any other place,-the matter has been apparently settled, it is put into their hands for final adjustment.

Thus the Lord is dishonored, for " there am I in the midst of you " is no longer what gives competency to act, and He being slighted, and the Spirit of God grieved, it is no wonder if there should be plenty of conflicting judgments to exercise the presiding board,-for such it is. Worse evils follow. These great city-assemblies come to have, necessarily, preponderating weight in the minds of the Lord's people round about. They become centers of influence, and soon courts of appeal. They attract the ambitious; they become temptations to the spiritual; they learn to feel their power and to exert it:metropolitanism grows apace. Alas ! we are but tracing the first steps of that decline which subjected the Church to the sway of the world, and eventuated in a Roman dictator issuing his decrees from the Vatican.

This will be thought by some mere raving and abuse. Let it be so. A John could wonder with great astonishment, when he saw in prophetic vision the harlot church. Rome was the slow growth of centuries, and the steps that led to it were almost insensible at the beginning. Yet there has been enough before our eyes to warn those who are capable of receiving it. It should be enough indeed for us that Scripture condemns it all, as it surely does, when it puts the authority to bind and to loose into the hands of two or three gathered to Christ's name, and makes the basis of that authority His own presence in the midst of those so gathered.
We may leave this, then, in order to insist more fully upon another thing which has been already in part before us, but which needs the strongest possible enforcement, and at the same time the fullest consideration that can be given it. All these points as to the order of the Church of God will be found to be most deeply affecting her spiritual condition. They are no mere formalities without moral importance. It would be really dishonoring to God to suppose so. This is the difference so pronounced between human regulations merely and the commandments of the Lord. Indeed, the human regulation is worse than this:in the things of God it is positively immoral, because it gives the conscience another master than the Lord; but I speak now of their character apart from this. What
God enjoins is always holy and promoting holiness. Nor can we go aside from it without the most serious loss in this respect. Yet among those most intelligent in divine order, nothing is more common than violations of this where plainest, as if it were really without any spiritual significance.

It is no new thing, however, that those who insist most upon church authority seem to know least of what the church is,-nay, to have the least respect really for it. It needs not to go as far as Rome, or even to high episcopalianism, in proof of this. Those who are clear enough in theory are often found in practice most opposite to it; and "theory" alone it surely can be which so little influences practice. What is the "Church"? It is the membership of the body of Christ:who doubts it? among those at least who are likely to read this. But when I ask, "Are women, then, of that church to which authority has been given, to bind and to loose ? is it necessary to consult them as to church-decisions? how many there are whose practice at least excludes them altogether ! Some even would plead that the apostle's prohibition of their speaking in the assembly would equally exclude them from being consulted as to its acts. But the two things stand upon entirely different footing.

In the first case, God, who has given the woman her long hair for a covering (i Cor. 11:15), has thus indicated that her place was not to be in public. The attractiveness of her modesty is as soon lost by such prominency as the bloom of a delicate fruit by handling. What can be more unfeminine than boldness in a woman ? What more dignifies her than, a retiring spirit? The head is set boldly upon the shoulders:the heart is safe guarded by its circle of ribs. If the man is, as the apostle says, the head of the woman, the woman is no less clearly the heart of the man.

But God has given woman a conscience no less than man, and to ignore her conscience is more to deny the God that gave it than to put her forward in the assembly is to deny what nature teaches by her long hair. For the conscience is just that in us which owns the divine authority. Deny the conscience, you have unseated God from His throne in the soul. If you can suppress it, the glory is gone from manhood, the beauty and grace from womanhood. Nay, humanity is lost, and a Nebuchadnezzar must be driven to the beasts (to which he belongs) until he knows that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men. Only when he owns that does his kingdom return to him.

The question of discipline is the question of good and evil,-of our association with what is for God or with what dishonors Him ; it is but our taking part in that strife from which no one, even from childhood, can withdraw himself. Force any one to walk hand-in-hand with what he believes in his soul dishonors God, and you have corrupted him, cast him out from fellowship with God, shadowed and perverted his life, and set him upon a road which, wind as it will, goes ever downward. Does it matter whether the pronoun be masculine or feminine- whether you say "him" or "her"? No one the least worthy of respect can think so.
Even a conscience not forced at all, but left unexercised, is a serious evil. " Herein do I exercise myself," says the apostle, "that I may have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men." A want of exercise means a soul indifferent-careless if it be with God or not. People may be drilled, no doubt, into a belief that they are irresponsible-that the responsibility lies elsewhere ; but this will not alter the nature of things, nor prevent the results which necessarily follow. Your belief about it will not make tares wheat, or thorns grow figs. The leak in your boat will scuttle it, though you may sleep easy because the responsibility is in other hands. God's truth turned to a lie is not a lie; and man's lie, though heartily believed in, will not act the part of truth. When God speaks, whosoever has ears is to hear; and if he has none, it is no less God that has spoken.

Now the "church" is not the men of the assembly merely; nor is it the leaders, or the gifted ones, or the intelligent:it is the church. And a judgment given must be, not the judgment of the few or of the majority, but of all. So, if it is truly their judgment, it must be their intelligent judgment, or it is not a judgment at all. They must know the case, know the scripture that applies to it, have full opportunity, without hurry, and waiting upon God. Here is the real duty of leaders, to see that there is no driving, no undue pressure brought to bear, no concealment, and no warping of facts or of the mind:and how helpful will leaders be who can do such work as this ! But in the moment of decision there must be no leaders, but all clear, each one for himself and before God, as if all depended upon himself and there were not another.

True, a judgment arrived at in this way will be a much slower matter than we often desire. Little do we realize what a safeguard God has provided for us by means of the very slowness and dullness of which we complain. God would have us walk in none other than a very plain path-a path which can be made plain to the dullest. To have to make it so plain means to have to rehearse it to ourselves, to look at it from many a side, to have opportunity to detect perhaps what in our haste we had overlooked before. The difficulties in the way are to force us to wait on God for a solution. Ah, God is wise, be sure, in thus linking us together as He has done, and not alone is help given by the wiser to the duller, but by the duller to the wiser also, that we may prove, not how necessary are the wise merely, but how necessary we all are to one another !

And if there are slow ones to be quickened, dull ones to be cleared, souls to be helped in various ways, think you God does not care for all this,-does not look to see it done, does not bless us in the doing it as well as those to whom it is done? See how He thinks of and provides for general blessing by that which seems to our haste only evil to be got rid of. Patience is one of God's own attributes, as it is the sign of an apostle also. And if patience has her perfect work, we shall be perfect and entire, wanting nothing (Jas. 1:4). No wonder that the world should be a place of tribulation, when "tribulation worketh patience " (Rom. 5:3).

It may be said that this is an ideal assembly-action, and that we cannot expect it to be often attained. Alas ! I believe it true that it has been very seldom so. The decision of an assembly counts as that, although half the assembly have never been consulted even,-though the whole matter was settled by a few in a brothers' meeting, and only the result has been communicated to the assembly for their adoption blindly; though the protest of conscience has been unheeded, and indifference and confidence in leaders have made it in fact the judgment of a very few. But in all this, what we sow we reap, and have reaped. God is not mocked; and under His government, the results of such courses have been manifest. Let us not talk of precedents, but honestly and faithfully, by the light of God's holy Word, consider our ways. Not the united voice of all the assemblies in the world can make evil good, or hinder the work of evil being ever evil.

We disclaim rightly association with evil. Have we been as careful about it in this form as we have been in some other forms? I am sure we have not. And thus on the one hand laxity has prevailed where there was indifference, and narrowness and party-action have had their opportunity upon the other, God has ordained help for us in a quarter from whence we never should have thought of it-help from the very ones who need help. The simple and ignorant, the weak and prejudiced, the "babes" of the assembly,-let us realize that these all are to have their intelligent part in assembly-action; and what a guarantee have we got against hasty and party treatment of what is submitted for it; while the result comes out that we must seek help from God to raise the general tone and condition of the assembly, if we would avoid disaster in the time of testing. How wholesome is this necessity! What a binding together of hearts would be the result of the acceptance of it! How would the meaning of church order-and of the church itself-become apparent to us ! Haste is self-will:even though it take the form of zeal for holiness, and care for the honor of the Lord. These, if real, will manifest themselves in care for the least of Christ's purchased flock, and in the endeavor that the separation from evil involve not a worse evil. What need have we of understanding better Christ's headship of His Church, and the omnipotence which we grasp when in helplessness we wait upon Him! And what need to remember that the Church, if one, is yet composed of many members, every one of whom is as distinctly the object of His care and love as if there were no other. His own tender and solemn words, do they not rebuke us all ?-" See that ye offend not (cause not to stumble) one of these little ones."

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV. – XXII.

PART I.- (Continued.)

The Parenthetic Visions:-The Sealed of Israel. (Chap. 7:1-8.)

An objection may be taken to our interpretation of the convulsion under the sixth seal,-that it is not in harmony with that which we have given of the earlier ones. In these, the "earth," for instance, was assumed to be literally that; in the latter, it is taken in a figurative sense ; and it may be urged that this want of uniformity in interpretation allows us to make of these visions very much what we will,-in fact makes their alleged meaning altogether inconsistent and unreliable.

This is a mistake, though a very natural one, and it needs to be examined and shown to be such, or else a serious difficulty will remain in the way of further progress, if such indeed be possible. For the same inconsistency, if it be really that, will appear again and again as we proceed with our study of the book before us; we shall be using the same terms now in a literal and again in a figurative sense, as it may appear, arbitrarily, but in fact as compelled by necessity to do so, or according to the law of the highest reason.

Figures pervade our common speech, even the most literal and prosaic,-disguised for us often by the mere fact that they are used so commonly. We employ them, too, with a latitude of meaning which in no wise affects their intelligibility to us. They are used with a certain freedom in which there is nothing arbitrary, but the reverse. They are used rather in the interests of clearness and intelligibility, the main end sought, which governs indeed their use. It is simple enough to say that the whole art of language is in clearness of expression, and that the right use of figures is therefore for this end.

Now, in visions, such as we have in Revelation, figures, it is true, have a much larger place :the meaning of the vision as a whole is symbolic-figurative. Yet this does not at all suppose that every feature in it is so, and in no case perhaps is this really true.

Take the fifth seal as a sufficient example,-where the altar is figurative, and so are the white robes, but the killing of their brethren is real and literal. This mingling of the literal and symbolic in one vision makes it plain that they may be and will be found mingled through the whole series of visions. And if it be asked, How, then, are we to discern the one from the other? the answer will be, that each case must be judged separately,-the sense that is simplest, most self-consistent, and agreeable to the context being surely the right one. God writes, as man does, to be understood, and intelligibility gives the law, therefore, to all the rest. It is reassuring indeed to remember this:plenty of deep things there are in the Word of God, and more perhaps than any where else are they to be found in the book of Revelation, but the mystery in them is never from mere verbal concealments or misty speech, but from defect in us,-spiritual dullness and incapacity. This-most difficult of all Scripture-books God has stamped with the name of " revelation."

These thoughts are not an unnecessary introduction to the parenthetic visions between the sixth and the seventh seals, where just such questions have been asked as to the sealing of a hundred and forty-four thousand out of every tribe of the children of Israel. Is it in fact Israel literally, or a typical, spiritual Israel that we are to think of? The latter is the thought of expositors generally, though by no means all; and we are told (as by Lange, for instance,) that if we take Israel literally to be meant, then we must take all the other details,-the exact number sealed, etc., -literally also:to do which would not involve any absurdity, but which we have seen to be not in the least necessitated. We are free, as to all matters of the kind, to ask, What is the most suitable meaning? and to find in this suitability, the justification of one view or the other.

The context argues for the literal sense. The innumerable multitude seen afterward before the throne, "out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues,"shows us plainly a characteristically Gentile gathering, and that they are in some sense in contrast with the Israelitish one seems clear. Taken together, they throw light upon one another, and display the divine mercy both to Jews and Gentiles in the latter days. While the separateness of these companies, and the priority given to Israel, agree with the character of a time when the Christian Church being removed to heaven, the old distinctions are again in force. We are again in the line of Old-Testament prophecy, and of Jewish "promises" (Rom. 9:4); "the Lion of the tribe of Judah " has taken the book.

Even apart from the context, (decisive as this is), the enumeration of the tribes would seem to make the description literal enough, even although Dan be at present missing from among them, and supposing no reason could be assigned for this.* Judah too is in her place as the royal tribe:not the natural birthright, but divine favor, controls the order here. Every thing assures us that it is indeed Israel, and as a nation, that is now in the scene. *Dan and Zebulon are both omitted in the genealogical lists of 1 Chronicles.*

Let us turn back now to see how she is introduced to us,

"After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth; or on the sea, or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, 'Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.' "

Here it is manifest that, terrible as have been the judgments already, far worse are at hand. The four winds- expressive of all the agencies of natural evil-are about to blow together upon the earth, under the control of spiritual powers (the angels) which guide them according to the supreme will of God. It is the " day of the Lord of Hosts upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low" (Isa. 2:12). And as nothing lifts itself up as the tree does, so the "tree" is specially marked out here:the ax is laid at the root of it. The passage in Isaiah goes on quite similarly:"And upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan" (5:13).

But this becomes, as in the Baptist's lips, a general sentence upon man as man, from which none may escape but as in the Lord's grace counted worthy. Thus the sealing becomes quite evidently the counterpart of what we find in the ninth of Ezekiel, though there the range of judgment is more. limited. "And He called to the man clothed in linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, 'Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.' And to the others He said in mine hearing, 'Go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark.' "

The sealing is as evidently preservative as the "mark" is. They are both upon the forehead,-open and manifest. If we look on to the fourteenth chapter here, we shall find upon the hundred and forty-four thousand there (a company as to the identity of which with the present one it is not yet time to ask the question,) the name of the Lamb's Father written, and the seal marks thus undoubtedly to whom they belong.

Let us notice also that we are just approaching the time here in which the beast also will have his mark, if not always on the forehead, at least in the hands (chap. 13:16). The time of unreserved confession of one master or the other will then have come; and no divided service will be any longer possible. The beast "boycotts" (they have already invented both the thing and the expression for him,) those who do not receive his mark:those who do receive it are cast into the lake of fire (chap. 13:17; 14:9, 10).

The sealing is angelic,-a very different thing therefore from present sealing with the Holy Ghost, and from any power or gift of the Spirit. No angel could confer this, and the creaturehood of the angel here is manifest from his words, " Till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." The "we " shows that more than one execute the ministry, and they that do this speak of God as "our God." This is decisive, apart from all dispensational considerations. But in what the sealing consists it seems scarcely possible to say:the effect is, that the people of God are manifested as His, and preserved thus from the judgments which are ready to be sent upon it.

" The seal of the living God " seems along with this to imply their preservation as living men against all the power of their adversaries-His, and therefore theirs. True, that the power of the living God is shown more victoriously in resurrection than in preservation merely; true also that to the souls under the altar it has been foretold of others of their brethren to be slain as they were, and who are no less marked as His by the deaths they die for Him than any others can be :yet the " seal of the living God" may clearly manifest its power in securing preservation of natural life, and the connection seems to imply this here; while thus alone do the two companies of this parenthetic vision,-the Jewish and the Gentile,-supplement each other, as is their evident design. This also to some will not be apparent, for the Gentile multitude are commonly taken to be risen saints in heaven. But the consideration of this must be reserved for the present.

Certainly the enumeration of the tribes speaks for their connection with God's purposes for Israel nationally upon the earth, where her future is. In heaven, as a nation, she has no place, but on earth ever preserves it (Isa. 66:22). And here the connection of both these companies with a series of events on earth is evident. It may be said that the souls under the altar find similarly their place in connection with the seals, and yet are passed from earth:but these are introduced to show the prevalence of persecution, the unchanged enmity to God manifesting itself thus after the first periods of judgment have run their course; while they bring on, as it would seem by their prayers, the crash which follows under the sixth seal.
No such connection can be seen here, but the saints here are to be sheltered from the judgments coming on the earth-being themselves on it, an Israelitish company, inferring national revival, significant enough for earth, but not at all for heaven.

Leaving this for the present, we must give our attention to the number so definitely stated, and so earnestly repeated, of this sealed company. The enumeration, so held up before us, and emphasized by repetition, cannot be a point of little consequence. Of each tribe distinctly it is stated that there are twelve thousand sealed. What, then, is the meaning of this number? It is evidently made up of 12 and 10, the latter raised to its third power, the number of government and of responsibility. But we must look at these a little further.

Ten is the measure of responsibility, as in the ten commandments of the law; raised to the third power, it seems to me to be responsibility met in grace with glory; while the number 12 speaks, as I have elsewhere sought to show, of manifest government. If I read the meaning right, the two together speak of special place conferred upon this company in connection with the Lamb's government of the earth ; and this, it seems to me, is confirmed by other considerations.

That they are not the whole remnant of Israel preserved to be the stock of the millennial nation is evident from the one fact before mentioned, that the tribe of Dan has no place among them, and yet certainly has its place in the restored nation. In Ezekiel (48:i), Dan has his portion in the extreme north of the land. Thus the hundred and forty-four thousand here are clearly a special company, and not the whole of the saved people.

But the case of Dan has further instruction for us in this connection ; and we shall find it, if we turn back to the blessing of the tribes by Jacob in the end of the book of Genesis. Jacob himself tells us here that he is speaking of what should befall them in the "last days;" and it is to these last days plainly that Revelation brings us :so that the propriety of the application cannot be doubted. Let us listen, then, to what the dying patriarch has to say of Dan.

"Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord."

Abrupt, fragmentary, enigmatic, as the words are, with just this passage of Revelation before us, they startle us by the way in which they seem to meet the questionings which have been awakened by it. We are looking upon a sealed company, "a hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." But Dan is not found among them ! Can this tribe, we ask, have been suffered to drop out of God's chosen earthly family, so as to have no part in the final blessing? The voice from of old answers the question decisively :"Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel." No! the Lord's grace prevails over all failure :Dan does not lose his place. It cannot be that a tribe should perish out of the chosen people.

But more,-the company before us, if we have read its numerical stamp aright, is a company having a place of rule under the Lamb in the clay of millennial blessing; and among these, assuredly, Dan is not found. How the old prophecy comes in here once more with its assurance, "Dan shall judge his people"! The staff of judicial authority is not wholly departed ; but simply as what is necessary to tribal place he retains it, "as one of the tribes of Israel,"-nothing more.

The patriarch's first words as to Dan imply, then, a low place-if not the lowest place-for Dan, even as his portion in Ezekiel is on the extreme northern border of the land. He retains his place as part of the nation, that is all. And if we naturally ask, Why ? the answer is given in what follows :-

" Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels, so that his rider falleth backward."

Plainly these are characters which associate him in some way with the power of the enemy; for the "serpent," the "adder," speak of this. Jacob's words would show that in the apostasy of the mass of the nation under Antichrist, in the days to which we are here carried, Dan has a more than ordinary place. If the antichrist be, as every thing assures us, a Jew himself, what would be more in accordance with all this than the ancient thought that he will be of Dan ?

And here how natural the groan, yet of faith, on the part of the remnant which breaks out in the next words of the prophecy, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord"!

In Gad, therefore, the conflict finds its termination :"A troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last." Then in Asher and Naphtali the blessing follows, and Joseph and Benjamin show us in whom the blessing is. Upon all this, of course, it would be impossible to dilate now.

But all is confirmatory of the thought of this hundred and forty-four thousand being a special Israelitish company, destined of God to fill a place (but an earthly one,) in connection with the Lord's government of the world in millennial days. We have now to look at the Gentile company in the next vision.

(To be continued.)

I Believe there is great blessing attending family-prayer, and I feel greatly distressed, because I know that very many Christian families neglect it. Romanism, at one time, could do nothing in England, because it could offer nothing but the shadow of what Christian men had already in substance."Do you hear that bell tinkling in the morning? What is that for?" "To go to church to pray.""Indeed!" said the puritan, "I have no need to go there to pray. I have had my children together, and we have read a portion of Scripture, and prayed, and sang the praises of God, and we have a church in our house." "Ah ! there goes that bell again in the evening. What is that for?" "Why, it is the vesper-bell." The good man answered that he had no need to trudge a mile or two for that, for his holy vespers had been said and sung around his own table, of which the big Bible was the chief ornament. They told him that there could be no service without a priest, but he replied that every godly man should be a priest in his own house. Thus have the saints defied the overtures of priest-craft, and kept the faith from generation to generation.

A Well-known type of Christ. Take, for example, Jno. iv 6. Why is it mentioned, " Now Jacob's well was there "?Surely to arrest our attention in some special way, and Gen. 49:22 discovers the secret. Joseph, we read, is a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.

In this wearied Man, therefore, who in that noontide heat sat by the well of Sychar, we see the true Joseph; and even while we gaze upon Him we behold His branches running over the wall of Judaism, and reaching, with their goodly fruit, this poor woman of Samaria. And if not actually, yet morally (for this characterizes this gospel), the archers had sorely grieved Him, and shot at Him, and hated Him; but His bow abode in strength, etc., as is shown by the deliverance He wrought that day for this poor captive of Satan.

We cannot help recalling that name given by Pharaoh to father Jacob's best beloved son-" Zaphnath-Paaneah " (Gen. 41:45). None can say positively whether it is a Hebrew or an Egyptian name, but strangely enough (and probably there was a divine overruling in the choice of the name, however little conscious Pharaoh might be), in the one tongue it signifies " The Revealer of Secrets," in the other it means "The Saviour of the World."

To the woman, He was indeed " the Revealer; " it was as though He had told her all things that she had done. To the Samaritans, He was "the Saviour of the world;" from among the Jews indeed, as He had said, but, like that " fruitful vine by a wall," of which Jacob spoke, "whose branches run over the wall," He had brought life and blessing and joy for them, for it was not possible that His love could be restrained by any Jewish limitations.

(Selected.) E.F.B.

'"There are two scriptures in the Old Testament that I seem to show plainly that God is propitiated by the sacrifice of Christ.

In i Chron. 21:16-27, when David had made his offering at Oman's threshing-floor, " the Lord commanded the angel (whose sword was stretched out over Jerusalem), and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof."

And in Gen. 8:20 :" Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings on the altar; and the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in His heart, 'I will not again curse the ground.'"

All Scripture agrees with this, but these two scenes are impressively pointed. E.S.L.

If our hearts are cherishing the abiding hope of the Lord's return, we shall set light by all earthly things. It is morally impossible that we can be in the attitude of waiting for the Son from heaven, and not be detached from this present world.

There are not two faces alike; not two leaves in the forest alike; not two blades of grass alike:why, then, should any one aim at another's line of work, or affect to possess another's gift ? Let each one be satisfied to be just what his Master has made him.

10.THE "EVERLASTING GOSPEL."

In the last chapter of this final three, we find, as I believe, not another aspect of the divine dealings with the mingled crop in the field of Christendom, but a new acting, whether in grace or judgment, after the merchant man has possessed himself of his pearl, or in other words, after the saints of the past and present time are caught up to Christ. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, and cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world (or age):the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (5:47-51.)

The parable closes thus (in so far, just as the parable of the tares of the field,) with the judgment executed at the appearing of the Lord. The common application of it is to the going forth of the gospel during the present time, and the final separation of bad and good when the Lord comes. That is, the meaning is considered to be almost identical with the tare-parable. I believe there are some plain reasons against such an interpretation.

For, in the first place, the parallelism of the two parables in that case is certainly against it. There would be little in the picture of the net cast into the sea that was not simply repetition of what had already been given. And this, at first sight, would not seem natural or likely.

But beside this, it is to be considered that Scripture plainly gives us another going forth of the gospel of the kingdom, and as the result of it a discriminative judgment when the Son of Man comes, apart altogether from the present going forth of the gospel, and the judgment of the tares of Christendom. The company of sheep and goats in Matt. 25:is an instance of this. For there will be no such separation as is there depicted between these sheep and goats, of the true and false among Christian professors, " when the Son of Man shall" have "come in His glory." The true among Christian professors, on the contrary, will come with Him to judgment on that day, as we have seen both Col. 3:4 and Jude bear witness. The judgment of Christendom will not then be discriminative at all:the wheat having been already removed from the field, tares alone will remain in it. Thus in Matt. 25:neither tares nor wheat can be at all in question.

But after the saints of the present time have been caught up to the Lord, and Christendom has become a tare-field simply, a new work of the Lord will begin in Israel and among the surrounding nations, to gather out a people for earthly blessing. It is when God's judgments are upon the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. And this will be a time of "great tribulation," such as for Israel Matt. 24:depicts. Antichrist is there, and the "abomination of desolation" stands in the holy place; yet amid all the evil and sorrow of the time, the "everlasting gospel" goes forth (Rev. 14:6, 7) with its call, so opposite to the proclamation of this day of grace now being made. "Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come."

Plainly, one could not say that yet. We say it is " the accepted time, the day of salvation," not of judgment. Only after the present day is closed could the everlasting gospel be preached after that fashion,-the old "gospel of the kingdom "indeed, but with the new addition to it of the hour of God's judgment being come.

It is this proclamation of the everlasting gospel that is the key to that company of sheep and goats standing before the throne of the Son of Man when He is come.

Now, if we look a little closely, it is just such a state of things as that amid which the everlasting gospel goes forth, that this parable brings before us. A " net cast into the sea" is the picture of the gospel going forth in the midst of unquiet and commotion, the lawless will of man at work every where, the wicked "like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." (Is. 57:20.)

Moreover, if we turn to the very earliest of Scripture types-to Genesis 1:-we shall find confirmation of this view, which is exceedingly striking. In those creative days we find, day by day, the successive steps by which God brought out of ruin the beauty of a scene where at length He could rest, because all was " very good." There need be little wonder to find this but the picture and type of how He, step by step, after the misery and ruin of Adam's fall, is proceeding toward the final production of a scene in which once again, and never more to be disturbed, because of its goodness He can rest. These days in their respective meaning it is not the place here to point out. The third day, however, speaks of the separation of Israel from among the Gentiles. The waters of the salt and barren sea are the representative of man left to the lusts and passions of his own heart (according to the figure in Isaiah just referred to), or in other words, the Gentiles.* *Compare also Rev. 17:15.* Israel is the "earth," taken up and cultivated of God, to get, if it might be, fruit. The third day speaks of this separation of Israel from the Gentiles, as the first parable of the three we are now looking at speaks of her as God's earthly treasure.

This is a scene all on earth. The next creative day gives us however, the furnishing of the heavens, as we have already seen the second parable of the " pearl" does. And if the sun be a type of Christ (as it surely is), that which brings in and rules the day,-the moon is no less a type of the Church, the reflection, however feeble and unstable, of Christ to the world in the night of His absence. The present time, then, is here figured, -the time of the revelation, in testimony, both of Christ and of the Church.

And now, if we pass on to the sixth day, we have as plainly in figure the kingdom of Christ come. The rule of the man and woman over the earth,-not rule over the day or night, not the light of testimony, but rule over the earth itself,- is a picture of what we call millennial blessing.

Finally, in this series comes the Sabbath, God's own rest:He sanctifies the whole day, and blesses it; no other day succeeds.

Now between the fourth and the sixth days, the Church and the millennial dispensations, what intervenes? A period, short indeed in duration, but important enough to occupy thirteen out of the twenty-two chapters of the book of Revelation:the very time to which, as I believe, the parable of the net refers. And then, what is its type, if the fifth day represents it? Once again, the "sea," but the waters now supernaturally productive, teaming with life through the fiat of the Almighty. And so it will be in the day of Rev. 7:as the hundred and forty-four thousand of the tribes of Israel, and the innumerable multitude of Gentiles who have come out of "the great tribulation," bear abundant witness. These are the gathering out of the people for earthly blessing, as the fruit of the everlasting gospel.

These passages, then, mutually confirm each other as applying to a time characterized by Gentile lawlessness, Israel fully partaking of this character, and not yet owned of God, though He be working in her midst. Into this "sea" the net is cast, and, gathering of every kind, when it is full, is drawn to shore.

It is not till AFTER this that the sorting begins:"which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, and cast the bad away." This shows us that the sorting cannot apply to any thing which goes on during the time of the preaching of the gospel at all events, for the net is no longer in the waters when it takes place. And it is thus the same thing evidently as that which the interpretation speaks of:"So shall it be at the end of the age; the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from the just." This is the clearance of the earth for millennial blessing. When the saints are removed, at the coming of the Lord for His own which i Thess. 4:sets before
us, the wicked will not be severed from the just, but the just from the wicked. The righteous will be taken, and the wicked left. Here it is the reverse of this-the wicked taken and the righteous left. Thus, with the divine accuracy of the inspired Word, which invites scrutiny and rewards attention to its minutest details, it is said in the judgment of the tare-field of Christendom, " They shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity," but not, "they shall sever the wicked from among the just" for the just have been before removed. Here, on the contrary, the righteous are those not taken away to inherit heavenly blessing, but left behind to inherit earthly.* *Parallel passages will be found in Matt. 24:37-42, and Luke 17:24, 37. In the Old Testament, the Psalms especially are lull of this severing of the wicked from among the just:e. g., Ps. 1:4, 5; 37:9-11; see also Mal. 4:l-3.*

With this glance at things which belong to that short but most momentous season-the season of the earth's travail before her final great deliverance, the sevenfold sketch of the kingdom of the absent King necessarily ends. The blessing of earth, as of Israel, necessitates His presence, and with that the close of the "kingdom and patience" the beginning of that "kingdom and glory" which will never end. Well will it be for us if we keep in mind the sure connection between the " patience" and the "glory."

" It is a faithful saying, " For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself." (2 Tim. 2:II-13.)

As children of men we are known in this world; the world can point to us and say, " His father was so-and-so; and, according to our high or low connection in that way, honor or despise us.

As children of God we are not known, for the simple reason that our Father is unknown. Let any man in any circle, high or low, of this world's society be introduced as a child of God, and see what a blank astonishment will follow such an introduction. They know not God, therefore can they not appreciate such a relationship with Him. The man who is in that relationship, therefore, is, as such, a real stranger and foreigner in this world. His being born of God constitutes him that, and according to the degree in which he himself values this wonderful relationship, so will he realize his strangership among the very people where he, as a man, is so well known; so too will it practically separate him from their company, their object, their mode of life, their pleasures and pursuits.

But there is more. The way he has become a child of God is through faith in Jesus Christ, who, "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," was "lifted up" on the cross, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This blessed Jesus, therefore, becomes now the object and delight of his heart. How else could it be? It is by His suffering upon that cross that his sins are forgiven,-by His stripes that he is healed. It is by His blood that he has " boldness to enter into the holiest,"-the very presence of that holy God before whom the seraphim angels have to vail themselves. It is by His death that he is set free from the guilt and the dominion of sin,-that he escapes the visitation of the angel of death at midnight, passes out of the land of bondage, and passes into the land flowing with milk and honey.

Jesus is now, therefore, the object of his heart. " We love Him because He first loved us." As the man who, out of love, "leaves his father and mother, and cleaves unto his wife," so Christ left His Father and home in glory, and out of love to us suffered as none ever suffered. But, in return, the wife clings to her husband, and follows him all through. So with us who love Him. If He is in heaven, our hearts follow Him there, and are at home only there. If He is still rejected and despised by this world, we want naught else from the world than what they give Him. We cannot endure to be received and honored where He is refused and despised. Nay, more -we cannot even feel at home with His professed friends who give Him but a back seat, and grieve Him by their ways.

One will readily see that this is not pretending to be holier and better than this or that, but a natural outcome of a love that is true. No true wife could be at home where the husband she loves is not given the place which belongs to him. So no lover of Christ can ever be at home in this world while " Christ" is a despised name in it. Nor can he be more comfortable among those who profess His name while they have among them that which wounds the Lord. Therefore when the world has crucified Christ and cast Him out, God said to His children, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (i Jno. 2:15).

He also foresaw what His professing people would do, and how things would turn out in the end, so He said again to His people, "In the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:from such TURN AWAY " (2 Tim. 3:1-5).
Oh, beloved brethren ! children of the God of love !- oh, for such a measure of that devotedness of heart to our Lord as to make it morally impossible for us to abide with whatever dishonors Him, but will compel us to follow Him any where and at whatever cost! Thus, and only thus, shall we know the reality of our relationship with Him, even as He has said, "Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:17, 18). P.J.L.

SUPPLEMENTARY.

I am thankful to have received objections to the preceding papers:thankful, not of course that there should be objections, but that being existent they should be made known, and fully examined. The difference of view itself the Lord would use for various blessing, that, exercised by His Word, we may be ruled by it,-not blindly follow one another, or any special teacher, however gifted. Persuaded as I am, that whatever may be our hindrances to receiving it, yet the truth once clearly known would have the allegiance of all, I am encouraged to take up what has been urged against me, not doubting that there will be blessing in it, on whichever side the truth may appear to be. And first, it has been said that-

" if we want to understand about the making of atonement, we must turn to Lev. 16:for information; for there only, in the ritual appointed for the day of atonement, shall we fully learn-as far as typical teaching can illustrate it-what is comprised in the thought of making it. . . . What was required to make atonement is the subject of God's communication to the lawgiver on that occasion. The noun "atonement" is not once met with therein. The verb only is used, to call attention by typical teaching to the making it."

Is this correct ? No doubt the day of atonement is exceedingly important for the doctrine of atonement :one could not dispute that. But is it the fact that we may limit ourselves to the sixteenth of Leviticus in order to see what is involved in making it? And what is the force and value of the fact that the noun is not found in the chapter, but only the verb?

First, as to the word "atonement:" the noun is found but eight times in the Old Testament. Three times we have the expression, " sin-offering for atonement" (Ex. 29:36; 30:10; Num. 29:ii). Once we have "the ram of atonement " (Num. 5:8). Once, " the atonement-money" (Ex. 30:16). And in the remaining three occurrences (Lev. 23:27, 28; 25:9) the application is to the "day of atonement" itself!

It is surely remarkable enough, if the omission of the noun in chap. 16:has the significance said to attach to it, that three out of the eight occurrences should actually be found to apply to the day of atonement!

If I understand the argument aright, "atonement" as a noun (kippurim) being used, would direct our attention to what in itself atonement is, the use of the verb to that which makes it. What, then, about the "day of atonement"? Would not that direct our attention to what atonement is, as much as the sin-offering, or the ram, or the money of atonement ?

On the other hand, in all the detail of the offerings in the first seven chapters of Leviticus we have equally no use of the noun "atonement," while the verb occurs no less than thirteen times ! How, then, does the argument apply here ?

And must we not in fact go to those earlier chapters in order to know the meaning of the day of atonement itself? What are sin-offering and burnt-offering here without the previous detailed explanation? Are these not the very means by which atonement is made ?

Coming now to the making of atonement, it is further said –

" Now, to do that, four things were absolutely necessary. I. An offering must be found which God could accept (Lev. 16:6) ; and that offering must die, because It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul (Lev. 17:11). 2. A substitute must be found to which the sins of the guilty should be transferred, and by it carried away into the land of forgetfulness:This was foreshadowed by the scape-goat (Lev. 16:10). 3. Blood of the sin-offering must be presented inside the vail, by sprinkling it on and before the mercy-seat,-an act done by the high-priest, and by him only, and when alone with God (Lev. 16:14-16; Heb. 9:7). And 4. Divine judgment must be endured by the victim, typified by the consuming of the burnt-offering, and the appointed parts of the sin-offering on the brazen altar (Lev. 16:24, 25). These are essential elements of atonement, without which it could not be made."

Again, I am compelled to make serious objections to this. If we are to take the day of atonement as our pattern, why should the work at the altar before the Lord be omitted (10:18, 19) ? Five essential elements may be thus reckoned instead of four; and with better reason.

A more serious objection still with regard to our present subject is, that for the priestly house, as is well known, there was no scape goat. For them, not a goat but a bullock was offered, and one bullock only. Was complete atonement made for them ? None surely can doubt that. Yet one of the four elements deemed essential is not found in it!

And this touches nearly some common thoughts about propitiation and substitution. There is no doubt that for the priests these two are found together in the one bullock of the sin-offering. The blood of propitiation is in this case the blood of the substitute; or to which of the goats, the Lord's lot or the people's lot, does this bullock answer ?

And this shows that what is essential in atonement may be implicitly contained in what explicitly does not teach it. Thus, Job's burnt-offering could be accepted for sin; and blood could ordinarily make atonement at the altar (Lev. 17:ii), which on the day of atonement was carried within the vail. The priests' bullock went beyond the two goats in reality, as the bullock was in typical meaning beyond the goat; while what was expanded indeed in the latter was yet contained in the former.

As a fact, was there no atonement made in Israel except upon the day of atonement ? Yet if the objection be rightly made, this must have been the case.

And again, is it not dangerous to take for truth our interpretation of a type, rather than the plain teaching of the New Testament? Would so important a matter as what constitutes atonement (or propitiation either) be left for the shadows of the law to unveil ? But to go on with the objections:-

" So far, then, we can all see what were essential elements of atonement-the death of the victim; substitution both in sin-bearing and bearing divine judgment; and the dealing with the blood inside the vail by the high-priest. In the making atonement, then, substitution, as this chapter shows, was an essential element, as well as the high-priest's work inside the sanctuary. Had either been omitted, atonement would not have been effected. Now, were these two services the same? Clearly not. Wherein did they differ? In the scape-goat, or in the service at the brazen altar (Lev. 16:24), we see typified One who was a substitute for others. In the picturing the blood on the mercy-seat, nothing of that was delineated, though it was the blood of the substitute which the high-priest presented to God."

Why "substitution both in sin-bearing and bearing divine judgment"? How can you separate between these? Was not sin-bearing really wrath-bearing? Or, if you speak of the scape-goat, were not the sins borne away by the very fact of the victim's death for them ? Why make differences in the work itself of what were only different aspects of the work? It is just this modeling of the truth by the type instead of interpreting the type by the truth, which has made propitiation a different work from substitution, whereas the one is but the Godward side of that of which the other is the manward.

But the type itself refuses this by the fact that for the priestly family (which represents the Church) there was no scape-goat. Yet the truth conveyed in it is ours surely (Heb. 10:17).

The service at the brazen altar (5:24) is, then, classed with the scape-goat as substitution, and not propitiation ! Necessitated as it is by the argument, it is indeed remarkable that it should not be seen how completely the argument is broken down by it. For the burnt-offering, although for man indeed, and substitutionary as every sacrifice was, went up directly to God, the whole of it, as a sweet savor! It was thus expressly denominated the olah, "that which ascends," as it is also said, " to make atonement for " the offerer, and to be " for his acceptance." (5:3; see R. V.) Yet this, which actually typifies all the preciousness of the work for God,-the glorifying of God in it,-is simply substitution in contrast with propitiation ! Does not this show how merely technical is the meaning given to "propitiation" in this reasoning?

It is settled otherwise that there is no propitiation but in the holiest; therefore, of course, the burnt-offering is not propitiation. Yet-if there is any meaning in words -it propitiates! But no :the burnt-offering is but substitution, the sin-offering glorifies God in " His holiness and righteousness" above the burnt-offering,-sweet savor though the latter is, in contrast to the former.

Let us look at things, not words merely, and the mists will surely disappear. The New Testament must interpret the Old, the antitype the type, and there is then no difficulty.

But again:in the blood on the mercy-seat "nothing of that"-substitution-"was delineated, though it was the blood of the substitute " ! But if it was, how shall this thought be kept out? Notice that, according to this, the whole work below-sin-offering, burnt-offering, and all- was substitution. Yet in presenting it to God upon the mercy-seat, an element is somehow found in-for we must not say, "introduced into"-the work below, which all these types of it fail to present! It would indeed scarcely be too much to say that one work was done outside the holiest, and another work presented inside !

Or shall we say, the burnt-offering was substitution, the sin-offering was not ? No, we may not that, for it has been acknowledged that the blood presented to God is the blood of a substitute. Does God, then, when it is presented to Him, not take notice of the substitution ?

But to go on :-

"And a marked difference-which helps us greatly in the understanding the character of the service within the vail-was this, that the blood was carried in to God because of the uncleannesses of the people, as well as for their transgressions in all their sins; whereas over the scape-goat Aaron confessed their iniquities, and their transgressions in all their sins, but not their uncleannesses. Not only, therefore, was there a substitute required to bear in the sinner's stead what he had deserved, but the holiness and righteousness of God had also to be met by blood for the uncleannesses as well as for the sins. Now, this last service is meant when we speak of making propitiation. An essential part of atonement it was, but not the whole of it, and markedly different from substitution. In this last the sinner's deserts and needs were portrayed. In the other, God's nature was first thought of and cared for."

Here, then, we are to find the meaning of propitiation. " The blood on the mercy-seat met the uncleanness of the people, as well as "-mark-"their transgressions in all their sins." Notice, then, this latter first. The blood did meet their "sins." Yes:"He is the propitiation for our sins."

But this last is the effect of substitution, is it not? The confession of the sins over the scape-goat is said to mark the substitutionary character. Why not here, then, in the holiest of all ? The addition of something else cannot take away this, at least. Addition is not here subtraction- like adding the law to grace; for there is here at least no essential contradiction.

Propitiation is, then, (so far, at any rate,) by substitution. The blood on the mercy-seat, whatever else it is, is surely-admittedly-the sign of an accomplished substitutionary work. And it is not according to Scripture to say that "nothing of that was delineated" in it.

But the uncleanness of the people-the meeting that -is the peculiar feature of propitiation. Strange, then, that in the New Testament we find nothing of this! "He is the propitiation for our sins." Precisely that which we are told is not the distinctive feature of propitiation is the very thing and the only thing which the New Testament insists on ! Will not our brethren now awake to the unscripturalness of all this? What is stated to be the peculiarity of propitiation is absolutely not found in the New-Testament use of it at all. And what is found is exactly that which it is attempted to distinguish from it !

Yet we are getting now upon the track in which we shall find, not indeed what propitiation is in the abstract idea of it, but what this propitiation in the holiest of all implies. It is expressly said to be an atonement for the holy place (10:ii, 17, 20, 23). That is its peculiarity; and that is the reason why "uncleannesses" are spoken of as well as "sins." " He shall make an atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins; and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting) that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness."

What is "uncleanness" in this connection? Is it not tendency to defile the holy dwelling-place of Jehovah among them? What would defile it ? Any thing else than sin? Are not their sins just in another aspect their uncleannesses? What else ?

You may say, perhaps, there were ceremonial unclean-nesses, as in the fifteenth chapter, which were not sins. True; but you will hardly say that the great peculiarity of the work in the holiest was to provide for these. To say so would be to remove the whole matter from having any significance for us, such as is contended for, at least; and we need not wonder if the New Testament does not even notice it.

But the "purification of the heavenly things" the epistle to the Hebrews does notice (chap. 9:23), and I have elsewhere referred to it. It need scarcely be taken up again.

Now, if the blood on the mercy-seat be for uncleanness and sins, even if these should be considered different, how is "God's nature" more in question by the first than by the last? If you conceive of difference, would not even the reverse of this be true? And is not God's nature vindicated and glorified by the burnt-offering or the peace-offering, or the sin-offering whose blood never came into the holiest of all? Did the fire of the burnt-or sin-offering not vindicate God's nature ? How can it be that the blood itself-the very same blood-did not vindicate God when outside the sanctuary, and did as soon as it was brought in ?

No, it was the blood itself-the work implied in it- which glorified God, and made propitiation, and the bringing in once a year maintained (for Israel) God's holiness in dwelling among them; for us, throws open the glorious sanctuary in the heavens.

Now, as to propitiation in the New Testament, we need not go into so much detail. The objections made have been mostly met. The breadth of substitution and propitiation has been more than once examined. Substitution is not for the world as such, true; and propitiation is " through faith" only for it (Rom. 3:25). There is no difference here; and none, therefore, can show a difference.

As to the Septuagint, it is not at all a question between verb and noun, which could not make any essential difference of meaning. Indeed, the noun is more variously rendered than the verb, and so more loosely. But it is true that the Septuagint uses exilaskomai and exilasmos, while the New Testament in both cases omits the ex. The force of ex here being merely intensive, and the words given in the lexicon with precisely the same meaning, I did not apprehend any difference which could affect the argument; nor do I. As for Gen. 32:20, the passage seems to speak for itself. Translate it literally all through, allowing the correction, it will be:"I will cover his face with the present going before, and afterward I will see his face. Peradventure he will accept my face." It will surely be seen that there cannot be here the idea of hiding from his sight, and that " his face " may, as in other places it does, stand for "him."

A more serious question is, whether God can be said to be "propitiated" or "appeased." With Luke 18:13 before us, in which the Lord Himself puts into the lips of the publican what is literally "God be propitiated (hilastheti) toward me, a sinner," it seems strange that we should be bidden to " remember that God is never said in Scripture to be propitiated or appeased." The verb only occurs once beside (Heb. 2:17), so that it is not so strange that the expression should occur but once. Can it be supposed that the Lord puts a wrong thought into the mouth of one who is in designed favorable contrast with the Pharisee of the same story ?

And what, then, is propitiation ? and to whom is the propitiation offered ? God is not said to be reconciled in Scripture, true :for He never was man's enemy; but was there not righteous and necessary wrath to be appeased ?

As to propitiation being made outside the sanctuary, it needs to be shown that it cannot. And it is not contended that it could be completed without blood. But that God was really thus far propitiated when the wrath-cloud passed from the cross, has not been met, nor can be. Death surely had still to be endured, and that I have always said. But if propitiation had any meaning that we can recognize, it was accomplishing, not accomplished, before the Lord's actual death. If you say, No, the blood must be shed, your type-teaching will lead you farther than you wish; for you will have to say that the work was not completed till after death, and that there was no blood of atonement until the soldier's spear had brought it forth.

We want things, not words merely:all these truths are the deepest realities for the soul. What does propitiation mean? what is its power ? tell me. If it is not appeasal, what is it? for I want to know. If it is wrath removed,- if it is death borne by Another-precious and efficacious before God, then we shall surely soon agree about it.

Now for the question of the priesthood:"We learn that the priests were consecrated in connection with death, and as that having previously taken place-for the ram of consecration had to be killed for Aaronic priests to be consecrated to their office" (Lev. 8:22, 23). True; but the previous anointing of the high-priest alone without blood (5:12), has that no meaning? The high-priest, when associated with the priests, was a sinful man like them, and even on the day of atonement offered for his own sins. Alone, and simply the type of Christ, he is anointed with the oil without blood.

"We learn, too, that in their sacrificial service they normally had nothing to do till the victim had been slain." One of two exceptions to this is found, strange to say, in the very place to which we have been directed to look to see how atonement was made ! It is "the case of the high-priest on the day of atonement, who in the capacity of offerer, it would seem, killed the victims." No remark is made upon this, and I shall make none. But the trouble is all through that it is the type teaching (or supposed to be teaching) the truth, not the truth making plain the type.

What about the work at the altar? That must be confessed priestly. Does it typify what took place in heaven, or on earth ? Will the former be contended for, because it was after the death of the victim ? Surely not. But then the argument is gone, or rather it is on the opposite side; for the priest is then typically a priest on earth. Let us go on.

"Further, we learn that propitiation was made by the high-priest alone, and that in the holy of holies, not at the altar."

According to the type, which is the first view, where do we learn this? As we have seen, the word "propitiation " is not found, except we take the Septuagint, and then it is found where, according to this view, it should not be ! How, then, is this propitiation exclusively in the holy place to be made out ?

But the Lord, it is said, was " perfected through sufferings," and some would render this " consecrated." In the first place, it has the undoubted meaning of "perfected," and the apostle is speaking directly of the Captain of salvation, not the Priest:"to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

We have no need, then, to "limit these" to sufferings short of death; and His entrance upon His Melchisedek priesthood was actually after this, as I believe, and have said elsewhere. What has been said before as to Heb. 8:4 is simply not noticed. Should it not be ? There is, I believe, no thought of "getting over" it at all; and the argument should be met.

The paper which I am reviewing was printed before my last one on "Priesthood," and naturally fails to answer what is there said. But it is strange to read-

"Now bring in His death between the commencement of His priesthood and His present exercise of it, and He ceases to be Priest after the order of Melchisedek."

If it had been stated that the Lord had been all through Melchisedek Priest, this would perhaps be true. I say "perhaps," for I read, "having neither beginning of days nor end of life, abideth a Priest continually." Now, if this apply to His human life simply, it had "beginning of days;" if to His divine nature, that had no "end of life." Any way, it does not affect the position which I believe to be the scriptural one.

But now, how, if death could interrupt His priesthood, could it possibly begin in death,-the view contended for against me? The argument that would affect the one side must surely equally affect the other. How strange to begin in death a priesthood taking character from an uninterrupted life !

Lastly, it is quite true that, as ministering in the sanctuary, the Lord would not be a priest on earth, and that there are only two sanctuaries,-the earthly and the heavenly. The service in the heavenly sanctuary begins only after resurrection.* *I have no need of the argument as to the cross not being on earth, although I had used it on a former occasion. Longer thought and deeper exercise in relation to this subject has led me to a different judgment on some points to that expressed in the letter I speak of. But I do not on that account accept the argument from Deut. 21:as to one hanging on a tree. The question cannot be so settled. The cross was not merely a malefactor's death. But I have raised no question of this in the preceding papers, as I am assured a broader ground must be taken as to the Lord's priesthood.*

So far from this view " bristling with difficulties," then, it is alone, as it seems to me, free from the difficulties which beset all others. Let brethren judge. The Word is open to all; the Spirit, blessed be God, given to us all.

" Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." " Lo, I am with you alway."

It came-the parting, and our weary
Hearts fell torn and bleeding at the feet
Of One who knew such pang:
His name-"The Man of Sorrows,"
No stranger He to grief, for once
Alone, despised, forsaken e'en of God,

His heart-divine, yet human-bore
The load of all creation's misery!
Man's hatred too-He bore it all,
And yet loved on.
And now we needed not to call, for
He had watched each moment
Of our fleeting joy with tenderest
Sympathy; His ear had caught the
"Farewell" which the lips refused
To utter; and His heart overflowed
With love-with yearning, pitying love,-
His arms He clasped around us,
And our heads cradled upon His
Breast; while to each weary child
Spake He of rest. And from those
Lips dropped on each wounded heart
The fragrant myrrh, soothing,-
Restoring (Cant. 5:13). Sweet was that hour of
Peace! Deep In the ocean calm, when
The waves are stilled, when the wild
Winds sink to rest, and the last
Thunder-roll dies murmuring away, and
Faint grows the note of the storm-
Bird's cry as she seeks her lonely nest.
But stealing-slowly stealing along
The eastern sky, are streaks of glory,-
Harbingers of morn, telling of
Coming radiance-of a cloudless day.
So stealing-sweetly stealing upon
The wondrous soul, came visions
Of His glory, of joys before unknown;
And on each listening ear fell there
A sound of words most sweet-
Speaking of love which could
Not change-of hope which fadeth
Not,-of meetings in a land where
Partings come not, and only joy
Is known.
….
So He spake peace; and from
Each heart burst forth a song
Of praise! We could not grieve:
Each aching void was filled;
For He was ours, and was not
He enough?