Jehu had a hard task rightly to perform. To execute vengeance, which belongeth unto God, is for a soul that realizes its own shortcomings indeed most difficult. The evil house of Ahab is at last to meet its doom, and Jehu is appointed to the task. In 2 Kings 9:he does his work, and does it thoroughly. It is well to see how he recognizes God's hand and God's word in it all. We are not called upon, like Jehu, to execute vengeance, but we have often in the application of discipline to know something of that faithfulness which does not spare. We are called to bear a testimony and to declare the truth of God, no matter what names may suffer. In all this, promptness and faithfulness are necessary. In chap. 10:we see deceit in the matter of the slaying of the seventy sons of Ahab. He uses an artifice to get the elders to slay them and so to create the impression that they had shed more blood than he. In this, there seems to be a fear to stand alone, a desire to have others share with him in the responsibility and in possible defeat. There seems to be a fear lurking here, which ill becomes one who had the word of God for what he was doing. If he stood with God, he need not fear to stand alone. This deceit must have weakened him in the eyes of the people, as it surely would in the eyes of those who feared God. With us, who have a testimony to give, is there not often this lurking fear, which shows itself in the desire to associate others with us, not realizing that God and His word are our strength and that numbers often mean weakness? If God in mercy add faithful ones to declare His truth, well; but let them come with eyes open, and not be drawn by any thing that has even the appearance of deceit. Jehu thus is going to strengthen his cause in his 'own way. This is self-will; that which does God's work, not in His way, but our own. And how natural that self-will, that which is human strength, is after all weakness!

See Peter ; in self-will he will confess Christ, go to prison and to death. That self-will only takes him to the high-priest's palace and to the fire-there to deny the One who in perfect submission to the Father was witnessing a good confession.

With self-will at work, pride and self-complacency naturally have their place,-"Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord." "My zeal" is what is now before Jehu. God and His word are a secondary matter. Contrast such arrogance with Moses, on the one hand sending the tribe of Levi with drawn sword to slay the idolaters, and on the other interceding for the people. It is to be feared that " my zeal" is before us too often. Christ, not faithfulness is the object. Apart from Him there cannot be true faithfulness. Alas ! much that passes for zeal for Him, in ecclesiastical discipline, or in personal dealings with fellow-Christians is, if rightly understood, but pride at our own unflinching faithfulness. It is not the spirit of Christ, it will do no lasting work for Him. When we think of Him who was consumed by zeal for the Father's house, the most faithful, the most devoted will have little to say about his own zeal.

Next, we find that deceit, practiced at first and not since judged, bearing worse fruit. He links God's name with that of Baal. True, one may say, but in order to slay the false worshipers. This may be good Jesuitism- it is not the practice of the faithful servant of God. See how Elijah acts in a similar case. It is a question of Jehovah or Baal. He does not link himself for a moment with the false. He lets Baal be tested-then God shows His power, and the people see that none of the false prophets escape. Here, too, there is the artifice and cunning which speak of human expedients, of self-will, not of quiet confidence in God, and obedience to His Word. Baal may be destroyed out of Israel, but God is not exalted. With that inconsistency which always is manifested in self-will, even when apparently most faithful, Jehu casts out Baal, and holds fast to the golden calves of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. His zeal does not carry him back in simplicity to God, His altar, His house, His people. After a brilliant flash, the gloom deepens, for soon the Lord begins to cut Israel short, to let the enemy carry away captive those who lived east of Jordan. Thus brilliancy is no indication of lasting work. To be sure, for his measure of service, Jehu's sons for four generations sit on the throne ; but what of this when the nation is still idolatrous, still divided and fast disintegrating ?

Has not all this a word for us ? There has been much cutting off of evil, much faithfulness for God. Do we not well to ask if, while the grosser forms of evil, of insubjection to God's word have been judged and departed from, there may not yet be the holding fast to what would answer to the golden calves ?-the same, doubtless, as the one set up in the wilderness ; something visible to take the place of God-of Christ, whom, not seeing, we trust. Any substitute for Christ, His work, His person, His authority,-no matter by what name this substitute may be called, is in principle a holding fast to the golden calves. Jehu, with all his energy, never takes the place of a mourner who would draw God's people to Himself, so he comes short in his work-he is a failure. His spirit is with us to day. It may carry all before it for a time, but lasting fruit for God there is not. Even now God's people are fast disintegrating-old ties fail to bind them together, and the temptation is to act, as did Jehu, in the pride of self-will. Alas! this but hastens the crumbling. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord." What He needs now is not men like Jehu, but those who, seeing the ruin, will mourn over it, and, setting up the Lord Himself as their standard, witness in meekness for Him. Self-will works ruin.

Conant’s "History of English Bible Translation."* *May be had at same address as this magazine. Price, 25 cents.* I The above title hardly conveys to the reader the extensiveness and interesting character of the work we are about to commend. We therefore place at the head of this notice the words ''Reformation Times," to call attention to the subject really presented in the book.

To the Scriptures we should turn first of all both for doctrine and instructive history; but the history of the Church is also profitable-full of suggestion, instruction, comfort, warning.

We shall be the better prepared for the fight and furnished for the journey by acquaintance especially with Reformation history; and, as "history repeats itself," acquaintance with one period affords a very full supply of instruction,-above all when that, period is marked by events, under the hand of God, that are among the most interesting and remarkable in the world's history.

History, we know, is a mirror in which we see reflected our. own selves, and the communities in which we live, giving object-lessons illustrating the precious teachings and warnings of the Word. Such, of course, is life to us in general, and all that we meet with and hear and see. "Wisdom crieth aloud in the streets." A fool has no heart for wisdom, and the world is blind to the meaning of its own history; but the lessons are continued nevertheless, and the great examination-day will come, and folly will meet its doom, and God will be glorified in all the records of the past. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished." (Prov. 22:3.)

"Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things." (Rom. 2:1:) So solemn and weighty are the lessons of history in the light of Scripture.

Wickliffe and his times and Tyndale and his times are really the subjects brought before us in the book of which we speak, only that the author had in mind prominently the history of our English Bible in connection with the sufferings endured by such witnesses, (sufferings of persecution by the malice of Satan, and persecution, in Tyndale's case, to death,) that we might have God's Word in our own tongue. Hence the title, " History of English Bible Translation;"-no mere reference to a work of scholars and students, but a living picture from the pages of history of a deadly conflict like that of David with the Philistine giant. A conflict in which prominently these two men stood up against the enemy when the people of God in general were trembling and ready to flee,-such is the goodness of our God to us.

They were not associated in time :Wickliffe was the pioneer-a hundred and fifty years before the time of Tyndale and the Reformation. Wickliffe had grace from God to stand single-handed for the truth, bearing fearless witness for God and for Christ; and when at last driven from Oxford by persecution to a measure of retirement at Lutterworth, he made diligent use of the occasion to produce the work of his life,-a translation of the Latin Bible into English; so that, under the unerring and merciful providence of God, the apparent diminishing of opportunity, as so often the case, afforded him the real opportunity of his life. But none will wonder at this who know the meaning of the cross, and its results. There, defeat was victory; and on that line God is leading His .people, and will to the end. None can fight against God. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. We have but to stand still, and see the salvation of God.

Tyndale's work, though not greater, was in a yet stormier time, when by the Reformation God was about to give deliverance to His people from an "iron furnace" and from bondage. Things had come to a head, and the conflict the fiercer. Wickliffe's translation was only in manuscript, and from the Vulgate. At this period, the study of Greek had been introduced, and the art of printing. The way was prepared of God, and Tyndale, having forsaken England for Antwerp and Cologne for safety, translated the New Testament into English, and found means by English merchants to send his little messengers back to England.

When we consider the great results that followed the arrival of this little book in the Thames, and the persecution that arose by the heads of church and state, we see tin the part of the enemy the same malice at work behind the scenes that is presented to us in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, where the dragon stands ready to devour the man-child, and on the other hand, for our joy and comfort, the folly of all efforts to hinder the purposes of God. There we may rest with peaceful expectation of the end. As a tender plant is nourished, the providence of God sheltered in the main the silent progress of the truth from Wickliffe's days until the Reformation a hundred and fifty years after, when, we may say, the time for warfare by full-grown men had come, and victory in deadly conflict. If at such a time distress increased, and the awful clamor of the enemy, it was the heat of battle that precedes victory and peace, however defective the results through failure among the faithful themselves.

Wickliffe's work was more preparatory; Tyndale's and Luther's, at a time of more rapidly accomplishing events toward the approaching end. But he that sowed and he that reaped can rejoice together.

Since writing what precedes, an interesting introductory review in a work on revivals* came to notice only to-day,-no doubt, of the Lord. *"Narratives of Remarkable Conversions and Revival Incidents. Review of Revivals from the day of Pentecost to the great awakening in the last century. Rise and progress of the great awakening of 1857-58."*We venture to add an extract in continuance and development of the theme just now briefly suggested in our last few words. Like a bird's-eye view of a country, we get in the following extract a comprehensive and spiritual view of an important era in church history, and an impressive lesson of how God is ever working to an end, however little noticed by men, and even at times by His own.

" Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people," deepening as if to endless night. It' a star or two appeared, it was only to be quenched apparently in clouds of devastating war. None could see a harbinger or promise of returning day at the period when the secret work of Providence was ripe, and the morning watch came unperceived, and God said, "Let there be light!" Then Wickliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, arose before the dawn, in the fourteenth century, clothed in the light of a reopened Bible. Soon after, in the beginning of the fifteenth, John Huss caught the reflection, and added to it the flame of martyrdom. The revival of letters advanced:twenty-universities arose in less than a hundred years. In the midst of this movement the art of printing was given, imparting an impetus to literature which had been otherwise inconceivable, and providing the swift and subtle agent by which the infant Reformation was to surprise and overpower its great adversary unawares. At the same juncture, the Mohammedan power, overwhelming the eastern metropolis, swept the remnant of Greek learning into Europe. Finally, in and about the last quarter of the same memorable century, Luther, Zwingle, Cranmer, Melancthon, Knox, and Calvin, with other mighty champions of the truth, were born. Little thought the simple mothers what they had in their cradles. But God's time was at hand, and the final preparations for His work were now masked under the form of a few poor men's babes.

"O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people,-when Thou didst march through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God. . . . The Lord gave the Word; great was the company of those that published it." In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the unlooked-for heralds came, proclaiming free salvation by Christ crucified:first Lefevre, Farel, Briconnet, Chatelain, and their friends in France then Zwinglius in Switzerland:and almost at the same moment, the giant^of the Reformation, Martin Luther, in Germany;-each attended by a host of zealous and able coadjutors both in church and state. Ecolampadius, Melancthon, Calvin-preachers, scholars, princes, and nobles :soon Tyndale, with his printed English Testament in England; Patrick Hamilton, Geo. Wishart, and John Knox in Scotland; John Tausseii in Denmark; John Laski in Poland; Olaus Petri and Laurentius in Sweden; and humbler names without number in every quarter;-all these arose at once, or within little more than a quarter of a century, by the mysterious workings of the Spirit and providence of God, filled Europe with their doctrine, and triumphantly established the truth of the gospel in the countries now protestant within periods varying from ten to fifty years-from the date of this marvelous uprising.

Much, indeed, of what is commonly called "the Reformation" belongs to a kingdom that is only of this world. Political power and ambition, political alliance and protection, political means .and appliances, were the bane of its spirituality and purity; and while these elements seemed indeed to preserve it from extinction, it is probable that in some cases, a's in France, they were also its ruin. The struggle for liberty beginning in the struggle for divine truth, was long identified with it, and fastened its changing fortunes upon the cause of the gospel. The progress of the kingdom of Christ through this stormy chaos of good and evil is what all can witness but none clearly trace, save the all-wise Being who directs both the operation and the result. Now, however, the confusion is measurably cleared; the vexed elements have gradual!)7 settled and separated; the contradiction in nature which severs the heavenly from all earthly kingdoms begins to be apprehended, and we can contemplate the Reformation proper in distinction from the mere politico-religious changes attached to it. To contemplate this pure heavenly object, we must seek it in the hearts of God's people. Eminent illustrations of its power and quality will be found in another part of this volume, exhibiting the essence of the Reformation, which history cannot represent. So much of the historical Reformation was the mere creation, or rather fiction, of law, that the measure of true religious improvement effected in the Protestantized churches is often left extremely dubious. But here, in the inner life, whose records are preserved to us, we have veritable unambiguous substance. Here is the revived power of the doctrine of the cross of Christ:here is the secret of a revolution equal, and we may hope more than equal, to that which in a similar length of time (three centuries) had at first broken the power of paganism as that of popery is now broken, and placed Christianity on the throne of the Caesars. Here is once more a supernatural wonder, an operation of the Holy Ghost,-in common language, a revival, a restoration of life, a spiritual resurrection, of the most amazing and glorious character. Scarcely less sudden and overwhelming than the descent of Pentecost, with the subsequent general spreading of the gospel by Paul, and perhaps hardly inferior to the same in the multitude of its converts and the number and piety of its martyrs, while to all appearance beyond comparison with it in the permanence of its impulse and the magnitude of its immediate fruits. It is identified with the primitive revival in its central principle- Christ crucified, and closely resembles it as a spiritual springtime awakening at the word of God out of the profoundest depth of wintry desolation; but not without a patient sowing of precious seed long previous, and an unconscious softening and preparation of the common heart by divine Providence. The reforming preachers came to a people long involved in night; but it had been a night of storm and tempest,-no stagnant, putrescent, Asiatic calm. The mass, of men were strangers to leisure for luxurious vices and corrupt philosophies:their minds were vigorous, simple, and earnest; neither were they hardened by habit to a disregarded gospel. The excessive wickedness in high places, which had almost blotted out the memory of true Christianity, had saved the common people from that most deadly, depraving, and indurating form of sin, the disbelief and contempt of revealed truth and a crucified Savior. The news of such a Savior once announced, flew like the winds among " a people prepared for the Lord " more perfectly than we can guess, by the very miseries of their state; and being welcomed with exultation, were cherished with a tenacity which death and torture could not relax.

Let us notice the solemn truth of the words, "that most deadly, depraving, and indurating form of sin, the disbelief and contempt of revealed truth and a crucified Savior." This the people at large, then, were not ruled by. But how is it now? If then the people were "prepared for the Lord," are they not now, in pride and folly, being prepared for Satan and apostasy? Let the leaders of thought be warned of their wickedness, and of the judgment of God. May His grace prevail mightily in hearts mislead, ere the darkness of night and the woes of judgment are upon them. E.S.L.

(Some Suggestions.)

If the very frame-work of Scripture, and the relationship of its parts to one another, is based upon the meaning of numbers, as now taught and increasingly evident, it will be interesting and profitable to search and find examples and illustrations of this. It will be to the glory of God that we should in this fresh development be impressed with His handiwork as well as instructed and sanctified by the truth so illustrated. But the suggestions are made as such, and therefore open to objections and corrections, but trusting they will commend themselves as scripturally based, and simple.

Attention is called to three examples. In Matthew (omitting the temptation), we find the Lord is on the mount seven times before the cross, and the eighth time after He rises from the dead.

In Genesis, God covenants with Abraham seven times; and then "after these things," when He offers up Isaac, and receives him in a figure from the dead, the covenant is renewed an eighth time.

And in Joseph's history, typical of Christ dealing with Israel, he communicates in that character with his brethren seven times; and then, when Jacob has passed from the scene, an eighth time.

I refer first in detail briefly to this latter scripture.

Joseph tells his brethren (Gen. 37:6) his dream about their sheaves making obeisance to his.

In his second dream he tells them how the sun and moon and eleven stars made obeisance to him; and they hated him. Is not this the double witness the Lord spoke of to Nicodemus-"If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?" The Old and the New Testament give the complete witness of God to convict the unbeliever.

Heavenly glory as well as earthly were typically predicted.

Thirdly, Joseph sent to them in love by the father, and rejected and cast into the pit, is raised to the right hand of power, unknown to these despisers of grace.

The next three communications are by the brethren being compelled to go to Joseph. Twice they go down to Egypt, and a third time get outside the city and have to turn back, the cup being found in Benjamin's sack, when, after deep and affecting exercises on their part (Gen. 44:18-Judah's prayer) Joseph proclaims himself.

Three times (as three days), throughout Scripture, sets forth complete heart-searching experience, and deliverance at the close, by God who raises the dead. (Abraham; Esther 4:16; Paul; waters of Marah; and many other examples of three days and three times.) So in the case before us. Three times they denied and rejected him; three times they have to come to him, and the third time pass through distress (fearing the effect upon their father of the loss of Benjamin as well as Joseph) similar to Joseph's and their father's when Joseph was rejected. Their third was marked by complete hatred and rejection; Joseph's third by complete mercy and tender welcome.
But we have only reached a sixth, not a seventh, communication. It is short of completeness, for Jacob has not yet been brought-has not yet been persuaded that the rejected Joseph lives. All this tells us beforehand, in a wonderful way, how tender and patient the Lord will be in His dealing with Israel at last, to recall them to repentance, and how slow of heart they will be to believe. A remnant will become missionaries to the rest. All is incomplete until Israel as a whole (all Israel) shall be restored. The powers of the whole world will be at their service to help them in returning to the land of their fathers.

All this is set forth in the seventh communication (Gen. 47:).

"And Israel took his journey, with all that he had." Not now "Jacob." He is called "Jacob" previously in this narrative-halting and doubting and fearing; but now "Israel took his journey." A prince once more- power with God and with man-he comes to Beersheba, the well of the oath, where Israel's (Abraham's) supremacy over the Gentiles (Gen. 21:31) was shown in the Philistines making suit to Abraham, and where a center of worship was established in the name of Jehovah as the everlasting God. And God spoke to him in a vision of the night, and called him "Jacob"-He calls him " Jacob," but at Beersheba, which assures of final and everlasting blessing and supremacy. He is not to fear to go down into Egypt. From Beersheba, though only Jacobs, we can face the world, leaving all behind, sure as to the end. "And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father to Goshen (Gen. 46:29), and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while." All is now complete. And now Israel, like Simeon in Luke, says to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive." The nation at large will at last use the language of Simeon-" Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."

It is truly a seven-nothing more to be desired:the heart is full, and finally at rest. God has tenderly and patiently led up to a desired end. Ararat has been reached:the ark rests, and the world is to be possessed and governed in peace, and filled with blessing from the presence and glory of Christ. The once rebellious and hateful are now reconciled to the One long before rejected, but who all through this long and terrible experience had never ceased to love them and to deal on their behalf, to accomplish His purpose. All Pharaoh's resources are now at the service of Jacob and his sons, being the brethren of Joseph.

"Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." (Isa. 60:1:) "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising . . . thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side." "All they from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and incense. and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord . . . and I will glorify the house of My glory . . . Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows ? Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of Jehovah thy God, and to the holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified thee. … I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations … I, the Lord, am thy Savior, and thy Redeemer the Mighty One of Jacob . . . The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory . . . the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. . . . They shall inherit the land forever."

"And Joseph placed his father and his brethren (Gen. 47:ii) and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded."
Thus complete as a history and as a type is the portion before us. But there remains an eighth communication,

"And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, 'Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.' And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, 'Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil:and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father.' And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. . . . And Joseph said unto them, Fear not:… as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. . . .' And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them."

In what has already been before us we have had presented the completeness of God's dealings with Israel to restore them-that general thought; but now, in this eighth, we have made prominent Christ in resurrection recognized, and to whom they are reconciled. Jacob having passed away, they were brought face to face with Joseph,-that is, the remnant of Israel, in the last days, realizing the utter failure of the nation, and that the scattering of the nation had written death upon all natural hopes, their heart is turned to Christ, to find in Him, exalted and glorified, not an avenging Judge, but a Shepherd and Savior and Friend.

Nothing can hinder the accomplishment of His will; and the long night of Israel's sorrow, sure to end in His presence in everlasting joy, lights up the whole world's history with a glow of deepening interest. If He so deals with Israel, much more will He not forsake His Church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He will present it to Himself, in heavenly glory, a glorious Church, with no blemish to remind of the shame and sorrow of the past. E.S.L.

In God's mercy, much of the hidden treasure in this portion of His Word has been. brought to light. Truths therein contained as to the work of Christ and His person; as to Israel's history, whether passing through the great trouble of the future, or entering upon that time of blessing so often dwelt upon in Isaiah and elsewhere; truths as to judgments on the nations, and their future destiny-have been rescued from the obscurity thrown over them by a so-called spiritual interpretation, and the result is a greatly increased knowledge of what is called prophetic truth. Now all this is matter for hearty thanksgiving, nor would one say a word to hinder the acquisition of fresh truths in this direction-nay, the first point we would emphasize is that Christians should study the prophets more constantly and more carefully. Alas! this deadly ignorance! what will arouse God's sleeping people to gather the manna lying within their very grasp ? Dear fellow believer, let us read, let us study our Bibles more!

But our present purpose in calling attention to the study of the prophets is to notice especially their immense importance in disclosing what is of inestimable value in the personal and practical walk. Under the Puritans, indeed, this was almost the sole use to which they were put, as their writings would show. We should see to it that light in other directions does not eclipse what .was already shining-above all, that the dispensational or doctrinal part of God's word does not supplant what is practical. He would never have one side of His truth displace another. Let us, then, look at a few of the truths in the prophets which are of distinctively practical and personal importance.

1. The majesty and holiness of God. The prophet Isaiah enters upon his special service after having had such a view of God's glory as brought him to his face in self-abhorrence (Isa. 6:). Like Job, he had heard of Him by the hearing of the ear, but when his eye saw Him, he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes. But our blessed God does not reveal Himself to dazzle or to smite, so we see grace mingling with the glory." It""is only sin which makes us not at home in His presence, and the coal from off the altar speaks to us of a holiness which has found food there, and does not burn but heals the sinner. Sweet type of that work (and the fragrance of His person who did it) in which God's holiness was so vindicated and manifested that it now comes forth to kiss away sin from defiled lips. In Habakkuk (Chap, 3:) we have a most magnificent description of God's majesty.
"His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. . . . His brightness was as the light. . . . He stood and measured the earth, . . . and the eternal mountains were scattered, the everlasting hills did bow." All His enemies are scattered, but though the believer is filled with awe, he says, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, …. yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." God seen and known in this way becomes an object of worship and reverence. Is there not an awful absence of that fear of God which is not only the beginning of knowledge, but the characteristic of His people at all times? The love which casteth out fear never casts out godly fear. Assurance and trembling go together, as i Pet. 1:and Phil. 2:would show us. Were God ever before our hearts in His holiness and majesty, self-pleasing,-yea, sin in all its forms, could have no place; conscience would be active, the path of obedience would be plain and not difficult to walk in. Nor would joy, liberty, and praise be wanting. But the flippancy, looseness of walk, hastiness of tongue, would be gone. No flesh can glory in His presence. May we not say, "Lord, increase our fear," as well as "Lord, increase our faith"? Then, too, we would go forth to the world with the message of grace, and our word would be with power-we would be a savor of life or of death.

2. The tenderness of God. Perhaps we little realize the tone of tenderness which pervades the prophets. There is so much of holy indignation against. sin, so many warnings of judgment, that we fail, perhaps, to notice the tender pleading that often accompanies the severest denunciations. HOSEA speaks from God's heart to that of His people. In chap, 2:, after describing Israel's unfaithfulness like that of a wife untrue to her husband, and the resulting judgments, God says, "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her." (Heb., "to her heart.") What tenderness is here manifested! He cannot let the record of her sins go down without accompanying it with the promise of future blessing. Then, too, when there seems to be a desire to return to the Lord, but not full and deep, how His love pleads! (6:4.) In looking back over Ephraim's past history, "I took them in My arms, but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. . . . How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" He cannot, so He will not, execute the fierceness of His wrath. He will roar as a lion, and His people shall follow Him, trembling indeed, but turning from Egypt and Assyria. Again in the fourteenth chapter, the very words of penitence are put in their lips, and God's answer is given in anticipation, " I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely." JEREMIAH, too, that dark book of judgment, has beneath that the pleading of One who would have been a husband to Israel, and who recalls the love of her espousals. Even now, spite of public unfaithfulness, He pleads with her to return. And when still obdurate, the tears of the messenger mingle with the judgment pronounced in God's name. EZEKIEL, in the sixteenth chapter, has a most faithful portrayal of Israel's history under the figure of the unfaithful wife, beginning indeed in the infancy of one to whom God said "live," who, as she grew up, was adorned with His comeliness, but who turned it all to strangers. Faithfully is the dark picture drawn, but we know that every stroke gives pain to a love which .is neither blind nor insensible. After all is laid bare, love triumphs over sin; and we are pointed on to a time when the poor wanderer will be brought back, nevermore to lift the head in pride, and nevermore to dishonor Him who has won her back. How good it is to apply this to one's personal history, and to take that lowly place of self-loathing so befitting those with whom divine tenderness has dealt.

3. Here, too, we must notice how intensely personal and individual God's dealings are. HAGGAI brings a message to us as well as to the returned Jews, when he says "Consider your ways." May we not in this book learn some of the reasons why spiritual prosperity is at a low ebb-each looking after his own house, and letting that of the Lord lie in neglect? "All seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ." ISAIAH, chap. 58:, exposes the formality of a fast which is such only in name, and stirs up the conscience of any who have an ear to hear, pointing away from religiousness such as the Pharisee afterward boasted in, to the practical fruits of a real experience. This unvailing of all shams is one of the prominent characteristics of the prophets-all is vain except that lowly, broken heart, never despised wherever seen. May we not take to heart that rebuke, "The temple of the Lord are these"? Ecclesiastical assumption and pride, so common, alas! are but a stench in God's nostrils. Our place, like DANIEL’S (chap. 9:), is one of humiliation and confession, a real mourning and a real seeking God's face. He would hear.

4. The buoyant spirit of hope breathing all through these books. Blacker pictures of earth's destiny could not be drawn even by the pessimist. Nations pass across the scene to execute judgment on God's people, or on another nation, only themselves to feel the power of that arm which wielded them as His sword, in their own destruction; but spite of slaughter, famine, earthquake, never for a moment is lost the truth that God's purpose is being fulfilled-that He is above all-convulsions of nations and of nature, unfaithfulness of His people-and that after all disorder peace will at last reign. Let us ever remember this in a day of ruin and reproach like the present, and stand firm.

5. Lastly, the prophets are fragrant of Christ. His person, humiliation, sorrow, death, and coming reign are put before us constantly :had we eyes to see, doubtless we would find much more of Him there. It is by occupation with Christ that we grow like Him, and the spiritual exercise entailed in searching for and finding Him in these books is most beneficial.

But we have only gleaned a few things from these books. What a field do they offer for prayerful research! They were written for a time of failure, and are, therefore, specially appropriate for the present time. Written primarily for God's earthly people, they contain principles for all time. Do we not much need that heart-work,- that exercise which would result from letting these books search and try us?

AS CONTAINED IN

DR. SUNDAY’S LECTURES ON "THE ORACLES OF GOD."*

*"The Oracles of God. Nine Lectures on the Nature and Extent of Biblical Inspiration, and on the Special Significance of the Old-Testament Scriptures at the Present Time. By Wm. SUNDAY, M.A., D.D., LL. Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis; Fellow of Exeter College; Oxford Preacher at Whitehall. Longan, Green & Co., London and New York-1891."*

I.- The Present Contention.

"I have more understanding than all my teachers," says the Psalmist; " for Thy testimonies are my meditation." (Ps. 119:99.) A bold thing to say for this anonymous writer, surely ! Who were his teachers ? Were the days dark then in Israel ? For our present purpose we need not to ask such questions. Assured that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," we may venture to take it for a word most seasonable at the present moment, and an apology for venturing to review a " Professor of Exegesis," from the stand-point of Scripture itself.

But are we correct in that last rendering ? The Revised Version, as is well known, prefers another, although it puts the old one* in the margin, as therefore at least allowable :if we prefer to have it, we still may. *Except that for " all" it has " every;" but even this change cannot be insisted on. Pas without the article, as here, is used for "all," as " all Jerusalem," "all flesh," "all the house of Israel," where you could not say "every." In the same way as here, the R. V. has given us, for" all the building,'' in Eph. 2:31, " each several building"!* It is a simple question as to where the verb (often omitted in the Greek as here) is to be put; and the sense is after all what must guide us. The fact of its being left thus far indefinite really makes it definite that the two renderings must be after all the same, otherwise there would have been some pains taken to show us which way we were to read it; would there not ? To make them so, we have only to put a comma into the R. V., and say, "Every scripture, inspired of God, is also profitable." Here the old statement and the new are really one.

But that is not the way some would have us understand it. They have decreed that it must mean that every scripture that is inspired of God is profitable, but that it does not apply to the whole Bible by any means ; and that is why they prefer "every" to "all." In the whole Bible, certain parts are inspired, and which, you must find out:hard work enough, as it has taken so many generations of learned men to discover what, and indeed they have not done it yet; while the unlearned are scarcely to be expected to find out at all.

By this means the whole attitude of soul toward Scripture is altered :we judge it, not are judged by it. What we cannot understand, or have no heart for, we can easily suspect to be not inspired :the Word of God is measured by our scanty bushel, and becomes as narrow as the shallowest human mind can make it.

Dr. SUNDAY is fully committed to this view of Scripture, which, as he rightly says, is not held now merely by those in the ranks of enemies of the truth. The "expressions of opinion" which have excited for some time "not a little disquietude and anxiety," and that "especially amongst good people,"- "have not had any thing of the nature of an attack. They have not come from the Extreme Left, or from the destructive party in ecclesiastical politics or theology, but they have come from men of known weight and sobriety of judgment, from men of strong Christian convictions, who it is felt would not lightly disturb the same convictions in others,-men, too, of learning, who do not speak without knowing what they say."

Among these, Dr. SUNDAY puts forth no claim to speak with "authority." Only specialists, who have devoted themselves to work on "some definite line "can rightly do this within their own particular limits. The labor of ascertaining how far Scripture is to be believed is so great that he himself, as to much of it, must be content to "look on from outside."

" At the same time, one who holds a responsible position must do his best to ascertain which way things are tending:he must not let any considerable change in theology come upon him unprepared:he must consider beforehand how it is likely to affect himself and to affect others, especially those who come under his charge."

Knowledge of the truth he dares not profess :he has an " opinion," and faith in the competence of those who are giving the trend to his theology. He says,-

"I shall abstain from expressing any opinion as to the extent to which the conclusions involved have been proved. In regard to this, there may be not a few here who will be as well able to form a judgment as I am. I, LIKE THEM, MUST BE CONTENT TO TAKE A GREAT DEAL UPON TRUST. The only advantage I can claim is perhaps a rather fuller acquaintance with foreign work as well as with English, and with the general balance of opinion abroad as well as at home. I have also the advantage that some of those engaged in these studies are personal friends of my own; and to their singleness of mind and earnest religious purpose, as well as to their thorough competence to deal with questions of so much importance, I must needs bear testimony."

But is there here any ground for divine faith at all?

There were others of old time whose "fear of God was taught by the precept of men," but they do not come well recommended to us. And as for the result, considering all that is or may be in question, we cannot help believing that they were a great deal better off to whom the apostle could say,-many, yea, most of them, very simple, unlettered people, we may be sure,-"Ye have an unction from the holy One, and ye know all things, and need not that any man teach you." How grand and ennobling a thing that, to be, under God's teaching, delivered from dependence upon these long examinations ! not to have to wait with fevered eyes, looking to our masters to see what they will permit us to believe at last ! Which method honors God most, also? a God with whom "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called ; but who has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise"?

It is not a question of details-of this point or that point-but of the whole method. Dr. SUNDAY's, far as he is from wishing to attack Scripture, is wholly discordant with it. , .

"Scripture cannot be broken:" that was our Lord's own account of it ; "not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled." Both these things are said precisely of what has most to bear the brunt of "higher criticism," the Old Testament. Here we have the verbal accuracy of the inspired Word maintained, if words mean any thing. Here is the need of the heart that longs for divine certainty fully met. God has spoken, and spoken not so imperfectly as to leave us in doubt after all as to what is His word, what merely man's. We have what we can depend upon; and, if taught of God, have about it a certainty no human guarantee can give,-thank God, which no "opposition of science, falsely so called," can take away.

But there are the facts, urges Dr. S. Bring them forward by all means, and let us see what their value is. Do not blame us, however, for our entire confidence beforehand that there are no facts that can Invalidate the Lord's words, or do what He challenges cannot be done. " SCRIPTURE CANNOT BE BROKEN :" and He says this about the use of the word "gods " for "those to whom the word of God came,"-quite possibly some may conceive it a strained expression :all the less can one doubt the absolute claim which is here made of complete verbal perfection. Are we to wait until men know every "fact" that can be known before we set to our seal that God is true ? Dr. SUNDAY himself does not doubt, as we may see shortly, as to the meaning of what Christ says. He only thinks that he knows better. This is no surmise merely of mine :it is the literal truth.

Might we not as well stop here, then? Is it any use to prolong discussion ? Alas ! unbelief can take shape as the most enlightened faith, and deceive, not merely other?, but the man himself who is under its spell. This professor of exegesis is honestly anxious for his readers, that they should be able to hold still their faith in Christ, when faith in His word has been rendered impossible. Here too the Christian teacher goes beyond his Master, who can only assure us, " If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed;" "if a man love Me, he will keep My words; he that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings; " and who adds, "And the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me." (Jno. 8:31; 14:23, 24.)

But what about Dr. SUNDAY's facts ? One would expect that for his purpose he would take some one or more, put them in plain words, substantiate them with decisive proofs, and do manifestly what the Lord says cannot be done. Surely we might claim this from him. One plain fact would be better than a thousand doubtful ones; and he must surely, amid all that human research has raked together against the Word of God, have one fact at least capable of such treatment!

Nothing of the sort is attempted. We shall quote him fairly, and let him show us all he can. He says,-

"In many respects, the result of these discoveries has been to confirm the truth of the Old-Testament history,-in many, but not quite in all.

"An instructive example is supplied by the chronology. Both the Assyrian and the Babylonian chronologies rest on a very secure basis. They can be traced up to authorities which are either contemporary or nearly contemporary. And they are further confirmed by the mention of astronomical phenomena, such as eclipses, which have been verified by modem calculations. Now although these chronologies present a great deal of approximate agreement with the books of Kings, there are some not unimportant differences."
Little wonder need there be about that. It is not hard to suppose slips in an ancient and fragmentary record, even though it may be traced up to " nearly" contemporary authority, and confirmed here and there by astronomical calculations ! Why should Scripture go to the wall in these cases to glorify the heathen annals? Suppose we turn the argument round, and say, " Scripture, with its many infallible proofs, confirms generally the Assyrian and Babylonian chronologies, but there are some not unimportant differences "? What then ?

In a note, it is added,-

"The Assyrian and the biblical data agree exactly in assigning the fall of Samaria to 722 B.C., but some correction is required of the statement in 2 Kings 18:10 that this event took place in the sixth year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib's invasion, which is assigned to the fourteenth year of the same king, did not really take place till after the year 702. This point 1 believe is well made put."

That is all the proof as given here. No doubt Dr. S. did not want Jo weary us with all the pros and cons of a tedious argument, which, if our faith in Scripture depends on it, shows quite manifestly that the poor and unlearned are shut out. It may be possible for some to satisfy themselves with the author's faith in it. But Mr. Barks has examined it at large in his Commentary on Isaiah, and seems to have refuted it entirely, while showing its absolute inconsistency with the whole Scripture account; as, for instance, in making the capture by Sennacherib of forty-six fenced cities in Judah, and smaller towns without number, with the carrying off of two hundred thousand persons, take place in the midst of those fifteen years of " peace and truth" promised to Hezekiah after his recovery from his sickness !* *This view disfigures the modern histories, as Rawlins on's Five Great Monarchies:Geikie's Hours with the Bible; Sayce's Fresh Light, &100:It is enough to compare Geikie's account with Scripture to see the contradictions.*

Mr. Barks says,-

" The view adopted by Prof. Rawlins on and others, in deference to the supposed authority of the Assyrian canon, (which Dr. Hincks himself does not hesitate to call the work of a blunderer, disproved in some main particulars by weightier evidence,) distorts and reverses, in my opinion, that main feature in the history of Hezekiah's reign on which the whole structure of the book of Isaiah really depends. I think I have shown that it is opposed to plain laws of history, as well as to the text of Isaiah and the books of Kings and Chronicles. A different view, in full harmony with Scripture, agrees better, I believe, with the substantial testimony of the monuments themselves; and only requires us to admit such a partial disguise and falsification in Sennacherib's cylinders, as we may be quite certain … so terrible a reverse would occasion in ancient days."

This is surely enough wherewith to offset Dr. SUNDAY's faith in the conclusions of some modern scholars, which he has allowed to shake disastrously his faith in what he yet in some way owns to be inspired of God. May we not say, without undue disparagement to the witness of man, that "the witness of God is greater?" If with Dr. S. we must after all "take a great deal upon trust," which shall we trust? F. W. G.

(To be continued.")

I know He hears and answers prayer;
I know He bids us pray,
And cast the burden of our care
Upon Him day by day.
I know His power is still the same
As when He raised the dead,
And healed the sick, the blind, the lame,
And hungering thousands fed.

But I have prayed so fervently
That He would ease my pain,
And lay His gentle hand on me
And give me strength again ;
Yet here His helpless suppliant lies
Fettered in every limb,
Longing in vain that she might rise
And minister to Him.

He hears,-thy gracious Savior hears,
Beloved and chastened one :
Didst thou not whisper through thy tears,
"Thy holy will be done"?
Under the cross He gives the bow,
Whatever that cross may be :
The ministry of waiting now
Is all He asks of thee.

For thee He trod life's thorny way,
For thee His blood was spilt:
Is it too much for love to say,
"Do with me as Thou wilt"?
Then yield thy will, and plenteous grace
Upon thee shall be poured ;
The brightness of thy patient face
Can glorify thy Lord.

A smile can tell to those around
What peace and joy are thine,
And make them seek what thou hast found-
A comfort all divine.
Thus teaching what affliction taught,
A blessing thou shalt be,
So shall God's purposes be wrought
Alike in them and thee.
Then Hope shall speak of heavenly things,
And Love shall bid thee rest,
And Faith shall calmly fold her wings,
And wait to be more blest,
While gleams of glory from within
Shine through heaven's opening door,
As those thou lovest enter in
A little while before.

A little while, and thou shalt know
What now thou canst not see,
And this dark mystery of woe
Shall end in light for thee.
A little while, and thou shalt lay
Thy earthly burdens down,
And He who takes thy cross away
Will give the fadeless crown.

DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF HOLINESS. (Continued from page 163.)

3. The next view we may call the Faith School, as its I members hold that they can step into a condition of holiness by an act of faith. It is said to be " a blessed, positive attainment or gift." They desire to enjoy the blessing of rest and liberty, and, at the same time, avoid either of the extremes of the Perfectionists and Evangelical Schools. Like the former, they profess to have received a positive blessing, though they differ from them in admitting in a way that the flesh still remains in the believer, and they also hold that he has received a new nature. Still, both are minimized and mystified till the advocate baffles the critic by disappearing in the region of the clouds. There need be no question as to their experience and enjoyment of blessing being beyond what the great majority of believers realize; but the Faith School do not give a consistent and scriptural account of the experience. Their definition of sin is left vague ; sin in the flesh, and acts of sinning in the life, are not kept distinct; liberty is confused with purity, and holiness with righteousness ; cleansing the source of evil is sought, rather than deliverance from the power of indwelling sin ; and the tendency of the teaching is toward self-occupation and self-adulation, rather than the utter repudiation of self and occupation with Christ. The Faith School would have Christ to stoop to meet our every need where we are, and produce a happy experience ; whereas the Spirit would teach us that we are dead, and risen, and set free to have our hearts taken up with Christ Himself, where He is at God's right hand. It is true, as they affirm, that holiness is by faith ; but it is not true that a soul can enter a region of rest, happiness, and power by an act of faith apart from the humbling experience of Rom. 7:; nor is it true that when rest and deliverance are realized that the believer has got a kind of store of power, or capital of holiness, upon which he can work without continual watchfulness, self-judgment, and positive dependence on the Lord moment by moment. They too frequently forget or overlook the exercise or pressure or the thorn in the flesh spoken of by Paul. (Acts 26:16 ; i Cor. 9:26, 27 ; 2 Cor. 4:10 ; 13:7-10.)

4. This brings us to what we may call the Scriptural School. The aim in this view, as pointed out at the beginning, is to have the life of Jesus manifest in the body. Christ Himself is the standard, and as Paul puts it, " I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."/ Overt acts, which we call sins, are clearly distinguished from the evil nature by which they are produced. This inherent bad disposition, or capacity, is called sin. The man commits the sins himself, and is responsible for them ; but he inherited his evil nature from Adam, and is not responsible for that, though he is responsible for its acts. The presence of the evil nature does not give him a bad conscience ; but the allowing it to act does, and renders him guilty. As guilty he may own what he has done, and find forgiveness through faith in Christ's blood. But as a believer, he is urged to confess his sins, and he is forgiven, and communion is restored. He is cleansed, indeed "once purged," and, if he only takes (Heb. 9:and 10:) what the Spirit has written, he may enter the holiest, and know that as to sins he is as clean as an unfallen angel. But the blood does not and cannot cleanse his evil nature. He has received a new nature :the life of Christ, the last Adam ; but that has not changed or removed the evil nature which he received from the first Adam. Cleansing cannot alter that any more than the cleansing of a sow would make the animal a sheep.

The blood indeed cleanses away the sins of the sinner who believes; but in order for him to "walk in newness of life," and "have his fruit unto holiness," he needs to be not now forgiven or cleansed, as he is that already, but he requires deliverance from the power of indwelling sin. He was cleansed by blood; he is now to be delivered by death-not the death of his body, but the death of Christ. His evil nature, sin, "the body of the flesh" (Col. 2:n) is not forgiven :it is condemned. (Rom. 8:3; 6:6-11.) He needs to know Christ as a deliverer. When he has learned painfully that there is no good in the old nature; and further still, that in the new nature there is no strength, he is led to despair of self, and to look at Christ's death in a new light. Now he sees that not only were his sins borne by Jesus and purged by His blood, but he himself was crucified with Christ, and he can reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin,,«and alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Liberty was what he required, and the Son makes him free indeed. (Jno. 8:32-36.) Though the evil nature is there unchanged, he can say, " The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The blood has cleansed him ; death has delivered him ; he has resurrection life, and the indwelling of the Spirit, and is free to be occupied with Christ where He is, and have Christ's life manifested here, where in person Christ is not. "I, yet not I ; but Christ liveth in me," and "For me to live [is] Christ;" this is deliverance, and the result is fruit unto holiness.

But learning deliverance is a reality. It may be more marked and wonderful in the experience of a Christian than was his first conversion. It is, no doubt, what some of the schools call the "second blessing," or "higher Christian life," or " sanctification ; " but they do not and cannot account for what they have received in the light of Scripture; and they miss a great deal by not being guided by its teaching. The Evangelical School, and half-hearted Christians, rather enjoy the exposure of the perfectionist view ; but they think, and really mean, that there is nothing for the Christian in the way of a positive __deliverance. With them it is simply to sin as little as you can help ; but it must be more or less sinning and repenting, and going back to sin, till delivered by death. But there is a positive deliverance, not from the presence, but from the power of indwelling sin, and Rom. 6:is the divine answer; and it indeed shows we are delivered by death-but Christ's death-and are to reckon ourselves dead, and find and enjoy deliverance now so as to have our fruit unto holiness.

But these things require to be taught, illustrated, enforced, and applied among Christians, as the gospel is pressed upon the unconverted. It has been my privilege to do this during many years, and in giving ten or twelve consecutive addresses, through the Lord's blessing, there are usually a number brought into liberty; but this is a very different thing from professing to live without sinning, or having had the evil nature changed or eradicated. If Christians could be got to look at Scripture, and would bend their minds, and yield their hearts and wills to learn the truth as the Spirit would reveal it, from the epistle to the Romans, Christian holiness, in its roots and fruits, might be understood and exemplified as never before. The principal work by those who attack holiness teaching is that of pulling down; but what is wanted is that the people should be led into the apprehension and enjoyment of the truth of deliverance as it is found in Scripture. This would be building them up in their most holy faith. W. C. J.

Q. 2.- "Please explain Mark 13:32, last clause. Why did not the Son know?"

Ans. – It was as Son of Man that our Lord knew not the day and hour of the judgments and the setting up of His kingdom. Mark, as we know, gives us the Lord as Servant, and it is in beautiful harmony with this view of Him that He is ignorant of the "times and seasons which the Father has put in His own power." In Phil. 2:we see how He who was in the form of God, that is, was divine, did not for this reason think it robbery, or rather, something to be grasped and held fast, to be equal with God – equal in the glory of position, in the glory of His person, He ever was and will be equal with God. He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant. That is what we have in this verse – the Son in the place of the servant and prophet of God and as such knowing only what the Father was pleased to make known to Him.

Q. 3.-Mark 13:35. "Has the Lord here divided this dispensation into watches? If so, how are they to be seen?"

Ans.-While the language might seem to refer to several clearly marked epochs in the dispensation, is it not likely that the Lord simply uses the various watches of the night to press home the all-important need of being ready whenever He might come? At the same time the midnight has doubtless passed, and indeed the cock-crowing,-sign of approaching day, has been heard. All about us points to the solemn yet blessed fact that " the night is far spent, and the day is at hand." If the apostle John could say in his day, "It is the last hour,'" how much more can it be said now?

Q. 1.-Luke 12:58. "Who is the adversary? and who is the magistrate, and the judge, and the officer?

Ans.-In the similar passage in Matt. 5:25, the "magistrate " is not mentioned, and I do not know that in this verse he differs necessarily from the judge, unless it be a more general term. The subject here is Israel, to whom the times should have indicated that judgment was impending. The "adversary,"-the law, "even Moses in whom ye trust"-was bringing them to the ruler or judge-God, the judge of His people. John the Baptist, and our Lord Himself, had been preaching as the adversary or legal accuser of the people, showing them their sins and calling them to repentance. But while this was the case Israel was only "on the way to the magistrate," there was yet time to be "reconciled" by repentance and acceptance of Christ as Messiah. This they refused to do, rejecting our Lord and delivering Him over to be put to death by the Gentiles. So the prediction of the Lord has been fulfilled:they have been delivered to the judge-judicially dealt with by God, who has handed them over to the " officer," or executor of His will-any instrument He may see fit to use, in this case, the Gentiles, by whom the Jews have been oppressed ever since. They will continue in " prison "-under the judicial dealings of God-till they have passed through the full measure of retributive judgment under the earthly government of God, culminating in "the great tribulation," after which God will speak comfortably to Jerusalem for she will have "received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."

I.

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied." (i Pet. 1:i, 2.)

I call particular attention to the expression "Grace unto you … be multiplied, which may be divided into three parts-"grace," "unto you," and "be multiplied." We have in this first epistle of Peter a sevenfold "multiplication" of "grace unto us; "and seven, as we know, is significant of completeness-a measure filled full, and in this sevenfold multiplication of grace I think we shall find that each number of the series is significant, or is an index, of the special grace involved in it.

The number I manifestly belongs to God as Sovereign, the Almighty. "Hear, O Israel:the Lord our God is one Lord." (Deut. 6:4.) "One Lord, and His name one." (Zech. 14:9.) This sovereign Ruler is acting in grace, not now in judgment, or even on the principle of law, but in grace,-His throne is a throne of grace (Heb. 4:16). This grace has a special application to the "strangers" addressed in our epistle:it is "unto" them. They are the specific objects of this grace, or favor. It is the character of their relation to this omnipotent One, they are in His favor. They may not have the favor of any of earth's potentates, since they are " strangers " in it, but they are in the favor of the living God. This grace is what we are to multiply-our multiplicand, so to speak.

II.

" Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." (10:9, 10.)

This is clearly number 2-the number of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Second Person of the Trinity, who left His throne in heaven's highest glory, and came down into a world of sinners, linked up some of those poor sinners with Himself, and went back to the bright glory He had left, not taking them with Him, but leaving them in the scene of sin and suffering,-not removing the furnace, or bringing temporal deliverances, but allowing the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual, and affording them grace so that they could pass through it unscathed, and even turn it to account to bring glory to Him, as, e.g., Acts 16:24-34.

This is grace number 2, beloved. And how wonderful, is it not? And how well He who stamps it with His character knows how and when to minister it. No marvel if the prophets of old " inquired and searched diligently " as to it, and even if " the angels desire to look into" it. May we be more diligent in our search into such wondrous grace. Number 2 is the number of the book of Exodus, the book of deliverance, and deliverance is clearly stamped upon this our second multiplication of grace.

III.
"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (5:13.) The number 3 is the number in which God was fully revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It also denotes fullness, perfection, reality.

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear (be manifested), then shall ye also appear (be manifested) with Him in glory." (Col. 3:4.) What wondrous grace will be brought unto us then, beloved! God will be fully displayed and owned as God, and we shall be fully displayed and owned as His sons in glorified bodies. We see it not yet, it is true; but well may we "hope" and "patiently wait for it." (Rom. 8:25.) Surely the number 3 is rich in meaning here, speaking to us of the "reality," " fullness," and " manifestation" awaiting the sons of God (cf. Rom. 8:19).

IV.

" Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." (Chap. 3:7.)

The number 4 is almost interpreted for us in the above verse. The fourth book of Moses-Numbers-speaks of practical walk through the wilderness (this world), and of the poor earthen vessel, which indeed, if He do not fill, can only manifest its weakness in sin and failure.

How beautiful and how precious the grace which stoops to serve us here in our poor human associations, while walking through this valley of weeping! And shall we not do well to remember, brethren, that it is not unto the weak vessel we are to give honor, but unto the weaker, thus reminded that we ourselves are the weak ?

V.

" As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." (Chap. 4:10.)

The number 5 denotes responsibility,-stewardship. It is man's number as a responsible human being. The five digits on each hand and foot, and the five senses with which he is put into communication with the scene around him, show this. The fifth book of Moses,-Deuteronomy
-deals largely with responsibility.

The human hand is a wonderful thing; the very rocks become plastic under it, the wilderness is made to blossom by it, the lightning is caught and harnessed to man's chariot-wheels, we may truly say, by it. Let us examine it more closely, and see if it will not tell us, not only that we are stewards, but how we may be "good stewards."

It has five digits, composed of a 4+ I.. The 4 in the presence of and yielding to the I. Only thus is work performed really. Four is the symbol of weakness-of the earthen vessel. One is the number of God, the almighty One; so in the human hand we have a living, practical illustration of weakness yielding to strength- impotence controlled by Omnipotence. Herein, beloved, is the secret of successful stewardship.
So we are stewards, stewards of the various grace of God. We have had a fourfold multiplication of grace put into our hands, and now we must "trade" (Matt. 25:16). When Moses was asked "What is that in thine hand?" he replied, "A rod." (Ex. 4:2.) But in our hands we have a fourfold (universal) application of the grace of God.

Our stock-in-trade is just our circumstances-whether sickness or health, poverty or wealth, joy or sorrow- every thing, we are entitled to take from the blessed hand of Him who loves us (cf. i Cor. 3:21).

Taking, in this way, every burden from Him, whose love could withhold nothing, whose wisdom could omit nothing, and whose power would stop short of nothing which would be for our good, we should realize that it was His burden, and should find it " light." (Matt. 11:30.) What burden could be aught but light if He imposed it ? ,The care of it, however, we must leave with Him, as He well knows we could not carry that, so He thus yokes Himself with us–He takes His part of every burden, we take the thing itself as put upon our shoulders by the hand of infinite love, as that in which we are to display His power; he takes the care of it (i Pet. 5:7). What a sweet and blessed "yoke"! Surely it cannot but be "easy"! Thus "yoked" and thus "burdened," we are ready to trade with the all-various grace intrusted to us; and if the human hand tells us plainly that we are stewards, it tells us no less plainly how we may be "good stewards of the various grace of God." Impotency bows implicitly to Omnipotence,-the 4 yields to the I. And if we stoop, we find ourselves stooping to One who has, in serving us, stooped lower than we ever can.

May we value the grace that has been put into our hands, " inquire and search diligently" into it, and be like the angels who "desire to look into " it.

As we succeed in our stewardship, the mighty, secret power by which we are furnished and sustained, is made manifest, and God is glorified. (Read 10:11-19 of chap. 4:)

VI.

" Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (Chap. 5:5.)

The number 6 speaks of God's limit upon man's will and work. "Six days shalt thou labor." (Ex. 20:9). If 6 be divided by 2 (the enemy's number), we have 3 (God displayed); so, as God's hand is submitted to, good is brought out of evil-"the eater brings forth meat." (Judg. 14:14). How wonderful that God can make even this number 6 yield grace,-man's number, which when fully developed, produces 666, the number of the willful one, the man of sin! (Rev. 13:18.)

VII.

"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." (Chap. 5:10.)

The number 7 speaks of a measure filled full, and how appropriately " the God of all grace" comes in here to fill it! indeed, who but He could fill it? If our "multiplicand " was the grace of God, our multiplication ends with the God of grace Himself; and this is perfect-the circle is complete.

But still there is an-

VIII.

" By Sylvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand." (5:12.)

This is like the eighth day, or like the octave in music, and carries us back to what we have been going over. In our number I we could say, " This is the true grace of God wherein ye stand;" and so in number 2, number 3, and so on.

It will be seen that the sevenfold series we have been looking at is a 3+4. The first three multiplications of grace presenting what is objective-outside of us, ending with manifestation in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is perfect in itself:there is no going any higher. We can go no farther.

The next is a series of 4, and presents what is subjective, grace in us,-1:e., in the earthen vessel (4).

How marvelous is the grace of our God! He stooped to serve us at the cross, He will stoop to serve us again in the glory, and day by day, and day and night, He stoops to serve us, making each circumstance subserve His glory and our blessing.

May we be apt scholars in this divine arithmetic, and not merely hearers of the Word, but doers thereof, that God may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord. J.B.J.

"Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all." (i Tim. 4:15.) " Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" (Luke 2:49.)

We have here two expressions which are in Greek the same; literally, " Be in them,"-" I must be in the things of My Father." There is but one way to make progress in the things of God, and that is by being absorbed in them at all times. One hour of deliberate or permitted turning from His things to the world in any form will mar communion and hinder growth. Whatever we may be doing, we are to be in the things of God, as in an atmosphere. There is nothing hard in this. Will love refuse to be constantly occupied with its object ? Nothing will be neglected if we are thus wholly engaged in God's thoughts and His service. It is the divided heart that makes trouble. The very word for " care " in the Greek (merimna) speaks of the heart being divided-drawn in two directions. One object, one business is all we have. See our blessed Lord in the things of His Father in those years of childhood, as well as in His public ministry.

"Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him." (Heb. 12:5.)

Under Thy rod, O my God,
I My soul would meekly bow;
Yet it is naught that I have sought
Which brings me down so low..
But souls expand beneath Thy hand,
And while they suffer, grow.

Under Thy rod, O my God,
do not bow in vain ;
For though I weep, I surely reap
Treasures of golden gain ;
And every one Thou callest "son"
Must bear correction's pain.

Under Thy rod, O my God,
Though sore the trial be,
I would not lose, if I might choose,
The look of love I see.
Father, I bless Thy faithfulness,
Proof of Thy love to me.

Under Thy rod, O my God,
Though clouds may intervene;
And all to me may seem to be
A strange distorted scene.
Yet I can trust:I know thereat just,
Though I know not what it mean.

Under the rod of Thy wrath, my God,
Once bowed in death for me,
The sinless One, Thy precious Son,
Stooped down and set me free.
Oh, wondrous grace ! most awful place !
Endured in love for me.

H. McD.

Plainfield, May, 1891.

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of dark-'ness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." (2 Cor. 4:6, 7.) "Among whom ye shine as lights in world, holding forth the word of life." (Phil. 2:15, 16.)

Since man turned from God, who is light, this has been a dark world, so dark that men have ceased to know there ever was a light. The only light now is that which the people of God themselves supply:"Ye are the light of the world." Recognizing this, the children of God have been, intelligently or otherwise, seeking to " let their light shine." There is one thing to remember, if we are to shine aright. All our light is reflected light. We are not suns with light in ourselves, but, like the moon, we are reflectors. The verses quoted at the beginning give us the. source, order, and means of shining.

As to the source, it is God. "God hath shined in our hearts." He who "spake and it was done," has done the same in our dark hearts. It is well to pause and dwell upon this. Do we realize that such a work has been done in us? Something every whit as wonderful; in one sense far more important, than that pouring forth of light over this world? How a sense of this subdues the soul, fills it with a holy joy; God has been near, He has sent the light into my heart. Light is given not to dazzle, far less to fill with pride. It has shined into the heart. It is not merely that the mind has become enlightened, but the whole man, from the center of his being has been visited. We have next the character of this light:" The light of the knowledge of the glory of God." God is the true center. When man fell he made himself the center. Every thing was measured by its contributing or not to his interests. All this only ends in sorrow. Man is not, can never be a center. God and His glory are what alone can be the center of all. So the shining of the light into the heart has this as its effect-it gives the knowledge of the glory of God. This shows us first, as it did Isaiah, that we have come short of it. The light first shows the disorder. Man never gets a true estimate of himself till he is thus seen by the light of the glory of God. Like Job, he now abhors himself. But, blessed be God ! the light that has shined in our hearts has done more than show us our sin. It is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That glory which we failed to exhibit, which could be found nowhere in all this world until in "God manifest in the flesh"-that glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Here He finds one who has manifested Him. It is as risen and ascended that this glory shines in His face. This reminds us of the time when darkness gathered about that face, when the cry was, " Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" And seeing the Lord thus, must remind us that it was for us He was thus forsaken. So too the glory into which He has entered is the witness not merely of the personal acceptance in which He ever was, but the acceptance of the work of redemption which He accomplished, and, as a result, of our acceptance in Him, by virtue of that work. But what thoughts are here ! God's glory, Christ's person and work, and our acceptance linked together! This is the light that has shined in our hearts. It shows us God's glory, but it is for us, nor against us; it shows us Christ's person, and we can say, "This is my Beloved ; " it shows us His work and we can say, " For me ; " it shows us ourselves, yet not ourselves, only as in Christ. And all this in such a way as not to lessen the sense of God's holiness, His righteous demands, nor our helplessness. We have the treasure in earthen vessels. It makes God, not self, the center ; His glory, and not even our salvation, the highest object. This is the light. It has shone in. Now it is to shine out. The same light.
This brings us to the order of shining. First, God hath shined in. We all admit that. But there is to be a constant shining. The light may be obstructed by things of earth. If there is to be an out-shining, there must be the constant in-shining. So the first business of the saint is to keep in communion. It is not our first business to lead others to Christ even, that and all else follows if the light shines unhinderedly in. Martha-service is the result of putting excellent things in the place of the light, and so preventing the shining in. But what care this means ! What jealous guarding of the heart, lest any thing shall come between us and that face. Our "one great business here " is this. All else is the fruit.

When the light thus fills the heart, like Moses, who wist not that his face shone, the saint is unconscious of any special excellence. Indeed, the sense is that the earthen vessel needs to be broken, to be kept out of sight. Like John the Baptist, such an one says, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

This brings us to the means of the out-shining. We have seen the order to be, first, the light shining in, and as a result, the sense that we are but earthen vessels. Now we are to shine in the midst of a dark world by " holding forth the word of life." The word is what brought the light to us ; it is that which will bring it to others. The word as known and operating in our own hearts and lives will make the light for those who sit in darkness. How simple, then, is the path of usefulness for the Christian- first drinking in the light for his own soul, he reflects that light by means of the word-both by lip and life.

May we all thus have our lives truly useful by ever walking in the light.

" Thy way is in the sea.""Thy way is in the sanctuary." "In whose heart are the ways." (Ps. lxxvii 19; 77:13 ; Ixxxiv. 5.)

Moses, when interceding for the people after their apostasy, asked God to show him his way. (Ex. 33:13.) He had seen the perverse ways of the people, and some of God's ways of patience with them, and his great desire was to know that way in its fullness! This was granted, as we read, " He made known His unto Moses." (Ps. 103:7) What can be more necessary for the child of God than to know His way ? " Can two walk together except they be agreed ?" (Am. 3:3.) We may be sure if we are to walk with God, it must be in His way. He will never walk with us in ours. He has come down in grace to meet us in our deepest need, at our greatest distance from God, come down in the person of His Son, met the need, annihilated the distance, not that He should walk in our path, but that we should walk in His. Thus only can we enjoy communion, testify for God, or in any way serve Him. Hence the absolute necessity of knowing His ways. In the three scriptures quoted we have three different views of those ways.

I. "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known." Here we have the truth stated that God's ways are past finding out. And who that has looked at the book of providence but has realized this? Here, a faithful servant of the Lord is cut off by death. There, the head of the house is removed, leaving a helpless family without any human support. Bright earthly prospects are blighted, health is lost,-yea, even to the little disappointments and surprises of each hour, we are compelled to say, " Thy way is in the sea." For surely God's ways are in all these things. There is no step of the road but is His ; no hour in which He leaves His people alone. It is just the failure to see God's ways in the affairs of each day that leaves us dwarfs and babes. The effect of learning the lesson of God's ways being in the sea is the knowledge of our helplessness. Provide as we may, all is in vain to guard us from unforeseen contingencies. Growing out of this will come a self-distrust, and a corresponding confidence in God. As long as we think we have a plain path, the eye will not be on our guide. It is in the passing through deep waters, through the sea, that all self-trust must go, and we must lean on Him alone. This is terrible to sight, even to the believer; it is impossible for the unbeliever, as the Egyptians found a grave where Israel found a way. What a sense of the reality of God's presence it gives, thus to be thrown upon Him ! How Peter learned the Lord's presence as never known before when he began to sink in the waves of Galilee. As the eagle stirs up her nest, and the young cannot understand her apparent cruelty, so we cannot understand God's ways in the sea.

II. But this brings us to the second verse, "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary."The psalmist had been in great trouble-all seemed black and hopeless, so that he cries out, "Will the Lord cast off forever? will He be favorable no more ?"This is the result of being occupied with circumstances and personal trials. He sees it is his infirmity, and turns to meditate on One who never changes. He learns His way, and it is in the sanctuary he finds that way. It is only in the presence of God that we can fully learn His ways. For us how that presence shines with the glories of Jesus. He Himself has gone into the sanctuary, has opened the way for us, through the rent vail, and now we have boldness to enter also. What precious thoughts cluster about this truth !The sanctuary !the holiest! We have a right to be there, the precious blood is our title, the work of redemption is our ground. How solid ! how secure !Thus the end is secure. The sanctuary is on the resurrection-side-no death, no life on earth, no devil, no man, can work there ; it is beyond all these powers of evil. And there is our place. Ah ! what matters it if the way be rough or long, the sanctuary is our future home, our present abiding place. We must leave our loads behind when we enter there. The worshiper in the tabernacle of old had his feet on the sand of the desert as he stood in the holy place, but we can be sure that he gazed not on that, but on the splendors before and about him. So for us if by faith we are in the sanctuary, the way does not occupy us, but the one who leads us. fills our eye. Yet it is in the sanctuary we learn God's way. The light of that place must be shed on the book of providence if we are to read its pages aright. As the psalmist was well-nigh stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked, until he went into the sanctuary, so will we find much to make us wonder, perhaps to doubt, unless we go into the same quiet and holy place. Here, first of all, we learn what God's perfect love means-a love which has bridged the distance between" nat we were in our sins and what we will be in glory-bridged this distance at a cost which only God's love could or would have done. In the light of Jesus, living, dying, risen, interceding for us, coming to take us to be with Himself, we can understand how Paul could call any thing that might take place, " our light affliction which is but for a moment." In the light of the glory, how small the trials, how easy the way, to faith! But it is also in the sanctuary that we learn much of God's thoughts and of true wisdom. It is the spiritual man who discerns. He is in communion with the Father and His Son. If the companion of wise men will be wise, how much more will one who enjoys fellowship with Perfect Wisdom understand ! Many a dear child of God, with much of what is called common sense, fails to grasp the meaning of God's ways, because he does not go into the sanctuary.

III. We come now to the results. The ways are no longer only the dark ways of a providence we cannot understand, but of a Father, whose perfect love and grace we know. The ways are in our heart, loved because they are His. The path is, as it were, transferred from the outward circumstances to the heart. Our true history is heart history. We are apt to think we would do much better under different circumstances, but the state of the heart is the all-important matter. So too for usefulness; God does not ask us to do great things, but to have His ways in our heart. We may be sure our Lord had God's ways in His heart as much in the thirty years of His retirement as in His public ministry. So we may be laid aside, sick, helpless, apparently useless ; but if in the heart we say, "Thy way, not mine, O Lord," we are doing true service, which will bear enduring fruit. In this way the hostile scene around us contributes to our fruitfulness -the valley of Baca (of weeping) becomes a well.

How differently the same scene affects different persons ! Like the same soil sustaining the noxious weed and the sweet flower ; so the world contributes either to our murmuring or to our confidence in God. If His ways are in the heart, each sorrow is the means by which we grow, as the rough wind drives the ship nearer home. " Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." The word rendered "keep" is a strong one-meaning to "occupy as a garrison." What foe can come in when His peace thus fills the house and keeps the door ? Nothing is said in this precious verse of the circumstances being changed. The heart is filled with God's peace, and the circumstances will then only furnish occasion for the effects of its guard over the heart to be seen.

I’ll that He blesses is our good,
And unblest good is ill,
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet will."

So sings the heart in which God's ways are. How blessed, how precious a portion, within the reach of all the Lord's people !

May we all know more of God's ways.

IV.

Before going on to the fifth covenant, a brief further consideration of the fourth may be called for, to bring the more clearly before the mind the real correspondence between the subject of this covenant and its numerical position. Let us look at the predictions as to Abram's descendants. "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And He said unto Abram, 4 Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. . . . And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.' And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces." (Gen. 15:12.)

In this, we have a wilderness testing and experience, corresponding to what is recorded in Numbers, the fourth book of Moses, which records the wilderness-journey of Israel; the " great and terrible wilderness " corresponding also to the captivity in Babylon, as recorded in Daniel, which, as shown in recent teaching, is a fourth book in the prophetical Pentateuch. As a type, this terrible experience of four hundred years and four generations tells us of the present time of Israel's exile and dispersion, which will end with their final everlasting regathering to their land at the Lord's appearing. This vision is seen when the sun had gone down and it was dark-the condition of Israel and of the world while the Lord delays His return. In the meanwhile, there is the furnace, and the lamp passing between the pieces of the sacrifice. All is secured to God's people, above all their failure, by the cross ; and yet God must deal with them in all the trials of the wilderness-journey and experience, that they may know Him in His holy character, and that His word alone can guide them. " Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. 12:28, 29.) So in Daniel we have the furnace, and in i Peter, the fourth part of the New-Testament Pentateuch, we have the "furnace" and the "fiery trial."

All is in beautiful harmony, and deeply impressive.

The world-number 4 ("the four quarters of the earth," Rev. 20:8) is stamped upon this lesson. Whether Israel in Egypt, or in the wilderness, or in Babylon, or now in their long exile, or the Church of God now, His people must ever learn their own hearts, and God's power and holiness and love as they pass through the world to the promised inheritance. The sun has gone down. It is dark indeed. But we have the lamp-the "burning lamp,"-"a cloud and darkness " to the world, but " light by night" to us. (Ex. 14:20.)

Let us remember the words of the wilderness-apostle of the New Testament:"Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ " (i Pet. 1:6.)

The world is an awful scene, and it intervenes between God's chosen ones and their rest and glory at last. We can understand Abram's "horror of great darkness," and compare it with Daniel's night-visions," and his "cogitations " that " much troubled " him, and his " fainting," and "being sick." (Dan. 7:13, 28 and 8:27.) "The whole creation groaneth," and " we ourselves groan within ourselves," awaiting the realization of our hope. "But we reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us." The sorrow and distress is no secret; but the end is sure and near, and the Lord Himself has gone before. This cheers us-draws out our hearts-gives courage. The ark was in advance as they entered the Jordan that they might see it; and so we must see Jesus as having gone on before, and through all, into God's presence for us, that we may have a strength and courage to follow that is not our own. " It is God that worketh in us." Notice the exhortation that introduces this fourth covenant (Gen. 15:i)-"Fear not, Abram :I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." Let us face what remains for us of the wilderness way in the power and joy of this word, " Fear not." Just because God is for us.

V. The fifth covenant brings before us (Gen. 17:), consistently with the meaning of this number, responsibility. "Thou shall keep My covenant." (5:9.) "Walk before Me, and be thou perfect." (5:1:) "Every man-child among you shall be circumcised." (5:10.) How prominently man figures here! and it is here that Abram gets his new name, by the addition (as noticed by another,) of a fifth letter, and that the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. He is now Abraham, a father of many nations :fruitfulness in responsibility. And if the five fingers of the hand speak of this responsibility, and the four fingers, helped by the firmness of the thumb, tell of man in weakness dependent on the One who has power, how clearly is this before us in this fifth covenant!-Abraham ninety years old and nine, "as good as dead" (Heb. 11:12), and He who speaks to him is "the almighty God." How could the meaning of the number be more strikingly illustrated, both as to responsibility and the way in which alone man can fulfill it-weakness leaning upon Him who has promised, judging Him faithful. "Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable." (Heb. 11:12.) And so we are exhorted (Heb. 10:23), "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful that promised."

May this secret of victory and peace and joy be ever with us. It is the Lord Almighty who has called us into the path of lowly but fearless obedience. He has promised to be a Father to us, and we His sons and daughters. (2 Cor. 6:) If we are to realize this precious relationship, we must pay diligent heed to His call. May it be ours to do so each day, and in all things. Infinite will be our gain and great the reward. (Heb. 10:35.) He is faithful that promised, and He is the Lord Almighty. It is before Him we are to walk.

It is important to note that just where responsibility is the theme, circumcision is enjoined as an absolute necessity. Let us carefully ponder this. When we are awakened to a sense of obligation to serve God, our impulse is to trust in ourselves. Hence we must learn that to trust in ourselves is to trust in the flesh; so, on the other hand, to deny the flesh is to not trust in ourselves, and that in everything, at every step, in things great and small. Dependence-looking up-the sense of weakness-cleaving to the Lord constantly and continuously,-that is, faith ever in exercise–walking by faith and not by sight.

It is not a task to perform-a legal effort, but a principle according to which we are to live-to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. It is the power of the Spirit, leading us in truth and righteousness. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." Never can we take a step by faith without finding that God is most surely with us in power and blessing. He is "the almighty God ;" we are to walk before Him, and to be perfect.

"In whom ye are circumcised, . . . in the putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." " Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." " Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth-fornication, unclean-ness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness(or unbridled desire), which is idolatry; for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience."

We are the "elect of God, holy, and beloved." E.S.L.

(To be continued.)

Amalek fell upon the feeblest of Israel-the laggards in the rear. Those who are pressing forward in all the energy of faith and love are not troubled with "fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." Are we lagging? The next thing will be some failure-some sin. The heart first faints before the steps falter. Let us press toward the front.

It is the characteristic of man's work, that, no matter how perfect it may appear, a minute inspection brings out in accuracies. The exact opposite is true of all God's works. Compare, for instance, man's machinery with God's. Man makes a pump to draw water, and noise and labor must be used to operate it, to say nothing of its getting out of order. God's evaporation has worked silently and perfectly from the beginning. Take man's art. His picture may be beautiful at a distance; but approach it, use a magnifying-glass, and it only reveals coarseness and imperfection :not so with God's paintings, on the flower, in the rainbow, etc. The more minutely they are examined, the more their beauties appear, and new beauties are discovered. The rose is beautiful to all; but let the botanist pull it apart, put it .under the glass, and the very pollen-dust conveys its lesson to him of One who is perfect in wisdom and skill. But we are told, " Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name ;" so that the worshiper in the nineteenth psalm has his gaze turned from the heavens to the Word of Jehovah. If, therefore, we find that God's world invites minute analysis and microscopic examination, we find too that His Word invites no less to the same. " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away." If we can tear the flower apart and find each part perfect, so we can take His Word, and if seeking to find beauties in its parts-its very words, we will not be disappointed. In these " word studies," it is purposed to thus in a measure dissect and examine the constituent parts of the epistle. It may seem like mechanical work, but if it shows us divine accuracy reaching down beneath the surface, our confidence will be increased, our conviction deepened that "the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." (Ps. 12:6.) 1:Agapao-to love, Agape-love, Agapetos-beloved. The strongest term for love. Phileo is the love of & friend. See Jno. 21:15-17, where our Lord asks Peter the threefold question, " Lovest thou Me ?" The first two times He uses the strong term agapao, and is answered by Peter with the weaker one–phileo, when He adopts the weaker too and meets with the same reply from Peter. Agapao is used in Jno. 3:16 for God's love to the world, Jno. 17:26 for the Father's love for the Son, i Jno. 4:19 for our love to God, and i Jno. 4:7 for our love to one another.

Phileo is used in Jno. 5:20 of the Father's love to the Son, indicating friendship, no secrets, as in Jno. 15:15- "I have called you friends" (philous).

Eph. 1:6-"Accepted in the Beloved." (Egapemeno, participle of agapao.) This gives the sphere and character of the grace shown :it is the beloved Son, as in Jno. 17:26.

Chap. 2:4-" His great love (agape) wherewith He loved (agapao) us." This gives us the source of the love- God, illustrating i Jno. 4:10:nothing in us but sin.

Chap. 3:19-"The love (agape) of Christ which passeth knowledge ; " shown in chap. 5:2-" Christ loved (agapao) us, and gave Himself for us, a sacrifice." Here the work done for us Godward is spoken of as well pleasing and acceptable to God, while in chap. 5:25, 26, etc., the work done in us at the first and with us at the last is given; and ver. 29 gives the care here during our stay- all spring from the love of Christ; well may we say "it passeth knowledge." So we have His love shown in a fourfold way, leading Him to a work (i) acceptable to God (God glorified, His righteousness manifested), (2) sanctifies us by the Word, (3) presents us glorious to-Himself, (4) nourishes and cherishes us. Whichever way we look-at the cross up to the glory or around on our path, we see the love of Christ to us :to fathom it would be to exhaust the fullness of God.

Chap. 1:4 gives us the purpose of God toward us-that we should be blameless before Him in love. The effect of His love will be finally to manifest us in perfect love. But this love is manifested here too, even at the beginning of the Christian life, as in chap. 1:15, their love (agape) toward the saints is spoken of. In chap. 3:18, they are to be rooted and grounded in love (agape) so as to understand Christ's love. This does not mean that we exercise love before we understand Christ's love, but that we grasp and enjoy and return that love in order to know more of it. Chap. 4:2 shows us the practical working of love in the body-the way to keep the unity of the Spirit; thus the body grows, as in chap. 4:15, 16. Also chap. 5:2, where Christ's love is set as the model for ours-and the parting benediction leaves love with them, even those who already love our Lord Jesus (6:23, 24). So in the practical relation of husband to wife it is love, to illustrate Christ's love to the Church. Thus by this word we have set before us love in its source (God), channel (Christ), character (work of Christ), present effects (toward one another and God), and eternal results (holiness with Christ before God in love). "Walk in love."

It is not the Bride only, but the Spirit, knowing all the affections in the heart of Christ, says, "Come!" How sweet to have Christ wanting you to say "Come"! Have you known the sweetness when in solitude, when none have been near, of that thought in your heart, hardly breathed in words, "Come, Lord Jesus, come " ? G.V.W.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOLINESS.

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3:18.)

The case of Stephen illustrates, explains, and applies I this far-reaching statement that we may not only take in its meaning, but see that it is intended to be proved by men like ourselves, and in a sphere where all in the world, even worldly religion, is marshaled against Christ. Like a friend of the writer's, now with the Lord, each believer may pull himself up when inclined to feel depressed, and say, " There is nothing between me and the Lord on yon throne but an open heaven." Faith
sees the Lord where he is, owned in His true character as the risen Savior, and the believer is raised superior to circumstances by the transforming object on whom his eye is fixed.

A captain, called to lead a forlorn hope, conscious that the eye of his general is eagerly watching him, is so controlled and sustained as to cause him to make light of danger and death. But in Stephen's case, we have not only affectionate devotion, such as no mere soldier can feel, but with and in him, in a new way, there is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the very power and Spirit through whom the Lord Himself triumphed over death. Gideon of old could say to his tested band, "Look on me, and do likewise ;" and "As I do, so shall ye do." With him the battle had still to be won ; he could not yet be seen as one who had triumphed :he might inspire others by his courageous example, but he could not give them the strength derived from his own faith and confidence in God. It is far otherwise with the One whom Stephen saw. Jesus had triumphed over
principalities and powers, over death and him who had the power of death, and was already crowned with glory and honor. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, saw this glorified Savior, acted by the same power, and in his measure, in the same way, prayed for his murderers, and commended his Spirit to the One in obedience to whose will he laid down his life.

Blessed and wonderful as Stephen's triumph may appear, the grace and power of God, as illustrated in the life of Paul, in some respects, may present a fuller manifestation of the possibilites which lie before a Christian through realizing the deliverance vouchsafed in communion with a triumphant Saviour. Stephen, like Nelson, was victorious in death. Paul, like Wellington, lived to enjoy and prove and further illustrate the fullness of the blessing. Paul, in speaking of his own example, is careful to say, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." The perfect Man, Christ Jesus, unlike Paul or any other, had nothing to attain. He did not esteem it something to be grasped at to be on an equality with God. (Phil. 2:6.) He had his equality to begin with, and "emptied Himself," "humbled Himself, and becoming obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross." This alone is the complete, divine ideal, and hence it is said, " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus."

It is worthy of notice here again that the standard and the power for attaining conformity to the mind of Christ Jesus are mentioned close together. In the same context we find "the fellowship of the Spirit." (Phil. 3:)In all our thoughts concerning devotedness to the Lord, therefore, we cannot give too much prominence to the important truths of the Lord being now a Man on the throne in heaven, and the Holy Spirit being now a Person on the earth. Like the two pillars in the temple of old they are the Jachin and the Boaz in connection with what the Lord is doing in this dispensation. As " Jachin " means " He shall establish," it answers well to what Jesus as Lord continues to do from the throne. "Boaz" signifies "in him is strength," so no more appropriate thought could be suggested than that in the Spirit now dwelling on the earth there is power to carry out the will of the One who is on the throne in heaven. Both pillars were connected with the one temple. To have had only the one would have left it incomplete. So both truths, the glorified Man and the personal presence of the Spirit are required to give completeness and stability to any thing done for the Lord now. If we thus think of Him it is the One who has passed through death. If we think of the abiding Spirit, it is as the one who has come to maintain the interests of the Lord in the place where He was rejected and crucified. It will appear then that death is on all here that is contrary to the will of the . Whatever is of the Lord, whatever is according to will in consistent conduct, in successful service, or in acceptable worship, must be the tracing again of something of that life which was a meat-offering fit for God. Hence, in troubles, perplexities, and persecutions, the apostle speaks of " Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body." (2 Cor. 4:10.) On all that is the flesh, as connected with our Adam-life, there must |,the acceptance of death. This is not improvement or amelioration of the flesh. Its desert and doom are set forth in the dying of Jesus. The means and manner of (-deliverance are thus distinctly manifested. Jesus has |, condemning sin in the flesh, rejecting all that peril to-the first man as unfit for the presence and service God, and leaving room for the display of the life of Jesus 'in the body. The person is the same; his old nature is neither terminated nor changed ; but he has a new nature, the life of Jesus. The presence of the old nature is felt, so there must be the constant withstanding or resistance of it, by carrying in heart and mind the fact that it was, positively, and still requires to be, practically set aside by the dying of Jesus. Like the salt kept on the stump of a shrub to prevent it from sprouting in a garden-path, faith continues to reckon that the flesh was cut down by the death of Jesus; and thus, though liable to sprout, through the salt of grace, the flesh may be repudiated and kept in the place of death. Those who yield to the new life may find that every trial and hindrance met with by the way when rightly used through grace are the means of giving over to death all that is of the flesh, that the new life, the life of Jesus, may have an unhindered display in their mortal flesh. Thus there is not only the setting aside of the evil nature in the believer, but there is the possibility of the positive expression by him of the beautiful life of Jesus.

Elisha may be said to have desired to have his own life supplanted by the life of Elijah. Elisha would be the same person as to the traits of his individuality, but his life and works would henceforth be those of the prophet caught up in the chariot of fire, so that Elijah might be said to live again in the one who received a double portion of His spirit. Was the setting aside and repudiating of his own old life not set forth in the rending of his mantle? Was the taking up and expressing of the life of Elijah not betokened by the taking of his mantle when it fell from the ascending prophet ? If not, why, in returning to Jordan, does Elisha smite the waters with the mantle saying, " Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" The divided waters, as in the days of old, show that the "living God " is acting there, and the new prophet passing over makes it clear that it is much the same as if Elijah was still the prophet of Israel. So, indeed, from the life and power displayed, it appears to the sons of the prophets at Jericho as they say, " The Spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. (2 Kings 2:) Thus, in a striking and instructive way, we find in the Old Testament, the shadowing forth of how the believer might be delivered from his old life and rise to newness of life, so as to have the life of "Jesus in some measure, lived again in the body of the saint here on earth. His longings after holiness are only met or realized in proportion as Christ is magnified in his body. W.C. J.
(To be continued.)

CONANT’S "HISTORY OF ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION."

In 1377, Wickliffe twice escaped the snares of his enemies once at St. Paul's, when summoned before the bishop of London, and again at Lambeth, where he had boldly appeared alone before a synod ; and his peaceful deliverance amid confusion and strife on both occasions reminds us of the word, "But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way." (Luke 4:30.) It was the same power that wrought in London and at Nazareth, against which all efforts of man are idle. (Ps. 2:) On the first of these occasions he was accompanied before the bishop by two powerful friends-Lancaster and Percy, magnates of the realm. This so exasperated the bishop that he rebuked them in anger, and a tumult arose, during which Wickliffe quietly withdrew. On the second occasion (at Lambeth,) the people of London became concerned about his safety, and streamed toward the place of meeting, entered the building, and burst open the door of the council-room, and demanded Wickliffe, and, in the midst of all, a royal messenger entered, and "forbad any definite sentence" by the court. Wickliffe returned peaceably to Oxford, to lecture, write, and preach against the sins of popery with more zeal than ever. The hand of God thus shielded him from his enemies, and gave him boldness to still preach the truth. We can think with what joy he must have gone on his. way through the crowded street, hearing the word of the angel of the Lord, "Fear not" (Acts 27:24), and assured afresh that man's rage could only do that which God's " counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 4:. 28), and no doubt joining in the prayer, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings; and grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak Thy Word." So at all times we can rest in the assuring word (Is. 57:17), " No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord."

Wickliffe had been one of a royal commission from England to the pope, in 1372, to remonstrate against existing evils. Like Luther on a similar occasion, he returned with a fresh impression of the corruptions of the papal system. Thus God was preparing him for the witness he was to bear. We may conclude he was not silent, since, not long .after, papal bulls against him were addressed to Oxford, to the king, to Canterbury, and London. That England had become the nurse of heresy is ascribed to " John Wickliffe, Master in Divinity-more properly Master in Error; who had proceeded to a degree of madness so detestable as not to fear to assert, dogmatize, and publicly teach opinions the most false and erroneous, contrary to the faith, and tending to the entire subversion of the church."

"Thus terrible," remarks the author, "to the kingdom of darkness is a man who gives fearless utterance to the truth."

" Contrary to the faith"!Alas ! how strong the tendency in us all to call that " contrary to the faith " which . does not please us, because subversive of error we have become attached to !If we are not willing to say, " I am wrong," we may be sure Satan has gained the mastery over us.

The parliament of England having appealed to Wickliffe for his opinion as to the pope's claim of tribute, Wickliffe's reply has the simplicity and wisdom that is always found with subjection to God's Word :-
"If thou wilt be a lord," he says to the church dignitaries " thou shalt lose thine apostleship ; or if thou wilt be an apostle, thou shalt lose thy lordship; for truly thou must depart from one of them. …. Now if it doth suffice thee to rule with the Lord, thou hast thy glory; but if we will keep what is forbidden, let us hear what He saith :' He that is greatest among you shall be as the least, and he which is highest shall be as a servant;' and, for an example, He set a child in the midst of them. So, then, this is the true form and institution of the apostle's trade':Lordship and rule is forbidden ; ministration and service commanded."

Such ministry was the shining of Scripture-light for all who were not blind. As to ministry, the office of priest was to Wickliffe simply that of one who was bound to faithfully preach the Word, and that even in spite of the prohibition of bishops ; and yet he did not quite attain to the scripture which lays upon each of us to minister according to the gift given us, and not by virtue of an "office," however truly he may have felt his own responsibility to Christ, and diligently acquitted himself to the end. Here is an eminently scriptural thought:" Every Christian should judge of the office of the clergy from what is taught in Scripture-especially in the epistles of Timothy and Titus, and should not admit the new inventions of Caesar."

"The highest service to which a man may attain on earth," he says, " is to preach the Word of God, …. and if our bishops preach not themselves, and hinder true priests from preaching, they are in the sin of the bishops who killed the Lord Jesus Christ."

He held that ministry should be supported simply by voluntary contributions of the people, according to the example of the Lord and the apostles; and that the Lord taught us to seek to be profitable to men everywhere, and not to forbear to preach to a people because they are few, and our name may not in consequence be great. We should labor for God, and from Him hope for our reward. "It was ever the manner of Jesus to speak the words of God wherever He knew they might be profitable to those who heard them. Hence Christ often preached now at meat, now at supper, and indeed at whatever time it was convenient for others to hear Him."

This reformer's instructions resulted in the going forth of a band of earnest missionaries through the country, who used occasions, (according to the author,) whether, in the church-yard, the market-place, or the fair; and we thankfully conclude the work was effectual, from the opposition aroused. The archbishop of Canterbury, bishops, and doctors were gathered together in council (See Acts 4:5), and appealed to royal authority to suppress the preachers, as men ".who were perverting the nation with their heretical and seditious doctrines."

" But these devices," says the author, " were not able to break again the ' apostolic succession' thus revived by Wickliffe. When persecuted in one place, they fled to another, and continued their work ; for the Lord was with them, and kings and prelates opposed in vain. To the poor the gospel was preached. This was to the glory of God. Wickliffe was a follower of Jesus, for he loved the poor."

"The Poor Caitiff* is a collection of short pieces. *One of humble condition.* (London Religious Tract Society.) With "simplicity, humility, and sweetness he speaks to the neglected and degraded poor these heavenly words of instruction and consolation." Here are a few passages from these little messengers of peace, which also show how the Spirit of Christ in every time leads the true servant in the path of meekness and love, that he may be able to minister the same thing to others-to the lambs and sheep of the flock :-

" To any degree of true love to Jesus no soul can attain unless he be truly meek. For a proud soul seeks to have his own will, and so he shall never come to any degree of God's love. Even the lower that a soul sitteth in the valley of meekness, so many the more streams of grace and love come thereto. And if the soul be high in the hills of pride, the wind of the fiend bloweth away all manner of goodness therefrom.

" Singular love is:when all solace and comfort is closed out of the heart but the love of Jesus alone, other delight and other joy pleases not; for the sweetness of Him is so comforting and lasting, His love is so burning and gladdening, that he who is in this degree, may well feel the fire of love burning in his soul. That fire is so pleasant that no man can tell but he that feeleth it (i Pet. 1:8), and not fully he. Then the soul is Jesus loving, on Jesus thinking, and Jesus desiring; only burning in coveting of Him ; singing in Him, resting on Him. Then the thought turns to song and melody.

"God playeth with His child when He suffereth him to be tempted ; as a mother riseth from her much beloved child and hides herself, and leaves him alone, and suffers him to cry, ' Mother! Mother!' so that he looks about, cries and weeps for a time; and, at last, when the child is ready to be overset with troubles and weeping, she comes again, clasps him in her arms, kisses him, and wipes away the tears. So our Lord suffereth His loved child to be tempted and troubled for a time, and withdrawing some of His solace and full protection, to see what His child will do, and when he is about to be overcome with temptations, then He defendeth him and comforteth him by His grace."

Note again Wickliffe's love, for the poor and his persuasion that the Word alone could supply their need in his introduction to Luke.

" Therefore a poor caitiff let from preaching for a time for causes known to God writeth the gospel of Luke in English, with a short exposition of old and holy doctors, to the poor men of his nation, which know little Latin or none, and be poor of wit and worldly chattel, and not the less rich in good will to please God!" And then referring to the hypocrisy of antichrist and his disciples (the papal system) he adds, " The best armor of Christian men against this crowned chieftain with his host is the text of holy writ."

In the year 1384, he completed the translation of the whole of the Old and New Testaments, making his translation from the Latin Vulgate;-that is, the Latin version made by Jerome from the Greek and Hebrew in the fourth century.

In the same year he was called to his rest. He had completed his task. He was seized with paralysis in the Church at Lutterworth, and after a few days of unconsciousness his soul "awoke in the joy of its Lord." E.S.L.

(To be continued.)

When Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16:) were acting out their rebellion against Moses as leader (type of Christ in His kingly authority), they let slip the secret of their thought both about the land of Egypt they had left, and the wilderness they were in. "Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of the land 'that floweth with milk and honey?" What a description to give of that land of brick-kiln bondage and divine judgments! How rebellion blinds the eyes! Whenever self-will is at work, the world, in some form or other, becomes the attraction, rather than Canaan:so that in the case before us, the very attractions of that land of promise are given to Egypt-Heaven's blessings ascribed to earth, not so uncommon in these days. As to the wilderness, Moses was going to kill them. It was not the place through which they were hurrying on to a rest sure and prepared; rather it was a place to die in-its dreary wastes marked their horizon, and there was no faith to see beyond. How different the view of faith! However trying and terrible the wilderness might be, springs are found in it, the valley of Baca becomes a well, and water ever flows from that Rock which follows them, "and that Rock was Christ;" while beyond it lies that land-not very far distant to its vision-which is " the glory of all lands." This is the normal attitude of the child of God; but let self-will get to work, and how soon all comforts flee, and we find out how true that word is, " The rebellious dwell in a dry land." Rebellion is against God's authority. It may be direct, as in Jonah's case, but far oftener it is concealed beneath the resistance, apparently, of the human instrument who makes known God's will. But God marks it, and when His Word is refused, no matter by whom presented, that marks rebellion in its essence. Blinded by prejudice, the person resists, he says, the man who bears the message, but he is really despising not man but God, who will most surely deal with him.

But perhaps the subtlest form of rebellion is that of resisting self-will by self-will. Here is Diotrephes acting with a high hand, and we resist him with a high hand,- we fight him with his own weapons. Now will in action is rebellion; for submission to God is ever our part, no matter how great the provocation may be. Need we be surprised, then, that the result of strife is dryness? If we were more honest with ourselves, doubtless much that passes for righteous zeal and care for the Lord's honor, is only self-will, and in the things of God what can be worse? But call it by what name we please, the tell-tale barrenness shows what is the matter. I have been unjustly dealt with by a brother, and I am applying Matt, 18:to him, but I lose in my own soul the sense of God's presence, because I am not seeking His will, but self-vindication. Or the person toward whom I may be thus acting resents my treatment, and he too, instead of learning God's mind in allowing this trial (even if wrongly dealt with) to come on him, lets self assert itself and we are both rebellious and of course in a dry land. Nothing but subjection to God will do, under all circumstances of trial, whether sickness, disappointment, misrepresentation or whatever may make life bitter and hard. How our
blessed Lord ever bowed to His Father, taking even the cup of death not from the hands of His enemies, but from the One whom it was His meat and drink to serve. No trial but would yield the " peaceable fruits of righteousness," if we received it from a Father's hand of love, in true submission to Him. Ah! if we saw God in it all.

Is there not in this a call to many individuals, to many assemblies of God's people as well ? Who will heed it, and look away from all second causes to God, in imitation of Him who could say, " The Lord God hath opened Mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away My back. I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheek to them that plucked off the hair:I hid not My face from shame and spitting" ?

Israelite was entirely dependent for the fruit of I the earth upon the rain. That which marked the superiority of his land (or, rather, God's land) over the land of Egypt was that, while the latter had its river, and water-courses, yearly overflowing and bringing fruit-fulness, his land was watered with the rain of heaven, and so also was one where water sprung from hillside and valley." For the land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:but the land whither ye go in to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:a land which the Lord thy God careth for:the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year." (Deut. 11:10-12.)But from this very fact, while thus blessed with unsurpassed fertility when there was abundance of rain, if that was withheld, famine was the inevitable result. Blessed position for them, had they been but faithful to Him who never could disappoint those who looked to Him! We know that temporal prosperity was for Israel the sure index of their spiritual condition, hence as soon as unfaithfulness and sin on their part reached a climax, rain failed, and barrenness and poverty resulted. This was foretold while yet. they were in the wilderness:" If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God . . . thy heaven that:is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust." (Deut. 28:15, 23, 24.) It was alluded to in Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple:"When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain because they have sinned against Thee." (i Kings 8:35.)It was illustrated in the history of Ahab. It was used as an argument by the prophets in leading Israel to repentance:"Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season:. . . Your iniquities have turned away these things." (Jer. 5:24, 25.)Sometimes, the more plainly to mark His dealings, He caused it to rain in one part of the land and not in another:"And I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city:. . . Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord." (Amos 4:7, 8.)The rain was needed at and soon after sowing time to cause the seed to sprout and grow-this was the early rain:it was also needed toward the close of the season, to bring to maturity what had progressed so far. If the early rain were withheld, there could be no sowing; if the latter rain failed, there could be no reaping.

Passing from the literal to that of which it was the type, we find Israel's history, both past and future, an illustration of God's dealings, as based upon their state. Beginning with the deliverance from Egypt, and planting in the land (which, in the mind of God, were consecutive events), we have what might be called " the early rain "- "the love of thine espousals. . . . Israel was holiness unto the Lord." (Jer. 2:2.) Under Samuel, David, Jehoshaphat, and other faithful ones, we have more showers of refreshing connected with this period of their history. A long period of spiritual death succeeds, until again God brings near a cloud, heavier, fuller of rain than any before; what would, in fact, have been (and will yet be) a cloud of the latter rain. The Lord Jesus Himself was presented to them, ready to pour forth all the rich blessings which are yet in reserve. The time of fruit was not to be yet, and rejecting Him they have been left in drought ever since, and will be until they repent, and having their sins blotted out, times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Meanwhile the vineyard, so long unfruitful, has been thrown open for the boar of the forest to waste (Isa. 5:) But what was in hardness refused, God, whose gifts and calling are without repentance, has yet in reserve for them. " He shall send Jesus which before was preached unto you." He, their true King, whose favor is as a cloud of the latter rain, shall come. He shall come as rain upon the mown grass, and poor Israel shall at last blossom and bud and fill the face of the earth with fruit. How beautiful it is to see all nature rejoicing, the trees of the field clapping their hands, the desert blossoming as the rose, shadows of that blooming forth and fruit-bearing of what will indeed be then God's "pleasant plant"! The nation at last, as a "watered garden," will say to Him, who long and often came seeking fruit in vain, "Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits." (Song 4:16.)

It is well, however, to mark the stages of this blessing. " In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping:they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thither ward." (Jer. 1. 4, 5.) "I will pour upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications:and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, . . . every family apart, and their wives apart." (Zech. 12:10,12.) When Israel repents, the latter rain will come; nay, their very repentance is, as it were, the first droppings of that mighty shower which bring all past flowers of promise to fruit of accomplishment. "Thou visitest the earth and waterest it:Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God which is full of water:Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly:Thou settlest the furrows thereof:Thou makest it soft with showers:Thou blessest the springing thereof. . . . The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing." (Ps. 65:9-13; Isa. 62:4, 5; Hos. 2:19-22.)

But deeply interesting and delightful as the consideration of all this is, have we not truth here which will apply to the Church of God ? Earthly things are types of heavenly, and principles remain unchanged. Beginning at Pentecost, we have the early rain-that shower which fell on dry soil and quickened dead souls, by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, into life. How fresh and bright all was at the first! Neither property, as in the case of Barnabas, and many others, nor life itself, as with Stephen, could be withheld. But in a little while it had to be written of some, " I am afraid of you," of others, "Thou hast left thy first love." The subsequent history of the church has been but a repetition of Israel's departure from God, with resulting barrenness, and darkness deepening on, till God in mercy granted some measure of recovery. But it may be asked, Does not the Spirit dwell in the Church; do we have to wait "till the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high?" Surely not; yet where self-will and unbelief hinder and quench the Spirit, the effect is much the same as though He were not present. So we see to-day a dryness, not merely in the professing church, but even among God's own people. Then the longing question rises in the hearts of those who "sigh and cry," Is there riot something for the Church to answer to the latter rain in Israel? True, our coming Lord will forever banish all drought; but ere He comes, is there nothing of a general awakening amongst the saints of God-a bringing to maturity of some, at least, of that promise of fruit there was at the beginning ? We read that after the midnight cry had gone forth, all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. May there not be something corresponding to this ? The cry has gone forth, but has there been such a general response as we might be led to expect? We would not dictate to our ever blessed God, but we would learn from all His ways of love not to limit Him. Is there to be no going forth of the gospel in greater power and blessing, to gather in many precious souls ere the day of grace ends ? We may not answer definitely, but at least for us as for Israel the path is plain, – repentance, prayer, returning to the Lord, putting off all ornaments (all boasting in attainment) to see what He will do with us.
Coming nearer home is the wondrous testimony raised up in these last days, once characterized by faith, love, and hope, singleness of eye, devotedness of heart, loyalty to the Person of our ever blessed Lord-is this light to flicker out, quenched by pride, strife, worldliness? Enough has occurred, and is occurring, to make one tremble; on the one hand assumption, and a high hand, dangerously resembling Diotrephes, in 3 John; on the other, looseness and indifference to Christ's person and honor, which needs to heed the stimulating word in 2 John. What is to become of the testimony ? Is it any sign of a spiritual mind to quietly fold our hands and say, "God never restores a ruined testimony?" True, perhaps, but may He not strengthen and freshen the things that remain, and recover very many of His scattered sheep ? What limit is there here, but that which coldness and unbelief imposes ? If there is straitness, we know where it is. If the heart of an apostle was enlarged unto his brethren, what shall we say of His heart who gave His own blessed Son ?

To come nearer home still:to each one individually, there was a time when Christ was the chiefest among ten thousand, perhaps He is less so now. Once, God's Word was rejoiced in as when one findeth great spoil; now, perhaps, a hasty occasional glance, in a perfunctory way, is all that is given to it. Once, prayer, alone and in fellowship with others, was the " vital breath and native air." God was very near, unseen things were very real. Now, perhaps, all this is changed. Something has turned the heart from Christ, and oh! what leanness! It will not do to put off these things from us with a general acknowledgment that we all need a closer walk with God. We need to ask ourselves if this is true of us, and if so, does God intend that we should continue in such a state till death takes us to Christ, or He comes for us. Surely there is not a line of scripture to warrant such conclusion. Oh! beloved brethren! our God would have us each and all to taste and drink more deeply from the eternal fullness of that well which is even now within us. Let there be hearty confession, true lowliness, a rending of the heart-a cry to God, and would not that of itself be the beginning of a season of blessing to our own souls, overflowing into other souls, until, who knows where the blessed result would end ? Shall we say of these things as they did of Ezekiel's message, " Doth he not speak parables ?" or shall we bow our knees with our hearts in a whole-hearted prayer, " O Lord, revive Thy work "?

''Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 1:19 )

III. INTRODUCTORY.

Doctrine " means "teaching." All Scripture is profitable, among other things, for doctrine,-that is, for teaching the truths needful for the man of God to know. It is by doctrine, or teaching, that all the great realities of God, and our relations to Him,-of Christ, the Spirit, salvation, grace, glory, are made known to us. Therefore it is significant that in the "Church epistles "-those devoted to the Church order and life- we have the word " doctrine" mentioned so frequently (i and 2 Timothy and Titus). It is by doctrine (through the power of the Spirit) that the Church is built up and nourished. Where doctrine is set aside, all growth and testimony soon stops.

It is considered fashionable, in this day, to decry doctrine and uphold "practical Christianity," as it is called. These doctrines, we are told, are old-fashioned, and no longer suit those who live in this enlightened and progressive age. These thoughts, suggested by the spirit of evil, have crept like leaven into the professing church, until men fear to make known those grand, simple, and sanctifying doctrines of the Scripture, and have come down to the demands of the day for a broad creed- generalizations about the mercy of God-His universal Fatherhood and man's brotherhood-duties to one's neighbor or to the state. Or, where there is earnestness, it goes off into attacks upon some of the crying sins of the day, such as intemperance and the like. A glance at the Monday reports of sermons will show the current of the day-"the course of this world," and as one reads these reports of " stones for fish-scorpions for eggs," he is reminded of those solemn words, " The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." The effect of all this is infidelity. The precious doctrines of grace are set aside, along with the solemn doctrines of sin and future judgment. Nothing remains but man's religion, without Christ, and, we may add, " without hope in the world." Even where there is a holding to Bible-truth, and where through God's mercy souls are saved, this neglect of doctrinal preaching bears its true fruit. There is but little deep conviction of sin. Salvation is made a matter of " coming out on the Lord's side," by holding up the hand, or rising for prayers. As a consequence, vast numbers are swept into the church to swell its list; but, alas! the majority soon to fall back into the world, or, worse yet, to bring more of the world into the church. Not that we would deny for a moment that souls are saved during so-called " revival services," but they are few comparatively, and we believe this can be traced to the conspicuous lack of doctrinal preaching. And where souls are saved, how weak, how dim, is the faith and, as a result, unsteady the walk ! Years may pass, and the simple elements of the gospel remain unknown to many who we dare not doubt have trusted in Christ as their Savior. The weakening effect of this is seen in the impotence of the professing church to meet the tide of infidelity rising each year higher. On the other hand, contrast those who have been " established in the faith." No gilded lie of the enemy is believed, all is tested by the Word. Then, too, as to walk ; there is power in it-the,, power of truth and faith. To this it may be objected that doctrine does not necessarily transform. We answer, if the text at the beginning is noticed, we will see" the frame-work of all Scripture-doctrine-" in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." It is only when doctrine is made a matter of cold reason that it fails to have power. Christ the object of faith and of love-as well as their author-Christ brought before the soul a living Person, through the Spirit, by the use of doctrine, never fails to sanctify and strengthen. This answers the objection that doctrines are " dry." Doctrines, properly received, give us deeper knowledge of the fullness of God and of the unsearchable riches of Christ. No wonder, then, that in the wreck of all about him, the apostle exhorted Timothy to "hold fast the form of sound words." This has been rendered, "Have an outline of sound words" (J. N. D.'s Revised Version.)-a system of teaching under which we can group our knowledge of Scripture-truths. Nor is this having a creed. A creed is a human summary of doctrine for the acceptance of Christians upon which their reception into church-fellowship depends. An outline of doctrine is simply a presentation of Scripture-truth-to be tested by Scripture, for no purpose of testing fellowship, but for the edification of the saints. With such a purpose we would briefly examine some of the great doctrines of God's Word, looking for the Author of that Word to be our Enlightener and Guide.

(To be continued.)

q. 8.-" What is the difference between 'Sanctify them through Thy truth' (Jno. 17:17) and 'Sanctified in Christ Jesus' (1 Cor. 1:2)?"

Ans.-In the order of blessing, the passage in Corinthians comes first. It is a blessed fact that in Christ all our blessings are perfect. Attainment is not in question. All in Christ are sanctified, perfectly set apart to God, separated unto Him and for Him. This sanctification is perfect, it is the work of a moment, the portion of every believer. Hence our name, "saints." This is the position of all believers; but the passage in Jno. 17:is different. Our Lord is leaving His own in the world; His great desire is that they may be kept from evil, left here to represent Him. To do this, they must be holy. Hence the prayer, "Sanctify them through Thy truth." The practical walk is in question, and here sanctification is a gradual and progressive work. As the Word of God enters the heart, it shows us our unlikeness to Christ, then (by occupying us with Him,) fashions us into His image through the Spirit.

Q. 9.-"Does God own the gospel, or His Word, when preached by an unbeliever-1:e., an unredeemed person ?"

Ans.-Phil. 1:18 seems to give the answer clearly. It is His Word which God uses; and solemn as the handling of that Word by an unsaved person is, He may in His sovereign grace use it. So we can rejoice where Christ is preached, though the judgment on those who preach not sincerely will be sure.

Box 830, Los Angeles, Cal., April 13th, 1891.

My dear Brother,-

Your letter has lain unanswered for some days, having been received about a week ago. I was very thankful to receive the enclosed-sum of twenty dollars from the "Missionary Collection," of the Sunday-School, not only, or chiefly for the help ministered in spreading the gospel among those in darkness and ignorance of God, but because of the interest it manifests in the Sunday-School in that work which brought the Son of God into the world to die, that sinners might be reconciled to God, and receive the free gift of eternal life and glory. That this interest may deepen, and grow in the hearts of all of us is our prayer surely. In this age of indifference and hardness of heart and conscience, it is a comfort to know that the Lord is stirring some hearts to an increasing interest in His work and service, and some of us who are growing old are happy in the thought that the Lord is preparing others to serve Him, it is to be hoped more simply and devotedly, if He tarry yet a little,
when we have served our allotted time and are called hence.

The Lord's work involves a self-surrender and purpose of heart; and though it calls for giving up much that the rest esteem, yet I am sure no one who has truly and in sincerity of heart gone forth to serve Him in the gospel of His Son will have at the end a single regret for any thing they have given up for His sake:but rather regrets that it had not been more a great deal.

Love to Christ is the great motive that constrains-love to the One who gave Himself for us, surrendering every thing He could, and the need required, for such as we are. And well it is if this love has laid hold of us, and leads us to serve Him in that which is the fruit of eternal love and wisdom, the gospel of God, than which nothing can be higher and greater, though with men often debased and dishonored indeed.

To-day, as you well know, the gospel is going into many places which have been closed for centuries, many fields are unoccupied where there is at least liberty of access, and Satan is busy sowing his tares where the truth has gone, indeed, more earnest in the work of destruction than the children of God are in the work of salvation. Where the seed is being sown with some diligence, there is one felt need every where almost, and that is perhaps to teach us to wait upon God for it, I mean the power and working of the Holy Spirit, convicting and converting and leading to Christ. Yet doubtless there is much more than any are permitted to know of here going on, whilst what is known gives joy on earth, as it has in heaven, even if it be but one that repents.

But great mistakes are made in putting something else before the gospel, such as education and what is called civilization and many other things. Those who do this forget that it is alone the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. They forget, too, that God is able by the preached Word to bring from darkness to light, and from death to life, the most ignorant and hardened sinner that ever lived, and just in proportion to the measure in which men give up faith in God, and His Word, will they lean on something else, a something, too, that the natural man can work with, and it is not hard to tell what the result will be. David, the man of faith, could not meet the Philistine giant in Saul's armor, and Paul says, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds," etc.

But I must close my already long letter with the prayer that the Lord's blessing may be with both teachers and taught in the Plainfleld Sunday-School, and grant through His grace much blessed fruit from His Word, and whilst thankful for the help sent for the work of the Lord, I do not doubt it will be accompanied with the prayers of those who have learned to value for themselves access to the throne of grace. I inclose a copy of an interesting letter from old Spain, a part the Lord has lately given us access to.

Affectionately in Christ,
ROBT. T. GRANT.

G., SPAIN, February 6th, 1891.

I am glad to tell you a little of the Lord's work in Spain, although speaking only of a single district, the province of L. So I will tell you a little of the blessings which I received of the Lord in my labors for His name; seeking to do what I can, scattering with a full hand in that virgin soil the holy seed of the gospel, trusting always in Him who has said, "My word shall not return unto Me void."

The journey to the mountains, notwithstanding the bad weather, snowing and raining, was for one very happy, receiving many blessings from above in all the towns I visited. In all, the power and Spirit of God were with me, strengthening me by the grace which is in Christ Jesus, that I might make known to the to the people His mercy and love. He who in His mercy chose me for it from the basest of the earth, cleansing me with His precious blood, and making me of service to the Lord, and
through the Spirit of God employing me in these towns, and, as Paul in Acts 28:31, "Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ with all liberty, without hindrance."

In the city of T. I preached Christ two days following, some one hundred and twenty persons being present. In F. de O had a meeting at night in a coffee-room where about one hundred and ninety were gathered. In this small town there is much desire for the gospel. The priest has been in charge for fifteen months, and the poor man was complaining that in all that time there had not been a burial service. People are beginning to understand that salvation cannot be bought for money, and that it is already paid for by Jesus. My visit here troubled the priest, and the day after the meeting he met the town miller in the street, and called to him, asking, "Were you not last night with the Protestants?"

" Yes, sir," answered the miller. "And what did they say?"

"Much that was bad about you for taking away from people the fear of God, and much good of God and of Jesus Christ." " Were there many there ?" "The place was full." "Were they more quiet than at mass?"

"I did not hear any but the preacher, who said things that were very good, and full of gospel truth; that is religion, not what you teach, which is all money and fanaticism."

Then the priest abashed left without another word. Afterward I went to the town of C., where also I had a meeting at night, with one hundred and twenty persons present, orderly and respectful. The day following, having to go to the town of S. S., where they were expecting me, I was called expressly by the people of a mountain town called O., where they desired to hear the Word of God; to which I gladly yielded, seeing the good will of these simple and honorable people, considering them before those of S. S., for the latter had already heard the gospel on different occasions, are visited more frequently, on account of having better means of communication, whilst those of O. were new to this. Here I passed a Lord's day-a happy day, for in it, after having spoken of the Lord in private conversations among the people, I had a meeting in a barn to which all the people came, including the town council and secretary, who at my side all the time. In so small a town and for the [me I sold four Bibles and many portions of the Word, accompanied by a large number tracts given freely. They desired should visit them again. The only enemies here are the priest and his two housekeepers. The next day I spent at the town of V. de M., preaching Christ at night to some one hundred and fifty persons, and all obliged me to remain another day, wishing for another meeting, to which I yielded, believing it to be just and agreeable to the Word of God. At this second meeting, Kiboot two hundred were present, and all seemed pleased with the doctrines of the holy gospel, asking me to return and visit them again,, at least every mouth, if it was not possible every week. These wished to honor me with a band of music from the place of .meeting to the lodging, which I protested against, saying that my mission was a lowly one, far off from the glories of the world, following in the footsteps of the humble Master Jesus , Christ. Another day I spent at the little town of M., having here a true Christian meeting, about thirty-five persons attending. In this town there is one true Christian family. At other ,. places I visited it was impossible to have meetings, taut by the ' grace of God the ground might be prepared for another visit.

I may say that in this part of Spain the Lord has opened to us a new world, in which no doubt He has much people, and already is working in many hearts. What with public meetings, approved by the local authorities, and familiar conversations in "cafes," and with groups in houses, I preached the gospel to one thousand and more souls, men and women, many being glad and favorable to the gospel, desiring we should visit them again; but for the present they must be dealt with as babes, until the Lord shall do the rest, and give them new hearts. May the Lord aid and bless us, that what we do may be for the honor and glory of Christ our great Shepherd, and may He raise up laborers fitted for this service among these isolated people.

Your affectionate servant and brother in Christ,
J. M. R.S.
CUBA.

Dear Brother,-

After saluting you I give most hearty thanks for the tracts, etc., received, by the aid of which I have been able to present the beneficent light of the gospel to thousands of persons in this my unhappy country, where the darkness of Romanism has covered all, and where they fight without ceasing to quench the shining of the Word of God; but the seed has gone on growing, and, with the help of the Spirit, to-day there are one hundred members and many sympathizers in this congregation, and we are in hopes the Lord will call many more into the knowledge of the truth.

I have just completed a visit to the interior of the Island, in company with D. F. G., who has come to visit the work, and we have preached the gospel to a multitude of persons who never have heard the kingdom of God preached to them, and we have journeyed by rail about eighty Spanish leagues. The tracts we took have been received by the people with the greatest eagerness, and may our beloved Redeemer grant that the will of God may penetrate their hearts. Now we are expecting to visit other towns, and if it were possible that you could send us more tracts, we should value them much.

May the Lord Jesus Christ shed His rich blessing upon you and this blessed work, and grant us health and self-denial, that light may be given to those which are in darkness.

Your sincere brother in Christ,
E. P. C.

Others of interest have been received, but it would make this too long to insert them.

In S. A. a priest circulated a number of New Testaments, and found it made the people Protestants, so he burned the rest.

In Peru, the agent of the Bible Society was selling Bibles on the street when the bishop passed by, the latter sent the police at once to arrest him and he was cast into prison, contrary to the constitution of the country. He was afterward liberated, and then imprisoned again, where he now is. The Protestants of the Argentine .Republic are going to undertake the expense of his defense in the courts, and this, by the blessing of God, may be used to open the door there.

Men love darkness more than light when their deeds are evil. And what else can Jesuitism do but shut out the Word of God, the principle of their system being, " Let us do evil that good may come"? Of whom Paul says, "Whose damnation is just." R.T.G.

Box 830, Los Angeles.

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

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

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

Along with the resurrection of the imperial power, we are now shown in the vision the uprise of another "wild beast," which we have nowhere else brought before us in this character. We shall have, therefore, more attentively to consider the description given, and what means we have for identification of the power or person who is described, so that the prophecy may be brought out of the isolation which would make it incapable of interpretation, and may speak at least with its full weight of moral instruction for our souls.

The one seen is "another wild beast," and this character is clear enough. The empires of Daniel are "beasts," in that they know not God; the thought of the wild beast adds to this that savage cruelty, which will, of course, display itself against those who are God's. Inasmuch as the other beasts are powers-empires,-it would seem as if here too were a power, royal or imperial; but this would not be certain, unless confirmed by other intimations.

It is seen rising up out of the earth, and not out of the sea. The latter symbol evidently applies to the nations, _the Gentiles; does not then this power rise out of the nations? It has been thought to mean a settled state of things into which the nations now had got,-a state of things unlikely at the period we are considering, and which would seem rather imageable as quiet water, than as "earth." Looking back to that first chapter of Genesis, in which we should surely get the essential meaning of these figures, and where typically the six days reveal the story of the dispensations on to the final Sabbath-rest of God, we shall find the earth, in its separation from the waters on the third day, speaking of Israel as separated from the Gentiles.* *See " Genesis in the light of the New Testament," or " The Numerical Bible."* If this be true interpretation, as I doubt not, it is an Israelitish power with which we are here brought face to face. Political events today look to a Jewish resurrection, as something in the near future scarcely problematical. Daniel's words (chap. 12:i) which apply to this, make it sure that this will not be all of God, but that "some" will rise "to shame and everlasting contempt. " Prophecies that we have already to some extent considered, intimate that Jewish unbelief is yet to unite with an apostasy of Christendom, and culminate in a "man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. 2:3, 4.) Thus we may be prepared to find here a blasphemous persecuting power rising up in the restored nation. And this may help us to the awful significance of what follows in Revelation-"and he had two horns like a lamb, and spake as a dragon."

"Two horns like a lamb:" the "Lamb" is a title so significant in the present book, nay, of such controlling significance, that any reference to it must be considered of corresponding importance. The two horns, then, are of course an intimation that the power exercised by the one before us-for the "horn " is a well-known symbol of power-is two-fold, in some sense like that of a lamb:how then? What is the twofold character of the power here? It seems as if there could be but one meaning:Christ's power is twofold, as manifested in the day that comes; He is a priest upon the throne,"-a royal Priest, with spiritual authority as well as kingly. This the blasphemous usurper before us will assume; and this manifests him, without possibility of mistake that one can see, as ANTICHRIST.

He is betrayed by His voice:his speech is that of a dragon; he is inspired, in fact, by Satan. There is no sweet and gracious message upon His lips. It is not He who has been man's burden-bearer, and the sinner's Savior. No gentleness and meekness, but the tyranny of the destroyer; no heavenly wisdom, but Satan's craft, utters itself through him. Arrogant as he is, he is the miserable tool of man's worst enemy, and his own.

" And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast in his presence." He -is the representative of the newly constituted empire of the west, not locally merely, but throughout it; and thus, as-standing for another, he is still the awful mockery of Him who is on the throne of the world, the Father's representative. This is developed by the next words to its full extent:"and he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed; and he doeth great signs, so that he maketh fire to descend from heaven upon the earth before men." Here the very miracle which Elijah once had wrought to turn back the hearts of apostate Israel to the true God he is permitted to do to turn men to a false one. Men are given up to be deceived:God is sending them (as it is declared in Thessalonians) "strong delusion, that they may believe the lie . . . because they received not the love of the truth." The Word of God, announcing this beforehand, would, of course, be the perfect safeguard of those that trusted it; and this very miracle as it would appear, would be a sign to the elect, not of Christ, but of Antichrist. But to the men that dwell upon the earth, a moral characteristic distinguishing those who as apostate from Christianity have given up all their hope of heaven, and who are all through this part specially pointed out, heaven itself would seem to seal the pretensions of the deceiver. "And he deceiveth the dwellers upon the earth, by means of the signs which it was given him to do in the presence of the beast, saying to the dwellers upon earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the wound by the sword and lived. And it was given him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause those that would not worship the image of the beast to be slain."

Is an actual image of the beast intended here ? or is it some representative of imperial authority, such as the historical interpreters in general (though in various ways) have made it out to be? Against the latter thought there is in itself no objection, but rather the reverse, the book being so symbolical throughout. But it is the second beast itself that is the representative of the authority of the first beast; and on the other hand an apparent creation-miracle would not be unlikely to be attempted by one claiming to be divine. Notice, that it is not" life " he gives to it, as in the common version, nor "spirit," though the word may be translated so, but "breath," which as the alternative rendering is plainly the right one, supposing it be a literal image.

Our Lord's words as to the " abomination of desolation standing in the holy place" (Matt. 24:15), are in evident connection with this, and confirm this thought. " Abomination " is the regular word in the Old Testament, to express what idolatry is in the sight of God; but here it is established in what was but awhile before professedly His temple. For until the middle of Daniel's seventieth week, from the beginning of it, sacrifice and oblation have been going on among the returned people in Jerusalem. This was under the shelter of the covenant with that Gentile " prince" of whom the prophet speaks as the " coming one." At first, he is clearly therefore not inspired with the malignity toward God which he afterwards displays. Now, energized by Satan, from whom he holds his throne, and incited by the dread power that holds Jerusalem itself, he makes his attack upon Jehovah's throne itself, and as represented by this image, takes his place in defiance in the sanctuary of the Most High.

The connection of this prophecy with those in Daniel and in Matthew make plain the reason of the image being made and worshiped. The head of the Roman earth, and of this last and worst idolatry, is not in Judaea, but at Rome; and he who is in Judaea, of whatever marvelous power possessed, is yet only the delegate of the Roman head. Thus the image is made to represent this supreme power, and the worship paid to it is in perfect accordance with this. Here in Judaea, where alone now there is any open pretension to worship the true God,-here there is call for the most decisive measures. And thus the death-penalty proclaimed for those who do not worship. Jerusalem is the center of the battle-field, and here the opposition must be smitten down. "And he causeth all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and bond, that they should give them a mark upon their right hand and upon their forehead, and that no one should be able to buy or sell except he have the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

Thus, then, is that "great tribulation" begun of which the Lord spoke in His prophecy in view of the temple. We can understand that the only hope while this evil is permitted to have its course is, that flight to the mountains which He enjoins on those who listen to His voice. Israel have refused that sheltering wing under which He would have so often gathered them, and they must be left to the awful "wing of abominations" (Dan. 9:27, Heb.) on account of which presently the "desolator" from the north swoops down upon the land. Still His pity whom they have forsaken has decreed a limit, and "for His elect's sake, whom He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days."

Why is it that breath is given to the image ? Is it in defiance of the prophet's challenge of the "dumb idols,"' which "speak not through their mouth"? Certainly to make an image speak in such a place against the Holy One would seem the climax of apostate insolence. But it only shows that the end is indeed near.

What can be said of the " number of the beast " ? The words, " Here is wisdom :let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast," seem directly to refer to those whom Daniel calls "the wise," or "they that understand among the people," of whom it is said, concerning the words of the vision "closed up and sealed till the time of the end," that "none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." The "wise," or "they that understand," are in Hebrew the same word- the maskilim, and remind us again of certain psalms that are called maskil psalms, an important series of psalms in this connection, four of which (52:-55:) describe the wicked one of this time and his following; while the thirty-second speaks of forgiveness and a hiding-place in God, the forty-second comforts those cast out from the sanctuary, and the forty-fifth celebrates the victory of Christ, and His reign, and the submission of the nations. Again, the seventy-fourth pleads for the violated sanctuary; the seventy-eighth recites the many wanderings of the people from their God; the seventy-ninth is another mourning over the desolation of Jerusalem; the eighty-eighth bewails their condition under a broken law; and the eighty-ninth declares the "sure mercies of David. The hundred and forty-second is the only other maskil psalm.
Moll may well dispute Hengstenberg's assertion that these psalms are special instruction for the Church. On the other hand, the mere recital of them in this way may convince us how they furnish the very key-note to Israel's condition in the time of the end, and may well be used to give such instruction to the remnant amid the awful scenes of the great tribulation. In Revelation, it will not be doubtful, I think, to those who will attentively consider it, that we have in this place a nota bene for the maskilim.

Can we say nothing, then, as to the number of the beast ?

As to the individual application, certainly, I think, nothing. We cannot prophesy; and until the time comes, the vision in this respect is "sealed up." The historical interpreters, for whom indeed there should be no seal, if their interpretation be the whole of it, generally agree upon Lateinos (the Latin), which has, however, an e too much, and therefore would make but 661. Other words have been suggested, but it is needless to speak of them :the day will declare it.

Yet it does not follow but that there may be something for us in the number of significance spiritually. The 6 thrice repeated, while it speaks of labor and not rest,-of abortive effort after the divine 7, declares the evil in its highest to be limited and in God's hand. This number is but, after all, we 'are told, "the number of a man;" and what is man ? He may multiply responsibility and judgment; but the Sabbath is God's rest, and sanctified to Him:without God, he can have no Sabbath. This 6,6,6, is the number of a man who is but a beast, and doomed. F.W.G.

(To be continued.)

Q. 1.-"I have a difficulty in understanding 2 Thess. 2:3, 7, seeing the general teaching that the saints being caught away and the Holy Spirit gone with them, so the restraint being off, the mystery of iniquity would have full course, headed by the man of sin. But in Help and Food, April, 1889, in an article, 'Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven,' there was a different application of the third verse. In speaking of the separation (p. 91), we are told to look a little more closely at the manner of it. Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them. It is a separation of tares, so as to leave the wheat distinct for the ingathering. On the 93rd page, we are told to distinguish the tares from the mere formalist and unfruitful professor of the truth, and yet the formalist will not escape, etc. Here is a simple question of good wheat for the granary or tares for the burning. Nothing else is in the field at all, all seem to have taken sides. And as a warrant for such an interpretation we are pointed to the second epistle to the Thessalonians.- 95th page, ' This passage exhibits the man of sin as the dis-tinct head and leader of the latter-day apostasy. The coming of the Wicked one is declared to be with terrible power of delusion, which will carry away captive the masses of unconverted among professing Christians, until none of that middle class re-main.' How are we to understand it? Does the delusion precede (to such a degree) the appearing of the Wicked one as to cause the separation? or does it mean that the appearing of the Wicked one causes it ? The latter is the way I thought the writer meant it until reading November Help and Food, where it speaks of the apostasy (p. 285) having its beginning under the fifth trumpet. This, then, does not harmonize with the thought in April number, 1889, that the unconverted among professing Christians will be carried away by the coming of the Wicked one, until only two classes remain in the field, because we know we shall be home in glory before the fifth trumpet sounds.

" But apart from all this, it seemed strange to me why the apostle should tell those Christians that day would not come until the falling away came first, if no Christians would be here when the falling away came, which, according to the general teaching, will be the case." A. DOYLE

Bedford, N. S.

Ans.-There is often a difficulty in the turning a parable (if I may so express it,) into direct prophecy, as the aim of the parable is rather to give moral principles for practical application, than the order of events. The statement in the paper on the " Mysteries" is more guarded than our correspondent has understood it to be. The passage reads, "All seem to have taken sides, before the solemn close of the time of harvest, either manifestly for Christ, or as manifestly against Him." It is not said that this is so before the wheat is taken away. The tares are bound in bundles before that, but how the paper refuses to say. The binding in bundles is angelic action, not apostasy, and tares are not necessarily open apostates. They are such as have received some satanic error, but have not necessarily openly rejected Christ, (which is the apostasy), though naturally on the road to that.

I do not believe the apostasy can come while the Spirit of God is here. Signs of its being at hand are all around us now, but it is not come; and I see not why the apostle should not point out to Christians that the day of the Lord had not come because the apostasy had not, though we shall not be here when it does come.

I quote a passage from the paper in question, which will show fully the view intended to be given there:-

"Thus terribly shall the history of Christendom close. The true saints once taken out of it, the door of grace will be closed forever on those who have rejected grace. They will be given over to become, as they speedily will become, from being unbelievers of the truth, believers of a lie." F.W.G.

This expression occurs in both the passages indicated. In the first, it relates to the deliverance of the body from the bondage of sin, to be yielded unto God; in the second, to freedom from man, that we might be servants unto God. Equally separated from the doctrine of perfectionism on the one hand, and from that which teaches the necessity of the believer's sinning is the truth as set forth here. Our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; we are not our own, but bought with a price, and are therefore to glorify God in our body. Familiar truth, but of which we need constantly to be reminded-that
our body is the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. Those words of promise when our Lord was about to leave His own which were in the world have been fulfilled-" He shall abide with you forever." What a Guest for such a habitation ! That blessed One who first rested upon the holy Jesus has now taken His abode with us. God the Spirit, the Regenerator, the Inspirer of the Word, the living power for all that is good, dwells in us, at once the seal of divine ownership and the earnest of the inheritance which awaits us. " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." The Seal is God's mark of ownership. He has not put upon us a mark such as -man would, but has sent a living Person of divine dignity to abide with us. And this blessed Person does not rest satisfied to. abide, but He works, He reveals Christ, and He gives foretastes of a joy that awaits us. If we realized His presence, would there not be a powerful effect on our lives ? Would not sin be more hateful, the world less attractive, Christ more precious, the Word more luminous? In the immediate connection, the apostle uses this truth as a corrective of the grossest forms of sin-a connection we would shrink from making. Can we not apply it to other sins,-to that pride which clings so closely, that malice, that evil-speaking? Realizing who dwells in us would check the indulgence of these and other sins, which conscience, often disregarded, fails to make us feel.

We come next to see why the Holy Spirit dwells in us. " Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price." We may be sure that nothing in us warrants the Holy Spirit in abiding in us. He has taken up His abode because we have been purchased-" with the precious blood of Christ." What a proof of the value of that work in God's sight, and of the certainty of its having been applied to us ! Nothing less would justify the Spirit in dwelling in such places, yet nothing less would do to witness to the perfection of that sacrifice. God has been glorified, and He sends forth the Spirit to witness to it. We have believed, and this is the answer of God to our faith-weak as it is. If young Christians saw clearly why they had the Spirit,-that it was due to no exertions, prayers, or moral fitness on their part, but to the fact that they have been bought with a price, they would not have so many unscriptural thoughts about His ministry.

Now, if bought, we are not sin's servants ; and being free from it, we can yield ourselves up to God. This is what we have in the exhortation, "Glorify God in your body." How blessed that we who had come short of the glory of God can now glorify Him in our bodies ! How blessed, too, to see all linked with the precious blood of Christ! This shows us holiness as the fruit of redemption, and the Holy Spirit as the power for holiness. " Ye are not your own,"-how much this means ! " A peculiar people,"-rather " A people for His own possession." If this is realized, how it carries all else with it-as to the life. We dare not link sin or selfishness with God's ownership of us. How plain a certain course would appear did this thought govern us:I am not my own, therefore I cannot go there, do this, associate with these. No need for casuistry to decide questions for us.

But this redemption reaches not merely to the question of sin. The second verse shows that we have been set free from human bondage. " Be ye not the servants of men." There is no man in all this world to whom we owe subjection,-no ruler, no leader, no friend. We have been absolutely set free from man's ownership. This does not mean to encourage that disobedience to the powers that be which is one of the signs of the last days. Scripture clearly tells us that we are to be subject to these authorities,-to " render to all their dues:tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." A respect for and obedience to his rulers, with prayer for them, will characterize the sober-minded. Neither does our scripture hint at neglect of submission to our spiritual guides and to one another. He shows a lawless spirit who holds lightly the judgment of his brethren. Nay, our text tells us we are now in the true position to render all due obedience -because it is unto the Lord. In obeying the powers that be, I obey the Lord :in receiving the judgment of my brethren with respect and attention, I do the same. Subjection to our fellow-Christians in any other way is the worst kind of bondage. We are not to be driven here and there like a herd of sheep-going blindly with the mass. Alas ! too much have we forgotten that we are not the servants of men. The result is, instead of happy, intelligent following the Lord, His people follow some man, only to find at last that they have gone far astray. This is the true spirit of unity :any thing else is a false union, soon to result in disunion. When all follow the Lord, they are of one mind, and must be together. Again let us note with what this freedom is linked-"Ye are bought with a price." That price appeals to our love, to our loyalty. The fear of man bringeth a snare, but to realize that we have been bought with a price-such a price- sets free from that snare. We can decide every question apart from all human influence,-rather, we must, to decide aright, do so. The Lord impress this precious truth on us so deeply that we shall walk here His freemen- free from sin, free from man,-yet ready to serve all, and realizing each one that we are "less than the least of all saints."

Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him." (Heb. 12:5.)

Sweet lessons learned in sorrow,
Our God, we dearly prize.
We would not from Thy discipline,
Our Father, hide our eyes.
E'en though the school be strict and stern,
We would the needed lesson learn.

We 're evil, weak, and foolish,
And know not how to choose.
Our God, Thou couldst not trust us-
Thy trust we would abuse.
Denial, though it break the heart,
Is e'er the faithful Father's part.

We change, and are forgetful :
Our God, Thou canst not change.
Our wanderings, our waywardness,
Thy love can ne'er estrange.
For Thine unfailing faithfulness,
Thee we learn, our God, to bless.

Grapes will yield their precious juices
When crushed beneath the press :
The sweetest songs we sing, Lord,
Are born of deep distress.
One sorrow less I would not have
Than Thou hast sent me in Thy love.

Oh discipline most holy,
That works His precious will! "
Despise not thou His chastening,
Nor faint," but rest thee still. "
He spoils the child who spares the rod."
Our Father is th' eternal God.

H. McD.

March 14th, 1891

DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF HOLINESS.

To clear the way, it might be helpful to bear in mind that there are at least four views of the subject of holiness. The variations are numerous and diverse, but nearly all might be ranged under one or other of the views now to be described.

1. There is what may be called the Perfectionist School. An advocate of this view fairly puts what is taught by them by saying that in those cleansed or sanctified there remains " no defiling taint of depravity, no bent toward acts of sin." This is by an American. General Booth, in Britain, gives a similar testimony when he says that "the last remnants of the carnal mind may be plucked up by the roots, and the tendencies to evil taken away." Another advocate, in New Zealand, writes that the Savior " can just now extirpate the foe, expel the fiend, and extract the virus of sin from the human heart." This might be thought to be thorough enough work, but somehow it is also allowed that the sanctified man may be liable to errors of judgment, and by temptation from without he may again yield to sin, lose the blessing, and even so fall away as to be finally lost. It is said that Charles Wesley was sanctified four times, and yet held that it was possible for him to be lost after all. Others might not go so far; but they would admit that they might lose what they call the second blessing, and slip back among the great mass of believers who do not profess holiness or sanctification.

2. There is what we may call the Evangelical School It has been stated as follows by a moderator from the chair in his opening address in the Free Church General Assembly in Edinburgh, Scotland:" Christ's blood purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. We are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, in mind, in will, in heart, and sin hath not dominion over us, because we are under grace." "It cannot, however, be set forth as within the plan of redemption that perfect holiness should be ours on earth. If we wash our hand with snow-water, and make ourselves ever so clean, we are quickly plunged into the ditch again, and compelled to cry out, 'Oh wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?'" "We are not, therefore, defeated :we have learned that sin is not omnipotent over us, but that grace is omnipotent over sin." " There is no sin, no temptation, no obstinacy, no vitality of sin, which grace is not almighty to overcome, and at last to uproot it." In this view, as in the previous one, be it observed, there is no admission of there being two natures in the believer. In both views the whole man is supposed to be dealt with:the one relies upon the efficacy of the blood to cleanse from all sin, the other looks to the almighty power of grace to overcome evil. The Perfectionist holds that the cleansing is complete when he has believed for it; the Evangelical more modestly allows that sin will not be uprooted tilt death; but, being Calvinistic in his faith, he believes that he will persevere till death, and immediately be with and like Christ in glory; but both schools deny that a Christian has two natures, and fail to bring out the truth as to the first and last Adam, or the old and new creation. (Rom. 5:12-21; Eph. 2:i-10; 4:22-25.) W.C.J.

( To be continued.)

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." (Heb. 10:24.) "If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." (Gal. 6:1:) "For consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." (Heb. 12:3.)

In these passages, three objects are presented for our consideration:our brother, ourselves, and the Lord. Cain's question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" is for the child of God answered in the first verse quoted-"Let us consider one another."We are not only members of His body (Eph. 5:30), and quoted to our glorified Head, but from that very fact are members one of another, and are to have the same care one for another (i Cor. 12:) Indifference to his brother's spiritual condition is impossible for the Christian. " If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it." Selfish indeed is that heart which has room only for its own interests, that sees unmoved by concern the coldness or failure of a fellow-Christian. Such a state of itself is proof of a low condition. We are to consider one another, and this not in a merely incidental way in passing, but to thoroughly look at and examine the condition. This is the thought conveyed in the word in the Greek. It is the boast of Rome that in the confessional, she gains a full and intimate knowledge of the walk, and even thoughts, of her followers. But here, as in much else, she has only the counterfeit of what is true. The tyranny, insolence, and wickedness of the confessional cannot be too strongly condemned; but a counterfeit must, in some particulars, resemble the real,-and Protestantism, in exalting the right of private conscience, has gone to the other extreme in the almost total neglect of discipline, and godly care for one another. Farthest removed from the spirit of a prying busy-body is that loving and watchful care suggested by the passage we are considering. The object of this care is also stated:"To provoke unto love and good works." The word translated "provoke" is suggestive. The literal meaning is "to sharpen," and we are reminded of that passage, "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." (Prov. 27:17.) It is by rubbing two knives together that they are sharpened, and so godly care and intercourse stir up the people of God. Love and good works are what we are to provoke to, the root and the fruits. Alas! we know what it is to provoke to anger, but how little of this kind of stirring up ! The Lord arouse us all to this. There may be real self-denial required to carry it out. Rebuke may be necessary, faithfully pointing out the wrong, checking the hasty zeal; and much wisdom and prayer is needed.

This we find in the second exhortation, "Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." A busy-body might be defined as one who meddles in the affairs of others without any conscience. In morbid physical conditions a person will eat earth, or ashes, with relish. Alas! how great an appetite many have for evil, not to remedy it', but apparently for its own sake! Now the remedy for this is suggested in the passage before us, "Considering thyself." What am I? What have I been doing? What am I capable of doing? These and such like searching questions will have the effect of giving us " low thoughts of self;" we will "each esteem others better than ourselves." Considering himself, the apostle could say, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints." It has often been remarked that if we are to wash our brother's feet, we are to take a lower place than he-to be his servant; we can only do this as we realize that we also may be tempted, that we have often failed. Beloved, how little fault-finding there would be if we first considered ourselves ! How little of that carping spirit of criticism which magnifies the errors of a brother, and dwells upon evil! How little of that harsh inflexible spirit of so-called righteousness which will exact the "pound of flesh" at all costs! The severest judges are those who do not judge themselves. Even in a matter requiring discipline, God often has first to humble those who would act for Him. See in Judges, where He permits all eleven tribes, who would deal with Benjamin for permitting terrible sin, to be beaten once and again, until thoroughly broken they come with tears and sacrifices, and ask, " Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin, my brother? (Judg. 20:26-28.) Now they are in the place of acknowledged weakness, and from that go forth in power for God. In principle, the Lord often has to say to us, "Let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone." This does not mean that we are not to attempt the restoration of a brother, but that it must be done in the spirit of self-consideration, or it will be worse than useless.

Lastly, we are to "consider Him." The word here is much stronger than the other two. It might be rendered " reckon up," " reason about fully," " consider attentively." No mere glance at the Lord is necessary, but a fixed and constant gaze. Here He is set before us in view of the trials and persecutions of the way. What did He do ? did He grow weary and faint? Nay, "For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame." If He were ever before us, our walk would be more like His, unswerving from the path. How easily we are turned away by a frown, or a sneer! Specially is this the case in what we are considering-our dealings with our brother. The flesh in him stirs it up in us often times in a way that shows we are not "considering Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself." What meekness He showed in the presence of those who spat upon, smote Him on the head and buffeted Him! No word of self-vindication in any angry way, no answering back, all shows us the One who "was led as a lamb to the slaughter," and who "left us an example that ye should follow His steps. . . . Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." If He did this in presence of sinners can we not bear the little we may meet with in saints f There is no excuse for us, if we fail in this-and it is just, here where so much hurt and damage, not only to our own souls but to the Church, has come in. How blessed it is that the Holy Spirit would ever keep our eye on Christ, from the first time when we looked to Him lifted up on the cross (Jno. 3:15) and got life and peace, in every trial and step of the way, till no longer by faith, but face to face we see Him, having been made like Him. In view of that day, we can well afford to wait in patience and weakness during this "little while."