The soul is the dwelling-place of the truth of God. The ear and the mind are but the gate and the avenue ; the soul is its home, or dwelling-place. The beauty and the joy of the truth may have unduly occupied the outpost, filled the avenues, and crowded the gates; but it is only in the soul that its reality can be known. It is by meditation that the truth takes its journey from the gate, along the avenue, to its proper dwelling-place.

PHILADELPHIA:WHAT IS IT?

My purpose is, as the Lord enables me, to follow the track of what I have no doubt to be a gracious movement of God in recent times, and with which as such all His people are necessarily concerned; to seek to show the principles which characterize it, and their meaning and value as taught in Scripture; to speak also of the difficulties and opposition through which it has had to find its way; and in this my aim will be to exercise hearts and consciences (if unexercised) with relation to it, and still more to help those already variously exercised to a settlement of questions which at the present time are pressing heavily on many.

I do not propose, however, any history of the movement of which I speak. For this I have no special competence; nor, if I had, would it serve so well the purpose that actuates me. It would raise question as to facts, and prejudice minds in opposite ways, by the introduction of names and persons, familiar and in reputation, perhaps the reverse. Our tendency is too much to make men commend the truth, rather than the truth commend the men who follow it. I shall look therefore at principles simply, with their necessary results (as far as these can be traced), only referring to history so far as may be necessary to explain their importance for us, and omitting wholly the names of those who have stood for them, or stood against them.

This may be deemed unsatisfactory by some, and of course leaves the application of principles to be made by every one for himself. But with divine light as to principles, and a soul truly before God, the application will after all be comparatively easy. It will test us, of course, whether we be there; and that seems to me to be in His mind for us, in a special way, just now. Let us not seek escape from it; but that we may stand the test, and find the blessing which He surely designs us in it.

For He does design blessing. This is the end from which He never swerves. When special times of sifting come, the sense of weakness everywhere apparent, and the love we have to one another would make us gladly seek escape, for ourselves and for others also. But, thank God, it is as vain as it is unwise and unbelieving. Satan is the sifter of God's wheat, and it is a serious thing indeed to have to do with him; but sifting is the ordained method of purification. Take Simon Peter as the great example of it in the gospels:he is in special danger, foreknown by the Lord as specially to fail, and yet cannot be spared the sifting. "I have prayed for thee," says the great Intercessor; not that thou mayest not be sifted, not even that thou mayest not fail, but "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not; and, when thou art converted," (or restored, as the meaning is,) "strengthen thy brethren." Here was good to come, (even for one who might seem to have failed utterly under it,) from the sifting of Satan.

What comfort for us in this, whether we think of ourselves or of others ! And if the Lord had for us, in His abundant goodness, any work for Himself ready to be put into our hands, what wonder if, first of all, He were pleased to let us also-perhaps finding our way into it, even as Peter did, through our own self-confidence and imprudence,-find, though in sorrow and suffering, the value of Satan's sieve ? We have, I believe, ground for the conviction that this is the meaning of what is now taking place.
But I go on at once to what is the matter that I have in hand, and raise the question which is at the head of this paper.

I do not propose now to work out the proof of what is familiar and accepted truth for most, perhaps, who will read these pages, that the Lord's addresses to the seven churches in Revelation contemplate, in fact, successive states of the Church at large, answering, in the same order, to the condition of these respective churches, or assemblies ; and that unitedly they cover the whole period, from the apostle's day till the Lord takes us to be with Himself above. The great proof of this must be in fact the correspondence that can be traced between what is thus assumed to be the prophecy and its fulfillment; and this it is not difficult to trace as far as regards at least the first five churches.* *Those who have difficulty I may refer to " Present Things," published by Loizeaux Brothers, and where it can be obtained also, bound up in a larger volume, " The Revelation of Jesus Christ."* Let us briefly attempt this.

1. Ephesus, to which, in its first fresh fervor, the doctrine of the Church was declared by the apostle, is shown heading here a history of decline. Outwardly things still look well. The secret of departure is only realized by Him whose heart, seeking ours, cannot but be keenly conscious of it, if first love is no longer there. Here is the beginning of the end, a root upon which evil fruit of all kinds will be found, if there be not recovery.

2. Smyrna next shows us the double assault of the enemy upon the Church in this weakened condition. Persecution on the part of the world, as under the Roman emperors ; internally, the introduction of a bastard Judaism, such as in its beginnings had to be met by the apostle, notably in Galatia, and which, in contrast with the heavenly Church, develops as the enemy's seed, "the synagogue of Satan,"-the mixing together of true and false in a legal and ritualistic system claiming earthly position and promises, and already slandering-this I take to be their "blasphemy"-the faithful remnant.

3. Pergamos shows us then the pilgrim character of the Church lost:they are " dwelling where Satan's throne is." And while Nicolaitans ("subjectors of the laity") preach now their "doctrine," Balaam-teachers seduce the people of God into evil alliances with the world, and mere idolatry.

4. Thyatira carries this on to full development in Romanism, as we see to-day. That which Balaam-teachers did before as individuals, a woman (type, as we know, of the professing Church) does now, speaking as a prophetess, with the claim of divine authority, and yet branded with the awful name of Jezebel, the idolatrous persecutor of true prophets in Ahab's days. Here development in this line ends :a remnant is beginning to be marked out again ("the rest in Thyatira"), and prepares us for a different condition of things in the next address.

5. In Sardis accordingly, we have no indication of Jezebel or her corruption. There are things that have been received and heard, but they languish and are ready to die. The general state is that of death, though with a "name to live," and a "few names that have not defiled their garments" in this place of the dead. It is easy to see that we have here the national churches of the Reformation, with their purer doctrine given of God, though hard to be maintained in the midst of what-as the world claiming to be the church-is necessarily "dead," with "a name to live." There is here, and all through, to this point, no possible difficulty of identification for a simple and honest heart, of what is presented to us in these churches.

But this brings us, as the next stage, to Philadelphia; and what is Philadelphia ? This ought to be a question capable of answer surely, and of satisfactory answer too. There can hardly be a doubt, if the previous applications have been correct, that Philadelphia must be something following Reformation times, outside of the state churches which have already found their delineation, and something which the three hundred years that are past have been ample to develop. But there are things connected with the identification in this case which should rightly make us pause and be very sure of our ground in attempting any explanation.

Philadelphia has, as a whole, the Lord's approval in a way no other of these churches has; except indeed Smyrna, with which in another respect also Philadelphia is linked. For here the "synagogue of Satan" once more appears as there:there seems some recrudescence of the Jewish principles typified by this ; or at least something brings these to the front in the Lord's address.

But it is intelligible why people should shrink from appropriating to themselves the commendation that is found here; while yet that very commendation must cause every Christian heart to crave the character which our blessed Master can thus commend. Thus it always must have appealed to Christians ; and since no circumstances of our time can ever render it impossible for us to fulfill the conditions necessary to His approval, there surely must have been Philadelphians in every generation of His people since these words were written. And here how blessed to see that what the Lord approves in Philadelphia is given in such absolutely plain speech. Keeping His word, not denying His Name, keeping the word of His patience:how simple all this seems; how simple it is, to a heart that is truly simple ! And yet, if we apply it closely, not meaning to let ourselves off easily, these words will be found, I doubt not, capable of searching us out to the very bottom.

But though thus there have been Philadelphians in all times, a Philadelphian movement is another matter; and this is what we should look for, from the place of this address among the other addresses. We shall have to face this, if we would be thoroughly honest with ourselves, and would not deprive ourselves therefore of the blessing of such a commendation. For while it is very well to take heed that we flatter not ourselves with being what we are not, there is another thing that is to be considered, and that is, if there be such a movement, our own relation to it. And this may well cause us anxious inquiry, may it not ? and it would be a strange disappointment indeed, were we to have to accept that such an inquiry as this could not expect to attain its end.

If the Lord have given me in His addresses to the churches to find a clue to His relation to the successive phases, complete or partial, of the Church on earth, then I must surely ask myself, where am I with regard to this ? And if I plainly do not belong to that line of development which ends in Thyatira or Papal Rome; if also I do not belong to the state churches of the Reformation, or those similarly constituted, though they may not be established; am I to find no place in that which the Lord addresses ? If I am, where must I find it, but in Philadelphia or in Laodicea ?

Now if the Spirit of God be at work in the midst of such a state of things as Sardis implies, not merely to sustain a remnant, but in testimony against evil as a whole, in what direction will it necessarily be found working ? Will it not be in separation between the living and the dead ? that is, in leading Christians to seek out their company; or in giving expression to the "love of brethren"? which is only to say in English, in Philadelphia ?

Is it not plain that this has in fact characterized, in various degrees, many different movements that have arisen since Reformation times, in which more or less was affirmed the separation of Christians from the world, and the communion of saints as a visible reality ? Every effective protest against the misery of an unconverted church membership has partaken of this character. And the maintenance of the diversity between the Church and the world has necessarily led on to the assertion of the related truth of the Church's practical unity. Philadelphia, "brotherly love," is a word which, going to the heart of the matter, covers surely all this seeking after the making visible of the Church so long conceived as necessarily invisible.

Putting all together, we may take this as clearly what Philadelphia means. It stands for a broad and well-defined movement in the history of the professing church, and which has assumed many different characters. These differences may indeed be pleaded against its practical nature as defining any distinct path for the people of God to-day. But this is only a superficial view of the matter. There are other things to be considered, which will essentially modify this first conception, and make us realize the word of God, here as elsewhere, to be "quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword," and requiring from us a real and complete integrity in our obedience to it, in order to such blessing as the Lord sets before us. Let us turn to consider now the first warning which He gives us in connection with this matter.

2.THE OVERCOMER IN PHILADELPHIA.

The separation of the Church from the world, and its restoration to visible unity upon the earth! if that be in the heart of the Philadelphia!!, as in his heart it must be for him to be this, how the Lord's words appeal to us, " Thou hast a little power." Power equal to such work as this is plainly not his; though He will graciously acknowledge what there is. The ideal before him is an impracticable one; though, thank God, this is to be widely distinguished from an impractical one. Infidels have rightly declared that the Christian standard is an impracticable one; but every Christian knows that to "walk as Christ walked" is very far from an unpractical ideal.

If you are acquainted at all with the feeble efforts of Christians in the direction of which we have been speaking,-of their inconsistency with one another, and with their real object, we shall surely realize, that, in the path in which Christ leads us, we have need of the deepest humility, if we would escape the deepest humiliation. It is not my object now to enumerate these; but the warning which the Lord gives to the Philadelphian is surely one that speaks volumes here, for it is upon his heeding it that all depends for him. " Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." It is in this respect that overcoming is to be accomplished for the Philadelphian, as it is plainly the only evil that is in view.

But with this his "little power" unites, to make the warning more impressive. The unattainableness of the ideal, the little progress that we make toward it, the weakness manifest in others as in ourselves, all combine to dishearten and weary us. That seems to be often the failure of principles which is only the failure to act upon the principles. But this too is saddening enough. Let it be that the principles themselves have only failed by not being carried out, if they are too unearthly-too heavenly – for that which all the history of the Church has proved her to be, would it not be wiser to materialize them somewhat ? If a lower path be more practicable, is it not after all the better ? It is not realized that to give up a single point as to the Lord's will is to give up obedience as a principle. How many points we give up is then but a question of detail.

As a matter of fact, it will not be difficult to find the wrecks of failed Philadelphia strewing the centuries since Luther. Every genuine revival, as being the work of the same Spirit, has tended in the same direction. It has brought Christians together; it has separated them from the world; it has proved afresh the power of Christ's word; it has revived the sweetness of His Name. The sense of evils in the professing Church, intolerable to the aroused consciences and hearts of His people, has forced many, in obedience to the Word, to "depart from iniquity." Alas, is it not the constant reproach of such movements that hardly has a generation passed before the spirit of them is departed, they have sunk to nearly the common level of things around; they have no more been able to retain the blessing than a child the sunshine it has gathered in its hand ? If wedded to some principle which the natural conscience owns, or some assertion of right which men value as their possession, such movements may still grow, and faster than before, while the old men weep at the remembrance of the days they have seen, and realize their temple to be in ruins.

So simply all this takes place, that it is easy to see it must take place, unless the power of God prevent the natural evolution. The first generation had to break through natural surroundings at the call of God; they had learned of God, with exercised hearts, and followed Him through suffering and with self-denial. And their children come into the heritage their fathers had acquired for them, necessarily without the exercise their fathers had. Nature attracts them to the path, not warns them from it. They accept easily, and can easily let go. They know not the joy of sacrifice. They have not the vigor gained by painful acquirement. It is easy to predict what will naturally follow; not necessarily from anything wrong in what they hold as truth, but from the incapable hands with which they hold it.

But the argument from such failure seems to be used so disastrously with souls to-day, that it is worth a deeper consideration. Does "success," as men count success, argue anything as to the goodness before God of that which succeeds ? Or conversely, does failure and break-up, to any extent you please to name, prove that which has been made shipwreck of was evil, or that there was evil at least inherent in it ? Carry it out thoroughly and honestly, such a supposition, and see where it will land you. If you know the Apostolic Church, as seen in Scripture, and the blessed heritage of truth with which it was endowed at the beginning:tell me where shall I find this Church, when I come to the beginning of uninspired history ? and where shall I find this truth possessed by her even in many of its fundamentals ?

The answer is too plain and terrible, Scripture itself preparing us indeed for it. It was needful, even while this was being written, that Jude should exhort to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." And Paul speaks of the "mystery of iniquity already at work"; and he and Peter of the special evils of the last days. And John could find the signs of the "last time" in there being already "many antichrists" (i John 2:18).

Outside of Scripture, it is enough to say, in the language of another, that the historical church "never was, as a system, the institution of God, or what God had established; but at all times, from its first appearance in ecclesiastical history, the departure as a system from what God established, and nothing else." And as to doctrines, "it is quite certain that neither a full redemption, nor (though the words be used once or twice) a complete possessed justification by faith, as Paul teaches it, a perfecting for ever by His one offering, a known personal acceptance in Christ, is ever found in any ecclesiastical writings, after the canonical Scriptures, for long centuries."* *J. N. Darby." Christianity, not Christendom," pp. 7, 22.*

But what, then, about this apostolic church which, in some of its most important doctrines, seems to have vanished out of the world in such a manner, for so long a time ? Were its principles at fault or what, that it failed so quickly ? What principles of Scripture shall we find that will secure us from failure, though they could not secure those who had them at the beginning ? Is it not plain that Scripture exhorts us, if we be Philadelphians, to "hold fast"? and does not this recognize the danger of not holding fast ?

No one need wonder, then, if the wrecks of Philadelphia are strewn along the road; while Rome retains, century after century, her boasted unity and power over souls. It is accounted for by the simple fact which Scripture recognizes, that error roots itself in the world more easily than truth. And so the Lord asks by Jeremiah (2:ii) :"Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods ? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit." Rather, then, may we argue the reverse way, that if, in an adverse world, and with Satan's power rampant, a people could find a way of steady increase and prosperity, this exceptional vigor would have to be accounted for, and not the fact of reverses and discouragements.

Yet after all, it should be clearly understood to what the Lord's warning words exhort:"Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." What is that which they are called to "hold fast"? I beg my reader's earnest attention to the answer which the message itself gives :this is not a certain deposit of doctrine clearly. I do not mean to deny such a deposit-very far from that; nor, if there be such, that it is to be held fast. Necessarily it is; and yet, I say again, this is not what the Lord speaks of here ; whereas in the message to Sardis, it is this unmistakably.

The comparison between the two is in the highest degree important. To Sardis it is said, "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent." There a measured amount, a clearly defined deposit, of truth is indicated:and this is simple and most instructive, if we recall what Sardis means. A wonderful blessing was given in those Reformation days. Many a truth of immense significance and value for the soul had they "received and heard." And they knew the value of it all; but in their eagerness to secure it for the generations to come, what did they do ? They put it into creeds and confessions; and I say not, they were wrong in this. Nay, they had clearly a right to say for themselves and declare to others what they believed they had received from God. Those "confessions"- truly such they were in those days of martyrdom- read by the light of the fires kindled by their adversaries for the signers, are blessed witnesses to-day of the truth for which, when felt in power, men could give their bodies to the flame, and quail not.

But the wrong was here :they took those creeds and imposed them-with all the emphasis that penalties enforced by a State-church could give-upon the generations following. Their own measure of knowledge was to be that of their children and their children's children. If there were error in the creed, that error must be transmitted with it. And all this was given into the hands, not even of spiritual men, but of the world-church they had reared up, to care for and maintain!
Necessarily the Spirit was grieved and quenched. He was leading them on-you can see it in Luther's letter to the Bohemian brethren-far beyond where they actually stopped. He was ready to lead them into "all truth" (Jno. 16:13). They put up their Ebenezers not to show simply that thus far the Lord had helped them, but as the Ultima Thule of knowledge. What wonder if they really, to those under the sway of these systems, became such! Henceforth it was to "what they had received and heard" in the sixteenth century that they looked back. The word now was no longer, as with the Reformers, when they were reformers, "On with the Holy Spirit of truth, our Teacher," but "Back to the Reformation."

The words of the Lord to Sardis are therefore precise in the marvelous accuracy which His words necessarily must have. "You have taken," they say, "the measure of truth you have, as if it were all truth:well, you have limited yourselves how much; but at least be true to what you have got:'be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die'." In view of infidel criticism everywhere undermining to-day the foundations of Scripture itself, how are the Reformation churches responding to this ?

But Philadelphia is called to "hold fast," too. Yes, but what ? what she has, of course; and that is a little power, and Christ's word kept, and His Name not denied. Notice that there is no longer a measured quantity-"what thou hast received " ; nor is it His "commandments" or His "words," but His "word." The distinction is so clearly drawn in the gospel of John (14:21-24) that, although it may be familiar to most who read this, I shall briefly state it.

Love is not to be measured by profession or by emotion, but by obedience. " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them," says the Lord, "he it is that loveth Me." The response to this is :"and he that loveth Me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him."

But there is a deeper love than that manifested in keeping commandments. It is that which takes account of all His word, whether positive command or not. And here the response is greater correspondingly. "If a man love Me, he will keep my word" -so it should read, not "words"; "and my Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make our abode with him." Here it is plain that there is a fullness and permanency of communion not to be found in the previous case.

Philadelphia has kept-is keeping, as long as she remains Philadelphia-not His commandments, but His word:this as a whole. Not, of course, that she knows it all:that were impossible. But, just for that reason, she has not a certain amount of truth which she has received, and to which she is faithful. She is like Mary at His feet, to listen and be subject to whatever He has to communicate. His word as a whole is before her. Not limiting the Spirit, she will be led on; for He leads on. Her ear is open. She has the blessedness of the man "that heareth Me," says the eternal Wisdom, "watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors."

Of course, this is no peculiarity of any special time; it is God's way at all times to lead on the soul that is just ready for His leading. And at all times of special revival this has been seen especially. But of late, many will recognize that Scripture has been opened to us more as a whole than at any former time since the apostles; and that this has been in connection with such a movement as had the features, if I have interpreted them aright, of what in the Apocalypse is called Philadelphia. Certain great truths being recovered to the Church have helped to open up in a new way the Old Testament as well as the New. The dispensations have been distinguished; the gospel cleared from Galatian error; the place in Christ learned in connection with our participation in His death and resurrection; the real nature of eternal life, and the present seal and baptism of the Spirit in contrast with all former or other operations and gifts; the coming of the Lord as distinct from His appearing:do we not owe it to the Lord to acknowledge without reserve what His grace has done ? and must we not connect it with the fullness of Christ's word here, in contrast with the "what thou hast received and heard " of Sardis ?

We must recognize it in order to admit the question, which to me, I confess, grows more solemn daily:Is this attitude still maintained, and is it to be maintained ? are we to go on with the Lord still
learning, still to learn ? or to make even these blessed truths a measure with which we shall content ourselves ? A large measure is still a " measure"; and once getting back to merely "what we have received " is after all to accept the bucket (or say, the cistern) in place of the flowing well. At the feet of Jesus, who will presume to say we have the measure of His blessed Word ?

(To be continued.)

BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER VI. (Continued from page 172.)

The third section of the "Sermon on the Mount" – the principles of the kingdom, which are given for the government of those waiting for it – occupies the first eighteen verses of the sixth chapter. It has upon it the seal of a third section, as plainly bringing us into the sanctuary, – into the presence of our Father, and giving us a lesson of sanctification, – of the holiness that suits His presence. It thus corresponds with the third book of Moses, Israel's lawgiver, while yet a greater than Moses is here.

The first verse is the text of the whole, which is then illustrated, amplified, and enforced, in three different applications. The text is:"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them :otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven." The word is allowed to be "righteousness " here, as the Revised Version gives it, and not "alms," as in the common one. In the following verses "alms" is right.

This "righteousness" is then illustrated in three different applications, manward, Godward, and self-ward, as alms-giving, prayer, and fasting. Each of these is an illustration, not a definition, as is clear. Alms-giving does not define our duty toward men; nor prayer that toward God; nor fasting, what we owe ourselves. In each regard our righteousness must go far beyond the illustration. And yet the illustration is in each case chosen, as we cannot doubt, in divine wisdom, and has a peculiar fitness to bring out the character of this righteousness, as disciples are called to practice it, before their Father in heaven. This we shall surely see, as we examine them.

I. Alms-giving is chosen to express what is righteousness toward men. What is the reason of this ? Such questions it is right and good to ask, if only we seek the answer reverently, and without forgetting that divine wisdom is not exhausted by the apprehension we may obtain of it. In this first case, as surely in the others also, we may think of more than one answer.

As the Lord is reproving a righteousness done be-fore men, He naturally takes up that which would be most showy-most apt to be reckoned on to produce the desired effect. We are told by Him of those who sound a trumpet before them when they give alms, and that in the synagogues, as well as in the streets. The language is probably symbolical of the blazoning abroad, in whatever way, their acts of " charity;" while for this also they would naturally have the most plausible reasons, invented to cover the fact that they sought glory of men ; but this was the fact. And alms-giving has also been one of the standard methods adopted by those who have sought this. It can be practiced with so little personal sacrifice, while it meets so evidently one of the sorest of palpable needs that can be met; it has so the form of benevolence, that it seems like cynicism to question whether the spirit be there; it is in itself so right, and puts one so plainly in the company, at least, of those who do right:all this makes it of priceless value to those who love the praise of men. And those who do so can very readily attain their object; nothing, perhaps, is more readily or certainly secured. But then, alas for them, "they have their reward:" it is all that they will possess, forever.
On the other side, alms-giving as an example of righteousness is a significant witness that to show mercy is not something to be classed as supererogation, but that the ministry of love is after all only a debt-a due. To be righteous really carries no merit in it, although God in His grace may please to speak of recompense.'' When ye shall have done all things that are commanded you," says the Lord elsewhere, "say, We are unprofitable servants:we have done that which was our duty to do." (Luke 17:10.) Only in a world of sinners such as we are, could the thought of righteousness-the mere fulfillment of duty-associate itself with any idea of merit. And with the comparative righteousness which is all that is ours at best,-a righteousness that still leaves us sinners,-how impossible should be the thought! But, to love, with all that should flow from this, is mere commanded duty; yea, to love one's neighbor as oneself is the injunction of the law. The Christian standard rises higher still in its law of self-sacrifice and all its marvelous enforcement of this in the example of Him who has given us life through His death. Henceforth, for those who have known this, there is no possible margin of devotedness outside of that duty which His love has endeared.

Alms-giving shrinks in this way into a small thing indeed; while this diminution of it does not make it less imperative. It becomes only a finger pointing along a road which leads out into the infinity beyond. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich." (2 Cor. 8:9.)

And yet we cannot afford to forget the Lord's words here, though to a people who could not know, as we know, such grace as this. Significant it is, that, when He would, to these Jewish disciples, speak of righteousness manward, His illustration of it emphasizes mercy. All this is only magnified for us by our Christianity, in every particular. We are, above all, the witnesses of grace. Debtors to it absolutely, we are debtors to show it to others. Freely having received, we must freely give. How otherwise are we to reflect Him to men around ?

And we need still the reminder :" But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; that thine alms may be in secret:and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Alas, how Christians have forgotten such words in their displayed charities, justifying the dis-play as letting their light shine ! The contrast is manifest with what is here :too manifest to need enlargement.

2. The second illustration of righteousness is God-ward ; and here the Lord illustrates it by prayer:"When ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites are:for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, to be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber; and when thou hast shut to thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

It is a striking thing that righteousness should be illustrated by that which is the expression of creature need and dependence. But all the sin in the world came in through man's forgetfulness of this. Nay, Satan became what he is in the same manner – "lifted up with pride" (i Tim. 3:6). Prayer is the expression of what is the very opposite of this, Think, then, of the utter and awful contradiction in terms, of praying to God, to be seen of men! "As the hypocrites do," says the Lord; and yet, is not this an hypocrisy which creeps oftentimes into public prayers, where those who pray are, after all, not to be so characterized ? Are not those who lead the prayers of others especially liable to act in some measure in this way ? the consciousness of being before others leading them into petitions which are not dictated by felt need so much as by a sense of propriety of some kind ? How much shorter, how much simpler, how different in various ways, might many of our prayers be, if we were alone before God instead of in the prayer-meeting !

This leads us on toward the next warning :" But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do :for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them :for your Father knoweth what ye have need of before ye ask Him." This, if there be no need to explain or apply, still needs serious attention on the part of Christians.

Our Lord follows this with the divine model of prayer, which for fullness combined with perfect directness and simplicity so manifestly fulfills the conditions indicated. Nor only this :the order and proportion of the petitions are, with all else, perfect, and claim our earnest attention. They betoken a condition of heart which, wherever it is found, must insure answer,-the state of one over whom God's will is supreme,-for whom He is first and last, beginning and end. To realize such a condition would of necessity make us realize the meaning of those words of the Lord's, " Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done to you." Clearness of apprehension would go with it,-confidence of success:"The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much" (James 5:16).

A perfect model of prayer this is and must be :whether designed for a form, and especially whether intended for Christians, is another matter. The differences in Luke (11:2-4), now recognized in the Revised Version, would, of course, be one of the plainest arguments against this. Apart from this, the gift of the Spirit to Christians, for those who realize what is the distinct characteristic of the present dispensation, (John 16:7 ; Rom. 8:26, 27,) and expressly named as the Intercessor within us according to God, may still more hinder such from interpreting it as a form to be used by the saints of the present time. That it is not in the Lord's Name is evident upon the face of it, and confirmed (if confirmation were needed) by His words to His disciples afterwards :" Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name " (John 16:24); and this is a difference not to be remedied by supplying an omission where there is none, and making that really imperfect which is perfect. And this very perfection, for the disciples of that time in their transition state, would seem to suggest once more its not being intended as the suited expression of a Christian in the Christian state. One is more concerned, however, to point out the actual perfection of the prayer, than to dwell upon such distinctions in this place,- even though they have to do with differences vital to Christianity; but here is not the place for their examination. Let us consider now, briefly, the petitions contained in it, and what they imply. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

In the poor sinner of Luke 7:all the hidden fountains are opened at the bidding of the grace of Christ. She knew that He had accepted her, sinner as she was, and this commanded her heart. It left her without an eye for the Pharisee s feast or an ear for his scorning, for Jesus had drawn her apart from everything; and to come near Him, as near as love and gratitude and worship could bring her, was all her concern.

BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 99.)

From the seventeenth verse to the end of the chapter, we have a new and very distinct section of the "sermon on the mount," in which the Lord takes the place of One greater than Moses, concerning, expounding, and bringing out the spirituality of the law, while He at the same time supplements and perfects it, not hesitating to put His own words in a place of higher authority than those spoken "to them of old time." For " the law made nothing perfect " (Heb. 7:19), and what Moses had to concede on account of the hardness of men's hearts chap. 19:8) could now, in the light which had come in with Christ into the world, no longer be permitted.

There are fittingly seven subsections here, ending with the enjoining (in the seventh) of this very perfection, as required of children of the perfect " Father in heaven," who were to manifest as that their Father's character. The higher the place accorded, the higher becomes the standard necessarily. But there are many questions which the whole subject raises here, and which we must take up seriously and consider patiently, in the order of their suggestion.

First of all, the authority of the law is maintained (verses 17-20), and in the fullest way. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets :I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Now in the first place we have to consider of what the Lord is speaking here. " The law and the prophets " was the recognized phrase for the Old Testament as a whole, the scriptures of a dispensation already past, but which had not passed themselves with the dispensation. Thus in the gospel of Luke (16:16) He says again:"The law and the prophets were until John :since that time the kingdom of God is preached." Thus it could be said that they were passed, and they were not passed. They were passed as the sole and governing truth:that was now come (or at least at hand) for which they had been preparing the way; and necessarily this must be now the higher truth, but which must in its turn bear witness to and establish what had gone before it. No truth can pass away. The more complete that is, to which we have arrived, the more surely must it embrace and set in their place all lower and partial truths which have anticipated and led on to it.

Thus then Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets. He came to "fulfill," or complete them – as the word means. What would the Old Testament be without the New ? Very much like a finger, pointing into vacuity !

But it is plain that the Lord is not speaking here simply of the ten commandments, though these have their place, and a foremost place, in His thoughts, as is manifest by what follows. But "the law," in its use in Scripture, is by no means confined to this, and the addition of "the prophets" shows that it must be taken in its widest acceptance.

This "fulfillment" could not be therefore simply by His obedience to the law, though He was fully obedient, but implies the bringing in of something additional ; as plainly even the mere fulfillment of the prophets must be by the addition of something to the prophecy.

But He goes on to speak now specifically of the law; and He affirms with His emphatic "verily" that "not one jot or one tittle"-not the smallest letter, nor the projection of a letter*-" shall pass from the law until all be fulfilled." *Which in several Hebrew letters is the only distinction between them, as between the "r" and the "d,", the "h" and the "ch," etc.*This last word, let us note, is really a different word from the previous one which is similarly translated, and means "be come to pass"; and this coming to pass could not refer to the fulfilling of commandments. The ten commandments could not be spoken of as something which had to come to pass. But this last expression would have naturally to do with the law in its larger significance, which must in this way even include the prophets also; and thus the phrase "until heaven and earth pass" would be the real equivalent of "all things being fulfilled." For beyond this the Old Testament gives us only the promise of a new heavens and a new earth (Isa. 65:, 66:), about which it says nothing.

Every jot and tittle of the law remains then, never to pass away through the ages of time. It is all confirmed as divine, and therefore stable; but which, of course, does not mean that types and shadows were not to give way to the substance when it should come, or that the "new covenant" would not replace the old:for this would be a contradiction of the Old Testament itself, which affirms this. No :the law abides in all its details; and therefore in all the limits it imposes on itself, and for all the purposes for which it was given; and for no other. This is simple enough, one would think, to understand; and yet it is not understood by those, for instance, who would from words like these impose the yoke of the law upon the necks of Christians. For this it is not enough to tell us that the law abides. It is none the less necessary, as the apostle says, that " a man use it lawfully." And he adds to this, in illustration, that " the law is not made for the righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient." (i Tim. 1:8, 9.)

But the Lord's next words, for many, show without any doubt the perpetual and universal obligation of the law. For here He speaks plainly about doing or not doing, teaching or not teaching, one of the least even of its commandments, and of the recompense or retribution following for this. But while this is certain, it is no less clear that it is to Jews-to men under the law-that He is addressing Himself. Christianity is not come, nor the kingdom of heaven; nor is the former even announced as yet. The Lord is simply making a special application of the principle He has declared, to the case of those before Him:whether this is to be in fact wider, is not to be inferred from this particular case.

When we come in fact to Christianity, we find, especially in the epistles to the Romans and Galatians, the relation of the law to the saints of the present dispensation carefully argued out. And here two things are emphasized for us. First, that the "righteousness of the law" is "fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom. 8:4.) There is not, there cannot be, any giving up of what is right, of what is according to the nature of God Himself. The Christian standard cannot be lower, but is in fact higher than the legal one, in the same proportion as the Christian position is higher than the Jewish, and as the power communicated in Christianity transcends any that was known in Judaism. The Christian position is in Christ before God. The Christian standard therefore is to walk as Christ walked. The Christian power is that of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. As the greater includes the less therefore, so the righteousness of the law is included in the Christian righteousness.

But secondly, this does not mean that we are under the law. We are dead to it, that we might be married to Christ, says the apostle (Rom. 7:4); not the law is dead,* but we are; and that, that we may bring forth fruit to God. *The mistake of the text of verse 6 in our common Version is corrected in the marginal reading, as it is also in the text of the Revised.*

It would take us far from our present subject to discuss all this; but the simple statement of it ought to guard us from the confusion into which so many have fallen, that the perpetuity of the law, as our Lord states it here, implies that the Christian is in any way under it. This, not the possible meaning of a few texts, but the whole doctrine of the apostle, denies and sets aside ; and conversely, the whole truth of Christian position would be denied by it. The Lord is speaking here to Jews,-to those confessedly under the law, and in view of the coming kingdom, which through their rejection of the King has not come even yet for them, and which, when it does come, will bring about a different condition of things for Christianity, as indeed the sermon on the mount itself assures us. This will be plain as we pass on.

And now the Lord proceeds to develop the righteousness that He requires, in contrast with that of the scribes and Pharisees, those zealots for the external. The second table of the law is here pressed, rather than the first, evidently because on this side man is most accessible,-his conscience is most easily roused. Men can invent all sorts of coverings to hide from themselves their state Godward; but if this be tested by their conduct towards men, who are His natural offspring, made in His image, it is not so possible to conceal from oneself the truth. Corruption and violence were of old the characteristics of a world which had reached the limit of divine longsuffering. (Gen. 6:11-13.) The Lord takes therefore the sixth and seventh commandments of the law to illustrate the righteousness which He proclaims, expanding and spiritualizing that which was said to those of old time, so as to make it a new moral revelation to those that hear Him. Moses' commandments become thus, as it were, His own, who is shown thus as greater than Moses himself, – the Prophet of the new dispensation.

"Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:but I say unto you, that whosoever shall be angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."* *The local courts in Israel were able to give "judgment" ; the "council" of seventy, or Sanhedrim, investigated the graver matters, as blasphemy and heresy, which ''Raca" perhaps implied. 'Fool" goes further still, as in Psalm 14:1:"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."*

Here it is simply " Thou shalt not kill," that stands as the sixth commandment. The addition of the penalty to it was nothing more, however, than what the law itself justified, and God himself had long before declared should be:"whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." The executive law in Israel could go no further than this. It could not deal with the state of heart, but with the outward act only. But the law as expressed in the tables of stone applied not merely to the positive deed; and the appending the executive in this way to the moral law inferred that the two were equal in what they covered, as they were not. Thus the state of the heart was left out of view, in the estimate of accountability toward God, and the whole practical bearing of the law was nullified for the many.

But now the kingdom of heaven was drawing nigh, in which another estimate of things would be made and acted on. Anger in the heart where causeless, and the railing charges which men so lightly bring against each other, would be all crimes against an authority which had at its command not mere physical penalties limited by the temporal life ; but the awful fire of Gehenna,-hell itself. It is not meant that under this divine government no mercy would be shown:that is not the point, nor what the words express. But such things would be within the range of jurisdiction, and man would be made to realize that there is a God who judgeth the hearts, and by whom actions are exactly weighed.

But this cuts deep; and it is meant to do so. We shall find directly how the Lord applies it all to rouse
the conscience of His hearers, and make them realize the impossibility of mere human righteousness in the sight of God. Thus in fact Israel was going on blindly with the adversary to meet the Judge, and they needed to come to terms with him or abide the issue. And indeed their righteousness must exceed all the vaunted righteousness of their trusted leaders, or they would in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

Jesus! Thou sum of all my joy,
For Thee I yield each earthly toy;
In Thee I have all good;
I give not up what's worth a thought,
I gain what has been dearly bought,-
The price Thy precious blood.

The joys of earth live but a day,
The meteor's flash, and haste away,
And leave a gloom behind;
Thy joy, blest One, is evermore,
It lives when earthly joys are o'er;
It is a heavenly kind.

I gladly, then, leave all for Thee,
Thy love, O Christ, hath set me free,
It's won a grief-worn heart;
Oh may I in Thy footsteps haste,
Till I have crossed this dreary waste,
And come to Thee apart.

Oh joy of joys to dwell with Thee!
From every snare and sorrow free!
And see Thee face to face!
Oh, may this hope my spirit cheer,
The moments I'm continued here,
A witness of Thy grace.

R. H.

Fearing God, we learn His secret-
Dwelling in the secret place,
There we lodge with Him, the lofty-
Shadow'd by Almighty grace.

As the hen her chickens covers-
With her feathers soft and warm,
Spreads her wings for them to nestle,
Free from fear and free from harm-

So God covers with His feathers
Those who trust beneath His wing;
And His truth, a shield and buckler,
Makes their hearts with gladness sing.

Give me, then, to learn God's secret,
Dwelling in the secret place-
There to lodge with Him, the lofty-
Praising His almighty grace!

A. J. K.