(Col. 1:21,22.)

(Continued from page 45.)

These verses treat of reconciliation as now applied to those who receive the Lord Jesus. We have already spoken of the fact that the Fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him, and that Fulness had the wonderful plan of reconciliation in view (vers. 19-22). The reconciliation is to this Fulness-to the Godhead, "to itself."* *Scripture quotations are from the New Trans., J. N. D.* It involves the thought that this reconciliation is, yea, must be, according to and in every way suitable to the nature, character, glory of the Godhead. This being so, and the foundation being the Cross of Christ, who can understand the mystery of that great transaction wrought out at Calvary?

"O mystery of mysteries!
Of life and death the tree;
Center of two eternities,
Which look, with rapt, adoring eyes,
Onward and back to Thee-
O Cross of Christ, where all His pain
And death is our eternal gain."

Bound up with it is the great mystery of godliness- God manifested in flesh. Verse 21 states as to the Fulness of the Godhead, that "now has it reconciled." The Fulness was engaged to effectuate this great purpose.

Before considering the other statements of this verse, notice again how the Fulness is mentioned in verse 22- "To present you holy and unblameable and irreproachable before it" – an expression which may include present standing in acceptance, but certainly expresses the wonderful consummation in store for all now reconciled as believing on the Lord Jesus. As to the latter, Jude is explicit, "Set you with exultation blameless before His glory." But the point is, "before it." How blessed! It means to be presented in absolute suitability to that infinite Fulness-no one can abide in that presence who has not been made fit for the light.

Now this is made possible by the cross, as it is said, "In the body of His flesh through death." "In" as denoting what is characteristic. It is according to the value to God of that prepared body which was so absolutely perfect-"holy, blameless, irreproachable," as we may reverently say. Thus, before God, are all those who are reconciled. This brings in the beautiful type of the meal-offering. But it is "through death," as the means by which reconciliation is possible. This may well suggest to us the thought of the burnt-offering and the sin-offering, as we remember that in the typical ritual of Leviticus the memorial of the meal-offering, and the proper part of every sin-offering, was consumed with the continual burnt-offering on the great altar. This, then, tells us how the Fulness of the Godhead has reconciled those who believe-"Now has it reconciled in the body of His flesh through death." This is why our acceptance and presentation before the Fulness can be defined as "holy, blameless, irreproachable."

These terms may rightly be considered as applicable to Christ in whom we are accepted and complete.

"Holy"-Luke 1:35; Acts 2:27; 3:14; 4:27,30 (in both of these verses it should be "holy Servant Jesus").

'"Blameless"-that is, without blemish, spotless, and used of the Lord in Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19. It is the term so often used of the sacrifices in Leviticus.

"Irreproachable"-against such an one no charge can be laid. How true of the Lord Jesus! He ever did the things which pleased the Father, and was always heard. "He is altogether lovely."

Truly in Him was no sin, He knew no sin, He did no sin. These terms are applied to the redeemed in verse 22.

"Thus is our acceptance told."

In the light of these considerations we may turn back to the opening statement of verse 21-"You who once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works." What a blessed change has taken place-"yet now has it reconciled." What has wrought this change in us is the manifestation of God seeking to reconcile man, His enemy wrongfully, by sending His Son into the world, not to judge but to save, and giving Him to the death of the cross! The infinite love in this seems emphasized by the form of expression in Rom. 5:10-"The death of His Son," and again, He "spared not His own Son" (Rom. 8:32). This change is, of course, connected with the acceptance of the gospel, the message of reconciliation now preached in the world. Coincident with its acceptance, our disposition toward God and our principles are changed.

The thought, however, in the word "reconcile" appears to be not only change, but exchange. There is not only a change of disposition and principles by reason of a divine work in our souls imparting to us a new nature and eternal life, but there is connected with it the truth that before God we exchange our former place for a new place, even that of being alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and are new creation in Him. Though not yet actually in all that means, we are called to walk according to the truth of it. "We have been reconciled," "We have received the reconciliation," is connected with the death of Christ.

To be reconciled to God means not only to know His disposition toward us through the manifestation of Himself in Christ, but also to know that in the cross God has fully dealt in judgment with all in us which would be unsuited to the Fulness of the Godhead. Nothing now exists to hinder the fullest, freest access into His presence. This is true the moment we believe, though the soul's apprehension of it will necessarily wait upon its growth in the knowledge of the gospel of our salvation.

In resume, and as connecting with the closing remarks of our last study in which four things were mentioned, we may say:

(a) The message of reconciliation is the gospel of God concerning His Son.
(b) The means of reconciliation are found in the cross of Christ, from God's side, and as to us (alienated and enemies naturally) the Holy Spirit's work through the Word presenting the ministry of reconciliation – the preaching of the cross, receiving which we are born of God.

(c) The meaning of reconciliation is the change of our disposition toward God. From enemies we are changed to lovers of God, finding pleasure in His good, acceptable and perfect will. It embraces the truth of our new place -accepted in Christ; so that according to God's holy reckoning concerning us there is nothing that can arise to bring estrangement, or disturb the believer's divinely formed relationship with God.

(d) The end in view is that glorious presentation in the presence of God suited to the fulness of the Godhead. John Bloore

(Ps. 51:12.)

In psalm 18:1-3 the words of David's exultant praise are recorded. His heart leaps with triumphant joy and confidence in Jehovah, and he exclaims:

"I do fervently love Thee, Jehovah, my strength; Jehovah, my cleft of the rock, and my fortress, and my rescuer!

My Mighty One, my Rock, in whom I take refuge:My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower! Upon the object of my praise, upon Jehovah, do I call, And from mine enemies I am saved"-(Num. Bible).

How blessedly Jehovah filled David's vision as he reviews His mercies through his eventful life! Therefore the psalm begins and ends with praise. His heart labors for expression, as it were, for what God had been to him. He calls Him "my Strength," my "Cleft of the Rock," "my Fortress," "my Rescuer," "my Mighty One," "my Rock," "my Refuge," "my Shield," "Horn of my Salvation," "my High Tower," "Object of my Praise." It expresses a joy in God that we may well covet, though God's grace has blessed us with higher blessings than David's.

Now when we come to Psalm 51, written years after the 18th; and hear the words of mourning, "Have mercy upon me, O God;" "Purge me with hyssop," "Make me to hear joy and gladness," "Cast me not away from thy presence," "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation," one might ask, Is this the David that wrote psalm 18? And if so, how has this come about? The heading of the psalm makes it known to us:"To the Chief Musician; a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba." The occasion and details of this interview of Nathan with David are given in 2 Samuel 12:1-14. Departure from God and the consequent fall into hateful sin was the cause of David's misery, as also the cause of all misery in the world.

David's conscience, which he had apparently succeeded in stifling for a time, was fully reawakened by the prophet Nathan's parable, and the message from the Lord Jehovah. This psalm of deep contrition, self-abhorrence, and confession to God comes as a result of getting back into Jehovah's presence, from which in prosperity and self-indulgence David has so far and sadly departed. "My sin is ever before me," he says. The guilt, the enormity of it, fills his soul with horror. He had wronged his brother, a brave and devoted soldier, and indirectly been the cause of his death; but above all he had knowingly trampled upon the law of his God! I doubt not that his sin against Uriah was ever before him by the fact that Bathsheba was now his wife. But the thought that he, the king, set over the people of God, had rebelled against the God who had been his protector, who had taken him from the sheepcote to be ruler over His people, and made David a great name, preeminently crushed David's spirit (ver. 4).

O fellow-believer, is not this a terrible example of what our fallen nature, the flesh in us, can do? David was a child of God, he knew God and had greatly rejoiced in Him and His salvation; yet now he abhors himself, he confesses that a desperately sinful nature is in him:"I was shapen in iniquity," and cries for God's mercy and compassion on his crushed spirit. "Hide thy face from my sin, and blot out mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God.. .and restore unto me the joy of thy salvation."

The prophet had said to David on his confession of guilt, "The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die" (2 Sam. 12:13); but deliverance from the sentence of death which is by the law was not enough to one who had known and sung of God's salvation, and for this the crushed heart in David is pleading:"Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." Full well did David realize that it was all over with him according to the law; it had no provision for guilt such as his. But the sense of God's goodness makes him realize and utter these memorable words:"A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise" (ver. 17). No; God who "commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners," He gave His own Son for us, never turns away the broken and contrite heart, and in due time He restores the joy of His salvation. In due time, I say, for there may be need of deepening the work of repentance in the soul-a sense of what sin against God really is, with loathing of one's self, without which it is in danger of falling back into the same or similar transgressions.

In the joy of God's salvation, David would utter God's praise:"Open Thou my lips," he says, "and my mouth shall show forth thy praise" (ver. 15). If, in the feeble light of the dispensation in which David lived, his heart longed to be engaged in Jehovah's praise, shall not ours also who live in the glorious display of God's grace? Behold, the glory of God is shining in our Saviour's face, being raised from the dead and seated on heaven's throne after He had by Himself purged away our sins. Where are our sins, then? Gone! and to be remembered against us no more; and in Him we are accepted before God.

This 51st psalm is addressed, "To the Chief Musician" as is also the 22nd, in which atonement is the great subject; and He who went down to the depths is heard, and delivered "from the horns of the unicorn" (vers. 19-21), and becomes the leader of praises, "the Chief Musician" to Jehovah among His redeemed people (vers. 22-25). HE is our Shepherd and High Priest, "restoring our souls and leading us in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake." If the joy of His salvation has in any measure departed from thy heart, dear fellow-believer, spread it out before Him, let Him show thee the cause, the point of departure, that He may restore unto thee the joy of His salvation.

"O keep my soul, then, Jesus,
Abiding still with Thee;
And if I wander, teach me
Soon back to Thee to flee,
That all Thy gracious favor
May to my soul be known:
And versed in this Thy goodness,
My hopes Thyself shalt crown."

E. C. T.

The truth of new birth, of which our Lord spoke to Nicodemus, is more important and far-reaching than many suppose. It entirely overturns the whole of the ritualistic and sacramental systems, which propose to fit man for heaven by the ordinances and rituals of the Church. But man being a sinner, ruined and lost, born in sin and shapen in iniquity, as Scripture declares, cannot by any process, religious or otherwise, work himself into a state of fitness for a holy God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, be it ever so amiable or religious, and cannot be anything else. Unless a man is born again he cannot "see" or "enter" the kingdom of God.

It is striking the way in which the Lord meets Nicodemus in John 3. He does not discuss with him whether He were a teacher come from God or not, but He goes direct to the point, "Ye must be born again." New birth was an absolute necessity, and this is true both for the kingdom of Messiah on earth (for which the Jews were looking) and also for the heavenly blessings brought in later. Indeed, it is true for all times.

"Born again" involves, not any mere improvement of man as he stands, but that which is radically and essentially new. The word "again," as it stands in the A. V., interprets the meaning of the original in this place better than "from above," -which it might also mean, for the object in view is to show that the life and nature which we get at new birth, though it be "from above," is also something distinctly new, not any improvement or change of the old.

"Born of water and of the Spirit"-the "water" is commonly understood in Christendom to mean baptism; but it cannot be this because Christian baptism had not then been instituted, and baptism is a sign of death-"baptized into His death"-whereas new birth is the communication of life.. Baptism is outward; the baptized person may be a true child of God or may not, or it may be an infant:new birth, on the other hand, is inward and real; it is a work of God in the soul-in the heart and conscience.

Water, then, is a figure of the word of God and is often so used in Scripture (1 Pet. 1:23; James 1:18; John 15:2; Eph. S:16, etc.).

Moreover, Nicodemus ought to have understood these things-but of Christian baptism he could have known nothing. The Psalms and Prophets had spoken about God's purging Israel by the application of water (figuratively) in a future day. We read in Ezek. 36:25-27, "And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols;" and in psalm 51:7-10, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (see also Isa. 1:16; Jer. 4:14, etc.).

As we have said, new birth was needed for the earthly kingdom as well as for the heavenly, so that Nicodemus should have known about these things. But what was it that stood in the way? It was want of faith. Twice the Lord here uses the word "believe"-"If ye believe not … .how shall ye believe?" New birth is the sovereign action of God by the Word applied by the Holy Spirit, just as the wind bloweth where it listeth; but there must be faith, or else the Word (the water) will be inoperative.* *New birth, faith, and eternal life all go together, though they are not the same thing. The one who believes is "born of God"; and faith and eternal life are both the "gift" of God (1 John 5:1; Eph. 2:8; Rom. 6:23). It is remarkable that, though we do not find the word "faith" in John's Gospel, we find the word "believe" (which, in Greek, is the verb answering to the substantive "faith") nearly 100 times.*

Turning now to John 1:12,13, we read, "He came to his own (things), and his own (people) received Him not." But if Israel would not have their own Messiah, the outflow of divine grace was in no way restricted. To those who did receive Him (by faith, of course) He gave the right to take the place of children of God. Blessed relationship, involving, not merely a position, but a birth-tie!

And how could this be brought about? Not by descent from Abraham, of which they boasted-that was of no avail-but by being born of God. So that the true children are not those born after the flesh, or of the flesh by human will, but of God-of the Spirit. The source and origin of their nature and life is from God.

Let us follow out this truth a little in the 1st epistle of John. In chapter 2:29, everyone who practices righteousness is born (or begotten) of God; in 3:9, he does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God; in 4:7, he loves God and knows God; in 5:1, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, etc.; in 5:4, he gets the victory over the world, and such an one believes that Jesus is the Son of God; in 5:18, he "does not sin" (compare chap. 3:9) but keeps himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

Space forbids our entering in detail into the precious truths here presented, but they show what characterizes one who is born of God, and what distinguishes the life, nature, and relationships which are consequent upon new birth. These are formed after the character of God Himself-and He is both light and love. Peter says we are "made partakers of the divine nature"-a nature which answers, morally, to God's holy nature.

One might ask, in view of these things, What other life could the believer receive at new birth but eternal life and what is meant by being "born of God" and"His seed remaining in us?" Surely this involves the distinct communication of the divine life and nature of which Scripture speaks. Indeed, to question that eternal life is communicated to us at new birth seems so opposed to Scripture that one can only say, as Paul did to the Galatians of old, "This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth
you."

We have already referred to 1 Peter 1:23, born again by the living and abiding Word of God; and the outcome of this new nature was shown in fervent love to one another-a very practical fruit indeed! This passage makes it quite plain that what God uses to effectuate this great change called new birth is the Word of God.

Now Peter was writing to Jews here, but in Acts 15- alluding to Gentiles-he speaks of "purifying their hearts by faith;" and, referring to them also, Paul says in Eph. 2:8, that they are saved "by grace through faith." Bringing Jew and Gentile in on one common platform of grace in Romans 10, he tells us that the "word of faith" which we preach-the confession of Jesus as Lord and believing with the heart that God raised Him from the dead- brings salvation.

We take up these scriptures as showing the importance of faith in connection with every work of God in the soul, new birth included (see also Gal. 3:26).

Let us conclude with a brief reference to James 1:18. Peter, at the opening of his epistle, had spoken of God's abundant mercy in having begotten us again unto a living hope, based, not on His promises to Israel, but on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. James says that God, according to His own will, has begotten us with the Word of truth that we might be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures; the Word producing in us a walk in conformity with itself.

Truly, indeed, every good thing comes from God Himself, from the Father of lights, who is unchanging in His purposes of grace towards us and in the fulfilment of them. It is here also the Word-the "Word of truth" -which is the instrument that God uses to bring about the new birth. "A kind of first-fruits of His creatures" is a remarkable expression. We believe it alludes to the new creation, which is developed more fully elsewhere, and to which the believer already belongs. It will be displayed in all its blessed fulness in that coming day when God shall make all things new. F. G. Burkitt

(1 John 4:19.)

What was it, Lord, that made Thee come
From that eternal throne?
What was it Thou didst see in me
For Thee to leave Thy throne?

Twas love divine that brought Thee down
Into a world of sin,
As Man to meet my ruined state,
And thus my heart to win!

My heart-'twas harder than a stone-
Ne'er thinking of Thy love;
But joyful hope doth now fill it
To dwell with Thee above.

There I shall gaze upon Thy face-
Blest One who died for me!
There shall I, in that glorious place,
Forever worship Thee.

L. Owens (now with the Lord).

We cannot overestimate the benefits of Government for the race. Four thousand years of experience show that any government is better than none, as no tyrant can reduce an entire population to such wretchedness as does Anarchy. We read that, prior to the flood, before government was instituted, "the earth was filled with violence." This condition was remedied after the flood, when God invested Noah with authority and made capital punishment the penalty of murder, saying:"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." The wisdom of an established governmental system and of God's special edict against murder, have been demonstrated in all succeeding ages; while the insecurity that attends laxity of government has been just as evident- nowhere more than in our American cities, where murders have recently multiplied to an extent unknown in Cairo or Constantinople. The shielding of murderers from the law's penalty in Chicago a year ago is an example of the laxity referred to, and surely helps the high percentage of violence in that and other American cities.

But let turn to the Scriptures and see how this laxity in government was manifested during the reign of David, King of Israel, the father of Absalom.

By Ahinoam of Jezreel David begat Amnon, and by Maachah of Geshur, he begat Absalom (2 Sam. 3:2-5). Amnon's criminal conduct toward Tamar, Absalom's own sister (half-sister to Amnon), and abetted in it by Jonadab, David's nephew, introduces a dark episode in this latter part of David's reign-all the more sad as precedent had been given by David's own dreadful crime as to Bathsheba, which involved the death of Uriah, one of David's faithful servants in the war, whose name also is recorded as one of the "mighty men" (2 Sam. 23:39). Absalom caused Amnon to be murdered, and then fled to Geshur (his mother's native city) where he remained for three years. But after the consternation which this deed excited^ and after David's lamentation for Amnon, things began to subside, and by degrees "the soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom."

JOAB

Now Joab, David's general-in-chief, perceives how the king feels toward Absalom, and, no doubt hoping to secure favor by catering to his desire, furnishes a pretext which the king hesitatingly endorses, so that he says, "Go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again," and Joab carries out the command. But the king is evidently uneasy about the proceedings; hence, although the fugitive exchanges Geshur for Jerusalem, he is not permitted to see the king's face; and Joab hesitates to commit himself further, so that two more years roll on. It is now seven years since the seduction of Tamar, and five years since the murder of Amnon, yet no moral issue has been settled. Sophistry and sentimentality have supplanted righteous administration in government; and the end is not yet.

In the meantime Absalom shines in his own circle; his personal beauty is noted, and his tonsorial habits recorded. But he becomes restless for a larger field of operations, and bold in his method of seeking it; he summons Joab again and again, and ultimately compels his attendance and dictates his orders. He seems to have a shrewd belief if he can make Joab maneuver things a little further, the king will surrender to his wishes-and he judges rightly. So Joab gets the two parties together:Absalom goes through the form of respect by bowing with his face to the ground, whereupon "the king kissed Absalom."
Of course this method of reinstatement ends in disaster, being contrary to righteousness and subversive of government. And how very contrary to God it is, for although He is good and pitiful, He is a just Governor. He is the source of immutable law, and no act of His can be contrary thereto. We know that as the Ruler of the universe He necessarily hates sin, for "sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4, N. T.). It is opposed to the government of God. It is therefore destructive, and unless confined works for ruin.

Hence God must shut up all sin where it can work no injury; and He has told us He will confine it to the lake of fire forever. In this way God will maintain His righteousness regarding those who reject His salvation, and in this way will He safeguard His domain from the menace of sin. Eternal law demands this. The gospel of the grace of God in no wise sets this aside, for while Calvary reveals the love of God it also maintains His government. Seeing that sin must be judged, God gave His Son, who willingly took our place, suffering "for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." As a Substitute He exhausts the wrath against sin for all who will turn to Him and put their case in His hands.

HOW JOAB’S ARRANGEMENT WORKED

"And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him." He forces his way into the public eye in the pomp of a ruler next to the king, sows dissension in the State by asserting that its administration is defective, and can only be remedied in his hands. He flatters all who listen to him, and undermines the royal authority. He even has the temerity, as he departs to Hebron to light the flame of rebellion, to explain to his unsuspecting father that this departure is in fulfilment of a vow to Jehovah. He poses as devout! Meanwhile, by an elaborate spy system he simultaneously foments insurrection in every part of the land, and even agrees to consolidate his followers by an abominable act of uncleanness exceeding that of the murdered Amnon, an act which he performs in the sight of all Israel (2 Sam. 16:20-22).

Now it is Joab who had conceived the plan of reinstating Absalom, contrary to righteous government, and he becomes in great measure accountable for the rebellion that ensues. It might seem that Joab is kind, but any conduct contrary to righteous government is unkind, and he who advocates it untrustworthy. Those religious lecturers who desecrate the pulpit by denouncing the Bible punishment of sin are all of them Joabs. They are opposed to the very nature of God and are at variance with His eternal law. They are by no means the friends of mankind. Time will prove them to be as heartless as Joab who had little consideration for David's plea, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom."

When the battle was fought in the wood of Ephraim, the unwieldy following of Absalom was overthrown by the very character of the battle-ground, where the compact veterans of David proved irresistible. Twenty thousand rebels had already fallen, when "Absalom met the servants of David," and riding under the thick boughs of a great oak, his head caught in its branches, holding him suspended as his mule continued on its course. Joab being apprised of this, "took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom." Thus the reinstatement of Absalom at the expense of righteousness proved to be a tragedy, and it revealed the advocate of this plan as the greatest enemy of the young man, and the violator of the entreaty of the king he pretended to serve.

HOW GOD'S GOSPEL WORKS

How different in result is the effect of God's salvation, which is based on righteousness. It insists upon the sinner's repentance. Most gracious are its tones, but it calls for subjection. Jesus must be confessed as Lord. The terms of the gospel must be obeyed. The heavenly message is proclaimed for "the obedience of faith." And as our Lord, who is its theme, it maintains the righteous claims of the throne of God, when Christ suffered as a sacrificial victim upon the cross; the one who comes to Him in faith and confesses Him as Lord is in that moment brought into subjection to God. He is no longer lawless. Thenceforth he seeks grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; and God works in him that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. R. J. Reid

The Reciprocal Character of Communion. It is wonderful to think how our blessed Lord emptied Himself of His glory, and came into this world, a Man.

"Thou would'st like wretched man be made In everything but sin."

It is thus that He has wrought redemption, through His perfect sacrifice in the death of the cross. Now He is risen and ascended to glory, and in the heavenly places; He not only has taken His seat upon His Father's throne to resume the glory which He had with Him before the world was, but He has entered heaven as Forerunner for us, as Head of the Church, His body. He came dawn and met our whole need as sinners; He has gone back to "lead our hearts to that blest place." He is there the measure of our perfect acceptance:"As He is, so we are in this world." Of all the blessedness that flows from this work and standing we do not speak here. It must suffice to say He will never be satisfied until He has us there with and like Himself. "Father, I will," is the pledge that nothing can prevent this.

Communion, of which we are speaking, is the enjoyment of the fruits of our Lord's work for us. This also has a twofold aspect, the earthly and the heavenly. As our Lord came to us to meet our need, where we were; and has opened heaven to us, where He has gone; so He desires to have communion with us as to our earthly needs, and then to take us into enjoyment with Him in the spiritual sphere where He is. This is expressed beautifully in the word to Laodicea, where, alas, He was outside the door. His offer is most touching. "If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me" (Rev. 3:20). Here our Lord gives the two aspects of true communion, "I will sup with him," He meets our own need; "and he with Me," He draws us into the participation with Him, in His thoughts, purposes, affections-amazing and precious truth.

"I will sup with him." Our Lord is not ignorant of nor indifferent to our earthly needs. He knows our ignorance, trials, difficulties, necessities-everything great or small is the object of His care. There is nothing too little to be occupied with that He does not desire to be brought into. How often when the burden is apparently insignificant have we found that we have failed in bearing it, and when it has been so heavy that we were compelled to cast it upon Him, He has never failed us. It is a blessed thing when we learn this, to have Him sup with us, to find that He loves to have us share our little affairs with Him, and ask counsel of Him, to own our dependence for everything upon His grace. There is nothing that properly occupies us that we cannot go through in His company. And how it would elevate the ordinary routine of life, if He had His rightful place in it all.

Let us make use of His most gracious offer, more and more. What a change it would make in the affairs of everyday life. We would have the supreme benefit of His counsel and service, and above all we would be in the proper state to enjoy His wondrous unfoldings of truth. There would be no separation of our lives into sacred and common. We would be free for the highest privileges as well as for the daily task.

"And he with Me." If it is a blessed privilege to have the Lord come into our little affairs, what shall we say of being privileged to share with Him in what is His great concern? It is a great thing to have Him guide and enable us where to go, what to say, what to do, to wear, to eat,-to His glory, but to have Him engage us in His thoughts, work and purposes!

The mind of Christ-with what is it occupied? What great and wondrous themes engage His thoughts! Into the details of this we could not enter here, but we know His thoughts are engaged with His Father's business. The will of the Father was ever-and is now-His delight. He is still saying, "How precious are Thy thoughts unto Me, O God; how great is the sum of them." In general these thoughts embrace the whole revealed truth of God, as found in the entire Scriptures ; specially as regards God's present work, they are embraced in the Gospels and Epistles. Here we have the opening of the Lord's mind to us. How immense, boundless, is its scope. To share with Him in these thoughts is grace beyond conception. Putting it very simply, the Lord calls us to the reverent study of the word of God.

The affections of Christ. The Lord not only makes known His thoughts, but He calls us to share with Him that love which passeth knowledge. This must not be separated from the other great truth, but is an integral part of it. To know the love of Christ we must know His word. But there is nothing coldly intellectual in that word; it is intensely moral, and permeated by divine love. The Spirit not only leads us into all truth, but sheds abroad the love of God in the heart. Farthest removed is this from mere sentiment, which degenerates into fleshly folly. Love is a noble, an elevating, divine reality. It delights in its object, desires its companionship, is concerned with its highest interests. Take all that is good and true and noble in a manly friendship, multiply it immeasurably, and you have a partial picture of the privileges suggested in sharing the affections of our blessed Lord.

The Interests of Christ. How full and varied are these, great and small. They are engaged first of all with the Father's will; but they concern His Church on earth. The winning of souls by the gospel is ever near to His heart. If we would share with Him, we will likewise seek to enter into these desires; we will have it much on our hearts in prayer, and be ready to labor ourselves and to have fellowship in the labors of others. We will care for His own, the weak, the lowly, the lonely, the sick. We will pray for and go after the wanderers. We will hear Him ever saying, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me." The welfare of the assembly will be near to our heart, for it is near to His. He loved the Church and gave Himself for it.

The Hopes of Christ. What is our Lord waiting for? How His heart is longing for the day when He will have His Church at home with Him! While He rejoices in the growth and spirituality of His people here, individually and collectively, He is waiting for the day when the pilgrim time will be over. He is also looking for the time when He can righteously deliver up a redeemed creation to God, even the Father. To sup with Him means to share in these hopes. May we know daily more and more of this blessed communion. S. R.

(Continued from page 8.)

It is not therefore exactly a new field into which we seek to enter, but one which has already in some measure been tilled here and there. But with many it has been considered rather as furnishing interesting illustrations of divine truth than embodying actual unfoldings of that truth. The present effort will merely seek to go more fully and systematically than has hitherto been attempted, so far as the writer is aware-at least from the standpoint of a full conviction of the truth of every "jot and tittle" of God's Word, and a confidence that His works in the realm of Nature correspond absolutely to this revealed truth.

At this point it may not be out of place to call attention to a system which is an apparent exception to what has just been said, and which has gone quite fully and with some appearance of system into the teaching of the correspondence between the human body and spiritual truth. Without going too fully into detail, we may say that Swedenborgianism itself does not claim to be an evangelical system. It denies, among other things, any true Trinity. Scripture is true because of its inner meaning rather than its external statements; only thus is it the infallible, inspired Word of God. Salvation is not by faith alone but by having the work of repentance in the heart and doing obedience. to the divine commandments. "Th New Jerusalem" church (the Swedenborgian) is what John saw descending out of heaven. The Second Coming of the Lord is not a personal, visible coming, but the influx of spiritual truth into the soul. Resurrection takes place immediately at death, which is the laying aside of the material body never to resume it again. Judgment also takes place immediately after death, and men arise into heaven or descend into hell according to their quality, from the latter to be extricated as they learn their lessons. Linked with this teaching is a systematic setting forth of the universe as a great human body with every department corresponding to the literal. Inhabiting these various departments are immense numbers of angels who carry out the functions of their various departments in a spiritual way, as the natural functions are carried out in the body. In life there is an influx of these angel beings into the literal body; indeed, some of the angels live in the body to superintend the special functions. At death the spiritual body leaves the natural forever, and enters "the great body" where the functions are carried out by the angels of the different departments and where the new parts are treated much as food-masticated by angelic teeth! They pass through separative judgment in the celestial stomach, and so on through the whole adjustment process until the worthless are cast out into "the hells" and the righteous are escorted into the higher spheres.

This doctrine of correspondence is repeated with each of the systems of the body-the respiratory, the circulatory, nervous, etc.-in great detail. The entire atmosphere of this teaching is unreal and contrary to Scripture. That which would cause its rejection at once is its denial of the fundamental truths of atonement, of substitution, and salvation by grace through faith alone. Its treatment of the human body is crude, and in many cases revolting; while its religion of angels and the intrusion into those things which man has not seen is so manifestly against that which the Apostle warns us (Col.2:18) that it is a wonder its devotees have not been undeceived. It is a striking fact that Swedenborg claimed that all his doctrines of angels were given by direct revelation, of things actually seen and heard, so that he claims to be a revelator like John or Paul, indeed more important as giving a deeper spiritual meaning to all.
The identification of physiological truth with this system of teaching has made it necessary to give this somewhat extended notice of it. The writer may add that it was only after his own studies that he made a full examination of Swedenborg's teachings, and disclaims any adaptation of that system for his own uses.

Satan always revels in fields of neglected truth but mixes his own error with the truth, and thus uses it to poison the minds of men or to bring the truth itself into discredit. Thus he has sought to abuse the doctrines of grace, and in the past century the revived truth of the Lord's Coming was mixed with the anti-Christian claims and teachings of "Irvingism" and "Adventism," and more recently of "Russellism," or the "Millennial Dawn" cult. Significantly there is considerable resemblance in parts between Christian Science and Swedenborgianism. It is always worthy of note that the teachings of both these errors are comparatively popular among Unitarians.

But what does it suggest as to our responsibility when the enemy takes the truth and distorts it for his own evil purpose? Must we not rather give special attention to that truth and seek to rescue it from this very abuse? Instead therefore of turning from our subject, let us devote ourselves more prayerfully and soberly to it, assured that God has some blessing in it for us.

We need not do more than point to the materialistic side of our subject. Infidelity has here held sway, supported as it has been by much of the scientific research of the day. The Darwinian theory of Evolution places the human body at the summit of animal organism- which none can dispute-and in intimate relation and similarity to all other organisms, which no thoughtful person will deny. But when it proceeds to rob man of that which makes him differ from the beast-his mind and moral nature-and then to make him the outcome of a growth from unicellular organisms of earliest geologic ages-to say nothing of going further back to inorganic matter, gases and nothing-faith interposes. God is left out of His creation, and when He is left out nothing remains.

That there is a close correspondence between the body of man and all organic life of the lower creation we do not question, but there is no evidence of the evolution of the lower into the higher; missing links all along the way have never been found. No doubt there is the profound truth of unity underlying all Nature, and a unity of design marking every department of the fabric of creation. If an architect erects a magnificent structure in a spacious domain we expect to find evidences of unity everywhere. The stamp of a common plan will be seen upon every part. Unity of design and special adaptation are the two key words which will unlock each hidden treasure of knowledge now misused by the evolutionary theorist. A most interesting work on the subject is by Drs. James McCosh and Dickie. Sir William Dawson on Evolution is also interesting and helpful.

But there is need of a thorough and systematic investigation of the entire realm of the natural sciences from a Christian standpoint. What a shame it is, that most, if not all, institutions of learning, have been so completely delivered over to Agnosticism-which is but another name for infidelity-that they are left to the twilight of human reason, having quenched that "greater light" of Scripture which has been given "to rule the day." If then there are "smith shops" only in the Philistines' land (1 Sam. 13:19-22), we must sharpen our ploughshares and weapons as best we may in order to hold fast and to regain that which is part of His truth, the world of Nature. We well sing, "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small," but do we not long, in some measure at least, to lay any part of that realm as tribute at the feet of our Lord? Paley's "Natural Theology" and other works have shown unmistakable evidence of the Creator's work, design of a most complete and minute character; but the Father ever claims honor for His Son (John 5:23), and we know we are not wrong in seeking to give Him this honor in attributing the creation to Him. John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1, each unite in declaring creation as His work, and all too link His incarnation and redemption-of things as well as persons.

Public attention is being more and more directed to discoveries of Physiological Science. The microscope and laboratory have disclosed a new world here as in other departments, and Biology has made us, so far as human reason and knowledge have been able, acquainted with cell structure, with its minute nucleus, nucleolus and the cell growth and differentiation gradually building up the complex organization of the entire body-showing it to be in a more complete way than was ever dreamed of, a unity of coordinated infinitesimals. While much remains to be discovered, and theories will have to be modified in conformity with the ever-increasing array of facts, yet the reading public are more or less in possession of a large amount of truth, which it would be a joy to use in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It would be interesting, if we had the material at our disposal, to see how complete a use has been made of physiological terms in the language of everyday life. Not only is this the case in the pictorial language of the Bible, and more particularly of the Hebrew Scriptures, but even in our own tongue we will find that bodily members and functions are used to express mental and spiritual truths.

We use the verb, "to see" so constantly to express understanding rather than sight, that we forget it refers to vision. "Sweet" has long since passed from the physical taste alone to describe a state of the soul, and "bitter" sorrow is equally well understood. A "sour" visage, a "bilious" temperament, a melancholy "black bile" disposition, are familiar terms; "unsavory" (itself a physiological term) subjects create a "stench," while others again are "fragrant." Some are "nauseous" and cannot be "stomached." We have partly "digested" thoughts presented for our consideration, and "rumination" is a well-known synonym for meditation. We speak of "assimilating" truths, as well as food. "Atmosphere" is applied to the moral and spiritual respiration as well as to the literal, an atmosphere of light or the reverse. We "drink in" teaching like water, and "swallow" things, all too easily, it must be confessed. "Heart" is a universal designation of the affections, with "breast" linked with it. "Blood" is constantly associated with character, nature or taint. We feel the "pulse" of the mind and soul as well as the literal one. "Congestion" has a wider meaning than the physical one, and "nervous," "feverish," or "tense," are too familiar to explain. We "walk," "stand," "lift," often unconscious that they are primarily physiological terms. More modern scientific terms are equally adopted. We have literal and spiritual "germs," "contagion," and "disinfection." There is a "plethoric" mental state; and intellectual powers, as well as parts of the body, may become "atrophied."

Is all such language a mistake, or a more or less accurate adaptation of familiar figures of speech? We shall at least see that the analogy lies far deeper, and can be noted in the whole framework and life of our material body.

We will here simply refer to the usage of the Bible in a similar way. We speak of the "eyes of the Lord," His "ear," "smell," "speech," "arm," "hand" "fingers," "feet," "anthropomorphisms" as they are called, but most significant in this connection. A multitude of other terms and expressions will occur to the reader who knows what "blind," "dumb," "lame," "asleep," mean; what "panting," "hunger," "thirst" "eat and drink," refer to spiritually as well as literally. This must suffice for the present, showing as it does, that our subject is not so involved as we might suppose, and that as we look for it, we may expect to find much more.

We add a line to point out how etymology bears out all this and how accurately too. The Hebrew language is well-known to be pictorial in a marked degree. 'To live" is "to draw the breath," "to sigh." "To be hungry" is "to foam;" "to fear" is "to tremble." In Greek "spirit" is "breath," as well as in Hebrew. "Zeal" is from the Greek root "to boil." "To choose" is "to stretch out the hand," etc. Of English etymology we have already given examples:"manipulate," "contact," "pressure," stiffness," and others, all familiar words of a physiological definition.* *See Trench on "The Study of Words."*

But we must bring this somewhat extended introduction to a close. We trust enough has been said to justify the attempt to present the subject in a somewhat orderly and complete way. That the interest and expectation of the Christian reader may have been awakened and that it will not be disappointed is our earnest desire and prayer.

Part One will treat more particularly of the elements forming the body and its structure-what is generally termed "Anatomy." Part Two is devoted to the functions of the living body, or Physiology. Part Three is of a more general character, devoted chiefly however to a more complete systematization of the analogies which we shall have pointed out throughout the entire book. May the Spirit of Christ be our Leader, the Word of Christ our standard, the glory of Christ our object throughout. S. R.

(To be continued.)

The love of the Lord Jesus for His own has been told out in all its fulness in His death at Calvary. That love manifested there has never lessened, and never will. The same heart that beat for His own at Golgotha beats for them now on the throne of God. He lives for us, as once He died for us, in love; and in love He now intercedes for His own.

But His love is not satisfied. He desires our presence with Him. He is waiting for the word of His Father to descend for all who are His and take them to be for ever with Himself. Love delights in the company of those loved. So His desire is that we should be in His company for ever. This is expressed again and again in the Gospel of John. When the hour was approaching, when He should depart out of this world unto the Father, we find Him encouraging His disciples with the prospect of being with Him where He was going.

Thus in chapter 12, verse 26, we hear Him say, "If any man serve Me let him follow Me, and where I am there shall also my servant be." The path marked out for the believer is to follow Him. It was a path of death here in this world, but it led to a home of life in His presence. He, the corn of wheat, has passed through death in order that He might not abide alone, but that there might be a great harvest-of many sons for the Father, and many companions for Himself to fill the many mansions of the Father's house.

The highest honor or privilege for His followers is that of being where He is. And He looks that we should enter into His thought and delight in this expectation. Meanwhile, let us make sure that we follow in His steps; nothing less than this is supposed of any of His disciples. In the 14th chapter, with His going away before Him, He encourages His disciples, and us, with, "Let not your heart be troubled:ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many mansions:if it were not so I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." He now would be an object of faith, not of sight. He was going to the Father's house where are many abodes. He would not have drawn them to Himself away from the world if He had no home to take them to. He was leaving them now, not to escape trials in which they would still be found. No; but His departing was for their blessing; it was to prepare a place for them so that they might be with Him for ever. And if He went away, and by His presence in the Father's house prepared the place for them, the next thing they might look for was His coming again to receive them unto Himself, that they might be with Him. Would not this be for their comfort? Assuredly so. And it would be for His own delight to have them with Himself, as the hymn expresses it,

"He and I in that bright glory,
One deep joy shall share
Mine to be for ever with Him,
His that I am there."

And He must have the pre-eminence in this as in all else. His will be the "exceeding joy," as His was the "exceeding sorrow."

If we turn now to the 17th chapter we are allowed to hear the outpouring of His heart to the Father about those given to Him by the Father. At the close we listen to His claim for their future:"Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." In virtue of that which He was about to accomplish-the glorifying of the Father and the finishing of the work given Him to do-He puts forth this claim, that His loved ones may be with Him. He would have them behold His glory as they had beheld His shame in this world. This was His goal for them, and He counts on their love delighting to see His incommunicable glory, while at the same time they share all that creatures can share with Him. We see the path to His presence in chapter 12. It is the place of His presence in chapter 14; and the privilege of His presence in chapter 17. Happy are we who are numbered among "His own," and who have the prospect of being with Him as our present hope.

"There all's unsullied light;
Our heart let in its rays,
And heavenly light makes all things bright,
Seen in its blissful gaze.

Such here on earth we are,
Though we in weakness roam:
Our place on high, God's self so nigh,
His presence is our home."

Inglis Fleming

(Continued from page 133.)

"God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9).

It is instructive and beautiful to notice that, at the commencement of each corrective epistle, the apostle Paul reminds the saints of their calling, and usually commends whatever can be commended, before speaking of failure. If the thought of the exceeding grace of God, and His purpose in Christ Jesus, fails to recover the soul, what hope can there be? So, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, at the commencement, Paul wrote, "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

Notice the fulness of the title given, "His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord." It covers the whole ground of Christianity. Let us then briefly dwell upon what this wonderful verse implies.

(1) Our association with Him in His death.

It will be joyfully conceded, surely, that all we have received and all that God has promised, comes to us in association with Christ, and that the foundation of everything is "His death." If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection (Rom. 6:5). The word "planted-together" here is unique; scholars tell us this is the only place in the New Testament where the word so translated occurs. To transpose the words and say, "We altogether were planted," would not give the true sense, nor would "We all were planted together."

Another has said in reference to this scripture, "The idea of consolidation in one, of what-could be looked at as having many component parts, is easily traced. In ordinary Greek (as contrasted with the Greek in Scripture), we might give, 'Growing together naturally, or necessarily connected together,' as the meaning. In a secondary sense it is applied to a closed, healed wound, where the parts have grown together in one." This serves to show the closeness of our association with Him. Literally rendered, Romans 6:5 might read, "For if we have become co-planted in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in his resurrection."

But let us for a moment retrospect. "By man came death" (1 Cor. 15:21). The first man (Adam) not only brought in death as to the body, but before being driven out of Eden, he had become morally dead-totally insensible to what is of God. Outside of Eden, he became head of a fallen race; the dire results of his transgression became the common heritage of his posterity:"Even as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12).

Into this state of moral ruin, where death held sway (because Satan had so signally triumphed over man), came the Son of God in grace. Made in the likeness of man (Himself guiltless, no taint of sin in Him, incorruptibly pure, and therefore not subject to death), He voluntarily drank the cup of God's righteous judgment which was our due. Made sin!-treated as if it were Himself who had violated the majesty of God's law, and He tasted, in its deepest bitterness, death as the judgment of God against sin. He associated Himself with our guilt, that- by His death-we might become associated with Him in resurrection-life and glory. What a mighty change has been wrought, introducing us into a place where no mere creature could possibly have a place. As a creature, we cannot rise above our own creature-thoughts and conditions. In association (fellowship) with Christ, death and judgment are behind us, and we have to do with the resurrection-power which raised Christ from the grave.

At the close of Romans 5, the writer speaks of the two headships-of Adam and of Christ-and he contrasts the position of those severally under those two heads before God. In the following chapter he shows how the soul reaches this new position, and how complete is the transference (as before God) from the Adam headship-under which all men are by natural birth-onto the ground of Christ's headship.

Do we sufficiently realize how impossible it is for a person to be under two headships at the same time? We acquiesce in this, but are we living in a conscious sense of having died out of that condition to which the penalty of sin and death attached, having become identified with Jesus Christ in His death?

"Planted together in the likeness of His death"-the penalty having been fully met, the once guilty is completely cleared of all charge, and the guiltless One having borne the judgment of God, the once guilty is now accounted guiltless before God. "In that He died, He died unto sin once" (Rom. 6:10). There is, of course, only one interpretation of this passage:He died penally, once for all. Never will that question need to be raised again. The sentence under which we lay has been executed; and not only this, but God's judgment against the very root which produced such sad fruit (sin in our nature), has been executed, and we are now in Christ, our new Head, so that the believer can sing:

Death and judgment are behind us,
Grace and glory are before;
All the billows rolled o'er Jesus,
There they spent their utmost power.

Jesus died, and we died with Him,
'Buried' in His grave we lay;
One with Him in new creation,
Now 'in Him' in heaven's bright day.

To the believers in Colosse, Paul wrote, "You being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh" (2:13)-that is of course morally dead-and entreats them thus:"Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ, from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world are ye subject to (worldly) ordinances?" (Col. 2:20); and he continues, "Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).

May God help us to be true to this fellowship, refusing all that merely appeals to the natural man. J. W. H. N.

(To be continued.)

"These are in the world; and I am coming to Thee" (John 17:11.)

Have you ever known what it is to lean, with intimate and long-accustomed reliance upon a friend fully worthy of your trust-one who combined in a noble way the qualities of strength and tenderness, who had allowed himself to enter deeply into your mind, your problems, your fears and hopes; one linked to you by a thousand delicate ties of association as well as sympathy? And then, to announce to you, it may be on a sudden, that he must leave you-perhaps for the other hemisphere of earth, perhaps for the many mansions out of sight?

Such was the experience of the disciples. For three wonderful years they had gone in and out with this perfect Companion, this absolutely true and wise Leader and Lord-

"No more to see Thy face-to meet no more
Till on that undiscovered unknown shore!
To turn to life again, and toil our day,
Glory so distant still, and Thou away,
While earth's dark future on us frowns, all viewed
As one severe extended solitude!"

Such, faintly imaged, would be their outlook. And we know what, as a matter of fact, their actual experience of its apparent realization was, when for one complete day and two very long nights (between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection) they had lost sight of His presence, and as yet did not know how it was to be more than restored.

A more wonderful, more beautiful view of the life which they were yet to experience is given us in the Acts and Epistles-a life of light, liberty, and divine companionship. In spite of widely differing characters and temperaments, these men after a very few weeks (at the close of which their Lord actually did "leave the world ") entered upon an existence in which the highest happiness which they had enjoyed at the side of their visible Lord Jesus, was far surpassed, so to speak. What was their new-found, their open secret? It was-so they said with one voice, and their life amply proved it-a Risen Saviour and a living and indwelling Paraclete, in whose power they acted, suffered, preached, and wrote like men transformed into a "sober certainty of waking bliss." The past was lighted up by the triumph of their redeeming Lord, in the rays of which even their own unfaithfulness to Him was so shot through with mercy that the memory of it apparently did not depress them. The present was one wonderful experience of the quiet courage which can say, "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me," and the future was changed from gloom literally into glory by the certainty of the return of their Beloved.

This great paradox is an abiding gospel for our own daily need. It assures us (for whom also the Lord is no longer in the world) that nevertheless He is so with us "all the days," that our past, present, and to-morrow are to be transformed like theirs. Our life also is to shine with the tender and living daylight of His presence-a presence which is such as to be positively better than it would be if able every day to visit some Jerusalem, or Bethany, or Nazareth, and there to see His visible features and get His spoken answers to our words. Such a presence as that, conditioned as we are now, would be limited to the narrowest locality. As it is, Jesus is with His disciple, at all times, and in all places. Bishop Moule

Nassau, Bahamas, Aug. 18,1926… Dear Brethren:-

You have no doubt heard of the terrible storm which has swept over these islands three weeks ago. So far the loss of life has not been made known for certain, but at least several hundred have perished. Especially among the colored people in the outlying islands hundreds of houses were destroyed, and thousands made dependent upon charity. Through the Lord's mercy none of our brethren were lost, though many lost all their fruit, fruit-trees, and crops. Five young men were drowned at sea from Cherokee Sound, four of whom were happily saved this Spring in the great awakening God sent us. So we thanked God for His great mercy in showing them mercy ere judgment fell. It has stirred up some who hitherto have been deaf to the voice of God, and we trust will still lead to much spiritual blessing.

I have just had six weeks' meetings, almost nightly, at Spanish Wells, where the hall was filled each night, many of the hearers being recently born again, and very anxious to learn more of Him. Quite a number have been received into the gathering there, and more are concerned. Persecution is keen, and it has stirred up the saints to be worthy of it. There is much interest everywhere in these parts, and blessing also. "The Evangel" was safe in the harbor at home-a great mercy, as at the last moment we put off an intended trip. Had we gone on that trip, it would have led to the inevitable destruction of the vessel, as in that section every vessel was lost, and many drowned. Good is the God we adore. We expect to have a few weeks' meetings here in Nassau.

With love in our blessed Lord,

August Van Ryn.

(Relief for the sufferers may be sent to August Van Ryn, Marsh Harbor, Bahamas, or to Loizeaux Bros., who will transmit without delay.)

Calendar:Oct. 16th to Nov. 15th.

DAILY BIBLE READING……….. .Oct. 16th, Acts 1; Oct. 31st, Acts 16; Nov. 15th, Rom. 3.
MEMORY WORK:2 Thess., ch. 1, also Memory Outlines.
GOOD READING:…….. The All-Sufficiency of Christ.

Daily Reading

The main part of our Daily Reading will be the book of Acts, with its intensely interesting narrative. For literary style, vividness of description, lucidity of narrative, and definiteness of purpose, we have nothing beyond it in the inspired Word; while all mere human productions pale into insignificance by its side. I can only say, let us read it carefully, slowly and prayerfully. It is the great book of Church History, leading us from Jerusalem with its Judaism, through various Gentile cities- Antioch, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus-until at the close we are at Rome, the center of the Gentile world. And this marks, we may say, the history of the Church from Judaism to its final emancipation into the testimony for which it was marked out from the beginning-a worldwide, yet heavenly body, whose destiny is the glory on high.

Let us all see then how much we can gather from this wonderful book. For those of you who have leisure, I would recommend Conybeare and Howson's "Life and Epistles of Paul."

Memory Work

We take up now the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. As the first epistle dwelt largely upon the coming of the Lord with reference to the hope of the believer, so the second shows us the coming in relation to the world. For the believer, all ends with the rapture; for the world, the end is judgment. Chapter 1 is our portion for this month. Let us devote a few minutes daily and we will soon have it in our mind.

Memory Outlines

I wonder if you are enjoying your "Memory Outlines" as much as I am. I got a letter from a dear young sister the other day in which she said, "Oh, how glad I am that I have begun the outlines." Well, so am I-and I hope a great many of you are saying the same.

Shall I tell you my general plan with these outlines? When I wake in the morning, I go over the outlines of yesterday's chapter, to keep it fresh in mind, and if I have time, I review, in memory, from the beginning of the Gospel. Just now, you know, it is Luke. Then I read the chapter for the day, seeking carefully to get its meaning. Then I start with the outline. I look over the chapter carefully and see what the subjects are. Today, for instance, it was that precious familiar 15th chapter of Luke, and I did not have much difficulty in selecting the divisions;-"Three," you say, "the lost sheep, the lost money, and the lost son." Yes, but don't forget the lovely little introduction in verses 1, 2-"Sinners attracted to the Lord," and well they might be to hear such words of love and grace as follow. Then in the parable of the prodigal, I divided it into jour parts:away from the Father; coming to himself; the return to the Father-and last the sad sequel, the elder brother.

Now that will serve to illustrate how I do. First I decide on the various divisions; how many are there? I made 7 in to-day's chapter. After I can repeat these seven divisions, I count how many verses are in each division-2 in the first, 5 in the second, 3 next, and so on. It is quite easy to remember a little numerical series, 2, 5, 3, 6, 3, 5, 8. Of course such a list has nothing distinctive to fix it long in the memory; but next I connect these numbers with their corresponding paragraphs. Thus, "Sinners attracted to the Lord, 2;" "The lost money found, 3;" etc. As I do this I often find some significant connection or contrast between the meaning of the number and the contents of the paragraph. Thus, "The return to the Father, 5," which is the number of God with man. I now write out a rough draft of the outline, with the corresponding verses as, "The prodigal comes to himself. 17-19." I now have my memory outline, but I do not yet enter it in my final memory outline book. Several hours perhaps after I have written my sketch outline, I write it out clearly from memory in a rough scratch book I have. This serves to test my memory. Lastly toward evening I make a fair copy in my regular book of "Memory Outlines," where I now have outlines written out from memory of all Matthew, Mark and Luke as far as we have gone.

Now you will pardon this long description of what many of you can do in less time than it takes me to write it. But I am so anxious to have you regular users of note books. Get the habit. Buy a number of 5 cent memorandum books, and use them freely. I hope to see a great many of you adopting the memorandum note book. Then I know how glad you will be to have every chapter in the gospels lying open in your memories like a book to read from. And lastly I hope many of you are going to earn the free reward of Kelly on Matthew. So keep moving in this work.

Just one word more. Perhaps a number would like to do Matthew, but haven't time both for it and Luke. So, as I want you to get Kelly en Matthew, suppose you devote all your time to the first Gospel, leaving your daily memory outline of the current chapter, until you have entirely finished Matthew. Or, better yet, I will allow every one till the last day of December to do Matthew. Now surely there are going to be a good number who will avail themselves of this offer. There is only one condition-that you keep on with the memory outline of the daily chapter, Luke, John, etc. You will find all needed directions in the September and other numbers of Y. B. D. Of course the sooner you send in your outline after Oct. 1st, the better; but you can have the extra two months.

I will add a few lines I got this morning from a young sister:"D. and I are both working hard on the memory outlines of Matthew. We find it quite a bit harder than memorizing the epistles straight through [that's because it's new, and because you have to analyze]. You asked for some sample outlines of our chapters, and I am going to give you two or three, with the hope that you will send me any criticism and corrections that are necessary." The outlines she sent are in the main correct corresponding closely to what I had found. She has enlarged a little sometimes, and in one chapter had made too few divisions, but it greatly encourages one to see such correct work.

Good Reading

"The All-Sufficiency of Christ"-a precious pamphlet on this great theme. Get it and read it.

Your Library
Here is a well-chosen set of books sent by a young sister. I think you will find some good hints in selecting your own books.

Notes on Genesis and Exodus. C. H. M. 2 vols.
Numerical Bible. F. W. G. Matt, to John.
The Land and the Book. Thomson.
How to Study the Bible. S. B.
Genesis to Revelation. S. R.
Lectures on Hebrews. S. E.
King Saul. S. E.
Readings on Romans. C. Grain.
Readings on 1 John. C. Grain.
Simon Peter. W. T. P. W.
God's Messages in Nature. W. S. H. Wylie.
The Son of God. J. G. Bellett.
Spiritual Law in the Natural World. F. W. G.

[She adds, "I made several attempts at reading this, and failed."But it is a fine book. Who has succeeded at reading it through?]

God's Evangel. F. W. G.
Notes on the Book of Esther. H. A. I.
Lectures on Daniel the Prophet. H. A. I.
Notes on the Book of Daniel. W. K. !
Eight Lectures on Prophecy. Trotter & Smith.
Hudson Taylor's Life-both volumes.
Complete Poetical Works of Frances Ridley Havergal

-among my most valued treasures. They have been a great help to me in my Christian life. I am now enjoying "Kept for the Master's Use," by the same author. It is small, but contains much precious truth. I have read Mary Slessor, but do not own it. I also have a Life of David Livingstone.-M. deV.

Young Believers' Meetings

I am glad to hear of at least two new meetings having been started, and shall hope to hear some good news from them. Now that school has reopened, and the warmer weather is over, I trust we will begin with renewed energy the work of the fall and winter. There are numbers of places where I would like to hear of the work among the young people.

How to Budget Your Time

And here we have some good hints in the little essays I asked for, and which are coming in. Read these and see if you haven't a little contribution to make also.

"There are probably two main things to be considered in properly apportioning our spare time, namely:(1) The amount of spare time at our disposal, and (2) the use to which this time is to be put, or the subjects which will occupy us during that time. With these two points decided upon, a third, and most important, point is, "purpose of heart" to carry out our schedule.

The first item may be easily found by charting the daily duties as ordinarily performed. The second item, or the subjects to be followed, and the time per week to be spent on each, may be listed somewhat as follows;

Daily Bible Reading ……… 15 min. per day.
Sunday School Lesson…….. 3 hrs. per week.
Bible Study …………….. 5 ½
Good Reading ("Help & Food") 3 New Testament Greek …….. 6
Chemistry ……………. 12 ½
Miscellaneous Reading……. 2

It now remains simply to apply the subjects listed to the spare time on the chart, and pick the most suitable time for each. This also may be seen more clearly by making a chart.

By referring to the spare time chart it will be seen that the thirty-five minutes on the train and twenty-five minutes during lunch-time give an hour each day which may be spent in reading. The twenty minutes spent on the cars is better adapted to reviewing memory work, and for this purpose a pocket Testament is very handy. The evening hours are arranged as best suits the subjects. The time listed for New Testament Greek was included in this chart in view of the proposed lessons in Help and Food.

Remember, we "are not our own," but "are bought with a price," and this includes our time also. May the Lord grant us to use our time as belonging to Him.-E.W. B.

Now doesn't that lay out a fine schedule? But it means some work, and, as our dear brother writes, "purpose of heart." May the Lord help him and all of us to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us.

Here is a paper with some good and helpful suggestions.

"In the morning during the week I purpose to spend one half-hour in prayer, reading of the Word and one half-hour in reading 'Eight Lectures on Prophecy,' and find it profitable to look up the scriptures in the Bible, and put the reference in the margin of the book, where the scripture but not the place where found is given. Then any time left could be spent in memorizing, etc. The evenings we have to spare could be used for dispensational, word, typical, etc., study; a holiday or half-day off could be used to review our studies. Then on Lord's Day, outside of our meetings to remember our Lord, which we all enjoy, and gospel meetings, we could devote our time in visiting the sick, distributing tracts, speaking a word here or there for our Lord and seeking one another's fellowship. We must not forget to jot down different thoughts in our note book which we have at hand."-J. D.

United Prayer
I am glad to receive, as I sometimes do, requests for prayer, and specially for the conversion or deliverance of souls. Let us make it more of the business of life, to spend a little time daily in prayer for others.

We will defer any fresh questions until we have room, in our next issue, if the Lord please.

Address all correspondence to me,

c/o Loizeaux Bros., 1 E. 13th St., New York City.

Something of an illustration of the Christian's deliverance from the bondage of sin was pressed upon my mind by the narrative of an eagle's escape from its captors.

The eagle, as you know, is called "the royal bird," and lives among mountain peaks, building his nest upon crags where the foot of man can rarely reach. This eagle of which I speak lived among the wild hills of Donegal, on the north-west coast of Ireland. It had somehow been snared, and now was chained by the leg to a heap of stones placed in the grounds of a large mansion, situated in Donegal. He was kept there as an ornament to the place, but did not belong to it. His captors fed him and admired him, but he was not happy, nor loved his captors. He was a free bird of the hills, and pined for his native heights. Their dainties had tempted him down; but they could not satisfy him. Day by day he turned his wistful eyes upwards, and night by night he crouched to rest upon his pile of stones with drooping wings and fallen crest-a despairing captive.

How like the backsliding believer, fitted by the new nature to live above the foggy levels of the world, and to dwell in his high places, but tempted into the enemy's trap, perhaps by some unhallowed companionship, some forbidden practice, some habit of self-indulgence, some worldly pleasure, and now, with joy and liberty gone, dwelling on the world's level, apparently helpless to free himself!

After months of captivity, this eagle, by some means or other managed to free its foot of the chain that held it. He was free, but for some unexplained reason he did not at once take advantage of it. Though he did not rise immediately to his native heights, a change had come over him. When his captors came around as usual to look at and feed him, the eagle had an altered appearance; a new light was shining in his eyes turned upward to the sky, his crest raised, his large wings half spread, quivering with excitement. "How beautiful he looks!" they said-for a wonderful change stirred in his breast. He cared not now for their dainties, he wanted not their company; it was for his lofty home he was yearning. He did not seem able to rise at once, and they sought to lay hold of him again. Then, balanced upon a rock, with a swift stroke of his wings he soared away to his mountain home!

O captive backslider, there is freedom for thee ! Loose thyself from the bands that hold thee; free thyself from the fetters that bind thee; withdraw thy foot from the snare into which thou hast fallen. "Shall the lawful captive be delivered?" questions the prophet (Isa. 49:24). No; but the soul redeemed by the blood of the Lamb cannot be lawfully kept captive by the enemy of Christ and holiness.

O believer, thou art born free! If thou wouldst but act in faith, and through the mighty power of thy Saviour break away from that which now keeps thee down and robs thy pining soul of that which is thine own! Thy freedom, bought by blood, no man, no power, no claim, may keep from thee. Shake thyself from the dust; use the wings of your God-given faith to elevate you above the groveling things of earth. Look up, arise to your native element, your proper home. There dwells the One who loves you and who would have you enjoy the communion that "once you had when first you knew the Lord."
No habit can be too strong, no tie too powerful, no link so binding, but that Christ's grace, "sufficient for thee," is able at once to break it. Own your folly and sin, cry to Him for succor, and He will indeed "make you free." The lost joy may be restored, the interrupted fellowship resumed, the heights of holy blessedness regained. "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding," says the God of all compassion; and with the call He furnishes the answer; "Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art the Lord our God" (Jer. 3:22). Adapted from J. J. J.
'THE WELL IS DEEP'

(Continued from page 240, Aug. 1925.)

(Col. 1:19.)

Verse 19 states a great truth concerning our blessed Lord. In the preceding verses He has been before us in His glories as God manifest in flesh. Now, in the place thus taken in manhood, it is affirmed that "in Him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell." Whatever God is, Christ is. His relation to creation and all its ranks of being, though being in "a bondman's form," is seen by taking His place in the likeness of men (Phil. 2:7,8). This marvelous fact makes it evident that as to full knowledge "no one knows the Son but the Father." No created intelligence can comprehend His fulness; it is the fulness of the Godhead-"In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

In specific relation to this great fact concerning Christ we are now told of a wonderful plan of reconciliation (vers. 20-22). Christ's first place in all things (ver. 18) is a necessary consequence of the fact that the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him, and that Fulness had also a special purpose in view, even that by Him (as the instrumental Power used by the fulness of the Godhead) to effect the reconciliation of all things unto Himself. The accomplishment of this great work reaches its final stage when the last enemy, death, is annulled, and then, all things having been brought into subjection, "the Son also Himself shall be placed in subjection to Him who put all things in subjection to Him, that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:23-28). The foundation for this has been laid in the Cross, as it is here said, " Having made peace by the blood of His cross." In it the question of all that had disturbed the harmony of the universe-heavenly and earthly-was taken up and dealt with according to God's holy nature and righteous government, effecting propitiation, so that the fulness of the Godhead may act by Christ to restore all things to perfect harmony, to subjection under Christ in whom it is God's purpose "to head up all things" (Eph. 1:9,10). Through the exercise of power by Christ, into whose hand all things and all power in heaven and earth have been committed (Matt. 11:27; 28:18), God will bring every knee to bow to the name of Jesus, "of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father's glory" (Phil. 2:10,11). Even infernal beings will then bow, though it be as banished to the place of eternal doom. In that place, as an eternal witness to the awful character and consequences of rebellion to God, they will be brought to own the justice of the decree, and the power which will place them there-separated from God, in the outer darkness, they will bow to Jesus and confess Him Lord. This, however, is not spoken of as reconciliation, though it may be called, in relation to such beings, an adjustment according to God's glory, of their place, condition and attitude for eternity. Note that reconciliation, however, is connected with things heavenly and earthly. It is not spoken of in relation to things or beings infernal. Reconciliation is not simply an adjustment of things, but it carries with it the thought of deliverance from a condition in which are elements contrary to God. It involves the removal of what destroyed harmony, whether as to the things or beings mentioned. For this the Cross was the necessary foundation. By it peace was made, God's holy judgment against sin being fully endured in the death of His Son who tasted "death for everything" (Heb. 2:9).

In that work of judgment God sees the removal of all not in harmony with His holy nature, so that He can restore to harmonious relation with Himself all things soiled by sin, even the heavens not being clean in His sight, for Satan and his fallen hosts are in them. Thus the reconciliation of all things here spoken of is only finally accomplished, as to actual results, when by power based on the work of the Cross, every agency of evil is banished to its place of judgment, as Satan and his company will be in due season.

Things, then, in heaven and earth will be reconciled; but there is no intimation that at any time a ministry of reconciliation is offered or made good to infernal beings. They must and will be brought to subjection through judgment; and as ever-abiding in it, no longer permitted to be rebellious and lawless, they will recognize the eternal truth and justice of God as shown in their very doom, which will, as all things must, serve His glory.

Verses 21 and 22 take up the truth of reconciliation as now applied to those who have received the Lord Jesus. In this connection there are four things to consider:(a) the message of reconciliation; (b) the means of reconciliation; (c) the meaning of reconciliation; (d) the end in view. But we must reserve the consideration of these things for another time. John Bloore

When our sky seems all o'er-clouded,
And our path beset with care,
And the heart o'erfraught with sorrow
Seeming more than we can bear,
And we kneel and lay our burden
At His feet in wordless prayer,
He will give relief and succor,
If we only-leave it there.

W. L. G.

I ask not for the highest place,
But find a spot more sweet,
Where God bestows on me His grace,
At my Redeemer's feet.
Come joy or pain, come weal or woe,
In Christ I am complete:
My highest place is lying low
At my Redeemer's feet.
'THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT"

(Continued from p. 219.)

CHAPTER 4

Tissue Differentiation-Diversity in Unity

We have thus far been dwelling upon the essential unity of the organic life of the body, as seen in the basic protoplasm and cell organism from which it all is derived. We are now to pass to the well-nigh limitless varieties of this cell-life in the various tissues which eventually form the whole body.

From the original single cell is first developed an enormous number of cells which are arranged into a membrane called the Blastoderm, which is composed of three layers, called the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. From these three layers are derived the tissues forming the different organs and systems of the fully developed body, which are coordinated into the complete organism. As their names suggest, the ectoderm is the source of the tissues of the outer covering, the epidermis with its appendages, and of the inner covering of the extremities of the gastro-pulmonary tract. From it also are derived the tissues of the nervous system. From the mesoderm are derived the connective and muscular tissues, the tissues of the blood and lymph vessels, and other inner vital parts. The endoderm includes the remainder of the gastro-pulmonary tract.* *For a summary of the various tissues, the reader is referred to Kimber and Gray's Textbook of Anatomy and Physiology, chaps. III., etc. McMillan Company, New York.*

We have perhaps anticipated the spiritual meaning of this differentiation. Doubtless in the earliest stages of cell growth there are the characteristic differences which we noted, for instance, in the development of the spiritual features of 2 Pet. 1:5-8. The growth however is more gradual than would be manifest in the formation of each new cell. It is well to remember this, and not to expect a too rapid maturing of the features there dwelt upon. In divine things as well as in nature haste is not the rule. The husbandman has "long patience" (Jas. 5:7). It is not so much the time element, as the actual spiritual growth. Some features may be manifest almost immediately; they may appear in the form of prompt boldness as in Saul of Tarsus:"Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God" (Acts 9:20). A similar boldness may not appear in others until the stimulus of persecution brings it out (Phil. 1:14).We are here examining the elements of the spiritual life in their hidden or embryonic stage. "As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child:even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all" (Eccl. 11:5). It must suffice to say that from the very first there are the potential differences of which we have spoken. God through the indwelling Spirit will manifest the features implanted from the beginning. Is it not significant that the triune character of the life is marked out in these three elements-which will have their sphere of service respectively in the outer, the inner and the even more inward departments of the spiritual life? Doubtless this triune constitution enters into the minute, as well as into the complete "spirit, soul and body" of man (1 Thess. 5:23).

We pass to the more general classification of the tissues as seen in the fully developed subject. With all their variations, these may be arranged under four general heads. These are:1. Connective Tissue. 2. Muscular Tissue. 3. Nerve Tissue. 4. Epithelial Tissue. Connective tissue, as its name suggests, serves to connect and support all the tissues of the body. It is all developed from the mesoderm, has few cells comparatively, but much intercellular substance, in a variety of arrangement. It is not originative, but passive under the action of other tissues.

Muscular tissue, about one half of the entire body, has to do with all voluntary and involuntary motions. It is of course in immediate connection with the skeleton and the nervous system.

Nerve tissue is the material for all the vast system which concerns the reception of impressions from the outside, and the putting into activity every portion of the body. It forms the brain, the immediate instrument of the man, and is therefore perhaps in a more complete way than any other department of the body a figure of spiritual truth.

Ephithelial tissue is derived from all three layers of the blastoderm, and is composed almost completely of cells with a minimum of intercellular substance. It may generally be described as protective. The various membranes or coverings of the body, both without and within, are of this tissue. It is devoid of blood vessels, being nourished by the absorption of lymph passing to the cells through minute spaces within the intercellular substance.

The spiritual significance of these four classes of tissue is quite manifest, even looking at their most general aspects.

Connective tissue has to do largely with the entire framework. It has fewest cells, and most intercellular substance, what we might almost call the foreign element in the body. But while thus largely composed of mineral salts, these are by no means separate from the body, but in vital union with it, through the complete vascular or circulatory system. It thus answers to the presence of objective truth, permeating the whole being. How formless and weak would the spiritual man be without the complete infiltration of revealed truth into every department of his being. When we remember that the skeleton or bony framework is largely connective tissue, we see at once its place and importance.

We may say that the doctrinal portions of the Epistles answer in good measure to this framework. "Hold fast the form (ύπoτύπωσιv, underlying framework) of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 1:13). Here the outline of revealed truth gives its shape to the whole man, while its identification with him is seen in the mutual vital activities of faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Thus the objective truth is of profit, being "mixed with faith" (Heb.4:2).

It will easily be seen how the whole spiritual framework receives its form from the great doctrinal truths largely brought out in the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians. If souls are not impregnated with these truths they will suffer from a spiritual rachitis, or rickets, markedly present in children whose nutrition has been deficient in lime salts. These who weakly oppose doctrinal teaching, and plead for sweetness and beauty of character little realize how they would be removing the very basis and framework of all spiritual beauty. In a different way from that hinted by the poet,

"Every face however full,
Padded round with flesh and fat,
Is but modeled on a skull."

What would the softest, tenderest, most regular features be, if they did not have the sturdy bone beneath them?

A mere glance at the salient doctrines of Ephesians will bear this out. In the first chapter, where the fulness of our spiritual blessings is unfolded, we have the great framework of God's election as the basis of our being "holy and without blame before Him in love." Sonship, with all its sweetness and joy of relationship, rests upon the framework of divine predestination, "according to the good pleasure of His will." Everything is wrought out by "Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (verses 5,11). Even the foretaste and pledge of the coming glory is by the presence and indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. "In whom after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise" (ver. 13).

The same could be said of the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. The solemn truth of man's real condition, his guilt, corruption and helplessness, here form the basis of all genuine conviction of sin, with the corresponding truths of justification and deliverance. No matter how deep the sense of sin in the soul, its fullest expression and form will be gathered from the doctrine of sin as set forth in the words of Scripture. "There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:22-24); "The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe" (Gal. 3:22); "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6). How powerless are all the soft tissues of feeling and experience to give the solid peace like that set forth in, "A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law;" "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5). The utter worthlessness of the flesh, and its setting aside are not learned merely or primarily from experience, but from such basic truths as, "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3); "Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed (Καταργηθ, annulled, rendered inoperative), that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6:6). "I through the law am dead (literally, died, in the death of Christ) to the law, that I might live unto God; I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth hi me" (Gal. 2:19, 20).

These illustrations of spiritual connective tissue must suffice. They will be multiplied by the thoughtful reader, and thus serve to establish the soul more firmly upon the solid basis of the Word of God.

Space will scarcely permit more than a passing glance at the various groups of connective tissue. For the sake of some measure of completeness, we will mention them.

1. Embryonal tissue, as its name suggests, is the earliest of these groups, with a large proportion of soft, mucous tissue, in which there is a large amount of semifluid intercellular substance, with small bundles of white fibrils. We may call it the forerunner of other forms of tissue, and perhaps receives the intermixed mineral salts which later on form the more stable structure. How delicate and tender are the first elements of divine life imparted to the soul.

2. Areolar tissue, a soft filmy substance, a network of fibrous and elastic fibers. It forms a web-like binding and supporting material, connecting and insulating entire organs. It is universally distributed throughout the body, forming a medium of communication by effusion of foreign elements, as air, water, or pus beyond the point of original deposit.* *Kimber and Gray, pp. 25, 26.*

This tissue may be considered the advanced form of the previous one, also a delicate and elastic forerunner of the more rugged tissues, but always remaining to fill its own important place. It might answer to the more elementary truths which precede but ever have a place in the "form of sound words" of which we have spoken.

3. Adipose tissue is in one sense a form of areolar, and well nigh coextensive with it. It is characterized by the very large proportion of oil cells, in which the nucleus is crowded aside into a very minor place. It thus largely serves as a storehouse for reserves of heat and energy. It is found almost everywhere-under the skin, beneath. the serous membranes, around the internal organs, as the kidneys, filling up the furrows of the heart's surface, acting as cushions for the joints, and in the marrow of the long bones. Its usefulness is thus beyond question. Beside being a reserve store which can be returned to the blood and used in heat and energy, it serves as a covering or insulator preventing the too rapid loss of heat through the skin. It also fills out and supports delicate structures as the eye, and in general protects blood-vessels and nerves. That it adds, normally, grace and beauty to the form is also apparent.

We have already referred to some features of its spiritual significance. It is almost the synonym for spiritual prosperity. "They shall be fat and flourishing" (Ps. 92:14); "My bones waxed old;" "My moisture is turned into the drought of summer" (Ps. 32:3,4). Such scriptures show the opposites of the presence or absence of this element. Alas, many know what it is to say "My leanness!" Even our most blessed Lord, when He had offered "all the fat" upon the altar, said, "I may tell all my bones" (Ps. 22:17).

On the other hand, beyond all other tissue fat lends itself to undue multiplication. It thus becomes the synonym for self-indulgence and its accompanying sloth and love of ease. Eglon was a fat man, and even Eli in the sloth of age and feebleness developed similar conditions. May the Lord preserve us from pandering to a state which develops into such disgusting, repulsive and enervating features.

4. Fibrous tissue lies at the opposite extreme to the adipose. It forms the ligaments binding the bones together, the tendons or sinews to attach the muscles to the bones, or to each other, insulating and protecting the heart and kidneys, and forming membranes about the various muscles. This tissue is white, strong and tough, only sparingly supplied with blood-vessels. It serves as a most essential "joining" between the other tissues, as already indicated. Spiritually it answers to the combination of firmness and yieldingness which gives room to all true activity. It enables one to adopt himself to circumstances without conforming to them. Paul could thus become "all things to all men that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor. 9:19-22).

5. Elastic tissue is related to, but distinct from, the fibrous. Its function is suggested by its name, and it serves to act as an elastic cushion between the vertebrae, preventing jar; also in the walls of the blood vessels, especially of the arteries, permitting their dilation and contraction. It enters into the formation of the bronchial tubes, lung tissue and vocal cords and uniting also the cartilages of the larynx. Even the objective truths of Scripture, when assimilated into our spiritual framework are not mere hard, formal statements of truth, harsh and unyielding as the law, but instinct with the grace of Christ. This is specially marked in all proper intercourse with one another. It prevents the exacting, grinding making of legal demands, and yet keeps us firm and loyal to the truth. "Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous" (1 Pet. 3:8; see also vers. 7,9; ch. 4:8-10; ch. 5:3-5).

6. Reticular tissue serves as a meshwork of fibrous tissue forming the framework of adenoid or glandular tissue, in the spleen and bone marrow, in the mucous membrane of the gastro-intestinal tract, in the lungs, liver, kidneys, and other organs, forming a framework supporting the capillaries and gland cells. Some would class blood and lymph under these tissues, but they are not wholly derived from the cells in the same way. There is a close resemblance in all this to the framework of the inner spiritual organs, which serve as filters for things passing through our hearts and minds. When we come to the significance of these various organs this will be more apparent. At present, speaking merely of the framework of strong tissue, it is easy to see that in the delicate and careful process of judging actions and separating the precious from the vile, there must be strength and firmness as well as sensitiveness of touch. Thus conscience is most sensitive, and can be easily injured, yet it must be unflinching in its judgment of evil. "Holding faith and a good conscience" (1 Tim. 1:19).

7. Cartilage is of three kinds; Hyaline, which covers the ends of bones and forms rib cartilage, also the matrix in which bones are developed; while fibro cartilage, connecting bones together at points more rigidly than by joints; and yellow in the epiglottis, Eustachian tube and external ear. It maintains the shape but allows a certain measure of flexibility. Thus all cartilaginous tissues suggest the same truth of firmness and consistency without rigidity. "To whom we gave place by subjection, no not for an hour" (Gal. 2:5). But, "They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision" (ver. 9). In our corporate relationships it is of all importance that cartilaginous tissue does not become ossified. Brittleness is the forerunner of schism. May we be kept in the youthful vigor which yields self but ever preserves principle. S. R.

(To be continued, D. V.)

In the 8th chapter of Ezekiel the Lord's prophet is shown the holy temple as the high court of wickedness, provoking Him to go away from His sanctuary! Seventy men, the ancients of Israel, wrought abominations with idol-worship, offering incense in thick clouds, every man in the chambers of his imagery, saying, "The Lord seeth us not; He hath forsaken the earth." The women, too, wept for Tammuz*; and between the porch and the altar, five-and-twenty men with their backs to the temple of Jehovah worshiped the sun:they filled the land with violence; they provoked Jehovah to wrath, and put the branch to their nose (as of sweet-smelling odor). *Obscene rites and practices accompanied its worship in Syria.* Disowned in the temple of His grace, the Lord announces to the prophet that He will deal in fury with the people, that His eye should not spare, neither would He have pity; yea, He would not hear them should they cry to Him with a loud voice!

Such was the crisis when, in the ninth chapter, the prophet, who had sought to walk with Him and to serve, is permitted to know what the Lord was about to do, and was used of the Lord to record before man the wonder of His dealings with men, as told us as follows:

"He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side:and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite:let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women:but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain:go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city. And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness:for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me."

The judgment-holy and just, yet little when compared with the sin-was about to be poured out:they that should execute it stood ready to do so, but grace stayed the blow till inquisition had been made for those who, in the scene, had separated themselves from the evil-such must be marked for preservation. And by what was their separation marked? "They sighed and cried for all the abominations that were wrought around them." The distinctive mark was not, "Those who have not done likewise," nor, "Who have done their utmost against such sins," but "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." It is remarkable! It points to a similarity of spirit with the Lord when decreeing judgment.

The Spirit of an insulted, despised God, about to take judgment in wrath will, as in any one who has the mind of the Lord in the midst of the doomed scene, oft sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done around them. Our blessed Lord wept over Jerusalem:"He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."

Ten righteous persons in the city would have saved the city where Lot dwelt. And when it was destroyed, the Lord remembered Abraham, and saved Lot and his two daughters out of it; while a tremendous judgment on his wife marked the value of implicit obedience upon an escaping people. In this chapter 9, while the Lord said He would have no pity, and charged those that executed the sentence, "Let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:slay utterly old and young….and begin at my sanctuary," yet they that had the mark upon them were to be spared in the time of judgment-those that sighed and that cried at those abominations.

The prophet's zeal and love for the people on earth that bear the name of the Lord, led him, on receiving the revelation, to a kindred expression:"And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah, Lord God! wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in the pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?"

And if that which bears upon it the Lord's name in our day is looked upon by us in any sense as the Lord's house, or as responsible for His glory, have we such hearts to "sigh and cry" for the worldliness, carnality, and idolatry found in it? Have we such loving hearts as to fall on our faces and intercede for it, that the moldering and crumbling which is going on in it might be stayed? If we talk of it as the "great house," morally incapable of meeting the Lord's claims, we may yet tax our own hearts with the questions, Do I indeed sigh and cry for such a state, and for such in it that are dear to God? Do I love the members of Christ's Body, the Church, and intercede for them amid the desolations around?

No hard spirit of judging others, no using of the light of prophecy for self-exaltation and contempt of others, are consistent with such a position. Entire separation from evil (from the spirit as well as the practice of it) is imperative. It is but self-preservative, when the Lord's judgments are in hand:but if we have Christ's spirit, while we purge ourselves from all idolatry (1 John 5:23)-while we seek to bring every high and lofty imagination into captivity to Christ (2 Cor. 10:4)-while we guard with all .anxiety against man's evil doings, let the heart be free to pour forth earnest affections and feelings as were our Lord's in His day. I feel greatly we are not sufficiently clear from evil in our own selves to have the full display of the broken spirit of the sigher and cryer, nor the zeal of the servant of the Lord.

J. G. Bellett in "The Present Testimony."

THE GOSPEL TO THE MEXICANS

No doubt all Christendom has become interested in the present struggle between the Roman Catholic Church and the Government in Mexico. History witnesses to the overthrow of those who disregard the rule laid down in Matt. 22:21:"Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." The apostate Jews served Caesar but denied their God, so they have fallen. Likewise the apostate church while boasting faith in God denies the authority of Caesar and so must fall, as it is prophesied in Rev. 17:16 and 18:7, 8. This in a word explains the character of the trouble in Mexico and other countries when the Roman Catholic church seeks temporal power and authority over the Civil Government.

The subjects of the Roman Catholic church are taught to believe that Rome's traditions and authority are infallible, and therefore the Word of God is set aside; the vast majority of Romanists in Mexico do not understand what the Bible is. The message to Thyatira in Rev. 2 is clearly a special message from God to that people whose works are more than their love or faith, and it is our responsibility and great privilege to deliver the message that honors God and delivers His people. The wide circulation of the Scriptures by the American Bible Society in Mexico together with the testimony of faithful servants of the Lord Jesus has resulted in a very large number of congregations of believers of various denominations and also seven or eight assemblies gathered to the name of Christ among the Open Brethren. The same is true of the work of the Lord among the Mexicans living in Texas and the south-western states. Besides the two assemblies in our fellowship in Texas there are many small gatherings among the denominations without regular pastors, and many open doors among the Romanists who are "amigos del evangelic," as they call themselves, that is, friends of the gospel, quite willing to listen to the message of grace, and not opposers.

There are about ten brethren in each of the assemblies in Texas. The Sunday School in the meeting in San Antonio has about 35 in attendance. Two of the Mexican brethren are quite earnest and capable in the gospel- Antonio C. Riojas and Pedro Garcia. These brethren spend much time in the gospel and are worthy of our prayers and support, as the Lord directs. Bro. Antonio C. Riojas was ordained to the Methodist ministry, but left that sectarian position years before meeting us to be more scriptural. The Bible and Tract Depot in connection with the assembly in San Antonio is a very important work, and many in the denominations depend upon our Spanish literature for gospel work.

Nearly all the heresies of Christendom are propagated among the Mexicans, and we are pained that no young people among us are serving Christ in these needy fields at home when we see dozens of young Mormon "elders," etc., combing the country and offering the Mexicans something worse than Romanism.

We would love to spend much time with the gospel auto among the Mexicans between San Antonio and California if there was someone to take our place in San Antonio. May the Lord lead. Pray for us and for Mexico and God's people there.

Affectionately in our soon coming Lord,
Mr. & Mrs. Ervin Dresch.

JAPAN NEWS LETTER NO. 58.

Tokyo, Japan, April 1926. Items of Interest for Sunday School children.

At the Kanda Ward Sunday School, Tokyo, carried on by Mrs. Tsukiyama in their house, one of the boys was missed for a week or two recently. Mrs. Tsukiyama asked the other children, and one of them who lived near the missing boy, told her with childlike simplicity, "He has gone to heaven."

Mrs. Tsukiyama asked how that came about, and the boy said that his neighbor boy had been taken very ill suddenly, and his mother went to the temple of Fudo Sama, the god of good luck, and made offerings, prayers, etc., that her boy might get well. When she came back home, and her boy heard where she had been, he said to his mother, "That is no use, mother. I have been taught about the Lord Jesus, the Saviour, at the Sunday School, and I believe in Him; and if I die it will be all right, I will go right up to heaven." Soon after he died. He was a boy about ten years of age, and had been attending the Sunday School faithfully for some time.

There have been several cases of Sunday School children dying in faith.

Another interesting incident of recent occurrence shows God's wonderful protection of a lad who trusts in Him. He also has been a faithful member of Mrs. Tsukiyama's Sunday School class for some years.

This lad was riding his bicycle, and coming to the electric car line at Eitai Bridge, Tokyo, a man with a loaded cart suddenly turned into the street, crowding him so that he swerved aside to avoid the cart and his bicycle wheel struck the car-line rail so that the wheel twisted, throwing him onto the track. Just then a swiftly moving car came down the grade from the bridge, and the fender and all the fore part of the car went over him. He thought he was going to be killed and was praying to the Lord. The carmen and others all thought he was crushed to death, but when they got him out from under the car he was not hurt at all.

Here is an interesting story from the report of the American Bible Society in Japan. One of their colporteurs in going about selling Bibles came to a sewing school. The teacher who, evidently, was opposed to Christianity, turned to the class and very loudly said:"There is not any one among you who wants the Bible; is there?" Quite unexpectedly one girl replied:"Yes, I want it." That gave the girls courage and most of them bought Gospels.

Recently ten children in our Sunday School (Shimo Shibuya, Tokyo) received prizes of little books for repeating from memory twenty Bible verses. This includes our Paul. Little Stephen also is a member of the Sunday School. They both now talk Japanese and English.

Between cottage meetings, open air meetings, assembly meetings, Sunday School and publishing of magazine and tracts, we are kept very busy. There is much interest in Japan at present in Christianity.
Affectionately yours in Christ,

Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Craig..

JAPAN NEWS LETTER NO. 59.

Tokyo, Japan, July, 1926.

There is at present a wide open door for the gospel in Japan. The Evangelical Missions and the Bible Societies report blessing in their work. The authorities are favorably inclined. Probably they feel that Christianity is an antidote to the rising tide of Socialism or Bolshevism.

At our open air meetings crowds listen. Tracts are taken and carried home. Also Scriptures are sold. There are many inquirers.

There have been several baptisms during the year. Lately eight, one of whom was the son of the Mayor of Shibuya, whom we mentioned in Letter 57. Most of these were baptized by brother Tsukiyama at the home of the Omata family.

The Sunday Schools continue in the houses of the brethren and sisters in several places.

Literature. No. 76 of our Shinri no Kura (Treasury of Truth) has recently come off the press. It contains brief Gospel articles, which appear also separately as tracts for distribution, and it contains two more of our illustrated Bible Lessons for Sunday School use. These are designed for the help of teachers who try to impart the simplest truths of the Bible to children who know little or nothing of the Bible. To each lesson is appended a few questions to help fix the matter in the children's memories, and one prominent Bible verse is the center of each lesson.

Beside the above, I am having two tracts. "Eternity- Where?" and "The Fruits of Sin," reprinted.

Distribution of Literature. Having received from a brother a special contribution to cover the cost of a hundred thousand of our brief gospel tracts, we are having a special distribution. The brethren and sisters in different places are handing out the tracts from house to house, or to the crowds entering railway stations, at resorts, or festivals, etc.

Beside the quantities of our tracts which are distributed in Japan, some hundreds are circulated among the Japanese in America by bro. Eaton and others; also the brethren in harbor work at the different ports, use many in their work on the vessels. A sister in Honolulu, and a brother in Shanghai receive quantities for the Japanese in those places.

Workers. Beside brethren and sisters who use their spare time for the work of the Lord, there are some brethren whom we reckon as partly in the work, and to whom we minister somewhat. The young brother mentioned for prayer in Letter 57 has since given himself to the service of the Lord. For this we are indeed thankful, as the need is so great. This young brother is very earnest, studious and devoted. His name is Mizuno.
Then there are some needy widows to be helped. We are now at Lake Nojiri, near Kashiwahara, Nagano Province, during the school vacation. This is a summer resort in the mountains. We have rented the cottage of a missionary family who are on furlough. I am doing some reading, writing and study here, hoping to get a lot of matter ready for our magazine and tracts. Also expect to go about the villages roundabout with tracts. Brother and sister Roll are visiting other places, also taking our tracts with them for distribution, and will be here with us a little while. They are contemplating returning to the work in China in the fall, following the counsel of their brethren there and in Germany. If so, we shall be sorry to lose them for the work here.

The prayers of our brethren and sisters for the work in this land are no doubt the means of much blessing. Affectionately yours in our Lord,

E. B. Craig.

Taitowying, China, July 20th, 1926.

Dear brother in Christ:-

It certainly is God's great mercy that we are not utterly perished, but His mercies are new every morning.

China certainly is in an awful condition, and persecutions against the Christians have started in many places. The local mandarin is said to be a Roman Catholic, but he certainly is an enemy of the truth. We have already suffered not a little persecution on account of him, and he has threatened to come and rob this place and chase me put. I just wrote a long letter to the American Consul in Tientsin, asking him to investigate the matter, for one hardly knows what to do. I wish your prayers, that we may find all our joy and happiness in Christ, and be more occupied with Him who suffered and died for us.

May He richly bless you all. Please continue to pray for us.

Affectionately in Christ,

Chas. O. Kautto.

Irumu, Congo Beige. Dear brother in Christ:- June 3, 1926.

Brother F. has forwarded the money you sent to him for us and I write to thank you in the Name of our Lord for this ministry and expression of love in the Lord. We are surely grateful to you and this faithfulness on your part is in the Lord's hand an encouragement to us. The Lord has sustained us in every circumstance during the past months, and though on various occasions we were wholly cast upon the Lord in some particular difficulty so that on our prayer-meeting night, Friday, one or two subjects would seem to be before us as out-weighing others, yet without reservation I may say, "The Lord is faithful."

Of these difficulties I might mention need of workmen. We call for these from the chief, and they work for one month. But the chief has many other calls beside ours. The Government of course requires a great many workmen from him, and their call comes first, as it should. But in this God has undertaken for us again and again.

Another matter which has cast us upon God in prayer has been opposition in the villages against the two native evangelists who have been preaching, and the source of this trouble practically is always Roman Catholic. One headman asked us to build a school in his village, but after a visit by the priest and certain stock threats, his attitude changed over night. But now after some months of looking to the Lord about the matter, this headman has nearly finished the school-building for us "and has not yet started the one for the Roman Catholics, though the present arrangement is that there are to be two schools in the one village which is large. Again our need of work-oxen was very real. There is such a demand for them in the country that there are none for sale. Yet in answer to prayer we now have what we need for the present. These are just a few samples, but I am sure that each day adds to our experience of the goodness of God, as is the case with all the Lord's people.

We are thankful upon every remembrance of you at home who are sustaining the work here by prayer. Thus we unitedly look to God to do a work here among these people which shall be for eternity. May the Lord in His grace sustain us all in faithfulness until His full purposes have been accomplished.

I am glad to say of the others with us that all are happy in the work, and I have heard no regrets at having come. By the Lord's mercy all of us are been spared the diseases which one question in Africa. Our present location is very healthful, for Africa, and open doors for advance with the Truth of God are beyond our present capacity. If the Lord sends others they will have no trouble finding work to do and unevangelized territory.

With greetings in our Lord’s name, in which my wife joins me, and I believe also the other Saints gathered to the Lord’s name here, if they knew I were writing,

Yours in the fellowship of our Lord Jesus, by grace alone.

R. C. Woodhams, M. D.

Irumu, Congo Beige, June 25, 1926.

My dear Miss F.

I was delighted to again receive one of your kind, cheering letters. Glad you could have a little season at the sea-side, and the quiet time of year you were there would appeal to me. These seasons of being laid aside, I have often found very precious, away from the noise and hustle of this life – just to be alone with the Lord, as it were. Again this week, I have had another attack of malaria, only getting up yesterday, and still feeling rather weak and trembling. But I know these things are permitted of the Lord for a purpose, and "He doeth all things well."

We are not yet out of our mud-houses, but are now hopeful of being able to move in August, the Lord permitting. Mr. Searle will then soon be starting his own house, as also the doctor (D. V.). We have received word from Mombasa that the cement has been sent from there, so we hope to have one room (living-room) each, with a cement floor.

Last week, the rains again commenced after quite a long dry season, the second since we've come, so I have had the boys plant my navy beans, a few lima beans, and a little pop-corn. The boys are now digging my peanuts, They have already commenced to sprout since these rains came, so it is time to take them up.

News from home continues to come, telling of all being kept in health, and my only brother writes that he has accepted the Lord Jesus as his personal Saviour, early in the year. How one can rejoice in hearing of a soul being saved through faith in our blessed Saviour and Lord!

The printing set came and is very useful. I have made some lesson sheets, and a missionary at another station has offered to print some primers for us. With all these things to work with, we hope to make more progress at school. One of the blackboards was stolen from the school-house during the last vacation, and this is a handicap. Thanking you for all favors, I close with love in ov Lord Jesus to you and saints with you.

Yours by His grace,

C. DeJonge.

Brief Items of Interest

A very interesting letter from our sister Miss DeVries tells of work during her vacation in the northern regions of Michigan. Our dear sister is ready to go to Africa as soon as necessary arrangements can be made.

Our brother, Malcolm L. Gross, and his family have just arrived in this country from Nigeria, Africa, and are staying for the present in Philadelphia.

Rafael Hernandez, Ponce, Porto Rico, Aug. 17, reports receipt of draft sent. Encouraged in Sunday School work, and young children memorizing Scripture. Spreading truth by tracts. Heavy storms caused loss of life and large property damage. Much sickness in his family. Asks prayers of saints.

Bro. Hoze writes from Trinidad. He is greatly encouraged by activities of a young man, a letter-carrier, who is very faithful in distributing tracts and spreading the gospel by word of mouth as he goes about his work. It has made several openings for preaching by bro. Hoze, and they are starting a Bible Class for children. This is at an inland town 45 miles from where bro. Hoze is.

Later news reports a visit to Barbados, where he is having open air meetings whilst seeking a hall for preaching, which he finds difficult to obtain.

Mrs. Dewey, mother of Mrs. Woodhams, reports several packages sent by her by mail to Congo, were never delivered, and is sending dried fruit, etc., to New York for transmission.
Bro Germain writes encouragingly of work in France also new work on ships, tract publication, and

Letter from Women's Missionary Circle cf Elmwood Ave. Baptist Church, Elmira Heights, N. Y., requesting us to forward for them bandages and hospital supplies which they have ready for Dr. Woodhams. They furnished for him while he was with the Africa Inland Mission.

Bro. Zimmermann writes that he is overwhelmed by success of his efforts in starting work at European and U. S. ports, and requests our prayers.

Surely we have in these letters and papers material for much prayer. May we be stirred up, individually and as gatherings, to steadfast, believing, continuous prayer. It is the great business of our life in connection with the Lord's work.

SUPPORT OF THE FOREIGN WORK

Through the liberality of the saints in various assemblies, there has been a generous ministry, for which we are very grateful. It may not be out of place to say that in the course of the next few months it is hoped to send out several to Africa. This will entail a heavy expense, and we turn to "the Lord of the Harvest" to "send forth" these laborers. We just lay this matter before you. Those desiring to have fellowship in this fresh work may send, as usual, to the Missionary Fund, c o Hughes Fawcett, 115 Franklin St., New York City.

Letters, extracts, items, suggestions and questions thankfully received,

Address, S. R., c|o the Publishers, New York.

(Continued from page 429.)

The statement in Acts 2:41, 42 that those who received the Word and were baptized "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship," embraced only the truth of salvation through Christ; but further revelation through the ministry of the apostle Paul was to complete the canon of Scripture. (See Col. 1:25, 26). This embraced "the revelation of the mystery," which had not been made known before; so the words, "the apostles' doctrine and fellowship," may be given a wider application in our day.

The fellowship enjoyed by the saints on the day of Pentecost, in which they "continued steadfastly," was by no means confined to the breaking of bread; a most precious ordinance, which, however, there is 'a danger of talking out of its place as given in the word of God. We must not, therefore, limit our thought of fellowship to the act of breaking bread, a mistake which would rob us of much that is precious and important.

Fellowship in the Beginning

On the day of Pentecost, a divine unity was formed by the Holy Spirit. Believers were not merely an aggregate of saved persons, but by the Spirit were baptized, or united, in one Body of which Christ risen is the Head. The will of man did not form it-as in the case of a human organization-nor is its maintenance or direction by man's will. The Holy Spirit which formed that Body is alone competent to direct it; and He has the deepest and most intimate interest in carrying out and maintaining this unity for the fulfilment of the Father's counsels and the glory of His Son.

No power can break this unity, since its maintenance is the Spirit's work; but we are exhorted to "keep with diligence the unity of the Spirit, in the uniting bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3). It is not only a question of suitable conduct (an important matter, of course), but if the individual position be ever so clearly understood, and the affections and walk correspondingly excellent, it would be serious indeed to overlook or belittle this important truth by not endeavoring to keep the Spirit's unity.

The true ground of gathering for believers in this dispensation is that of the Body of Christ.

This is the only ground or principle of gathering together, for fellow-believers now. Let us consider one or two of our relationships:

(1) The Relationship of "saints" would not be characteristic of this dispensation. Saints there were from the beginning; as 1 Sam. 2:9 and many other scriptures show.

(2) Relationship of the "children of God." This again is not peculiar to this dispensation, as it includes men of faith throughout past dispensations. Not until Israel was called out of Egypt was there a gathering together by God, but even this was national, not vital; it was a mixture of saints and sinners. It separated Jews from Gentiles, but in the present dispensation God recognizes "Jews, Gentiles, and the Church of God" (1 Cor. 10:32).

It is assuredly true that the saints of God are one company, and children of God gather together; but the fact of their being "saints" and "children" could not make Jew and Gentile one. In the past and in the future (not in the Church)Jew and Gentile remain distinct, whatever may be the work of grace in the soul.

The early Christians evidenced that Spirit-formed unity by their godly care and interest in one another; they were "of one heart and one soul," and "great grace was upon them all." As yet there was no departure from the truth; there was nothing among them inconsistent with the truth of the one Body. But we are not at the beginning of the dispensation. We are in what Scripture terms "the last days," days of sad departure, and confessed difficulty. Indeed, the true heart may often repeat the words of Moses, "Show me now thy way." Amid the babel of voices and confusion of tongues, how sweet to hear the answering voice, "This is the way; walk ye in it."

Fellowship in the dispensation's closing days.

Has God a way for His people in the present universal failure? Is there a clearly defined path for faith in these closing days? If we ask, Has the Word of God changed? Faith readily answers, "No." Has the revealed Word altered in any wise through man's failure? Again the answer must be in the negative. Whatever the failure of the Assembly, whatever the character of the day in which we live, our privilege and responsibility is to walk according to the mind of God as revealed in His Word.

Someone has asked, "Should we not spread the Lord's Supper free from all sectarian names and communion, throw open the door, and invite all who love the Lord to come together? For, in fact, the one loaf upon the table does bear witness that we are 'one bread, one Body,' and there is no other body that faith can own but the Body of Christ."

Why should we not do this? I answer, The Lord has a welcome for all His own. That is right; but He is the "Holy and the True" who welcomes them, and He cannot give up His nature. How has the true Church become the invisible Church? Has it been without sin on her part? Is it her misfortune, not her fault? Take those seven epistles in Revelation, and trace the descent from the loss of first love in Ephesus to the sufferance of that woman Jezebel in Thyatira, and on through dead Sardis, to the present time; can we ignore the past, and, as though nothing had happened, begin again? What would it be but mere hardness of heart to say ro? Suppose an invitation "to all Christians" were accepted, and that we were able to reassemble all the members of Christ at the supper-brought together with their jarring views, their worldly entanglement, their evil associations-how far would this answer to the character implied by the Lord's Table? How far would He be owned and honored in this coming together? With the cause of all the scattering not searched out and judged, what would such a gathering be but a defiance of the holy discipline by which the saints were scattered? What would it be but another Babel? Can we tolerate the thought that such an external unity would be dear to Christ? Could He desire it apart from true cleansing and fellowship in truth?

All this was felt by many of the Lord's people in the past century; it led them to see that they were responsible to cleanse themselves from all worldly and sectarian associations, and act in obedience to the Word of God. This led to a great accession of light in the Lord, resulting in a coming together in His name alone, to partake of the supper, and for worship and prayer in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. There was no effort to rebuild what man's sin had broken down, nor to start some new movement with a better creed, or more correct ecclesiastical procedure. They believed the promise of Matt. 18:20 remained true for faith, and they acted upon it.

The freshness of those "early days" was a reflex of what characterized the early Church. Unworldliness, devotion to the Lord, love to His people, and the expectation of Christ's speedy return characterized them. The history of the movement is a record of God's unfailing goodness, and of the sufficiency of God's Word and the Spirit's presence. But the enemy's effort to mar and spoil has not been lacking. Human weakness caused the fine gold to become dim; worldliness opened the door for independency and division, calling for deep humiliation and confession on the part of those to whom God in grace gave such privileges and light.

Thus we are ever reminded of man's failure. Even in the days of the apostles many left the side of Paul for an easier path.

Still, the truth remains, and to the end of the dispensation we are promised an "open door" (Rev. 3:8). The word is, "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His, and Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2:19). That which bears His name is likened unto a great house where there are divers vessels, some to honor and some to dishonor; from the latter, those who would be faithful are bidden to separate, that the Master may have pleasure in using them for His service. Wherever evil is entrenched or suffered, separation is imperative if we would be true to Christ. Personal holiness is enjoined not in isolation, but "with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." J. W. H. N.

(To be continued, D. V.)

The feet upon the narrow way,
The eye upon the goal,
The peace of God to keep the heart,
And Christ to fill the soul,
While the Father's love ineffable
Doth sweetly crown the whole.

W. L. G.

Calendar:March 16th to April 15th
DAILY BIBLE READING:………Mar. 16th, Ezek. 4; Mar. 31, Ezek. 19; Apr. 15th, Ezek. 34. MEMORY WORK :………Reviewing of Gal. 5 and 6.
GOOD READING:.. .Complete "The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus," by J. G. Bellett.

Let us hear how you have succeeded in giving the Bible Reading the first place in your morning work. No doubt some of you would find it difficult, possibly you have said, "impossible." But forgive me for pressing it; I have found it such a help. I am quite aware that it is not everything, and that "first place" in our hearts is of greater importance; but I think the two go together. And just as other things "crowd out" the Bible, so the Bible, if given its place, will "crowd out" many other things. For instance, it crowds out the newspaper, the periodicals of fiction, and other time-stealers. It will push such things into such a subordinate place that they will not mar our taste for "that which is good."

Let me hear of your experience in this matter.

Memory Work

You will find it good to remember the numbers of the verses, as well as the words. It helps to preserve the whole passage in your mind. We all know "John 3:16," and do we know 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 2:21; Col. 3:16; 1 Cor. 1:9, and many other verses? It helps us in referring to them, or giving these passages to others. You have heard of the anxious soul who was accompanying a Christian friend to the train. He was longing for some word that would give him peace-but none seemed to
suit. At last the friend boarded the train and looking out on the anxious one on the platform he said, "Isaiah 53:6; Go in at the first all and come out at the second." The inquirer went home, opened at the verse, and found peace in God's message to him.

I need not always remind you that in speaking of these various methods, I am not making them the chief thing; but I have found them helpful, and pass them on to you.

How delightful it is to meditate on what we have memorized, to go over each precious verse and dwell upon every clause, almost every word in it. This answers to the mastication of our food. We know it is not wise to bolt our food; it produces dyspepsia. So may we learn to turn over the "handfuls of purpose" we have found, and get the benefit of their divine meaning. We will enjoy our food more, and get nourishment and strength for service from it.

Good Reading

Don't try to finish Mr. Bellett too quickly. He wrote out of a full heart that had meditated much on the Word. "Non multa, sed multum," is a good motto here- "Not many things, but much."

I spoke last time about some special work for the girls, and now I want to lay a proposition before the boys, though the girls are not necessarily excluded. The other day a dear brother asked me what I thought about starting a correspondence class in New Testament Greek. I had been spoken to by several who were already working in that line, and I want to lay it before us all for our prayerful consideration.

It is not something to be entered into lightly. Nor is it so easy that it will require no study. It will call for perseverance, whether you feel like it or not; and you will not begin to see much fruit of your work, in practical ability to read the New Testament for a good long time. Perhaps you may never become scholars, but you will learn to see fresh beauties in the Word of God of which you have not dreamed. I wouldn't sell what I know of my Greek Testament for a great deal.

This is just a little preliminary notice. I know of quite a few who, I think, are ready to undertake this work. I would be glad for us all to start together. We would probably have two lessons a month, which might take as much as fifteen minutes each day. And you know 15 minutes a day means 7 ½ hours a month, or 90 hours a year. But that means every day, and if you miss a day to catch it up. Many might think, "Oh, I can give more than 15 minutes," but they forget the days when it seems as if you couldn't give even five minutes. So let us count carefully the cost, and then, with the Lord's blessing, we will find real profit.

The lessons would probably be announced in Y. B. D. and then written out by each member of the class, and sent to me with a stamped and self-addressed envelope for return. They would be gone over and marked, and sent back to you with any suggestions that seemed needed.

If the undertaking is thought feasible, I will give list of books required (not many), and perhaps we can make a start in May. What do you say?

I will only add that any High School scholar would be able to undertake it; indeed a Grammar School "grad" could by steady work make progress. But I would advise only those to begin who are old enough to appreciate and understand the work. The reference to the Grammar School refers only to those who were obliged to leave school before taking up High School work.

And speaking of the High School, what a temptation it is in very many cases to worldliness. There seems to be no question that the moral and spiritual tone is low. We hear of sad and disgraceful scenes in which foolish young students engaged, which must bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of those who attend such schools. And even where sinful extremes may not be indulged in, can we without self-reproach think of attending dances, give theatrical plays, and such things that belong only to the world? May the Lord keep your precious young lives, dear young fellow-believers, that you may walk apart from all such things. May you be good soldiers, who are not ashamed to confess their Lord. So let us set Him always before us, and we will have guidance and strength to keep ourselves "unspotted from the world."

Correspondence

I am glad to begin this part of Y. B. D., and shall be thankful for all letters of interest, or questions you may have.

"Last year has been to me one of much blessing. I have been able by the help of the Lord, to set aside an hour each day for this work; have followed the instructions given in your book, 'How to Study the Bible,' etc. Though I did not at first see much profit, I am now reaping the benefit, and am able, by the help of the Lord, to teach a believers' Bible Class. I would say this for the encouragement of others to keep on, remembering the words, 'Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.' I think it would be profitable if a number of questions were put up each month, to be answered; and if 'the class' could not answer, then you could give the correct answer. We are living in times of worldliness, and how good if the young believers, in place of seeking pleasures, would find enjoyment in Bible Study."-J. D., Zeeland, Mich.

I am glad to get this letter, and think we will adopt our brother's suggestion as to having a question and answer department. It is rather late to begin this month, but our brother has sent on several questions which we will begin with.

Ques. 1.-Why are we told in John 4:2 that our Lord did not baptize, and in John 3:22 it is said He did?

Ques. 2.-Have we any record beside 1 Cor. 15:6 of the 500 brethren who saw the Lord after His resurrection?

Please send in answers to me promptly, so that we may publish them in the May number, if possible.

Address, S. Ridout, 1138 E. 7th St., Plainfield, N. J.

"I have just completed reading your letter, in Y. B. D., and am very much interested in the Department,"-E. J., Seattle, Wash. Our young sister goes on to ask what is the usual age for believers to attend the Young Believer's meetings. Some have suggested 15 years as the limit on the side of youth, and I don't know how old for the other side. I am sure we welcome all to these meetings who are young in heart, and who will not change the character of it, as adapted to young Christians. Judging from her letter, I would gladly welcome our young sister, though she is only 14. It is good exercise to adjust ourselves to the age and condition of others.

I have another very interesting letter from a young sister calling for a more personal answer, about which I want to speak to you, in order that our prayers may be engaged for her. She has been entrusted with care of her brother's child, a boy of 12, whose mother has died, and is anxious that he should be instructed in the Lord's ways, and safeguarded from the world. Let us pray for her.

(Continued from page 142).

CHAPTER 3 The Living Tissues forming the Body

We have hitherto been occupied with the simple and complex elements forming the body, but must turn now to the various characters in which these elements appear. In one sense nothing seems more heterogeneous than the disjecta membra of the body. What have the hair, teeth, muscles, blood, bones, in common? What link unites the kidneys, heart, lungs and liver?

As we have already seen, all these varied forms are composed of comparatively few basic elements-their constituents can be separated, and seem to be identical. The multitudinous forms in which they appear are but the result of the various positions in which these elements occur, and of differing vital processes which give them their special interrelation and functions.

This is especially evident when we come to speak of the underlying unity beneath all organism, as seen in the elemental cell which is the unit of all bodily form and of that mysterious, untraceable life to which it owes its existence and perpetuation.

We have already had occasion to remark upon the unity underlying all nature; and this could hardly be otherwise when we consider that it is all the creation of one Divine Mind. Since God is one, He has set the stamp of that self-consistent unity upon all that He has made. We need not be surprised therefore to find that all vital existence in the material world has as its beginning the single cell. The earliest or most elementary animal is the unicellular Amoeba, and all animal existence, no matter how complex its later organism, and how immense its proportions, begins as a minute, single cell. The whale as well as the tiniest insect thus starts out in life as a single cell. And this applies to the body of man as well. Very much has been made of this undisputed fact in support of the theory of evolution, into which we do not propose to go fully. It will suffice to call attention to the fact that the single cell of each animal is as distinctive and characteristic in its nature as the full-grown animal. The cell of a whale can never by any possibility develop into the body of an insect, or vice versa, still less into manhood. "After its kind" remains irrevocably true.

Similarly the argument that because the human and other bodies exhibit in the various stages of their prenatal growth features similar to the various stages of animal life, in what is called the ascending scale of life-is futile. For permanency does not mark these resemblances. The similarity of the organs of the ear and throat to the gills of a fish ceases as the embryo passes on in its growth. Mr. Henry Drummond in his "Ascent of Man," dwells upon this similarity, as do many others. But is it not more in accord with the facts, and with the great truth of the unity of design in all creation, to see in all this but the "footprints of the Creator," who thus puts His mark upon all His works?

Man, then, each human being, begins his bodily existence as a single cell, but it is a human cell, as much then as when he has attained his growth "unto a perfect man." How utterly unlike the end is the beginning, and yet how indissolubly associated with it. And so in the spiritual sphere, who could tell the marvelous outcome of the beginnings of divine life? The moment of quickening, of the impregnation of the soul with the "incorruptible seed of the word of God that liveth and abideth forever," a new spiritual life has begun, a child of God is launched into its existence of life and love and service, of enjoyment of communion, which is not consummated until it shall be "conformed to the image of His Son" in eternal glory!

Well may we pause, and reverently meditate upon this work of God. Doubtless if the holiness and solemnity of the theme are realized, we will find many instructive analogies between the inception of the life of physical man and the spiritual. "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:5, 6).

We have said that each human individual begins life as a single cell. That cell existed in a previous condition in which it could never have become an individual. It must eventually have been "cast out," forever failing to answer to the possibilities of manhood. There was necessary the reception of another principle before the single cell could start upon its wondrous growth into manhood.

So in the spiritual life, how many souls pass on into eternity never having been begotten of the Word and Spirit. "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures" (Jas. 1:18). Without this new life, all the possibilities of becoming children of God are valueless-every faculty of spirit, soul and body is there, but there is no life toward God. One may have the greatest advantages of physical, intellectual, and even moral endowment; he may be the child of a long line of really spiritual ancestors, and yet pass into a hopeless, Christless eternity. Nabal was of the house of godly Caleb (1 Sam. 25:3). David, the man after God's own heart, was the father of the worthless and profane Amnon, the godless Absalom (2 Sam., chs. 13, 14). "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." There must be the impregnation of the heart by the living word of the living God.

Doubtless there are special seasons when the soul of the natural man is more or less favorably disposed to the reception of the Word. Some providential occurrence has awakened him-sickness, bereavement, financial loss, a narrow escape from danger have spoken loudly to him, and he has been partly awakened and made resolutions of amendment. Or he has been under the sound of the faithful presentation of the gospel, a loving parent, a faithful teacher or friend has stirred his conscience. How solemn is the moment-

"Jesus Christ is passing by;
Sinner, lift to Him thine eye;
As the precious moments flee
Cry, Be merciful to me."

He listens, is aroused, is "almost persuaded," he may even make a profession of religion, and unite with some company of Christians.

"But the word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith" (Heb. 4:2). The word was not received into "an honest and good (sincere) heart" (Lk. 8:IS). The word has to become "the engrafted word"-μφυτov, implanted, vitally linked with the soul. To use physiological language there must be a fusion of nuclei into one.* *Martin, "The Human Body," pp. 517, 518.*

"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12, 13) (γεvέσθα, έγεvvήθησαv-cognate roots, both suggesting the beginning of a new, a divine life).

This then is the beginning of life, in the literal, physical sense, and in the spiritual application. We will now seek to trace that life in its growth, organization and development into the full grown man. We can give but little further definition of "life" in the abstract. God is "the living God;" of Christ it is said, "In Him was life." It is, to use a tautological phrase, the vital principle. This does not carry us further. We only know life from its source, "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28); "He giveth to all life and breath and all things" (ver. 25). Our further knowledge of life is gathered from its manifestations, and, in the spiritual man, from its moral character. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9).

We have thus, imperfectly enough, sought to learn the lesson of the beginning of life. The subject is most fascinating, and the analogies marvelously exact. Space will not permit us to dwell upon this detail; we will pass on to follow the living cell in its various stages of development.* *Those who care to follow the subject into further detail can find the physiological side given in standard works, as Kirke's Physiology; "The Human Body," by Martin; "Text Book of Anatomy and Physiology," by Kimber and Gray.*

The individual, beginning life as a single nucleated cell, does not remain in that condition, but proceeds to grow by the formation of new cells. These are not however merely added externally, but are part of the parent cell, which grows by assimilation, respiration and elimination-thus being a kind of miniature of the whole body. Nutrition is absorbed by the cell, oxygen is also absorbed, and used products are eliminated (Kimber and Gray, pp. 14,15).

This cell growth is by division, which is effected in two ways, direct and indirect. Direct division is simply by enlargement and elongation of the cell, with constriction of the nucleus, followed by the entire cell, until it is divided into two halves, thus forming two new cells. This process is however rare.

The ordinary, or indirect method is far more complex, involving changes in the structure of the nucleus and a re-arrangement of its material. The nucleus and not the entire cell is the subject of this change, which is marked by four distinct stages. In, or near, each nucleus there is a centrosome, or minute spherical body, which has an attraction for the fibrils or granules in its vicinity. The first stage is marked by the division of the centrosome into two parts, or poles, which are linked together in a kind of spindle, around which filaments from the nucleus are grouped in loops in strict numerical order, each animal having its own characteristic number. In man this number is sixteen.* These are called chromosomes. *For those familiar with the spiritual significance of numbers, this will be of interest. 16 = 4 x 4, or the square of the number of the feeble creature. If we but remembered this, it might save us from the folly of seeking to go beyond our measure (2 Cor. 10:13). Satan sought to make the woman forget this:"Ye shall be as God" (Gen. 3:5). The "number of a man" (Rev. 13:18), 666, teaches the same truth from another point of view. It is the assumption by the creature of power and authority-a straining after perfection, 7. In Genesis it is the assumption of divine nature. In either case it is an impossibility. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils" (Isa. 2:22).

The new man rejoices to recognize this stamp of feebleness and dependence. The very life he has from God is a life of faith, of dependence. "The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).*

The first stage is concluded by the chromosomes gathering around the central part of the spindle, which occupies the long axis of the nucleus. The nuclear membrane, or wall, and the nucleolus disappear.

The second stage is marked by the splitting of the chromosomes into longitudinal halves, which are gradually drawn by the contraction of the fibrils of the spindle toward the two poles of the nucleus, one half to each pole.

The third stage carries this process further until the chromosomes which were grouped about the equator or central part of the spindle, are now grouped about the two poles, forming two new centers for the "daughter nuclei."

The fourth or last stage carries the separation to completion. The fibrils of the spindle gradually disappear, the chromosomes assume the form of threads, develop a nuclear membrane, marking them off from the rest of the cell, and forming also a nucleolus. Nothing remains but the constriction about the body of the cell to be completed. The nuclei enlarge and the cell is divided into two parts, each going to its appropriate nucleus (Kirke, pp. 20, 21).

Let us seek to trace the spiritual correspondence in all this. "And beside this add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 1:5-8). As is well known, a more exact translation of the earlier part of this passage is, "Supply in your faith virtue," etc. The preposition shows that it is not by accretion, addition, that this growth takes place, but that the change is effected in the faith, which thus is characterized by the virtue, or courage, which thus becomes an integral part of it; and so with each element. It is not some new and extraneous feature which is added, but the entire spiritual fiber or tissue is permeated by the elements which produce true growth.

Where this spiritual mitosis takes place normally, the whole man is characterized by it, but if there is any failure in absorption, there is a lack, and spiritual atrophy takes place. Thus John Mark showed deficiency in the soldier virtue, courage, and returned to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13 with ch. 15:37, 38). The Galatians "did run well," but there was a lack, and even their faith faded, so that the apostle had to say, "I am in doubt of you" (ch. 4:11, 20).

Most perfectly did the Lord Jesus exhibit this homogeneity of character. He grew, but not by the addition of elements which did not exist before, and were subsequently added. " Thou didst make me to hope upon My mother's breasts" (Ps. 22:9). "I was cast upon Thee from the womb; Thou art My God from My mother's belly" (ver. 10). "And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom:and the grace of God was upon Him." "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Lk. 2:40, 52). Our blessed Lord's nature did not change, although perfectly adapted to each stage of His earthly life from the manger to the cross. The elements of faith, hope, love, obedience, in perfect holiness, were always present; but there was nothing precocious in His childhood or early manhood. Every "cell" of His infancy as well as His manhood was of the nature of holiness; He was ever "that Holy Tiling" (Lk. 1:35).

We see this underlying unity pervading all Scripture, which is thus the perfect food of the new man. Of uniformity we will find little or nothing; there is endless variety and adaptability throughout. The Old Testament is filled with the Spirit of Christ, though hidden behind the veil of type and shadow, and the legal preparation needed. The New has the same elements of truth, holiness, righteousness, love and grace, shining now in all their luster in the face of Jesus Christ.

Even where there is a new revelation, which "in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men," the "mystery hid from ages and generations," it is in full accord with the principles of the entire Scripture, and we find in Old Testament types adumbrations of the "Man and the woman," the Bride of Christ.

Let us take up at random any portion of Scripture, and we find this all pervasive unity coupled with advancement in truth. "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel," etc. (Col. 1:4, 5). The faith does not have the love merely added to it. It is inherent in the faith, a part of its nature-"Faith which worketh by love" (Gal. 5:6), Similarly the hope is an integral element of the faith and love. There is no such thing as a Christian with faith, but devoid of love or of hope.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22, 23). All of these characteristics, though distinguishable, are so blended and tempered together that they cannot be separated. Joy is present in love, peace in joy, and so throughout the whole concatenation of grace.

This is also beautifully exhibited in the various portions of any separate epistle. Ephesians, for instance, begins with a wondrous and orderly unfolding of what we call doctrine. This shades off, in the third chapter, into the dispensational aspect of the doctrine, which in the fourth passes into church truth, and gradually becomes most intensely practical as to the walk, and the fulfilment of the responsibilities of our earthly relationships in the rest of the epistle. But there is no clear cut cleavage between the doctrine and the practice. In the latter we recognize the same elements of "the new man" as we found in the former. In Romans the salutations of the 16th chapter are the outgrowth of the relationship to God established in the 3rd and 5th chapters. And so it is throughout the whole word of God.

But it may be said are we not over-emphasizing this homogeneity, both of Scripture and of the man in Christ? Is there a dull uniformity, an absolute identity extending throughout both? We answer:No more than there is in the various cells which compose the marvelous varieties of tissues in the body. In either case we must first recognize the essential unity of all the forms in which they are manifested, and then we will be ready to distinguish them into classes and groups, and, indeed, individually as well. This will occupy us shortly; at present we simply refer to it. It is as true of the body of man with its endless elements as of his soul with its various characteristics.

"As diverse as the waves, as united as the sea."' We must first, however, look a little more closely at the spiritual significance of cell growth and development. S. R.

(To be continued.)

*Ephesians 2:13.*

I am not now what once I was,
Nor am I what I long to be;
But what I am, I am by grace,
And when I see Him face to face
I shall be like Him perfectly.

I once was dead and thought I lived:
But now I live, yet dead I am.
I live in Him with whom I died;
I, to the world, am crucified-
My life, my song, is Calvary's Lamb.

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).

"I am crucified with Christ:nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

CHAPTER 4 Tissue Differentiation-Diversity in Unity " (Continued from page 265.)

8. Bone or Osseous tissue is the last in order of the connective tissues. In one sense it is farthest removed from the soft protoplasm which lies at the base of all organic structures, but the continuity of life and of cell tissue is preserved. The intercellular substance has been rendered hard by the infiltration of mineral salts, calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate and some magnesium phosphate. These salts compose two-thirds the weight of the bone, yet are so thoroughly identified with it that their presence cannot be detected by a high power lens.

The salts can be removed by diluting them out by acid, leaving the shape of the bone unaltered. Similarly, by a' reverse process of burning, the animal tissues can all be consumed and thus removed, and the shape of the bone^ remain unaltered, with nothing but the mineral salts, in a brittle state, remaining.

In accord with what we have already observed about connective tissue in general, the bones in a special way represent the complete infiltration of objective Truth into the vital parts of the new man, both individually and collectively. As in normal, healthy osseous tissue there is complete identification of the mineral salts with the animal matter, so on the spiritual side there is such an assimilation of the truth that it becomes part of the man. When there is a deficiency in the salts the proper growth of the bone is hindered, and while its general shape is preserved, there is a lack in proper proportion, and especially in strength. The largely prevalent deformities caused by rachitis in infants is due to a failure in assimilation of the mineral salts. These salts are often removed by the modern over-refining of our staple foods, and probably their assimilation is hindered by the absence of the vital principles called vitamins. When these are absent the bones fail to receive their quota of mineral salts. It is significant that the vitamins come largely from growing leafy vegetables, and from the oil of fish. In both cases the mineral salts, of the land or sea, are laid hold of by the vital processes of the plant or animal. It would seem also that sunlight has a most important part in the assimilation of the proper elements. In brief, infants thrive best on pure milk, fish oil, and in the sunlight.

The spiritual meaning of this is clear. Objective truth, which answers to the mineral salts, is only properly assimilated when identified with the vital presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. Grass and leafy vegetables flourish in the sunlight. The green can only be developed in the light, and it is this action of chlorophyl in the light which promotes the actual growth of the green grass and the herb. So true is this that it is found that milk and butter produced from animals fed on hay and dried foods is deficient in the required vitamins. Are we wrong in seeing in all this the great truth that all. spiritual nutrition is dependent upon the vital presence of and communion with the Holy Spirit? The Word of God is not a dull, though correct, history of events, nor merely an inspired compilation of doctrines. Every part of it is instinct with life. It is a living Book. The epistles are not a cyclopedia of doctrinal treatises, but pulsate with the life of God working in the inspired instrument, filling and controlling mind, will and heart.

The blessed Spirit abides in the word He has given us. "The words that I speak unto you they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Hence the vast importance, the necessity, for feeding freshly upon the word of God. The Spirit makes use of His word in its action upon our hearts. "Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (1 Pet. 2:1, 2). The latter verse has been rendered, "As newborn babes desire the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation" (J.N.D.'s Version). The expression λoγικόv δoλov γάλα is somewhat difficult to express in English – "characterized by the Word" is an awkward circumlocution to translate the single Greek adjective. All food for infants, as for all, must be pure – "guileless" is the force of the adjective, for there is no guile in Him who is light. The food must also be impregnated with, saturated by, the Word. It must be, for babes, milk, freshly assimilated by the power of the Holy Spirit. Such is the perfect written word of God, and of similar character must be all true ministry and instruction. The same apostle, Peter, writes, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (1 Pet. 4:11). Thus and thus alone will true nutrition be ministered to the newborn babes in the Lord's household.

A vital ministry! "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). How this is needed to-day. It is not to answer to the cry, as in Israel's day, "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits" (Is. 30:10). There is a grave menace in an over-refining of truth, in taking from it the elements needed to give strength and stability. Wherever the Spirit is unhindered He will give a ministry both fresh and strong, which will supply bone and sinew to the individual and to the Church as a whole, We will be witnesses, the Church will be a witnessing body, and this cannot be without soundness in the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).

A few scriptures will show the significance of the bones in Scripture. "A bone of Him shall not be broken" (John 19:36 with Exod. 12:46; Num. 9:12). See also Ps. 34:19, 20. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken." However much He might be stricken and buffeted, so that His visage was more marred than any man's, as we sing,

"O Head once full of bruises,
So full of shame and scorn,
'Mid other sore abuses,
Mocked with a crown of thorn,"

yet the firm basis of His inward life, His moral character of holiness and righteousness remained unchanged- a bone was not broken. It was this essential perfectness which endeared Him to His Father, and which was the reason why nothing but resurrection could be the divine answer to His atoning work. May this not also explain the expression of our risen Lord, "A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have" (Luke 24:39)? Whatever changes there might be in the outward form of His life, its underlying character remained the same.

Similarly, as we have quoted, the underlying basic character of the righteous is maintained in all his afflictions. Job might be deprived of wealth, family, friends; might be covered with putrefying sores, but the root of the matter was in him and he comes forth, after he has learned his needed lesson, without a broken bone, a marred character. On the other hand, "Envy is the rottenness of the bones" (Prov. 14:30). The convicted soul cries, "My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day" (Ps. 32:3). "Heal me, for my bones are vexed" (Ps. 6:2). "Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin" (Ps. 38:3). These and other scriptures show the use made of the material to show the spiritual.

At the risk of repetition we add a word as to the presence or absence of revealed truth in the life of the individual and the Church. Without it there may be a correct form, but no strength. That which should be firm and unyielding, when the truth of God is at stake, becomes vacillating, unable to be "the pillar and ground of the truth." This accounts for the efforts of the enemy to eliminate the Scriptures from the chief place in the life of God's people. Higher Criticism, in all its modernistic forms, deprives men of the only thing which will give form and strength to a testimony for God. The "form of godliness'" may be there, the shape of the bones, but "the power thereof" is lacking, Instead there is a molluscous helplessness, which can neither stand nor fight. Of what value, by itself, is amiability, sweetness of manner, even correct morals, if the truth of Christ the Son of the living God be lacking.

On the other hand "speaking the truth in love" ever marks a true testimony. A mere correctness of the form in the truth, a rigid contention for doctrine without its transforming power in the life is a dry brittle thing, which easily crumbles into utter weakness. This brittle-ness is characteristic of age. "Thou hast the dew of thy youth" marks our Lord. Where there is this vigor and freshness, even a fall does not result in a fracture. Recovery is prompt and complete.

Even a fracture is knit together more effectually and promptly when there is abundance of life in the bone. As is well known the knitting process in old age is slow, and sometimes the sufferer is maimed for the rest of his life. The lesson is obvious.* *For further details on the importance of the vitamins in bone growth and nutrition the reader is referred to an interesting work, "Food, Nutrition and Health," by Professors McCollum and Simmonds of John Hopkins University, also the larger works of Professor McCollum. An interesting article, "Health from Sunlight," will be found in the Literary Digest, for August 28th, 1926.*

Coming next to the structure of the bone, there are two general kinds, the cancellated or spongy, and the dense or compact. This is not due to a difference in the matter, but to the larger or smaller cavities, with more or less solid material between them. The compact tissue is the stronger and is on the outer part of the bones, especially in the longer ones; the spongy portion is on the inside and serves to give extension and lightness where most needed.

The cancellated bones have abundant nutrition from the blood-vessels supported by the marrow. This latter substance is in the hollow of the long bones. At the end of the long bones it is red, and in addition to supporting many blood vessels, contains white and red cells from which the corresponding cells in the blood are derived. Hence the vast importance of healthy marrow in the bones. Without that anaemia would result, and the body quickly fail in health and vigor.

The bones throughout are traversed by Haversian canals, and their tributary canaliculi, forming a complete system for the circulation of nutritive blood and lymph. This system supplies the entire bone substance of the body with its sustenance, maintaining its cells and preserving its vitality, as we have already seen. How beautifully has our gracious God made every portion of our anatomy a vital and integral part of the whole.
All this furnishes abundant and interesting illustrations of the truths upon which we have already dwelt. The growth of the bone from the cartilaginous stage in early infancy to the gradual ossification of the entire bone corresponds to the spiritual growth of the new man. In the goodness of God he is not at first subjected to the tests for which he has not strength. The babe knows the Father, and refuses what is not of Him; while the young man is strong and has the word of God (objective truth) abiding in him. Thus he is able to overcome the wicked one. In the fathers, the growth is complete, and they are in that sense, marked by a knowledge of Him who is from the beginning (1 John 2:12-29). It is of great importance that ossification should not be completed too early in life. The result would be a dwarfed and stunted body. So spiritually, abundant nutrition, assimilation and elimination, is necessary to prevent a too rapid completion of growth. In fact spiritually this process is doubtless more gradual than in the material body. A most practical question however for us is, Are we continuing to grow? Or are we already a finished product? Sad indeed is it when such is the case, and we present to the eye of our Father a dwarfed and stunted soul.

Let us see to it that the growth of bone continues in our spiritual body long after we have received the great outlines of truth. Let the entire Scriptures, especially the Gospels and Epistles, be daily fed upon, and their formative truths filter throughout our entire inner man, making us "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might" (Eph. 6:10). S. R.

(To be continued, D. V.)

The Care of the Lord's People. "Lovest thou Me? .. .Feed My lambs.. .Feed My sheep" (John 21:15-17). As is well known, there is a delicate distinction of meaning in the use of the words "love" and "feed." Throughout, Peter uses the word φιλέω, for human friendship, while the Lord uses the stronger, spiritual word άγαπάω, until the last time, when He descends to Peter's level and uses the, perhaps, weaker word φιλέω. Similarly in the word for "feed," we have in the first instance the word βόσκω, "to give nourishment to, to pasture." This is what lambs need, food. In the next case it is πoιμάvω, "to shepherd, to lead, protect and care for." This is appropriate to the sheep; they are older, and require the oversight implied in the word. But in the last case, while still speaking of the sheep, our Lord uses the word βόσκω, for sheep need feeding as well as watching.

The Heart of the Shepherd. In the various gifts to the church, we find "pastors, shepherds" (Eph. 4:11). And in the Chief Shepherd we have in their perfection the characteristics which mark each one endowed with the gift, the care of souls. "I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11); and the apostle says, "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16). This self-denying love does not wait for some supreme opportunity of showing itself, but as the following verse shows is ready to minister to the present need in a natural, human way. This is contrasted with the "hireling," whose self-interest cannot hold him in time of danger. How different is the attitude of the real shepherd. "The flocks and herds with young are with me:and if men should over-drive them one day, all the flock will die" (Gen. 33:13). "Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out. of the flock:and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth" (1 Sam. 17:34, 35). We may not all have the special, distinctive gift of the pastor; but if we know the heart of the "Shepherd and Bishop of our souls," we will all have the heart of the pastor. We will love, and love always cares for others.

Personal and Assembly care. The assembly is composed of all the individuals in it, and if these are marked by shepherd love and care, it will also characterize the whole gathering. It will not think of itself as a court of justice to inflict corrections and penalties, but will yearn over the lambs and sheep of Christ who have been committed to its care. Every child of God should feel at home in the assembly. Nor will this beget a spirit of undue familiarity or carelessness, but of confidence and mutual helpfulness. Nothing can take the place of love. It is not weak, but the strongest thing in the world. In natural life it is the "likest God" that men have. And in spiritual life it is the atmosphere in which we live, the true motive of our lives. It will lead us instinctively to care for the welfare of the saints, and this will mark the assembly as well as the individual.

Normal oversight and care. The hospital is not the normal abode, nor is spiritual surgery the normal expression of proper care. Feeding the lambs comes first, then oversight of the sheep. Let us fear any tendency that overlooks this basic fact. We will thus be fitted for the proper use of the rod. A well-ordered house is not one where the rod is conspicuous, but where all works smoothly and harmoniously without friction. True, the rod is there, held in reserve for real necessity, but the assembly will be marked by diligent feeding, and loving care of those committed to it. As we have said, lambs need food. When they become older they need to be led and directed. But even the sheep require also the food of the lambs.

Troubles to be settled within, not without. The vast majority of cases calling for oversight and care can and should be settled within the peaceful fold. Euodias and Syntyche have a difference. It is not aired before the world, nor even before the saints. A word of entreaty, a loving admonition is ordinarily sufficient. But if not, things are to be settled not outside but inside. Suppose there is strife, discord; suppose there is a real trespass. Then is the time to test the reality of our faith and position. One of the saddest blots upon a testimony to the unity of the Body of Christ, is the ease with which persons are cut off, the promptness with which divisions are effected. If the will is at work, it always seeks not the benefit, but the overthrow of the offender. Amputation is the last resort in surgery-to save life. How many weary nights, how much pain will one endure before submitting to the knife. Let us look at it calmly. There may be for a long time a state of alienation, suspicion or strife, which must be borne with, labored and prayed over. Exhortation, reproof, rebuke, all are exercised-and all within the assembly without a thought of cutting off.

Put away from among yourselves. Excommunication is thus left for the manifest wickedness which can have no place among the saints of God. The drunkard, adulterer, blasphemer, are singled out and repudiated by the assembly, in the fear of God, and in real love for the wrongdoer, whose course leaves no other treatment possible. He is a leper, and is treated as such, and goes on, in all probability to manifest that leprosy in a more flagrant way. But the saints do not confound with glaring cases the impulsive, or even the quarrelsome, disposition. Brethren may fall out, alas, but there is power within the circle of fellowship to wash the feet and restore to communion. The assembly is no place to give vent to spite and self-will or to satisfy a grudge. May the Lord preserve and deliver us from these things, in order that the holy, healing power of His grace may be manifested. S. R.

CHAPTER 5

The Framework of the Body-the Skeleton

(Continued from page 435.)

We return now to consider man as a five-fold being, taking up the groups in their natural order.

1. the skull. There can be no question that the head, the framework of which is the skull, is the crown and most important part of the whole body. Its position indicates this. Forming the summit or apex of the entire structure, it may be compared to the castle or palace of the master of the entire domain. From it he looks out upon the whole creation, far and near. Here are housed the various departments for receiving messages and transmitting orders. From this as a center the entire estate is administered, cared for and protected. All is subject to the control, and exists for him who dwells there. In other words the skull is the case which contains the organs of vision, hearing, smell, taste, and feeling, and of speech. It is first of all the seat of the brain, the closest link with the man himself, the conscious ego. From it radiates the vast and complex nervous system which receives all impressions and conveys all impulses of action. Without the head, the whole marvelous structure of the body is useless, meaningless, lifeless.

It is significant that the form and purpose of the head require the erect position which distinguishes man practically from all other creatures. The natural posture of these is horizontal, while his is erect. He is thus qualified, and compelled, to look upward and outward. It suggests his link, as a conscious responsible being, with God. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). The suggested etymology of the Greek word for man, vθρωπoς, "the one who turns the eye upward," may not be incorrect.

Not only does the upright position suggest the link of man with God, but that posture is required for all normal activities. Man is erect by creation:"God hath made man upright" (Eccl. 7:29). Instinctively he resumes that attitude after having taken any other position from whatever cause. And this suggests the moral nature which is man's by creation; uprightness, righteousness are as much the normal moral characteristics as the erect posture is the physical. That his condition is the opposite in fallen man is but the proof of that fall; he is not as God intended him to be. Sin is the contradiction of the purpose of his creation.* *This refers of course to God's purpose. For the fulfilment of that purpose man must be established in essential righteousness. This was not the case at his creation. As a responsible moral agent, he must be tested, and therefore while entirely innocent he was not holy. In this the blessed Second Man out of heaven was different. He was not merely innocent, but "that Holy Thing." This points also to the union of the divine Person with the perfect human nature.*

Similarly, the head properly in its place of supremacy secures erectness of standing. The simplest and most important rule for the proper position is to "hold up the head." So all righteousness of character and walk is the outcome of proper recognition of and relationship to God. "And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever" (Dan. 4:34). The cause of the dissolute, groveling, bestial life that marks man is that he refuses to recognize what Nebuchadnezzar learned.

"This head of gold" (Dan. 2:38) is only truly that when God is reverenced and obeyed.

The skull may be roughly described as a spherical case enclosing the brain. That it is marvelously adapted to this end we may well believe, knowing Him whose name is Wonderful, who is its Designer. This appears not only in its general shape, size and contour, but also in every detail. Beginning at the more general features, we recognize two main parts of the skull, the cranium, or brain case, and the face. The former is essentially a closed chamber, safely guarding its priceless treasure; the latter is adapted as the framework for communication with the outer world through the various sense organs, and the mouth and tongue. Though distinct from each other, yet they are intimately associated together. The cranium would be a sepulcher were it not linked with the face through which it speaks.

Without going into detail we may regard the cranium as the symbol of the abode of the new man, the self-conscious believer in Christ, endowed with life and endless spiritual faculties; the face is the visible channel of the expression of these powers. Without the face, the faculties would be without the power of expression; without the brain, in the cranium, the face might be beautiful but lifeless. Thus we are reminded of the composite character of our spiritual being.

The same is true when we regard it as a part of the Body, the Church. Here we have evidently a double significance. As a part of the entire body, we think of the head as composed of various parts and members; as representing Christ as Head of the Church, His Body, it stands supreme, alone. As an integral part of the body it is spoken of in 1 Cor. 12:13-31. Here the head is dependent upon the feet, the eye, the hand (ver. 21).

When we speak of it as a figure of Christ, the Head of the Church His Body, we must tread softly and guard against any carnal application of physical truth. We can, however, reverently follow where Scripture leads, and under the Spirit's guidance recognize the features of Him whom we have learned to love and adore as He shows Himself through the lattice (Song 2:9).

In Ephesians we read (chap. 1:22, 23) that God "gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fulness (or complement) of Him that filleth all in all." Here is something more than mere supremacy or headship in a general way. The Church is His Body, vitally linked with Him, who has imparted His life to her. As His Body she is the vehicle for the expression and carrying out of His will, the complement, the filling out- amazing thought-of Him who filleth all things. So the Church is spoken of as linked and identified with Him "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12).

Similarly, in Ephesians 4:IS, 16, we read, "Speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto (είς) Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ, from whom (έξ o, as source and abiding center of life) the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth (lit., "joining of supply," άφς τς έπιχoρηγίάς) according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love." In the face of such a scripture we cannot but be encouraged to seek to gather the meaning of this wondrous Headship, as expressed in the Head of the Body.

We are, however, at present occupied by the skull alone, and not the marvelous treasure it encloses. Composed of bony tissue and cartilage it reminds us, as we have been seeing, of the outline of revealed truth which sets forth the thought of God. It is not mere objective truth, but as living tissue is infiltrated by the mineral salts, so the truth permeates the entire spiritual organism.

Might we venture to remind the student of truth that it must ever be "as the truth is in Jesus"-living and pulsating with His life. It is only too easy to forget this in our study of doctrine, and nowhere is this more dangerous than in the study of the Person of our blessed living Lord.

We have still to dwell for a little upon the skull as a composite, and to learn something of the various bones of which it is composed. These, in general, are 8 for the cranium, 14 for the face, 6 for the ear, and the hyoid bone for the tongue. The two latter, the bones for ear and tongue, have to do more directly with the functioning of those organs, than with the structure. The remaining two groups are directly essential in the framework of the skull.

Of these two groups the cranium is the brain-case proper; the face bones have to do largely with the links with the external world. We may say the cranium is the type of the person; the face, of his faculties and expression. The first is connected with the subjective side, the second with the objective. And yet these are so intimately linked together as to be mutually essential. As with Israel, Judah (answering to subjective and personal truth) and Ephraim and the rest (the external and objective) were distinct in character and place, yet any jealousy, discord, or division between these marred their national unity, so the rational side of man is indissolubly blended with its expression.

The bones of the cranium are eight in number, two of which-the parietal and temporal-are pairs, on opposite sides of the skull. The total number is that of a new beginning, the eighth day beginning a new week. It may suggest that new creation into which the "new man" has entered, as in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

The two pairs on the opposite side of the cranium illustrate the bilateral character of the entire body, and serve to preserve the beautiful symmetry of the skull. Man by creation, and the new man by new creation, is a harmonious unity. He is not "one-sided," and it is good to see this illustrated in this basic department of his being.

The remaining bones are the occipital at the base and back of the skull; the frontal, forming the forehead and parts of the roof of the orbits or eye sockets, and of the nasal cavity; the ethmoid, forming parts of the orbits, nasal cavity, and base of the cranium; and the sphenoid, serving to bind the other cranial bones together, and adding its share in the formation of the orbital and nasal parts and the cranium. We will look at each of these.

The occipital bone lies at the base and back of the skull, forming the resting place of the brain. It is deeply concave, with many clearly marked depressions for the reception of parts of the brain. A large opening, the foramen magnum, in the lower part toward the back, serves for the passage of the upper part of the spinal cord, the medulla oblongata, which unifies the entire nervous system. This bone, in infancy consisting of four parts- typical of weakness-becomes united in early childhood, and is marked by strength and suitability as a base for the brain. It is united to the temporal and parietal bones by the joints called sutures, which gradually become rigid. The spiritual significance of this bone, and indeed of all the bones forming the cranium, is the abundant protection it affords to the "inner man." Personal individuality is inviolate. The isolation of the brain from all external contact, though with abundant means of communication, suggests the essential independence of man. Nothing can go behind the impassable barrier of the cranium.

It would be well if parents recognized this individuality in their children from earliest infancy. They are no puppets or playthings, not even little pets, as though they were animals; but rational, responsible immortal beings, destined for an eternity of existence. They are not the property of the parents, but a sacred trust to be cared for, instructed and guided. Hence the vast importance of a godly example, that the little mind from earliest infancy may receive impressions calculated to form its thoughts and habits aright. Hence too the evil of arbitrary harshness, or its opposite of wheedling indulgence. The child has a will and all mental faculties which belong to itself. The will is not to be "broken," but to be taught subjection as an act of willing obedience. Responsibility should be inculcated, responsibility to God, and even obedience to parents is because of that higher obligation.

All this is equally applicable, with possibly increased definiteness, to the child of God. "Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men." The very dependence upon God, of absolute subjection to Him, excludes all other ownership. Behind the "cranial barrier" no one can intrude. We can lay truth before the mind; we can urge obligations to God upon the conscience; we can plead with and urge action upon the will, but we must leave all decision to the individual. How good it is that this is the case; and how pitiful is its opposite. No one respects a weakling whose vacillating mind and will are open to the intrusion of any strong influence from without. Behind the walls of his own individuality each one must weigh and decide all questions. Even an inspired apostle uses entreaty and exhortation (Rom. 12:1:Eph. 4:1, etc.). And how solemn is the lowly grandeur of Him who says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock" (Rev. 3:20). The Creator does not force His way in against the will of His responsible creature!

And yet the word of God is equally clear as to the sovereignty of God. That there are mysteries beyond the finite mind is most evident; that God is first in redemption is clear; but we must not overlook the individuality of man. And when Christ is received behind the doors of that individuality, how blessedly He controls mind, affections, and will. Gladly that which is refused to all others is given to Him, as we bow in our inmost being before Him whom we own as "My Lord and my God."

"Thou seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest Manhood, Thou;
Our wills are ours we know not how,
Our wills are ours to make them Thine."

S. R.

(To be continued, D. V.)