(Continued from p. 237.)

This knowledge of the Lord is truly blessed! It is divine! Flesh and blood does not give it, His kinsfolk had it not. They said of Him, when He was spending Himself in service, " He is beside Himself." But faith makes great discoveries of Him, and acts upon such discoveries. It may seem to carry us beyond due bounds at times, beyond the things that are orderly and well measured; but in God's esteem it never does. The multitude tell Bartimeus to hold his peace, but he will not ; for he knows Jesus as Levi knows Him.

It is His full work that we are not prepared for, and yet therein is its glory. He meets us in all our need, but, at the same time, He brings God in. He healed the sick, but He preached the kingdom also. This, however, did not suit man. Strange this may appear, for man knows full well how to value his own advantages. He knows the joy of restored nature. But such is the enmity of the carnal mind against God, that if blessing come in company with the presence of God, it will not receive a welcome. And from Christ it could not come in any other way. He will glorify as well as relieve the sinner. God has been dishonored in this world, as man has been ruined in it-self-ruined; and the Lord, the repairer of the breach, is doing a perfect work-vindicating the name and truth of God, declaring His kingdom and its rights, and manifesting His glory, just as much as He is redeeming and quickening the lost, dead sinner.

This will not do for man. He would be well taken care of himself, and let the glory of God fare as it may. Such is man. But when, through faith, any poor sinner is otherwise minded, and can indeed rejoice in the glory of God, very beautiful is the sight. And we see such a one in the Syrophenician. The glory of the ministry of Christ addressed itself to her soul brightly and powerfully. Apparently, in spite of her grief, the Lord Jesus asserts God's principles, and, as a stranger, he passes her by. "I am not sent," he says, "but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. … It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." But she bows, she owns the Lord as the steward of the truth of God, and would not for a moment suppose that He would surrender that trust (the truth and principles of God) to her and her necessities. She would have God be glorified according to His own counsels, and Jesus continue the faithful witness of those counsels, and the servant of the divine good pleasure, be it to herself as it may. "Truth, Lord," she answers, vindicating all that he had said; but, in full consistency with it, she adds, "yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs."

All this is lovely-the fruit of divine light in her soul. The mother in Luke 2:is quite below this Gentile woman in Mark 7:She did not know that Jesus was to be about His Father's business, but this stranger knew that was the very business He was always to be about. She would let God's way, in the faithful hand of Christ, be exalted, though she herself were thereby set aside, even in her sorrows.

This was knowledge of Him indeed; this was accepting Him in His full work, as one who stood for God in a world that had rebelled against Him, as well as for the poor worthless sinner that had destroyed himself.

It is not well to be always understood. Our ways and habits should be those of strangers, citizens of a foreign country, whose language, and laws, and customs are but poorly known here. Flesh and blood cannot appreciate them, and therefore it is not well with the saints of God when the world understands them.

His kinsfolk were ignorant of Jesus. Did the mother know Him when she wanted Him to display
His power, and provide wine for the feast ? Did His brethren know Him when they said to Him, "If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world." What a thought! an endeavor to lead the Lord Jesus to make Himself, as we say, "a man of the world! " Could there have been knowledge of Him in the hearts which indited such a thought as that ? Most distant, indeed, from such knowledge they were, and therefore it is immediately added by the evangelist, "for neither did His brethren believe in Him." (John 7:) They understood His power, but not His principles; for, after the manner of men, they connect the possession of power or talents with the serving of a man's interest in the world.

But Jesus was the contradiction of this, as I need not say; and the worldly-minded kindred in the flesh could not understand Him. His principles were foreign to such a world. They were despised, as was David's dancing before the ark in the thoughts of a daughter of king Saul.

But what attractiveness there would have been in Him for any eye or heart that had been opened by the Spirit! This is witnessed to us by the apostles. They knew but little about Him doctrinally, and they got nothing by remaining with Him-I mean, nothing in this world. Their condition in the world was anything but improved by their walking with Him; and it cannot be said that they availed themselves of His miraculous power. Indeed, they questioned it, rather than used it. And yet they clung to Him. They did not company with Him because they eyed Him as the full and ready storehouse of all provisions for them. On no one occasion, I believe we may say, did they use the power that was in Him for themselves. And yet, there they were with Him- troubled when He talked of leaving, and found weeping when they thought they had indeed lost Him.

Surely, we may again say, what attractiveness there must have been in Him for any eye or heart that had been opened by the Spirit, or drawn by the Father! And with what authority one look or one word from Him would enter at times! We see this in Matthew. That one word on the Lord's lips, "Follow me! "'was enough. And this authority and this attractiveness was felt by men of the most opposite temperaments. The slow-hearted, reasoning Thomas, and the ardent, uncalculating Peter, were alike kept near this wondrous center. Even Thomas would breathe in that presence the spirit of the earnest Peter, and say under force of this attraction, " Let us also go, that we may die with Him."

Shall we not say, What will it be to see and feel all this by and by in its perfection! when all, gathered from every clime, and color, and character, of the wide-spread human family-all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues, are with him and around him in a world worthy of Him! 'We may dwell, in memory, on these samples of His preciousness to hearts like our own, and welcome them as pledges of that which, in hope, is ours as well as theirs.

The light of God shines at times before us, leaving us, as we may have power, to discern it, to enjoy it, to use it, to follow it. It does not so much challenge us or exact of us; but, as I said, it shines before us, that we may reflect it, if we have grace. We see it doing its work after this manner in the early church at Jerusalem. The light of God there exacted nothing. It shone brightly and powerfully; but that was all. Peter spoke the language of that light, when he said to Ananias, "While it remained, was it not thine own ? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power ? " It had made no demands upon Ananias; it simply shone in its beauty beside him or before him, that he might walk in it according to his measure. And such, in a great sense, is the moral glory of the Lord Jesus. Our first duty to that light is to learn from it what He is. We are not to begin by anxiously and painfully measuring ourselves by it, but by calmly, and happily, and thankfully learning Him in all His perfect moral humanity. And surely this glory is departed ! There is no living image of it here. We have its record in the evangelists, but not its reflection anywhere.

But having its record, we may say, as one of our own poets has said, " There has one object been disclosed on earth That might commend the place :but now 'tis gone :Jesus is with the Father.''

But though not here, beloved, He is just what He was. We are to know Him, as it were, by memory; and memory has no capacity to weave fictions; memory can only turn over living, truthful pages. And thus we know Him for His own eternity. In an eminent sense, the disciples knew. Him personally, It was His person, His presence, Himself, that was their attraction. And if one may speak for others, it is more of this we need. We may be busy in acquainting ourselves with truths about Him, and we may make proficiency in that way; but with all our knowledge, and with all the disciples' ignorance/they may leave us far behind in the power of a commanding affection toward Himself. And surely, beloved, we will not refuse to say that it is well when the heart is drawn by Him beyond what the knowledge we have of Him may account for. It tells us that He Himself has been rightly apprehended. And there are simple souls still that exhibit this; but generally it is not so. Nowadays our light, our acquaintance with truth, is beyond the measure of the answer of our heart to Himself. And it is painful to us, if we have any just sensibilities at all, to discover this.

"The prerogative of our Christian faith," says one, "the secret of its strength, is this:that all which it has, and all which it offers, is laid up in a person. This is what has made it strong, while so much else has proved weak:that it has a Christ as its middle point ; that it has not a circumference without a center; that it has not merely deliverance but a deliverer; not redemption only, but a redeemer as well. This is what makes it fit for wayfaring men. This is what makes it sunlight, and all else, when compared with it, but as moonlight; fair it may be, but cold and ineffectual, while here the light and the life are one." And again he says, "And, oh, how great the difference between submitting ourselves to a complex of rules, and casting ourselves upon a beating heart, between accepting a system, and cleaving to a person. Our blessedness-and let us not miss it-is, that our treasures are treasured in a person, who is not for one generation a present teacher and a living Lord, and then for all succeeding generations a past and a dead one, but who is present and living for all." Good words, and seasonable words, I judge indeed, I may say these are.

A great combination of like moral glories in the Lord's ministry may be traced, as well as in His character. And in ministry we may look at Him in relation to God, to Satan, and to man. As to God, the Lord Jesus, in His own person and ways, was always representing man to God, as God would have him. He was rendering back human nature as a sacrifice of rest, or of sweet savor, as incense pure and fragrant, as a sheaf of untainted first-fruits out of the human soil. He restored to God His complacency in man, which sin, or Adam, had taken from him. God's repentance that He had made man (Gen. 6:6) was exchanged for delight and glory in man again. And this offering was made to God in the midst of all contradictions, all opposing circumstances, sorrows, fatigues, necessities, and heart-breaking disappointments. Wondrous altar ! wondrous offering ! A richer sacrifice it infinitely was than an eternity of Adam's innocency would have been. And as He was thus representing man to God, so was He representing God to man.

Through Adam's apostasy, God had been left without an image here; but now He gets a fuller, brighter image of Himself than Adam could ever have presented. Jesus was letting, not a fair creation, but a ruined, worthless world, know what God was, representing Him in grace, and saying, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." He declared God. All that is of God, all that can be known of "the light" which no man can approach unto, has now passed before us in Jesus.

And again, in the ministry of Christ, looked at in relation to God, we find Him ever mindful of God's rights, ever faithful to God's truth and principles, while in the daily, unwearied actions of relieving man's necessities. Let human sorrow address Him with what appeal it may, He never sacrificed or surrendered anything that was God's to it. " Glory to God in the highest" was heard over Him at His birth, as well as "on earth good-will to man;" and according to this, God's glory, all through His ministry, was as jealously consulted as the sinner's need and blessing were diligently served. The. echo of those voices, " Glory to God," and "Peace on earth,' was, as I may express it, heard on every occasion. The Syrophenician's case, already noticed, is a vivid sample of this. Till she took her place in relation to God's purposes and dispensations, He could do nothing for her; but then, everything.

Surely these are glories in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, in the relations of that ministry to God.

"Then as to Satan. In the first place, and seasonably and properly so, the Lord meets him as a tempter. Satan sought in the wilderness to impregnate Him with those moral corruptions which he had succeeded in implanting in Adam and the human nature. This victory over the tempter was the needed righteous introduction to all His works and doings touching him. It was therefore the Spirit that led Him up to this action. As we read, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." Ere the Son of God could go forth and spoil the house of the strong man, He must bind him. (Matt. 12:29.) Ere He could "reprove" the works of darkness, He must show that He had no fellowship with them. (Eph. 5:2:) He must withstand the enemy, and keep him outside Himself, ere He could enter his kingdom to destroy his works.

Jesus thus silenced Satan. He bound him. Satan had to withdraw as a thoroughly defeated tempter. He could not get anything of his into Him; he rather found that all that was there was of God. Christ kept outside all that which Adam, under a like temptation, had let inside ; and having thus stood the clean thing, He can go, under a perfect moral title, to reprove the unclean.

" Skin for skin," the accuser may have to say of another, and like words that charge and challenge the common corrupted nature; but he had nothing to do, as an accuser of Jesus, before the throne of God. He was silenced.

Thus His relationship to Satan begins. Upon this, He enters his house and spoils his goods. This world is that house, and there the Lord, in His ministry, is seen effacing various and deep expressions of the enemy's strength. Every deaf or blind one healed, every leper cleansed, every work under His repairing hand, of whatsoever sort it was, was this. It was a spoiling of the goods of the strong man in his own house. Having already bound him, He now spoiled his goods. At last he yields to Him as the One that had "the power of death." Calvary was the hour of the power of darkness. All Satan's resources were brought up there, and all his subtlety put forth; but he was overthrown. His captive was his conqueror. By death He destroyed him that had the power of it. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The head of the serpent was bruised; as another has said, that " death and not man was without strength."

Thus Jesus the Son of God was the bruiser of Satan, as before He had been his binder and his spoiler. But there is another moral glory that is seen to shine in the ministry of Christ, in the relation it bears to Satan. I mean this :He never allows him to bear witness to Him. The testimony may be true, and, as we say, flattering, good words and fair words, such as, "I know Thee who Thou art, the holy One of God," but Jesus suffered him not to speak. For His ministry was as pure as it was gracious. He would not be helped in His ministry by that which He came to destroy. He could have no fellowship with darkness, in His service, any more than in His nature. He could not act on expediency, therefore rebuke and silencing of him was the answer he got to his testimony.* *As far as the Lord's ministry in the gospel goes in relation to Satan, He is simply, as we have now seen, his hinder, his spoiler, his bruiser. In the Apocalypse, we follow Him in further relations to the same adversary. There we see Him " casting him down from heaven;" then, in due season, " putting him in the bottomless pit; " and afterward " leaving him in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." (Rev. 12:, 20:) Ye thus track His conquest over him from the wilderness of the temptation to the lake of fire.* Then as to man, the moral glories which show themselves in the ministry of the Lord Jesus are bright and excellent indeed.

He was constantly relieving and serving man in all the variety of his misery; but He was as surely ex-posing him, showing him to have a nature fully departed from God in revolt and apostasy. But further:He was exercising him. This is much to be considered, though perhaps not so commonly noticed. In His teaching He exercised people in whatever relation to Himself they stood-disciples or the multitude, or those who brought their sorrows to Him, or those who were friendly, as I may call them, or those who, as enemies, were withstanding Him. The disciples He was continually putting through exercises of heart or conscience as He walked with them and taught them. This is so common that it need not be instanced. The multitude who followed Him He would treat likewise. "Hear and understand," He would say to them ; thus exercising their own minds as He was teaching them.

To some who brought their sorrows to Him He would say, " Believe ye that I can do this ?" or such like words. The Syrophenician is an eminent witness to its how He exercised this class of persons.

Addressing the friendly Simon in Luke 7:, after telling him the story of the man who had two debtors, "Tell me," says He, "therefore, which of them will love him most ? "

The Pharisees, His unwearied opposers, He was in like manner constantly calling into exercise. And there is such a voice in this, such a witness of what He is. It tells us that He was not performing summary judgment for them, but would fain lead them to repentance :and so, in calling disciples into exercise, he tells us that we learn His lessons only in a due manner, as far as we are drawn out, in some activity of understanding, heart, or conscience, over them. This exercising of those He was either leading or teaching is surely another of the moral glories which marked His ministry. But further :in His ministry toward man we see Him frequently as a reprover, needfully so, in the midst of such a thing as the human family; but His way in reproving shines with excellency that we may well admire. When He was rebuking the Pharisees, whom worldliness had set in opposition to Him, He uses a very solemn form of words:"He that is not with Me is against Me." But when He is alluding to those who owned Him and loved Him, but who needed further strength of faith or measure of light, so as to be in full company with Him, He spake in other terms:" He that is not against us is for us."

We notice Him again in this character in Matt, 20:, in the case of the ten and the two brethren. How does he temper His rebuke because of the good and the right that were in those whom He had to rebuke ? And in this He takes a place apart from His heated disciples, who would not have had their two brethren spared in any measure. He patiently sits over the whole material, and separates the precious from the vile that was in it.

So He is heard again as a reprover in the case of John, forbidding any to cast out devils in His name, if they would not walk with them. But at that moment John's spirit had been under chastening. In the light of the Lord's preceding words, he had been making discovery of the mistake he had committed, and he refers to that mistake, though the Lord Himself had in no way alluded to it. But this being so, John having already a sense of his mistake, and artlessly letting it tell itself out, the Lord deals with it in the greatest gentleness. (See Luke 9:46-50.)

So as to the Baptist:the Lord rebukes him with marked consideration. He was in prison then. What a fact that must have been in the esteem of the Lord at that moment! But he was to be rebuked for having sent a message to his Lord that reproached Him. But the delicacy of the rebuke is beautiful. He returns a message to John which none but John himself could estimate:"Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me." Even John's disciples, who carried the message between him and the Lord, could not have understood this. Jesus would expose John to himself, but neither to his disciples nor to the world.

So further, His rebuke of the two of Emmaus, and of Thomas after the resurrection, each has its own excellency. Peter, both in Matt. 16:and 17:, has to meet rebuke; but the rebuke is very differently ministered on each occasion.

But all this variety is full of moral beauty; and we may surely say, whether His style be peremptory or gentle, sharp or considerate; whether rebuke on His lips be so reduced as to be scarcely rebuke at all, or so heightened as almost to be the language of repulse and disclaimer; still, when the occasion is weighed, all this variety will be found to be but various perfections. All these His reproofs were "earrings of gold, and ornaments of fine gold," whether hung or not upon "obedient ears." (Prov. 25:12.) "Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness:and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head." (Psalm 141:5.) Surely the Lord gave His disciples to prove this. J. G. B.

(Concluded in our next.)

One more precious fact,-"We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall sec Him as He is." (i Jno. 3:2.)What a destiny! to be like Him, – in the full image of the heavenly Man in glory-holy, pure, incorruptible!

We are now accepted in the Beloved,-the whole value of His person and work reckoned to us; reckoned dead with Him, and risen in Him, one with Him. But actually and everlastingly to be like Him! Do not our souls long for this ? and can we not say, "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness "? But, oh, most wondrous fact, is not this the language of Christ Himself ? So really we are one with Him that His own resurrection was but the first-fruits. And it will be when His body, the Church, raised from the dust, or changed in a moment, and the millions of the redeemed meet Him in His own likeness, then shall He see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; sweetly shall we share His joy.

" He and I, in that bright glory one deep joy shall share :
Mine, to be forever with Him; His, that I am there."

From eternity has He looked forward to that moment, now so near, when the bride shall be presented to Himself; and when it comes, do we not hear Him up there in the heavens saying, '' Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, . . Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away" ? And again:"Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee." (Song 2:10-13.) The Holy Ghost must use the sweetest poetry to express the heart of Christ.

"Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things:therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger and in thirst, and in nakedness and in want of all things." (Deut. 28:47, 48.)

In Thy presence is fullness of joy," and all true service is done in God's presence; therefore in all service there is joy. Such, at least, is God's thought. It is not meant by this that there are no sorrows connected with it, no pain for nature. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in the carrying out of the service committed to him "out of much affliction and anguish of heart . . . with many tears." (2 Cor. 2:4.) But there was the rejoicing of a good conscience, and the comfortable assurance of God's good pleasure. Such service as that to which he alludes, too, is rather the exception. The main work in the Church of God, as in the family, is not discipline, but edification; and in our personal life the same is true. The morbid person may look within, and seek to bring a clean thing out of an unclean; the child of God, on the contrary, looks up at Christ, and at the things which are above, and in the joy of the possession of those things he can freely turn from other attractions.

God's mind for Israel was to enter upon their inheritance, and possess it, to eat of the fruit of it, and to rejoice before Him for all the good He had given them. The enemy was to be driven out, but they were not to be always fighting. And so with ourselves. Fight we must, but only that we may thrust out the enemy who would hinder our enjoyment of those things which are ours. Then we lay aside the sword for the plowshare, and in the development of our inheritance, in the gathering of its varied products, we will find ample employment and abundant joy.

Is joy low ? Something must be the matter, for this is not "the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning" us. "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." (Ps. 4:7.) But there must be a reason for the joy, and it is in the abundance of all that has been given us. Israel failed to enter upon this abundance, and so her joy failed. She did not take in her whole territory, so soon lost what she had. How many of us, in like manner, are content with but a small part of what is ours, find but little joy in that, and so soon lose even that joy. Our service becomes duty. "Ye said also, 'Behold, what a weariness is it!'" (Mal. 1:13.) And in the dull routine of private prayer, Scripture reading, and attendance upon meetings, there has been but little to refresh the heart. We are only speaking of what is possible, each must ask himself in what measure it is true of him.

We sometimes hear a desire expressed for a revival among God's people, and surely that is well. But what is a revival ? Is it not simply the re-possession of what is ours ? The book of Judges is a history of declension and revival, and when the revival came it was shown by the regaining of territory, the enjoyment of fruit which the enemy had taken. So with us, a revival would be shown not necessarily in the first place by increased numbers, or any such supposed accompaniments, but by an enlarged apprehension of the Word of God as for us, and greater joy in that apprehension. This indeed would attract others to us.

Our blessed God does not wish forced service. What joy can be compared with finding that in His Word we have Him speaking to us, that in prayer we are speaking directly to Himself, that in our meeting together we are sharing the precious things which are our common possession, or unitedly praising the "Giver of all good "? If Israel in the feast of harvest, and of ingathering, was to rejoice before the Lord, "because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice" (Deut. 16:15), how much more should we, whose blessings are eternal, rejoice before Him !

It is from such joy that true service springs. The gospel flows forth like cool waters to a thirsty soul, from a full fountain; ministry to saints, in all places, becomes the natural communication of what has refreshed us, taking the place of that idle gossip, that fault-finding, which but too often mars the happiness of God's dear people.

On the other hand, what a sad picture we have of the opposite of this joyful service. God has not been delighted in, and the abundance which He has provided is changed for the hunger and nakedness of captivity. It reminds us of Laodicea, where this state of poverty exists while the unfortunate one is unconscious of it. And what is Laodicea? Self-sufficiency. God is not rejoiced in, the abundance of His things is not known, and the poor blind one, proud in and of his poverty, is of all men most miserable.

Beloved, let us not rest satisfied unless we are rejoicing in the abundance of God's inheritance. If we have lost that joy through worldliness or carelessness let us awake; let not the enemy any longer cheat us into thinking it is all well, but let us begin afresh to apprehend those "unsearchable riches of Christ," which lie all about us in God's Word.

" Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity." (i Cor. 16:13, 14.)

May God Himself expound this precious word to our hearts! Does He lead the flock to green pastures? Yes, but that is not the thought here. You do not lie down to feed, but to rest. He first serves the needy soul, then maketh him to lie down, because he is satisfied.

He knows my restlessness, and the strength and the activity of nature.

The blood of Christ has set you down in God's most holy presence,-not as a beggar, but as a worshiper. Here, then, it is not standing, for that would speak of service; nor walking, for that would tell of journeying; nor sitting, that would be to learn; but you lie down, happy and contented; it is the figure of calm, quiet, full repose.

Then He leads the sheep beside still waters, or waters of quietness, for it is the joy of the Shepherd to conduct the troubled hearts of His own into peaceful scenes of communion. There, the flock, under the watchful eye, and guided by the skillful hand of the Shepherd, are led along the banks of that river where neither wave nor ripple disturb the ransomed of the Lord. Yet a little while, and the banks of the river of life, with its ever-summer fruit, will be trod by the unwearied feet of the flock. "They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy."

(Continued from p. 148.)

We see glories and humilities in our Redeemer:we do indeed; for we need each. The One who sat on the well in Sychar is He who now sits on high in heaven. He that ascended is He that descended. Dignities and condescensions are with Him;-a seat at the right hand of God, and yet a stooping to wash the feet of His saints here. What a combination ! No abatement of His honors, though suiting Himself to our poverty:nothing wanting that can serve us, though glorious and stainless and complete in Himself.

Selfishness is wearied by trespass and importunity. " He will not rise because he is his friend; but because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as much as he needeth." Thus it is with man, or selfishness; it is otherwise with God, or love; for God in Isaiah 7:is the contradiction of man in Luke 11:

It is the unbelief that would not draw on Him, that refused to ask a "blessing, and get it with a seal and a witness that wearied God,-not importunity, but, as I may say, the absence of it. And all this divine blessedness and excellency, which is thus seen in the Jehovah of the house of David in Isaiah 7:reappears in the Lord Jesus Christ of the evangelists, and in His different dealing with weak faith and full faith.

All these things that we are able to discover bespeak His perfections; but how small a part of them do we reach!

We are aware in how many different ways our fellow-disciples try and tempt us, as, no doubt, we do them. We see, or fancy we see, some bad quality in them, and we find it hard to go on in further company with them. And yet in all this, or in much of it, the fault may be with ourselves, mistaking a want of conformity, of taste or judgment, with ourselves for something to be condemned in them.

But the Lord could not be thus mistaken; and yet He was never "overcome of evil," but was ever "overcoming evil with good,"-the evil that was in them with the good that was in Himself. Vanity, ill-temper, indifference about others and carefulness about themselves, ignorance after painstaking to instruct, were of the things in them which He had to suffer continually. His walk with them, in its way and measure, was a day of provocation, as the forty years in the wilderness had been. Israel again tempted the Lord, I may say, but again proved Him. Blessed to tell it!-they provoked Him, but by this they proved Him. He suffered, but He took it patiently. He never gave them up. He warned and taught, rebuked and condemned "them, but never gave them up. Nay, at the end of their walk together He is nearer to them than ever.

Perfect and excellent this is, and comforting to us. The Lord's dealing with the conscience never touches His heart. We lose nothing by His rebukes. And He who does not withdraw His heart from us when He is dealing with our conscience is quick to restore our souls, that the conscience, so to express it, may be enabled soon to leave his school, and the heart find its happy freedom in His presence again. As expressed in that hymn, which some of us know,-

" Still sweet 'tis to discover,
If clouds have dimmed my sight,
When passed, Eternal Lover,
Toward me, as e'er, Thou art bright."

And I would further notice, that in the characters which in the course of His ministry He is called to take up (it may be for only an occasion, or a passing moment), we see the same perfection, the same moral glory, as in the path He treads daily. As, for instance, that of a Judge, as in Matt. 23:, and that of an Advocate or Pleader in Matt. 22:But I only suggest this:the theme is too abundant. Every step, word, and action carries with it a ray of this glory; and the eye of God had more to fill it in the life of Jesus than it would have had in an eternity of Adam's innocency. It was in the midst of our moral ruin Jesus walked; and from such a region as that He has sent up to the throne on high a richer sacrifice of sweet-smelling savor than Eden, and the Adam of Eden, had it continued unsoiled forever, would or could have rendered. Time made no change in the Lord. Kindred instances of grace and character in Him, before and after His resurrection, give us possession of this truth, which is of such importance to us. We know what He is this moment and what He will be forever from what he has already been-in character as in nature-in relationship to us as well as in Himself-"the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." The very mention of this is blessed. Sometimes we may be grieved at changes, sometimes we may desire them. In different ways we all prove the fickle, uncertain nature of that which constitutes human life. Not only circumstances, which are changeful to a proverb, but associations, friendships, affections, characters, continually undergo variations which surprise and sadden us. We are hurried from stage to stage of life; but unchilled affections and . unsullied principles are rarely borne along with us, either in ourselves or our companions. But Jesus was the same after His resurrection as He had been before, though late events had put Him and His disciples at a greater distance than companions had ever known or could ever know. They had betrayed their unfaithful hearts, forsaking Him and fleeing in the hour of His weakness and need; while He for their sakes had gone through death-such a death as never could have been borne by another, as would have crushed the creature itself. They were still but poor feeble Galileans,-He was glorified with all power in heaven and on earth.

But these things worked no change; "nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature," as the apostle speaks, could do that. Love defies them all, and He returns to them the Jesus whom they had known before. He is their companion in labor after His resurrection,-nay, after His ascension, as He had been in the days of His ministry and sojourn with them. This we learn in the last verse of St. Mark. On the sea, in the day of Matt. 14:, they thought that they saw a spirit, and cried out for fear; but the Lord gave them to know that it was He Himself that was there, near to them, and in grace, though in divine strength and sovereignty over nature. And so in Luke 24:, or after He was risen, He takes the honeycomb and the fish, and eats before them, that with like certainty and ease of heart they might know that it was He Himself. And He would have them handle Him, and see; telling them that a spirit had not flesh and bones as they might then prove that He had.

In John 3:He led a slow-hearted Rabbi into the light and way of truth, bearing with him in all patient grace. And thus did He again in Luke 24:, after that He was risen, with the two slow-hearted ones who were finding their way home to Emmaus.

In Mark 4:He allayed the fears of His people ere He rebuked their unbelief. He said to the winds and the waves, "Peace:be still," before He said to the disciples, "How is it that ye have no faith?" and thus did He as the risen One in John 21:He sits and dines with Peter in full and free fellowship, as without a breach in the spirit, ere He challenges him and awakens his conscience by the words, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me ? "

The risen Jesus who appeared to Mary Magdalene, the evangelist takes care to tell us, was He who in other days had cast seven devils out of her-and she herself knew the voice that then called her by her name, as a voice that her ear had long been familiar with. What identity between the humbled and the glorified One,-the Healer of sinners and the Lord of the world to come! How all tell us that, in character as in divine personal glory, He that descended is the same also that ascended! John, too, in company with his risen Lord, is recognized as the one who had leaned on His bosom at the supper. " I am Jesus," was the answer from the ascended place-the very highest place in heaven-the right hand of the throne of the majesty there, when Saul of Tarsus demanded, "Who art Thou, Lord ? " (Acts 9:) And all this is so individual and personal in its application to us. It is our own very selves that are interested in this. Peter, for himself, knows his Master, the same to him before and after the resurrection. In Matt. 16:the Lord rebukes him, but shortly after takes him up to the hill with Him with as full freedom of heart as if nothing had happened. And so with the same Peter,-in John 21:he is again rebuked. He had been busy, as was his way, meddling with what was beyond him. " Lord, what shall this man do ? " says he, looking at John,-and his Master has again to rebuke him-"What is that to thee ? " But again, as in the face of this rebuke, sharp and peremptory as it was, the Lord immediately afterward has him, together with John, in His train, or in His company up to heaven. It was a rebuked Peter who had once gone with the Lord to the holy mount; and it is a rebuked Peter, the same rebuked Peter, who now goes with the Lord to heaven,-or, if we please, to the hill of glory, the mount of transfiguration, a second time.* * Some seem to judge that it was deep love in Peter to John that led him to ask the Lord about him.; I deny that.*

Full indeed of strong consolation is all this. This is Jesus our Lord,-the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,-the same in the day of His ministry, after His resurrection, now in the ascended heavens, and so forever; and as He sustains the same character, and approves Himself by the same grace after as before the resurrection, so does He redeem all His pledges left with His disciples.

Whether it be on His own lips or on the lips of His angels, it is still now as then-since He rose as before He suffered, "Fear not:" He had spoken to His disciples before of giving them His peace, and we find He does this afterward in the most emphatic manner. He pronounces peace upon them in the day of John 20:; and having done so, shows them His hands and His side; where, as in symbolic language, they might read their title to a peace wrought out and purchased for them by Himself,-His peace, entirely His own, as procured only by Himself, and now theirs by indefeasible, unchangeable title.

In earlier days the Lord said to them, "Because I live, ye shall live also;" and now in risen days, in the days of the risen Man, in possession of victorious life, He imparts that life to them in the most full and perfect measure of it, breathing on them, and saying, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost."

The world was not to see Him again, as He had also said to them; but they were to see Him. And so it comes to pass. He was seen of them for forty days, and He spake to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. But this was all in secret:the world has not seen Him since the hour of Calvary, nor will they till they see Him in judgment. J. G. B.

(To be continued.)

"Overcome evil with good." (Rom. 12:21.)

In the sevenfold picture of the church's history in Rev. 2:and 3:, we have a sevenfold promise to the " overcomer," and at the close of the book, after describing the eternal state, again the promise is given, '' He that overcometh shall inherit these things." We are in a race which only ends when we take our seats on high; in a warfare, a " good fight," which ceases when we leave this scene. Blessed is it to know that we "run, not as uncertainly," that the end is sure, though there be conflict on the way. We follow a Victor, One who has conquered for us, and this nerves us for the conflict, gives patience in all toil. Still, it is well to remember that there is a conflict, a race, and that grace, while making the end sure, has not obliterated the wilderness.

We can look at this overcoming, however, not as the final outcome of our life, but also as that which should characterize each day of that life. Taken as a whole, the life of each believer is a victory; in some in a very small degree; but taken in detail the lives of many show more defeat than victory, and in all there are some points where defeat comes in. It is rather at the details than at the final outcome we would look now, remembering, however, that details make up the total, and that "saved as by fire," and " an abundant entrance " are in contrast.

The conflict is with evil, and not mere impersonal evil, but the evil one and his emissaries. His devices are manifold, suited to those whom he assaults; and hidden that he may the better ensnare,-"the wiles of the devil." We meet evil in ourselves, our circumstances, our brethren, and in the world. The question is, How are we to overcome it ?

And the first answer must be, to know it as evil. Light shone into Paul's heart when (Rom. 7:) he distinguished between himself and sin that dwelt in him. This did not enable him to overcome it, it seemed to make the conflict more desperate, but he saw sin, knew it was that and what to expect of it. We must learn to call things by their right names, to recognize them, to judge them.

We do not fight evil for the sake of fighting. "Abstain, hold off from, fleshly lusts which war against the soul." It when evil has usurped some of our inheritance, our portion, as believers that we are to thrust it out. With Edom Israel would have no conflict, God would judge it in His time; but with the inhabitants of the land the case was different. They were occupying what belonged to Israel, and therefore must be expelled. So with us. With the flesh, the sinful nature as such, we are to have no conflict, knowing that sentence has been passed upon it on the cross, and that in a little while it will be obliterated, when "this mortal shall put on immortality."

But when this flesh, used of Satan, would intrude into our spiritual life, occupy our time, demand our attention, interfere with communion and service, and dim our conception of the portion that is ours in Christ,-then we must overcome the intruder and cast him out, or, like Israel, the good land will soon be out of our hands, and we will be driven to dwell in caves.

It is well to remark here that no compromises were to be made with the enemy in the land. "Ye shall make no league with the inhabitants." Led by Joshua, victorious Israel marched through the length and breadth of the land:this was victory in general. But when we come to individual history, we find the enemy unsubdued in many places, or if subdued, not exterminated, but made tributary. But who ever made evil tributary to good ? Apparently we may, but for a season only. Pride may thus be made to "ape humility." Emulation may seem to incite to as diligent service as zeal, but in a little while it will be manifest that the pride and the emulation have gained control of ourselves ; our tributaries have become our masters. There can be no compromise. Extermination is needful. Just here was the kernel of all Israel's failure, as a glance at the book of Judges will show, and a glance nearer home will doubtless show the same thing. Rome may make tributaries of the very sins it professes to forgive, but Rome is only a shining example of that of which we speak.

Conflict, then, there must be, and that until the foe is completely conquered. But how are we to fight? If we use Satan's weapons, we are not fighting God's battle. " The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but mighty through God." The short verse at the head of this paper tells us how. '' Overcome evil with good." The one thing Israel had to do with the land they conquered was to occupy it. Mere victory over the foe was but a negative advantage, preliminary to that practical appropriation of the land to their own use, which God had designed. So important was this that God made the extirpation of the enemy to be as gradual as their power to occupy the land. "And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee little by little :thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee." (Deut. 7:22.) The empty house of Matt. 12:is a solemn explanation of this. Our life is a positive thing; it must not only be not evil, but actually good.

And this is what our verse teaches us. Good will overcome evil. To him that hath shall be given. Our possessions well cultivated, fully occupied, and we will encroach on and drive out the next evil, in order that we may gain more of our inheritance. It is the good that we want, and we are to be only so far occupied with the evil as to see how far it hinders us, to judge it, and in the energy of faith overcome it by good. How does the farmer rid his field of weeds and briars ? Not by plowing and harrowing, for this would but sow a fresh crop of weeds, and by tearing the briar roots apart, cause two to grow where there had been but one before. He puts the field in wheat, fertilizing well, and sows thickly in grass. As a result, the wheat and grass give the weeds no room for growth, and they soon disappear. Let us learn from this, in our individual life and in relation to one another. We know evil is there. We do not shut our eyes to it, but we know it can be overcome in one way only-by the substitution of something better.

Is not this God's way ? What is the gospel of His grace but the overcoming of evil with good ? The law made the offense to abound. Grace came in and drove sin off the field. "The kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared," and that by the power of the Holy Spirit, subdued those who were "hateful and hating one another." The message of love to rebellious sinners was His '' soft answer which turneth away wrath." May we be imitators of God as dear children.

Sorrow over sin and folly there will be, firm judgment of evil and straightforward obedience; but this only confirms our truth; for these are in themselves powerless to overcome evil, they but prepare the way for the good.

It is most important to remember this in our relationships,-the family, the assembly, and even in the world. "Husbands, love your wives" is but one of the exhortations which press this principle and which if all followed, would make home what it should be, a foretaste of heaven. How many an assembly of God's people is kept feeble by a constant spirit of criticism. The good is forgotten, neglected, and instead of "taking forth the precious from the vile," the process is reversed, and the vile is taken. We need to "strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die." Love is the only power by which evil can be overcome. Most of the failings in our brethren could be overcome in this way, while they are only multiplied when we attempt to pluck them out by the roots. The same could be said of worldliness in dress, habits, or conversation. Often it is mere emptiness, which can be filled with the precious things of Christ, to the joy of the person who would resent as impertinence any attempt at setting him right.

But what is good ? We answer simply, Christ in grace, known and loved. This embraces everything
-His word, His work, His person, His Church, -everything that concerns Him. Fix the center, and we can have as many circles about it as we may, they will all harmoniously be gathered about that center. It is this occupation with good, with Him who is perfect goodness, that is the secret of power and of joy. Oh, dear brethren, let us begin afresh with Him ? It is grace alone which gives power, and we would have firmness too; for love can be most firm when it is necessary. But it is love, and is manifest as that. May He whose perfect goodness in patience is dealing with all our waywardness teach us the full meaning of this, " Overcome evil with good."

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.

PART VII.(Chap, 19:5-22:) THE CONSUMMATION.

The Holy City.

The last vision of Revelation is now before us :it is that of the city of God itself. But here, where one would desire above all to see clearly, we become most conscious of how feeble and dull is our apprehension of eternal things. They are words of an apostle which remind us that "we see through a glass darkly"- en ainigmati, in a riddle. Such a riddle, then, it is no wonder if the vision presents to us:the dream that we have here a literal description, even to the measurements, of the saints' eternal home, is one too foolish to need much comment. All other visions throughout the book have been symbolic :how much more here ! how little need we expect that the glimpse which is here given us into the unseen would reveal to us the shape of buildings, or the material used ! Scripture is reticent all through upon such subjects; and the impress to be left upon our souls is plainly spiritual, not of lines and hues, as for the natural senses. " Things which eye hath not seen " are not put before the eye.

On the other hand, that the "city" revealed to us here is not simply a figure of the saints themselves, as, from the term used for it, " the Bride, the Lamb's Wife," some have taken it to be, there are other scriptures which seem definitely to assure us. "Jerusalem, which is above, which is our mother" (Gal. 4:) could hardly be used in this way, though the Church is indeed so conceived of in patristic and medieval thought. But even thus it would not be spoken of naturally as "above."

In Heb. 12:we have a still more definite testimony. For there the "Church of the first-born ones which are written in heaven," as well as "the spirits of just men made perfect"-in other words, both Christians and the saints of the Old Testament-are mentioned as distinct from " the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem;" and this will not allow them to be the same thing, although, in another way, the identification of a city with its inhabitants is easy.

We are led in the same direction by the mention of the " tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God,"-something to which the apostle thought he might have been caught even bodily (2 Cor. 12:)-and here is the tree of life in the midst of the city beside the "river of the water of life" which flows from the throne of God. Figurative language all this surely; yet these passages combine to give us the thought of a heavenly abode, already existing, and which will be in due time revealed as the metropolis of the heavenly kingdom-what Jerusalem restored will be in the lower sphere. Indeed the earthly here so parallels and illustrates the heavenly as to be a most useful help in fixing, if not enlarging, our thoughts about it,- always while we realize, of course, the essential difference that Scripture itself makes clear to be between them. But this we shall have to look at as we proceed.

" The holy city, Jerusalem," is certainly intended to be a plain comparison with the earthly city. But that is the type only; this is the antitype, the true "foundation of peace," as the word means. What more comforting title, after all the scenes of strife, the fruit of the lusts that war in our members, which we have had to look upon ! Here is "peace" at last, and on a foundation that shall not be removed, but that stands fast forever. For this is emphatically "the city that hath foundations," and "whose builder and maker is God." (Heb. 11:10.) How blessed it is; too, that it should be just one of the seven angels that had the seven last plagues that shows John the city ! for no mere executioner of judgment we see is he :judgment (as with God, for it is God's) is also his "strange work." It had to come, and it has come:there was no help, no hope without it ; thus the stroke of the "rod of iron" was that of the shepherd's rod; it was the destruction of the destroyers only. But it is past, and here is the scene wherein his own heart rests, to which it returns with loyalty and devotion :here, where the water of life flows from the throne of God,-eternal, from the Eternal; refreshment, gladness, fruitfulness, and power are found in obedience.

But the city is the "Bride, the Lamb's wife." In the Old Testament, the figure of marriage is used in a similar way. Israel was thus Jehovah's "married wife" (Is. 54:1, Jer. 31:33), now divorced indeed for her unfaithfulness, but yet to return (Hos. 2:), and be received and reinstated. Her Maker will be then once more her husband, and more than the old blessing be restored. In the forty-fifth psalm, Israel's King, Messiah, is the Bridegroom; the Song of Solomon is the mystic song of His espousals. Jerusalem thus bears His name :" This is the name whereby she shall be called:'Jehovah our Righteousness.'" (Jer. 33:16, comp. 23:6.) The land too shall be "married." (Is. 62:4.)

In the New Testament, the same figure is still used in the same way. The Baptist speaks of his joy as the " friend of the Bridegroom," in hearing the Bridegroom's voice (Jno. 3:29); and in the parable of the virgins (Matt. 25:), where Christians are those who go forth to meet the Bridegroom, they are by that very fact not regarded as the Bride, which is still Israel, (according to the general character of the prophecy,) though not actually brought into the scene. Some may be able to see also in the marriage at Cana of Galilee (Jno. 2:i) the veiling of the same thought.

All this, therefore, is in that earthly sphere in which Israel's blessings lie; our own are " in heavenly places " (Eph. 1:3), and here it is we find, not the Bride of Messiah simply, but distinctively "the Bride of the Lamb." The "Lamb,"as a title, always keeps before us His death, and that by violence, "a Lamb as it had been slain" (Rev. 5:6); and it is thus that He has title to that redemption empire in which we find Him throughout this book. But "the Bride of the Lamb" is thus one espoused to Him in His rejection, sharer (though it be but in slight measure) of His reproach and sorrow, trained and disciplined for glory in a place of humiliation. And so it is said that "if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him;" and again, "If so be we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." (2 Tim. 2:12; Rom. 8:17.)

The saints in the millennium have no heritage of suffering such as this ; even those who pass through the trial which ushers it in, have not the same character of it, although we must not forget those associated with the Lamb upon Mount Zion, who illustrate the same truth, but upon a lower platform. Even these are not His Bride.

Ephesians, the epistle of the heavenly places, shows us the Church as Eve of the last Adam, whom Christ loves, and for whom He gave Himself. Formed out of Himself and for Himself, He now sanctifies and cleanses her with water-washing by the Word, that He may present her to Himself a holy Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. In another aspect, this Church is His body, formed by the baptism of the Spirit as at Pentecost, complete when those who are Christ's are caught up to meet Him in the air. The doctrine of this is, of course, not in Revelation :the difficulty is in seeing the conformity of Revelation with it.

Outside of Revelation even, there is a difficulty in the connection (if there be, as one would anticipate, a connection) between the Church as the body of Christ now, before our presentation to Him, and the " one flesh " which is the fruit of marriage. Israel was the married wife, and will be, though now for a time " desolate," as one divorced. The Church is " espoused " (2 Cor. 11:2), not married. Thus the "one body" and the "great mystery" of "one flesh," of which the apostle speaks (Eph. 5:29) must be distinct.

Looking back to Adam, to whom as a type he there refers us, we find that Eve is taken out of his side,-is thus really his " flesh " by her very making. Thus, as one with him in nature, she is united to him,-a union in which the prior unity finds its fit expression. The two things are therefore in this way very clearly and intimately connected. The being of Christ's body is that, then, which alone prepares and qualifies for the being of His bride hereafter; and body and bride must be strictly commensurate with each other.

The mystery here is great, as the apostle himself says ; nor is it to be affirmed that the type in all its features answers to the reality. It is easily seen that this could not be ; yet there is real correspondence and suitability thus far:according to it, the Church of Christ alone, from Pentecost to the rapture, is scripturally only (in a strict sense) the " Bride of the Lamb."

Yet can we confine the new Jerusalem to these? There would of course in this case be no difficulty as to the character of a city which it is given in this vision. A city is commonly enough identified with its inhabitants, so that the same term covers both place and persons. But are none to inhabit the new Jerusalem except the saints of Christian times ? Are none of those so illustrious in the Old Testament to find their place there? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are among those with whom the Lord assures us we are to sit down in the kingdom of God (Luke 13:28, 29);-are they to be outside the heavenly city ?

This is positively answered otherwise, as it would seem, in Revelation itself. For while the general account of those who enter there is that they are those " written in the Lamb's book of life" (21:27), "without" the city are said to be only " dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie " (22:15).

In the eleventh of Hebrews, moreover, in a verse already quoted, "the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God," for which the patriarchs looked and waited, can surely be no other than that which we find here; and it is added that they desired "a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God :for He hath prepared for them a city." It could not be the New-Testament church for which Abraham looked; for this was as yet entirely hidden in God. (Eph. 3:9.) Another and larger meaning for the new Jerusalem must surely, therefore, be admitted.

And why should there not be in it the inclusion of both thoughts ? Why should it not be the bride-city, named from the bride-church, whose home it is, and yet containing other occupants? This alone would seem to cover the whole of the facts which Scripture gives us as to it; and the Jewish bride is in like manner sometimes a wider, sometimes a narrower conception ; sometimes the city Jerusalem, sometimes the people Israel Only that in the Old Testament the city is the narrower, the people the wider view; while in the New Testament this is reversed. And even this may be significant:the heavenly city, the dwelling-place of God, permitting none of the redeemed to be outside it, but opening its gates widely to all. A Bride City indeed, ever holding bridal festival, and having perpetual welcome for all that come:its freshness never fading, its joy never satiating ; blessed are they whose names are written there!

As before, the city is seen "descending out of heaven from God." We shall find, however, here, that the present vision goes back of the new heavens and earth to the millennial age,-that is, that while itself eternal, the city is seen in connection with the earth at this time. Not yet has it been said, " The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." The descending city is not, therefore, in that settled and near intimacy with men outside of it in which it will be. A significant and perfect note of time it is that the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of nations (22:2). Tender as this grace is, the condition it shows could not be eternal.

All the nearer does it bring this vision of glory and of love, no more to be banished or dimmed by human sin or sorrow. The city has the glory of God ; and here is the goal of hope, complete fruition of that which but as hope outshines all that is known of brightness elsewhere. It cannot be painted with words. We cannot hope even to expand what the Holy Ghost has given us. But the blessedness itself we are soon to know. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

We might say at the outset that for one who knows and loves Christ as a personal Savior, Christian Science can have no charms, and few dangers. If this should sound harsh, let it be remembered that this system completely subverts the whole of Christianity ; so that he who accepts the one, must give up the other. It is an application of our Lord's words, "No man can serve two masters." That we are justified in making such a statement will be seen in a moment as we compare a few of the teachings of Scripture on fundamental truths with the doctrines of Christian Science (a most misleading name).

I. As to the Person of Christ:" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "All things were made by Him." (John 1:i, 3.) "Who is the image of the invisible God." (Col. 1:15.) "Being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power." (Heb. 1:3.)

Here we have the divinity of the Son of God taught in the most absolute way.

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14.) " He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. 2:7.) "Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." (Rom. 1:3.) Here we have "the man Christ Jesus"-His humanity. "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (i Pet. 2:22.) "Holy, harmless, undefiled." (Heb. 7:26.)

These and such scriptures teach His absolute sinlessness.

Compare with these precious truths the following statements:* "Jesus Christ entered upon our false and terrible dream, experienced our evil conditions. . . . He put off everything derived from the mother. . . . He denied, rejected, overcame, and cast out, all our race-errors, . . . race-evils, including sin, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and death, derived through Mary. *Quotations are from a pamphlet entitled "Condensed Thoughts about Christian Science."Purtz Publishing Co., Chicago.*

He thus became the divine truth, one with the Father, or the divine love. To follow Him in the regeneration is, like Him, to be delivered from the illusions of sense, the bondage of error, the false claims of matter, the promptings of self-hood-to be reunited to God" (page 15).

Such language teaches the mere humanity of Christ, that He was defiled (so far as such a thing as defilement can be said to exist), that He derived all that is evil in nature through His mother, and then rejected it, thrust it off, thus becoming, what He was not before, divine truth. No comment upon such blasphemy is needed.

II. As to the work of Christ. "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." (Heb. 10:14.) "Made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Eph. 2:13.) " Being justified by faith.". . . "justified through His blood." (Rom. 5:i, 9.) The truth of atonement by substitution, of wrath-bearing for our justification, is here taught.

Contrast with these texts the following :'' The whole question of salvation depends upon ourselves, upon when, and how soon, we see our follies and errors, renounce our delusions, disrobe ourselves of our false opinions, accept the divine truth (that there is no such thing as evil), which is the light of heaven, awake from our dream of evil, and enter into the life of Christ" (page 22).

We extricate ourselves from an evil which has no existence, imitating Christ, who did the same; and this is redemption!

III. The existence of sin and death. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." (Rom. 5:12.) "Death reigned." (Rom. 5:14.) "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (John 8:34.) " The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23.)

'' I deny that evil has any real existence or actual power in the presence of divine truth. I deny that sin, sorrow, suffering, sickness, or death, are realities or entities, or have any ground or reason to be" (page 32).

And this includes a denial of the personality of Satan and evil spirits, of hell, of responsibility before God.

IV. The word of God.'' All scripture is given by inspiration of God." (2 Tim. 3:16.)"The scripture cannot be broken." (John 10:35.)"Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." (Ps. 119:89.)

Christian Science says, '' The Spirit clothes itself with the letter, sometimes a tissue of appearances only (such as that God is angry, hell is eternal, etc.)." '' The Bible or word of God was written from this standpoint of mortal mind (the unreal state of human thought, with its misconceptions of the existence of sin, evil, suffering), and its letter often needs correction from the higher reason" (pages 14, 25).

V. The Lord's coming, heaven, etc. "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven:. . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first:then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:and; so shall we ever be with the Lord." (i Thess. 4:16, . 17.) " The hour is coming in the which all that .are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." (John 5:28, 29.) "In my Father's house are many mansions. . . . I go to prepare a place for you. … I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2, 3.)

"The second coming of the Lord is a descent, from the heavens within us, into the body of humanity, (several lines missing from p. 331)

… placing side by side these statements of light and darkness, illustrating afresh each time what we said at the beginning, that the one is the exact opposite of the other. There is an appearance of piety in some phrases, an apparent approach to truth in some, and frequent quotations of Scripture misapplied. But any simple-hearted person can see that the whole thing is antichristian. It leaves us nothing–no personal God, no atonement, no Saviour, no heaven, no Word of God. It would take from the wicked the fear of hell and of the wrath of God.

The hold it has taken upon some is its claim to cure disease. This it does by denying the existence
of sickness, suffering, pain, or death. They are only imaginations. The poor, restless heart of the suffering one, who is ignorant of the grace of Christ or blinded by Satan, grasps at every straw. And so error spreads. Man will believe anything, everything, but God's truth. The times show how quickly is hastening on that hour when those who will not receive "the love of the truth that they might be saved," "shall believe a lie."

" But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, an hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle" (2 Thess. 2:13-15).

From very familiarity with them, we may grow so accustomed to truths which '' many prophets and kings desired to see and did not see," that they lose their power over us, and we forget we are dealing with things that will fill heaven with praise and all intelligent creation with wonder. Oh, how it shames us that we can go over a long list of blessings, brought to us through the sufferings of Christ, with our cold hearts but little moved by them! Could we have a better proof of our nature than this, and at the same time a more touching illustration of that "patient and forbearing love that never turns aside "?

Such thoughts are suggested by the subject before us. We can enumerate the blessings attached to the Christian's position, but how do they affect us ? Not, let us trust, like Laodicea, saying, "I am rich;" rather like David, "Who am I?" The Father seeketh worshipers, and all the matchless grace shown to us is to end in that.

In the passage before us, we have an eightfold view of the Christian's position. The number is significant. It reminds us of new creation. "If any man be in Christ, it is new creation." We are on new ground, with new objects before us. These objects mentioned here are, (i) Mount Zion; (2) The
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; (3) An innumerable company of angels, the general assembly; (4) The Church of the first-born, who are written in heaven ; (5) God the Judge of all; (6) The spirits of just men made perfect; (7) Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant; (8) The blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

(i) Mount Zion is in contrast to Mount Sinai, the mount that might be touched; and if touched by beast or man, death was the penalty. Covered by blackness, darkness, and tempest, burning with fire, it was a fitting place for the giving out of that law which could only condemn the guilty. The awful trumpet announcing the presence of a holy God, the voice of words declaring what He required of man for obedience-no wonder even Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake." The effect of Sinai was, to drive the people away. The voice of God struck terror to their guilty souls, they did not want to hear it again. And that fear was but a sample of that more awful terror that shall fill the hearts of all who stand before the great white throne. On the other hand, Mount Zion was the place where David dwelt. The man whom God raised up to be king of His people when they had failed under the judges and under Saul. He was the man after God's own heart, a beautiful and striking type of Him who alone could give unmingled delight to God. Zion suggests grace and blessing in contrast with the law and cursing of Sinai. God might come to Sinai, He did not dwell there. Of Zion it is said, " In Judah is God known, in Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion." (Ps. 76:) "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her, and the Highest Himself shall establish her." (Ps. 87:) " Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. . . . Walk about Zion, and go round about her:tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks." (Ps. 48:) "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever:here will I dwell, for I have desired it." (Ps. 132:) These, from among many scriptures, show that Mount Zion is the center of God's gracious dealings on earth. The prophet Isaiah dwells much upon the future glories of that now apparently forsaken and rejected place. We are said to have come to Mount Zion in contrast to the law. We are in the place of grace, where blessing is centered in Christ and dependent upon Him. It is earthly blessing that is first contemplated. Zion is the earthly center. But how can Christians be said to have come to the place of earthly blessing ? First, as we have seen, grace in contrast to law. Then, too, there is a real sense in which we of this dispensation shall share in the joys and glory of the earthly scene, though our portion is above.

(2) So we come next, most naturally to what is distinctive of us as Christians. The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.-

(To be continued.)

Whenever we get into trial, we may feel confident that, with the trial, there is an issue, and all we need is, a broken will, and a single eye to see it.

"Many of the most beautiful things in nature are so delicate in their structure that to touch them almost means to destroy them. Man could not pretend to imitate these works of beauty, they are so frail that they for the most part escape even his notice. Yet God builds this beauty, and delights to put it everywhere, to show us His beauty, and His tenderness as well. The delicate little flower, the wing of the butterfly, crushed by the rude hand of a boy, were made by the almighty God, who takes thought of them.

And so in spiritual things, there are characters so frail that the touch of man seems to mar them. The new-born sold, with its desires after God, its love for Christ, its almost inarticulate prayers and praises, is surely more beautiful in His sight than the fairest flower of earth. And yet by our cold criticism, our rigid exactness, may we not crush the beauty out of this flower ? Let us learn to be more tender with one another. Let not our rude touch mar God's beautiful work. May we rather be imitators of Him, and learn to develop rather than to dwarf that which is of Him.

For how does He deal with us ? How has He built us up ? By gentleness. Our love to Him, our joy, the early fruits of the Spirit, have been watched and nourished; our coldness has been borne with, and so He has gently led us on. Oh, to learn to do likewise in all our dealings with God's lambs !

'' To fill any post really for God you must not expect it to be all happiness, though you will have the light and cheer of His countenance, even though the sun by day and the frost by night may try you on the human side. To find things pleasant is not the right expectation. To please the Lord is our summum-bonum, and as we do, we are happier pleasing Him than in pleasing ourselves."

(Continued from page 243.) CHAPTER IV.

But we must follow our Preacher, who can only turn away with bitterness from this closed door of Death, once more to take note of what is "under the sun." And sad and sorrowful it is to him to mark that the world is filled with oppression. He has already, in the previous chapter, noted that "wickedness was there in the place of judgment and iniquity in the place of righteousness," and the natural consequence of this is oppression. Wherever men have power they use it to bring forth tears; therefore far better, cries Solomon, to be out of such a scene altogether; yea, better still, never to have come into it at all. Have we no sympathy with the Preacher here? Does he not give expression to one sad "touch of nature that makes the whole world kin"? Do we not recognize that he, too, was traveling through exactly the same scene as we find ourselves to be in? That tears were raining on this crust of earth in that far-off time, exactly as they are to-day? Yes indeed, it is a tear-soaked earth he trod, as well as we. But then that other man was also in the same scene exactly, who said, too, that it was certainly "far better" to be out of it; but – precious contrast! that was because of the loveliness and sweet attraction of One known outside of it; whilst the very needs of others in the scene – those "tears," in away, of which the wise man speaks, and which he knew no way of stopping – alone kept him in it, and made him consent to stay. For Paul had "heard a sweeter story" than Solomon had ever in his wisdom conceived; had "found a truer gain" than all Solomon's wealth could give him; and his most blessed business it was to proclaim a glad tidings that should dry the tears of the oppressed, give them a peace that no oppressor could take away, a liberty outside all the chains of earth – a spring of joy that tyranny was powerless to affect.

Now let us, by the grace and loving kindness of our God, consider this a little closer, my readers. We have concluded that we find this book included in the inspired volume for this very purpose, to exalt all "the new" by its blessed contrast with "the old." We may too, if we will, look around on all the sorrows and tears of this sad earth, and groan "better would it be to be dead and out of it; yea, better never to have been born at all." And a wise groan, according to human wisdom, this would be.

But when such wisdom has attained to its full, it finds itself far short of the very "foolishness of God"; for, on the other hand we may, if we will, praise God with joyful heart that we are at least in the only place in the whole universe, where tears can be dried, and gladness be made to take their place. For is there oppression, and consequent weeping, in heaven? Surely not. Tears there are, in plenty, in hell; for did not He who is Love say, "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"? But, alas! those tears can be dried-never. But here Love can have its own way, and mourning ones may learn a secret that shall surely gild their tears with a rainbow glory of light, and the oppressed and distressed, the persecuted and afflicted, may triumphantly sing, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us." Ah, is there not, too, a peculiar beauty in those words "more than conquerors"? What can be more than a conqueror? A ship driven out of its course by the tempest, with anchor dragging or cable parted, is no "conqueror" at all, but the reverse. That ship riding out the gale, holding fast to its anchorage, is truly a conqueror; but that is all. But the vessel being driven by the very tempest to the haven, where it would be, is better off still, and thus "more than conqueror." So it is with the saint now; the tempest drives him the closer to Him who is indeed his desired haven, and thus he is more than conqueror. Is not, then, this earth a unique place?- this life a wonderful time ? A few years (possibly a few hours) more, and we shall be out of the scene of sorrow and evil forever; nor can we then prove the power of the love of Christ to lift above the sorrow either ourselves or others. Oh, my soul, art thou redeeming the time – "ransoming from loss" (as it might literally be worded) the precious opportunities that are around thee on every side, "because the days are evil" ? The very fact that the days are evil – that thou art in the place of tears – gives thee the "opportunities." When the days cease to be evil, those special opportunities, whatever may be the service of the redeemed, will be gone forever.

But the Preacher still continues his search '' under the sun," and turns from oppression and tears to regard what is, on the surface at least, a comparatively happy lot-"right work," by which a man has attained to prosperity and pre-eminence. But as he looks closer at a case which, at first sight, seems to promise real satisfaction, he sees that there is a bitter sting connected with it,-a sting that at once robs it of all its attraction, and makes void all its promise of true rest,- for "for this a man is envied of his neighbor." His success is only cause of bitter jealousy, and makes him the object not of love, but of envy, to all about him. Success, then, and a position of pre-eminence above one's competitors, gained by skill-ful toil, is rather to be avoided as vanity and pursuit of the wind,-a grasping at an empty nothingness.

Is the opposite extreme of perfect idleness any better? No; for plainly the idler is a fool who "eateth his own flesh"; that is, necessarily brings ruin upon himself. So human wisdom here closes the meditation with – what human wisdom always does take refuge in – the "golden mean," as it is called, " better a single handful with quiet rest, than both hands filled only by wearying toil and vexation of spirit." And true enough this is, as every man who has tested things at all in this world will confirm. Accumulation brings with it only disappointment and added care,- everything is permeated with a common poison; and here the wisdom of the old is, in one sense, in full harmony with the higher wisdom of the new, which says "godliness, with contentment, is great gain," and "having food and raiment, let us be therewith content."

If we look "above the sun," however, there is a scene where no sting lurks in all that attracts, as here. Where God Himself approves the desires of His people for more of their own, and says to them with gracious encouragement, "covet earnestly the best gifts." Yes; but mark the root-difference between the two:the skillful,. or right labor, that appears at first so desirable to the Preacher, is only for the worker's own advantage,- it exalts him above his fellows, where he becomes a mark for their bitter envy; but these "gifts "that are to be coveted are as far removed from this as the poles. In that higher scene, the more a gift exalts "self," the less is that gift. The "best"-those which God calls "best"- are those that awake no envy in others; but bring their happy owner lower and ever lower to the feet of his brethren to serve them, to build them up. The Corinthians themselves had the lesser gifts in the more showy "tongues," and "knowledge"; but one family amongst them had the greater,-"the household of Stephanas," for it had addicted itself to the service of the saints.

But let us not leave this theme till we have sought to set our hearts a-singing by a sight of Him who is, and ever shall be, the source as well as the theme of all our songs. We but recently traced Him in His glorious upward path till we found Him resting on the throne of the Majesty on high. But "he that ascended, what is it but that he also descended ?" So, beloved readers, though it may be a happily familiar theme to many, it will be none the less refreshing to look at that "right work " of our blessed Lord Jesus, "who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." That is the glorious platform – as we might, in our human way of speaking, say -upon which He had abode all through the ages of the past. He looks above-there is none, there is nothing higher. He looks on the same plane as Himself-He is equal with God. There is His blessed, glorious place, at the highest pinnacle of infinite glory, nothing to be desired, nothing to be grasped at.

He moves; and every heart that belongs to that new creation awakens into praise (oh, how different to the "envy" of the old!) as He takes His first step and makes Himself of no reputation. And as in our previous paper we followed Him in His glorious upward path, so here we may trace His no less glorious and most blessed path down and ever lower down, past Godhead to "no reputation"; past authority to service; past angels, who are servants, to men; past all the thrones and dignities of men to the manger at Bethlehem and the lowest walk of poverty, till He who, but now, was indeed rich is become poor; nay, says of Himself that He has not where to lay His head. No "golden mean" of the "handful with quietness" here! Yes, and far lower still, past that portion of the righteous man, endless life,- down, down to the humiliation of death; and then one more step to a death – not of honor, and respect, and the . peace, that we are told marks the perfect man and the upright, but the death of lowest shame, the criminal slave's death, the cross! Seven distinct steps of perfect humiliation! Oh, consider Him there, beloved ! Mocked of all His foes, forsaken of all His friends! The very refuse of the earth, the thieves that earth says are too vile for her, heaping their indignities upon Him. "Behold the man," spat upon, stricken, and numbered with transgressors; and, as we gaze, let us together listen to that divine voice, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," for that is our "right work," and there is no fear of a man being "envied of his neighbor" for right work of that kind.

But time and space would fail us to take up in de-detail all these precious contrasts. All Solomon's searches "under the sun" tell but one story:There is nought in all the world that can satisfy the heart of man. The next verse furnishes another striking illustration of this. He sees a solitary one, absolutely alone, without kith or kin dependent on him, and yet he toils on, "bereaving his soul of good" as unceasingly as when he first started in life. Every energy is still strained in the race for those riches that satisfy not at all. "Vanity" is the Preacher's commentary on the scene. This naturally leads to the conclusion that solitude, at least, is no blessing; for man was made for companionship and mutual dependence, and in this is safety. (Verses 9 to 12.)

Verses 13 to the end are difficult, as they stand in our authorized version; but they speak, I think, of the striking and extraordinary vicissitudes that are so constant '' under the sun." There is no lot abiding. The king on his throne, "old and foolish," changes places with the youth who may even step from the humiliation of prison and chains to the highest dignity:then "better is the poor and wise youth than the old and foolish king." But wider still the Preacher looks, and marks the stately march of the present generation with the next that shall follow it; yea, there is no end of the succession of surging generations, each boastful of itself, and taking no joy in- that is, making little account of-that which has gone before. Each, in its turn, like a broken wave, making way for its successor. Boastful pride, broken in death, but still followed by another equally boastful, or more so, which, in its turn, is humbled also in the silence of the grave. It is the same story of human changes as " the youth " and " the king," only a wider range is taken; but'' vanity " is the appropriate groan that accompanies the whole meditation. In this I follow Dr. Lewis's version:-

Better the child, though he be poor, if wise,
Than an old and foolish king, who heeds no longer warning;
For out of bondage came the one to reign-
The other, in a kingdom 'born, yet suffers poverty.
I saw the living all, that walked in pride beneath the sun,
I saw the second birth that in their place shall stand.
No end to all the people that have gone before;
And they who still succeed, in them shall find no joy.
This, too, is vanity,- a chasing of the wind.

(To be continued.)

*For Chapter I., see " Help and Food," Vol., 1890.*

2. The Announcement of the King (Chap. 2:).

It is now happily familiar to many that, as we have seen, the four Gospels have four different stories to tell us of the Lord Jesus Christ – give us four different views of Him. In the Gospel of Matthew He is the King (in relation to Israel especially, still of the kingdom of heaven, therefore wider and higher far than merely Israel's King):in Mark He is the Servant, the minister to human need:in Luke, the Man; and in John, the divine Person, the Word made flesh. In saying this, of course, it is not meant but that we have all these four in every Gospel, more or less ; but we merely speak of what is emphasized in each one. Thus, for instance, while we have in the first chapter the Lord looked at as Son of God (John's theme), yet, at the same time, as there, this is in direct connection with the theme of Matthew, because God's kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, would not be fully that unless He who ruled was a divine Person. So again, when you take the Gospel of Mark, what you find is the Lord's humiliation in a most distinct way, beyond any other Gospel. He is not even called Lord by His disciples till the resurrection ; yet it opens with, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." And why? Because, surely, the very thing that makes His ministry so precious is the apprehension of who it is that came down to serve in such a way, and therefore, that expression, though not characteristic of the book, coming in the place it does, is not only consistent with, but deepens our apprehension of its character.

Now, looking back to the end of the first chapter before we pass on, let us notice afresh that the King here is no less than divine, the living link between God and men, Immanuel, "God with us." To be that, He must be "Jesus," and save His people from their sins; yet in His very Person, Godhead and manhood are bound together in an embrace that is eternal, and implies all that is revealed in the gospel.

The connection of this, of course, is with the first chapter, where we rightly find it. Yet there is a connection, alas, of a very different kind with the second, to which we are now come, and which gives us the announcement of this divine King in His own world, and to His own people, and the results of that announcement. He has not only as a stranger to be announced ; but more, if exceptionally there are found a few to welcome, the mass are only troubled at the announcement.

Not only so:we shall find as we go on that it is, above all, for this pre-eminent glory of His that He is rejected. What man most of all needs, he most emphatically refuses. God's most wonderful grace he most stubbornly disbelieves.

The people were, already crying out, so to speak, for a Christ, for Messiah, but not such a Christ as Christ was, the Son of God. This is what they would have stoned Him for, and for which they condemned Him in the high priest's palace; and only as the con-sequence of this was he delivered up to Pilate, the Roman governor, with the charge that He made Himself King in Israel. The rejection of the King was in truth the rejection of a divine Person come into their midst:as the Lord says of them, "Now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father."
It is not, of course, inconsistent with this, when the apostle says, "Whom none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

They would not have dared; nevertheless, they had, consciously or unconsciously, looked into the face of the Son of God, and had therefore "seen the Father;" and had seen Him only to hate Him. What an awful thing it is to realize that this is the world we are living in, and the same world to-day, except where grace has made a difference!

Aye, and have we – we who have in measure owned His grace, and the necessity of His work for our salvation-have we cleared ourselves altogether of this deepest sin, so as, looking upon the face of God's Beloved, to have opened our hearts and lives to Him according to what is implied in this tide, Immanuel, "God with us"? Would we have Him "with us" as His desire is to be with us? Do we keep back nothing from this glorious Visitant ? do we deliberately keep back nothing ? Have we flung the gates wide open, in joyous response to the wondrous condescension of the King ?

In the details of our life, which of us can answer for himself as to this ? The things that so much, and not in the way of duty but of choice, engage us, and crowd out the things in which He is interested;-the comparative occupation of our time with His word and perhaps a newspaper;-such things, and many like them, how do they speak in regard to the way in which we have accepted indeed this blessed title of His-"God with us"?

How He would fulfill it to us, if we would but permit it! "We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." These are His own words; and what do they imply? Rather, may we say, what do they not imply ?

How solemn it is, too, to realize, beloved, that when the Lord of glory comes into the world, He comes into it in the most humble form ; not as a King at all, but disguised as the son of a carpenter, in the utmost poverty! But was it not, after all, that which became Him ? Think of the Son of God coming among us born in the "princes of this world's" purple ! Would not that be but the real disguise ? What another picture we would have had of Him, had He been brought up in kings' palaces, rather than where He was ! How blessed for Him to come down to the very lowest, so that there should not be one who cannot find Him, so to speak, in a place lower than himself! The world is upside down with sin; and this voluntary lowliness it is that proves and sets Him highest. It is the only thing suitable in Him, who, because the foundations of the world are out of course, is to bear up the pillars of it.

In this second chapter, then, we have the Lord announced, and having to be announced among His own people by men from afar-by Gentiles. Yet we know that not only by Daniel had God predicted almost the exact time of Messiah's coming, and by Micah, as the Scribes could unhesitatingly tell the place of His birth, but that heaven had given its witness to Him as actually come. Zecharias and Elizabeth had announced His forerunner. The angelic vision had brought the shepherds to the manger where He lay. Simeon had blessed God for His salvation come; and with Anna had spoken of Him in Jerusalem itself. And yet the city is only startled into recognition when "magi from the east" come with their inquiry, "Where is He that has been born King of the Jews ? for we have seen His star in the east, and have come to worship Him."
Upon the star itself it is perhaps useless to speculate. It naturally connects itself with Balaam's prophecy of the "Star to arise out of Jacob," and which was, as we know, the prophecy of a Gentile among Gentiles. Prophecy had evidently spoken to them, or they would hardly have so definitely understood the object of their search to be a King of the Jews. The magi were, as we know, the great natural observers of those days, and here we have the witness of nature to the Lord. Nature is not rebellious to her Maker, and still gives plentiful witness- few as they may be who realize or care to read it. The star may not have been in the strict sense miraculous, although a miracle would, after all, seem most consonant with the wonder of the time, and miracle is that in which God has reserved for Himself a sphere in which to show Himself outside and above those fixed natural laws which form the necessarily stable world through which our daily path is. The disappearance and reappearance of the star, and its guiding them to just where the young child was, look, spite of all attempted explanation, like something very different from an object in the far-off heavens. At any rate, the love in it was not far off, and it spoke in no uncertain way to these glad pilgrims journeying at its word.

They come to Jerusalem expecting, doubtless, to find all the city ready for the inquirer with a gospel message. They come to find the Edomite on the throne, and with all the old Edomite hatred in his heart, craftily though he may hide it, and gather the chief priests and elders together to hasten them on the way. Of course, these can tell all about Christ's birth textually; and how the words must have stricken the old blood-stained tyrant to the heart! "And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall be Shepherd to My people Israel."

Such, literally, are the words they use:and one might suppose that in using them they meant to inflict a wound that Herod should not be able to impute to them, but should come home to him as the voice of God Himself. And so it was, though the words are not found in Micah just as they quote them here. For Hebrew was not any more the language, even of Israel as a whole; and it was quite customary to paraphrase-rather than give literally a Scripture appealed to. The Hebrew, besides other differences, does not give "shepherd " in this passage, but simply "ruler." The Septuagint Greek follows the Hebrew:so that the variation is their own. And yet who can deny that the one word is God's thought as to the other? He who had sent Moses to the sheepfolds to learn how to guide His people in the wilderness-He who in the land had chosen David, and taken him '' from following the ewes great with young" to feed and guide with no less tenderness the flock of His pasture,-He had indeed consecrated the "shepherd " to be the picture of the Ruler whom He had appointed and would raise up. And we all know how the Lord has filled out this picture.

The scribes, then, show in their variation from the letter their acquaintance with the character of Messiah as prophecy reveals Him. But we hear no more of them. They cite the text for Herod; and they do it well; but they have no heart for the One they testify to. They are like sign-posts upon a road on which they do not move an inch. They pass on the word to those who value it; Herod himself, also, becoming the instrument in guiding worshipers to the feet of Jesus. They only, obedient to the Word, turn their faces toward Bethlehem; and as they do so, the star appears again, and goes before them. Nor does it leave them now till they are face to face with Him they seek.

Then they worship. It is but a humble house, we may be sure, and there are in it but a young mother and her babe. But they worship,-and worship, not the mother, but the babe. Divinely taught, they pour out their gifts at His feet, "gold and frankincense and myrrh:" gifts which, no doubt, have meaning. The Church of old seems almost unitedly to have interpreted them as, in the gold, the recognition of His royalty; in the frankincense, the acknowledgment of His Deity; while the myrrh, used afterward at His burial, is taken thus to be the anticipation of His death. To some of these things, as we know, His disciples were long after strangers; nor could we argue, if there were no doubt about the correctness of the symbolism, that the magi knew the whole significance of what they did. God governed all here in a peculiar way; a way which, indeed, in Scripture is the rule, however. Here there is nothing unmeaning. Here, if prophets searched their own writings to find how much the Spirit of Christ which was in them had guided them beyond their knowledge, so words and deeds speak commonly with a divine intelligence, quite apart from those who are the speakers and the doers.

It is the shadow of the future that is passing before us:the Gentiles worshiping while Israel rejects, -a dispensational picture quite in keeping with the character of Matthew. If we turn to the Gospel of Luke, and put it side by side with what we have here, worshipers though there may be in both cases, how many points of contrast we shall find! Luke is the gospel of the manhood of Christ; and with this, no wonder if we find a nearness, a meeting of God and man, which Matthew has very little of indeed. Be it that we have seen in Israel's King Immanuel, "God with us," this is at present more a prophecy than a real fulfillment, even as the salvation which He is come to effect is, all through, prevailingly a thing to be worked out before it can be plainly spoken into man's ear and heart. We shall see a fuller statement and proof of this as we go on. But in Luke, even from the beginning of it, salvation is come. Zacharias, before the birth of the Lord, testifies of it as at hand. Simeon, with the babe in his arms, sees it as already here. And instead of great men coming a long distance to find the King of the Jews, no star, but rejoicing hosts in an open heaven preach of a Savior which is Christ the Lord, of peace on earth, and God's delight in men.

Nor is it afar off, but nigh at hand-a gospel for the poor, free and available for all that come. Men need not to labor after it, but only to receive it-as in the offerings for atonement, where no wild nor hunted animal was used, but the sin-offerings couched at the door. Thus spoke God's grace before, as yet, it could be plainly uttered. Now the hidden things are gone, and God is in the light forevermore. F. W. G.

(1 Sam. 30:) The most faithful servants of God have not been perfect. Moses, the meekest man in all the earth, "spake unadvisedly with his lips." Peter, a truly devoted man, learned from bitter experience that he could put "no confidence in the flesh." David is, in some respects, the most beautiful and striking type we have of Christ in the Old Testament, both in his rejection and his elevation to the throne. In all the time of his persecution by king Saul, he exhibited both a forbearance toward his enemy and a faith in God which are very beautiful. Again and again he refused to take his case in his own hands, but committed all to the One who had called and anointed him.

It is therefore specially painful to see the faith of such an .one fail, and to hear him say, in his heart, '' I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul :there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines." How prone are God's people to leave His land, the place of His appointment ! A famine drove Abraham into Egypt, where he learned that the path of sight, apparently easier than that of faith, ends in sorrow and shame. Isaac doubtless would have gone the same way, had he not been restrained by a distinct word. Since that day the road from the land into Egypt has been much traveled by the Lord's people, who, under stress of circumstances, have thought to get relief, away from God's path-a sad mistake. No matter what the trial may be, it is light if we remain in God's place with a good conscience, compared with the sorrow and chastening which accompany departure from Him. Naomi is a striking example of this. " I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty." Ah! how slow we arc to realize that perfect love has chosen our path, and that perfect wisdom knows exactly what is best for us.

It was in the face of distinct preservation from the king, and indeed of strange, if but temporary melting on his part, that David made the unbelieving remark we have quoted above. "Then said Saul, 'I have sinned; return, my son David; for I will no more do thee harm ; because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day :behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.'" (i Sam. 26:21.) If he wanted to walk by sight, here seemed to be a relenting on the part of the king which would for a time, at least, insure him quietness; but unbelief is without reason and once indulged will lead us on in a path farther and farther from that which counts on God alone. And so he finds himself in the land of his and God's enemies whom he had oftentimes met and overcome in battle, but to whom he now goes for protection. Le us not be too severe with him; let us rather remember our own inconsistencies in this very respect, and how they have led us to adopt courses for ourselves which we have condemned in others.

Humanly speaking, it was a wise move on his part, but he had left the place which God had chosen for him, and substituted as a protector, king Achish, of Gath-his name signifying, " truly a man,"-for the living God. And this was the very man who at the beginning of his rejection had refused shelter to David; before whom he had feigned himself a madman, until he rose to the dignity of dependence upon God, and went to the cave of Adullam-his true place.

Now he is back again in the same place, and in what strange inconsistencies is he involved. An enemy to God's enemies he must fight them, but with the courage to do that he at the same time uses deception and fears to acknowledge it to Achish. Strangest of all, he is found in the Philistine army ready to go up to Apheh to take part in battle against king Saul, the Lord's anointed. He who had refused to lift up his hand against the king of Israel is actually now found in the ranks of the enemy, and but for the mercy of God would have been found in that clay of Israel's sorrow and humiliation fighting against the very people over whom he had been anointed king, or what would have been also a blot upon his good faith, he would have turned against the Philistines in the day of battle. God does not want His servants to be traitors. He would never have them in such compromising positions that such a thing would be possible.

But the disgrace of fighting in the enemy's ranks is prevented by the Philistines, and, with a vigorous protest of faithfulness to their cause, David is compelled to retire. God in mercy would not let His servant go further in this path of unbelief.

And now begins the chastening which is to bring him back to the simplicity of his confidence in God. He came to Ziklag, the place where his family and possessions were, only to find the city a mass of smoking ruins, and those whom he loved carried away captive. If he can be willing to go with the enemy, another enemy can come upon him and spoil him. It was no doubt a bitter moment for David. His little all had vanished. "Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep." Ah! now he is beginning to taste the bitterness of being without the protection of God. As a homeless wanderer, pursued like a partridge upon the mountains, despised by the Nabals, who dwelt at ease in the land, he had never known the like of this. But now, under the protection of the king of Gath, and with a city of his own, he learns that without God's shelter he is exposed indeed. In the first shock of disappointment he can only weep:all seems lost. Perhaps we may know from experience something of his gloom. We have been hoarding for many a day to get a little about us, to make a comfortable home it maybe, and it is all taken from us. Perhaps it is bereavement that comes, and in the bitterness of the grief all seems to be against us. He is aroused from the lethargy of his grief by the anger of his faithful followers. Those who had been with him in the cave of Adullam, and shared without a murmur, so far as we know, his perils and trials, now speak of stoning him. His troubles accumulate. But this is God's way to bring him back to Himself. And at last we read that he no longer will place himself under human protection-it has sadly failed him. When all things are against him, David's faith comes back,-he turns to the One who had never failed, and from whom he had sadly departed. "But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." Ah! blessed is the trial, no matter how heavy,-precious the disappointment, no matter how bitter, that can result thus! He is back now to God; and that, for him and for us all, means back in the place of blessing. Better, far better, to be in the midst of the black ruins of Ziklag, surrounded by a threatening mob, than in the ranks of the Philistines fighting against God's beloved people.

Have we, beloved brethren, in any way known what bitter disappointment means ? and have we in the midst of it turned to the One who has smitten us, and encouraged ourselves in Him ? Then, like David, we can say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; for before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept Thy word."

And how encouraging this is to all who are borne down with great sorrow. Never can it be so great, the disappointment can be never so keen, but we can find relief in God-in the very one who has sent the sorrow upon us. This faith in God, springing up among the ruins of all he had, was a precious and a beautiful thing. It marked a great turning-point in his life.

Nor does it stop here. His next step is, to inquire what can be done. Notice, he does not rush after the enemy who had done the mischief. He first inquires of God in the appointed way, and finds out what must be done. His restless self-confidence has disappeared, his soul is again like a weaned child. God shall now be his guide. Is not this a beautiful lesson? "Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them ?" Ah! he is in the right path now; and if he does not move rapidly, he goes surely. Would that we could learn to imitate him! for our efforts to undo the results of our own folly and unbelief are often but a fresh going on in the path which brought the chastening upon us. And this will end only in fresh disappointment. "Be still, and know that I am God " is the word we need to hear, and to let the hand that has smitten us lead us in the plain path that He alone knows. This is most needful, and one of the surest signs that disappointment and sorrow have been blessed to us is, to see this spirit of dependence on God.

And this brings us to the place of victory. This nerves them, weak as they may be, and, with some left behind, to press on after the enemy, to overtake them, and to recover that which had been lost. They arc now, too, in a state to enjoy their recovered possessions. They will not be a snare to them. When God takes a thing out of our hands to teach us a lesson we need to learn, He can, after we have learned that lesson, put the thing back in our hands. This He often, not always, does. But faith is now in its right place, and can appreciate recovered blessings, receiving them now from God.

But there is more to see. Only a portion of the men had the strength and energy to follow David over the brook Besor, to overtake and vanquish the spoilers. What about those who " tarried at home "? Pride and selfishness might say that they should not share in the fruits of the victory; but one who had been truly restored in his soul, like David,-who knew what his own failure had been, and how all was due to God alone, would permit no such selfishness. Those who remained at home were to share in the victory. This is true largeness of heart, and always marks one who has learned in God's school. Others may want to stint those with less faith and energy; he will rejoice to give them what he has gained. It is always comparatively few who do the active work of recovering truth, for instance; but it would be niggardly indeed to deprive any of God's people of the fullest enjoyment of what has been won. We need to remember this. If God has in mercy restored to us any truths of His Word, we owe it to the whole Church to impart it to as many as will receive it. "Feed the flock of God,"-not part of it, but all,- any who will share with us what we have won back from the spoiler, not hampered in our ministry by the fact that "he followeth not with us."

Thus, out of the ruins of Ziklag, and out of the ruins of his testimony, David rises to a brighter faith step by step,-dependence, looking for guidance, energy to pursue the enemy, and largeness of heart to share the spoil with all. So did Gideon in his victory.

The next notice we have of David's movements is, the childlike inquiry, " Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah ?" He had left them, inquiring of his own heart only; he will only go back as God may guide. And how fitting it is that he should be sent back to Hebron-"communion "! It is ever back to this that God would call us. He would never have us leave the place of communion; and if we do, He would call us back, and we can thank Him well if He gets us back at the cost of disappointment and sorrow.

This was the question asked of the writer by a lady as he pointed her to the precious and familiar passage in Heb. 10:-"For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Through the teaching of her "church," she was in the habit of praying daily for pardon, though a professed believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. It was to show her the finished work of Christ that the above passage was referred to, and it evidently arrested her attention. '' But who are the sanctified? " Here it seemed as though a loop-hole for unbelief was about to open. Did not "sanctify" mean "to make holy"? and who could lay claim to that ? But how perfect God's Word is! She was simply referred to the thirteenth chapter of the same epistle,- "Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate." (Heb. 13:12.) There could be no gainsaying this. The answer was so plain that she was obliged to receive it. Sanctified by His blood; set apart to God according to the value of that offering. Those, then, who are sanctified are those who have an interest in that blood, and those are sinners who believe. This is the sanctification spoken of in Hebrews, where the object is to occupy the soul entirely with Christ, to the exclusion of form, priest, and all else that unbelief would put between the soul and its Savior.

Strangers here –
"Not a link with earth unbroken,
Not a farewell to be spoken,
Waiting for their Lord to take them
To Himself and like Him make them.

Strangers here –
With their hearts upon a treasure
That has dimmed for them earth's pleasure ;
Lamps well trimmed and brightly burning;
Eyes forever upward turning.

Strangers here –
Pilgrims in a hostile nation,
In a groaning old creation,
Journeying on through shame and scorning,
Gazing at the Star of Morning.

Strangers here-
Earthly rank and riches losing,
Worldly ties and claims refusing;
On to Christ in glory pressing,
All things there in Him possessing.

Strangers here-
But in Him their hearts are resting,
Faith looks up in days of testing,
Follows Him with true allegiance,
Loves to walk in His obedience.

Strangers here-
Christ has told them His affection,
Given them such a bright reception;
Not one word of condemnation-
Not one thought of separation.

Strangers here-
Soon to be at home together,
Going in with Christ forever;
He who bore their deep dishonor,
Giving them His wealth and honor.

Well known there-
Oh, what joy for Christ to take them
To the Father, who will make them
Welcome in His mansions yonder;
Strangers here-to be no longer!

(Continued from page 261.) Heb. 12:22-24.

Mount Zion is the center of earthly blessing, and in connection with an earthly people. We share in its glories, inasmuch as being associated with Christ we, the Church, shall reign with Him (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 3:21). But earth and earthly blessing is not our goal, so our passage rises from earth to heaven, to show us our true place and portion. " The city of the living God " (as contrasted with the city of the great king, Jerusalem) "the heavenly Jerusalem." God has prepared for us a city of habitation, and it is where He dwells – His home, the Father's house. God is omnipresent, He fills immensity, but He dwells in heaven; the spirits of little children redeemed, do there behold His face. (Matt, 18:10.) The throne of God and of the Lamb is there; and His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face (Rev. 22:3,4). This is our eternal home, and how soon may we enter it! But even now we have come to it. We have '' boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." "Whom He justified, them He also glorified." In Christ we are already seated in the heavenly places. Heaven has been opened to us through the entrance of Christ into it. And while it is not meant that the passages from Ephesians and Romans just quoted are parallel with what we have before us, they are views of the same subject from another point.

What has one to do with an earthly priesthood, with carnal ordinances, with the law as being under it, who has come to the heavenly Jerusalem ?

(3.) We naturally come next to the inhabitants of this heavenly home; and the lowest grade is mentioned first:the innumerable company of angels, a universal gathering-a pan-angelic assembly. Such clearly seems to be the meaning of this clause, the general assembly describing the angelic host and not the Church. Angels foretold and announced the birth of Christ. They ministered to Him after His temptation; one strengthened him in the garden; two announced His resurrection; and again His second coming (Acts 1:) They are "all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation." (Heb. 1:) They excel in strength; they desire to look into the precious mysteries of the gospel (i Pet. 1:12). Of their nature and character we know now but little, comparatively. Their home, however, is ours; and we shall doubtless know them fully when there, and they will share with us in our divine worship, though they can never know the sweetness of redemption. For He took not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham (Heb. 2:).

(4.) Round about the throne, nearer than the angels (Rev. 4:ii) are the company of the .redeemed- kings and priests unto God. Of one part of this company our next clause speaks:the church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. The first-born has the place of dignity – of priority over all the other children. So, in His amazing grace, God has put the Church. He has given it to be the Bride, the Lamb's wife, to share His glory, to be forever united to Him in the closest intimacy. To be the exhibition of God's kindness, the vessel of His glory throughout all ages! (Eph. 3:21.) Soon will the Lord present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And even now we have by faith come into association with that heavenly church,- nay, through grace we are a part of it. What a position! How small do the things of earth seem in comparison with these holy, happy associations.

(5.) But we are brought to God Himself, who, if He be the Judge of all, God over all blessed forever, is also our Father. Sin resulted in departure from God, hiding from Him; and all the sacrifices and ceremonies could not bring us back to Him. But Christ has brought us to God, we are made nigh. "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." (Rom. 5:2:) We have peace, access and standing in grace; we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and can even glory in tribulations. As a crown upon it all the living God is now our joy; we can look into His face, by faith, and say Abba, Father. Praises be to His wondrous grace!

(6.) Those who have fought the good fight and have kept the faith, saints of all dispensations who have gone home to the Lord, are now set before us. Not in an unconscious sleep, but in happy rest they are shown to us for our encouragement. They are waiting for their glorified bodies, but are even now perfect. They have reached their home, they sin no more. Here are Abraham, the man of faith; Jacob, the tried and failing one ; David, the man after God's own heart. They have done with earth – its sins and its joys. We belong to that goodly company. Their joys are ours, their rest is ours. How cheering it is, amidst the sorrows, trials, and temptations of the way, to remember that we have come to the spirits of just men made perfect. We see some of them in the eleventh of Hebrews; but the time would fail to speak of all, and we hasten on to look at Him who is set before us in the twelfth chapter.

(7.) Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. In the midst of the angels, of the church, of the spirits of just men made perfect,- upon the very throne of God is One who has drawn our hearts to Himself. He who died for us now lives for us, interceding in the presence of God for us. The old covenant was the law. Under it man engaged to obey the commandments of God as a condition of blessing. How man failed under that covenant, presented under its most attractive forms and appealing to all motives of self-interest and gratitude, it is needless to say. The cross is at once the witness of the doing away of the old covenant, and the introduction of a new one with Jesus as its mediator. He has fulfilled its conditions, and secured its blessings to us. As nothing depends upon us in it, all upon Him, it can never be done away; it is "ordered in all things and sure." It is to this blessed person we have come,- not to Noah with his renewed earth, not to Moses with his legal covenant. Could we ask more ?

(8.) And upon what does all this blessing rest? What is the ground upon which we, as Christians, stand ? It is " the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Abel's blood cried for vengeance upon his guilty brother; the blood of Christ sprinkled upon the mercy seat, and seven times before it, tells of an accomplished redemption – God's righteousness fully vindicated, every demand of justice met by the sacrifice of our Substitute and God for us. We now, through grace, boldly stand before that blood-sprinkled mercy-seat. Who shall lay anything to our charge? How solid, how firm a standing,- how eternal. On the ground of the blood we are introduced into the holy society and position we have been looking at.

And what is the object of this unfolding of the completeness of the Christian's position ? " See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh " (5:25). Christianity had succeeded upon Judaism. The shadow had given way to the substance. And should they return again to the '' shadow of good things to come," when the good things themselves were before them ? But it is said we are in no danger of going back to Judaism. Let us not be too sure of that. A reformed earth, instead of a returning Lord; a legal gospel of works, instead of an accomplished redemption ; ordinances, seasons, a human priesthood between God and His people,- these are the characteristics of the religion of the day – going, gone back to – yea, beyond Judaism, into self-culture, universal brotherhood of man, with God and His word largely left out. His own, to His praise be it said, are and will be preserved through all this, but how needed is the admonition we have just quoted! And as the Christian's position is laid before us with all its holy associations, its wondrous nearness to God, its blessings, do not our hearts, with Peter, say "Lord, to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life " ?

As the year closes upon us, and another, darker as far as the world is concerned, opens, let us see what a goodly heritage we have, and stand fast in our lot "till He come."

TO THE EDITOR OF HELP AND FOOD:

My dear Brother,-Since our parting at B. two months ago, A. E. B. and I have been journeying together in fields altogether new to me, and, at different points, not lacking in interest. One feature has been especially cheering :Save in some places where circumstances, unconcern, or opposition, closed the doors against us, we had access to many, and invariably got the best possible attention. Under such circumstances it is a delightful task to sow the seed in "the morning" and in "the evening," for one is assured that He who has bidden us so to do will not leave it fruitless.

In the majority of places a lengthening of the stay daily increased the attendance and the interest, and it was in some occasions a trial to leave them. In a section of the country extending for many miles, we found a few godly men who had scarcely left a corner within reach of them without having preached the gospel to the people there. Nor were they men of leisure ; they were men of toil, caring lovingly for their families by their labor but lovers of men as well and constrained "by the love of Christ. How easy is one's service among such men! Yearning after the souls of the lost and conscious of their weakness in meeting the need they hail with gladness the help of fellow-workers and are but too happy to see others reap where they have sown. May God raise up such everywhere.

In certain places there were marks of another kind of work, one which mars that of the Spirit of God wherever it obtains. It consists largely of a combative kind of gospel which seems more inclined to expose evil than to weep over it and to make Christ precious to the souls of men. It savors of a craving after adherents rather than of a holy purpose to edify the people of God, and its inevitable and sad result is, to leave souls in a barren, dwarfed condition, without power for prayer or spiritual development.

To speak of individual cases might lead one to more length than one cares to go into here ; but it is where the refreshment is as you well know. One instance was an elderly gentleman. Upon nearing his residence we met him walking out.

Sir, he said, I once opposed much the things you preach, but it is another thing now. God has been showing me what I am in His sight, and it has been a dreadful pass I have gone through. In all my life, though a professing Christian, I never had an idea of being such a sinner as I now see myself to be. I therefore understand and value the grace you proclaim; but O tell me, is it truly possible that a man like me should be allowed to appropriate the wonderful riches declared in that grace?

What a mercy to have the Word of God! And what joy to minister it to such.

A most interesting feature of the journey has been the Roman Catholics. It is evident there is a movement going on among them. Their clergy is losing some of its power over them, and they are more easily persuaded to read the Scriptures, In one case it was a poor laborer who could not read, nor any of his family, but he had received a French Testament and found in his employer one who could read in that tongue and who loved the Scriptures. He got him to read some portions to him, and such became his interest in the book that he ever carried it with him. Now read to me, he would say, while opening his red handkerchief in which the Testament was carefully wrapped up ; and when some passage especially struck him he would beg to have it read again to him even to the third time so that he might be able to communicate it to his family. Often did it so operate in him as it was being read to him that he would sit in an adoring attitude :he was hearing the voice of God.

In another case a Testament had been given to an intelligent, sturdy farmer who was in some difficulty with his priest. After reading it a little he saw there was abundant material there with which to fight the priest and he began to read in earnest. Soon, however, the battle changed front, and his own soul became the object instead of the priest. He cried to God and found mercy.

Spending an afternoon among the French families who have been blessed as the result of this has increased the desire to labor among that teeming French population who seem to be opening to the Word of God.

May it please the Lord, if He tarry yet a little, to so give grace and peace to His beloved people as to leave more freedom to carry the light in the parts which need it.

Ever yours in Him, P. J. L.

No one would think of bringing a lighted candle to add brightness to the sun at mid-day ; and yet the man who would do so might well be accounted wise, in comparison with him who attempts to assist God by his bustling officiousness.

"The following hymn was composed by Madame A. Bouringnon, and translated by John Wesley. It was likely written more than a hundred and fifty years ago. It breathes a spirit of real and entire consecration to Christ. It is transcribed with the hope that it may, with the Lord's blessing, aid in promoting the same spirit in those who have greater light, so that they too may be able to say, " Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee,."-R. H.]

Come, Savior Jesus, from above,
Assist me with Thy heavenly grace;
Empty my heart of earthly love,
And for Thyself prepare the place.

Oh, let Thy sacred presence fill,
And set my longing spirit free,
Which pants to have no other will,
But day and night to feast on Thee.

While in this region here below,
No other good will I pursue;
I'll bid this world of noise and show,
With all its glittering snares, adieu.

That path with humble speed I'll seek,
In which my Savior's footsteps shine;
Nor will I hear, nor will I speak,
Of any other love but Thine.

Henceforth may no profane delight
Divide this consecrated soul;
Possess it, Thou, who hast the right,
As Lord and Master of the whole.

Wealth, honor, pleasure, and what else
This short enduring world can give,-
Tempt as ye will, my soul repels,
To Christ alone resolved to live.

Thee I can love, and Thee alone,
With pure delight and inward bliss;
To know Thou takest me for Thine own-
Oh, what a happiness is this !

Nothing on earth do I desire,
But Thy pure love within my breast;
This, only this, will I require,
And freely give up all the rest.

"Now the end of the commandment is charity (love) out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and faith unfeigned." (i Tim. 1:5.)

The end of the commandment, charge, or exhortation, is "love out of a pure heart."" God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him."Naturally, we do not love each other any further than another ministers to our desires. We love ourselves, and we love our wives, children, brothers, sisters, friends, and neighbors only in proportion as they gratify or please us in some manner. Our natural love is then wholly selfish. But love that is according to God-like any thing else in Christianity-is from Himself and by the Spirit. It is through His love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which He has given unto us, that we love others "out of a pure heart." A pure heart is one in subjection to God, and such an one God dwells in by His Spirit, and His love goes out through him to others. It is of God, and, like every thing else in Christianity, all of God.

A heart truly in subjection to God is one over which He reigns and in which He rules, and, consequently the rule is in love, for He is love, and the love which is of Him must be out of a pure heart. In 2 Tim. 2:22, we are commanded to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." Here it is the same thought, out of a heart so in subjection to God that He has, so to speak, His own way with it. When all hearts in an assembly are so in subjection we have the "unity of the Spirit," and we are all of one mind for "we have the mind of Christ." " Love out of a pure heart" also manifests itself in fellowship with others who are alike in subjection and so manifests itself that each realizes the subjective condition of his fellow. Therefore we are admonished to associate ourselves with them that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

"A good conscience." This can only be maintained through walking in the light. We are the children of light. God has introduced us into His light by Jesus Christ, and to keep a good conscience we are to walk in the light as He is in the light, and there we have fellowship one with another, and the blood, not the walk, cleanseth us from all sin. That is, we realize this by faith. We have the full consciousness of the fact. Thus we keep a good conscience. "If we say we abide in Him, we ought so to walk even as He walked." We are exhorted by Paul " not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God by which we are sealed unto the day of redemption," and to fail in this brings with it a bad conscience. But the end of the commandment is " a good conscience." This, then, can only be maintained while walking in fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. In this fellowship and communion there is, there can be, no sin; but when we fall out of that place, and begin to walk as men in the world, that moment sin comes in and we grieve the Holy Spirit and get a bad conscience. "My little children, these things write I unto you that ye do not sin ; and if any man (saint) do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One ; and He is the propitiation for our sins." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This is restoring grace for failing saints, and again brings us into His presence with no conscience of sins. So is ample provision made for both keeping a good conscience and restoring it when lost through failure ; the work of the Righteous One still going on for us in grace. Let His name be praised by all His saints to the ages of the ages. Amen.

"These things write I unto you that ye sin not." This, dear brethren, is the primary word for us. The Word of God does not contemplate us as practicing sin. "He that committeth sin is of the devil."
'' 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." "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not." This alone is the place of security. Abiding in Him is the place where there is no sin, and there alone can we keep continually a good conscience. It is a double abiding. He abides in us as life, the new life, and our place of strength is abiding in Him by faith where He is. May God our Father keep us so abiding by His Holy Spirit.

" And faith unfeigned." Faith unfeigned implies feigned faith. A man may say he has faith and yet not be born of God. Such a faith is a feigned faith, or man's own work, of his own volition; but unfeigned faith is the gift of God, and comes to man only when he has come to the end of himself. See the case of the man with the withered hand. The Lord Jesus commanded him to stand forth before the whole assembly in the synagogue (see Mark 3:). He obeyed, and stood there while the Master spoke to the assembly; at the end He said unto him, " Stretch forth thy hand," and he immediately stretched forth the hand that he could not stretch forth. There was faith unfeigned, and it came from God as a free gift by Jesus Christ when the man was ready to receive it. "As many as received Him, to them gave He the power (privilege) to become the sons of God," even to them that believe on His name, which were born of God. Unfeigned faith, then, is of God, and comes to every willing, submissive soul. '' If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God."

Mr. Darby somewhere says that '' faith is this power of God working in a man," and this is the truth, and only this is unfeigned faith. It is an old saying that " man's extremity is God's opportunity," and so when a man comes to the end of himself before God and is fully subject, then God takes him up. Faith unfeigned is, so to speak, the instrument by which God works salvation in man by Jesus Christ. "Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him ? Thou hast both seen Him and it is He that talketh with thee; and he said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped Him." He was willing, he was submissive, and at once the Lord made him a worshiper.

May our God keep us full of love out of a pure heart, and with a good conscience, and a faith that is unfeigned for His ever blessed Son's sake. Amen. J. S. P.

(Continued from p. 287.)

CHAPTER III.

Gospel of Matthew has seven primary divisions. The two chapters we have been considering form the first of these, in which our attention is fixed upon the person of the King. That which commences with the third chapter presents the kingdom. It occupies five chapters, to the end of the seventh, and has five subdivisions, although these are not at all marked out for us by the chapters. The first subdivision has in fact, as I believe, only six verses, in which we have set before us the herald of the kingdom, John the Baptist, a remarkable person, both in himself and in the place he fills. "Among those that are born of women," is our Lord's testimony of him, "there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist." And yet He adds, (and this connects itself with the place he fills between two dispensations,) "Nevertheless, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

It is not yet the place to consider this. We have first to see what the kingdom itself is, and what is the meaning of the expression for it, the "kingdom of heaven," which is peculiar to and characteristic of this gospel. In all the others we have only the "kingdom of God." Matthew has both terms, but predominantly the former.

The difference is implied in the terms themselves. "Heaven "is a place; " God " is a Person:"heaven" naturally suggests "earth" as the sphere of the kingdom; "God" suggests "man." God might reign upon an earthly throne, as He did in Israel, when He dwelt between the cherubim. All that had long
ceased; the glory had left its earthly tabernacle, and the kingdom upon earth had been put into the hand of the Gentile. The throne, so to speak, removed to heaven, the way is prepared for the coming of a " kingdom of heaven."

Heaven had always ruled upon earth in fact; it was a fact which probably would have been any time admitted even by Nebuchadnezzar, though his pride might forget it, that " the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men."But this was not the truth of the "kingdom of heaven"; for it meant a government of secret forces, and according to principles which might be themselves unknown. This kingdom, on the other hand, meant something open, God in this way drawing near, not even faith requisite to realize the fact. For we are not now speaking of the kingdom of heaven as it exists at present, with the King absent and the prevalence of evil upon the earth:that is for the first time made known, and then in parables, in the thirteenth chapter:where they are declared to be " mysteries of the kingdom of heaven."The very manner of speech was in accordance with this, as the evangelist applies the words of the prophet:"I will open my mouth in parables ; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."

Of such hidden things the Baptist could therefore know nothing. He was not a prophet of the Christianity so soon to come, but the last voice of the dispensation passing away, which could not pass until it had pointed to Him in whose hand were the ages beyond it. He was the voice of the past in the present, the law in its moral significance, its testimony to its own insufficiency, its reference to Him that was to come. "Repent," says the Voice, crying in the wilderness, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Prophets had long before announced the kingdom and the king; always in connection with Israel, with the law going forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. It is the same kingdom that the Baptist declares to be "at hand," though now for the first time spoken of under this peculiar title. Yet Daniel had seen " One like the Son of man come in the clouds of heaven " to receive it, and Zechariah had announced that His feet should "stand" in that day "upon the mount of Olives, . . . and the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with Thee."

Since then but one prophet had spoken, and he to show that the remnant brought back out of the captivity in Babylon were but filling up the measure of their fathers' sins. Priests and people were alike gone astray from God. There remained but a remnant of a remnant. The day that was to come would therefore have to discriminate, and be in judgment as well as mercy. But "Behold," says Jehovah, " I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare My way before Me ; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple."

The voice dropped, and the centuries had run on. Now, after a long interval, the messenger had come, with the express warning of his Master's feet behind him. The years had brought no recovery, and the promise had to come as warning still. The new "voice" cried in the wilderness, not in the cities of Israel :there where Jehovah remembered still the kindness of her youth, the love of her espousals, when Israel was holiness to the Lord, and the first-fruits of her increase (Jer. 2:2, 3), and where again He will have to allure her, in order to speak comfortably to her (Hos. 2:14). There the cry of "Repent" was in its place.

The people were in fact being brought into the wilderness, whether or not they would accept the warning and return to God. They were under the heel of the Gentile fully. Even the bastard rule of the Herods was now over for Judea, (although it was destined to a brief revival,) and there was a Roman governor over the land. The sanctuary throne had long been empty; Lo-ammi, "not my people," had long been the verdict against them ; there was no Urim and Thummim by which God might be consulted ; for centuries no prophet had spoken for Him. God was outside, and the messenger of God had to deliver his message from a place outside. The son of a priest, John, exercised no priestly function. We never find him at Jerusalem. His clothing is of camel's hair-such as spoke of the desert, with a leathern girdle about his loins. His food is locusts and wild honey. Everything with him speaks of separation; as if he had heard (as he had) the word to Jeremiah:"Let them return to thee, but return not thou to them."

His baptism confirms his preaching. He baptizes to repentance, and in Jordan, the river of death; baptizes thus to death, the people confessing their sins, of which death was the just due. This is repentance :not a vain promise of reform, not the reform itself, but what is primary and antecedent to all this, the taking of true ground before God as hopeless and undone, with such an one as Job, who, though the best man of his day, and so pronounced by God, found his place here in self-abhorrence. " I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear," he cries to God, "but now mine eye seeth Thee:therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Were repentance the same as reformation, or '' doing better," as is more vaguely said, we might well despair if the best man on earth, so declared by God Himself, had yet to repent in this sense. On the other hand, it is not hard at all to realize how the very perfection, comparatively, of his life and ways might hinder the apprehension of the evil in him, till he had measured himself fairly in the presence of God. This is his own account of it, as is evident. He had found in such light, deeper than his outward life, a self from which he turned in shame and loathing. Repentance was with him, at least, not doing, in any shape, but turning from all that he had done "and been, to cast himself upon mere mercy. And that mercy in God met him there and then with full deliverance and lifting up from all his sorrows.

Thus, then, was the way of the Lord to be prepared into His kingdom. As Isaiah renders it,- though the quotation is only found in Luke, not here,- the mountain was to be leveled, the valley filled, pride abased, the lowliest exalted, grace in God realized as needed alike by all, sufficient for any. So would He have His way.

John preached, and there was power in his word:"there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were all baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins."

We come now to the second subdivision, which contains only six more verses:and here we find the opposition of the heart to God revealing itself, and John emphasizing, therefore, the division that would have to be made between men when the King should come. For now, among the multitude, whether merely to be in the fashion, or moved by the power which yet they would not yield themselves to, many Pharisees and Sadducees came to his baptism. They were the religious leaders of the people, though far enough apart from one another, types of the two directions in which men turn away from God. The Pharisee was the legalist and formalist; the Sadducee, the rationalist and infidel of his day. Apart as they were, they could show their essential oneness by the way in which they could combine against the followers of the Lord, and John treats them as one, essentially:"O generation of vipers," he exclaims on seeing them, "who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?" He could not credit them with having felt the sting of such an incentive. They must prove the reality of it:" Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance"; and here self-judgment would show itself first of all:"and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."

Natural birth, outward participation with the people of God,- it is possible for men even yet, and under a very different dispensation, to attribute to such things an extraordinary importance. With the Jew, the promises to Abraham's seed, taken in the crudest way and with the grossest misconception, made him value himself exceedingly upon the connection with the "friend of God." John's language, therefore, attacked his most cherished expectations. Not only might all the promises fail him upon which he had built, but God could by His power bring into the enjoyment of them those who had no natural claim or birth-relation at all! To us who enjoy, in fact, a place so given, this is simple. For the Jew it would be an overwhelming thought. It did, indeed, show that the axe was being laid at the root of the trees. All turned upon the fruit that manifested the tree. If the fruit was bad, what matter though it might come of the finest stock ?

The sinner, as such, whoever he was, was under the wrath of God. Once the limit of forbearance reached, the tree cut down was destined for the fire. Very simple truth indeed, but no man loves it. Because he does not love it he will invent every possible way of escape; or, rather, hide from his own eyes that from which there is none. How terrible is the power of self-deceit in all of us; and what need for the plainest possible speaking where this is the case! For, thank God, there is a way of escape; not indeed from the need of repentance, but by its means. Repentance is only the back side of faith:he who turns his back on himself finds grace from Him to whom he turns.

All John's aim, therefore, was to bring man to repentance. For this he baptized with water:he mentions the "water," expressly to free them from the idea that there was anything in this, apart from the significance which it had as a baptism to repentance. Water is only water, can only produce a material effect, and not a spiritual. Nor does God ordain it to a magic use, perverting the nature of what He created. On the contrary, He takes up what is in itself nothing, in order that men should not lose sight of the spiritual by what might seem capable of inherent virtue. Baptism with John, as with Paul, was simple "burial"; not life, not resurrection, but the very opposite of these. The confession of death, – of the sinner's "need and helplessness,-that Another may be seen and known and trusted in; accordingly he turns to that Other' now:-

'' I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance:but He that cometh after me is mightier than I; whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."

(To be continued.)

"Oh! there is a preciousness in Jesus that, if we saw it fully, would dazzle our eyes for discerning glory in external things; we should be unable to distinguish the great from the small, the bright from the dark…Do you feel what I mean ? that if Christ were apprehended, we should cease to know what the world calls little or great. The pursuit of an empire or of a butterfly would be to us alike little."

" I do not regret any of the trials I have had. Pilgrims must expect trials on a long journey:we cannot expect either good roads or good weather all the way; but the Lord Jesus has sanctified it all- foul and fair and made all to work together for our good. Whatever purposes are in your heart let them be high and heavenly ones for Christ and His kingdom:the world will soon pass away and all its glories, but that kingdom shall endure. Keep close to the simplicity of Christ; nothing will keep us from extravagances but talking with Him. He always moved so seriously to the object He had in hand-the fulfilment of His Father's will."

"The more the sense of my Lord's love presses upon me, the more does it make my heart mourn to think He should have been, served so much from cold principles, instead of that holy service of the heart He so desires and values."

'' I have learned much of the powerlessness of man to direct his own ways when in difficulty and perplexity. I know no resource, nor do I desire any, except to throw off my trials upon God, leaving it with Him to bring light out of darkness, and awaiting His time to do it. It is not that our Father has pleasure in our being in straits and difficulties that He thus permits them to try us, but He knows that our real life is hid with Christ in Himself, and whatever makes us feel this connection with Jesus necessary to our comfort, and constrains us to more close intercourse with Him, and makes the hope of final deliverance and rest more precious, is clearly to the happiness of our spiritual life, however mortifying it may be to the natural man."

'' In connection with these views, the state in which the Church is, is particularly affecting; for while the heart has individual experience of the need it has of these very trials of the cross to pull it out of the snare of the world, it has to mourn over the Church, not only as fallen in the dust, but as being more than ever reluctant to be raised up; and instead of following the revelation of God in all doctrine and practice, she gets rid of her difficulties in carrying them out, by weaving to herself various little texts of doctrine suited to the various sects of the day; and puts zeal for them in the place of zeal for God's holy and blessed truths, as His, without exception or innovation. Oh! who does not long that the warfare was accomplished, and the Church glorified together ? "-(Correspondence from the East, 1834.)

(Continued from page 153.)

Having, then, seen in these first few verses the purpose of the book and the stand-point of the writer, we may accompany him in the details of his search. First he repeats, what is of the greatest importance for us to remember(5:12), "I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem."He would not have us forget that, should he fail in his search for perfect satisfaction, it will not be because he is not fully qualified both by his abilities and his position to succeed. But Infidelity, and its kinsman Rationalism, raise a joyful shout over this verse; for to disconnect the books of the Bible from the writers, whose name they tear, is a long step toward overthrowing the authority of those books altogether. If the believer's long-settled confidence can be proved vain in one point, and that so important a point, there is good"hope"of eventually overthrowing it altogether. So, with extravagant protestations of loyalty to the Scriptures, they, Joab like, "kiss" and "stab" simultaneously, wonderfully manifesting in word and work that dual form of the evil one, who, our Lord tells us, was both "liar and murderer from the beginning." And many thousand professing Christians are like Amasa of old, their ear is well pleased with the fair sound of "Art thou in health, my brother?" and they too take"no heed to the sword "in the inquirer's hand. Judas too, in his day, illustrates strongly that same diabolical compound of "deceit and violence," only the enemy finds no unwary Amasa in Jesus the Lord.

" Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss" tears the vail from him at once ; and in the same way the feeblest believer who abides in Him, is led of that same spirit; and "good words and fair speeches " do not deceive, nor can betrayal be hidden behind the warmest protestations of affection.

But to return:"How could,"cries this sapient infidelity, which to-day has given itself the modest name of "Higher Criticism,"-"how could Solomon say, ' I was king,' when he never ceased to be that? " Ah ! one fears if that same Lord were to speak once more as of old, He would again say, "O fools and blind !" For is it not meet that the writer who is about to give recital of his experiences should first tell us what his position was at the very time of those experiences ? That at the very time of all these exercises, disappointments, and groanings, he was still the highest monarch on earth, king over an undivided Israel, in Jerusalem, with all the resources and glories that accompany this high station, preeminently fitting him to speak with authority, and compelling us to listen with the profoundest respect and attention.

Yes, this glorious monarch "gives his heart "-1:e., applies himself with singleness of purpose "to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven." No path that gives the slightest promise of leading to happiness shall be untrodden;-no pleasure shall be denied, no toil be shirked, that shall give any hope of satisfaction or rest. " This sore travail hath God given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith." That is, the heart of man hungers and thirsts, and he must search till he does find something to satisfy, and, if, alas ! he fail to find it in "time," if he only drinks here of waters whereof he "that drinks shall thirst again," eternity shall find him thirsting still, and crying for one drop of water to cool his tongue. But then with what bitter despair Ecclesiastes records all these searchings ! "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit," or rather, "pursuit of the wind." Exactly seven times he uses this term, "pursuit of the wind," expressing perfect, complete, despairing failure in his quest. He finds things all wrong, but he has no power of righting them; "that which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." But perhaps we may get the secret of his failure in his next words. He takes a companion or counselor in his search. Again exactly seven times he takes counsel with this companion, "his own heart." "I communed with my own heart." That is the level of the book ; the writer's resources are all within himself ; no light from without save that which nature gives ; no taking hold on another, no hand clasped by another. He and his heart are alone. Ah! that is dangerous, as well as dreary work to take counsel with one's own heart. "Fool" and "lawless one" come to their foolish and wicked conclusions there (Ps. 14:10:); and what else than " folly" could be expected in hearkening to that which is '' deceitful above all things"-what else than lawlessness in taking counsel with that which is "desperately wicked "?

Take not, then, for thy counselor "thine own heart," when divine love has placed infinite wisdom and knowledge at the disposal of lowly faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, "who of God is made unto us
wisdom," and "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

But does our Preacher find the rest he desires in the path of his own wisdom ? Not at all. " For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." " Grief and sorrow " ever growing, ever increasing, the further he treads that attractive and comparatively elevated path of human wisdom. Nor has Solomon been a lonely traveler along that road. Thousands of the more refined of Adam's sons have chosen it ; but none have gone beyond "the king," and none have discovered any thing in it, but added '' grief and sorrow"-sorrowful groan! But the youngest of God's family has his feet too on a path of " knowledge," and he may press along that path without the slightest fear of "grief or sorrow" resulting from added knowledge. Nay, a new song shall be in his mouth, "Grace and peace shall be multiplied through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord." (2 Pet. 1:2.) Blessed contrast! "Sorrow and grief " multiplied through growth in human wisdom:"Grace and peace " multiplied through growth in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord !

My beloved reader, I pray you, meditate a little on this striking and precious contrast. Here is Solomon in all his glory, with a brighter halo of human wisdom round his head than ever had any of the children of men. Turn to i Kings 4:29-"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men,-than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Chalcol and Darda the sons of Mahol:and his fame was in all nations round about. And he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees- from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall:he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom." Is it not a magnificent ascription of abounding wisdom ? What field has it not capacity to explore ? Philosophy in its depths- poetry in its beauties-botany and zoology in their wonders. Do we envy him ? Then listen to what his poor heart was groaning all that time. " In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow"! Now turn to our portion above the sun-"the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord:" infinitely higher, deeper, lovelier, and more wondrous than the fields explored by Solomon, in constant unfoldings of riches of wisdom; and each new unfolding bringing its own sweet measure of "grace and peace." Have not the lines fallen to us in pleasant places ? Have we not a goodly heritage ? Take the feeblest of the saints of God of to-day, and had Solomon in all his glory a lot like one of these ? F. C. J.

(To be continued.)

(Continued from p. 65.)

Renouncing Egypt is not idleness, nor is the breaking of a box of ointment on the head of Christ waste; though we thus see that a certain kind of reckoning among the children of men, and even at times(and that too frequent)among the saints of God, would charge these things as such. Advantages in life are surrendered, opportunities of worldly promise are not used, because the heart has understood the path of companionship with a rejected Lord.

But this is "idleness" and "waste," many will say:the advantages might have been retained by the possessor, or the opportunities might have been sought and reached, and then used for the Lord. But such persons know not. Station, and the human, earthly influence that attaches to it, is commended by them, and treated almost as "a gift to be used for profit and edification and blessing." But a rejected Christ -a Christ cast out by men, if known spiritually by the soul, would teach another lesson.

This station in life, these worldly advantages, these opportunities so commended, are the very Egypt which Moses renounced. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

The treasures of Egypt were not riches in his esteem, because he could not use them for the Lord. And he went outside of them, and the Lord met him there, and used him afterward, not to accredit Egypt and its treasures, but to deliver His people out of it.

I follow this a little here, for it is, I feel, important to us.

All this renunciation, however, must be made in the understanding and faith of a rejected Lord; it will otherwise want all its fine and genuine and proper character. If it be made on a mere religious principle, as that of working out a righteousness or a title for ourselves, it may well be said to be something worse than idleness or waste. It then betrays an advantage which Satan has got over us, rather than any advantage we have got over the world. But if it be indeed made in the faith and love of a rejected Master, and in the sense and intelligence of His relation to this present evil world, it is worship.

To serve man at the expense of God's truth and principles is not Christianity, though persons who do so will be called "benefactors." Christianity considers the glory of God as well as the blessing of man; but as far as we lose sight of this, so far shall we be tempted to call many things waste and idleness which are really holy, intelligent, consistent, and devoted service to Jesus. Indeed, it is so. The Lord's vindication of the woman who poured her treasure on the head of Jesus tells me so. (Matt. 26:) We are to own God's glory in what we do, though man may refuse to sanction what does not advance the good order of the world, or provide for the good of our neighbor. But Jesus would know God's claims in this self-seeking world, while He recognized (very surely, as we may know) His neighbor's claim upon Himself.

He knew when to cast away and when to keep. " Let her alone," He said of the woman who had been upbraided for breaking the box of spikenard on Him; "she hath wrought a good work on Me." But after feeding the multitudes, He would say, '' Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."

This was observing the divine rule, "There is a time to keep and a time to cast away." If the prodigal service of the heart or hand in worship be no waste, the very crumbs of human food are sacred, and must not be cast away. He who vindicated the spending of three hundred pence on one of these occasions, on the other would not let the fragments of five loaves be left on the ground. In His eyes, such fragments were sacred. They were the food of life, the herb of the field, which God had given to man for his life. And life is a sacred thing. God is the God of the living. "To you it shall be for meat," God has said of it, and therefore Jesus would hallow it. "The tree of the field is man's life," the law had said, and accordingly had thus prescribed to them that were under the law-"When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an ax against them; for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down to employ them in the siege; only the trees that thou knowest are not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down." (Deut. 20:) It would have been waste, it would have been profaneness, to have thus abused the food of life, which was God's gift; and Jesus in like purity, in the perfectness of God's living ordinance, would not let the fragments lie on the ground. '' Gather up the fragments that remain," He said, "that nothing be lost."

These are but small incidents; but all the circumstances of human life, as He passes through them, change as they may, or be they as minute as they may, are thus adorned by something of the moral glory that was ever brightening the path of His sacred, wearied feet. The eye of man was incapable
of tracking it; but to God it was all incense, a sacrifice of sweet savor, a sacrifice of rest, the meat-offering of the sanctuary.

But again. The Lord did not judge of persons in relation to Himself, – a common fault with us all. We naturally judge of others according as they treat ourselves, and we make our interest in them the measure of their character and worth. But this was not the Lord. God is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. He understands every action fully. In all its moral meaning He understands it, and according to that He weighs it. And, as the image of the God of knowledge, we see our Lord Jesus Christ, in the days of His ministry here, again and again. I may refer to Luke 11:There was the air of courtesy and good feeling toward Him in the Pharisee that invited Him to dine. But the Lord was "the God of knowledge," and as such He weighed this action in its full moral character.

The honey of courtesy, which is the best ingredient in social life in this world, should not pervert His taste or judgment. He approved things that are excellent. The civility which invited Him to dinner was not to determine the judgment of Him who carried the weights and measures of the sanctuary of God. It is the God of knowledge that this civility has on this occasion to confront, and it does not stand, it will not do. Oh how the tracing of this may rebuke us ! The invitation covered a purpose. As soon as the Lord entered the house, the host acts the Pharisee, and not the host. He marvels that his guest had not washed before dinner. And the character he thus assumes at the beginning shows itself in full force at the end. And the Lord deals with the whole scene accordingly, for He weighed it as the God of knowledge. Some may say that the courtesy He had received might have kept Him silent. But He could not look on this man simply as in relation to Himself. He was not to be flattered out of a just judgment. He exposes and rebukes, and the end of the scene justifies Him. " And as He said these things unto them, the scribes and Pharisees began to urge Him vehemently, and to provoke Him to speak of many things, laying wait for Him, and seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him."

Very different, however, was His way in the house of another Pharisee, who in like manner had asked Him to dine. (See Luke 7:) For Simon had no covered purpose in the invitation. Quite otherwise. He seemed to act the Pharisee too, silently accusing the poor sinner of the city, and his Guest for admitting her approach. But appearances are not the ground of righteous judgments. Often the very same words, on different lips, have a very different mind in them. And therefore the Lord, the perfect weigh-master according to God, though He may rebuke Simon, and expose him to himself, knows him by name, and leaves his house as a guest should leave it. He distinguishes the Pharisee of Luke 7:from the Pharisee of Luke 11:, though be dined with both of them. So we may look at the Lord with Peter in Matt. 16:Peter expresses fond and considerate attachment to his Master:"This be far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee." But Jesus judged Peter's words only in their moral place. Hard indeed we find it to do this when we are personally gratified. "Get thee behind Me, Satan," was not the answer which a merely amiable nature would have suggested to such words. But again, I say, our Lord did not listen to Peter's words simply as they expressed personal kindness and good-will to Himself. He judged them, He weighed them, as in the presence of God, and at once found that the enemy had moved them; for he that can transform himself into an angel of light is very often lurking in words of courtesy and kindness. And in the same way the Lord dealt with Thomas in Jno. 20:Thomas had just worshiped Him. "My Lord and my God," he had said. But Jesus was not to be drawn from the high moral elevation that He filled, and from whence he heard and saw every thing, even by words like these. They were genuine words,-words of a mind which, enlightened of God, had repented toward the risen Savior, and, instead of doubting any longer, worshiped. But Thomas had stood out as long as he could; he had exceeded. They had all been unbelieving as to the resurrection, but he had insisted that he would be still in unbelief till sense and sight came to deliver him. All this had been his moral condition ; and Jesus has this before Him, and puts Thomas in his right moral place, as He had put Peter. '' Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Our hearts in such cases as these would have been taken by surprise. They could not have kept their ground in the face of these assaults which the good-will of Peter and the worship of Thomas would have made upon them. But our perfect Master stood for God and His truth, and not for Himself. The ark of old was not to be flattered. Israel may honor it, and bring it down to the battle, telling it, as it were, that now in its presence all must be well with them. But this will not do for the God of Israel. Israel falls before the Philistines, though the ark be thus in the battle; and Peter and Thomas shall be rebuked, though Jesus, still the God of Israel, be honored by them. J. G. B.

(To be continued.)

(Continued from p. 8.)

But there are other combinations in the Lord's character that we must look at. Another has said of Him, "He was the most gracious and accessible of men." We observe in His ways a tenderness and a kindness never seen in man, yet we always feel that He was "a stranger." How true this is ! He was " a stranger here "-a stranger as far as revolted man was filling the place, but intimately near as far as misery or need demanded Him. The distance He took, and the intimacy He expressed, were perfect. He did more than look on the misery that was around Him, He entered into it with a sympathy that was all His own; and He did more than refuse the pollution that was around Him,-He kept the very distance of holiness itself from every touch or stain of it. See Him as exhibiting this combination of distance and intimacy in Mark 6:It is an affecting scene. The disciples return to Him after a long day's service. He cares for them. He brings their weariness very near to him. He takes account of it, and provides for it at once, saying to them, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest . awhile." But, the multitude following Him, He turns with the same readiness to them, acquainting Himself with their condition; and having taken knowledge of them, as sheep that had no shepherd, He began to teach them. In all this we see Him very near to the rising, varied need of the scene around Him, whether that need be the fatigue of the disciples, or the hunger and ignorance of the multitude. But the disciples soon resent His attention to the multitude, and move Him to send them away. This, however, will in no wise do for Him. There is immediate estrangement between Him and them, which shortly afterward expresses itself by His telling them to get into the ship while He sent the multitude away. But this separation from Him only works fresh trouble for them. Winds and waves are against them on the lake; and then in their distress He is again near at hand to succor and secure them! How consistent in the combination of holiness and grace is all this! He is near in our weariness, our hunger, or our danger. He is apart from our tempers and our selfishness. His holiness made Him an utter stranger in such a polluted world; His grace kept Him ever active in such a needy and afflicted world. And this sets off His life, I may say, in great moral glory; that though forced, by the quality of the scene around Him, to be a lonely One, yet was He drawn forth by the need and sorrow of it to be the active One. And these activities were spent on all kinds of persons, and had therefore to assume all kinds of forms. Adversaries,-the people, a company of disciples who followed Him (the twelve), and individuals; these kept Him not only in constant, but in very various activity; and He had to know, as surely He did to perfection, how to answer every man. And beside all this, we see Him at times at the table of others; but it is only that we may still notice further various perfections. At the table of the Pharisees, as we see Him occasionally, He is not adopting or sanctioning the family scene, but, being invited in the character which He had already acquired and sustained outside, He is there to act in that character. He is not a guest simply, under the courtesy and hospitality of the master of the house, but He has entered in His own character, and therefore He can rebuke or teach. He is still the Light, and will act as the Light; and thus He exposes darkness within doors as He did abroad. (See Luke 7:, 11:)

But if He thus entered the house of the Pharisee again and again, in the character of a teacher, and would then, acting as such, rebuke the moral condition of things which He found there, He entered the house of the publican as a Savior. Levi made Him a feast in his own house, and set publicans and sinners in His company. This is, of course, objected to. The religious rulers find fault, and then the Lord reveals Himself as a Savior, saying to them, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; but go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Very simple, but very striking, and full of meaning this is. Simon the Pharisee objected that a sinner should enter His house and approach the Lord Jesus; Levi the publican provided such as these to be the fellow-guests of the Lord Jesus. And according to this, the Lord in the one house acts as a reprover, in the other, discloses Himself in the rich grace of a Savior.

But we are to see Him at other tables still. We may visit Him in Jericho and at Emmaus. (See Luke 19:and 24:) It was desire that received Him on each of these occasions; but desire differently awakened-awakened, I mean, under different influences. Zacchaeus had been but a sinner, a child of nature, which is, as we know, corrupt in its springs and in its activities. But he had been just at that moment under the drawings of the Father, and his soul was making Jesus its object. He wished to see Him, and that desire being commanding, he had pressed his way through the crowd and climbed up into a sycamore tree, if he might but just see Him as He passed by. The Lord looked up, and at once invited Himself into his house. This is very peculiar,-Jesus is an uninvited, self-invited guest in the house of that publican at Jericho !

The earliest strivings of life in a poor sinner, the desire which had been awakened by the drawings of the Father, were there in that house ready to welcome Him; but sweetly and significantly He anticipates the welcome, and goes in-goes in full, consistent, responsive character, to kindle and strengthen the freshly quickened life, till it break forth in some of its precious virtue, and yield some of its own good fruit. "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." At Emmaus desire had been again quickened, but under different conditions. It was not the desire of a freshly drawn soul, but of restored saints. These two disciples had been unbelieving. They were returning home under a sorrow that Jesus had disappointed them. The Lord rebukes them shortly after He joined them on the road, but so orders His words as to kindle their hearts. When their walk together ends at the gate of their dwelling, the Lord makes as though He would go further, He would not invite Himself as He had done at Jericho. They were not in the moral state which suggested this, as Zacchaeus had been; but, when invited, He goes in-goes in just to kindle further the desire which had here invited Him-to gratify it to the full. And so He does; and they are constrained by their joy to return to the city that night, late as it was, to communicate it to their fellows.

How full of various beauty all these cases are ! The guest in the house of Pharisees, the guest in the house of publicans, the guest in the house of disciples, -the invited and the uninvited guest, in the person of Jesus, sits in His place, in all perfection and beauty. I might instance Him as a guest at other tables, but I will now look only at one more. At Bethany we see Him adopting a family scene. Had Jesus disallowed the idea of a Christian family, He could not have been at Bethany, as we see He was. And yet, when we get Him there, it is only some new phase of moral beauty that we trace in Him. He is a friend of the family, finding, as we find to this day among ourselves, a home in the midst of them. " Now Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus," are words which bespeak this. His love to them was not that of a Savior, or a shepherd, though we know well He was each of these to them. It was the love of a family friend. But though a friend, an intimate friend, who might whenever He pleased find a welcome there; yet He did not interfere with the arrangements of the house. Martha was the housekeeper, the busy one of the family, useful and important in her place; and Jesus will surely leave her where He finds her. It was not for Him to alter or settle such matters. Lazarus may sit by the side of the guests at the family table, Mary may be abstracted and withdrawn as in her own kingdom, or into the kingdom of God within her, and Martha be busy and serving. Be it so. Jesus leaves all this just as He finds it. He who would not enter the house of another unbidden, when entered into the house of those sisters and brother, will not meddle with its order and arrangements, and in full moral comeliness this is. But if one of the family, instead of carrying herself, in her family place, step out of it to be a teacher in His presence, He must and will resume His higher character, and set things right divinely, though He would not interfere with or touch them domestically. (Luke 10:)

What various and exquisite beauty ! Who can trace all His paths ? The vulture will have to say it is beyond even the reach of his eye. And if no human eye can fully see the whole of this one object, where is the human character that does not aid in setting off its light by its own shadows and imperfections ? We none of us think of John, or of Peter, or of the rest of them, as hard-hearted or unkind. Quite otherwise. We feel that we could have intrusted them with our griefs or our necessities. But this little narrative in Mark 6:, to which I referred, shows us that they are all at fault, all in the distance, when the hunger of the multitude appealed to them, threatening to break up their ease; but, on the contrary, that was the very moment, the very occasion, when Jesus drew near. All this tells us of Him, beloved. "I know no one," says another, "so kind, so condescending, who is come down to poor sinners, as He. I trust His love more than I do Mary's, or any saint's; not merely His power as God, but the tenderness of His heart as man. No one ever showed such, or had such, or proved it so well-none has inspired me with such confidence. Let others go to saints or angels, if they will; I trust Jesus' kindness more." Surely, again I say, this is so-and this occasion in Mark 6:, betraying the narrow-hearted-ness of the best of us, such as Peter and John, but manifesting the full, unwearied, saving grace of Jesus, verifies it. But further:there are in Him combinations of characters, as well as of virtues or graces. His relationship to the world, when He was here, exhibits this. He was at once a conqueror, a sufferer, and a benefactor. What moral glories shine in such an assemblage ! He overcame the world, refusing all its attractions and offers; He suffered from it, witnessing for God against its whole course and spirit; He blessed it, dispensing His love and power continually, returning good for evil. Its temptations only made Him a conqueror; its pollutions and enmities only a sufferer; its miseries only a benefactor. What a combination! What moral glories shine in each other's company there! J. G. B.

(To be continued.)

God's saints have journeyed long
The promised rest to gain;
And still, through grace, their hope is strong
That they with Christ will reign.

They started on the way
Six thousand years ago;
And oft, without one earthly stay,
Have passed through scenes of woe.

But God has been their stay,
And not a fleshly arm;
And they have trod the desert way,
Where foes have sought their harm.

Now they are almost home!
They know the rest is near, –
To Canaan's border they have come,
The Lord will soon appear!

He'll greet them with a smile,
And bid their wandering cease, –
He'll place them in a heavenly clime,
And give them endless peace.

They give all praise to God,
And glory to the Lamb;
They trust alone His precious blood,
And don't deny His name.

They joy before the Lamb;
They worship and adore
Him who was so humbled here, –
In grace their sorrows bore.

R. H.

"Then said one unto Him, Lord are there few that be saved? And He said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate:for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." (Luke 13:23-28.)

Some persons seem constantly occupied with religious questions. Their inquiry is not, "Am I saved?" but, "Are others saved?" Sometimes we find a fond parent solicitous about the future state of a dying child, a kind master anxious about his afflicted servant's spiritual condition, and others manifesting concern for the ignorant and poor around them, without laying to heart what their own state before God really is. It was so in the days of our Lord. "One said unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved?" to which Jesus replied, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." Thus He sought to lead him away from the consideration of others, to ponder the all-important question of his own soul's salvation; and exposed the folly of appearing concerned for others, while he himself was in the broad road to destruction. So weighty, so essential, is the point, and so fatal would a mistake be, that He commands them to "strive (or agonize) to enter in at the strait gate."

I. WHAT IS THE STRAIT GATE? There could have been no way of escape for sinners from the wrath to come, had not Jesus died upon the cross. " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." It is the cross of Christ that speaks to us of sin put away, redemption accomplished, and of the sinner's only way to God. Christ crucified, then, is the " strait gate." Jesus lifted up on the cross is the door of access. "I am the door," said He:"by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." The cross of Christ, therefore, becomes the point of separation between the saved and lost. Not to enter into God's presence through this gate is still to tarry in the place of death and judgment; but to enter into the Father's presence through the atoning work of His dear Son is present peace and eternal salvation. The gospel thus presents to us a door of escape, and it is still wide open ; it welcomes all guilty sinners that "enter in" by faith, thus sheltering them for ever from the wrath of God, and shutting them into the peace-speaking presence of the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort.

2. IT IS A STRAIT GATE. True Christianity is an individual thing. The gate is so strait, so narrow, that all who enter go in one by one. Many long to take others with them, but each person is accountable to God for himself; every one must be exercised before God on account of his own sin. The gospel appeals to the individual conscience. "He that believeth on the Son"- "He that hath the Son "-"He that believeth and is baptized," &100:Paul said, "I know whom I have believed"-"I obtained mercy"-Christ "loved me!' This is very weighty, and shows us the deep necessity of each one asking the all-important question, "Am I saved?" We may be members of religious bodies, and outwardly appear consistent; but those only who have entered in at the strait gate are saved.

3. STRIVE TO ENTER IN. This solemn subject calls for earnestness. The eternal importance of the work of Christ demands it. God cannot bear indifference. Embracing views merely is a poor thing. Learning a few religious ways and phrases will not do for God. All the world are guilty before Him. Judgment is quickly coming. The wrath of God is soon coming, and fall it must upon all Christless souls. His almighty arm and perfect love have made a door of escape, and His gracious voice exclaims to sinners, " Strive, or agonize, to enter in at the strait gate !" Do not be content at having serious impressions, or good desires. Rest not till you have entered in at the strait gate. Be in real earnest. Let not formal duties suffice ; let not a little concern satisfy you ; let not the credit of being religious among men be enough for yon. Oh, no ! Have real concern, for eternity is at hand. Your life is short ; many will miss the strait gate; many will be deceived ; many will find out their mistake when it is too late. Strive, then, agonize to enter in at the strait gate ; escape for thy life, flee from the pit, turn to the Savior; on no account miss His great salvation.

4. The door will be shut. "When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door." The gospel is not always going to be preached. God will not always send forth the message of peace. He is the God of judgment as well as the God of peace, and Christ is a Judge as well as a Savior. He is now seated on the right hand of God, but He will ere long rise up and shut to the door. The preaching of the cross will then cease ; the seeker will not find, the knocker will be disappointed, the asker will be refused; the gospel testimony will close, the church be removed to glory, and the hypocrite and unbeliever left for judgment. Men will discover their mistake then. The folly of putting off salvation will be made manifest. The door will be shut, and man's doom eternally settled. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still." How imperative, then, is the necessity to " strive to enter in at the strait gate."

5. The eternal torment of the lost, "He that believeth not shall be damned," and "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him," are words of the God of truth which must have their fulfilment. Not to "enter in at the strait gate" for salvation, is not to believe in that Savior whom God hath sent, but to be a "worker of iniquity," living in rebellion against the God of love and peace. "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." They will have the consciousness that others are saved, but themselves for ever lost; they will know that others are for ever happy through the redemption-work of Christ, and they themselves cast into the lake of fire, into everlasting punishment; "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." How powerful were the Savior's appeals! How simple, yet how thrilling, were the reasons He assigned why persons should " strive to enter in at the strait gate! "