"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

CHAPTER VIII. (Continued from page 238.)

The Anointed Priest.

It is by His baptism at the hands of John, that the Lord, coming forth out of His thirty years of private life in which He had fulfilled His own personal responsibility as Man before God, devotes Himself to that work on behalf of others for which He had come. He is "baptized unto death," of which Jordan is the well-known figure; and this implies for Him both sacrifice and priesthood. As the Lamb of sacrifice John therefore proclaims Him, while as Priest He is anointed with the Spirit; the Father's voice proclaiming Him that which, as we have seen, marks Him as the true Priest-His beloved Son. Here then begins His ministry, which is characterized by all that grace which priesthood implies, and by those works of power which are the broad seal of His commission as the Anointed of God.

As Son of God He is now also the Prophet, God Himself now, as never hitherto, speaking among men, and as Man, which makes the intimacy of this grace complete. But His feet have to take for this the way of Calvary. Every word is in this sense an evangel; every act of power is as it were an anticipation of resurrection from the dead. The glorious Voice has to be hushed in silence, the Mighty One to be crucified through weakness, the Priest of men to offer up Himself, the Son of God to suffer as Son of man, the Seed of the woman to set a bruised heel upon the Serpent's head. It is a conflict of good with evil, in which all vantage of power is to be on the side of evil, the victory gained by suffering, in the awful place in which the fire of God also searched out all the inward parts, and no deliverance could be but on the ground of absolute perfection-a whole burnt-offering, sweet savor every whit. He was "heard for His piety." No grace could be in His case, but simple righteousness, which at last drew Him out and justified Him in resurrection from the dead.

Thus the pure white linen robe was seen to be upon Him before He entered the Sanctuary; but more,- the blood was provided:the penalty upon man was met, death and the forsaking of God,-the governmental penalty, and that which was and is the necessity of His nature,-of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and who cannot look at sin. Thus the hindrance-not to going (for He could always go) but to bringing into the sanctuary is removed:and this, of course, means His going in officially, as Priest for others. And thus it is that it is the blood of the sin-offering, (and only of that when in its fullest character,) not of any other, that opens the way into the sanctuary of God. For, sin being removed, God is free to draw near to men, free to admit men to draw near to Him:divine love is unhindered.

Thus propitiation was effected on earth, and resurrection had declared the justification of all who should believe on Him, before He ascended up to take His place for us before God. "He entered in once into the holy place, having found eternal redemption " (Heb. 9:12). In contrast with remission for a year, and annual entrances of the Jewish priests, only for the moment, He has entered in once for all, never needing to repeat a sacrifice which abides in its value before God continually.

It is as entering in thus that He is "saluted of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek;" and here several things have to be noted, which combine to make up the picture presented to us in the type.

But let us first take notice that the two words in Heb. 5:in our common version alike translated "called," are by no means the same. The second word (ver. 10) is in the revised "named," but would better be rendered "addressed" or "saluted." It does not convey the thought of calling to an office, and it was not after His work had been accomplished, that the Lord's priesthood began. Most certainly He was High-priest when He offered up Himself (Heb. 7:27), and the passage here says nothing to the contrary. But it is in resurrection that His priesthood assumes the character in which Melchizedek represents Him,-a royal priesthood, and with no shadow of death upon it.

A royal priesthood is certainly the Melchizedek order; it is doubly emphasized:in his name, "King of righteousness"; and then as "King of Salem," that is,"King of peace." This is what the apostle first of all dwells upon. It has been by some lost sight of, because the Lord's human Kingdom is not yet come; but we are in "the Kingdom of God's dear Son "(Col. 1:13), and the epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes His place as Son over the house of God (chap. 3:6). Thus He is surely a Royal Priest:with power in His hands exercised in priestly tenderness; righteousness and peace the characteristics of His rule.

Then He " abideth a priest continually"; and as Melchizedek is presented to us in the history, without predecessor or successor, without beginning of days or end of life, in this he is "made (typically) like the Son of God" (Heb. 7:3). Levi, as the apostle reminds us, gave tithes in Abraham to this greater priest; and the Levitical priesthood are thus prefigured as to their relation to the antitypical Melchizedek.

Strikingly, in the history also, Melchizedek offers no sacrifice, but "brings forth bread and wine" for the refreshment of the man of faith. This the apostle neither comments upon nor notices; but he goes on to picture Christ as the Minister of the true tabernacle, the heavenly sanctuary where, of course, no sacrifices are offered. The bread and wine cannot fail to speak to our hearts of the memorial of that once offered sacrifice, which has left us now no sacrifices save that of praise and thanksgiving. Thus every way Melchizedek represents Christ in His relation to us now. That there is an application to millennial days, and His relation to Israel, is surely true; yet the whole connection in the book of Genesis presses rather upon us the Christian one.* *"See Genesis in the light of the New Testament," or The Numerical Bible, Vol. I.* Indeed the men of Aaron's order, while they show us typically the work which opens the Sanctuary, have nothing to say of the Sanctuary open. Melchizedek may therefore fill a gap here, without in any wise displacing the Aaronic priesthood in whatever it can show us.

It is just here however that a mistake has been made in another direction which needs to be pointed out. It is that which would ascribe to the apostle a doctrine of the Lord not having been a Priest on earth, not even when offering up Himself upon the Cross; in direct contradiction of the whole typical system.

His words are very different from this:"For if He were on earth, He would not even be a priest, seeing that there are priests who offer gifts according to the law, who serve for representation and shadow of heavenly things." He does not say that the Lord was not a Priest on earth; but having set Him before us as Minister of the true (antitypical) Tabernacle, he says, if He were on earth there would be no room for Him in the earthly one:for there the sons of Aaron fill everything according to the law. Surely nothing could be much more simple than such a statement.

But the work which He did upon earth had nothing to do with the Aaronic service, and answered to the work outside the sanctuary. Now He has finished this, it is the heavenly Sanctuary into which He has entered, and to which He belongs. " By one offering He has perfected in perpetuity those who are sanctified." And in consequence, "such a High Priest becometh us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens."

All sin put perfectly away from every saint of God, our Priest in heaven is for saints, not sinners, for weakness, not for sin. His sacrifice is for sinners; His sympathy and intercession are for saints, amid the opposition and seductions of an evil world, in which He has Melchizedek-like refreshment for the tired warrior, and memorials of unutterable value for him who is exposed to the offers of the king of Sodom:food of the mighty, which makes men that, and in the strength of which they may go, like Elijah to Horeb, many days.

But our Priest keeps open the Sanctuary also, that we may have access to God, and refuge in His presence from the world through which we pass. With a veil rent, and a great Priest over the house of God, we are encouraged to draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

The traveler who stops at a hotel close to a large I railway station finds little rest the first night. The constant noise in the station, rumbling of omnibus and wagon in the street disturb his rest. The second night he sleeps better, and soon, becoming accustomed to the noise, sleeps soundly until the porter knocks at his door. He awakes. His room is full of light. It is morning.

Let us leave the traveler in the hotel and look at another-a traveler to eternity. Turning the search light of the word of God on him we discover some very indistinct features of a child of God. When a child of wrath and disobedience, he was delivered from this present evil world and the wrath to come to wait for His Son from heaven. (Gal. 1:4; i Thess. 1:9.) With garments gathered up under that girdle of truth-the "blessed hope" of the coming of the Son of God-he started on the heavenly road and pressed on, through the night, looking for "the bright and morning star " that will usher in the eternal morning without a cloud. (Rev. 22:16, 17, 20.) But, alas! his eye gradually becoming dim to the glory of the coming One, and his ear dull to the words of his Guide, the Spirit of God, he touched "the unclean thing" (2 Cor. 6:17). He considered the thing touched "harmless in itself," but it defiled him, and interrupted his fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, (i John 1:3.) Again he touched, more defilement and a duller ear to the words of his heavenly Guide were the sad results. No longer a robust traveler, he dropped out of the ranks of those that are "strangers and pilgrims" who look for a city whose builder and maker is God, sat down to rest, and went to sleep in Sodom saying in his heart:"My Lord delayeth His coming" (Matt. 24:28). Like the traveler who became accustomed to the noise, his conscience gradually became insensible to defiling influences and associations, and under the power of these spiritual anesthetics, he laid his head on Delilah's knees, and went to sleep. (Judges 15:19.)

Reader, is this an imperfect portrayal of your condition? If it is, hear what the Spirit of God says to you:"Awake thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine on thee" (Eph. 5:14). Thank God, you are not dead in your sins, for you have been quickened together with Christ, but you are asleep among the dead in a world that "lies in the wicked one " (i John. 5:19). During the great plague in London, a load of plague smitten dead was emptied, one night, into a pit for burial. Before shoveling the earth into the pit a laborer turned a light on the dead, and saw an arm slowly lifted up by one in the pit. A feeble indication of life was there. Yes, a living man, unconscious of where he was until the light was turned on him, lay among the dead, and was pulled out from among them. Awake thou that sleepest, arise from the plague smitten heap of this world's dead, and Christ shall shine on thee. Sleep no longer. Awake now. The Lord Jesus may come before you put this paper out of your hand, and drag you out of Sodom-from the plague smitten heap of this world. What an eternal loser you will be if He comes and finds you asleep. Can you afford it? Think of the joy it would give His heart to-day to have your head again pillowing on His bosom of eternal love, love that led Him to give Himself for you. W. B.—– n.

The object of this present paper is to present to the reader the evidence from Scripture of the propriety of calling it "The Word of God." Many we are well aware have no question as to this and do not hesitate to use the designation; others, on the other hand, from conscientious motives shrink from applying such a title, reserving it for Him who is indeed " The Word " (John 1:i). We are bound therefore to respect the consciences of such, as there is an evident desire to exalt the person of the Son of God, a motive none too common in this day of man's greatness. Nor does there seem to be a denial of the inspiration of Scripture. Still we feel bound to point out the danger of refusing this title to Scripture, when its use is so fully warranted, as we shall see.

We might ask, at the outset, what is the objection to using this term? The word of a man is that which he has spoken as the expression of his thoughts; is not the word of God also that which He has spoken as the expression of His thoughts ? And does not this blend in a beautiful way with the designation of the Son of God as the Word-"The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him"? "God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." To deny that God has spoken is, of course, to deny inspiration in any form:to deny that what has been spoken is His word, is to give it less importance.

Now it is just here that we believe the danger lies in refusing this term to Scripture. It is something less than the word of God,-is not that above all other writing and to the exclusion of all else-is not that beyond all operation of the Spirit in the heart of man. At once Scripture loses its unique and commanding place, and is brought to the level of the ordinary revelation of God in nature and human thought. Were this true we would be robbed of our Bibles, as being the standard of all truth, the unchanging and eternal word of the living God. What Christian would not shrink with horror from such a thought?

But let us turn to divine testimony on this matter.

" Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven " (Ps. 119:89). "Thy word is very pure, therefore Thy servant loveth it" (Ps. 119:140). "Every word of God is pure " (Prov. 30:5). " And it came to pass when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book" . . (Deut. 31:24). "The word of the Lord came unto me'" (Jer. 1:5).

These are but a few of a multitude of passages in which the expression is found in the Old Testament, which show, whether spoken or written, God's message was spoken of as His word. The prophets have the expression again and again, and in just the connection in which we would use it as to Scripture.

Passing to the New Testament the use is, if possible, even more unequivocal. " When any one heareth the word of the kingdom " (Matt. 13:19). " The seed is the word of God " (Luke viii ii). In both cases it refers to the same thing, the truth of God, and the word, is the same in the original. " Moses said, Honor thy father and mother " . . . making the word of God of none effect through your tradition " (Mark 7:10, 13). Now, here we have a writing of Moses in Scripture-one of the ten commandments-called the word of God, What could be plainer? "The people pressed upon Him to hear the word of God" (Luke 5:i). "My mother and brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it " (Luke viii- 21); see also Luke 11:28). "He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life " (John 5:24). Here it is the Word who is speaking, but He says "my word.' For similar examples, see John 8:31, 37, 43, 51, 52, 55 ; John 14:23, 24:John 15:20. It is worthy of notice that in the gospel of John where the title "Word" is given to our Lord, we have this constant use of it as not referring to His person. It seems as though there were here a special guard against the misapprehension of which we are speaking.

It is well to remark just here that we are confining ourselves, in all the passages quoted from the New Testament to the Greek word Logos, the term applied to our Lord in John 1:1:Also in the passages quoted from the Old Testament, the Septuagint (Greek) translation usually gives Logos. There is another word to which we will shortly call attention ; but as the question is as to the use of the word Logos we confine ourselves for the present to that.

Let us briefly note the use of Logos in our Lord's prayer in John xvii :"They have kept thy logos (ver. 6); "I have given them thy logos (ver. 14); Thy logos is truth (ver. 17); those who shall believe on me through their logos (ver. 20). Can we doubt for a moment that reference to truth and not to a person is meant in all these ? The only one where a question could be raised is in ver. 17. " Thy word is truth." But compare it with ver. 19, " And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified though the truth," Our Lord takes His place in separation on high in order that the truth of this may be a sanctifying power in the lives of His disciples. This is God's truth-His word is truth.

Passing now to the rest of the New Testament, we find abundant confirmation of what must now be plain is the ordinary usage of Scripture. We might note a few passages in Acts:"The former treatise (logos) have I made " (Acts 1:i). " They that gladly received his word " (Acts 2:41). "The word of God grew " (Acts 12:24; 13:5, 7, 44; 19:20). " I commend you to God, and the word of His grace (Acts 20:32).

" Not as though the word of God had taken none effect" (Rom. 9:6). "Came the word of God out from you ? " (i Cor. 14:36). "Corrupt the word of God " (2 Cor. 2:17). "Nor handling the word of God deceitfully " (2 Cor. 4:2). "And hath committed to us the word of reconciliation " (2 Cor. 5:19). "Let him that is taught in the word, communicate to him that teacheth in all good things " (Gal. 6:6). "The word of truth, the gospel of your salvation" (Eph. 1:13). "To fulfil the word of God" (Col. 1:25).

This last is of interest as showing how the expression "word of God" refers to the entire scope of revelation. Paul was entrusted with that truth which would complete or round out the entire unfolding of God's thoughts. The Church is the mystery which was hidden until the last days, when it was brought out-the last part of that wondrous, divine word of God.

" Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly " (Col. 3:16). " When ye received the word of God which ye heard from us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh in you that believe" (i Thess. 2:13). This is the word of the gospel, as will be seen from i Pet. 1:23. "Being born, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." " If the word spoken by angels was steadfast" (Heb. 2:2). "The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword" (Heb. 4:12). See also Heb. 5:13; 7:28; 13:7, 22; Jas. 1:18, 21, 22, 23; 2 Pet. 3:5, 7. " Let us not love in word (logos) . . but in deed and in truth " (i John 3:18)-an interesting use of the word which could not possibly be misunderstood.

There are many more passages, but these surely are sufficient to show that the term logos is most ordinarily to be rendered "word." Only occasionally does it refer to the person of Christ-and that exclusively, we believe, in John's writings, viz. John 1:1,14; i John 1:i; Rev. 19:13. We believe a prayerful arid attentive reading will bear us out in this.

There is another word (rhema) translated" word," but it is not so common as logos. We mention a few of the passages where it occurs:Luke 3:2; 4:4; John 3:34; 8:47; Rom. 10:8, 17; Eph. 5:26; 6:17; Heb. 11:3; i Pet. 1:25. These passages are nearer in use to logos than most of the others. The difference seems to be, logos suggests the thought, as well as the word ; rhema the saying, giving special emphasis to the form-the very letter of the word.

We trust sufficient has been said to prove to the tenderest conscience our privilege to speak in all confidence of the precious "Word of God." What a solid resting place, what a mine of wealth. Oh for grace to use it aright and to be sanctified by it.

How blessed to realize that "The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers." It is well for us, in firm confidence in Him, to take our stand for that which is right in His sight. With "the armor of righteousness" we can stand against "the wiles of the devil," and "the prayer of the righteous man availeth much." To seek a reputation for ourselves is indeed poor occupation; but to "be careful to maintain good works," and to "have a good report of them that are without" are exhortations we will do well to take heed to. An evil day is this we are passing through. How it becomes us, then, to be on our guard, "watching unto prayer."

Josephus, after visiting the early disciples, brought back the report, "they are determined to do no evil thing,"-a "purpose of heart" that might well take hold upon us all. How is it, clear brethren, with us ? Is this a guiding principle in your daily life ? In the home, in business, in the assembly of the saints, in our dealings with them that are without ? How often there is that allowed in the more secret affairs of one's life '' that doth eat as a canker," doing its hidden but deadly work, until all power in the soul to do right is lost. Not hidden, however, the result, which must be sooner or later manifest, and practically ruin the Christian life. The voice of prayer, praise, or exhortation is unheard; the soul becomes withered up, love grows cold, and the sacred tie of fellowship with one's brethren seems all but snapped. And why? No one can account for it. Ah, dear reader, if it be so with you, you know something about it. Then let there be instant confession; let this hour find you bowed in the Father's presence, and tell Him all; for " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (i John, 1-9.)

"He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." This is his way, for " the righteous Lord loveth righteousness." Let this have its full weight with us, for "the
eyes of the Lord are over the righteous"; "but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." Therefore, "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good."

" God " Himself "shall be with " us, and shall sustain us in such a path. This is one of the "exceeding great and precious promises" not only of the Old Testament, but also of the New. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, think on these things, and the God of peace shall be with you." (Phil. 4:) "All" our cares He bids us "cast upon" Him, for "He careth" for us. " All " our need He will supply.

"God is for us," "and the Lord is with you while ye be with Him." (i Chron. 15:1-15.) "Submit yourselves therefore to God." "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." "Draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto you." (James 4:7, 8.) W. M. H.

Unrevised Notes of an Address at Lachute, by C. C. (Matt. 5:20; Rev. 3:10).

First, we have treasure in heaven, next a crown, I link them together. First the treasure. Let us have distinct thought of what the treasure is. If I were to come to you with the question, What is the treasure, I should likely have different answers from different individuals. And again, if I ask as to the measure of the treasure possible to lay up in heaven, I think possibly we may not have thought much about it. I think most of us are satisfied with the thought that we shall have treasure there, and there is much sluggishness as to laying up.

And as to the other subject-a crown, most of us think we shall have a crown-a reward-but I find there is much indefiniteness as to the crown.

But first let us look at the treasure (Matt. 5:20). People will say this passage does not apply to us, as we are on Christian ground now, and these portions (Matt. 5:-7:) teach us the principles of Christ's Kingdom, as He came to establish it on earth, and as it yet will be when He comes again. But, beloved brethren, although the King has been rejected, and has gone into heaven again for a time, are we not subjects of this Kingdom, and in it ? Surely we are, and these Scriptures have their application to us, and we dare not set them aside; we shall suffer loss if we do. If the Word then exhorts us to the task of laying up treasures to find them in heaven, what is the treasure ? what is it we are to store up there ?

The treasure must be Christ. You say, have not all Christians got Christ ? Yes, that is true. But we
must distinguish what we have as simply believing in Christ, and what we are exhorted to here. We believe the gospel and we get Christ-life in Christ, forgiveness, a title to heaven-the Father's house; we are "made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." The weakest believer-with but a moment to live after believing-has Christ. Let us not weaken the sense of this in our souls. Our title to salvation with eternal glory is the precious blood of Christ. But then if God gives us Christ, as He does to every believer, it is true also that all there is in Christ is the believer's. He is our portion-all that He is, His wisdom, His perfections, beauties-all that He is, is for us, for we are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ." But, beloved, there is a sense in which we have to learn Christ, what He is to us, and for us. We have an illustration of this in the history of the children of Israel in connection with the land of Israel. It was theirs by promise, and they had a title to it, but while this was true, when they entered the land they had to conquer it and take possession; and wherever they put their foot it should be theirs.

There is a sense in which, then, we need to learn Christ. When it becomes a question of practical realization of what we know of Christ, all we really practically know of Him is what we have. When we get to heaven, we will find there, so to speak, just what we have learned of Christ,-what we have learned here. God is putting us through perplexities, troubles, trials, sorrows, that in these we may learn what the character of Christ is-His love and His tender care. This is our task-our lesson, as we pass through this dry and thirsty land, where no water is. As we turn our backs on this poor world and set our hearts upon possessing the glorious portion that belongs to us in Christ, we are laying up in store a good foundation against the time to come. Christ is our treasure then.
Now a word as to how we lay it up.

It is already indicated by what I have said. If learning Christ is our object-if we care more about learning what He is than anything else, it is simple enough,-that is laying up treasure in heaven. Beloved, let us challenge our hearts, where have they been to-day? where are they to-night? where will they be to-morrow? The measure in which I am devoting all the energies of my being to the enjoyment of Christ, in that measure I am laying up in store- laying up treasure in heaven. What is the measure of the treasure possible to us ? How much may we store up ? How much axe you going to have there ? Have you ever asked yourself that question ? I did once, after being long a Christian, and it had a sobering effect on me. Let us all ask ourselves the question here to-night. Do you think you are limited in your possibility ? Beloved, you will not have one bit more of the treasure when you get there, than you have learned down here. I trust our hearts will be touched and solemnized by this. We are in circumstances where we may learn much of Christ, and when we go home to enjoy the feast in the Father's house, we shall not be in the same circumstances then as here. Whatever you miss by heartlessness, indifference, or by whatever reason down here, you cannot make up for it or learn it there. Have you ever thought of it ? Think of it now, beloved ; in every circumstance, in every straight, in every trial, it is our privilege to learn more of Christ, of His faithfulness and love,-to meet it all again in the day of His glory, when we meet Him in the Father's house. And if we do not learn it here we shall not have it there. Let our hearts be exercised then. Let us see to it as we pass along, that we turn everything to account-every trial, every perplexity, every sorrow the occasion of increasing in the knowledge of Christ. Is it not a cheering thought we shall find again as treasure whatever we have gone through here with Christ and for Him.

Now let us look at the crown (Rev. 3:ii). " Behold I come quickly :hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." The figure here is a familiar one. In i Cor. 9:24, "Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize." This is just that all are in the race, but I find the thoughts of Christians are very indistinct as to the figure. For instance, they say only one receives the prize. How can this be ? Is not every Christian going to have a crown ? Yes, surely, every one. But the reason they have this difficulty is because they have neglected to note the word of the same apostle in 2 Tim. 2:5, " If a man strive for the mastery, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully,"-that is according to the rules of the race. Now then, I believe this means that people who profess to be Christians who do not submit to the rules of the race will not get a crown. But then we are not all going to have the same crown. There are different crowns-different rewards. Let us think of the race course for a moment. There are, say six persons running, all start at the word given. But as they go on they begin to separate, some going faster than the others. The first one gets nearly there, and practically the first prize is his ; the second is two-thirds of the way, and the rest each behind the other. But, look, the second one falters; he weakens and begins to loose ground, and before he is aware the third one is past him, and he loses his prize, and if he be roused from his lethargy, perhaps he may come in third. Beloved, are we in rank ? We need not stop to decide what our place is. The point is, are we "reaching forth unto those things which are before?" Then let us keep on. Don't let us lose interest, or be discouraged because of the way. Let but the least thing intervene-a straw, but perhaps, and we shall weaken and loiter, and if we do, some one else who may have been behind may pass us, and the crown that now belongs to us-shall pass to another. Hold fast your place in the ranks, beloved, don't let the affections waver, don't let them weaken, don't give up the persistent effort to push on.
God grant our hearts may be stirred to their very depths every day, and may we realize that great possibilities are before us. Let us "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Let us seek and reach out, in the energy of faith to grasp what God is offering to us. May He grant us more earnestness, more faithfulness, more energy to lay hold of what lies before us that we may not lose our crown.

I gladly avail myself of the opportunity which the recent Church Congress at Shrewsbury gives me to think out audibly my thoughts upon Evolution and Immortality. It is a subject, indeed, which has a grave importance for us, now that clergy and schools are getting alike infected with that which leads so palpably away from Scripture at the outset, and gives whatever is pleased to assume the garb of "science" a free hand to fashion all our most sacred convictions after its own pleasure.

I do not believe that Scripture was not intended to teach science. Most plainly, all the foundations of true science are in it, in its revelation of the relation of all things to God. Why is it, indeed, that "science," in its attempts to formulate its beliefs, manages so to run up against Scripture, but because Scripture is standing guard there to prevent man's thoughts from breaking bounds? And it does this
effectually where there is proper faith in it. What form of evolution, many as there are, could against nature bring Eve out of Adam? Certainly none. God has put there the miraculous in too definite a way for any to escape from it.

Now it was against the doctrine of special creation -which that of Eve is if it is anything-that Darwin distinctly set himself with full purpose of heart. "He tells us himself," says Prof. Mivart, "that in his 'Origin of Species' his first object was 'to show that species had not been separately created;' and he consoles himself for admitted error by the reflection that 'I have at least, as I hope, done good service in aiding to overthrow the dogma of separate creations.' "

Yet he had admitted, in that very book, "a few forms, or one," into which "the Creator had breathed life!" Yes, insincerely:to sweeten the pill that he was presenting to his readers! "I have long regretted " he says afterwards, "that I truckled to public opinion, and used the pentateuchal term 'creation,' by which I really meant ' appeared' by some wholly unknown process."

And this is the man of whom the chairman of the Church Congress says:" It maybe said of him, as of so many humble seekers after truth, in the language of the Lord through the mouth of the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, ' I have guided thee, though thou hast not known Me!'" Isaiah says "girded," not "guided;" but, apart from this, it is a strange notion of the way God guides His scientific prophets. "Science and Christ,"says Mr. Darwin, a short time before his death, "have nothing to do with each other, except in as far as the habit of scientific investigation makes a man cautious about accepting any proof. As far as I am concerned, I do not believe that any revelation has ever been made. With regard to a future life, every one must draw his own conclusions from vague and contradictory probabilities."

Alas, if the Bishop of Hereford should be right, and "so many humble seekers after truth" are "guided" in this fashion! not merely guided, but constituted guides for those who are in the full light of Christianity. But this is nothing short of blasphemy. "Everyone that is of the truth," says another and far different speaker, " heareth My voice " (John 8:37).

Spite of the "caution about accepting any proof" which science had taught him, Mr. Darwin says as to the matter of his book:"I have picked up most by reading really numberless special treatises, and all agricultural and horticultural journals; but it is a work of long years. The difficulty is to know what to trust." These are his own italics; and he again recognizes the need of caution; but that avails much more to influence him as to revelation than as to his own theories. Dr. Stirling,* from whom I am borrowing here, after quoting the son's account of his father's inevitable tendency, adds:"In fact, Mr. Darwin himself makes a stronger acknowledgment for himself than his son does for him. *"Darwinianism:Workmen and Work."By J. H. Stirling, LL.D. (P. 193).* Even on the last page of the Journal, words occur which are an undeniable confession. They are these:'As the traveler stays but a short time in each place, his descriptions must generally consist of mere sketches -hence arises, as I have found to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up wide gaps of knowledge by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses.' He writes to Henslowe once:'As yet I have only indulged in hypotheses; but they are such powerful ones that, I suppose, if they were put in action for one day, the world would come to an end."… For very soberest conclusion, let us bear in mind this (2:108):'I am a firm believer that without speculation there is no good and original observation.'"

Such is the man, then, and such by his own confession the style of the book which, with the aid of some powerful backing, took the world by storm. The real success of his argument, and the way in which faith had to do with it-a faith which he had lost as to Scripture-may be estimated by what Dr. Stirling remarks in closing (p. 357).

"This is strange, too – in the whole 'Origin of Species' there is not a single word of origin! The very species which is to originate never originates, but, on the contrary, is always to the fore (p. 240). Nay, as no breeder ever yet made a new species or even a permanent race, so the Darwins themselves, both Charles and his son, Mr. Francis (pp. 268, 269), confess, 'we cannot prove that a single species has changed.'"

This is the result to which this "humble seeker after truth " attained. Having found it, face it after all he would not, but took refuge in a faith as to what he could not prove, and which ended for himself, alas, in the eclipse of hope and the loss of all that could make knowledge of any value. Even in the present life this; in that which is to come, who shall sum up the loss?

The arguments for evolution are, largely, such as have been used in many different branches of science, to prove what in the end was fully dis-proved by longer and more exact investigation. They are the fruit of a partial induction mistaken for a full one:as if one measured the growth of a child, say from five years old to ten, and found that it had grown in that time three inches in the year, and from that decided that at 50 this would be a man somewhere about 14 feet high. Only one thing would hinder such a calculation being right, but that would be quite enough:sometime between 18 and 20 this growth will cease, and the knowledge of this limit would alter the whole estimate.

No one, of course, would make such a mistake, because the limit here is familiar to us all ; but such limits unknown as to planetary variations has made men fear that all the world would go to wreck. Such calculations as to the formation of the earth have carried back the age of man upon it into a fabulous antiquity. And such observations of the abundant variations that are found continually taking place in organic beings prove for the evolutionist that all things are in flux. Somehow, notwithstanding this, the world is reasonably stable; and the admissions of the Messrs. Darwin that not a single species can be proved to have changed into another is a better argument for a limit in some way, than that from the variations for such a change as none have found as yet, however willing and anxious they might be in their folly to find it.
Christians are suffering in all this for the unbelief which expresses itself in such sayings as this, that Scripture was not intended to teach science. It was intended to teach whatever it does teach; and one truth that it does teach is better than all the conjectures of all the wisest men that ever lived, and all the volumes they have ever written. "If I have told you earthly things and ye believed not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? " How Satan must laugh when Christians give up the earthly things as unreliable, while assuring themselves of the profound faith they have as to the unseen heavenly things?

True it is, of course, that our interpretations of Scripture need to be distinguished from Scripture itself, and that here we have need again to remember our human fallibility. The surer we may be that what we have is what the Word has taught us, the simpler we may be in letting it all be tested. Scripture is not like a hot-house plant, to which outside exposure may perhaps be fatal. The more we examine what we hold for truth, the more the truth itself will root itself in our convictions, and deliver us from the fear which makes the hearts of so many uneasy at the present day.

We cannot, if we would, shut ourselves off from the myriad forms of unbelief which assail us from every side to-day. Let us trust the faithful guide which has been given us, and go to it upon every question. It is able to furnish thoroughly the man of God. If we are such we shall not even regret the having to search the Word about these many questions. We shall not only be answered; we shall be enriched and built up by the answers. For this is the character of God's word:the "holiness of truth " is in it, and the unfailing spring which satisfies the thirst of all that come.

What answer shall we get, then, if we seek to learn what we may of God's method in creation ? An evolution there is, and a true one, not what has usurped its name:an "unfolding" of a divine plan, in which there is, of course, progress and development, upon principles which are uniform throughout. Looking at organic being, with which alone we need now concern ourselves, we have three stages of progress clearly marked off from one another:the vegetable; the animal, which is marked off as a new "creation" ; man, just as distinctly from the mere animal, by a "creation" also.

Each of these contains what has preceded it, with an addition. The vegetable is but matter, organized and controlled by vital force. The animal has vegetative functions connected with its own locomotor ones, which imply now the presence and rule of a sold. Man, again, is an animal, crowned with that which is absolutely characteristic of the being created in the image of God, the spirit.

There is economy of design which at the same time gives unity to the whole; while there is advance on the part of that also in which this unity is shown. The mineral absorbed into the vegetable can scarcely be recognized any more as mineral; and it is worked up into still higher forms as the '' flesh " of animal and of man. The " life " of the vegetable is in the animal so characterized by the soul with which it is now united, that "soul " and "life" become, in one aspect of soul, but equivalent terms. While the animal soul becomes again in man possessed of higher faculties than it ever had in the animal, and thus the fit companion and help-meet of the spirit.

Not only so:we can go beyond even this as led of the blessed book which God has given us, and after the present life see a similar advance made still. For, as soon as he leaves the body, the saint, though still having " soul," is now spoken of (as never while in the body) as a " spirit " ; and when he takes up the body again, this is now no longer a "natural"-which is, literally, a "psychical " body (a body characterized by the soul, or psyche)-but a "spiritual " body, the body of the resurrection.

Here is development, then, all along the line:of that there can be no question. God evolves (or unfolds) in this way the wondrous possibilities which lie wrapped up in what He has first produced. Here is true evolution, not the false thing of the evolutionists ; but how is it accomplished ? Is the soul developed out of the life of the plant ? or the spirit developed out of the soul of the animal ? No:at each step God must come in, and does; soul and spirit are separate creations. And how does the mineral rise into the plant structure? or this into the body of the animal ? or the soul develop in man spiritual characters unknown in the animal? The answer of Scripture is, they do not raise themselves; they are raised:the development in each case is accomplished by the descent (if we may say so) of a higher principle to unite itself with the lower. The lower is raised by the humbling of the higher to it, and the shadow of Christ is here already unmistakably seen in Nature :the seal is set upon this method as divine.

We need not wonder :"all things were created by Him and for Him," and this is His stamp on what He would approve to us as current money in the realm of thought. Why should not the figure of the king appear upon what is His? So is all nature in fact a witness for Him, a glorious interweaving of spiritual parables, which, if we had more ability to read them, would indeed transfigure the visible with the brightness of the unseen.

I have not yet come to the question of immortality, and am afraid, moreover, that as to the connection of evolution with it I have little to say that has not been often said, and which is not apparent on very slight consideration of the matter. As Mr. Wilson truly said at the Congress, "the doctrine of personal immortality . . . seems to me rendered much more difficult by the theory of evolution, because human life is by that theory so closely correlated with animal life. At what point in the chain does consciousness, freedom, personality, conscience, soul, immortality, come in?" Here is the effect of not permitting Scripture to teach science:in Scripture these all attach themselves to that human "spirit," upon the .immortality of which not the least cloud rests from Genesis to Revelation.

Of course, those who, even with the light of Scripture, find but body and soul in man, lose so far the comfort which the true doctrine will unfailingly be found to have; and " annihilation " in its many forms thrives upon this confusion. Scripture, however, is clear and consistent everywhere; and it ought to be even more scientific to believe its testimony than Mr. Darwin's memorandum-book of observations, which he tells us cannot be "good and original" without being tinged with " speculation "!

Prof. Bonney gives us the speculation without the observation. " Life," he tells us, " must be the result of a synthesis. Two hypotheses are possible:either it was some unprecedented combination of two or more inanimate things, or it was the action of an unknown external force on inanimate matter-which is tacitly admitted to be the more probable. In either case we must fall back upon a synthetic process."

The "observation" upon which Prof. Bonney grounds his first hypothesis is, of course, chemical, as his example from the formation of water shows. Life in this case must be an exceedingly rare chemical compound, which has the not less than miraculous properties (for any such) of organization, growth, and reproduction; or of communicating these to the protoplasmic fragments, which strangely co-operate (with a wisdom which utterly baffles and confounds all human knowledge) to weave all the tissues of all organized beings from man downwards. The chemical theory, always more marvelous than any Scriptural miracle, linked itself with the apparently homogeneous character of this matter of life or "protoplasm," in which the microscope could detect no organization, but in which the chemists found (after it was dead) a most complex constitution. This mere jelly, as it looked, structure less, and practically pretty uniform in character, being so complex, might have in this way its extraordinary properties; and Prof. Huxley, as is well-known, triumphantly held it up as " the formal basis of all life-the clay of the potter, which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod."

A thing of this sort chemical combination was competent to produce. Carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, he declares, "when they are brought together under certain conditions, give rise to the still more complex body, protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the phenomena of life."

"Spontaneous generation " necessarily went with this, and they thought that they had proved this by experiment. Living things were claimed to have been produced in vessels from which all life had been absolutely excluded. Apart from this, a sheet of slime which had been found at the bottom of the sea was supposed to be living matter. Prof. Huxley named it before he had captured it, very suitably in honor of the infidel Haeckel, Bathybius haeckelii ("the low life of Haeckel"?), and now the super-naturalists were bidden to tremble.

Happily for them, the bubble burst (we may note that the more brilliant a bubble is, the nearer it is to bursting):the "spontaneous generation" turned out not to be spontaneous, and the discovery had to find decent burial at the hands of the very men who most wished it success; "biogenesis," or the doctrine of "all life from life," was owned, as far as the fact was concerned, whatever the hypothesis, to be "victorious along the whole line," and so remains to-day; '' bathybius " was found to be chemical enough to suit, if it had only had the "life "-sulphate of lime or gypsum; and only protoplasm remained as a text on which to preach the chemical theory.

Alas, "protoplasm " has now failed also:its apparent innocence has been proved nothing but deception. Instead of being structure less, the microscope has shown it to be full of structure-a thing that no chemist in his wildest dreams could hope to manufacture any more. What they had now to manufacture was another hypothesis.

It is no wonder, therefore, that Prof. Bonney should prefer the second view of the origin of life that he presents to us, '' the action of an unknown external force"-creative, he calls it lower down-"on inanimate matter." But then, if life be the result of a new force evoked by divine power, and that be evolution, then that hardly differs from what we have always believed, and we have talked evolution all the time without knowing it. To call it a "synthesis" does not alter it in any wise, if you allow it to be a divine intervention of which it is the result. And if this intervention once admitted makes it now scientific to believe in others afterward, we may be very glad that science and faith can go so well together. Then, by a new creative intervention, the beast can become a living soul; and by another, man be made in the image of God. Only, if you call this evolution which allows of the introduction over and over again of new and unknown forces, we shall want to have defined for us afresh what the term means. And if you call it, as Prof. Bonney does here, "the action of laws," then one of these "laws " must be that God shall be free and sovereign in His own creation, and there all Christians will heartily join hands.

And, of course, the question of immortality will then be a difficulty no longer:it will be only a question of fact. To illustrate it by the stability of a chemical compound, such as water, is idle, unless life is a chemical compound, and then there is no new force in the case. And to object the instability of organic compounds would still make it a question of chemistry merely. Vitality uses and controls the chemical forces, and the instability of the compounds is just what makes them capable of being used for its purposes. Continual change is a necessity for life itself. When it departs, the material hastens to assume more permanent forms, though that may be a poetical way of putting it:the real fact is that, released from the control of the life-principle, chemical affinities again operate unrestrictedly in it.

But not one step has been taken towards showing life itself to be a synthesis or compound of any kind. What it is we do not know. But no one would say, even of his body, that it was a compound of matter and life. No more could one say that life was a compound of matter and creative force. All the talk about "synthesis" is a scientific way of saying nothing. And who knows how creative power work?

Organic life also comes to an end-does not become invisible and float about like the vapor of water to which he compares it. Even the soul of the beast comes to an end. Spirit abides, and the soul that is united with this. But it is Scripture tells us this.

" Science'' has not the least right to say that "a conscious personal existence after death either should be a property of all living things (in which case an embodiment of some kind seems essential) or of none, and that the latter seems more probable." It depends largely on what we call ''science." If this be merely physical science, then, of course, the witness of personality, conscience, etc., will be all ignored, and man, as man, dropped out. Nay, for aught I know, we shall be mere walking vegetables, and shall not dare to call our soul our own. The fact is, God never left man to grope in this way after Himself. The light has always shone from the beginning:men have turned away from it, and walked in their own shadow. Spite of all that, it takes all the ingenuity of the sharpened wits of civilization to find out that our hope of living after death depends upon the same possibility for "all living things"-from the gnat down to the potato! In that case, we may be sure that extinction "seems most probable." But why, then, have we been mocked and made wretched by being endowed with more than the soul of a potato ?

That science which proclaims all life to be a cheat, all science itself a brief, short-lived delusion, may in the name of reason itself be declared most unreasonable-if there be any truth, false science.

How unutterably glad may we be that we are not left to this. Nature, too, proclaims that, while we may with fires of our own kindling light up our path for a little way, yet all that can be called true light is from heaven. Alas, that even this light may shine in the darkness, and the darkness comprehend it not!

[We insert the above paper, from Words in Season, not only to put its contents before our readers, but to seek to awaken amongst us a deeper interest in the truths of nature. The word of God is full of references to the world and its wonders. We may rest assured that all speaks of a wisdom and a goodness, seen alone in its perfection in the Scriptures. We may be equally sure that if the truths of nature are neglected by Christians, Satan will all the more use them as the vehicle for such infidel theories as Evolution in its various forms. What is needed is the faith which, Bible in hand, will take up nature and find it eloquent of God – not merely the Creator-but the Redeemer-God. We need not come with theories, nor seek to formulate such. The word of God has already given us, not theory but changeless truth; and all we have to do is to "ask the earth," to "consider the heavens."

May Christians be awakened as to these things. Rationalism, whether applied to nature or to revelation, is a Christless hopeless thing. It had its origin in an anti-christian movement and its end is already in view-a Christless end.

May the Lord's people take up nature in connection with the word of God. May there be Christian observers in Geology, Chemistry, Astronomy, Physics and Biology who shall seek and find Christ everywhere. ED]

Ques. 9.-In 1 Tim. 11. 8, does not "holy hands" refer to what the hands are practically; and "without wrath or doubting" equally the state of the heart as towards man (wrath) and towards God (doubting) ?

Ans.-"Holy hands" reminds us of the passage in the Psalms "I will wash my hands in innocency so will I compass thine altar" (Ps. 26:6). It no doubt refers to the practical life; "He that hath clean hands" just as "a pure heart" would include the remaining words " without wrath or doubting." This last word might better be rendered " reasoning "; but human reasoning leads to doubt. The "wrath" would naturally be toward man, and would differ from that suggested in Eph. 4:26, 27, " Be ye angry and sin not:let not the sun go down upon your wrath."

Ques. 10-Please explain the change from " supplication, prayers" in 1 Tim. 2:1, and 5:5, to prayers, supplications, in Eph. 6:18 and Phil. 4:6. What is the difference between supplication, prayers, intercession and mediation in 1 Tim. ii?

Ans.-Doubtless the order, as all else in the word of God, is perfect though we may not always be able to see the reason. Here, however, we would suggest that as supplication is the stronger word, the expression of need, it might fittingly have the first place in the epistle which speaks of the individual rather than corporate position. As has frequently been noticed the word " mercy" is introduced in these individual epistles, in the salutation, and for a similar reason. As to the meaning of the words, supplication is the expression of need. Prayer the offering to God of the requests (this is the more common word). Intercession might be translated "intercourse." The thought seems to be to have communion with God about anything or person and thus to intercede for, as in Rom. 8:27, 34, where it is applied both to Christ and the Spirit. Mediation goes deeper, and is applied only to Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, the Mediator of the New Covenant. It thus includes and is based upon His work on the cross, " Who gave Himself a ransom for all."

We have before us now this most important question:Where has God set His name? In our last paper we saw from Old Testament scriptures, that Jerusalem was the place where Jehovah set His name. And that Name was written upon the Ark of the Covenant, which was carried by the priests into the holiest, of Solomon's temple, when he had dedicated it to God, and the priests had drawn out the staves and laid them down; as a witness, that now God had found a resting place for His name. And when the priests had gone out,-vacated, and given the whole house up to God, then God came in and filled the whole house with His glory. This is a striking and most beautiful picture-illustration of the believer in his consecration to God and filled with the Holy Ghost. Oh how few, how very few of us (and when I say us, I mean all professing Christians), how few of us know anything of this, practically!

We talk of consecration, and reconsecration-what do we mean by all this? There was no such thing as reconsecration of the temple. Once given up to God it was forever His habitation. Hear the apostle (Eph. 2:22). "In whom"-Christ-"ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Who are the "ye also"? believers surely, you my reader, if truly a believer in Christ and the value of His precious blood. The feeblest and weakest just as much as the strongest, just as really, and surely, as the apostle himself, a habitation of God through the Spirit. That is, God has found a resting place in your heart for Himself by the Spirit (John 14:16). " If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not neither knoweth Him:but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." And so the prophet puts it, "I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people" (2 Cor. 6:16).

O my dear reader! Is this a divine reality with you? Do you know that you are thus indwelt by the Spirit of God? And are you thus set apart to God, consecrated, once for all and forever to be not your own but His? Or do you doubt? Do you draw back from the thought of such a consecration? such an indwelling? O beloved! this is a most vital point. Not to be indwelt by the Spirit is to have no link with Christ, no link with heaven, no link with God ! No part with the redeemed; without hope, and without God, and in a world which is under judgment and hastening on to the day of wrath; "the great day of His wrath" (Rev. 6:12-17). "And who shall be able to stand'" Do you say, I am a church member; I intend to do about right; I go to my meeting, I give a tenth of all my income for the gospel and for missions? Please turn to your Bible and read Luke 18:10-13, and see if you can
identify yourself in either of those characters represented in the parable. But notice very carefully which one went down to his house justified, which one God accepted; and remember, it is always such ones that God accepts. Since " It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (i Tim. 1:15).

Is it not a wonderfully blessed thing to know that God dwells in the believer? But He not does say I will set my Name there. But what does He say? "Where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). And what does this give us? See i Peter 2:5. "Ye also as lively (living) stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Christ Jesus." This brings us again to what has been already stated more than once, that worship is the presenting to God a sweet savor of Christ,-"spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God." And this, beloved, is worship, and nothing else is; nothing else can be worship according to Scripture. Since the business of the Holy Ghost down here is to glorify Christ; He, surely does not lead, nor guide, in anything which is not to His honor and glory. "To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus,"-"singing with grace in your hearts, to the Lord" (Col. 3:16 and Eph. 5:19). " Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." And how beautifully this harmonizes with the quotation from the Psalm, in Heb. 2:12. " I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church (assembly, where two or three are gathered in His name) will I sing praise unto Thee."

Notice this, beloved, He does not say, "They shall sing praise unto Thee," but " I will sing praise unto Thee!" Do you not see? Jesus in the midst," the Holy Ghost indwelling the saints; two or three, more or many, gathered by the Spirit, and led by the Spirit, " singing with grace in their hearts to the Lord."- And what? He hands it up to the Father. And so it is, "The Father seeketh worshipers," "and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth." '

Beloved reader, do you know what it is to be a worshiper ? Have you ever seen anything which answered to this? And now let us turn to Phil. 3:where the apostle touches this point in a very clear and concise manner.

'' Finally, my brethren rejoice in the Lord."-" For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

Here we have four very important points:-

First. "We are the circumcision"-the cut off- circumcision was cutting off, and I believe, a symbol of earth and resurrection, inasmuch as the person circumcised, lay a helpless man for three days. Compare Gen. 34:25 and Joshua 4:19. The Israelites came up out of the Jordan on the tenth of the first month. On the eleventh they were circumcised (Joshua 5:2, 3). On the fourteenth day they kept the passover, and then they are prepared to go forth in the power of resurrection life to conquer the land. This view is confirmed by the apostle in Col. 2:11, 12. " In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the-cutting off- of Christ." "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."

Second. "Which worship God in the Spirit." It is then a dead and risen man who can worship God, in the Spirit, since it is only a dead and risen man who is indwelt by the Spirit.

Third. "And rejoice in Christ Jesus." Who can do this, save the one who knows that he has passed from death unto life, and stands on the resurrection side of death and judgment (John 5:24).

Fourth. "And have no confidence in the flesh." The fifth and sixth verses of this chapter, tell us what this means. "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee :concerning zeal persecuting the Church:touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless."
These were all good things for Saul, the Pharisee. All these things gave him pre-eminence among his own people as a Jew, and as a man in the flesh:but what were all these things worth in the presence of God? when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, with the sufferings of the garden of Gethsemane and the cross of Calvary? Oh how contemptible the thought, that anything of this kind could be presented to God as a ground of acceptance. For see! What did Jesus present to God as the ground of acceptance for us? Was it His holy Life down here among men? Then He need not have died, since He could have gone back to heaven without dying. But that would have left us without hope and still exposed to wrath. His life was holy and acceptable to God, without doubt, perfectly so for Himself; but it could not avail for a sinner. It was our sins which demanded His death, because that was the judgment due to us; and it was death by blood-shedding alone that could meet our need. Hence it was death and blood-shedding which He offered to God for us, in our stead. And this is beautify pictured in the ram which Abraham offered, "in the stead of his son." Jesus must take the sinner's place, and "be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him " (2 Cor. 5:21). Hence it is His acceptance as the sin-offering, which gives us acceptance before God. This is what the apostle Paul saw, and which gave him his intensified estimate of His own utter worthlessness in the sight of God:of that which gave him pre-eminence among men. Hear him, again. "But what things were gone to me, those I counted loss for Christ:yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss . . . and do count them but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in Him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. iii- 7, 8).

Oh beloved! These are divine realities to faith. Yes, to faith, and to faith unspeakably precious. Have you my reader ever found this Eden of God's delight? To worship the true and living God?

And now if you will turn to Psalm 27:4, you will find the same thing spoken of as a divine reality. "One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after:that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me, He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me:therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord." This is indeed worship. But how different from what is commonly called worship.

And this beloved, is first of all divinely real to faith, and faith is always individual, never congregational. One among a thousand may have it while nine hundred and ninety-nine may sing and enjoy their song very much, while they know nothing of this; and there is nothing in their song for God, because nothing of a sweet savor of Christ, since not inspired by the indwelling Spirit, not in the guiding of the Holy Ghost. And this leads us to see that worship is the exact opposite of ministry.

Ministry offers something to men. Worship offers – something, do I say?-a sweet savor of Christ Himself, to God; and can only be in the guiding of the Spirit of God-" in Spirit and truth."
C. E. H.

Ques. 23.-What is the teaching of James 5:13-15, and is it scriptural now to anoint with oil ?

Ans.-Without doubt the Lord can and often does, heal His people in answer to prayer, either with or without the use of means. To deny this would be to limit His power. But we believe it is only too easy to get one-sided or distorted views of the whole question of bodily healing. To demand it as a right belonging to us as redeemed is, we believe, spiritual pride or gross ignorance. Paul called it a mercy (Phil. 2:27). To link these mortal bodies with Christ's risen glorious bodies, save as indwelt by the Holy Ghost, is practically to deny that the saint is subject to death, and involves grave doctrinal error. To "seek to physicians" rather than to the Lord, argues unbelief and self-will at the same time. And yet in the midst of all the erroneous views of the subject, there is unquestionably a "right way."

Bodily sickness is the governmental result of sin; it is frequently inflicted under the chastening hand of God as a result of sin, and its removal would indicate the forgiveness of the sin governmentally. This is evidently the thought in the passage before us. It follows that before there can be any thought of healing, we must know the reason of our affliction. If we were more exercised as to the cause of our affliction than how we can escape it, there would be at least one condition of recovery.

We would by no means claim that all sickness is the result of some special failure. Instead of being for correction, it may have been sent as a preventive (2 Cor. 12:), or as a reminder that we are in the body, and can suffer and be sanctified by it How many a sick bed is a pulpit from which most telling sermons have been preached.

When there is a discernment of the reason for the chastening and a bowing under God's hand, we can then, in submission to His will, humbly ask to be healed. It would be proper to send for-alas! not the elders of the assembly in a full sense, for the assembly is in ruins, and her elders are scattered abroad- but for godly persons of faith who. entering into the sin and its confession, might unite their prayers with the afflicted one for recovery.

In this connection, we can see that such acts of healing would be rather of a private nature. We could not expect that God would set the seal of His public approbation upon a Church in ruins. Pentecostal days, and the fresh energy of the Holy Ghost have gone.

As to anointing with oil, it seems to be an administrative act, and more in keeping with an unfailed condition than the present state. After all, it is the prayer of faith that saves the sick.

But there is another thing to be observed here, and it turns to us for searching and warning. Jesus judged righteous judgment. He did not try either persons or circumstances in reference to Himself. That is where we commonly fail in our judgments. We see objects, whether persons or things, so much in our light. How have these circumstances affected ourselves? how have these people treated us ? These are the inquiries of the heart :and in the answer they get, the judgment is too commonly formed. We are flattered into good thoughts of people, and slighted into hard ones. Jesus was not such an One. The Pharisee's complaint and good fare in Luke 14:did not affect His judgment on the whole scene in his house. The friendliness of a social hour could not relax the Tightness of His sense of things ; as Peter's recent confession, on another occasion, did not hinder the rebuke that Peter's worldliness deserved. Jesus was not flattered. Like the God of Israel in old times, His ark may be boasted in, and brought into the battle with a shout, but He is not to be flattered by this; Israel shall fall for their unrighteousness. What a lesson for us ! What reason have we to guard against the judgments of self love ! against the trying and weighing of things and persons in relation to ourselves ! This firm, unswerving mind of Jesus may be our encouragement, as well as our pattern in this ; and we may pray that neither "this world's flattering nor spite" move us from having our thoughts as before the Lord all the day. J. G. B.

Notes of an Address by C. G. at Lachute, April 2nd.

(2 Chron. 25:)

The story of every reign in this book has its distinctive lesson. Solomon's reign gives us the beginnings of departure from God; Rehoboam's the incompetency for the things of God of one whose character was formed by wrong influences. In Abijah's reign we have contending for the faith once delivered, and so right down these sketches of these successive reigns we find a distinctive lesson in each account.

In Amaziah's story we find at the very threshold the key to its lesson. "And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart" (ver. 2). We are to read the history of his reign in the light of this. In it we find the results of not doing the things that are right in the sight of the Lord with a perfect heart. His father, Joash, in his later days trespassed against the Lord, and consequent upon his turning from the Lord we find he was outwardly attacked by the Syrians, but there was also inward trouble, some of his own servants at last conspiring against him and slaying him. Amaziah was associated with Joash during the last three years, but on the death of Joash by his servants we read of the kingdom being confirmed to him and that he slew the conspirators. There was evidently an attempt to set aside the throne, else it would not be said the kingdom was confirmed to him. The conspirators not only wanted to be rid of Joash, but of Amaziah also. But the throne is established in his hand, God coming in, in His sovereign mercy and grace, and securely settling him upon it.

Well, the first thing he is said to do after this is that he slew the conspirators, and the Spirit of God is careful to call attention to the fact he was obedient to the word of the law in Deut. 24:16. He is careful to obey it exactly, and does not put the sons to death. Looking back to Deuteronomy, largely at least, we get directions which are intended to restrain and repress. They are a curb on man's passions. Man is so prone to go too far, to be severe and harsh, to be cruel and oppressive, that God has given certain laws for the express purpose of restraining those propensities so peculiar to us. Think of it! How Amaziah's feelings must have been roused against these men; still these feelings are restrained. He does not put the sons to death. He is careful to obey the law to the letter. He keeps in check his natural resentment, as in Ephesians we are exhorted, "Be ye angry, and sin not:let not the sun go down upon your wrath." This is what we have illustrated in this. Was this not right? Yes, that is what is said here, "He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord." But looking more closely, we may believe after all it was only outward conformity, '' not with a perfect heart." Think of this! Let us apply it to ourselves, to our own actions as the people of God. May it not be said of a great deal in our lives that may appear very exemplary and may be right, that it is very much outward conformity to God's word and will? Well, beloved, if it be so, we are on slippery ground. If we are not obeying, conforming to the Word with a perfect heart, there are dangers into which we may slip before we are aware. If the will of God be not a joy and pleasure to us, if our hearts be not in the word of God, if we do not inwardly delight in it, we are standing in a dangerous place.

Now look at Amaziah (ver. 5). He numbers up his men able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield, and finds he has an army of three hundred thousand choice men. Here we are warned again of what is our danger if the will of God be not completely the object of our hearts. He is evidently intending war with the Edomites, calmly measuring his resources. After doing this he is not satisfied. Although able to raise three hundred thousand choice men he is not satisfied. Why? Because he has not faith. He cannot trust God. Had he looked back over the history of God's people, he would have been reminded of many a time when the people of Israel went forth to battle against an enemy far greater than they and the Lord gave them victory, and he would have known by faith in God that He was still the same. What does he do? He turns to the ten tribes, the revolted tribes from whom Judah was righteously separate, and hires an hundred thousand mighty men of valor-all to go down against the Edomites!

Beloved, may there not be much in us that passes as right, that is right, indeed, but still in doing it the energy of faith is wanting, and then, because it is not done with a perfect heart toward God we turn to other resources and bring them in to further the work of the Lord.

But Jehovah is very pitiful and of tender mercy, and sends His prophet, a man of God, saying:"O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is not with Israel, all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle:God shall make thee fall before the enemy:for God hath power to help, and to cast down " (vers. 7, 8). His course is forbidden of God. Now see how far he has been strengthened in departure from God in all this. He is loth to yield, yet he does submit. He does the thing that is right when he is reproved by the prophet, but was his submission with a perfect heart? Plainly not. It is the same thing over again. "What shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than this" (ver. 9). Amaziah sends home the men of Ephraim, but he suffers under the government of God for his wrong step, as we all do, individually and collectively. These soldiers dismissed by Amaziah "fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil" (ver. 13). Now you can see how Amaziah is reaping the fruit of not obeying the Lord with a perfect heart. If he had done so at the first, he would not have been so tested with regard to it again. But in connection with the second testing we find there is a struggle. The first time there does not appear to have been one. He obeys promptly and readily. It is not so easy to obey now. He has lost ground, and all because in obedience his heart is not perfect. He has to reason and question and be assured by the prophet that God is able to give him much more than he has foolishly squandered upon the Israelites. At last, however, after all this struggle, he submits. He obeys, but alas! his heart is not perfect.

Now he goes forth to the war against Edom. I suppose it was a righteous war. It was the proper thing to keep the Edomites down. He is doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord. He gains the victory, but he is not able to curb his feelings and righteous indignation against them. He could restrain himself when visiting the death penalty upon the murderers of his father, but he is not able to do so now. After the victory has been gained he takes ten thousand of the captives and leads them to the top of the rock and casts them down, so that they are broken in pieces. A harsh, cruel, heartless act. He is now allowing his feelings, his indignation against the Edomites, to carry him into cruelty. He is not now the man he was at the outset. How significant all this. How it bids us search our hearts and watch against the beginning of departure from the Lord. How it bids us search and see that what we do is done with a perfect heart.
But we read more about him. "He brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense to them" (ver. 15). Alas! how far he has now traveled in the path of departure and declension. Step after step he has gone on and on,
until now he can displace the worship of the true God with that of idols. Beginning with obeying while the heart was not in it, he has gradually weakened, so that now he not only throws off restraint but perverts the worship of God. What a humiliating spectacle! But let us search our own hearts, for are we not in fact reading our own histories? For "as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." We may go on for years as good, exemplary Christians, and yet end our course with God displaced in the throne of our hearts.

The Lord now mercifully sends His prophet to rebuke him. "Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thy hand?" To which the king replied, "Art thou made of the king's counsel? Forbear." The prophet does forbear, though not without warning of coming chastisement from the hand of God. "I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel." But look at Amaziah. See how passion rages. He resents the rebuke, and is ready to take the prophet's life. How, alas! we are capable of silencing the voice of God in those whom He raises up to rebuke us for our disobedience. Next Amaziah indulges in feelings of resentment towards the army of Israel. He is indignant at their desolation of his cities. He feels like wreaking vengeance upon them; so he challenges the king of Israel to meet him in battle. Elated over his triumph over the Edomites, he feels himself competent to measure strength with Israel. The king of Israel has no desire to fight him; endeavors indeed to persuade Amaziah to desist from his purpose. But, actuated by a desire to revenge a wrong, and inflated with pride and self-sufficiency, he is determined on war with Israel. The two armies meet at Bethshemesh, but Amaziah is defeated and taken prisoner. If we are not really in heart with God it is an easy thing to embark on a cause which He has not called us to. We can readily persuade ourselves that a mission of our own is His. The Israelites were divisionists and off the true ground of the people of God. Amaziah might have reasoned that it was a proper thing to go and bring them under; but God had not given him such a work. May we not also undertake to do what God has not put upon us? Indeed we are quite capable of it. But alas! when thus engaged in our self-imposed task we have met with disaster, we have become captives to the very things against which we have stood in our own strength. Through our pride and self-sufficiency we have come under the power of what we have sought to regulate or put down. But this is not all. Amaziah, a prisoner in Joash's hands, is led up to Jerusalem to see four hundred cubits of her wall broken down. When thus we are in the enemy's hand how impossible to maintain the principle of separation from evil. But again, the king of Israel despoils the king's palace and the house of the Lord of their treasures. In our captivity to the power of evil our souls are robbed, we are not allowed to enjoy our portion in Christ.

The people now make Uzziah king in the room of his father, though Amaziah lives yet for fifteen years. By the providence of God Joash, the king of Israel, dies, and Amaziah is thus delivered from his captivity. But he is a hindrance to Uzziah-a dead weight upon him. Uzziah cannot rebuild Eloth and restore it with all its wealth of commerce to Judah. If unrepentant, though God mercifully delivers us from what in our folly, pride and self-sufficiency we have brought upon ourselves, what weights and hindrances we may be to others.

The Lord give us to be sober and serious, and to challenge our hearts day by day in reference to every detail of our lives. May we ask ourselves, Are we doing the will of God with a perfect heart? If we can detect a lack of real, hearty interest in that will, a lack of real submission of heart to God, let us judge it, and seek by all means, in all our ways, reality in our souls. May God grant us His blessing and help.

Our brother J. N. D. then read i Thess. 2:and spoke with an unction and a power which lifted our hearts above the circumstances of sorrow which surrounded us; and carried us onward to the day when "God shall wipe all tears from our eyes." The point on which he specially dwelt was:That while sin and death had entered into this world, and must sever every natural tie, however blessed originally, however true and proper in its place, grace had formed new ties, new affections, new relationships which death could not touch; because they had their source in that new life which God has given to us in Christ, and flowed from Him who is beyond death.

Paul had come to Thessalonica a perfect stranger to those whom he now addresses; he had not known them after the flesh. He preached the gospel to them, they received his testimony, and were born of God. New affections existed at once between them -new ties which death could not sever. How beautifully we see the exercise of them developed here! Before their conversion, he was willing to have imparted unto them not only the gospel, but also his own soul, because they were dear to him. (ver. 8.) When they were in the weakness of new-born babes, "he was gentle among them, as a nurse cherisheth her children," (ver. 7,) after that he had "exhorted them, and charged every one of them, as a father doth his children, (for he had begotten them in the gospel,) to walk worthy of God, who had called them to His Kingdom and glory." (vers. 11, 12.)

Circumstances such as bodily separation, the power of Satan, death itself, may hinder the full enjoyment of these divine affections, but they cannot destroy them. Such was the ease here; Paul was taken from them in presence, but not in heart; he had endeavored to see them once and again but Satan hindered him; but these very circumstances only caused him to look beyond this scene to that day when these new affections will have all their full blessedness. "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Jesus at His coming? For ye are our glory and our joy." (vers. 19, 20.) It was thus with our beloved young brother. All that was merely natural in relationship between him and us was gone; death was the end of all that. But death could not touch one spiritual tie or affection. So far from that it only removed the hindrances to the fullest enjoyment of them; for it destroyed the energy of the flesh and natural will, which is wholly opposed to the life of God. Another step was gained; a painful and humbling one, it was true, but a needful one. Death had removed the flesh with all its workings. There was nothing on his part to hinder now.

More even than that, the very body lying here was one step nearer to glory. That very body would become, by and by, the more efficient servant of those new affections, which it had hitherto been able so feebly to express. These new, divine feelings and affections were now ripening in their native clime above; and this body was preparing to give them in their maturity, an unhindered development "in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming." The coming of that day is the spring and power of our hope; for it will be the consummation of everything which even these renewed affections can desire, whether it be, as in this case, the father in Christ's affection for his children, or the brotherly affection which unites all the members of the family of God.

" In the meantime, there is the ' patience of hope.' That is an unworthy object for which we cannot bear to wait. What is that love worth that cannot bear a trial? The present ability to bear separation, ' taken from you in presence, not in heart' proves its reality and power. How blessed, then, amidst all these circumstances of sin and sorrow, to have these new joys and affections, which death itself cannot touch; the full maturity of which will be known, 'in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at His coming.' "

From J. G. Deck’s "Joy in Departing."

The opening chapter of the first book of Samuel presents to my mind some most beautiful thoughts in reference to God's grace in the hearts of His children as well as the opposition of the enemy to hinder if possible that grace shining forth.

"Hannah" is said to mean grace, and that only adds the more to its beauty, as it would lead to the thought that in this case "grace" is personified.

We have it recorded that Elkanah had two wives ; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. The marked difference between the two outwardly was that Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. It is not said how many children Peninnah had, because if we look at her here as typifying the flesh, we know the evil principle in us is always ready to act, and there is no end to its fruitfulness for evil-while utterly barren in the things of God, as the apostle says, "What fruit had ye, then, in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ?" It is to be noted, not only here, but in other cases recorded in the Word, that it is when one is led to take the ground of being a worshiper that the flesh is brought out in all its hatefulness and shows its opposition to the worshiper. This is clearly to be seen where it is recorded of David in the sixth chapter of the second book of Samuel:"And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart; " and further on in the chapter it is recorded, "Then David returned to bless his house. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself." And then follows David's most beautiful reply.

Here too we find the flesh showing itself. For it was as they were going to worship at Shiloh that "her adversary provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut her womb. . . Therefore she wept and did not eat." But all the efforts of the enemy were useless. Grace, I may say, like its handmaid Charity, "is not easily provoked."

Now let us look at the next attempt of the enemy, as it were, to swallow her up. In this case it would seem more trying, for while one may be able to judge that which comes from the flesh, it would seem that in this case at least it might be a more difficult thing to resist ; for here it is her own beloved husband, one who truly loves her, who throws himself in her pathway, saying, "Am I not better to thee than ten sons ? " Surely, we need not wonder if that husband occupied a large space in Hannah's heart, but after all, he little knew the heavenly aspirations and desires of that one with whom he was so closely connected. And has not the Scripture said," Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." But where could this dear child of God get a more full presentation of the world to her heart's affections than in this instance when he says, "Am I not
better to thee than ten sons ?" However, she goes on neither listening to the entreaties of the one, nor giving heed to the frowns of the other; for she had heard the words of that One who spake in later days (for like Mary in John's gospel, love can see in the distance), saying, "There is no man who has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, but he shall receive a hundred fold now, and in the world to come life everlasting."
But still further, Peninnah had children (it doesn't say how many) whilst Hannah had no children. Just so ; and in the fifth chapter of Galatians the apostle says, " The works of the flesh are these," and then goes on to enumerate seventeen of them and ends by saying, "and such like," showing that there were others, doubtless too numerous to mention. Surely all this is practical, and we may well lay it to heart.

The work of grace is deepening in the heart of this dear child of God. And we read she was "in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Thine handmaid, but wilt give Thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head."

This is really touching. She prays not only for a child, but for a man child, and, mark it well, not that it might be a home comfort and a mother's joy to her, as we might naturally think, but that she might give it to the Lord. Oh, think of that, ye handmaids of the Lord,-ye mothers in Israel! Where, did grace before or since, I may say (except in one case), have such a worthy representative ? The poor widow woman in later days threw her two mites into the treasury, and yet the Lord could say she had given more than they all. Yes, the Lord remembers and will remember just such acts as these throughout eternity. James says," Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." But I ask who can find any trace of lust in our Hannah ? No; " the hand that struck the chord found all in tune," as was said by a dear departed saint.

But what I would notice particularly is that up to this moment no word has she been heard to utter. There was the weeping and the fasting and broken-ness of heart-("why is thy heart grieved ? ") Did the psalmist have this in his mind when he said, '' A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise" ?

But now we have Eli the high-priest brought into view, one who, as Hebrews tells us, was supposed to " have compassion on the ignorant, and on them who are out of the way." He greets her while praying, by saying, "How long wilt thou be drunken, put away thy wine from thee." But who was the "ignorant" one here ? who was the one who was "out of the way " ? Not Hannah surely, she was " filled " not with wine wherein is excess, but with the Holy Spirit. She was not at that time seeking any of natures remedies ; no, her "joy was in God," and so filled with that wondrous grace from on high, she meekly and simply said, "No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto."

How sweet, how heavenly are these words ! How they remind us of that One of whom it was said, "Grace is poured into thy lips." By way of contrast let us compare this dear disciple with Paul the great apostle of the Gentiles, as he stands before the high-priest in his day who, when, Paul said, " I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day," commanded those that stood by to smite him on the mouth," was it not an ebullition of nature that led Paul to say "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall," etc.? for he immediately on being informed who it was, judged himself by the Word saying, "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." And who will say that Paul's provocation was greater than the one whose ways we are meditating upon ? And so we sometimes sing-

" God's grace will to the end
Clearer and brighter shine."

But what about Eli's sad mistake ? for it was sad indeed, inasmuch as we see no signs of real self-judgment in the matter. It was not much for him to say what perhaps he had said many times before, "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition which thou hast asked of Him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight." I realize that one needs to be careful in one's interpretation of Scripture, and to learn to walk in His presence with unshod feet, lest one in anyway tarnish that glory. If we look at Samson as being in anyway a type of Christ, a very unworthy man we may say, still Scripture calls him a Nazarite from his birth. It would seem that God acts according to His own mind in choosing such representatives perhaps because He couldn't do any better.

Let us look at another case :that of Peter, where in the gospel the Lord had been speaking to His disciples in reference to His betrayal, Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Be it far from Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee." The Lord's answer was," Get thee behind me:Satan," etc., looking, no doubt, at the inward motive or principle that was governing him. It was a sad mistake in Peter's case, was it not also in the case of Eli ? Was not the enemy of souls seeking to destroy the faith of Hannah through this unmerited rebuke of the high-priest 1

What I would seek to bring out here in this instance is that we have the flesh in Peninnah, the world in Elkanah, and Satan in Eli the high-priest. All opposed to grace as seen in Hannah, who is grace. Just one thing more I would notice in Hannah's history. Her prayer to God is not only for a child but for "a man child." We might well say perhaps why not be content with what God would be pleased to give her. But here comes in the intelligence of one who was walking with God. God wanted a man. Eli had failed completely, and God was going to blot out his house from the face of the earth. He needed some one to take his place. And so we get, in this, perfection in the worshiper. Here communion is seen, or, common thoughts between the two. What a joyful scene ! God filling this dear one's heart with His thoughts, and then her desires flowing back to Him. Everything is set aside so that even the high-priest is seen only as an obstructionist. "That God may be all and in all." And now we are led to see how grace triumphant reigns, "through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

May the dear Lord give to his people more of Hannah's thoughts and ways. H. S.

Continued from page 304.

I now turn to the interpretation of 2 Thess. 1:, 2:There is in the latter chapter an (I think I may say) acknowledged mistranslation, of which the true and undoubted sense gives the key to the whole passage. I refer to ver. 2, " as that the day of Christ is at hand." It should be, were present. The word is used for, and translated in two different places, "present, "in contrast with things to come,-"things present and things to come." It is always its sense in Scripture. What the Thessalonians were troubled and upset in their minds by, then, was that they had been led by false teachers (pretending to the Spirit, and even alleging letters of Paul to this effect) to suppose that the day of Christ was actually come. The violence of persecution was very great, and as the day of the Lord is in effect spoken of as a day of terror and trial in the Old Testament, these false teachers had profited by this to persuade them it was there. The apostle with divine wisdom sets them morally right in the first chapter, as to their feelings and sentiments as to this, before entering, in the second, into positive instruction as to the fact of the Lord's coming. He shows them the folly (since Christ Himself was to appear for that day) of supposing that it was His own people and faithful ones He was going to make suffer and cast into distress and tribulation. No; it was His enemies and theirs who would be in affliction in that day, and they themselves in rest and peace. The very righteousness of God would assure this. It was a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that troubled them, and to His troubled ones rest, when Christ shall be revealed -for that is what brings in the day. It was only shown by their tribulations, that He counted them worthy of His kingdom that was to come with His appearing. This is the whole force of the apostle's reasoning :the Lord Himself was to bring in the day; it could not, when come, be a day of distress for His people, but evidently for His enemies and their persecutors.

In the second chapter he proceeds to unfold to them the real order of the events, and especially in connection with the place they had in them.

Here, again, we meet a question of criticism, but it affects very little the reasoning of the apostle. Some would change here the authorized English version, and read, "But we beseech you brethren, concerning the coming," etc., instead of," by the coming." The preposition itself is used in both ways, but its constant force with words of beseeching is "by " (sometimes "for," which has no place here). The force of the apostle's reasoning is this:that as they were to be gathered together to Christ, they could not be in the day which was to come by His appearing; they were to go out to meet Him in the air, and hence could not be in the judgments of that day, its trials or its terrors.

The apostle had taught them in his first epistle that they were to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Hence he could refer to it as a known truth. The saints were not to await the coming of the day of the Lord on the earth, but to go up to meet Him in the air, and be forever with Him. Did He appear ? they, we know, would appear with Him. But here he speaks of what they ought to have remembered, that they would go up before the day, and hence they could not possibly be in their actual state here on earth, if the day was come. The Church's connection with the return of the Lord was to go up to meet Him in the air, to be gathered unto Him. The "day "was entirely another thing; it was vengeance from His presence. Neither could the day therefore come before the objects of vengeance were there. An apostasy would come, and the man of sin would be revealed, whom the Lord would consume with the breath of His mouth, and destroy by the appearing (the manifestation or display) of His presence.

We have, therefore, two things :the coming of Christ, and the public epiphany of His presence. From other scriptures also we know these to be distinct, exactly in this way-Christ's coming, and the manifestation of it ; for when He appears, we shall appear with Him (Col. 3:4)-hence must be with Him, caught up before even He appears at all. With the one (the coming) the saints are directly connected, by being gathered together to Him; with the other, (the day) because of His appearing He will execute judgment against the ungodly. They will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. But He will come to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe; that is, they will be in the display of this glory in that day. They will appear with Him in glory-be like Him. Now it is quite certain they will not appear with Him when they are caught up to meet Him in the air. Thus it is not merely particular expressions, though these are clear and forcible, but the bearing, and object, and course of reasoning of the whole chapter, which shows the distinction of the rapture of the saints before Christ appears, and the coming of the day when He is admired in them.

What is important to remark is the entire difference of relationship in which the saints are put with Christ-we belong to Him, go to meet Him, appear with Him, are glorified together. The practical result is, not merely to clear up a question of dates and of time, but to change the whole spirit and character of our waiting and Christ's coming. We wait for Him to come and take us to Himself,-the full realization of our heavenly calling. There are no events connected with our relationship with Christ. We have no need of judgment to participate in blessing under Him; we go out of the midst of all events to meet Him above. The Jews and the world are delivered by judgments. Hence they must await the course of events and the full ripening of evil on earth for judgment, for the day will not come before. Hence, we find in the Psalms the appeal for judgment and the times of it, the declaration of the overwhelming character of evil, and the cry to God to show Himself, and render a reward to the proud. The Church on earth has no need to seek this; she belongs to Christ, and will be caught up to heaven out of the evil.

I add a few words on another passage suggested to me as one by which difficulties have been created in some minds, really desirous of the truth. I mean the connection of chap. 4:and 5:of i Thessalonians. I confess it does not affect my mind in any way; but as it does that of others, it is well to notice it. The difficulty, if there be any, arises from a serious confusion in the minds of those who make it – the very confusion into which the Thessalonians were led, namely, taking tribulation for the day of Christ. For the day of Christ, Christ must appear. Let us only keep this clear in our minds, and all these difficulties vanish.

The Thessalonians looked so earnestly for Christ's coming, with no further knowledge of the manner or order of it, that they thought believers who had died (and perhaps even died for Christ), would not be there to meet Him. This mistake the apostle corrects. He tells them that they must not grieve as those without hope, that they would not be left out of the cortege of glory, for Christ would bring them with Him. He then explains to them the manner, and shows that it is by their resurrection which would take place even before the living ones are changed ; and when this is also wrought by divine power, all would go up to meet Him in the air, and so they would be forever with the Lord. This parenthetically explains the manner by express revelation. They will go up to meet Him; subsequently, as we have seen from Colossians, appear with Him when He appears. The parenthetical part merely gives the association of the saints with Christ Himself, which is our proper portion. But he had said, as a general truth, in answer to their fears, that God would bring them with Christ. This leads him naturally to the general subject. He had no need to speak of times and seasons:The Thessalonians knew perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night, and when they (the world) say Peace and safety, sudden destruction would come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child. He adds, "But, brethren, ye are not in darkness that day should overtake you as a thief :ye are all children of the day." It is alleged that the apostle could not have said that the day would not overtake them as a thief, if they were not to feel liable to be in some sort overtaken by it. Now, if the teaching of the apostle be examined, even in this place there is no possible ground for this, for the day of the Lord Christ must appear. But he had just taught them that they were to be caught up to meet Him in the air and be brought with Him. That is, he had taught them what made it impossible to suggest that the day could overtake them in any way or manner whatever. They were of the day, so to speak, as he indeed says," Ye are the children of the day," "Let us who are of the day." This passage says nothing of not being in the tribulation – we have treated that point already ; but the objection confounds the tribulation and the day which really closes it. The tribulation is Satan's power (though God's judgment in woe); the "day "is Christ's, which makes it His day, and in which Satan is bound. The passage speaks not at all of the tribulation; but it does speak of the day of the Lord, and with instruction as to the portion of the saints, which shows that can have in no way to do with them. They "are of the day," and to come in its power. The day will overtake the world as a thief:but it will not overtake you, for you are of the day. J. N. D.

The epistle to the Philippians is one to which the believer delights to turn. It is an address from the heart to the heart. It is more practical than doctrinal, and in its few chapters gives a picture of unselfish devotion such as is well calculated to cheer the heart. Surely, when characteristically, "all seek their own not the things of Jesus Christ," it is one of those beautiful spots of green in the desert which sends the traveler on with fresh hope and comfort.

Its character becomes apparent in its very opening verse, both from the title which Paul gives to himself and his companion Timothy, and from that with which he greets the Assembly. The "slaves of Christ Jesus:" "slaves" is found alone only in this letter, and in the order of the names " Christ" here, as largely throughout, occurs first; while this title indicating "anointed for service " will be found by itself, seventeen times, a great number if the size of the letter be considered.

Paul and Timothy are the slaves of Christ Jesus. Not dragged, captives in chains, behind the chariot of some mighty conqueror and shut up to compulsory service, but captives of His love, bought by the precious redemption money which He paid at Calvary, and now rejoicing to take up their crosses and follow Him. It had been given to them "not only to believe On Him but also to suffer for His sake," and they had taken His gift gladly. Brethren, do we know what it is to be slaves of Christ Jesus?

"To "all the saints which are at Philippi, with bishops and deacons." A reference to the Greek shows that before these official titles the article is omitted. In the collected writings of Mr. Darby you will find a caption on the Greek article in which he teaches that wherever it is omitted characteristic rather than fact is emphasized. At Philippi the assembly is duly officered and ready for service. This is characteristic of it, overseers " to look on the things of others," and deacons for those lowly offices, which should yet be so blessed; (diakonos is "through the dust," dia and konis).

We have now the usual introductory message:" Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," which is very striking because of its constant repetition to all the assemblies. It is a common need that they all share. In the epistles to the corporate bodies this message is unvaried. Grace (unmerited favor) is towards all, no matter how good the state. When we have done all that we can we are still to say "We are unprofitable servants," and yet withal we are not to be troubled thereby; peace, not from self contemplation, not from remembering "fellowship in the gospel from the first," but from Him who preached peace, left peace, made peace, and is our peace. How suitably too, these two things are coupled together. Sometimes we say to ourselves, when wearied out by constant short-comings, "Lord I am sick and tired of it all, when will the time come when I shall be able to please Thee unfailingly?" and then we remember the rest of Paul's message, " and. peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ;" peace from Him who is above all storm and sorrow and also from the One who bore the brunt of it. "Roll thy burden on the Lord and He will sustain thee " is the nice rendering of an old version of a very familiar verse, which, too, is often read wrongly in our practical thought as if it were "and He will sustain it." No, no, indeed! that is a great mistake! He'll throw your miserable burden into His grave where it belongs and put His arms round you, sustain you, filling your heart with that peace of God which " passeth understanding." May our lives be more characterized by it.
The apostle's heart now goes out in thanksgiving to all the Trinity:" I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing that He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until day of Jesus Christ." There are several points in this statement to which we may do well to attend. First, as we have hinted above, he thanks God, Surely Father, Son and Holy Spirit have all had their blessed part in the happy condition at Philippi and the apostle gratefully remembers their union in this work. Is there no admonition in this for our hearts? How often in our prayers we use these names indifferently and unintelligently, and yet, the Father did not withhold His Son, and the Son freely offered Himself, while the Holy Spirit having come to dwell in us has never ceased to exalt Christ, and like Him of whom He tells us, gives little testimony to His own gracious work, condescending to dwell in those who so often grieve Him. " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God!" Have you ever considered why the apostle does not say "anger not," "offend not"? If, "no" then it will be good and comforting for you to do so now.

Secondly, we may consider the constancy of his praise and the bold faith that can believe that the work here begun will reach on until "day of Jesus Christ." The article is absent before day, thus apparently putting the thought of mere time in the background and emphasizing the fact, that Jesus Christ will soon be all in all to them. The path which they are treading is, like the "path of the just," one which shines more and more unto the perfect dry." They have their faces fixed on Christ and that dawning glory is brightening as they hasten towards its source. Good is the path they tread and good is the home at the end of the journey. Among such the apostle expects no Lot's wife, no loiterer on the road, to be turned into a pillar of salt, the picture of barrenness and waste, desolating the land and rendering unfruitful the seed cast upon it. No, he cannot believe this of these gospel lovers, the Philippians, and he states the reason :" Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all because ye have me in your hearts, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in defense and confirmation of the gospel ye are all partakers with me of grace. "

Spite of their being tried warriors of God, however, the apostle does not forget that they still have need of help from the throne of grace and once more his mind goes up in prayer to God for them that they "may abound more and more in knowledge and in all wisdom, that they may approve things that are excellent, that they may be sincere and without reproach until the day of Christ."

This prayer should remind us that we must not rest on our arms satisfied with present state or past accomplishment. We must press on. To stand still is too often the beginning of retreat, and the apostle is here an example for us:"Forgetting the things which are behind . . . reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark." No staying, no stopping, better than Gideon "faint yet pursuing," every obstacle but a fresh incentive to progress, nothing satisfies but the goal. Victory defeat, suffering, sin, sorrow, he only sees Christ through them all and only rests when he can say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, and from henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me in that day."

Before passing on we may notice a little touch in the Greek which serves to bring out the words "that ye may be sincere etc." The word for "sincere" is ειλιχριvεις and means strictly, "judged in the rays" (of the sun). They are to walk so that their conduct may be tried in the light of "the day of Christ" and be proved good; that time which the laborer should ever have before him:-" that day " as the apostle calls it in another place, expecting us to know what is meant.
The reader should also notice that the name, " Jesus," inserted in the sixth verse is here appropriately omitted.

The subject is now changed and the writer speaks of his own personal experience. He counts on their interest in the work of the gospel everywhere and cheers them up with good news. Naturally speaking there was much to discourage and dishearten him. In prison, some preaching Christ of envy and strife, seeking to add affliction to his bonds, all in Asia turned from him, he gathers only encouragement from it all. With him the clouds have not only a silver lining but he has spread it all over, and the darkness of the storm serves but to offset the light. What a pity when the Christian makes the light to offset the darkness. "They looked unto Him and were lightened " says the Psalmist, and here as in Philippi's jail rises the song of praise. Surely he says to us:

"Ye fearful saints fresh courage take
The clouds ye so much dread,
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings o'er your head."

Let us not forget that it is to us as well as to the Philippians he speaks and that we are children of the day and that the sunshine of the day should be on our faces, preaching better than all our words. Here we must guard against a mistake. Men never take candlelight to be sunshine and we should not either. Animal spirits, cheerfulness of disposition are all very nice, but they are not joy in the Lord, not exultation in Christ Jesus. The apostle's source of happiness is something solid. You will find animal spirits rather effervescent in prison atmosphere, and natural cheerfulness turn to what seems to us more natural, to grumbling. Paul can say:"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Let us ponder these words. "For me to live is Christ." What does it mean? Many translators have been puzzled by it. Does it puzzle us ? Well, intellectually, perhaps not. They tell us that Archimedes was so intent upon an experiment that in the thick of the storming of a city he knew nothing about it till the assailants were over the walls. He was absorbed, transported out of the world of events around. For him to live was that experiment. But we may illustrate by a verse from Scripture. The apostle John in his first letter says:"I write unto yon, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning." This is that which has characterized their life. True, they had overcome the wicked One; true, they had passed happily through many temptations and trials, and had wide and various experiences, but what is the characteristic feature of their life, is that they know Him. It sums it all up. He is all things.

Oh that we might each be able to say:"For me to live is Christ," then the rest will be easy to add, "and to die is gain." To die will be but to fall a-sleep in His arms. Do you remember how it is said of Stephen, " He fell asleep." The Jews ran on him, gnashing their teeth, full of rage. They hurled their stones at him. A rude lullaby that, was it not ? and yet " he fell asleep." Did not God who sent His angel to care for the body of Moses, care for him ? Yes, indeed, and how his every action bespoke it. "The eternal God was his refuge and underneath were the everlasting arms," and he fell asleep! Beloved, what a triumph there is in everything for the one to whom to live is Christ and to die is gain.

How well Paul remembers it and oh! how calmly he now says:"And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all." Nero had put him into prison and nothing seemed more likely than that he, who was accustomed to gloat over the sufferings of his victims, would take this opportunity for killing the chief of the Christians; but Paul looks beyond stone walls, Roman legions and the devil's servant's will and hears the voice of his Master, and hearing, turns and quietly says:" I know that I shall remain." Such faith comes from constant daily intercourse with the Lord, from knowing His heart and the power which is ready to act for us. May we indeed turn the more longingly as we consider it, to Him who gives freely and upbraideth not, and say:"Lord, increase our faith." F. C. G.

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

CHAPTER VI. (Continued from page 119.)

The "Second Man."

We must look on, then, to resurrection to see the Second Man in full character as that, and to see fully what humanity has gained in Him. But this will be better considered when we contemplate Him as last Adam, the Head of the new race of men. For moral perfection, as already said, He could not wait for that, but was (as even the demons confessed Him) "the Holy One of God," perfectly according to His mind, all through. There was no possible mutability of nature in Him ; and we must not pervert the idea of His full moral freedom to the admission of such a thought. Perfectly free He was, of course, in glorious holiness :it was the devil's thought that He was free to sin,-free as implying in Him a sort of balance of possibilities, and as if this were even necessary to His perfect trial and the reality of a final victory over evil :for without struggle, they would say, there can be no victory.

But struggle with Himself there was not, and victory over Himself would have been already defeat:He would be no more the Christ of Scripture, "tempted in all things as we are, apart from sin" (Heb. 4:15). The "yet without sin " of our common version, and still remaining in the revised, has done terrible work in lowering Christ in the imaginations of men. There is no justification of the "yet " possible. The Greek has nothing of it. It came in through the mere supposition that "without sin" spoke of final result, instead of an exception to the kind of temptation. Sin was no possible temptation to Him :there was absolutely no power of seduction in it. That did not touch the question of His freedom, but characterized it. The more unassailable by sin we are, the freer we are, not the less free. We are not perfected by loss of liberty. To walk with God is to walk in the consciousness of the reality of things, undeceived and unperverted.

If I say of any one, "He cannot do a dishonest act," do I think of him on that account, as less a free man ? If there is no moral certainty about his actions, do I credit him, therefore, with a firmer will and more perfect self-control ? No one can say or think so.

Nor did He who came into the world as man's Deliverer divest Himself of His necessary perfection, that He might be on more equal terms with the adversary. Had it been a necessity to do so, it is hard to see how it could have been accomplished. For how could moral perfection consent to its own debasement ? or how could its enfeeblement be other than debasement ? For even a divine Being there are impossibilities, which proceed from perfection, and which therefore are perfection. The impossibility of sinning was a necessary glory of the Christ of God.

But men object to this on the other side that it involves an impossibility of sympathy with those encompassed with infirmity such as belongs to fallen creatures. No doubt it does with everything that implies sin, or that depravity of nature which cannot be separated from it. But sympathy with this is (as has often been pointed out) as far as possible from what a Christian needs or could find true comfort in. He finds in Christ a perfect atonement for it, and, if he knows deliverance, a power in divine grace which has broken for him the dominion of sin. Walking in the Spirit, he does not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Moreover, the evil in him is that which God in His wonderful wisdom uses to turn him from self-occupation to Christ, and to hide from him all pride and self-complacency. But the evil itself he does not sympathize with, but condemns, while in all else he finds truest sympathy. But this is not the place in which to enlarge upon all this :it ought to be enough to quote here the apostle's words that " such a high-priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Heb. 7:26). But the examination of this belongs also rightly to another place.

The "Second Man" is, necessarily and emphatically "of heaven," heavenly. True, His manhood has in it promise for the earth also, gives indeed for the inhabitants of earth the sweetest possible assurance; but this too gains, and not loses, by such heavenly character. This is inseparable, of course, from His being the Son of God in humanity; but it attaches to the Second Man as such, as the text from Corinthians clearly intimates:for, in contrast with the first man being "of the earth earthy," the " Second Man is of heaven."

If we look on to the full " image of the heavenly" (i Cor. 15:49), which we are yet to bear, the glorious body which is to be our own, though the resurrection of what has been sown in the dust, or the present mortal one changed to immortality, is yet spoken of as "our house which is of heaven" (2 Cor. 5:2). "Mortality" will then, says the apostle, be swallowed up of life" (ver. 4). There will be then the quickening of our mortal bodies, now "dead because of sin" (Rom. 8:10,11), which will make them, as yet they are not, to be partakers of "redemption " (ver. 23). Thus the new life-power it is which, pervading and molding them, will make them heavenly, the "image of the heavenly" being reached in them also.

But even now, and while yet we wait for this, by virtue of the work which has begun in us, we are already "heavenly" (i Cor. 15:48). For the quickening of the Spirit we already have ; the heavenly life is begun, though amid hindrances and in obscurity, in that which is the highest part of our humanity.

When we turn to consider the Lord as among us "in the days of His flesh," we find in Him also not as yet the full heavenly character. As to His body, though in no wise (as with us) under the power of death, and with none of the penalty of sin upon it, He is yet "in the likeness of sinful flesh "(Rom. 8:3),-according to the pattern of the humanity that has failed in Adam, though without failure or any consequences of it, save as in grace He might stoop to these.

Every way He is without blemish, but more :this body of flesh and blood which He has assumed-as the vessel of earth in which the bird of heaven may die for the cleansing of our leprosy (Lev. 14:5)-is itself, all true as it is, of course, a "veil"of the higher humanity which has come in with Him, and which is not innocent and earthy, as in the first man, but holy and heavenly. In Him is manifested to us "that Eternal Life, which was with the Father" (i Jno. 1:2), and is now, without fleck of shade or moment of intermission," the light of men" (Jno. 1:4)..

This Life is "in Him,"as it could not be in any other:"for as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself " (John 5:26). He is thus the Source and Spring of it for us as the "last Adam ;" and possessing it as Man, is characterized absolutely by that "divine nature " which it implies as divine life. This touches in no way the full reality of manhood in Him-spirit and soul and body:for little as we know of the mystery of "life," we do know that it sets aside none of these, but gives them their full value and reality.

As the "First-born among many brethren," this life manifests itself in Him as a life of faith, in constant dependence upon God, nay, living (as we would not have dared to think of Him, had He not Himself taught us so to apply the scripture) "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt, 4:4). To this indeed, as we know, was His constant appeal, treading in this respect in a path in which He calls us to follow Him as "Leader" in "and Completer of faith" in His own Person (Heb. 12:2, Gk.); while this perfection He did not plead as title to escape the trials and sorrows of a pilgrim-path, but on the contrary tasted the cup of affliction fully, even to death, yea, the death of the cross. But this was His grace and our need only:for Himself He was no debtor to death at all. No one took His life from Him, but He laid it down of Himself, having power both to lay it down and to take it again.

Upon this it does not need to insist here. The word of God speaks with absolute decision about it
all :did one enlarge, how much would have to be written ! We are here, however, but attempting an outline of truth, to fill in which materials are everywhere to be found, while the full reality is unspeakable. Heaven and earth meet here together, and all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in the Man Christ Jesus. How marvelous to be told in this very connection, that "in Him we are filled up" (Col. 2:9, 10) ! F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

It is important to state for the sake of such as may not be clear, that justification is one act. Justification is from something. Hence it says:"All that believe are justified from all things;" we are cleared from all charge, and pronounced righteous by God Himself. At the end of Romans 4:we are justified from our sins. At the end of Romans 5:we have justification of life which is simply Christ's risen life to which no charge of sin can ever be attached. We are completely severed from all the responsibility of Adam, which involved death and condemnation, and we are now connected with Christ – the last Adam. He is our life, and our righteousness before God.

I never can lose my justification by anything I may do, however grievous it may be in God's sight. I may do many things I ought not to do, and grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells within me, and defile my conscience, and have to hang my head down before God, or even before my fellow-Christians. David and Peter had to do this.

When both these men sinned so grievously, we do not read of them seeking to be justified again, though we well know that each of them turned to the Lord, and sought restoration. The difference between justification and restoration is simply this, that justification is from a state in which I was by nature, but in which I can never be before God again. Restoration is to a condition of soul which I may have lost through my carelessness and unwatchfulness.

David prays, "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee." (Psa. 51:12, 13.) The Lord, having warned Peter of Satan's desire to have him, before his failure said to him:"When thou are converted (or restored) strengthen thy brethren." He would know himself better through his sad failure and consequently would be able to warn others of danger, and encourage them also through the Lord's grace to His failing servant. After his restoration the Lord committed His most precious treasure to Peter's keeping. What grace! How unlike man it is, but how very like the Lord!

In i Cor. 6:ii, Paul distinctly says to the Corinthians:" Such were some of you:"-speaking of their past state-"but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Notwithstanding that the Corinthians were justified in the full value of the Name of the Lord Jesus, which involves all that He is before God, their ways were not satisfactory, but the very contrary. They were a great grief to Paul's heart. He had to weep and break his heart over them. Yet for all that he did not un-Christianized them. He rebuked them very sharply, but in the deepest love. He tried to awaken their slumbering consciences to the sense of their moral state. He exhorts them to "awake to righteousness, and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God." This does not mean that they were not converted, but that they had become utterly insensible as to what suited God's presence in their conduct here.

Paul's love for them, in seeking their restoration, represented the Lord's love for them. He loved them as a father loves his children. If a child sins ever so much against his father he does not thereby break the relationship that exists. The father might reprove the child, and even put him at a moral distance from him that he might be led to feel the gravity of his offence against his father. But if the child was humbled and broken, and came before the father in the spirit of self-judgment owning his offence, if we understand a father's affection what father would then keep the child at a distance? The father would only be too glad to have the distance removed that there should be no restraint upon his affections flowing out in the fullest manner to the child.

Though the scriptures exhort the believer against committing sin, and exhort us also to be holy as God is holy, yet we may and do sin. "In many things we all offend," To please oneself is the very essence of sin, and not to walk before God with a perfect heart is sin. If we were always abiding in Christ, and thus in communion with God, we should not please ourselves. The pleasure of God would control our whole life But who would dare to say that they never please themselves, and always walk before God with a perfect heart? Sin is not measured by our poor thoughts, but by what suits the divine presence. The light of God's presence so penetrates and searches the hidden springs of our moral being that we could not stand before God for one moment but for the consciousness that the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. No matter what the light detects or exposes in us the blood is the abiding witness that all has been cleared away from before God.

"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (i John 2:1:) We never could restore ourselves, nor could we seek it were it not for Christ's Advocacy. He is there in heaven in the unchanging value of His own work. He maintains our cause before the Father, and in face of our Accuser, the devil, who ever seeks to hinder us in our approach to God, and in our testimony for God by his accusations whether true or false. The Holy Spirit who dwells within us, in response to the Advocate makes us feel our state. He takes us back to the point of departure, and if truly humbled we not only confess our sins, but we judge ourselves-turn from and repudiate, what we may have fallen into. We then get a more just estimation of what we are in God's sight, and a deeper fuller sense of what His perfect grace is. It is helpful to remember what another has said, "We cannot mend the past, but we cannot be right in the present without judging the past, and if truly humbled, and we had to live our life over again we will not think we could do it any better."

Salvation is all of grace. Those who know themselves best will be the most ready to confess it. Grace at the top, grace at the bottom, and grace all the way between! God has taken us up to exhibit His rich grace in us even now. In the ages to come He will shew what is the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us by Christ Jesus.

May the deep sense of grace cause our hearts to abound in praise continually. Amen. P. W.

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:13.)

(Continued from page 321, Vol. 14:)

CHAPTER III. The Word made Flesh.

We turn now from considering the deity of our blessed Lord to see how Scripture speaks of His incarnation. This, of all the Evangelists, the apostle John, the historian of His divine glory, most forcibly expresses:"The Word became flesh," he says, "and tabernacled among us." "Flesh" characterizes humanity by that which is its lowest part; and the depth of this condescension is the glory of the revelation which this expression-the "Word was made flesh"-so perfectly conveys. In His human personality Christ was Himself the gospel that He preached, as "Son of man " was the title He so loved to give Himself.

There was an uttermost depth, as we know, beyond His becoming man; but to which this was the necessary preliminary. But it was much more than this :for out of the abyss into which He descended at the cross He would again immediately ascend,- because of what He was, He could not be holden of it,-while the manhood He has assumed He retains for ever:He has assumed it into His own Person, and it is part of Himself. Upon the throne of God, with the memorials of that deepest possible descent upon Him, He will reign as the Lamb for all eternity.

What an amazing thought is this, that God should come down into the creature-place, not simply for a time, and to do a work in it which, however wondrous, would be but for a time, but of His own free choice to abide in it after this manner. God and the creature-His creature-thus permanently together:clasped in an embrace that never shall be sundered ! This in its profound significance cannot be a partial or provincial manifestation. It must as a revelation be written not merely in the common tongue of men, but address itself to all intelligences and all beings capable of responding to it. And so Scripture assures us amply that it does, and that "in the ages to come He will show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:6.)

Could the depths of divine love be shown out anywhere or any wise to creature-ken, without all creatures being affected by it ? That surely would be impossible. "Destruction and death" must say, "We have heard the fame of it with our ears." The hosts of heaven, learning it but as grace to others, even thus must recognize it as tenderest goodness to themselves, who so learn with deepening adoration their own glorious God. And the worship of the Lamb must indeed have raised the whole worship of heaven immeasurably above all that could have been before it.

We have an intimation of this, and of more than this, where the apostle tells us that "from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ* every family in heaven and earth is named" (Eph. 3:15). *Most editors leave out "of our Lord Jesus Christ" on the authority of some of the most ancient MSS.; but some have it, along with the Peshito Syriac version (of the second century) and the Vulgate, and it agrees perfectly with the connection here. We should read, "every family," as in the Revised, and not " the whole," as in the Common Version.*Every family finds its place in relationship with Him who is thus revealed as the Father of Christ. The revelation of God in Christ makes their own relationship to Him as it were a new thing.

Yet " He layeth not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He layeth hold; " and in this connection it is that the apostle speaks of the incarnation as the necessary step towards the cross. "For it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings . . . Inasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:10-16).

Here we see why His taking flesh is emphasized sometimes as if it were the whole thing. The flesh was that "vessel of earth" in which the "bird of heaven" was to die, and alone could die. (Lev. 14:1-7.) Flesh is the expression used for humanity in its frailty and mutability; and thus suited to express the depth of the divine condescension, which was on this account also the full display of the glory of God. Hence, "the Word was made flesh," and "a body hast Thou prepared Me; " which last words the apostle again connects (as perfectly in the line of Hebrews) with His priestly sacrifice :"sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me."

In the quotation from the second chapter it is "flesh and blood" of which the children are partakers, and in which He therefore takes part ; and still more in i Cor. 15:50, is the present mutable condition of humanity emphasized:"Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; "-not from evil in it, for as such God created it, but because of that mutability unfitting it for that which is eternal. It is of the eternal form of the kingdom that he is speaking; and blood is for the supply of waste:it is identified with change,-with the wearing out of material,-with the temporal, therefore, instead of the eternal.

Hence the body that the Lord assumed, to fulfill that sacrificial law which in the volume of the book was written of Him, was not yet in the condition suited to the new creation, though He was Himself the "last Adam " and the Head of it. The body He took was "psychical," as "natural" should rather be read (i Cor. 15:44), and not yet "spiritual." These terms are indeed little understood, and we can at best understand but little of them; yet we may understand enough to avoid some mistakes which are often fallen into. A "spiritual" body does not mean a body formed of spirit, any more than a psychical body means a body formed of psyche (or soul). The two phrases are exactly parallel in Scripture, and used so as to show this:"There is a psychical body and there is a spiritual body:and so it is written, the first 'man,' Adam, 'was made a living soul'; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (i Cor. 15:44, 45).

Here the apostle's quotation shows us the psychical body as in suited relation to man as a living soul -a term by which the beast is designated as well as man. Yet man has-as the beast has not-spirit as well as soul; but while in the present body he is not designated by that which is the higher part. Out of the body, he is a "spirit;" in it a "soul." The psychic body-it is a pity we have not a better adjective for soul – seems to veil his spirit faculties; the soul (which is the sensuous, animal-like part, though far higher than the animal) dominating so as to characterize it.

The body is thus really, according to the actual phrase in the epistle to the Philippians (chap. 3:21) "the body of our humiliation;" and that apart from the effect of the fall upon it; though the effects of the fall are not there excluded. In it the spirit is enabled to contemplate outward things only by means of the senses; and in this way it is that slowly and laboriously it gathers knowledge for the possession of the spirit. And this kind of knowledge seems to be that of which the apostle speaks (i Cor. 13:8-11) as "through a glass darkly" and to "vanish away" in that perfect condition in which we shall see "face to face." The slow waking up and slower maturing of the faculties of man, as he grows in wisdom, has much, as it would seem, to do with this apparent inversion in rank of spirit and soul.

To this condition the body of "flesh and blood " is perfectly adapted as a " body of humiliation," for the purpose of "hiding pride from man," by making him realize day by day his dependence; while the provision for and ministry to his wants bears as constant witness to the care and tenderness of God towards His creature, so as to hold him fast to the Source of blessing.

All this is apart from the fall and its consequences:being what the "first man was made;" not what he afterwards became. The fall brought in all that could give even a moment's distress in such a condition. The passage in the second of Hebrews carefully distinguishes between the "children's" equal "partaking" in flesh and blood (now in this fallen state) and Christ's limited "taking part " in it. The Greek words, if not the English, show a difference in this respect, though they do not define its exact nature. This is not difficult to realize, however, from what is added afterwards, that "it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." "In all things" declares the necessity of His taking proper and full manhood, that He might be a true Representative of those for whom He went in to God ; while for this purpose He must be absolutely free also from any personal impurity or defect. Perfect manhood must be His, without stain or fracture.

How this was secured, the Gospel of Luke bears witness for us. The power of the Holy Ghost accomplished what would otherwise have been impossible; and "that Holy Thing born of the Virgin was, even as to His humanity, the "Son of God " (Luke i- 35). This does not of itself declare what John declares:it is not equivalent to the Word being made flesh. Luke's is the Gospel of the Manhood, as John's is of the Deity of the Lord. The one presents to us the First-born, as the other the Only-begotten. And it is essential to His proper glory that both sides should have adequate statement. The power of the Holy Ghost was manifested in the "Man Christ Jesus" being "made in all things like unto His brethren," while absolutely free from all the sad inheritance of the fall. It was manifested where needed :on the human side, and not on the divine.

Thus, even as to His body, it was "a body prepared," yet "in all things made like unto " that of " His brethren," apart from the consequences of sin which, as there was no sin in Him, He could not have in His Person at all* We must carefully distinguish from this the effect of the circumstances in which He was, a paradisaic Adam in this respect, as I doubt not, but outside of paradise; no doubt, as to Adam a state difficult to conceive, and for unfallen Adam a thing impossible. Yet it may be possible in certain relations to understand and speak of it to some extent,- that is, as far as the Scripture statements carry us, and as we ourselves may be given to realize their meaning.

*(Long footnote connecting with "His Person at all" above.) These things as to the Lord we must keep in careful adjustment to one another:"a body prepared" and " made in all things like unto His brethren." The latter must not be strained so as to include any consequences of the fall:for in this we were not "His brethren"; and limitation is fully declared as we have seen) with regard to His participation in flesh and blood. On the other hand a "body prepared" must not be strained so as to make it other than fully human. It is instructive in this way to remember that this is a quotation from the Septuagint which substitutes this for the Hebrew:"ears hast Thou digged for Me." Unless we are to believe that the Hebrew text is inaccurate here, and that the correctness of the Greek is affirmed by the apostle, the latter is but a paraphrase of the former, which he accepts as giving the true meaning. But in this case the "body prepared" does not apply to any special character of the body itself, but to its being the instrument whereby as a Man, the Speaker should be enabled to hear-that is, to obey-the will of God. It is not to be supposed that the uninspired Septuagint has given us here a revelation of the nature of the Lord's humanity unknown to the inspired Hebrew.

Of course what has been said of the Lord in comparison with Adam has reference simply to his body; and the union of Godhead with Manhood in His Person, with the consequences of this, does not come before us here. We hope to speak of these in another place.*

Adam, as we see, in the body of flesh and blood, was exactly suited to the conditional relation in which he stood to all around him. Sin would bring death upon him, as in fact it did. Mortal, as yet he was not:there was no tendency to death in his nature, no subjection to it on his part, no possibility of disease, no clouding of any faculty in this way. All was in vigor, and with capacity to retain that vigor indefinitely at least. With the knowledge growing upon us, as it is to-day, of the wonderful provision even yet perceptible in the human body for the removal of injurious elements, and for the recovery from any effect of these, it is not difficult to conceive that no poison could have affected him at all. The beasts were subjected to him. If we think of the possibility of accident, I believe we should have as to this to fall back upon the certainty of divine guardianship. He was dependent; his body to be sustained by food; and the ministry of the tree of life ordained for him clearly as additional enforcement of so needed a lesson, whatever we may conceive of its real virtues.

Mutability and dependence are seen in all this, hedged round by divine care and love; by which alone suffering and death could, after all, be absolutely excluded. Thus, let the hedge be taken away, suffering and death may come. Liability to it was implied before:it needs but the circumstances to be changed, for one like this to hunger and thirst, and suffer. With the Lord Himself, in the body of flesh and blood which we know was His, all these imply neither mortality, (in the true sense,*) nor any position towards God, vicarious or otherwise, to account for them.* Mortal does not mean " capable of dying," (in which sense some have incautiously applied it to the Lord,) but "subject to death; destined to die" (Standard Dictionary).* If He in His grace be pleased to come into these conditions, this is all-sufficient. He may only feel things more exquisitely because of His perfection, and be all through in the unclouded sunshine of divine favor, as, until the significant darkness of the Cross, He ever was.

And this, being His grace, was part of that divine display which the "Word made flesh" affirms. That which looks only like the infirmity of manhood becomes in this way the glory of Godhead. "The Son of man is glorified " in this humiliation; "and God " also "is glorified in Him." F. W. G.

(To be Continued.)

"And upon His Head Were Many Crowns." (Rev. 19:]2.)

(Continued from page 300.)

CHAPTER X. The King.

There is a title given to the Lord in Isaiah (chap. 9:6) which, while it has been taken to establish error on the one hand, seems on the other hardly to have been realized in its fulness of meaning by those most orthodox. It is that of "Everlasting Father," which is given in the margin of the Revised Version as (more literally) "Father of eternity." It is given to Him as One upon whose shoulder is the government in Israel, but of the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end; and the titles given Him show His capacity for this rule. He is no ordinary king, but the "Wonderful "-"a phenomenon," says Delitzsch, "lying altogether beyond human conception or natural occurrence." Then He is the " Counselor," whose purposes in their deep unfathomable wisdom need and admit no help from others; who find, on the other hand, in Him their wisdom. For, thirdly, He is El-gibbor, "the Mighty God,"* infinite in resources, almighty in execution of His will; and then Abi-ad, the "Father of eternity," and "Prince of peace," which is the enduring effect. *Compare chap. 10:21 ;Deut. 10:17; Jer. 32:18.*

But what, then, does this mean, " Father of eternity " ? It is an inconceivability, says a recent commentator; for "eternity has no author." But the eternal state-eternity in that sense-has an Author; and it is just the glory of Christ, and coming here most perfectly in place among His other glories, that He is the Author of it. It is here that His "counsel " comes into full manifestation; it is here that the might of His Deity is seen in execution of His counsel; it is of this, finally, that peace is the necessary and abiding result. He it is who brings in that which endures forever, because in it divine love can rest in full satisfaction, eternity being only the seal of that perfection in which it can rest.

Thus Christ is the Father of eternity. The incorruptible seed of it was Himself, the corn of wheat dying that it might not abide alone. But it is when power is in His hand openly and His kingdom is established that it will be seen fully how "the times of restitution " have been waiting for Him, and what this implies for One with whom restitution is not bringing back that which has passed away, but the bringing in of that which cannot pass away.

The prayer that our Lord taught His disciples was not, as it has been often misconceived, "Father, may Christ's kingdom come." It was "Father, Thy kingdom come." And we need to recognize the difference in order to realize what Christ's own kingdom means. There has been put forth recently a view of this which will illustrate what I mean. It has been maintained that as it needs the double type of David and Solomon to give Christ's kingdom in its double character as that in which, first of all, enemies are subdued, and then peace prevails, so the millennial reign in which, to the last, enemies are being subdued, could only answer to the first part of this, the David-reign, and the Solomon-reign of peace would come after the millennium and be of long continuance. The millennium, it was argued, was neither in duration nor character a sufficient reign for Christ:it could only be the introduction to this, and the kingdom of peace itself must stretch far beyond this.
Now it is not my purpose to enter into the discussion of this, which it would seem a brief examination of Revelation would be enough to set aside ; while the apostle's words in i Cor. 15:completely contradict it. For "when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father" is "when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. . . . And when all things shall be subdued under Him. then shall the Son also Himself be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."

Thus the very idea of the Lord's reign as Man is this subduing of enemies and bringing things back to God. When this is accomplished, all is accomplished. He has no ends of His own beside. As He taught His disciples to pray for the coming of the Father's kingdom, so when he takes the throne, it is to bring it in. Every thing being settled according to God, He hastens to lay down the scepter which as Man He had taken up,'' that God may be all in all." He would not delay a moment the perfect blessing for which He has toiled, nor allow any other principle than that for which the "body prepared" was taken, " Lo, I am come, to do Thy will, O God."

This will prepare us for the better consideration of our Lord's Kingship, so little understood, as it seems, by many who yet accept it as a fact, and look on to see Him take possession of His throne and share it with His people. Rule is for Him service still, and power taken is power to serve with. If in grace He has linked us with Himself in this, it is important to know the character of what is before us. Service we see, then, to be the suited preparation for a rule which will still be service, for love is the spirit of service, and cannot be separated from it.

In those anticipations of Christ with which the history of the chosen people furnishes us, the King came after both priest and prophet. Sacrifice being that upon which for sinners all must be founded, the priest was the first link between God and the people,* until the failure of Eli and his family causes a change. *Moses, no doubt, preceded Aaron; and in Moses, prophet, priest, and king were in some sense united. But this was almost necessarily the character of him whom God first used to separate the people to Himself. Having consecrated Aaron according to the divine command, he in this respect retires behind Aaron.* The ark goes into captivity for awhile, and when it returns is still in retirement. The prophet Samuel is raised up as an extraordinary instrument for awhile, and even offers sacrifice; but this only shows that there is no proper restoration. The people clamor for a king.

The need of a king had been long realized. God anticipates it even in Moses' day. Throughout the times of the Judges, though priests were there, and sometimes prophets, the judge had to be raised up as a temporary expedient for the lack of a king. "In those days there was no king in Israel :every one did that which was right in his own eyes."

Saul too, though, a king, is but a temporary expedient, yielded to the will of the people. With David
only does the true king appear; and then for awhile Israel becomes a united and prosperous nation. But this also does not last:it is"only the shadow yet, and not the substance; and to this the slow years are passing on.

His hands who have laid the foundation of the house, his hands must finish it (Zech. 4:9). The priest must be upon the throne (6:13). Priest, prophet, king, each separately too weak, must unite in one for the accomplishment of the divine purpose. Love must meet the demands of righteousness, and take the veil from the face of God, before power can be put forth in a way worthy of God who is Love and righteousness. At the Cross, righteousness and power are both against the blessed Sufferer. After resurrection, and in the gospel, the King is hidden in God, that He may have a people conformed to His own likeness. Then at last, power must return to righteousness; what cannot be conformed must be destroyed:they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them that work iniquity.

Yet even so, and though now there is power manifest, it is not as we might imagine-as most have imagined. There is not a general day of judgment and swift rooting out of evil to the uttermost, but a Kingdom of patient, however determinate rule, which persists for a thousand years. For a thousand years the lesson is given of the hopelessness of evil and the inherent curse that abides in it. The veil that has been over the nations is removed, and men are face to face with eternity and with God. The hands that bear rule were stretched out on the Cross for men, and there is no longer for any the possibility of denial or of ignorance of it. Satan is bound also for a thousand years; and, save in the heart of man, there is indeed "no adversary or evil occurrent." Death seems also, except for open rebellion, to have disappeared. Thus Paradise might seem to have come again for men; and no more with innocent ignorance of evil, but with the accumulated lessons of multiplied generations. If sin were but ignorance-were but deceivableness – were but circumstantial – now its dead hand must be dropped off of man and nature. "For the heavens rejoice and the earth is glad; the sea roars and the fulness thereof; the field is joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord:for He is come,-for He is come to judge the earth:He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth" (Ps. 96:11-13).

Such is the picture of the future for man with which the Old Testament closes; and had we only this we should most certainly believe that this would be the final condition, or passing at least peacefully and surely into that " heaven and earth in which dwelleth righteousness " of which Peter, borrowing from Isaiah, speaks. Who could imagine any further disaster to a world which had already endured so many ? or think that this new Eden was destined to pass away like the one of old ? and that any of those so blessed, so warned, so instructed, to whom faith might seem to have passed already into knowledge, could listen once more to the voice of the tempter, and fall from within view of an opened heaven into a hell as real and manifest ?

Yet it is the New Testament that assures us that this will be. "When the thousand years shall be ended, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go forth to deceive the nations that are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city; and fire came down from heaven and devoured them."

Thus comes to an end the last trial of man-perhaps of the creature-that shall ever be permitted. We may wonder, no doubt, why this is; but we may be sure, beforehand, that infinite wisdom, holiness, and love are in it, if God is in it. The Saviour of sinners is the King over all the earth, at the time when this last judgment of the living takes place; and He is "the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever." It is a permitted trial and exposure of those who through the long blessing of that wondrous time have hardened their hearts against all the goodness that appealed to them in it. It is the convincing proof that the condition of man is not the fruit of ignorance or of circumstances, but of sin for which he is fully, and as judged by his own conscience, accountable. "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life," is the Lord's own judgment of the men of His day. And here the end of confidence in the creature is reached absolutely. In God alone is help or hope.

After this last judgment of the living, the heavens and earth as now existing pass away, the judgment of the wicked dead at the "great white throne "takes place, and a new heaven and earth begin which are eternal. But events even such as these are not our present theme, but Christ Himself, though in such various relationship as all this implies; and we must now turn back to consider more particularly in this way our Lord's Kingship.

There is no doubt or difficulty with any Christian as to Christ's being King. It is a theological common-place that He is so. But as to what Isaiah, long before His coming, proclaimed of Him in the passage we were first of all looking at, "upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order and to establish it"-echoed and confirmed as this is by so much elsewhere – many Christians have still very great difficulty. It seems to them as if the title put upon His cross in the three languages of the world could only be given Him by enemies or detractors, and to take it seriously as His would only be (however unintentionally) to dishonor Him thereby.

Low and carnal thoughts there have been also as to a millennial reign, from the time of the early "Chiliasts," who imported into it the Jewish conceptions of Messiah's Kingdom with a large measure of their grotesque materiality. In very recent days, as in the present, there are those who would see in a renewed earth "the fairest nook of heaven," and bring down all the heavenly promises to earth-fulfillments. It seems almost needless to say, however, that Scripture keeps earth and heaven always distinct:and that as the earthly promises have their home in the Old Testament, so have the heavenly ones theirs in the New. But Christ is the center and heart of both, and by reason of our interest in Him, we too, though Christians, have connection with Israel and the earth. To His own apostles the Lord promised that they should " sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28); and that is "when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of His glory." When in heaven also John sees the " Lion of the tribe of Judah " take the book of the future, he records that in the praise of the redeemed that follows they say " We shall reign on the earth " (Rev. 5:10). And "to him that overcometh," the Lord Himself says, "will I grant to sit with Me upon My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father upon His throne" (3:21).

This involves no taking up the earthly conditions again, whether for Him or ourselves. We have seen what this millennial kingdom means for Him, that the earth is put into His hands, in order to bring it back out of its long alienation, and subdue it to God. The "rod of iron," which is the symbol of its rule, (though a Shepherd's rod) dashes the rebellious in pieces like a potter's vessel (Ps. 2:9). This is again one of His promises to the overcomer to give him such power as this (Rev. 2:26, 27); but the character of it shows that it has to do only with a limited and peculiar time, and not with what is eternal. He is in this acting as the "Father of eternity," to give things their eternal order.

Israel will be then under the new covenant, which secures for them abiding blessing. None shall have need to say to another, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Him, and in His character as Saviour also:"for," He says, "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Yet we shall make a great mistake if we think of this as if it implied a spiritual level such as in Christianity. In its way, it will doubtless be more perfect, but earthly and not heavenly, with no hostile world to meet, no cross to bear, no strangership in it. These are all the necessary result of their very blessing. Harder it is to think of the old ritual in measure restored, the temple and its services, and with the glory as of old, but now extending itself over the whole city of God-"a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night" (Isa. 4:5). Ezekiel sees it entering and filling the new temple (Ezek. 43:2-5), and hears of a "prince " who offers his sin-offering as of old, and has his inheritance and his sons (45:22; 46:16). Notice, that he is not the "King ; " and how all this, and the presence of the glory as of old, puts quite away the thought, if we ever had it, of any dwelling of Christ upon earth in this day of which Ezekiel prophesies.

He will reign,-and "on the throne of David "; so Scripture positively says:but this does not mean that heaven has become but another name for earth, still less for the land of Israel; it does not mean that the infinite glories of the Christ of God are to shrink into those merely of a mightier David or a wiser and more resplendent Solomon. The Old Testament conception of Messiah must be enlarged by the New Testament; not the New Testament one contracted to the measure of the Old. Only in this way, indeed, shall we find the Old Testament itself attain its complete meaning, when transfigured by a light not its own.

We have to remember also that the millennium is not eternity, nor the final rest of God. It is not the seventh day, the Sabbath of creation, but the sixth, the man and woman set over the earth to "subdue " and "hold it in subjection." The idea of a millennial sabbath is a foolish one upon the face of it; for God's sabbath can never be broken up again, could never be measured by a thousand years ! No doubt, people have felt the incongruity, who have proposed to enlarge it, according to the "year-day " principle, to 360,000 years. That looks longer and more fitting, but only from a human standpoint; God's rest can only be eternal; and the close limitation to a thousand years has its lesson for us in this very way. It tells us that in taking the millennium as sabbath-rest, we are taking the temporal for the eternal, and the misconception, so fundamental as it is, must cling to all our thoughts of it.

Thus it is that we naturally expect as to it a spiritual development that, as to the earth, (and the millennium applies only to earth,) we shall not find in it, and not finding which, we shall be tempted to overlook or deny the plainest facts as to it, or to "spiritualize" what is too low to suit our notions of what ought to be. Yet how can we imagine for a moment an eternity for a "rod of iron," or (as this implies) the subduing of enemies ? how can we spiritualize such things as these ?

No, the millennial earth is not yet ready for it to be said, "The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell"-or "tabernacle"-"among them." That will be true as to the new earth, but we must not misplace it; and to misplace it, how much will be involved in this !

The millennium is a grand preparation-time. Even as to the heavenly saints, their joys and glories cannot be measured from this side of things. As to Israel and the nations, however blessed under the manifest rule of Christ they may and must be, it is for them only a preparation for eternity,-such a preparation as the centuries up to it, have been for the heavenly saints. And then, let us remember, it is a preparation still for earth, though for the new earth; and that means much-how much, we have none of us perhaps realized.

Over the millennial earth a heavenly King will rule, with a heavenly company of redeemed men by grace His associates and ministers; " upon the throne of David," but not in the palace of Solomon; and though with manifest and absolute power, yet with self-imposed restraints, both as to the manifestation and the exercise of this, such as the probationary and educational character of things implies, and a careful reading of the Old Testament will (I believe) make plain to one who reads it in view of this.

How blessed to turn to such a picture of that Kingdom as the 72:psalm, for instance, exhibits ! How different from any thing that hitherto has been seen on earth ! But the New Testament alone it is which, if it does not say so much about the Kingdom, yet puts before us the king with the "crown with which," we may say, in a true and blessed sense, " His mother has crowned Him " (Song 3:ii). For He is the Son of Man, and born of woman, and this is a glory won from His humiliation. From a deeper humiliation He has won another crown more glorious, and a crown with which His people crown Him with delight, "Emmanuel," God with us, even "Jesus, who hath saved His people from their sins." F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

"My Presence shall go with thee. and I will give thee rest" (Ex. 33:14).

"Jesus, . .. having loved His own who were in the world,
loved them to the end " (John 13:1).

" Behold I am with you all the days, until the completion of the
age" (Matt. 28:20).

With burning heart our song of praise begins,
Jesus, its theme, the Lamb of God, once slain,
Who drank the awful cup of shame and pain,
And in His blood has washed us from our sins;
Praise Him who did it-soon returning-
Who shall, we know, with joy of morning,
Present us to Himself without a stain.

O dawning day of full and perfect joy,
When in the presence of our Lord we'll stand,
Arrayed by Him, a holy, happy band,
With golden harps for praise without alloy!
Praise Him, who unto us has given
Thus with Himself to dwell in Heaven
Amid the glories of that Fairer Land.

Sing in the night, the night so nearly o'er,
Here, where His Name is to the children dear,
Here, where His Word makes all the pathway clear,
The path He trod Himself long, long before;
Well may we sing His praise with gladness
Amid the darkness and the sadness,
For unto us the Lord shall soon appear.

The wilderness will soon be left behind,
With all the sorrows of the needful place;
But all the way is shining with His grace,
Wherein we learn that He is good and kind;
The Lord behind, the Lord before us,
His glorious Presence watching o'er us,
While thus we learn His heart and seek His face.

(From the Numerical Bible, Notes on Matt. 3:12-4:11.)

3. The third section gives us now therefore, in "brief but all important words, the manifestation and anointing of the King, who is also, as we have seen, even in that character the Saviour. He now comes forth from His private into His public life, to take up the wondrous work for which He alone is competent. Although not historically so, yet in its significance here, the mission of the Baptist ends' where Christ begins His public ministry.

"Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him." There is definite purpose and meaning then, in this baptism ; and yet, from what we have seen of its character as John proclaims if, it is the last thing that we should have imagined possible for the Lord, to be baptized of John. John himself thinks so:he is startled, even to refusing it :''but John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?" In fact there has been the widest misunderstanding among Christians of this act ever since ; and we need to look at it earnestly and reverently, in order (if it may be) to find the track where so many have gone astray. "We shall not need, however, to discuss the conflicting views that have been taken. It will be more profitable to enquire directly for ourselves what Scripture may give us with regard to it. There is, it is true, no direct explanation ; the Lord's words in reply to John, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," require themselves to be set in the light of related facts, before, as it seems, we shall he able to apprehend them. Let us start with some of the plainest of these, and see what light they may throw upon the matter.

It is clear that this baptism of Christ by John lies at the entrance of His public ministry. Before this, with the exception of the notices of His birth, and the one incident of His youth which Luke recalls, the silence of the Gospels with regard to His life up to this time, when He is about thirty years of age. is absolute and profound. So strange has it seemed that this should be, that, as is well-known, the gap has been sought to be filled by apocryphal statements, in which miraculous deeds, as unlike the soberness of Scripture as possible, and as far removed from the character of the "signs" which bore testimony to His divine nature, fill the pages with transparent falsehood. They only have their use in showing us what our Gospels would have been, had they been left merely to human wisdom to provide for us. There is not really a scrap of this apocryphal work which is otherwise worth preserving. The denial of all this invention of the miraculous is found where the turning of water into wine at Cana of Galilee is stated to be the " beginning of miracles " which He did, and which showed forth His glory (Jno. 2:11). And the silence of Scripture otherwise as to all these years of His life regarding which there were, of course, so many witnesses ready to utter all they knew, and so many eager, as we should be, to take it in-this silence can only be accounted for by a Hand controlling, and a divine design.

When He comes forth, it is to be proclaimed by John as " the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world " (Jno. 1:29) ; and in such a view of Him we shall find the speech of this mysterious silence. The passover lamb was to be "taken" on the tenth day of the first month, and "kept up" until the fourteenth day before being sacrificed. Yet the whole year was changed evidently in view of this, which was in fact the primal deliverance upon which the after-deliverance from Egypt was really based. Why then these unnoticed ten days?
Notice, that we are in the midst of the typical shadows of the Old Testament; and, according to the symbolic language which these types speak throughout, the number ten is the number of responsibility, as derived from those ten commandments which are its perfect measure according to the law. The lamb was, as we know, to be without blemish -and this means as to the true Lamb a spiritual state. Putting these things together, it is plain that they have connected meaning, and that the ten days of silence, yet of responsibility, answer in fact to the thirty years of silence-a three times ten-in which He was living for Himself His individual life before the eye of God, after this to come forward and be approved of Him as "without blemish and without spot." In fact, He is then so approved, the Father's voice giving testimony publicly to Him as His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased.

The typical "four days" of public testing-the meaning again given by the numeral-were still to come before the actual sacrifice should take place. He is immediately led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, for the express purpose of being "tempted by the devil." And His life afterwards, how different is it from that quiet life at Nazareth in which He had been so long in communion with His own thoughts and with God ! This was the fulfilment of His own individual responsibility, having its divine necessity in order that He should be able to give Himself for others, yet on that very account private, and not public. Miracles, as we see at once, would have been quite out of place here. For Himself He never used them, as He had come down to the common lot of men, and was for Himself far beyond need of them. Only God could be the competent witness of such a life, and He it is who must give witness, as He does.

It is plain that if it is as the unblemished Lamb He is presenting Himself here, the Lord's baptism by John at once becomes unmistakable in its significance. In the Gospel of Mark He speaks of His baptism,* with evident reference to His sufferings (Mark 10:38). *In the common version, also in the present one (Matt. 20:22), but all editors agree that it is an interpolation.* Christian baptism is also spoken of as "baptism unto death," and in it we are baptized unto His death" (Rom. 6:3, 4). With this John’s baptism in Jordan the river of death -is in full agreement. The words, "so it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," receive also in this way their simplest interpretation. For those who were "confessing their sins" in such a manner, the first step in righteousness of which they were capable was to take openly their place in death, as that which was their due. This is alone the principle according to which He can unite the other recipients of John's baptism, so different as they were, with Himself:for, for Him also, who having no sins of His own, was yet there for the sins of others, the place of death which it prefigured was no less the requirement of righteousness:the blessed Substitute for sinners had of necessity to take the sinners' place.

Thus all is clear throughout, while as the King we have already seen that the Lord acts as the Representative of His people, who is to save His people from their sins. No Kingdom, such as prophecy had pointed out, apart from this. No possibility could there be of men being "His people," apart from it. Men are sinners, and a holy God cannot for a moment ignore this. When Israel came of old into relationship with Him, it could be only by the blood of the lamb :redemption could not be by power only, but (and first of all) by blood. He, therefore, who is to be King of God's Kingdom cannot without preliminary take the throne. He must suffer that He may be glorified :He must come to the throne by the way of the Cross.

And so, when the throne is taken, the effect of this and the character it manifests abide. "He shall be a priest upon his throne " (Zech. 6:13). He still stands before God for the people over whom He reigns; and while He is the true Melchizedek, "king of righteousness," He is also the true King of Salem, "King of peace." In Him " righteousness and peace have kissed each other " (Ps. 85:10). For His throne, like the mercy-seat of old, is blood-sprinkled ; and the cherubim of judgment gaze upon it from between their covering wings, and are at rest.

Here, therefore, the Lord enters not yet upon His Kingship. He is anointed, but not crowned. It is priesthood that must first act and prepare the way. Thus, rising up out of the water, the Spirit of God descends upon Him as a dove :He becomes not simply in title but in fact, the Christ, the " Anointed." As Aaron of old had by himself received the typical anointing without blood, in order to his exercising the priesthood, so is He now declared fit for and consecrated to His sacrificial work, Priest and Sacrifice as He is in one. His perfection is as needful to the one as to the other. The white linen garments of the day of atonement, and not the robes of glory and beauty, are those in which alone the sacrifice is offered that enters the sanctuary, and in which he enters it to sprinkle the blood before God. It is what He Himself was that prevailed, in the day of unequaled agony, when Aaron's Antitype offered up to God the only acceptable offering, and was accepted in that glorious "obedience unto death." by which "the many " for whom He stood " are constituted righteous " (Rom. 5:19).

What the Father's voice proclaimed the Spirit seals (Jno. 6:27). He comes to rest where there is a heart-at last, a human heart-in perfect sympathy with His own, to give Him lodgment. Thus, appearing as a dove, He manifests exactly the character of Him upon whom He comes. The dove was one of the sacrificial birds- the symbol of Christ, therefore, in the very attitude in which we find Him here ; and all is still in perfection and divine harmony. Father, Son. and Spirit are indeed for the first time openly manifested together in the work of redemption, while it is Christ, in the perfection of manhood reconstituted, and in Him brought nigh to God, to which Father and Spirit witness.

The dove, or pigeon,-and the two were almost one,-was in fact the only bird explicitly named for sacrifice. As the "bird of heaven "it has, undoubtedly, its first significance. Heaven itself provides the offering by which heaven is to be appeased and opened over man. " The Second Man is from heaven " (1 Cor. 15:47). He who has sinned, as all mere men hare, cannot by that fact provide the unblemished offering that will alone avail. It is God, therefore, who Himself provides it ; and in this way manifests Himself in unspeakable goodness to win man's heart to Himself. This is the divine power of the gospel in reconciliation. He who requires has fulfilled the requirement. He who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity has yet devised the wondrous means whereby His banished should be restored to Him. Not only so, but for this restoration the bird of heaven shows us God become man – no temporary condescension, but eternal love made known for eternity, eternally to be enjoyed.

Christ is divine love come down, and the dove is the bird of love and sorrow united. The love explains the sorrow :the sorrow the depth of the love. What a world to welcome the Son of God ! and what a welcome the world gave Him ! "A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ! and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him :He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."

But Scripture is more definite than this as to the dove, for it points us to "its wings covered with silver, and its leathers with yellow gold." (Ps. 68:13) And here the reference will be plain to those that are acquainted with the symbolism. "'Silver" gets its significance from the money of atonement, and its meaning is well illustrated in passages familiar to us. The wings are silver, for it is in redemption that the activity of divine love has been displayed ; while in the feathers is the gleam of gold, the display of divine glory. This is how nature witnesses to Christ.

The Father proclaims the Son. The apostle tells us that "no man taketh this honor unto himself"-that of the high priesthood -"but He that was called of God, even as Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High-priest, but He that said unto Him, " Thou art my Son " (Heb. 5:4, 5). This, then, was the Lord's induction into His office, as having the relationship which is acknowledged here. Yet it is not as the Only-begotten Son, or in His Deity that He is addressed; for, in that case, it could not be added, as in Hebrews," to-day have I begotten Thee." Nor could His divine glory be the foundation of a priesthood which, of necessity, is human. It must be, therefore, as born into the world by the power of the Holy Ghost, as the angel says to Mary, "therefore that Holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Here he is Son of God in His human nature,-Man, but a unique Man. And the connection of this with His priesthood is not hard to trace. True Man He is, without taint of the fall-the Son of God, as coining (like Adam, but another Adam) fresh from the inspiration of God. Thus He begins another creation, though out of the ruins of the old. In this way He is the Representative Head of a new race of men, standing for them before God, with God, the true Mediator-Priest of the new humanity.

No wonder that heaven opens to own and induct into His place this glorious Person ! "Therefore doth my Father love Me," He says elsewhere, "because I lay down my life that I might take it again." And here, where He is, as it were, pledging Himself to that death for men, the Father's voice breaks out in all its fulness of joy in Him :"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

Let us notice before we pass on, how in the meat-offering view of His Person the distinction between His birth of the Spirit and His anointing is kept "before us. (See notes on Lev. 2:, Numerical Bible.) In the first general view of Christ as given in it, the anointing of the Spirit is what is emphasized, because it is the seal set upon Him,-the Father's approbation. In the meat-offering baked in the oven (the sufferings from the mere fact of what the world was, without open persecution) both things are represented but apart; and here the 'wafers anointed with oil " show fuller, readier exposure to it after His public coming forward. In that upon the pan (the open persecution) it is the Man born and anointed that brings forth the world's enmity. His public testimony fanning the necessary opposition to Him into flame.

In the meat-offering of the priest on the day of his anointing (Lev. 6:19-23, see Num. Bible notes) we have, distinctly and necessarily, what He was as presented to God at the very time to which we have reached in the Gospel. Here, therefore, it is prepared with oil, but not anointed. And it all goes up to God as a sweet savor, man having no part in it. It is Christ in the period of His life which closes with His baptism, the years lived to God in retirement, the sweet savor of which to God He Himself gives testimony.

4. The fourth section follows the third here, as the story of the wilderness in the book of Numbers follows the priestly anointing in the book of Leviticus. The Israelites had forty years of trial in the wilderness, and all through showed how little they had learned the lessons they were placed there to learn. The Lord is there forty days, and tested to the full, approving Himself ever perfect, and beyond the need of learning,-Master and not disciple.

He had fulfilled, as we have seen, in the thirty years of His private life at Nazareth, His own responsibility as Man before God. He has now come forth from that retirement to take His public place as Mediator for others. He has been accepted as perfectly pleasing to the Father, the unblemished Lamb of sacrifice, as well as the Priest, able to offer for the sins of men. To this office He is consecrated by the descent of the Spirit upon Him, and is now fully the Christ, the Anointed, openly declared to be this.

He is now to be tested as to His ability for the path upon which He has entered. The book of Job shows us Satan allowed of God for this purpose to be the sifter of God's wheat-the "accuser of the brethren." He who is to be the First-born among these pleads for Himself no exemption from this trial. He is expressly led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil:designated thus according to the meaning of the term as "the false accuser."

But God has pronounced :is not that enough ? Alas, with sin has come in distrust of God Himself:He also is upon trial:and Satan's reasoning in Job's case almost openly takes that ground. God pronounces as to Job, and he takes exception toil. ''Hast Thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house?" he says; and that means to say, ''This sentence is not given upon proper trial." And God in His very mercy to man, who to his undoing has accepted Satan's malignity as truth, does not retreat behind His privilege. If He is, and must be, sovereign in His doing, so that "none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou ?" yet will He suffer question, and let all be brought into the fullest light. Job's hedge is taken away, and Satan is allowed large limits within which to deal with him,-the end being, of course, blessing to the sufferer and full vindication of God's perfect ways.

And here now is His own Beloved, and there is no remnant of a hedge about the person of the Christ of God ; nor will He use the power that is in His hand against the adversary. In conflict between good and evil, power cannot decide :the good must manifest itself as that, and stand by its own virtue against all odds. The glorious A Wrestler is stripped, therefore, for the wrestling. Sou of God though He be, He conies into the poverty of the creature, the conditions of humanity, and these in their utmost straitness. Man in Adam in his original perfection had been tempted in a garden specially prepared and furnished for him. But one thing was denied him, and in the denial was contained a blessing, among the chief of all the blessings there. Real want there was none, and need was in such sort ministered to as to be itself, in every w-ay, the occasion of new delight. The weakness of the creature was owned, but tenderly provided for, so as to witness to the tender arms of love that were about him:he had but to shrink into them to be in perfect safety, beyond all possible reach of harm.

But not so sheltered, not so provided for, is the new Adam, the Son of man. The garden is gone; in its stead is the wilderness; nor is there nurture for Him now from nature's barren breast. For forty days He fasts, and then with the hunger of that forty days upon Him, the tempter comes. It marks the contrast between Him and other men that, whereas a Moses or Elias fasted to meet God, He fasts to meet the devil.

There are three forms of the temptation :though, with the first broken we see that victory is gained over them all. Yet for our instruction it is that we are permitted to have all before us, that we may realize the points in which the subtlety perfected by ages of experience finds man to be above all accessible, and learn how Satan is to be resisted still. We shall do well to consider them closely, therefore, and with the closest application to ourselves. The battle-field here may seem to be a narrow one ; the points of attack few; the weapons employed against the enemy a scanty armory:but here lies one of the excellences of Scripture, that its principles, while simple, have in them all the depths of divine wisdom, and far-reaching application to the most diverse needs.

(1:) " And when the tempter came unto Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God. command that these stones be made bread."

Satan would thus act upon Him by the conviction of what He was, and make Him assert Himself, in circumstances which were so unsuited to what He was. The Sou of God, the Beloved of the Father, at the extreme point of starvation in a desert ! But then this was surely in His own power to set right:He needed not circumstances to be adjusted to Him, who was able so easily to adjust them to Himself. The power surely was His. the need real, the hunger sinless:why, then, should He not put forth His power, and make the stones of the ground minister to His necessities? So simple and plausible is the suggestion, so well it seems to recognize the truth of what He was, so natural is it with us to minister with what power we have to our own requirements, that to any of us naturally, it might seem to be no evil suggestion at all,-no temptation. But it was such; and the Lord's answer will show us, better than any reasoning of our own, why it was such.

It has been noticed by all,-it could hardly escape notice,-that the Lord answers ever by the word of God. This is the sword of the Spirit, the only weapon we have with which to encounter the adversary; but it is striking, and speaks powerfully to us, to find the Lord who could surely have answered from His own mind, using always, and with distinct reference to it as such, the written Word. We see that He takes absolutely the same ground as ourselves, answers as man, is subject, as we are. to the authority of God. And this the passage which He quotes fully proves,-going, indeed, beyond it :"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the month of God."

This is from Deuteronomy (8:3), the book that sums up the lessons of the wilderness, for those who had been through the wilderness. And the passage shows that the dealings of God with His people had been directly designed to teach them this :"And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that He might make thee to know that man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." How important,-how supremely important, therefore, is this principle!

Man lives by the word of God,-in obedience to it. The true life of man is nourished and sustained alone by this. Bread will not sustain it:the life of obedience is that which alone is life. In this way we see that though, because of inherent sin everywhere, the legal covenant had no life in it, yet there is another sense wherein " which, if a man do he shall even live in them " is to be understood. There is really a path of life, though grace alone can put us in it or maintain us there. Eternal life and disobedience are in fact opposites. The gospel does not alter this :grace fully affirms it:'Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under law, but under grace."

All this is in the passage quoted by the Lord; but in His application of it we are made to go further than naturally we should carry it. What principle of disobedience, we might ask, could be contained in the simple suggestion to use power that He really had, to minister to need that was as really His also, and in which, therefore, there could he no evil?

Notice, then, that it is as man He speaks:it is of man these things are written. Son of God He was-adoringly we own it; it is this that makes the path we are thinking of so wonderful an one; but it is not in the open glory of the Godhead that He is come to walk upon earth, but to learn obedience in humiliation,-nay, by the things that He suffers. He is come as man to work out redemption for men; and for this to learn all that is proper to man, apart from sin. Thus He cannot put forth divine power to save Himself out of this condition. What He can use freely for others, for Himself He cannot use. It is He of whom it is written in the volume of the book, "Lo. I come to do Thy will O God … I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God:yea. Thy law is within my heart." Thus He is here simply subject, and subject in satisfaction and delight, to the will of Another. He has, for His whole course on earth, no other motive. Need may press, appetite may crave:He feels this as other men ; did He not feel it, the glory of His humiliation would be dimmed. But while He feels it, it is no motive to Him:there is but one motive-the will of God. To make Himself a motive would destroy that perfection; come to do that will, and nothing else.

This is the spirit in which He goes forth to service:the close of it on earth, closing with the deepest humiliation and dreadest shadow of all, affords so beautiful an example of this principle, (even while at first sight it might seem at conflict with it), that one cannot forbear to speak of it here. One of the physical distresses of the agony of the cross is the great thirst produced by it. Almost the last words of the Lord there had reference to this, and gave it expression. His words, "I thirst "are answered by the sponge filled with vinegar, of which He tasted :and they were such as naturally to call forth such an answer. Was this, then, really any seeking of relief in His extremity, even from the hands that had nailed Him there? No :we are carefully guarded from such a thought. There was one Scripture, we are told, that remained to be fulfilled ; and of this it was, in all the agony of that hour, that He was thinking :"Jesus, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." This leads to what had been predicted :"in my thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink." Thus the glorious obedience shines here without a cloud upon it, nay, in surpassing luster. " Lo, I come to do Thy will " is the principle of His life.

But here we are made to realize the wondrous privilege that is ours,-the solemn responsibility that lies upon us. For we are "sanctified unto the obedience of Christ," and "He has left us an example that we should follow in His steps" (1 Pet. 1:2; 2:21). This principle of His life must be, then, the principle of our lives. If with Him the governing motive was to do the will of God,-if He rejected every motive that could be urged from His own necessities-how simple is it that, for us also, the will of God must be our motive for action ; apart from this there is no right motive possible.

What a world then, is this, in which the mass of men around us have no thought of God, no knowledge of His will, no desire to know it,-men with whom life is little else than the instinctive animal life; disturbed, more or less, by conscience, that is, by the apprehension of God! And as to Christians themselves, how easily are they persuaded, that, with certain exceptions at important crises of their lives, the simple rule of right and wrong – often determined by custom of some kind, rather than the word of God – is sufficient to indicate for them the will of God ; their own wills being thus left free within a variously limited area!

The law in tact drew such a circle round man, and in mercy, as a sheepfold is the limit for the sheep. A class of actions is defined as evil, and forbidden; within these limits one may please oneself. Nor could law do other than this:for it the rigidity of a fixed code is necessary. But Christ came into the sheepfold to make His sheep hear His voice, and to lead them out:free, but where freedom would be safe as well as blessed, following the living guidance of the Shepherd Himself (John x). The rule is at the same time stricter and freer. And the reality transcends the figure, even as the Good Shepherd Himself transcends every other shepherd. To a love like His, united to a wisdom absolutely perfect, no detail of our lives can be unimportant, as (in the connection of these throughout, and of one life with another, none can be insignificant. Could it be imagined that any were so, yet which of us is competent to discern this, in any instance? ''Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth " is but the utterance of the common experience. Who, then, that has learned to distrust himself at all, but must welcome deliverance from such an uncertainty, and find it joy to be guided at all times by a higher wisdom?

Nothing makes this appear severe, nothing difficult, except the love of our own way, and the unbelief which, having given up confidence in God. first sent man out from the bountiful garden, to toil and strive for himself in the world outside. But the divine love which has purchased us here, and given us Bethlehem for our "house of bread," should suffice to heal that insane suspicion, and close up the fountain of self-will within us. " He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him also, freely gives us all things?" The path ordained for us has, no doubt, its roughness, and the cloud hangs over it; but He makes the cloud His tabernacle, and just in the very night it brightens into manifest glory. All differences are in the interests of the journey itself, as was said of Israel, that they might " go by day and by night."The record of experience adds to this the assurance, " they go from strength to strength."

No wonder ! if " by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live." What a sustenance of the true life within us to be thus, day by day, receiving the messages of His will, guided by that wondrous Voice, learning continually more the tenderness of His love for us:"He wakeneth morning by morning; He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learner" (Isa. 1. 4). This is the utterance prophetically of the Lord Himself:how blessed to be able to make it our own. and thus to have the fulfilment of those words:"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt go:I will guide thee with mine eye."

So then the first temptation is met and conquered ; and with this, in fact, is conquered every after-one:for he who, walking with God, waits upon God, what shall ensnare him? what enemy shall prevail against him ? It is plain that Satan has been hinting again here the lie with which of old he seduced the woman. And that, as in her case "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life" came in through the door so opened, they were now effectually shut out. Satan might repeat and vary his efforts; but to one cleaving fast to God, God will be a shield against which every shaft shall be broken to pieces. How great, then, the importance for us of such a lesson !

2. But if we are to listen for the word of God, and our lives are to be shaped by it, we are called next to guard against the misuse of the Word itself. This is Satan's next attempt:"Then the devil taketh Him into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him. If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down:for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest haply Thou dash Thy foot against a stone."

How careful should we be as to quotations from Scripture ! how little in fact we often are ! Scripture twisted but a little awry, the authority of God is put upon a lie, and our very faith in it may betray us to the enemy.

How important, too, in this view of it, becomes the complete verbal inspiration of Scripture. If only the thought meant to be conveyed is guaranteed to us. but the wording left to the choice of imperfect wisdom, then (unless words mean nothing) we can never settle what the thought precisely is. If the words are possibly faulty, who can assure me of the exact truth hid under this faulty expression ?

Satan does but leave out two or three words of the original:"to keep Thee in all Thy ways" (Ps. 91:11, 12); but those words guard them against the abuse that he would make of them. The "ways "of Him who in the same psalm says of Jehovah, "In Him will I trust" will be God's ways, and He will wait upon God for the fulfilment of His word, and not impatiently grasp at it before the time. This is evidently Satan's effort now; and since the Lord will not move without the word of God, here is now the word to lead Him in that path of the miraculous which He has just refused. The psalm surely refers to Messiah:would it not be simply becoming confidence in God, boldly to claim and act on it?

The place was favorable for such a venture. The miracle would be right before the eyes of the many worshipers-of a people always seeking after signs, and who, having shown themselves ready to go after impostors, would be brought now to the feet of the true Messiah. The word could not fail:was it not for Him to answer the desire of the people, stop with the right hand of power the confusion and misrule, and fulfil the glowing pictures which the prophets had drawn, and take the Kingdom already proclaimed to be at hand by one whose call of God he had Himself acknowledged?

This seems to be the line and power of the temptation here. It appeals to Jesus as the Messiah, as the former one had done to Him as Man. It takes advantage of the Lord's answer given to that, and would with devilish cunning turn that victory into a defeat. How would He refuse to take His predestined place, when the word of God itself beckoned Him into it ?

But the "ways " of the blessed "Author and Finisher of faith " lie elsewhere than in this direction. Of these Satan has not dared to remind Him. He has come into the wilderness from Jordan, from the place of death, to which He had freely stooped as what "righteousness" required from the Representative of His people, and has been consecrated as the Priest to offer the needed sacrifice. Power could be found for men only in the path of humiliation, and out of this He could not raise Himself, nor put forth a hand to lay hold of that which must come to Him from God alone, vindicated and glorified. He would not be slow to put forth power, when this was accomplished, and in this alone all blessing lay. He that believed could not anticipate this :we see that it is the Lord's first answer which has essentially answered all, and which reveals the secret of victory over all temptation. He has come to do the will of God and not His own. In Him patience will have its perfect work, and thus He will be perfect and entire, living by His word, suffering only, putting forth no hand in His own behalf. Anything else would really be to "tempt God,"-to question as they questioned at Massah (Deut. 6:16), where in their need He seemed not to come forward. They " tempted," tried Him by His providences, found Him to come short. This question still connects in this way with the first temptation ; but Israel had no power in themselves to fall back upon as He had :would He use it? Nay, when God had pledged Himself to Him in His word, would He not put it to the proof, let it be seen openly that God was with Him ? Nay, He will not; nor take the short road, as if God's way were too long.

This is to tempt Him then :to try Him by our thoughts,-alas, by our impatience, that cannot wait for His due time, nor take the path of humiliation He prescribes; that will in self-will reach out its hand and take, as Christ would not. He to whom all power belonged moved on as if in weakness, leaving it for God to vindicate and appear for Him, as and where and when He would.

3. In the third temptation Satan shifts his ground completely. He is seeking the same thing of course; and shows himself more openly than he has done before ; but he could not say, " If Thou be the Son of God, fall down and worship me !" He suddenly seems to realize so the truth of His humanity, that he will adventure fully upon it. If this be indeed One who is Son of man, shut off as it were from the claims and conditions of Deity ;-if He has come in, in the very weakness of manhood itself to work the work committed to Him, then he will boldly test Him as mere man. All the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, can they have no attraction for this poor Nazarene? It is a desperate game indeed; and to us cannot but seem like the mere raving of insanity to propose to Christ to do homage to Mm for their possession ! But, however it may seem to be no longer temptation, but a mere awful insult to the divine glory veiled in humanity before him, it does not seem to be given ns as this. The Lord answers it, as He does the rest, from Scripture, though with an indignation which He has not shown before. Satan has disclosed himself, and can be called by his name and bidden to be off. Yet the whole reads as if he had as much confidence in this attack as in the other. The change of address, no longer "If Thou be the Son of God," with the boldness of his proposition, seems to say that he has now discovered and accepts the fact that his conflict is with One who. whatever He may be more than this, had indeed come to meet him as man only. And man-what had he not proved as to him? From Adam in the beauty of his Maker's handiwork, through the many generations since-he had not encountered yet a second man.

And he, the prince of this world, had he not wrested from man the sovereignty of earth, the inheritance for which God had destined him, God not interfering? might it not seem to him as if evil were stronger than good, as he realized the 4,000 years of his triumph, the generations of men that had conspired to lift him to his throne,-surely, an easy thing to do him homage !

In result, he has disclosed himself and is defeated. He has met, at last, the second Man. It is truly so:there is no display of deity, no outburst of divine judgment or of power ; he is answered, still and always by the Word ; its sufficiency as a divine weapon is seen all through :how great an encouragement for us in the irrepressible conflict which we all have to maintain. Through all He is the perfect example of faith, the Man Christ Jesus. We hear throughout the One who in the 16th psalm declares as the principle of His life:"the Lord is the measure of my portion and of my cup:. . .I have set the Lord always before me ; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved."

The devil leaves Him now ; and angels come and minister to Him.

The place and function of the prophetic gift is at best but partially understood by most. The modern and almost universal use of the word "prophecy "is in connection with the foretelling of things to come. In Scripture this is purely a secondary meaning. Take even the prophetic writings,- not forgetting that the "former prophets," have given us the histories subsequent to Moses-we have in all of them much less of prediction than would at first be supposed. They are intensely moral in their tone. Their chief work might be shown in the following scripture:" Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." (Isa. 58:1:) Let the writings of Jeremiah, Hosea, and Haggai be examined, as samples of the rest, and this will be at once clear.

This, too, is in perfect keeping with the origin of the prophetic office, in Samuel, the first of the prophets. The priesthood, intended for the maintenance of the people in communion with God, had signally and grievously failed, in the awful sins of Hophni and Phinehas and the no less culpable neglect of their father Eli the High-priest. The doom was pronounced upon the house of Eli, and practically upon the whole priestly family. Never afterward do we find it occupying its pre-eminent place in Israel:the king comes forward, first man's choice, then, on his rejection, the "man after God's own heart." All this, we need hardly say, was typical of the king who should "reign in righteousness " and who as "priest upon His throne" (Zech. 6:13) would at last unite both offices, no longer typically but actually, in His own perfect Person.

It was upon the failure of the priestly family that God spoke directly to Samuel the child-prophet. Everything connected with the new channel of communication speaks of divine sovereignty:Samuel's birth is the gift of God to believing Hannah; he receives the message from God as to Eli when still a child. The nature too of that message gives us one of the chief characteristics of prophetic ministry – the declaration of divine judgment upon evil.

Blessedly true it is that even such solemn work is, as it were, a pledge of recovery upon the repentance of the people – and looks forward to the time of Christ's reign. It is thus that out of the ashes of the people's ruin spring up the flowers of promise that will yet "fill the face of the earth with fruit." We need hardly refer to the frequent passages in the prophets where this is exemplified.

Prophesy, then, originated in the failure of the priesthood, and was God's merciful provision for maintaining His intercourse with the people.* *It will be understood that we are not here speaking of that special form of New Testament prophecy connected with the establishment of Christianity-" the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Eph. 2:20)-though even here the new testimony arises out of a rejected Judaism. Prophecy conveys the word of God for the conscience at a time of need. In the establishment of Christianity there was necessarily much of immediate revelation required for the new order, both for special exigencies and for the permanent guidance of the Church. Hence New Testament writings are spoken of as "prophetic scriptures." (Rom. 16:26, New Version.) However after the establishment of the Church, when the need for so-called supernatural prophecy had largely ceased, there remained the place for the regular exercise of ministry from God to the conscience of His people to which allusion is made in 1 Cor. 14. And this most nearly approaches the subject of our paper.*It presupposes failure and weakness, and is found largely in times of decline. Hence even in apostate Israel we have, in Elijah and Elisha, two shining examples. How good in God thus to stretch forth His hands "unto a disobedient and gainsaying people."

We would call particular attention to the presence of prophecy in the second book of CHRONICLES. This gives the history of Judah from the time of Solomon down to the captivity-and beyond-and is indeed a history of the "decline and fall" of that kingdom. Were this the place, it would be interesting to note how in contrast to the books of Kings, which cover the same period, we have a distinct moral purpose in Chronicles-and the account of the development of the seeds of evil, to their true issue. Here, in the face of deepening darkness, prophecy lets the light shine, bearing its patient witness to king and people "until there was no remedy." We may gather lessons of profit from these messages of God's servants, and perhaps may find that they have a voice for us too in darkening and closing days.

For manifest reasons and in keeping with the object of the book, no account is given of the failures that darkened the closing years of king Solomon's reign. His personality seems almost merged into the position and endowments which speak of that glorious reign, yet to come, of the "Prince of peace." But with Rehoboam both individual and national failure come in, the typical falls into the background and it is with things as they existed that God dealt. Therefore we have self-will and assertion. The pride and jealousy of Ephraim come to the front and are met by the stubborn haughtiness of Rehoboam. As a natural result the kingdom is rent, the larger part leaving God's temple and worship, and is practically lost sight of, so far as this book is concerned.

Now when the first step in the downward path has been taken, and when the outward glory has faded, we hear the voice of prophecy rising above the din of conflict, Rehoboam gathers his men of war to compel an allegiance which had ceased to exist. God's message comes to him, (2 Chron. 11:1-4,) forbidding him to take up arms against his brother. The breach had been made. There was a time when it might have been prevented:that time was past. Doubtless the position of the ten tribes was wrong. But this was no time for war; and the voice of prophecy holds back the armed hand. Rehoboam and the people recognize God's voice and the horrors of civil war are averted.

Did not God teach by this not merely that conflict is not His mind, but that Rehoboam was not innocent in the matter? There was ground for self-judgment and confession before there could be any power to deal with the rebellious. There were deep reasons why such a division was necessary. The state of the people, their departure in heart from God, mutual jealousies-all showed a condition most deplorable. The outward division simply put all this upon the surface that the shame of it might be felt, and true abasement before God result.

As we look at the divisions in Christendom to-day- God's beloved people divided and scattered-the natural impulse is to seek to remedy them. God's people should be together even at the cost of strife and contention. Does not this account for the well meant efforts at union-nay even the sectarian strife that so often marks the activity of the earnest Christian?

Far be it from us to close our eyes to the deplorable condition of things about us; or to intimate that there is no right path for God's people. If God has a path for us, it is evidently for us to walk in. But can we force our brethren into it ? Can discord and strife bring them where they can dwell in unity? Beloved, prayer and humiliation become us-to be on our faces in prayer, rather than taking up weapons against our brethren. Ah! let us hearken to the word of the prophet.
But let there be no mistake. The prophet's voice did not call Judah to forsake Jerusalem, nor did it justify Israel's revolt from God's order, nor yet encourage peace on a false basis. It simply called them to abstain from conflict-to let Israel go, if they were so determined, while they mourned apart. It is in no spirit of fatalistic resignation that we should bow to the disordered state of things about us; nor in a spirit of pharisaic content at ourselves. Still less are we to justify that which is unscriptural even if the multitude walk in that path. Let us rather pray.

But we pass to another prophetic word. Rehoboam (chap. 12:) and all the nation with him had departed from the Lord, and as a consequence He permitted Shishak king of Egypt to make an inroad into their land and to menace even Jerusalem itself. Again do we hear the word of the Lord for this occasion:"Ye have forsaken Me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak." There are no "smooth things of deceits" in this message, no false sympathy or gentleness. "Ye have forsaken Me." That strikes at the root of all the actual disobedience -departure from God means all else, as in Ephesus the leaving the first love is the beginning of the decline for the whole Church. (Rev. 2:and 3:)

It is good to see here that they bow to God's Word and humble themselves. " The Lord is righteous." Who that ever so bowed to His chastening Hand but could add:"Yea, our God is merciful"? The same messenger who bore the heavy tidings, has now the privilege of declaring that the proud enemy shall go no further. Such is the privilege of prophecy; it not only smites but heals. It is true in our day. Let God's message to His people be heeded; let them be truly humbled in confession and how quickly does His "severity" change into "goodness." But even thus there is the reaping of what one has sown. Judah was to know the difference between the service of God and that of Shishak. Often after there has been real recovery, there must be the bowing to God's holy government.

Another phase of prophetic ministry meets us in chapter 15:King Asa, a faithful and earnest man had been successful against an immense host and had returned to Jerusalem. Naturally one might think that here at least was place for triumphant exaltation. But it is in the hour of victory that we need especial warning, as well as commendation. Most fittingly therefore is Oded entrusted with a message both of faithful warning and encouragement. '' The Lord is with you while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you. … Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak:for your work shall be rewarded." (vers. 2, 7.) Here is no effusive congratulation that would but relax the vigilance and lull them to indifference, making them the prey to the power of the next enemy that should attack them; nor on the other hand is there the ignoring of their faith in God that would have cast a gloomy pall over them. Warning and encouragement are mingled together, and the result is renewed vigor and increased faithfulness. How beautiful is this spirit of prophecy.

Again the scene changes, and in the next chapter (xvi) we find another prophet sent with a very different message to the same king. "What is man?" Here we have seen king Asa in the vigor of faith meeting outward foes, and purging Jerusalem of inward sins. Now, we see the same man trembling before the king of Israel, and instead of turning to God, for help, he robs the Lord's house of its treasures to make a league with a heathen king. Are we surprised to find a messenger from God at the king's gates with solemn words? He had failed to trust the God who had hitherto been his help. By so doing he had lost his hold upon the enemy and so far from securing peace the word is, "From henceforth thou shalt have wars."
Strangely indeed does the faith of the most faithful at times seem to fail, at critical moments, and principles of divine truth are sacrificed for the sake of a false peace, or of successful resistance of those who could not stand before the energy of obedience to God's word. How often are worldly ways and expedients adopted in the hope of strengthening our position, and thus we lose the sense of the holy presence of God, and His power.

It is painful to see the faithful messenger not hearkened to, but put into prison. However the word of God is not bound, but acts even to-day in warning us not to despise prophesyings. Rejection of prophecy marks the end of Asa's testimony. Nothing is left but the fleshly energy of unbelief which knows no recovery. How solemn it is to refuse God's word. May He keep us from this.

In Jehoshaphat we have the results of Asa's course. His besetting sin is mingling with that which is not of God. When faith leaves its true elevation, Let-like it seeks the low plains of Sodom. But if (chap. 18:) Jehoshaphat unites with apostate Ahab he has not lost the feeling of dependence upon God that will seek His prophet. How nobly does Micaiah stand out in the face of the four hundred false prophets, to give faithful witness for his God; and how truly are his words fulfilled. But in the next chapter we see how the faithful word of a son of Asa's monitor rebukes Jehoshaphat for his link with unbelief. "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord ? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord." (19:2.) Not for Jehoshaphat alone were these prophetic words written.

His rebuke seems to have taken effect, for in the next chapter we find Jehoshaphat cast upon God, in face of the enemy and prepared to receive the encouragement of another prophet, (verses 14-20.) Again a faithful rebuke is administered, (verse 37.) How varied is this service, and how one hedged about by God's care should have walked to please Him.

Chapter 21:12-15 declares God's judgment upon the sins of Jehoram, through Elijah the reprover of kings-a suited messenger.

The lamp of David was well nigh extinguished under the despotic rule of Athaliah of the house of Ahab; but Joash is preserved, and through Jehoiada the priest, is placed upon the throne. He seems not to have been a person of true convictions, but yielding rather to the energy of Jehoiada. On the latter's death all the outward show of obedience passed away, and king and people lapsed into idolatry. Zechariah the son of Jehoiada arises with the word of rebuke; but the clays have grown much darker, and he seals his message with his blood, (24:19, 20.) This seems to have been the climax of apostasy in wickedness, if not in time, and is so alluded to by our Lord." (Matt. 23:35.)

The reader can gather wholesome lessons also from the prophetic word in chaps. 25:7, 15, 16; 26:5; 28:9; 33:18. Darker and darker grow the days, and more and more hopeless the state of the nation. Still, in lingering patience, God sends His prophets, "rising up early and sending them," but, alas ! in vain. It is comforting, however, to see how when the state of the nation is hopeless that God has comfort for the individual who trembles at His word, and defers the judgment until his death.

Even to the very last we find the faithful prophet speaking for him that hath an ear to hear :and the book closes with God's comment upon the treatment of His messengers.
Beloved brethren, let us prize this faithful testimony. Let us gladly bow to that which, while it rebukes, encourages also, and is severe only that we may be kept from the declension to which we are so prone. Let us learn from this history of Judah, and ever have an open ear for His word, whether for reproof and correction, or for encouragement. Thus even yet there will be a reviving and a strengthening of the things that remain.

" Pray without ceasing."Does not that sound like an extreme statement – one that needs a good deal of modification, and explaining away? Why should it, dear brethren? Our needs are constant, why should the expression of those needs be less constant? Are we not in danger of forgetting our helplessness, of living in our own strength, and thus becoming independent of God?

Take the personal life of each one of us. Prayer will express our sense of dependence upon God, and of our faith in Him. We "walk as men" if we do not pray. Are we growing in grace and holiness? How can we without prayer? We need not wonder if sin tempt us, if the world allure us, if Satan gain the advantage over us. Prayer brings God in:without Him our boasted strength is worse than useless. Oh, if we realized these things would we not be more constant, more earnest in prayer?

The world moves so rapidly, is so wise and strong, that it is to be feared God's people are carried with it. Business calls are so urgent that there is little time to "enter into thy closet" to have a season of communion with our blessed God and Father at the beginning of the day. At night one is so weary that there is danger of a mere form being substituted for the reality. Possibly the family is never gathered for united prayer.

Beloved brethren, if these things are not true of us we can be thankful; if in any measure they are true we can "suffer the word of exhortation." Let us beware of any distaste for prayer; let us cultivate a habit of "praying in the Holy Ghost." Let us not be ashamed of our helplessness. Have we not deep needs, longing desires about which we have not spoken to God as we should? "What is thy request?" "Does this not shame us, as we think our only limitation is not in God, but in ourselves?

When we pass to the state of the Church of Christ, and think of all its responsibility and privileges, what a field for prayer both private and corporate! How is it in our prayer-meetings? Is there much true prayer, liberty before God? Oh may He awaken us to our great need for prayer.

The Inward and Outward Conditions of the Servant of Christ, and some of the Paradoxes of Faith.

(2 Cor. 6:4-10.)

"In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report:as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

The above remarkable portion is primarily a revelation of the character of the ministry of the apostle Paul himself. Of no one else, save of his like-minded associates, could these expressions be taken as collectively true in an absolute sense;-circumstances vary, and all are not apostles. And yet they give a standard of devotedness for all time, from which no true servant of Christ should shrink. Nor let the thought of service be confined to the comparatively few who "labor in word and doctrine," but let it rather take in all those manifold activities of the body of Christ in which each member has a share. With this threefold thought of ministry, apostolic, special, and general,-we will endeavor to glean a few thoughts from the pregnant passage before us.

For it is indeed full to overflowing with thoughts that press for utterance from the heart of Paul, checked and held in because of the state of the Corinthians hitherto, but now, under the combined influences of the obedience of the saints, and a view of Christ in glory, expanded and set free. He would unbosom himself to them, and show them the jealous care he had for the preservation of that ministry he had received of the Lord Jesus," Giving no offense in any thing that the ministry be not blamed."

Next to the exuberance of thought, we are struck with the terse, epigrammatic style – indeed each thought finds expression in almost a single word, finely suggestive of the girded loins becoming the soldier-servant, and reminding us of the staccato in music, giving the emphasis of a heart in melody, and as well the bugle-call to those who would follow his lead.

And yet a slight examination will convince us that these words are not thrown together in a haphazard way, but present to us, in orderly connection and development, the circumstances and states of the Lord's servant. Let us endeavor to trace this order, or at least to gather words of warning, comfort, and encouragement from the passage as a whole.

It will be noticed that the first expression," much patience," is followed by a series of nine words describing the circumstances under which the patience, or rather endurance, is exercised.

Next follow eight words descriptive of what relates to the inward state rather than the outward circumstances, making with patience nine subjective conditions, if we may so speak.
We have thus two series of nine words each, relating respectively to the person and his circumstances. It is well to note that there is but one preposition used in the Greek, and not two, as in our authorized version-"in" and not "by" should be connected with each word.

Following, we have three phrases governed each by the preposition "by," and consisting of pairs of words, – "on the right hand and on the left," "by honor and dishonor," "by evil report and good report."

Closing, we have a series of seven paradoxes – shall we call them ?-where apparently contradictory expressions are linked together in pairs, giving us a complete and varied view of the experiences of a servant of Christ.

Returning now, we are tempted to point out some striking features in the numerical arrangement of these words. Those that speak of the inward state come first, in connection with patience, though the nine that speak of outward circumstances are linked with the patience, showing that theory and practice can never be divorced-that the inward state should always be connected with the outward circumstances.

There are nine of these words, which seem to fall into groups of three, in giving us thus an intensified three. (The same is true of the other group of nine). We have patience, pureness, and knowledge; long-suffering, kindness, and the Holy Ghost; love unfeigned, the word of truth, and the power of God. It will be found that the first of each of these series is suggestive of a similar thought, only increasing in intensity,-first, endurance, of circumstances; second, longsuffering, of persons; third, love unfeigned, far stronger than longsuffering. In like manner, the second words of each series correspond-first, pure-ness, entirely subjective; second, kindness, equally relative; third, the word of truth, a divine testimony. So also the last words will be found correlated – knowledge, the Holy Ghost, the power of God. What an ascending climax we have here,-and what divine instruction ! There must be knowledge, but that must be by the Holy Ghost, if there is to be the power of God.

But looking again at these groups, we have as the first requisites for the exercise of ministry, endurance, pureness, and knowledge. "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." The keynote of all ministry is endurance. We are not to receive, but to give. How many enter upon a line of service and after a few discouragements, give up. They began to serve-in the Sunday-school, in tract distribution, in gospel ministry, and they found no encouragement; they met with rebuffs. Is a soldier on parade ? or is he to endure the hardships of an arduous campaign ? O, brethren, let us be stirred to endurance ! let us not be easily discouraged ! How significant it is that the nine words descriptive of the circumstances of trial are linked with that word endurance. At these we will look later.

"When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing "(Deut. 23:9). "Keep thyself pure" (i Tim. 5:22). These scriptures, from Old and New Testaments, emphasize that personal state described here by "pureness," which is an absolute essential to all ministry. Neglecting this, how many strong men have fallen, and how many a defeat, as at Ai, have the people of God sustained.
The third word of this first group is "knowledge," and it falls fittingly in its place. "Zeal without
knowledge" is worthless, and even pureness is but the white frame in which to exhibit the picture of-divine truth.

In the second group, which speak of association, we have, first, longsuffering, followed by kindness, but all to be under the leading of the Holy Ghost, without whose help and guidance both longsuffering and kindness may degenerate into weakness. We are tempted to apply these truths, but leaving that to the individual conscience, we pass on to the last of the three groups, where we find ourselves on high ground indeed,-love unfeigned, the word of truth, and the power of God. Love, truth, power ! Oh, for a ministry, both public and private, that exhibits these !

The group of nine words descriptive of the circumstances in which ministry is exercised will not require much in the way of exposition; experience is not doctrine.

The first three words,- "afflictions, necessities, distresses," suggest the general character of troubles the servant of Christ may expect to meet, increasing perhaps, in intensity. The next group of three,- " stripes, imprisonments, tumults "-bring in the hostility and opposition of man, of which illustrations can be found all through the book of Acts. These too seem to increase in violence from the stripes to imprisonment and thence to a tumult, such as that which drove Paul from Ephesus (Acts 19:). The third group-"labors, watchings, fastings"-speak of those exercises in behalf of the Lord's people which weary the outward man, while yet the devoted servant "will very gladly spend and be spent." Here too there is a progress, downward so far as the strength of man is concerned, though faith can say, "For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day."

We come next to a group of three phrases suggesting the moral means employed in connection with service.

"By the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left." Practical righteousness is absolutely essential, if the servant is to be protected from the assaults of the enemy; and this armor must be complete. It suggests a word from this very epistle, "By manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (chap. 4:2). He is doubly armed who walks in uprightness; "The righteous is as bold as a lion." "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward" (2 Cor. 1:12). Let it be remembered that this armor must be complete, on the right and left, in public and in private, in things sacred and common, so called.

Then one is prepared for the "honor and dishonor," "evil report and good report; " each will but contribute to the Lord's interests. The "sect everywhere spoken against" will but awaken inquiry, while men themselves will be ashamed at their evil speech, and others "report that God is among you of a truth." Paul might be thought a god one day and be obliged to refuse worship, and the next day be dragged out of the city. All winds blow fair for the sailor who can trim his sails to catch the gale and bound forward over the waves that would drive him back.

These balanced and apparently contradictory phrases bring us naturally to the concluding portion, where we have, not at haphazard surely, seven paradoxes enumerated. In these we have apparently the outward and the inward aspect of ministry, to the eye of the world and to the eye of faith.

To men the apostle might seem, as his Master before him, as "one who deceiveth the people." Truly the truth was presented in wisdom as men were able to bear it, and as it was received lead them, with eyes open, into further light for which they would not before have been ready. The apostle was thus "all things to all men," meeting them on their own level with the truth of God suited to their state. This is farthest removed from the Jesuitic practice, "the end justifies the means." The apostle says of those who would teach " Let us do evil that good may come," "whose damnation is just." "As deceivers and yet true." How true is that word which brings us to Him who is true-the Holy and the True.

"As unknown and yet well known." " The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." The Lord's servants are His "hidden ones"; their names are not among the great and the popular; but oh how well known there, where our Lord confesses them before His Father's face; how well known in that book of life-

" Men heed thee, love thee, praise thee not,
The Master praises, what are men?"

And even here to those who receive the precious truth of God, how well known are Christ's servants. How well known was Paul in his day to the saints; and how the names of those who have ministered the things of Christ to us are enshrined in our hearts.

"As dying and behold we live." Paul perfectly exhibited this, "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body " (2 Cor. 4:10).

And in our measure it should be true. That which to the world speaks of death is but the opportunity for the life of Jesus to be manifested. The chastening in like manner is not to death, but for further holiness and usefulness.

"As sorrowing yet always rejoicing." How true is this! Not only to the world does the servant of Christ seem a mourner; he must be a mourner in a world like this, where his Master was the "Man of sorrows." It seems as though the new nature gave capacity for grief-men perishing all around us, dear ones unsaved, the Lord's sheep scattered, His name dishonored-surely without extravagance the true-hearted servant could say with Jeremiah, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night."

"Did Christ o'er sinners weep,
And shall our tears be dry?"

And yet there is a joy, not occasional, but in the midst of the sorrow-joy at the repentance of "one sinner," at the restoration or growth in grace of a saint, in sweet communion with Christ through His word, and in the hope of His speedy coming. Surely we all know something of that joy-may we know more of it.
"As poor yet making many rich." "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee," and Peter, in the name of Jesus gave the poor cripple at the temple gate what all the gold in the world could not buy. How much more is it true that saints are the dispensers of wealth, when we think of the "unsearchable riches of Christ" it is our privilege to unfold to the needy.

"As having nothing and yet possessing all things." Here we have the climax, the limit in both directions. To sight we have nothing, to faith-all things. "All things are yours." What cheer is this, what joy. He who has gone on high possesses and fills all things, and we are His, and in Him, and filled up in Him!

Do we wonder that the apostle passes on in the enlargement of his heart under the expansive force of these precious truths to urge the Corinthians,-to urge us-to be also enlarged? Why should we be straitened, why should service be perfunctory or desultory ?

We would note too, in closing, how this last series of seven gives us a true progress, with each stage corresponding to the significance of its number:first we have as a basis, truth; following this is the report, well known; the third, the resurrection number, tells of life, and the fourth of the chastening-the wilderness experience; number five gives the exercises through which we pass; six, the limit to man's need; while seven completes all, with nothing in ourselves and yet possessing all things. May the sense of our riches indeed make us bountiful to others; "freely ye have received, freely give."

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

(Continued from page 224.)

CHAPTER VIII. The Anointed Priest.

Lord seen as "Last Adam " necessarily introduces us, therefore, to His atoning work. For the race of which He is thus Head, although a new creation, is a race of men,-of those involved in the fall of the first head, and who have added to this their own individual and innumerable iniquities. Here, therefore, what He is as Christ- as Messiah, the "Anointed"-comes into view:for this "anointing" has regard to His official work, and (apart from Jacob's anointing of the pillar at Bethel) the first notice that we have of it in Scripture is in connection with the priests (Ex. 28:41; 29:7); while the high priest is distinctively, even as among these, the "priest that is anointed" or Messiah-priest.

After the failure of the priesthood, it is the king who is specifically the "anointed of Jehovah;" and the union of priest and king in our Lord, as in the type of Melchizedek, we shall have attentively to consider in a little while. For Christ also, priesthood necessarily preceded kingship, the history runs parallel with the doctrine. Of the prophet who (as in Elisha's case) was sometimes anointed, but, from the nature of his call, less frequently, we need not at present speak. Christ unites, as we know, these three offices in His own Person, but the first and fundamental one is that of priesthood.

The priest, ideally, was one who presented himself to God in behalf of others:of those who could not, therefore, of themselves draw near, as he. For his office, there were two requisites:first, personal fitness to draw near himself. This was figured under the Law by that simple white linen garment in which alone the sanctuary could be entered; while, where-ever there had been sin, (and therefore for the high-priest also, as long as he was but the "figure of the true ") the blood of sacrifice was needed for atonement.

Among mere men the true Priest could not be found. The "called of God" is He to whom, though Man, God could say, "Thou art My Son:to-day have I begotten Thee" (Heb. 5:5). In Him, as " First-born among many brethren," a new humanity begins for God, open to all men to come into, but by the lowly gate of a new birth. For these as Head and Representative He stands and offers sacrifice; for these, and not for the world, He intercedes; but this of course shuts out none from blessing. Faith could at any time bring nigh the stranger and join him to the people of God. Of God's will none were ever shut out, as even the dispensation of law bore witness, and Ruth and Rahab are signal examples.

Now, under the gospel, to faith all the privileges of God's house are open. The veil is rent, and God is in the light, where the blood of Christ His Son cleanses those who enter from every stain of sin.

But we are now looking at the Priest Himself, whose call to the Priesthood is founded upon His nature as Son of God, as the apostle distinctly tells us. He "glorified not Himself to be made high-priest, but He who said unto Him, Thou art My Son:to-day have I begotten Thee." Here the owning Him Son of God,-the First-born and not the Only-begotten, or it would not be said, "to-day,"- implies, according to the argument, that God recognizes Him as High-priest also; and so the apostle adduces the passage from the hundred and tenth psalm as similar in import:"Just as also in another place, he saith, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."

It is denied, however, by some that this is the argument. "The two citations," says Moll, "do not express the same idea; nor is the former adduced to prove that Christ is a High-priest; but simply to call to mind the relation previously unfolded, that namely, which the God who has bestowed this priestly dignity on Christ, sustains as Father to this Anointed One."

In fact, the apostle's words at first sight may seem indefinite. That "He glorified Him, who said to Him," does not necessarily mean "glorified Him in saying to Him." But the apostle does, nevertheless, use the same form of speech in the seventh chapter with reference to the second quotation, which here he does to the first:" But He with an oath, by Him that said unto Him :The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever." Here, of course, no doubt could arise, nor could be supposed to do so:and this makes a difference. But it would show, at least, that the form of speech is not against the implication.

Further, that relationship of Christ as Son to God, previously unfolded, has been already shown to be in connection with His priesthood in the second chapter:for it has been told us there that the "many sons" whom God is bringing to glory "are all of one" with Him:"so that He is not ashamed to call them 'brethren.'" And because these "children that God has given Him" are "partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in the same, that through death He might annul him that had the power of death, and deliver them." Thus "it behoved Him to be made in all things like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in thing pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."

Here is surely a long and connected argument to show the relation which Christ's being the Son of God bears to His Priesthood. For atonement, and for sympathy too (as to which the last verse of the second chapter speaks) Christ as High-priest must be made like unto His brethren. His brethren are the many sons of God He is bringing to glory; He therefore must be Son of God in human nature. To own Him this is thus by implication to own Him as the Mediator-Priest on their account.

That as Son of God He is King also, and that the quotation from the second psalm is in connection with this, does not conflict at all with such a view. The second quotation, which directly affirms His Priesthood, expressly connects the two things together. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, a priest upon the throne (Zech. 6:13); a King with priestly tenderness and succor for the sinful and needy,-a Priest with royal and more than royal authority. How sweet and fitting is the union in Him of these two things! that as the Minister of priestly grace all power should be committed to Him! But here, plainly, priesthood must come first, and lay the foundation. It must begin in humiliation and sorrow, as the apostle represents. The Son of God must learn what obedience is in a strange path of suffering. The Perfect One must be officially perfected as the Author of eternal salvation to all those that obey Him. He cries unto " Him that is able to save Him out of death," not "from " it, and is "heard for His piety " (Heb. 5:7-9). Come up out of death, He is "saluted of God as high-priest after the order of Melchizedek" (ver. 10), – hailed as Victor with the crown.

This course begins on earth and ends in heaven. On earth He made propitiation (2:17), offering up Himself (7:27) in the body prepared Him (10:5), one offering for sins, by which He has perfected in perpetuity those that are sanctified (10:14). Then, as risen from the dead, in the power of that blood whose acceptance had been thus openly declared, He entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us (9:24). But we must look more closely at the stages of accomplishment of a course for us so necessary and so fruitful. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

She came not to hear a sermon, although the first of Teachers was there; to sit at His feet and hear His words (Luke 10:39) was not her purpose now, blessed as that was in its proper place. She came not to make her requests known to Him. Time was, when, in deepest submission to His will, she had fallen at His feet, saying, "Lord if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died" (John 11:32); but to pour out her supplications to Him as her only resource, was not now her thought, for her brother was seated at the table.

She came not to meet the saints, though precious saints were there, for it says, "Jesus loved Martha . . . and Lazarus" (John 11:5). Fellowship with them was blessed likewise, and, doubtless, of frequent occurrence; but fellowship was not her object now.

She came not after the weariness and toil of a week's battling with the world to be refreshed from Him, though, surely, she like every saint had learned the trials of the wilderness; and none more than she, probably, knew the blessed springs of refreshment that were in Him.

But she came,-when the world was about to express its deepest hatred of Him (ver. i), to pour out what she long had treasured up (ver. 7), and of much value (ver. 5), upon the person of Him whose love had made her heart captive, and absorbed her affections.

It was not Simon the leper, not the disciples, not her brother and sister in the flesh, but her Lord that engaged her attention now. Jesus filled her soul-her heart and her eye were on Him, and her hands and feet were subservient to her eye and to her heart, as she "anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair."

Adoration, homage, worship, blessing, was her one thought; and that in honor of the One who was "all in all " to her;-such worship, how refreshing to Him!

The ungodly (ver. 4) and the unspiritual (Matt, 26:6-9) might murmur, but He upheld her cause, and showed how He could appreciate and value the grateful tribute of a heart that knew His worth and preciousness, and could not be silent as to it. A lasting record is preserved of what worship really is by the One who accepted it, and of the one who rendered it.

Be it ours now, dear reader, from hearts filled with the Holy Spirit, to break upon Him our spiritual box of ointment,-in worship, in praise, and thanksgiving as is meet.

'The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ." (2 Thess. 3:5; 1 Thess. 5:23.)

Father, thy will be done !
Oh make Thy will mine own !
In every act both great and small,
In all that to my path doth fall,
Through all the quickly passing years-
In every thought, in all my way,
Every affection, wish, oh may
Thy will and mine identical
Go on, whatever shall befall.

Thy will, my God, is best !
That is alone the test
By which our lives may guided be,
By which our sightless eyes may see;
Our walk apart from Thee is safe
Not one brief moment, nor can be
While here or in eternity.
Therefore, though often we rebel,
We know Thou doest all things well.

O Lord, when Thou shalt come
All grief shall then be gone.
Oh, when we see Thy blessed face,
Taste all the riches of Thy grace,
How will the heart leap forth with praise,
Fullness of God !Thou glorious One !
Ah, what a blessed work was done
When, rising from the grave, our Lord
Pledged spotless sons to Thee, O God !

Lord Jesus, quickly come !
Our spirits long for home.
Nothing is here but emptiness;
Nothing in this vast wilderness
That fully satisfies the heart.
And if our spirit restless be
Waiting Thy blessed face to see,
Oh, with what love Thy heart doth yearn
To seat us, with Thee, on Thy throne.

E. L.

What joy, what freedom are suggested by these words! They were the utterance of our risen Lord as He met the women who had been to His empty sepulcher. (Matt. 28:) There is no tinge of sadness or shadow of foreboding; for were they not from the lips of the One who had been in the grave -after having borne our judgment on the cross- and who was now forever beyond its gloom? He is breathing, if we may so speak, the air of freedom, of eternal peace and joy, and from that plane sends this greeting to His beloved redeemed people. It tells us that for us too judgment and wrath have gone; that the grave has lost its victory, and death its sting. Faith sees as Christ sees-and exalts in the liberty wherewith He has made us free.

We are not of the world. In it, indeed, and often feeling the pressure of it, but these words of greeting tell us we are in the truest sense beyond all that has power to drag us down.

But if this be so, let it be a practical reality. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:i). That is not mere sentiment, but something definite and real. It tells of a treasure in heaven-something valued above everything else; it tells of truth to engage the mind and thus to bring us into communion with our risen Lord.

On the other side these words admonish us to have done with sin-"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." If there is anything that tells of our shame, it is lofty pretension coupled with a carnal walk. The Lord give us, beloved brethren, to walk with Him. What joy, liberty, holiness that means. But do not His words invite us in such a walk ? Let the joy of this greeting stimulate us afresh to a simple, steadfast walk with Him.

Ques. 18.-Please explain the difference between what is commonly called standing and state. Does our place in the holiest depend upon our state, or is it connected with the common standing of all believers? My impression is that our High Priest has gone in there permanently, and that all His members are where He is – seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Would you call that the holiest of all? I am aware that we only realize our standing there, when our state is right, but surely the standing remains perfect, notwithstanding the failure in the believer.

Ans.-Without entering into intricate distinctions, there are evidently two very clearly marked lines of truth in the word of God relating to believers, which may be very properly grouped under the words standing and state.

Standing includes all that is connected with the counsels of grace, the work of Christ and the place He now occupies, risen and glorified, for His redeemed people. Connected with it we have forgiveness, justification, acceptance, access to God in grace, and boldness in the holiest. Flowing from it we have the pledge of eternal security, and the glory of God as our home.

State suggests the practical work of the Spirit in us, bringing home these truths to our hearts and consciences, and producing in us corresponding fruits. It is intimately associated with the thought of responsibility.

It is of grave importance therefore that there should be kept a clear distinction between standing and state. Where this is not clone assurance will be lacking, or a pharisaic spirit be fostered; for who could ever be satisfied with his state? On the other hand, the perfection of our standing before God on the ground of a sacrifice which has perfected us forever, and in Christ risen, is as absolute as the work and Person of our Lord could make it.

Unquestionably there is a very close connection between the standing and state of the believer, and the failure to notice this may have resulted in the effort to confound them. Our state flows from our standing, and should be the expression, in ever increasing measure, of its perfection. We have absolutely no sympathy with that wretched abuse of the doctrines of grace which leads to antinomianism-which says, Let us continue in sin that grace may abound. But the remedy is not to merge state into standing or the reverse, but to give all emphasis to each in its place. We are thankful for our brother's question calling attention to this most important and elementary truth.

Ques. 19.-Please explain Matt. 15:21-28, especially verse 27, "Truth, Lord:yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters's table."

Ans.-The woman was a Gentile and in using the title "Son of David," she appealed to the Lord as though she were an Israelite. He tests her faith by His silence, and, when He does speak, emphasizes the position of Gentiles-"It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs." Is has been thought however that in the very form of word used for "dog," our Lord left an opening for faith. It was not the dog without owner, the common scavenger of the east, but the house-dog- so the diminutive form has been thought to suggest-inferior and dependent, but not despised. Be this as it may, the great faith of the woman takes the place the Lord gives her, and uses that as an argument for His mercy to be shown. " Truth Lord," I am a dog, but when was dog refused a crumb, and Thy mercy for me is but as that. Thus faith ever acts:it takes the place of nothingness, and finds the fulness of Christ for it.

Ques. 20.-Will there be any deaths among the saved upon earth during the millennium. See Isa. 65:20.

Ans.-It would seem not. There will be multitudes of mere professors during that period, and from among these all who despise the government of God in a public way will be cut off. There is no mention of the resurrection of any at the close of the millennium except the unsaved (Rev. 20:5, 6, 12-15).

Ques. 21.-Could you tell who the nations are, spoken of in Rev. 21:24? The old heavens and earth are passed away. Jerusalem is seen coming down from God out of heaven, and the nations walk in the light of it. Is this the time spoken of in 1 Cor. 12:28, where the Son delivers up the Kingdom to God?

Ans.-We believe that the eternal state is referred to in the first eight verses of Rev. 21:, and that the remainder of the description of the heavenly city, in that and the next chapter, takes more the form of a millennial scene. This would explain the mention of the nations alluded to. From ver. 9 to 21:5 seems plainly to be a separate and retrospective vision as to the millennial time.

Ques. 22.-Please explain Col. 2:16 to end. Who are exhorted not to touch taste or handle, and from what are they so carefully guarded?

Ans.-The expression is a sort of epitome of the law of ordinances. It was continually exhorting those under it not to touch taste or handle anything that would bring ceremonial defilement. The apostle hart just been telling the saints that they were dead, in Christ, to these ''rudiments of the world," and that none could judge them in "meat or drink, or in respect of a new moon, or of the sabbath days." This is the force of the expression alluded to. In place of the punctilio of legal ceremony, they were, as risen with Christ, to seek those things which are above, where Christ is, and to put to death their members which are upon earth (Col. 3:1, 5).

The inspired Word speaks of a new creation. God, in a variety of expression, has promised to make all things new. Though the new creation is thus presented as something to hope for, yet in a real and blessed sense it is already introduced, at least in its beginning, as we shall see further on. And the introduction of the new is the declared condemnation, or the virtual setting aside of the old, though we know it continues for the present, but it is only for a little time. To illustrate:in traveling through a country, you come in sight of a farm house which looks old and dilapidated; you say in your mind that its owner must have condemned it in his thoughts and words. You come nearer, and you see that the foundation of a new house is laid. You now say that the old house is condemned, not only in thought and word, but in deed. The family is yet in the old, and doubtless making themselves as comfortable as possible, but its removal is only a matter of time. So in reading the Old Testament Scriptures one cannot fail to see that God is not satisfied with the present state of things,-not satisfied with His once fair creation so blighted by sin and misery. In those Scriptures He is revealed as holy and gracious; and holiness cannot rest where sin is, and graciousness or mercy cannot rest where misery is. Indeed we may read in those Scriptures that it is His purpose to make a thorough change. He speaks of creating "new heavens and a new earth" and "the former," He says, "shall not be remembered nor come into mind."

We come to the New Testament and we see that the new creation is already introduced, at least in its beginning. He who was crucified, but brought again from the dead by the glory of the Father, is the beginning and exalted Head of the new creation, thus showing that God has set aside the old. True, those that belong to the new arc yet in the old, yet their removal from it and the fuller manifestation of the new, is only waiting God's due time.

That the risen Christ is a new beginning-the beginning of the new creation, is plainly taught in Scripture. He is designated in the first chapter of the book of Revelation as "the faithful witness, and the first-begotten of the dead," or as the Revised has it, "the first-born of the dead."

Then, in the third chapter, evidently meaning the same thing, He is styled "the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Thus in becoming the "first-born from the dead," He became the " beginning of the creation of God," that is, the beginning of the new creation, which will be in the fullest sense "the creation of God," and which will abide before Him forever.

And believers being seen as risen with Christ, that is, as risen in His resurrection, they are as a consequence, a new creation in Him. This is clearly taught in the following rich passage-"the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died ; and he died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him. who for their sakes died and rose again. Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh ; even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature [or as it is in the margin, there is a new creation]:the old things are passed away ; behold they are become new " (2 Cor. 5:14-17, R. V). Thus believers are, according to God a new creation in the risen Christ. This is clearly not experience but position,-a complete, new position before God.

It may be asked, What is meant by "knowing no man after the flesh,-even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more ?" The following passage, I doubt not, gives the true answer :ye "have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him :where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free:but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:10, ii). We do not now know Christ as a Jew, and only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but as a risen, heavenly Man, and as Head over all things, and in whom, as already seen, we as believers are a new creation. And when He comes, the bodies of His own will share in the new creation, that is, whether gone to corruption, or still mortal, they will be changed in a moment and conformed to the body of His glory,-"we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Also the whole creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory (Rom. 8:21). Yea, God will make all things new" (Rev. 21:7); and what John saw in vision will be fully realized, " I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more sea."

It must be added that we are indebted to the atoning death of the Lord Jesus for all this. It is because He died that He could identify us with Himself in new creation. It is because He died that our bodies can be made like unto His glorious body. Though "the body is dead because of sin" as the Word says, yet the sin being atoned for, the body can be redeemed. Also it is because He died and bore the curse that the curse can be righteously taken from creation, yea all things be made new. Yes, in view of the cross God can take us up and make spirit, soul, and body a new creation. In view of the cross He can take up the blighted creation and pronounce it once more "very good"; its former glory, however, being no glory by reason of the glory that shall so far excel.

Surely being a new creation in Christ, with the bright and sure hope of its completion, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy behavior and godliness ! "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them " (Eph. 2:10). In another place after being told that nothing avails but being a new creation in Christ, it is added " and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:15, 16). Thus the "rule" of our walk is the new creation. We are to walk according to that into which God in grace has brought us. Our whole behavior should be governed by the principles of the new creation. Our whole heart should be with the new, not with the old. We should be building our hopes in the new, not in the old. May it be so more fully with His beloved people during the little while they are detained in this scene of sin and sorrow, and waiting for His coming, find, though as yet in old creation sorrows, new creation joys as their strength for what may remain of the way till He come. R. H.