3. THE HEART OF GOD AND THE HEART OF MAN. (Chap. 3:3-iv).

God summons His messenger once more to the work; and this time he is obedient. "Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord." His message is a short, decisive announcement of impending judgment:"Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." But God threatens that He may not have to strike; and the proclamation of judgment is itself grace. The voice of one who has come, by divine power, as it were, out of death itself, to utter it, startles the great city, and there is immediate humbling before God. They proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth, covering the very beasts themselves with it, and cry mightily to God, turning at the same time every one from his evil way and the violence of his hands.

We are not to suppose that it was true conversion to God that followed, although we need not question that on the part of some, at least, there was true conversion But God was pleased to respect the humbling even of an Ahab, though only the fear of judgment produced it. But His grace encourages the feeblest manifestation of obedience to Him. So far as it went, the change was real. God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and the consequence followed which He declares by His prophet would follow in such a case (Jer. 18:7, 8). "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them." So here, therefore, God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them and He did it not. This was no exception, therefore, to His common dealing with men. Nor is such repentance any argument of instability as to His purposes. On the contrary, His heart is told out by it. It is what He has been seeking that He has obtained, and the prophet who has been commissioned to deliver the message knew beforehand what the effect would be if Nineveh repented.

Nevertheless, "It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry"! How solemn it is, remembering this Jonah was a prophet of the Lord, one in a place of special nearness to Him, stamped with that wonderful significant name which accredits him as the instrument of the gracious Spirit of God! "For I knew," he says, "that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger aud of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil." Yet as he puts it, the knowledge of this grace is what only had incited him to refuse the commission, and he puts it to God Himself as what, in measure at least, justified his flight to Tarshish. When the soul, even of a believer, is plowed up, what depths of evil can come out of it? Job learnt to know himself in his murmuring under the chastening hand of God, but Jonah has to gain a deeper knowledge, and to learn himself in his murmuring at God's grace.

No doubt he would urge that he was put by it into the place, apparently, of a false prophet; but could he rightly urge even this? For it was not to a nation disregarding his voice that this grace was shown, but on the contrary, to those who recognized God's voice in him, and honored it. Yet Jonah would rather, as it were, go back to the depths out of which he had been delivered than see such mercy to others. Think of the awful and pitiful wail:"Therefore, now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live!" What is man, surely, at the best? But how beautiful the grace that will not deal with him yet according to his petulant haste,-the gentle question which one would say could not fail to be answered in his soul at once, "Doest thou well to be angry?" But his anger is not quenched, and we see the strange infatuation that it produces in him. He turns from the city, as hateful to him, just for the goodness of God towards it and makes him a booth and sits down under it to see if, after all, God means to carry out this mercy to the full. What a mirror for Israel to look into and! see their own spirit with regard to the Gentile world about them! But it is all in vain for us to expect to bend God to our thoughts when we will not bend to His. Jonah may nurse his anger and his pride, but he only lapses, by this, into the very condition of heathenism itself, which always takes its god's to be such as it can control for its own interests, according to what it deems such. Idolatry means everywhere, man the maker of God, instead of God the Maker of man; and Jonah would gladly be that now. Is it so strange a thing as at first sight it may seem here, and do we not act oftentimes more or less after his pattern? Which of us would not some time make his own will supreme, though it be to dethrone God to do so?

But Jonah cannot provoke God even to deal with himself as his anger would have it. On the contrary, grace must only manifest itself more to him, and as he waits under the burning sun of the East, in the discomfort to which he has destined himself, the Lord God prepares a gourd and makes it to come up over Jonah, that it may be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. What labor God will take to get at the heart of His poor creatures! And how often it seems as if there was not even a heart to get at! Yet Jonah is exceeding glad of the gourd. But that is only the first step towards that recovery of him which God is seeking. The next seems a step in reversal. The mercy is taken away. "God prepared a worm, when the morning rose the next day; and it smote the gourd that it withered." Changeable these ways seem, as how often God's providences do seem changeable! But this, even, is not enough. "It came to pass when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live."He has gone back to his old position, and nothing seems to be wrought yet. Nevertheless, he has felt as a creature, in a way very keenly affecting himself, that he is in strong hands that cannot be resisted. Do we not remember how in Job's case also, though so different from the present one, it is the revelation of His might by which God awes an angry heart to stillness? But again there comes the question:" Doest thou well to be angry for the guard?"Was it indeed for the blighted gourd that he was feeling? God so represents it, as it were, Hot touching the sore spot exactly itself, and yet only to make him the more conscious of it. But he answers more passionately than ever:"I do well to be angry even unto death."Was it for the gourd indeed that he was angry, or was it for his personal loss in it? Did he care so much for the thing as to which he had not labored nor made it grow, the offspring of a night and which perished in a night? God would so represent it, as it were, as if he would not impute more to him. He has had pity on the gourd ; he has not had pity upon Nineveh, that great city of more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left; and their cattle too,-none of them forgotten by Him who made them. Pity for a gourd, and not pity for great Nineveh! A plentiful waste of a niggard heart ! Something there must be that has produced in him such complete incapacity to balance things aright; something there must be which seen will make consistent this gross inconsistency. Certainly; and which of us does not know what it is? There is but one thing capable of distorting things after this fashion. Here is the man who has been himself in the depths to learn to cry out there, " Salvation is of the Lord," yet now angered even unto death against the God of salvation! He who lives by grace alone, can plead only for judgment, and against grace to others!
Israel is, without doubt, in their inmost heart told out in this picture before us. Under law indeed, yet the lesson of the law, if learnt, would have preached the need of a grace which God had been ever showing. For the law is not against grace, but its handmaid ; and to every honest soul, most crushingly against legality. Israel, as the apostle reminds them, were all, by their idolatry in the worship of the golden calf, under the condemnation of the outraged law, and God's announced principle, upon which alone He could take them up, was, "I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion" (Rom. 9:15). To sovereign goodness they owed it that He could go on with them at all; and their whole history illustrated the same thing. Jonah's "Salvation is of the Lord " was their only hope all through, who (as the apostle again says') were found at last, "forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they should be saved, to fill up their sins always" (i Thess. 2:16). Yet even so they will be taken up as objects of mercy at the last, upon this same blessed only-sufficing principle (Rom. 11:31). " How good is the God we adore! "

But the moral of this history for ourselves, how important it is! We are in a place of special witness for God, far beyond that of Israel. Under the law with its closed sanctuary, there could as yet be no world-wide evangelism such as Christianity proclaims. We have a distinct message for "every creature." We are not merely the recipients of grace, as even Israel really was:we have learned it from the lips and in the gift for us of the Son of God Himself; the shadow of law is removed, and the sanctuary is open. The brooding "dove," of which Jonah's name speaks, is known in its blessed significance by those in whom there dwells the Spirit of Christ, the power of all ministry and divine testimony among men, and of whom the Lord speaks when He declares that if any one comes unto Him and drinks, "out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37, 38).

Thus we should naturally think that now there can be no Jonahs who do not answer to their name, and that as an admonition to us the story of the Jewish prophet would be all unneeded. But alas, man's fallen nature violates the most necessary conclusions, and makes its way through every indefectible argument. God asks as to the human heart, "Who can know it? "And we who are, as none ever were beside, the witnesses of divine grace, can we be trusted to maintain consistent testimony to that to which we owe our all? Do our words, our ways, our thoughts of others, our prayers for others, speak for us as those who have learned amid the depths of ruin into which sin has plunged us, to realize that break with all self-satisfaction, all self-sufficiency, all self-assertion, which is involved in fact in that cry of helplessness in which all help is found, "Salvation is of the Lord?"

All truth, all holiness, all liberty of soul, all power for devotedness, fruitfulness of whatever kind, comes to us out of that knowledge, when it is perfected in us; for out of that wreck, well understood, no other self arises than that which one who perhaps of all men knew it best could express only in the paradox, I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, no longer I, but Christ liveth in me."
F. W. G.

QUES. 2. In obedience to 2 Tim. 2:21-in separation to the name of the Lord, is one to purge himself from vessels to dishonor only, or from the " great-house?"

Is the " great-house " all that calls itself Christian ?

ANS.-From the vessels to dishonor, clearly. There is only one house, the house of God; but it has become like a great house, to which the apostle therefore compares it. We cannot leave Christendom, but only what defiles it. Soon, all that man has built in will be tried by fire; but God has given us His word to judge by now, and he who names the name of the Lord must depart from iniquity.

Luke 8:, 9:, 10:, we see, as our Evangelist tells us, that the Lord " went throughout every city and village." No spot was unvisited by His light and goodness. And this divine Minister of grace is attended by a suitable train. A company who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities follow Him now to witness of disgrace; as, by and by, when He comes forth in power, He will have behind Him an equally suited train of shining ones to reflect His glory.

The case of the widow of Nain, is one so tenderly affecting the human heart, that it properly lies under the notice of the Spirit in Luke. For in the style of one who was looking at man and his sorrows and affections, our Evangelist tells us, that the young man who had died " was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow;" and again when the Lord raised him to life, that" He delivered him to his mother." Would that we caught more of the same tender spirit, while delighting at the discovery of it in Jesus. J.G.B.

There are two sides to the Christian life, and it is of all importance to hold the due proportion in each. An even balance is greatly needed in Christian truth, in Christian life and practice as well. Many passages give us these things, of which we will note a few.

" Shall go in and out and find pasture "(Jno. 10:9.). From this beautiful passage spoken by the Lord we learn of these two sides, an "in" and an "out." These two places belong to all who have entered the door and are numbered among the saved. To interpret this in harmony with our place now as believers, the "in" is the place where the heart finds communion. It is the inner side of the Christian life. In this inside place the voice of prayer is often heard, and of praise and worship. Often the heart is fully occupied when the lips are silent. In this inside place the true occupation of the heart is with the Father and the Son, for we are called to the fellowship of both. Here we read and meditate; here we learn. This side comes first.

But there is also the other side, "and out," and this place is not at all inconsistent with the first. What God hath joined together, let us not put asunder. The "outside" is the testimony, the life of the believer before the world. A proper life and testimony only will be borne in this outside place when the inside is used aright. When the heart which is at home in the inside place, grows familiar with the interests of Christ, whose glory fills the Holy of Holies, a keen sense of what concerns Him will govern the life, as the face is again turned towards the world, and the need of men is seen. Then testimony and service are the result. A look within and we think of Jesus and His glory; a look without and we are made sensible of the fact that we are not in heaven yet. The world and Church lie before us and the interests of Christ in both meet us.

As to our acceptance we are in Christ, risen and seated in heavenly places. As to our bodies and our lives we are yet here and among men. ,When we think of eternity and the value of souls in view of that day, service follows. Thus these two places are so joined together that we cannot separate them, although we can distinguish them, and one is dependent upon the other-the "in" and the "out."

The same principle appears again in the epistle to the Hebrews:" Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest" (Heb. 10:19). Here again Scripture introduces us into an inner place. And if in John 10:we saw the Shepherd and the sheep, here we see the High-priest and a whole family of priests. They are the same persons in each case. The Shepherd of John 10:is the High-priest of Heb. 10:, and the sheep of the one are the family of priests as happy worshipers in the other.

But when this inside place is discovered in Heb. 10:the same lesson as we gleaned in John 10:appears also. There is an outside place also, "Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp" (Heb. 13:13). Here again we are reminded of the other side of the Christian life. As we turn out we view the great mass of religious profession, and which may even bear Christian names. Yet if there are the same elements of Judaism that we see in this epistle, the heart true to Christ goes "forth unto Him without the camp." The responsible side of the believer's life now comes out. Discernment for this path of separation from evil, and strength and courage can only be received by those who know their place inside the veil. The world they discern readily, the camp also, and the place where Christ is, amid all the profession, is discerned also-"outside the camp."
A glance at Exodus will give us these two sides again, and help us understand Heb. 10:19 and 13:13. In Ex. 24:Moses goes up to the top of Mount Sinai, and there spends forty days with the Lord shut in; and there he enjoys communion. This is his within. But in chap. 32:he must return to the base of that Mount, where the people were, and there he is compelled to view the people in their departure from the Lord. Those forty days gave him a right idea of God's holiness, and hence he could form a right idea of things when he returned and found them contrary to God. He pitched the tabernacle outside the camp, and God vindicates this act of His faithful servant by descending in the cloud, and standing by his side (chap. 33:) At one moment we see Moses upon the top of the mount with God; at another we see him at the base, in the valley, and God there with him. At one time he is up where God was; next, God is at the bottom where His servant was. Now these two positions occupied by Moses give us in picture our double place, within and outside, as we have seen in Hebrews. Hence, a heavenly, a sanctuary-taught believer, as Moses was, learns ever the need of separating from God's people when their walk and association is not right; a needed lesson for us to-day (Ps. 77:13).

These same lessons are further taught in Ephesians literally, and not by parable nor type. In the first three chapters we get the heavenly position and relationship of each believer:"Seated in heavenly places in Christ."This is grace, all grace; but in the last three chapters, the believer is again brought back to the world and taught how he ought to walk. The first three chapters show our position through His sovereign grace; the next three, our responsibility, as associated with His name on earth. We wonder that souls can grasp the first to the neglect of the other.

This line of thought pursued gives us really the difference between the wilderness and Canaan in their typical lessons. They each have their lessons, and are but the two sides of the Christian life. As we stand on the line between the wilderness and Canaan at Kadesh-barnea, we can look in and out, and as we do so, learn the lessons each place is meant to convey. The whole land lies before Israel, and for us now. But it requires faith to enter into the enjoyment of our spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. This is one side of truth, and of the believer's life. Oh, that we all knew this important side. Enemies there are, as the book of Joshua shows and the epistle of Ephesians (chap. 6:); but the land flows yet with milk and honey, and we are exhorted to "arise and walk through the land, the length and breadth of it." But, as before said, this is only one side of things'" and again we must turn our faces toward the world and the reality of things on earth. We each have our experience, a fact made too little of by some and exaggerated by others. But to have an experience proper and Christlike, we need to know what the Canaan life is, and this enables the believer to return and take up his vocation in the earthly life and fill it to the glory of God.

A word more about this wilderness. A mistake that some right-meaning Christians have made is in supposing that there should be no wilderness for one entering into his heavenly portion. They have supposed the wilderness means failure, fighting, and lust. But this is not necessarily so, and was not so for Joshua and Caleb. True, if the people fail- and they did-it is brought out in the wilderness. But as they journey, even their failures prove the faithfulness of their God and His fulness and sufficiency for every need. And this is the other side of truth, needed in its place. After forty years, as they look back, and remember all the way, would they be without the benefit of any part of the lesson learnt ? Surely not. If they thought of themselves, after they have done all, they could only say, "We are unprofitable servants." But as they think of His love, proved again and again, and His power also, they could say, " What hath God wrought."
Forty years they journeyed, with Edom by their side (the flesh in us), and were commanded not to fight nor meddle with Edom, just as we are now exhorted not to fight nor meddle with "sin in the flesh," but turn away from it. "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin" (Rom. 6:). Hence, neither for them nor for us did the wilderness mean a battle ground, but a blank desert, where they were made to feel all was not right. They were not yet home nor at rest in the land. Who, with a rightful balance and spiritual mind, cannot but feel this as we journey across our desert path ? Christ is not here. Sin-Edom-is, and there may be conflict, at times, if the eye and heart are not kept right. Amalek may appear; and he represents, as the grandson of Edom, (Gen. 36:12) the fleshly lusts. Edom (the flesh), Amalek (lust of the flesh); these two are to be found in the desert yet, but if we follow the word of our God, we will turn away from the one and not fulfil the desires of the other. Hence there is need neither of battle nor war. This is the important lesson Rom. 6:If we wish to enter the proper battle-field, we must pass onto Eph. 6:, our spiritual Canaan, and there we discover spiritual enemies and Satan the great master leader among that host, seeking to hinder our entering in to enjoy that good land, Here we need the whole armor of God, and faith, and energy, and courage to go in to possess the land. The Lord goes ahead as the Captain of our salvation. May we know this side, this inner side, better, and then we will better take up our responsibilities out-side before men. Let come what may, as we face the wilderness, the cloud of His presence will over-shadow and accompany us till the end. Then comes rest, perfect rest, and we will be home; no wilder-ness, because no sin, no thorn; every enemy driven out and overcome. God all in all. Christ and His glory supreme, and we following Him as happy subjects and worshipers forever. May we hold the truth well balanced, and be sanctified by both sides of it. A. E. B.

(1 Kings 8:15.)

Israel's golden age was during Solomon's reign. Brief indeed, and soon darkening into apostasy, it was the type of that glorious reign of the Son of David, whom no prosperity can affect, as no depth of sorrow could swerve from His allegiance to His God and Father. With Solomon, alas, it was the opposite; and his exaltation and fall but emphasizes the solemn fact that "no good in creatures can be found." It seems as though the care of our God, jealous for the honor of His Son, must show the imperfection of the type in contrast with the unsullied beauty of His Son. Even Moses and Elias in glory must stand aside for Him. Well do we know how gladly they would stand aside.

But type it was-this reign of Solomon-of the happy time coming for this earth. And no part of it was more clearly typical than the building and dedication of the temple-God dwelling among His people-happy in their rest from conflict, and satisfied with the abundant goodness of His house.

It was, then fitting that Solomon should use such words at the dedication of the temple:" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which spake with His mouth unto David my father, and hath with His hand fulfilled it." Such words, as we have said, could apply only in a partial way to Solomon's reign, or that of any of the kings of Israel. A glance forward or backward from that time will show this most clearly. Even our Lord's first advent was marked by national humiliation rather than glory. All was veiled; even in Himself, faith alone could say, "We beheld His glory." His triumphal ride into Jerusalem, amid the people's acclaim, was in some sense the antithesis of the Millennium, and the Roman dominated all.

But this language will yet be used, and a repentant, redeemed, restored nation will look abroad upon their land, again flowing with milk and honey, and upon the glories of "this latter house," covered with the Shekinah cloud, and say He "spake with His mouth and hath with His hand fulfilled it." Let us remember this, spite of the apostasy of Israel after the flesh, and the desolation of their land. One day -not far distant, we may surely believe – and the brief, sharp judgment-storm will break and sweep away the fetid clouds of man's small day and usher in "the day of the Lord." As regards the earth, faith can look forward to such a consummation, and even now in anticipation translate the glowing pages of prophecy into history, and triumph in the reign of the Prince of peace. What a privilege, as we look upon a groaning creation, with its ills that cannot be remedied, its wrongs that cannot be righted, and think of that time when "the wilderness and the solitary place shall rejoice."

So too we can apply these words to the heavenly hopes of the Church of Christ. Not yet do we see all that has been secured for us. In a certain sense, we see nothing. Even for faith, so far as the visible glory is concerned, all is future. And what a future, beloved brethren! Delivered forever from the presence of sin, even as already from its guilt; our poor, weak "bodies of humiliation" changed for "bodies of glory," like His who will come for us; the things which we now "see through a glass darkly," then " face to face;" above all, our blessed Lord, who loved us and gave Himself for us, who is on high for us now-to see Him, to be like Him and with Him forever-how blessedly will we know that God's hand will do all that His mouth has spoken. All that is revealed in His precious word will then be for sight even as it is now for faith.
And how this emphasizes for us the value of being familiar with the contents of God's word. Faith can find food there alone, and hope must stay itself upon that sure Word. If that be neglected, faith and hope will falter, and even love will grow cold. But where the Word is fed upon, there is the "continual feast" of a "merry heart"-made glad by the truth of God, and anticipating what will soon be.

And oh how soon will all be done! How near is the coming of the Lord. Then will we see how God's hand will do all that His mouth has spoken. May an ungrieved Spirit even now give in greater fulness the earnest of that blessed time.

But is there not a sense in which, as we look back over our own history, we can see this connection between God's hand and His mouth? Take the emancipating truths which once we looked upon as dimly in the future; has not the Spirit made them a present reality? Pardon, access to God, priesthood, worship-yes, these have been spoken of and made good too for the weakest babe who bows to God's word.

Turning to our more individual history, how many good things has the hand of our God given in fulfilment of the promise of His mouth. What child of God is there who cannot recount mercies thus given? And what an encouragement is this to prayer and patient waiting. All things are not held back till heaven. He is the God of the wilderness as well as of the land. Some can remember when circumstances of distress pressed upon them, poverty, debt, sickness. Earnest resort was had to God!

His promises were recalled, and now the fulfilment of His word is celebrated. True, he does not always answer as we expected. He loves us too well to do that which is not good for us. But if we would but see it, how the needed grace to sustain and bring us through the trial has manifested His hand.

And so if we are oppressed at present by anything, let us not forget the promises of God's mouth. He will not forsake His feeble people. Oh how He loves us! One day, soon, we shall see His hand, and prove in our own life the truth of that upon which we have been dwelling.

"With wonder filled, we soon shall see
How wise, how strong His hand."

S. R.

(1 Sam. 17:-18:5.) (Notes of an Address given in Lowry, by A. E. B.)

There is one thing in Jonathan's life I wish to speak about this afternoon, but before doing so I will first notice a few things in this chapter.

Saul and his whole army tremble before Goliath,- for "forty days and forty nights" none could overcome this powerful enemy. Saul may fitly represent the first man (Adam), who with all his race for forty centuries trembled before another enemy, another Goliath, even Satan, the prince of this world. But after that period, during which man had a fair and perfect trial and utterly failed, we then learn of a Second Man, God's "Beloved," who appears upon the scene as David did here. His brethren might reject Him also, as they did David; but as David said, "Is there not a cause?" so, was there not a cause why our David, God's Beloved, came down from heaven and went down to the valley of Elah (death) ? A greater enemy than Goliath was to be met and overcome. David met Goliath single-handed, and with the smooth stone selected from the brook he brings down the giant; and more, with the giant's own sword cuts off his head, and then rises up and carries the head up to the king and puts it down before the throne.

David undertook and finished the whole work; all the people did was to stand by and witness the savior that day do the whole work that brought salvation to them. So with Jesus; in death He overcame him who had the power of death, that is, Satan (Heb. ii). Upon the cross He finished the whole work of atonement, by which all are saved who repent and believe the gospel.

Here is where Jonathan comes in, after this marvelous victory. He beautifully represents the Spirit's work in the young believer; his heart was knit to David's, and he loved him as his own soul. May we not say here is David's first convert ? And a fine example he is to start with. Next, he "stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle."David was his savior- had brought salvation to Jonathan that day, and Jonathan rightly felt nothing was too good to lay down at David's feet; he surrenders all to David. Young converts who mourn over the fact that they have to give up so much of the things of the world when they are converted, have not had the plowshare of conviction concerning sin put in very deep, and hence their apprehension of the glory of the Lord Jesus and His claims is very shallow. It was a joy for Jonathan to surrender all to David. He apprehended the true character of David's work.

The cross of Christ is where we get a glimpse of this. It is there we learn what an awful thing sin is; it is there we get a right conception of God's holiness and of God's love. Oh that our hearts took this in more seriously! there would be with us all then a more whole-hearted response to His claims upon us, and we could truthfully sing with the poet,

"I love to own, Lord Jesus,
Thy claims o'er me divine.
Bought with Thy blood most precious,
Whose can I be but thine ? "
This, I believe, Jonathan in those verses fairly illustrates to us.

(1) He loved David (ver. i).

(2) He stripped himself, a proof of his love (ver. 4).

(3) He delighted much in David (chap. 19:2).

(4) He confessed God's salvation through David to Saul, his father (chap. 19:4, 5).

(5) He visited David in the field (chap. 20:ii).

(6) He visited David again, in the wood (chap. xxiii, 16).

Yet the main point now before us is, Jonathan falls short of all we would like to have seen recorded of one who commenced so well; he does not follow David wholly. Saul, his father, now is manifested as an enemy of David; Jonathan knew this; and David flies to the outside place, the place of exile. Jonathan does not share this path with David, as others of David's company did. What a loss for Jonathan! Natural ties and social links, no doubt, were too strong for him to break, and, we doubt not, many a restless and uneasy hour he spent. He pays David two visits while he is away, but he did not enjoy walking and living with David day by day. I think we can scarcely excuse him;-although one is delicate in marking the failure of one otherwise so true and devoted to David-a life that puts some of us to shame when we consider the higher claims of David's Lord upon every one of us. Yet the Holy Spirit has recorded this lesson for us, and we would be the losers if we did not notice it and search ourselves by it. In chapter xxiii, 17, Jonathan says, " Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee." The first was true, but the second never became so. David, according to God's purpose, ascends the throne, but Jonathan never takes the place by his side to sit next to him. And if any ask, Why ? there is but one answer:He did not step outside and walk with David day by day. How our hearts mourn this part of our lesson-that he ever returned to Saul's house on that last day when he visited David in the wood (chap. xxiii)! David and he met no more. Jonathan, we believe, was saved, and is now in the glory:this we do not doubt; but when the Philistines defeat Israel, Jonathan falls on Mount Gilboa with his father.

What a voice this has for us! and it ought to search us through and through. Is there anything holding us that hinders our following Christ day by day, and enjoying the precious word of God left to guide us through life ? May we learn from Jonathan's failure not to please ourselves, and come short, as he did. When David reached the throne, Jonathan was not there, and well he might lament, "O Jonathan, O Jonathan, I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been unto me; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women."

But who are they who share with David his kingdom ? Those who followed him in the days of his exile, those who walked with him, those who served him; and although that day is now long past, yet their names are recorded and handed down to us with their weighty lessons.

Our day, beloved, of seeing our David crowned by all is near at hand, very near; let nothing hold us back from companionship with Jesus to-day. What great blessing we shall find in it, even present blessing ! Without this, as believers, we must suffer loss -great loss; not here only, but in the glory before us. The lessons learned here are to abide; let us therefore keep the end and the glory in view, and, above all, the Lord Himself, who is coming, our David who shall reign forever.

The wicked man does evil and glories in it. The self-righteous man does good and glories in it. The Christian abhors the evil and follows the good, but glories only in the Lord; for what has cleared him from the evil he has done but the death of his Lord? and what fruit can he yield to God without his Lord?

The wicked man gets all his enjoyment now by the pleasure there is in sin. The self-righteous man all his reward now by the praise he gets from man. In the world which is to come they will both have their part in the outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, for neither of them has "a wedding-garment on," and none can stand in the presence of God without that (Matt. 22:11-13).

The Christian gets no reward now-he gets all his sorrows now. Sorrow is a necessity to him by reason of the discipline he must needs pass through to be an overcomer in a world which is wholly estranged from God and full of allurements and snares, i Pet. i- 3-7 plainly declares this:'' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

Thus the Christian's reward can only be "at the appearing of Jesus Christ." All desire for any now must inevitably drag him down from the true Christian path, and place him thus on a worldly level. His present joys must be from communion with his Lord in the things which are not seen-that inheritance in heaven-while patiently going through the needful trials, whose end will have such praise and honor and glory as man here below cannot bestow on any of his poor fellow-mortals. "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." P. J. L.

The Lord give us to have these poor wretched hearts of ours broken, swept out, and all that is in them replaced by what is in Himself.

I am but a broken vessel, no creature glory whatever; but, if I am this poor thing, all the sweeter are God and Christ up there for me.-G.V.W.

No chance has wrought this ill to me;
'Tis God's sweet will, so let it be;
He seeth what I cannot see.

There is a need be for each pain,
And He will make it one day plain,
That earthly loss is heavenly gain.

Like as a piece of tapestry,
Viewed from the back, appears to be
Nought but threads tangled hopelessly:

But in the front a picture fair
Rewards the worker for his care,
Proving his skill and patience rare.

Thou art the Workman, I the frame.
Lord, for the glory of Thy name,
Perfect Thine image on the same!

M. F.

QUES. 3. Will you kindly explain the meaning of "the two witnesses" of Rev. 13:3?

ANS.-We believe they are the faithful Jewish remnant during the second half of Daniel's last week-the time of "the great tribulation."

Number two is not necessarily literal, but denotes an adequate testimony, even as the law required. The present heavenly testimony is past, the Church having been taken home, and God is now claiming the earth for Himself. But the Jewish nation, which is to be the central one in the earth, is at this time apostate and under the power of the Gentiles. A faithful remnant, however, is among them; they are true worshipers and God owns them and makes them His witnesses, suited to the character of the testimony to be rendered at the time. Like Moses and Elias whose testimony was under similar circumstances, and is analogous to theirs, they have with it power against their enemies, though the King being yet away, they are in reproach and suffering. They suffer death at the end, and their enemies rejoice for they were tormented by their testimony. But the hour of triumph has come and in the view of their enemies they are raised from the dead and taken up to heaven. They are doubtless the last sheaves of the great first-resurrection-harvest, as Christ was its first sheaf-the pledge of all the rest.

"The lawgiver passed to his rest. His laws and literature surviving through many vicissitudes have produced in each succeeding age a new harvest of poetry and history inspired with their own spirit. In the meantime the learning and superstition of Egypt faded from the eyes of men. The splendid political and military organizations of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Macedon arose and crumbled into dust. The wonderful literature of Greece blazed forth and expired. That of Rome, a reflex and copy of the former, had reached its culminating point; and no prophet had arisen among any of these Gentile nations to teach them the truth of God. The world, with all its national liberties crushed out, its religion and its philosophy corrupted and enfeebled to the last degree by an endless succession of borrowing and intermixtures, lay prostrate under the iron heel of Rome.

"Then appeared among the now obscure remnant of Israel one who announced Himself as the Prophet like unto Moses, promised of old; but a prophet whose mission it was to redeem not Israel only, but the whole world, and to make all who will believe children of faithful Abraham. Adopting the whole of the sacred literature of the Hebrews, and proving His mission by its words, He sent forth a few plain men to write its closing books, and to plant it on the ruins of all the time honored beliefs of the nations- beliefs supported by a splendid and highly organized priestly system and by despotic power, and gilded by all the highest efforts of poetry and art.

" The story is a very familiar one; but it is marvelous beyond all others. Nor is the modern history of the Bible less wonderful. Exhumed from the rubbish of the middle ages, it has entered on a new career of victory. It has stimulated the mind of modern Europe to all its highest efforts, and has been the charter of its civil and religious liberties. Its wondrous revelation of all that man most desires to know, in the past, in the present, and in his future destinies, has gone home to the hearts of men in all ranks of society and in all countries. In many great nations it is the only rule of religious faith. In every civilized country, it is the basis of all that is most valuable in religion. Where it has been
withheld from the people, civilization in its highest aspects has languished, and superstition, priestcraft and tyranny have held their ground, or have perished under the assaults of a heartless and inhuman infidelity. Where it has been a household book, education has necessarily flourished, liberty has taken root, and the higher nature of man has been developed to the full. Driven from many other countries by tyrannical interference with liberty of thought and discussion, or by a short-sighted ecclesiaticism, it has taken up its special abode with the greatest commercial nations of our time; and, scattered by their agency broadcast over the world, it is read by every nation under heaven in its own tongue . . .

" Explain it as we may, the Bible is a great literary miracle; and no amount of inspiration that can be claimed for it is more strange and incredible than the actual history of the Book. Yet, no book has thrown itself into so decided antagonism with all the great forces of evil in the world. Tyranny hates it, because the Bible so strongly maintains the individual value and rights of man as man. The spirit of caste dislikes it for the same reason. Anarchical license on the other hand finds nothing but discouragement in it. Priestcraft gnashes its teeth at it as the very embodiment of private judgment in religion, and because it so scornfully ignores human authority in matters of conscience and human intervention between man and his Maker. Skepticism sneers at it, because it requires faith and humility and threatens ruin to the unbeliever. It launches its thunders against every form of violence or fraud or allurement that seeks to profit by wrong, or to pander to the vices of mankind. All these consequently are its foes. On the other hand, by its uncompromising stand with reference to certain scientific and historical facts, it has appeared to oppose the progress of thought and speculation ; though, as we shall see, it has been unfairly accused in this last respect."

Origin of the World.-Dawson.
'DARIUS THE MEDIAN."

Night around us, strife within- O forbid that it should be;
Oh the pain, the sting of sin! Draw our foolish hearts to Thee;
Have we in our rife discord Teach us what becometh us,
Ceased to look for Thee, O Lord? In the presence of Thy cross.

Fellow pilgrim mid earth's tumult,
What have we to fear?
Hastening through as those who're traveling
To a brighter sphere;
What to us is earth's reward,
If we're looking for the Lord?

Oh, to look with earnest longing
Toward that glorious goal;
All our ways, our heart, our service,
Under Christ's control-
Harkening for the quickening word,
While we're looking for the Lord.

Keeping all our robes unspotted,
From earth's dust, and soil ;
Ever, like the blessed Master,
From its ways recoil;
Guided by His faithful word,
While we're waiting for the Lord.

Choosing not our heart companions
From its faithless show;
Walking so,-the world beholding
Without doubt might know
And confess, with one accord,
That we're looking for the Lord. ,

And our place beside His table-
E'er a blest retreat,
Where the heart delights recalling
Memories sad and sweet-
Worship to His Name accord,
While we're waiting for the Lord.

Time is passing, and His promise
He must soon fulfil
By His presence; may He find us
Subject to His will.
This will peace and joy afford,
While we're waiting for the Lord.

Would Thy Church might thus be waiting,
-But, alas, she's not;
For the "wolf," the world, and Satan,
Ruin sad have wrought.
Sweet His smile,-her blest reward,
Were she looking for the Lord.

Yet, within her pale how many
'Neath this sorrow cry !
Owning all the shame, yet seeking
Not to justify;
Bowing 'neath Thy righteous word,
Longing for Thy coming, Lord.

Sing, my soul! the night now deepening
Tells of coming day !
When the sorrow and the waiting
Shall have passed away;
And with thee, in perfect grace,
All the journey He'll retrace.

Sing the song of thy releasing ;
Let thy heart not fail
Just before the day is dawning !
It will naught avail
Losing courage; wield the sword,
Whilst thou art waiting for the Lord.

H. McD.

" This Book, this holy Book, on every line Marked with the seal of high Divinity, On every leaf bedewed with drops of love; This Lamp, from off the everlasting throne, Mercy took down, and in the night of Time Stood, casting in the dark her gracious bow:And evermore beseeching men, with tears And earnest sighs to read, believe, and live."

It is sincere pleasure to write a few lines to fellow-students upon such a fruitful theme as "Bible study," for I am convinced that nothing in the world is so important and nothing is so much needed. I find as I journey on in life that Christians may be divided pretty generally into two classes, one of which does not study the Bible, and in consequence makes no definite progress in the spiritual life from year to year, while the other class feeds daily upon the Word and grows in stature in the knowledge and wisdom of God.

I do not wish to assert that many of the members of the first class do not "read the Bible" every day,
but that there is no seeking, heart-searching, appropriating study, and hence no assimilation, no growth, and no power for the Master's service. These Christians are often sweet and amiable and lovable in character, it is true. But they really know little or nothing of the wonders of the realms of grace. They cannot speak with certainty, from a definite personal experience of the work of the Holy Ghost, and as for a daily walk in the Spirit, they have not so much as heard of it. They often spend much time in philanthropy and in "trying to do good to others," yet when questioned by an unbeliever they are scarcely able to give substantial reasons for the hope that is in them.

I cannot do more in this brief letter to college men than state my personal and earnest convictions as to the necessity of Bible study without argument. I therefore declare again with absolute assurance that without a real, devout, persistent Bible study there can be no real growth in the Christian life. I make this assertion after a wearisome, fruitless experience in my own life without it, as well as after hearing the experiences of many fellow-Christians and listening to many sermons.

The second categorical statement to which I beg the attention of the students whom I am addressing, is that there is nothing in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, which needs any apology of any sort from any man. Since I have found out this vital fact, and have gone to my Bible day by day with prayer for guidance and simple faith in studying it, whole books which used to appear obscure have become luminously clear, and I am now able to take my portion day by day, led by Him whom Christ has sent to be His viceregent on earth until His own personal return.

If the Bible is in very truth the word of God and His appointed means for advance in the Christian life, the next important question is, what is the best way to study it ? I would! study my Bible prayerfully, looking to God alone to open up its meaning by His Holy Spirit, fully persuaded that these things cannot be understood by the natural man. He cannot receive them, for they are foolishness to him, for they are spiritually discerned; the gift of the Spirit is the supreme gift to His people in this age from God through Christ.

I would search the Scriptures regularly, taking my spiritual food with the same precision I apply to supplying the needs of the body. I find as the practical outcome of this honoring of the Spirit that I actually develop a positive spiritual appetite and even long for the time to come when I can be alone with my Bible and receive from my Father the heavenly food He sees good to give me for my day's needs. I find, too, that regular feeding develops a spiritual strength unknown before, and with it a fitness for His service not possessed by the fasting man.

I would study my Bible intently, eagerly, seeking under the guidance of the Spirit to realize fully the precious import of every word. If man's words are held to mean what they say in contracts and legal documents, how infinitely more valuable are the words of God in this inspired and blessed writing.

I would study the Bible with faith, and so happily wander through its great treasure stores made mine by the grace of God, gathering here and there the precious gems of truth richly strewn through its pages. I have yet to find that I can make a too minute analysis of the Bible. It is like some marvelous divine instrument which combines ten thousand beautiful instruments in one. You strike one note in one part and it awakens harmonies and sweet reverberations which run down through the ages; again close by you strike another note, and lo a different set of tones resounds, and so it keeps on day by day yielding its sweet, ever fresh, soul-satisfying melodies to those who care to stir them. It is like a cloth of gold with thousands of cords mutually independent yet all interwoven in one glorious whole; if you pull a cord in Genesis you can trace it consistently on to Revelation. A man's book is wonderful if the author carries out in it a few lines of thought consistently; in this Book there is one theme, Redemption through Christ, displayed with a variety which is infinite, as is the Author Himself.

We live in a day of multitudes of helps in Bible study, and it is often a great temptation to try to take the digested food of a help, and so more quickly to appropriate its truths; but I would here assert I with earnest conviction that the great expositor of the Bible is the Bible itself, and the one great commentator who enables us to understand the Bible is the Holy Spirit. This is His peculiar work; the Book is His, and the application of the word to the individual life is His, and no human agent, formula, or catechism dare supplant the divine Guide under penalty of utter failure of being able to exercise quickening faith and of understanding the message aright. It seems to me that the class of simply devotional books are even worse than useless, as they never turn out anything better than weak, lackadaisical Christians. The best books are those which continually send the student right back to the Bible to test the truth of their statements.

In conclusion, if I have gained the attention of any young Christians, let me again beg them to be Bible-loving, Bible-reading Christians. If they are weak, the Bible will make them strong; if they are ignorant, the Bible will build them up in the truth ; if they are assailed by doubts and criticisms, the Bible will dispel them as the mists of the morning melt away before the sun in his splendor. Do they desire to know more about Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? the Bible is the one place to seek for such wisdom. Are they among those who know not if there be any Holy Spirit ? they will never say so if they read their Bibles. Are the lusts of the flesh strong within them? here they learn how the flesh has been buried and they find their Christian privileges in a resurrection life. Is our earthly pilgrimage one of sore trials? here we find that we are seated in Christ in the heavenlies, and heaven has begun on earth for all who love the will of God above all else.

"O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord." "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."H. A. K.

" Behold a man running alone. … If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth" (2 Sam. 18:24, 25).

David's throne seemed tottering to its fall. His own son, Absalom, whom he had treated with such clemency but a short time before, doing as unrepentant men will ever do when a time comes, had become his benefactor's worst enemy, and now had plotted and seemed on the eve of successfully carrying out a rebellion which would result in the overthrow of his father and placing himself upon the throne. David had fled from the city and had it not been for the mercy of God in turning the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness, would soon have been cut off. But, through God's goodness, a little time was allowed to intervene which gave him the opportunity of collecting his force of faithful followers to meet Absalom's army. David is not allowed to engage in the actual combat, and anxiously waits in the city for news of the battle. At last a runner is descried. "Behold a man running alone," and at once the king replies:"If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth." The fact of a man running alone made clear to the king that he must also be a messenger, and so it proved, with his message of victory for the king, and yet of sorrow to the father's heart.

But leaving the historical connection, may we not gather here a few thoughts as to message bearers in general and as to ourselves as messengers with tidings weightier far than Ahimaaz and Cushi brought to David? Two thoughts are suggested here,- "running" and "alone." The first gives Us the thought of an object of an object of sufficient importance to lead one to press on, and the second suggests that it is responsibility which, in a certain sense, can be shared by no others.

In a certain sense the whole Christian life is a race, as the apostle puts it in Phil. 3:" This one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forth unto those which are before, I press toward the mark." Paul not only gives this as the normal attitude of a Christian, but as his own. He himself was the racer, "This one thing I do;" and while it includes, as we said, the whole Christian life, the whole course of which he could say later, "I have finished my course," yet in a very distinct sense it describes his course as a messenger, nor is the reason far to seek. In a very true sense our Christian message and our Christian course are identical. We are messengers because we are Christians, not in that sense in addition to it. The very fact of being Christians constitutes us messengers, and for that reason that which describes our Christian course would also describe our course as messengers. The passage in Philippians gave Paul's own experience, but surely each of us in our measure must correspond with him who is in a very marked way the sample sinner and the sample saved man, and the sample servant. Hear him as he speaks to the elders of the Ephesian assembly, nearing now the close of that which had been a large chapter in his service:"Now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall there befall me, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." Here his course, which will end only with his life, is identified with that ministry which is described in one word, "to testify the gospel of the grace of God." So Paul was a messenger, and, as such, a racer with a course prescribed, as well as with a definite message, and we in our measure are to follow him.

Then, too, the messenger runs alone. Messengers do not run in companies. The message is entrusted to each individual and with him is the responsibility for its swift and sure deliverance. To run in companies would be to distract, to cause one to lag and to lose that very intentness which makes the messenger. Here again Paul is our example. In Galatians, where he is recounting what the grace of God has done for him, we find him very remarkably identified with his message. Paul the saved man is Paul the apostle too, and what he emphasizes there is that he must be alone as to the message which he has received. "When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus." It was not that he despised those who were apostles before him, nor that he did not feel the need of fellowship with them, but so far as his message was concerned, he had received it directly from God. It was by the revelation of God's Son in him. Christ who appeared to him on the way to Damascus in the excellent glory, also shone into his dark heart and there gave him not merely the peace -and the joy of his own salvation, but that which must be ever after a message that he should preach to perishing men. And so he could not confer with flesh and blood. He could not ask human permission or authorization for delivering a message like that. He must go alone, as it were, and run with swift and beautiful feet to bring good tidings of peace to many a weary heart.

Let us look back a moment now. What have we said that the messenger is? One who runs and one who runs alone. Are we not in danger of distorting God's truth, of giving a wrong idea? Is not man naturally a social being? Does he not crave inter- . course with his fellows? And above all, are not Christian men social? Are we not, by virtue of the Spirit's baptism, united not only to Christ in glory, but to one another, to receive all the aid which comes from the mutual ministry of the members to one another? Undoubtedly this is so, and its importance cannot be overestimated. See a Christian who despises fellowship with his brethren and you will see one who will soon pine and wither. See one who is indifferent to the responsibilities which he owes to his brethren and you will see one who becomes selfish and hardened until fruit is a thing of the past.

We are made for one another, made to have sweetest intercourse together, and yet that does not affect what we have been saying, as to messengers for God in the world, those who must run and run alone. Before we can have to do with one another we must "always have to do with God. This, of course, applies first of all to our salvation. We cannot be saved in companies. The children cannot be saved merely because the parents are. Each must be saved individually, and so all through our Christian course, there is ever that hidden life which has to do with God alone and into which the nearest and dearest of the Lord's people cannot intrude. Nor will this be found at all to interfere with the social side of Christian life. It will fit us for ministering one to another that which we have received. As the apostle puts it in the second chapter of Colossians, it is by holding the Head that all the body has nourishment ministered to it by the joints and bands and is knit together with the increase of God. There must be thus Christ pre-eminent, Christ alone enthroned in the heart, the Object of faith. There must be secret prayer, secret meditation, secret communion with God and pondering over His word as though there were not another of our kind in all the world, before we can be truly fitted to enjoy fellowship or to minister help to our brethren.

Let us then, bearing in mind that these two characteristics are to mark us as messengers, look very simply at our message and the manner of our bringing it to others. That, of course, reminds us that if we are message bearers there must be a message. Ahimaaz was hindered because, as Joab said, he had no tidings ready. Surely if we had no tidings ready, it would be vain for us to run or to run alone. But have we not a message? As we said before, the very fact of our knowledge of the grace of God, as the apostle says, having Christ revealed in us, surely is the message. Might we not sum it all up in one word, that Christ Himself is the message? -the gospel of salvation, precious emancipating truths connected with Christ's death, His resurrection, His place in glory for us and His intercession there – who can limit all the fulness of divine truth that has its center and its meaning in Him? Yes, Christ is our message, and as He was sent by the Father into the world, and His message, we might say, was the Father, so He tells us He has sent us into the world, and our message is Christ. How blessed it is to look at it in this way ! Our message is not different from our Saviour, from Him who is our life, in whose communion and in the sunshine of whose presence we are to pass our time. And how blessed it is to know that which will make us messengers is simply the enjoyment of the fullest fellowship with Him who is our message!

Need we wonder, need we go" further to ask why it is that we are such feeble messengers, why it is that our course is so flagging and so uneven, and why we sometimes seek a companionship which is the reverse of that running alone which is the mark of the true messenger? If Christ be not enjoyed, if His love is not fresh in our own souls, it is utterly impossible for us to carry to others what we are not enjoying ourselves. That is the secret of being a messenger. Be filled with Christ. Let Him, as the apostle puts it, dwell in our hearts by faith; not merely be the Object of faith but the One who abides, who has His home in hearts filled and satisfied with Himself, and there will be small difficulty about either running or walking alone. We will not miss the company which now we crave. We will be intent upon our message and yet scarce conscious of being messengers, but rather conscious only of the Lord's presence and of His sufficiency for our souls.'' That sums it all up. If we grasp that truth that Christ is our message, we have said all, and yet it may be well just in a very simple way to divide our message, to look at it in various ways.

There is, first of all the message of testimony. This closely connects with what we have been saying. Testimony is declaring the truth, bearing witness, and every believer is a witness bearer, – not an evangelist, or teacher with a special and marked gift ; in fact, these may be comparatively few, but every one of us has a distinct message of testimony, and that testimony is the life, the fruit of the grace of God received in the heart and showing itself in the life. How beautiful it is when the world sees a man running alone! It can say, "There are tidings in his mouth. Such a man preaches as he walks, in his daily business, in his home, with his acquaintances. 'They are" conscious there is a purpose of heart in him suggested by the running, as there is a separation in him suggested by his being alone. He is not a recluse. He is not indifferent to the beauty that is about him in this world. He is not careless or thoughtless as to the claims of friendship or neighbors, and yet there is a spiritual isolation of soul which makes itself felt, and the tidings that it brings are unequivocal. People know a heavenly man without his telling them that he is heavenly. They know a man who has something to tell, without his lips moving. They know it in his life, and surely we may pray one for another and crave one for another that we may be message bearers in our daily life in such a way that there shall be no uncertainty in our testimony. We need only let conscience do its work to remind us how far short and in how many ways we have failed in our testimony, some of us in one way and some of us in many ways. We have all need to be patient with one another and to pray for and help one another, but we must not be indifferent to one another as if it were a matter of no importance. Are we witness bearers? Is Christ so real in our souls, is the word of God that upon which we live, that the world knows that we are different from itself? Solemn and searching question for many of us! Let it search our hearts indeed, and if we have lagged and if our isolation has been lost, let us go to Him who is just as ready to-day as He was when first He entrusted us with a message, to restore its brightness and its weight and to send us speeding on our way, witnesses for Christ.

And then we are ready for the gospel testimony in a more specific way. How is the world ever to hear the gospel? one sometimes wonders, as we look about us, the teeming millions ever increasing. The mass of humanity! How are they ever to hear the gospel? The pulpits can only at best reach a few. The press, alas, has other gospels then that of the grace of God. How is the world to hear the gospel? – not necessarily the heathen world, but the world about us, in our places of abode. Surely we all are to be messengers with the gospel, and here again these same two truths of "running" and "alone" are to be our guide. If we are to be messengers with the gospel, there must be that earnestness of purpose that love of souls suggested in the running, and that separation from the world in heart suggested in the word "alone." What is needed today is not more gospel preachers in the ordinary sense of the word, first of all. There would be abundance of these, were all. else right. But what is needed to-day is the gospel spirit in every man and woman who has been saved, every one realizing that he has a message to people, he knows not how often and how soon. It may be to deliver to the man he meets on the street and who asks his way, or in the store or wherever business may call. Great crowds are not necessarily the sign of a wonderful gospel work. A true revival of the gospel amongst the people of God would be shown by carrying the gospel wherever they went, and how soon the world would hear of it! Men running! Oh, as we think of the value of souls do we not need to run? As we think of the shortness of time, of the nearness of eternity, of the speedy close of the day of grace, do we not need to run? Do we not need to press after men with this message of life and peace ? They are running. Ah, in quite an opposite direction,-running after position, wealth, power, honor, pleasure; running they know not whither nor how soon their feet may lead them over the precipice into gloom and darkness forever. If they run, shall not we? And shall we not be so absorbed, shall we not put such a value upon our message that we shall be alone with God about it, alone in our own souls, seeking not to see how faithfully our brother delivers his message, nor to imitate him in his manner or method of service, but each of us for ourselves and for God, bearing witness?

And then again we are messengers to the people of God. How varied is that message! "A word spoken in due season, how good is it;" and how many seasonable words need to be spoken! Hearts hungry for that which the word of God alone can give! Poor, dear wanderers away from the Lord to whom we might be sent with a message of recovery! Saints tempted to go astray to whom we might give a word of warning! How varied is the message to our brethren with which we are entrusted! What mutual help, what mutual edification there would be if we realized our privilege and our responsibility more in this regard! How many closed lips there are amongst the saints of God! We speak not of the meetings of saints, but how many closed lips as we meet together; free enough it may be, to speak of the things of this world or of matters of temporal interest, but how slow to speak of that which should be indeed a message in our heart, God's word of comfort, of help, of cheer, or warning if need be, to His own dear children. There is much to overcome, natural diffidence on both sides, the fear of man, the fear of being thought obtrusive, and surely we need discretion in all this; but that brings us back again to the fact that we must be runners if we are to have a message for our brethren, and that we must be running alone with God if we are to have that independence of soul which will enable us to speak to a brother, irrespective of how he may receive it. All this is so simple that we need only to mention it to suggest that which it is hoped will be a fruitful and profitable line of thought with many of us.

We have already answered our next question,- who are the messengers whom God would send? And yet it may be well here again just to classify, in a simple way and see how wide-reaching God's thought as to it is. First of all, there is the individual saint. As we have been saying, no man was ever saved without being entrusted with the message that saved him; and so every individual, no matter how feeble,-and the feebler the better if it but casts him upon Christ,-is a messenger for the Lord. We must be careful to carry our message in the way He would have us. We must not run along another's course. We must not be imitators, and hence the importance of running alone, we are messengers individually, each of us.

Then again, and in apparent contradiction to what we have been saying, the assembly of the people of God as a whole is a messenger for Him. Corporate unity here individualizes all. We are one in a certain sense, one soul, one mind, one heart. As the apostle says, we are to mind the same things and to speak the same things, so that which marks the individual is also to mark the fellowship of individuals. The Spirit of God produces one testimony, and the people of God as united together form a unit, and as such, a messenger, we might say, with a distinct, specific message. Of course, that message includes in a certain sense all that of which we have been speaking, but which must necessarily refer more particularly to that which is distinctive and characteristic of a company of the people of God. To what then should a company of the people of God bear witness? If they are divinely gathered, according to His word, and in the energy of the Spirit of God, their witness must surely be a witness to the gathering power of the Spirit of God according to His word. It will include then all that we understand by corporate testimony. It will be an exhibition, feeble indeed, and with many a blemish, but still an exhibition of what is God's mind for His people as united together. There will be that which is distinctive in its message; the truth of the Church of God, to the blessed fact of the indwelling of the Spirit amongst the people of God, to the responsibility of every Christian to maintain a testimony with his brethren to these truths.

And here again the two characteristics of the messenger will mark the assembly as they do the individual. There will be that which answers to the running, an intense earnestness, a divine purpose of heart, not a foolish zeal, but on the other hand, not a careless indifference to the responsibility of all God's people to hearken to this message. If its importance fills our own hearts, above all, if we see it linked as it should be, with Christ Himself, so that Christ Himself becomes our message corporately, as He should be our message individually, shall we not run? Shall we not as a company of the people of God press forward and not swerve from side to side, nor drift carelessly and aimlessly until the world sweeps us away from true scriptural moorings? How important all this is! Then, too, need we more then mention that this running must be alone? Whatever constitutes our message isolates us from those to whom the message is brought who have not yet received it. If we have a message to other Christians, for instance, which they have not yet heard, can they hear it, can they understand it, except as there is, not that Pharisaic "stand by thyself, I am holier than thou," but that true Nazarite separation unto Christ that bears its witness and cannot fail to be understood?

Passing back again to that which is more individual, and yet which is intensely important, there is the family message bearing. "He setteth the solitary in families," and in the government of God, He has never removed from the family a responsibility to bear a distinct witness for Himself. A Christian home! who can overestimate its influence? Who can overestimate the power of a family testimony to the truth of God? Here all, undoubtedly, are witness bearers if each is in his proper place,-the parents as head, bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, keeping them separate from an ungodly and pleasure seeking world, seeking to show that there is enough in Christ and in the things of God to give pleasure as well as salvation. What a testimony all this is in the world! And if there is to be this testimony, must we not have the earnest running and the measure of lonely separation from what is not according to this? Must there not be deep exercise, a strong, kind hand on the one side, and distinct refusal on the other to be mingled with that which is, alas, only too common among the professed people of God, until the line of separation between the Christian and the world is well nigh obliterated? Let us, then, be witness bearers, messengers as families of Christians, and in this threefold way, as individuals, as members of the assembly of God and as Christian households, let us both run and be separate from all that would hinder our bearing a clear and unequivocal message to the world that perishes without it.

We spoke at the beginning of Paul as a racer. Let us return to that thought, not now in connection with the witness bearing, which surely he ever faithfully did, but with the bright and happy goal in view. Is Christ before the heart, is Christ before the eye of faith as " the prize of the calling on high"? Are we looking for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven? Ah, that makes racers and that makes witness bearers, and how good it is to think that our earthly course here of witness bearing will end in the bright and happy meeting with Him who has sent us on our errand and who waits now to receive us to Himself, and says to encourage us, if our steps should falter, "Surely, I come quickly."

"As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him:for he refresheth the soul of his masters."S. R.

A light surprised the persecutor as he journeyed to Damascus. It was above the brightness of the sun at noon-day. And well it might have been, for it was a beam from the glory and bore the Lord of the glory upon it. (Isa. 24:23). But it did not come to gladden Saul all at once or merely to display itself. It had, I may say, weightier business on hand. It came to make this ruthless persecutor a citizen of its own native land. It begins, therefore, by laying him in ruins before it. It is the light of Gideon's pitcher confounding the host of Midian or the army of the uncircumcised. Saul falls to the earth. He takes the sentence of death into him. He learns that he had been madly kicking against the pricks, destroying himself by his enmity to Jesus, for that Jesus was the Lord of glory. But He that wounds can heal, He that heals can make alive. "Rise and stand upon thy feet," says the Lord of glory to him, and he is quickly made His companion, servant, and fellow-heir. It is sweetly characteristic of the present age that the hand of a fellow-disciple is used to strengthen Saul to bear the glory, or to accomplish his conversion. The seraphim alone do that for Isaiah (chap. 6:), the Spirit does it for Ezekiel (chap. 2:), the hand of the Son of man does it for Daniel (chap. 10:); but a fellow-disciple is made to do it for Saul.

What a transaction was this! what a moment! Never, perhaps, had such points in the furthest distance met before. The persecutor of the flock and the Saviour of the flock, the Lord of the glory and the sinner whom the glory is consuming, are beside each other! The glory came, not to gladden, as it had the congregation of old, but to convict, and through conviction and revelation of itself and Jesus to turn a sinner from darkness to light, making him a meet partaker of the inheritance of its native land. Can we trust all this and rejoice in it ? Is it pleasant to us to know that the glory is thus near us? Stephen found it so when the Lord of it pleased to raise the curtain (Acts 7:). And when the voice of the archangel summons it, and the trump of God heralds it, it will be here again as in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to bear us up to its own country (i Cor. 15:; i Thess. 4:).

Thus may we cherish the thought that the glory is near us. Our translation to its native land asks but for a moment, for the twinkling of an eye. The title is simple, the path is short, and the journey rapidly accomplished. "Whom he justified, them he also glorified."

When all things seem against us,
And days are dark and drear,
And every outlook gloomy,
And naught hath power to cheer,-
O, give us grace to say,
Lord Jesus, have Thy way.

When we-alas, how often !-
Must bear the penalty
Of our un-Christlike actions,
O, grant humility
And brokenness to say,
Lord Jesus, have Thy way.

But, ah ! when we are wounded,
How quick to take our part,
And smite when we are smitten-
Alas ! the pride of heart !-
That makes it hard to say,
Lord Jesus, have Thy way.

Could we-ourselves forgetting-
To Him leave all the rest,
E'en though we must be humbled,
It must be to be blest If only we can pray,
Lord Jesus, have Thy way.

How many a needless sorrow,
How many a broken heart
Were spared, and many brethren
Had never need to part !
Had we been quick to say,
Lord Jesus, have Thy way.

Thy way is never sweet, Lord,
When 'tis against our will.
O, mold our wills to Thine,
Lord, And bid our thoughts be still.
Thus only can we say,
Lord Jesus, have Thy way.

How little, Lord, Thy meekness
And lowliness we show !
How little may the worlding
By us our Master know !
How often we display
Our own, and not Thy way.

Like Israel of old, Lord,
In spite of all Thy grace,
We sin against Thy goodness;
Forgetting Thy past ways,
Thy way thus thrust aside
Gives place to human pride.

When wilt thou come and free us,
From all our foolishness ?
O, when shall we be like Thee,
Where Thou canst only bless,
And all our being say,
We glory in Thy way ?

H. McD.

Micah 51:7-' Oh, thou that art named The house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened ? Are these His doings ? Do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly ? "

The necessity of constant revival is a lesson that is forced upon us by the history of the Church from the beginning. As we know, in the apostle's days came the first sad declension, from which at large it has never recovered. God has come in, in His grace, and again and again raised up a testimony for Himself, and gathered a remnant as witnesses to it; but the Church as a whole has never been restored, and never will be until the Lord takes it to Himself forever. This is only the echo of all human history. We might have thought indeed that the Church would be an exception to the rest, but it has still been left to prove how "as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man."

The need of revival is just the lesson of man's faithlessness in every trust committed to him, and the greater the trust the more, alas! is the failure evident and the more terrible it is. Babylon the Great is a mystery at which the apostle wonders with great wonder. It is now so familiar to us that we are hardly capable of realizing, perhaps, the solemnity of it; but we are not to speak of that just now. We want to look practically at things for ourselves and to inquire where we are, any of us, at the present moment. What our need of revival may be, every one, of course, has the responsibility of knowing for himself, but the need at large cannot be questioned, and the need of considering it can never fail. The Lord's words by the prophet here, although to His people Israel, and taking shape from this, yet have a voice to us, which is only more earnest and closer in application by the difference between Israel and ourselves now. The Lord appeals to them as the house of Jacob,-his house who in his name speaks of what man is in nature, of the characteristics that belongs to him, but whose relationship to God speaks of the grace which God is ever showing. The God of Jacob is just the God of grace, and it is in this character that now we know Him, as that old house of Jacob did not. He addresses them in the midst of terrible failure and He appeals to them with a question,-a question, alas, that the heart of His own is so capable of raising,-nay, in fact so often raises:"Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened ? "

It might seem so, if we look at things around,- there are so many things, in fact, to grieve and hinder the blessed Spirit of God, but that is not all in the question. There is, alas! a terrible tendency with us when we look at the failure, to impute it in some sense even to the God of ?.ll grace Himself, and to murmur as if we were delivered up to failure, as if He had appointed our portion in it, and therefore there was no hope of escape; but in this sense the Spirit of the Lord is never straitened.

Notice the expression, which is "the Spirit of Jehovah," the covenant God, the One who under that name of Jehovah took up Israel in Egypt to make the glory of that Name known, and who entered into covenant with them by that Name, which speaks of His abiding constancy and power to fulfil what He had undertaken. They could not indeed be straitened in Him. They must be straitened, as the apostle says, if such were the fact, in their own bowels. The Lord's people never fail from inefficiency on His part for them, but always by their own voluntary giving themselves up to failure, and this may be the result, even, of that unbelieving discouragement which is implied in the question here. As Joshua, when Israel had fled at Ai, fell on his face before God to say, "What wilt Thou do for Thy great Name ? " so with us, alas! we are apt to think that we are more jealous for the glory of God's Name than He is Himself; but the Lord replies to him:"Up, why liest thou on thy face ? Israel has sinned." That was the whole matter. It is still the whole matter, and it is never, even thus, a reason for discouragement. God will take care of the glory of His Name, and on the other hand He will never be lacking to the soul, which, in the fullest confession of failure, turns to Him.

Amid whatever circumstances of discouragement in the Church at large, we can always encourage ourselves, as David did, in the Lord our God, and the faith that trusts in Him shall not be ashamed in this respect any more than any other. How good it is to know that He will necessarily be more than sufficient for all we count upon Him for ! Do we believe this ? or are we putting the question still as to whether the Spirit of the Lord is straitened ?

Look at the Lord's own picture. The Spirit of God is in us now, a thing that no Israelite could speak of in his day, and the Lord's word as to it in that familiar speech of His to the woman of Samaria describes it as "living water," as "a spring of living water," not a well, as our translation puts it, but "a spring of water leaping up into everlasting life." Certainly we are intended there to realize the energy that there is in a spring like this. There are conditions, no doubt, as to our realization of it, but the ' failure to do so can only be with ourselves, and with ourselves as individuals, and never with the spring. The Spirit of God is in us now. Alas, how much do we realize of this marvelous truth ? God is in us. Our very bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, which we have of God. Can we be wrong in predicating the very largest results from such grace and power as are implied in this? How can the conduct of others affect this as regards ourselves? The unfaithfulness of the whole Church can never deprive the individual soul that turns to God of the display of power which God has for him, which may not indeed manifest itself outwardly in mighty works, but inwardly, assuredly, in the revelation of blessing and of power from One who is faithful to His gifts and never repents.

The Lord's words here reveal the secret of any failure. "Do not My words," He asks "do good to him that walketh uprightly?" That is the whole matter. Does God's word cease to be to us what it once was? Have we lost the blessed savor of it in any wise? Does it fail to yield to us for all our need, for more than all that faith can seek from it? Then there is but one reason for this failure. It is that we walk not uprightly.

And that is a terrible thing to say of any child of God, for it does not mean simply what we call failure. It is failure, but failure of that purpose of heart which God claims and looks for as the very condition of His manifesting Himself with us. The unleavened bread with which we are to keep the
feast is the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We can keep God's feast in no other fashion. Everything else is leaven; that is, it is not mere lapse from weakness or incapacity, but it is ferment, it is the spirit of rebellion, in fact, against God Himself. Let us remember that uprightness has to be measured according to the place that God has given us, according to the power of the revelation He has made to us.

What is the place that He has given us? A place in Christ, as Christ. We have Him before God, who has gone up to God charged with all our interests, to maintain us according to the value of His blessed work for us; so that now it is only unbelief if we ever think we have to serve ourselves, to look after our own concerns, as it were, as if He were in some way at least insufficient for us.
We have things, surely, to do down here. We have a life to live, we have duties to perform; but that is a very different thing from that seeking of our own which is never a duty, but a departure from Him. We are here in the world for Him. If He is before God for us, on the one hand, we are as truly for Him upon the other. If we are in Him, He, as the result, is in us, and thus is all fruit found. If now, as the seal upon it all, the Spirit of God has come to take possession of us, this is the plain mark, as the apostle says, that we are not our own, we are bought with a price. He is with us, in us, to secure Christ's interests, to work for His glory.

All that implies, most surely, our highest interests also. We cannot lose our lives for Him without gaining them over and over again, as we may say. We cannot live to Him without finding the wondrous power of such a life, the blessing and enjoyment of it. We cannot seek His things without finding that, in the truest sense, and as far as lies in us, we have secured our own, but the seeking His things must be what is in our hearts. Let the care of all else be upon Him. He is competent for it, and our first duty is to trust Him unfeignedly with it all. Thus we may go unburdened. Thus alone are we witnesses for Him and not witnesses against Him. It is when men can see in us that Christ has possession of us and that our lives are, in the purpose of our hearts, devoted to Him,-it is thus He is commended. The doctrine of Christ makes way for itself in the power of a living witness.

This, then, is what is uprightness. We are to answer to the place that God has put us in. As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, we are to walk in Him; if we are risen with Christ, we are to have our mind upon things above, where Christ sitteth, at the right hand of God. All that is short of this is not mere failure in reaching what we aim at, it is failure in the aim itself; and there can be nothing but straitness for us if that be our condition. It is vain to think of anything like revival until we are ourselves revived out of a fallen condition.

We need, therefore, to begin with ourselves individually. We are not to end there. If once our hearts are really in the power of that which God has -made our own, the state of His people will press itself upon us in exact proportion, but we shall find that now the Lord can use us in ministry to those He loves, and from whom His love never departs, however much they may have departed from Him. It is indeed a terrible thing for those who are truly His to be encompassed with a multitude of those who if they are indeed believers, "are not, for all that in the energy of faith, in the power of the truth which they acknowledge as such. One can understand that in such a condition one might feel that he could go more easily alone than with those who are out of sympathy with, and irresponsive to, the claims of Christ upon them, but here also we might find that it was our own that we were seeking in another way. God never leaves His people, and we are to be the witnesses of that love of His which never leaves them.

We are to refuse indeed all that would make us responsible in any wise for the evil of others, all that would be complicity on our part, conformity to that which springs out of an unjudged condition; but apart from this, it is ours to be with the people of God, seeking their blessing, as our own blessing, which it truly is. The body of Christ needs all its members. " If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it," and, alas, how crippled is the Church to-day by the mixture of clean and unclean which everywhere prevails. There must be in all that involves one's duty to Him, no compromise; but there must be, on the other hand, the love which has its central characteristic in not seeking its own, therefore in true and unselfish ministry to all the need there is around.
Discouragement is here apt to be our sorest hindrance. Whatever love might desire, if once we get the thought that it is impossible to realize it, all efforts are chilled, all work for that which is hopeless drops of necessity. We still have need to urge upon ourselves the question:"Is the Spirit of the Lord
straitened?"If we plead it with Him in faith, we shall surely find what is His answer to it. The consequences of our own past failure may in measure follow us, and the general condition of things we can never hope to alter; but those who are with God will still find that His word appeals to the hearts of His own, and that there is a power for revival out of whatever ruin may have been wrought. There still remain for us Christ and the Spirit and the precious word of God ready to reveal more and more of that which is in it for the enrichment of us all, the riches which Christ's poverty has secured for us and which still appeal to the hearts of His people. How blessed to know that in every one of these there still abides that Spirit who is the seal in us of the perfection of Christ, and who never, therefore, can give up His care of those who thus stand identified with that perfection! Of revival, every one of us will still find his constant need, and the path itself which God puts before us is never spoken of as an easy one. If we think of it we can never say that we have strength sufficient for it. It is out of weakness still, and ever, that strength is found, and grace alone is all our sufficiency. The more deeply for ourselves we realize this, the more we shall count upon that grace for others and expect to see the fruit of the Spirit in those in whom the Spirit still abides, and who will never give them up. F. W. G.

"Now when these things were done the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, . . . have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, . . . for they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons . . . and when I heard this thing, I rent my garment, . . . Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of God of Israel and I sat down astonied until the evening sacrifice.

"And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness, and having rent my garment and my mantle I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God, and said, O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, . . . Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass . . . and now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God. . . . And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken the commandments, which Thou hast commanded, saying . . . give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons. … O Lord God of Israel . . . behold, we are before Thee in our trespasses. Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children:for the people wept very sore" (Ezra. 9:1-10:1).

Nothing is more plain in Scripture than that God forbids His people to form any alliance with the world. Israel was a type of us, as we know-and we have besides the teaching and the commandments of the New Testament; the unequal yoke forbidden of old, is forbidden, of course, to the Church-and if Israel's responsibility was great, how much greater is ours. If Ezra and those with him wept, and chastened their souls-what becomes us when souls turn aside to the world and despise the commandments of God?-now, with so much greater light.

We need to be aroused to the encroachment of the world. We must be awakened from self-indulgence to allow exercise to be produced that will lead to confession and crying to God. We must deplore any lack of united exercise; we should indeed pray for it, that deliverance and blessing may not be hindered; for it is never God's will that we should be delivered to do the will of the flesh, but that we should glorify Him; and therefore, that we should be delivered from every snare of Satan that would dishonor Him, and hinder the blessing of His people. We can count upon His help, but we are to diligently seek it, confessing our real condition. Note the deliverances to His people of old when they felt their condition, and cried to Him with sincere hearts and broken spirits. We have a notable case before us in Ezra; and there are many as we know, and very touching they are, as in the book of Judges, and in the books of Kings and the Chronicles.

Never did the Lord turn away from His people when they cried to Him. In Gideon's time (Judges 6:), "Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites," (the encroachments of the world) "and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, and it came to pass that when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel." The prophet rebuked them. God would not answer Saul at all even by ?. prophet, but He answered Israel's cry; better to be rebuked than to be left to ourselves. And then, after the rebuke, the Lord raised up Gideon, the "cutter down," as a deliverer; self-judgment was produced; idols were overthrown and the enemy was overcome.
Admonitions must be given, of course, and at times a rebuke; and parents are to govern their children; and when the assembly is, in the main, walking with God this will be done with effect and with blessing from God; but when the assembly has become enfeebled and the enemy has gained a foothold, confession and prayer is called for, unitedly, that deliverance may be wrought. We are all interested in one another, and in every family connected with the assembly, that all may be able to "keep rank."

When alliances with the world occur among us in marriage, in business, in joining benefit societies; when souls are turned by Satan in any way, Ezra's example tells us how we should be exercised that the Lord may deliver us from our peril and our shame.

But what can keep us from turning back to the world but having our hearts satisfied with Christ, finding joy in Him, as at first? "Seek those things which are above " and "mortify our members which are upon the earth."

This is our Gilgal to which we need ever to return. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth; for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth." The cross closed our life in the flesh; and we are risen with Christ, and are soon to appear with Him in glory. How deep and high and precious is the ground of this exhortation. In the power and blessing of this word, we can deny the lusts of the flesh. Can we think of Christ as our life and of our being dead with Him, and risen with Him and about to appear with Him in glory, and then indulge the lusts of the flesh, and turn aside to the world? The joy of this precious truth in the soul is victory over all temptations, as Israel went forth from Gilgal, where they were circumcised, to victory after they had crossed the Jordan.

May we turn again to the Lord with true hearts and present our bodies a living sacrifice to Him and be not conformed to the world. The world can only delude. God will fill the soul with joy and make Christ to be so precious to us that the heart will be preserved by its secret joy from all unrest, and from every snare of Satan.

Are we finding joy in the Lord ? If we are, we can contribute a portion towards the worship and happy service of the assembly. . If not, we are like a city with walls broken down and open to the enemy on every side. If not devoted Christians, we wrong one another, we hang like a dead weight on those who are faithful, and the marks of decay are seen in many ways. Ministry that is faithful, and with the comfort of the Spirit is lacking; gifts are not developed, meetings forsaken, and children seek satisfaction elsewhere, when they might have been led on in the way of deepening peace and joy by the knowledge of Christ.

May the Lord confirm what is true and faithful in the lives of any among us, and as to what we lack, may His grace work in us suitable exercises. If we do not judge ourselves, we must be judged. May restoring grace work blessing far and wide. The Lord make us so happy in the expectation of glory with Christ that we shall pass on undefiled by the world.

Are we willing to be exercised in soul before God as to our condition and the condition of the assembly? We are not called to self-indulgence, but to deny ourselves and to take up our cross and to follow Christ. We are soldiers of Christ, called to conflict, and His discipline and rebuke and chastening is to purify and lead to great blessing and usefulness. If we know the afflictions of Christ, we will know the consolations of Christ. May we love the Lord, and His people, and count upon His delight to bless them. E. S. L.

"The soul is the dwelling place of the truth of God. The ear and the mind are but the gate and avenue; the soul is its home or dwelling place."

"The beauty and the joy of the truth may have unduly occupied the outposts, filled the avenues and crowded the gates-but it is only in the soul that its reality can be known. And it is by meditation that the truth takes its journey along the avenue to its proper dwelling place." Andrew Miller.

Take heed what ye hear.-Mark 4:24. Take heed how, ye hear.-Luke 8:18.

Art thou ever thirsty?
Christ was once athirst.
On the cross He thirsted.
He would serve thee first,
Tho' He were accurst.
So, where thou art thirsty,
Drink, the water's free.
All its sparkling crystals
Are as life to thee-
Drink abundantly.

As thy soul it freshens,
And thy thirst it slakes,
Then the overflowing.
Unto him who takes,
Sweet new life awakes.
Thou Mayst for the Master
Bear the cup of life;
By thy soul's overflowing,
Offer peace for strife,
Love, where sins were rife.

Is thy heart an hungered?
Ah ! He hungered more,
That thy soul might gather
From His plenteous store,
All His love could pour.
Taste, the Lord is gracious,
Yea, the Lord is good,
And His word is given
For our daily food.
Suiting every mood.

And when thou hast found it
All thy soul could plead,
Let some crumbs of comfort
Fall for others' need;
Sow the precious seed.
When thou'st sipped the honey
Of its precious things,
Let some drops of sweetness
Fall upon life's stings,
Till some sad heart sings.
Is thy soul aweary?
So was He as well;
See Him, worn, at noonday,
Rest by Sychar's well;
Hear Him gently tell
To the lonely woman,-
(Who had come apart
To the well for water,)
All her sinful heart,
Healing every smart.

Still there are the weary;
Stop their fruitless quest;
Point them to the Saviour,
Where thou'st found thy rest,
On His peaceful breast.
When thy way seems dreary,
Neath some needed test,
Turn thine eyes to Calvary,
Where the Christ oppressed
Won thee endless rest.

Dost thou plead thy weakness?
He, by weakness, gained
Victory over Satan,
And his power restrained.
Thus thy soul detained
When thy courage faileth,
Haste thee to the Strong.
Giant strength He'll give thee,
And 'twill not be long
E’er Thou wilt find a song.

Lean upon thy Father's
Everlasting arm;
Weakness then will serve thee,
And the wildest storm
Cannot do thee harm.
Thou art strong when weakest;
Leaning on His might,
Fix thine eye on Jesus;
Never walk by sight;
He must lead aright.

Is thy soul impatient?
He the Great I Am
Was the suffering Saviour,
God's provided Lamb,
All thy fears to calm.
Think upon His promise,
Soon He'll "come again,"
All thy suffering ended,
Passed the moment's pain-
'Twill not be in vain.

He hath not forgotten
This last promise sweet,
And His heart is yearning
All His own to meet-
In Himself complete.
He would teach thee patience;
Let no murmur mar
This the Spirit's mission;
Look! behold afar,
Yonder Morning Star.

Hath thy heart home-longings?
How He must have yearned.
But He could not leave thee,
Not till He had earned
What thou since hast learned.
So when thou art yearning
For His blessed face,
Think of those who know not
All His love and grace-
Seek for them a place.

Tell the sweet old story
Of His changeless love.
Tell how still He's waiting
In His home above;
Bid them no more rove;
Tell them of the promise
Of all sins forgiven;
Tell them Christ the Mighty
Hath sins' shackles riven,
Purchased peace and heaven.

Is thy portion scanty?
He was poor indeed.
Hath thy heart known sorrow ?
Did not His heart bleed
In His hour of need
When none seemed to heed?
Even God forsook Him!
While He bore thy sin
In those hours of darkness.
This, thy soul to win!
Else where hadst thou been?

Water for the thirsty,
Yea and living bread,
Strength for human weakness,
He hath given instead,
Life e'en to the dead.
Christ of God the fulness,
Christ th' eternal friend,
Christ the Father's Object,
All their glories blend,
Christ the blessed end.

H. McD.

I. THE REBELLION OF THE PROPHET.

The history of Jonah furnishes at the present time, as we cannot but know, only material for ridicule to the infidel and rationalist. We have nothing to do with it in this way here. There is no need for us to defend a story to which the Lord has Himself given such explicit sanction as He has to that of Jonah. Jonah is by Him styled emphatically "the prophet,"and when Israel sought from Him a sign, He answered them that there should "no sign be given but the sign of Jonas the prophet, for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish " (not at all necessarily or properly a "whale") "so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Israel, alas, would only find their own condemnation in the application of this:"The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold a greater than Jonas is here." Here we are told in the most absolute way that the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah, and that Jonah himself had been in the belly of the fish three days and three nights; a preparation which alas he needed, strange and solemn as it was, in order to be that messenger to the nations for which God destined him.

The application that the Lord makes to Himself of the story here is not to be taken as if we should find in the book of Jonah the expansion of it. The moment we look at Jonah and realize the whole condition which necessitated for him the severity of the discipline which he had to undergo, we see at once how far separate we are from any such thought as that he could be even a direct type of the Lord. Christ simply makes an application of the story to His case, an application which we shall consider as we take it up. In all cases, perhaps, of the typical histories of the Old Testament there are other applications than that which is in the line of their primary meaning, and so we find it here. Jonah as a type (which no doubt he is) is rather a type of Israel, the nation to which he belonged, and in this way the whole book becomes luminous for us. We see the moral of it, the spiritual meaning, in the plainest manner.

In the order which the books of the minor prophets have in the Septuagint version, Jonah comes third in the second division of them. It has elsewhere been urged that the arrangement given by the Septuagint here is in fact the true one. There is no need to dwell upon it in this place; but the three books thus associated together are all books that speak in some way or another distinctively of the Gentile,-the enemy, as, alas, he was of the people of God; but not simply because of his own sin, but also on account of theirs.

Of these three books, Joel first of all shows us how the Gentile was indeed the rod of God upon Israel, in order that His purpose of blessing might be at last accomplished in them; and then the rod is broken, the enemy cast out, and blessing from the Lord comes in more than adequate recompense for all the suffering. Next, in Obadiah, we see Edom, in obstinate enmity against his brother Jacob, destined to utter destruction. The hardened enemy is cut off. Jonah now, in the third place, has a very important lesson to give us. It is the lesson, in fact, of the prophetic mission of Israel to the world, a mission which as yet she has never rightly fulfilled; in fact, fled away from the face of God that she might not fulfil it. This has necessitated the dealing of God with her, which has so large a place in the book of Jonah, and which at last humbles her to become the instrument in His hands, of blessing to the Gentiles such as He intended her to be. Her message may be one of judgment like that of Jonah, but bowed to by them, in result it becomes blessing, as it always is. For the announcement of judgment is that God may not judge, as He has Himself declared. Let us look at the story briefly, and see how this is all worked out for us in the history of the prophet.

History the book is almost altogether, as we are fully aware. The history, therefore, must be that which is to have meaning for us. The history is, in fact, the prophecy. No doubt Jonah has his own prophetic message. .. Nevertheless, he is himself a prophet in his life as well as in his testimony. If we do not see the spiritual meaning which underlies the book, it must be in the main a mystery to us. It is in the spiritual meaning of this history, evidently, that Jonah finds his place among the three minor prophets whose meaning has been glanced at. In Scripture, in fact everywhere, the spiritual meaning governs all; which does not mean that it is not based upon-perhaps rather incorporated-in the historical fact. The history is no less a history because God has been pleased to mold it so that it should be the vehicle of that spiritual instruction; which must be, with Him who seeks us for Himself in it, of the greatest account. How wonderful a thing it is to realize that God has, in fact, molded the history of the world after this manner!-shown Himself thus the absolute Master of that even most opposed to Him, and made it all the servant of man's need wherever there is an ear to hear, a heart open to receive instruction! Let us look, then, at the story of the prophet.

Jonah's name is a striking one. It is "the dove." How unlike it seems to the history before us; how untrue he is to his name! And yet officially it is evident that he is in deed the instrument of the Spirit, whom the dove pictures; as Israel, the nation, also was intended thus to be the spiritual teacher of mankind. Spite of herself, God has made her this, as we surely know. Almost every book in the Bible has been given us through her means. This has indeed been but little glory to her, for the very men whom God raised up to inspire them with His truth have been the witnesses of the rebelliousness of the stiff-necked nation among whom they were. God has now here found as yet a nation plastic to His hand as He would have them; and the history of the Church no less than the history of Israel, what has it been, while a history of His grace on the one hand, but a history of rebellion on the other? It is time that we give up altogether glorying in men; but all the more appears the glory of the Lord in thus accomplishing His purposes in spite of all that the self-will and folly of man could do to set them aside.

Israel is thus the true Jonah, whose history has been anything but the history of a vessel of the Spirit; and yet it is none the less to us the pledge of a grace, which, spite of all, will have its way with them as with others. It was when the nations had turned their back upon God and gone into idolatry that God first of all brought out Abraham from among them; and if He shut up His revelation, as it might seem, within the limits of a favored nation, it was in order to secure the revelation itself that He had to do so. Even then He planted Israel in the very highway of the nations, as has often been said, in the very midst of the great centers of civilization of the ancient world, and with Tyre and Sidon by sea ready to be His messengers, if they had only heart for it, to proclaim that revelation far and wide.

Thus, Israel was the true Jonah, as is plain. But he refuses this place, flees to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord to mingle thus with those very nations to whom God would have sent him as a messenger from Himself. Tarshish, "traffic in fine linen," is the very place which naturally stamps Israel as what they have become,-mere traders, Canaanites with the balances of deceit in their hands; but Jonah profits nothing by this. He only pays the cost, and gets into a storm upon the sea, which imperils not himself only, but the Gentiles among whom he is; for, in fact, the blessing of the Gentiles is bound up with Israel, and however God may work, peril to Israel means peril to the world. Significantly, he is asleep amid the storm; while on the other hand, they of the nations are awake at least to that. These have to consent with regard to Jonah, as regarding Israel also, to the judgment of God, or else share it. In judging her, they in fact find rest and deliverance. This is a glance surely at the present time of grace, when Israel is at the same time whelmed and lost in the sea of the nations.

Still, God has provided for this emergency; the great fish is prepared by which Jonah is swallowed until he learns the lesson of death and resurrection, and finds indeed that "salvation is of the Lord." It is the same lesson that Israel must learn for her deliverance ; the Gentile empire which has swallowed her up being, in fact, the anomalous sea-monster which Daniel sees (ch. 7:3, 7), and which, contrary to its own nature, has nevertheless been appointed for her preservation.

The story here passes beyond the present time. Brought to repentance which as yet she has not manifested, she is raised up again as from the dead and then delivers the message to which she has been aforetime false, in such a manner that the Gentiles hear; her deliverance being like that of Jonah with the Ninevites, a sign to them. What a sign it will be when Israel is at last brought out of her long captivity and made the witness of God's faithful mercy to her.

The last chapter of the book, as is evident, looks back over their history. Jonah gives God the account of why he fled to Tarshish, and has to learn the grace of God to the Gentiles as he has yet never learned it, and Himself therefore, as never before known.

This, then, is the book in brief. It is evidently complete on all sides, and we need make no apology for any point of the interpretation, which is thoroughly sustained all the way through. This story is of no human manufacture, but divine; and the more deeply we look into it, the more we shall find that the seal of God is upon its every part.

Let us take it up, then, to examine it more thoroughly, and to see the lessons which God would convey to us also in it. The whole of Israel's history, as already said, is plainly on the one hand the history of man's sin and failure; on the other, the history of redemption through God's grace. It has thus a lesson for us all, of which indeed those have deprived themselves who imagine that as a nation God is done with Israel, and that the Church has fallen heir to all the promises that God made to her. God Himself has said of this:'' The Lord who giveth the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar, the Lord of Hosts is His name. If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever. Thus saith the Lord, if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord " (Jer. 31:35-37). Thus the lesson of His grace abides for us. Thus we find the unchangeableness of His purposes, whatever man's unfaithfulness may do against them. Thus alone Israel becomes, spite of herself, and in her own history, the true prophet of the Lord, as else she could not be. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

In the Word of God certain words are used apparently synonymously, or else so nearly alike as to be confounded by many. Certain words connected with evil have thus been misunderstood.

(1) Sins. "The forgiveness sins" (Eph. 1:7). These are the actual offenses of the life, in thought, word, and deed, forgiven through the blood of Christ.

(2) Sin. "Condemned sin in the flesh;" "Sin shall not have dominion over you " (Rom. 8:3; 6:14). In these passages it is the root and the principle of sin. Sin is the principle which has sway, the root that produces the sins. This is never forgiven, but judged, condemned by the cross.

(3) The old man. " Our old man is crucified with Him " (Rom. 6:6). The old man is the man connected with Adam. / as a child of Adam. This man in God's sight is dead, crucified.

(4) The Flesh. "The works of the flesh are manifest" (Gal. 5:19). This is the old nature, which remains unchanged in the believer, and which he must mortify, keep under. The sentence of death is upon it, and no good thing can come from it. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh " (John 3:6).

Although the flesh is in us, we are not "in the flesh, but in the Spirit;" and, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, have a perfect standing before God, and are sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are not therefore debtors to the flesh to live after its lusts, but to walk in the Spirit. The promise then is, "Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh."

THE MAN AFTER THE FLESH.

Chapter 1. THE STATE OF THE PEOPLE. Continued from December number.

When once God lays hold of an instrument, working upon the heart as well as the mind, He will doubtless continue to make use of it. So Samuel not only received the first message, of judgment upon Eli's house, but was made the channel of God's resumed relationship with the people. '' The Lord appeared again in Shiloh:for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh, by the word of the Lord." What an honor-to be vised of God, after ruin had come into the very household of the priest. And is it not true that at this day, God passes by all pretentious officialism which has departed from Him, to reveal to babes the things hidden from the wise and prudent? The childlike, obedient spirit, which can say, "Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth," will have a message.

Nor will the humble instrument fail of recognition, though the careless and thoughtless may mock. The Lord let none of his words fall to the ground; what he said came to pass, and his message commanded a respect which could not be withheld. The words spoken to Jeremiah are also appropriate to him:"Say not, I am a child:for thou shalt go to all that I send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Behold I have put My words in thy mouth" (Jer. 1:7-9). No need to fear the face of man when one has seen the face of God. The weakest is as the mighty when he has the words of God on his lips. Let us remember this in these days, and faint not because of our feebleness. The Lord will let none of His words fall to the ground, though spoken by faltering lips.

We have seen now the state of the people. The mass, weak, prone to wander, and, without the strong hand of restraint, lapsing into carelessness and idolatry; the priestly family degenerated into senile feebleness and youthful profligacy; but, in the midst of all this, a feeble, prayerful remnant who still count upon God, and obtain His recognition. This remnant finds expression, in God's mercy, through the gift of prophecy, raised up by Him as a witness against the abounding apostasy, and the channel of His dealings with the people. Sad and dark days they were, but just the time for faith to shine out brightly and to do valiantly for the Lord.

Chapter 2. THE CAPTIVITY IN THE PHILISTINES' LAND. (1 Sam. 4:)

As has been frequently noticed, the enemy who could successfully attack the people of God, represent in a spiritual way their state, or the natural consequence of their state. Throughout Judges we find various enemies, assailing different parts of the nation and at different times. At one time it is the Moabites on the East; at another, Jabin king of Hazor on the North. The first suggests carnal profession, and the second rationalism. The last enemy spoken of in Judges was the Philistines. Samson, last, strongest and feeblest of the judges fought against them during his life-when he was not having associations with them. He did much, in an indefinite way, to keep them from completely bringing the people into bondage, but never wrought a thorough deliverance. He died in captivity, and though he slew at his death more than he had in his life, he left them still practically unconquered.

These are the enemies that confront Israel during the priesthood of Hophni and Phinehas, and all through the reign of Saul. So we must see afresh what they represent in a spiritual way. Living in the territory which rightly belonged to Israel-their own land-they stand for that which is closest to the people of God without being really such. They drifted into the land – exemplifying their name, "wanderers,"-along the shore of the Mediterranean sea, the short way from Egypt. For them there was need neither of the sheltering passover, the opened Red Sea or Jordan's flow arrested. They stand thus for the natural man intruding into the things of God.

That this has been done in its full measure by Rome, none can question. She has taken possession of the heritage of God's people, and settled there as though it belonged by right to her, giving her name to the entire Church, or claiming to be "the Church," just as Palestine, the whole land, got its name from these Philistines. Rome with its profession, its ritualism remains the great enemy which menaces the inheritance of the saints. It is to be feared that Protestantism, like Samson, has but feebly dealt with this adversary, and too often adopted its principles to be a true and victorious deliverer from it. They still remain in probably greater vigor than ever, ready to make fresh inroads and to lay waste more of the land of God's people.

But Rome as a system appeals to man's carnal nature. It may be said that all mere carnal, formal religion is Rome in principle. At any rate, doubtless, the Philistines stand for all that is of nature in the things of God. Any carnal trafficking in unfelt, unrealized truth is but the intrusion of the flesh-mere Philistinism. This explains the constant tendency toward ritualism, and so toward Rome. Nor will this cease till the "mother of harlots" gathers back her children, representing apostate Christendom, after the removal of the Church to heaven. Rome will again be supreme.

A state of the people like that which we have been tracing, with its carnal and corrupt priesthood and no power to act for God, would be just suited for the degradation now imminent. Indeed in Hophni and Phinehas we see but Philistines under another name. God will show His people outwardly where they are inwardly. How often in the individual soul, and in the Church at large, are the outward sins but the expression of a state of heart which has long existed.

We are not told the occasion of the conflict here, whether there was some fresh inroad of the enemy, some additional imposition of tyranny, or whether in fancied strength the people arrayed themselves against them. This last would almost seem likeliest from the language, "Israel went out against the Philistines to battle." "Pride goeth before destruction," and self-sufficiency is ever the sign of an absence of self-judgment. Many times do God's people go out to do battle against a spiritual foe in a state of soul which would make victory impossible, which it would really compromise God's honor were He to give it. This is why it is absolutely imperative that there should be the judgment of self, before there can be a true warfare against outward foes.

But one defeat is not enough to teach the people their need, and the folly of their course. Four thousand fall before the enemy, and surely this should have brought them on their faces in confession and prayer to know the reason of this defeat. Had they waited upon God, they would soon have learned the reason, and doubtless have been spared the further loss of the next battle. But evidently they think nothing of their own condition, and the only remedy they can think of is truly a Philistine one. They will have something outward and visible brought along which will quicken the failing courage of the people, and strike terror into the hearts of their enemy. It does both, for when the ark is brought into the camp, a great shout is raised by Israel, and the Philistines are smitten with fear.

The ark had led them to victory before. It had gone before them in the wilderness, "to search out a resting-place"; it had stopped Jordan for them to pass over, and had led them about Jericho till its walls fell. Naturally they think of it as the very throne of God, and substitute it, in their minds, for God Himself.

But God is holy, and can never be made to link His name with unholiness. The ark was His resting-place in Israel, but He cannot be forced to countenance sin. So His ark can no more overthrow the enemy than Israel could previously. The hosts of Israel are overthrown, Hophni and Phinehas are slain, the ark is taken captive, and carried in triumph and placed in the house of Dagon, thus giving the glory of the victory to the idol.

What food for solemn thought is here. No outward privilege, no past experiences of God's presence, no correctness of position or doctrine can take the place of reality of soul before God. None can ever say they have a claim upon God because of any thing except Christ Himself laid hold of, and presented in true self-distrust and brokenness, with real, true judgment of all in the life that would dishonor the Lord.

This is the meaning of "Ichabod," the glory has departed. It refers to the ark, the glory of God's manifest presence; but this can only abide among a broken, self-judged people. In a real sense, we have the Spirit of God always abiding with us, but if that is allowed in the heart or life which grieves Him, all outward and manifest approval of God ceases. He will permit the badge of His presence to be removed. Persons will lose the joy of the Lord individually, and the candlestick of collective testimony be removed, if God's warnings fail to bring His people into their true place. Let us ponder this lesson, remembering that none have a claim for permanent recognition, but only as God's holy presence is not dishonored.

Poor Eli ! he had died long before, so far as service for God was concerned. His lesson is written large and clear. May we have grace to learn it. The way to "Ichabod "is careless weakness when God's honor is involved. He bears patiently, but there is a limit to His forbearance, and when there is "no remedy," He must allow the due results of His people's weakness, folly and unfaithfulness.

(To be continued.)

I.

Sing, sing, happy heirs called on high to inherit
Sweet heavenly hopes in yon heavenly home!
Sing, sing of the Christ, of His cross, of His merit,
His love, His near coming-sing, sing till He come!

Baptized in one body, one band in one Spirit,
The bride of Christ's bosom and bone of His bone,
Ye happy, ye honored ones, hearken and hear it-
His blessings, His bliss, and His glory, your own!

On high, in your Head, ye are seated and hidden-
Your secret pavilion His bosom above ;
To enter the holy of holies are bidden
In freedom and favor by Fatherly love!

And here, in the day of His humiliation,
God's Spirit-since Pentecost present on earth-
Resides in His people, in participation
Now suffering scorn with the sons of new-birth!

A seal on each saint, each indwelling, enduing,
The Spirit of promise and peace doth abide,
A Pilgrim in pilgrims, in patience pursuing
The passenger's path as the Power and the Guide!

II.

O Father, what fulness of favor hath found us,
Begot us again who were guilty, undone,
One body, in bonds of one Spirit, hath bound us-
Begotten, then gathered together in one!

In grace hast Thou quickened and gathered and given
Th' assembly of Spirit-joined saints to Thy Son-
His spouse, His beloved, whose bosom was riven
That glory to God through His grief might be won!

Thy love in our hearts, by Thy Spirit Eternal,
Thou sheddest abroad that for Christ they may burn,
And ravish His heart with a rapture supernal-
The fruit of His travail for which He doth yearn!
O Father, Thou givest Thy grace without measure-
Thy life and Thy nature and Spirit have we;
And willing and doing in us Thy good pleasure,
Thy children Thou formest in likeness to Thee!

Thine image and features Thy favor dost fashion
And frame in us, forming our fitness to show
Affection for Jesus, reflecting Thy passion
Of love in its perfect, its permanent flow!

Thou weavest Thy warp with the woof of our weakness:
Soon (Wisdom's skilled workmanship wondrously
wrought
To morally mirror Thine image in meekness)
A radiant bride to Thy Son shall be brought!

Then stir us, our God, with Thy love's tender story!
O Father, transform us with heavenly grace!
Yea, hallow our hearts in the hope of Christ's glory,
And thrill us with longing to gaze on His face!

III.

O Jesus, Great Shepherd, as sheep Thou hast sought
us,
And found us, and loved us, and bought us with
blood-
Through billows of wrath in Thy bosom safe brought us
From death unto life, and from Satan to God!

As Head and High-Priest Thou in heaven upholdest
Thy people-God's presence their portion, their
place;

While, reaching down arms of Thy love here, Thou
foldest
Thy flock to Thy breast in Thy Spirit's embrace!

With hearts beating Godward with filial emotion,
Blest Saviour, Thy saints Thou dost sweetly inspire
To follow Thy footsteps in filial devotion,
The glory of God as the goal of desire!

Here, robed in degree with Thy graces and beauty,
As worshiping pilgrims we walk in Thy ways
With gladness of love, taught to glorify duty,
Our soul-depths outpouring the perfume of praise!

O Image of Majesty mirrored in meekness,
To mirror Thy Manhood Thou makest us meet,
Transforming, transfiguring frailty and weakness
That in us Thy features Thy Father may greet!

Thou livest within us-O grace without measure!
O glory divine in these vessels of earth!
Lord, bruise Thou the vase till its radiant Treasure
Outshines in a blaze of Thy beauty and worth!

Yea, dwell in each heart, Lord, Thy love, in its
sweetness,
Revealing Thy life in these caskets of clod,
Till all the Church-bosom, indwelt in completeness,
Is fragrantly filled with the Fulness of God! F. A.

The attentive reader can scarcely have failed to notice that the third of Philippians is a chapter abounding in marked contrasts.

There is the contrast between the Judaizers, whom the apostle contemptuously styles "the concision"–the cutting off – and those whom he designates "the circumcision"-the cutting round-who have no confidence in the flesh and who rejoice in Christ Jesus (vers. 2, 3). This leads him to contrast his own past religiousness;-his trust in the flesh, with his present state, as having counted all loss for Christ and gladly letting everything go and esteeming it as offal, to win Him (vers. 4-9).

In ver. 9 the legal righteousness which "is of the law" is contrasted with "the righteousness which is of God by faith." This is really but carrying out the distinction noticed just above.

In vers. 10 and 11 there is implied at least, the contrast between the resurrection of judgment which was all he could once look forward to, and the '' out-resurrection from among the dead" in which he now looks to have part.

Perfection, in the sense of absolute holiness,-final perfection such as will be ours at the end of the way -is then contrasted with perfection (or full-growth) in the sense of having apprehended the great truths of the gospel (vers. 12-16). The former he disclaims (ver. 12). Regarding the latter he can say "Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded."

Lastly he contrasts the body of our humiliation with the bodies to be ours at the Lord's coming, " fashioned like unto the body of His glory "(ver. 21).

Just before this however he points out a contrast between two moral classes frequently brought before us again in the book of the Revelation, and in fact everywhere distinguished in Scripture. It is the contrast between earthly and heavenly-mindedness.

"For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things." Opposed to these we have the heavenly-minded ones, "For our conversation (citizenship commonwealth, politics; it has been variously rendered) is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (vers. 18-20). The seventeenth verse should also be noticed in this connection:"Brethren be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example." The "walking" here doubtless refers to taking outwardly the Christian place. Those who "walk" are those who, presumably at least, have gone on pilgrimage. They profess to "seek a country." In the Old Testament we read "The Lord …. knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness" (Deut. 2:7); while in Acts 9:31, of anti-typical Israel we are told '' Then had the churches rest ….. and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied."

They too had gone out into the desert with God. They were no longer at home here. Alas, that our
walk should ever be otherwise than as theirs, "in the fear of the Lord."
Those referred to in Philippians had the outward appearance of pilgrims and yet, unlike those who began with that of which the blood-sprinkled lintel and the divided sea spoke, they were enemies of the cross of Christ!

There were such who walked with Israel of old. The same chapter that presents the people starting on their journey, after having been sheltered by the blood of the lamb, tells us that '' a mixed multitude (or a great mixture) went up also with them " (Ex. 12:38). Outwardly, perhaps one might have had difficulty in distinguishing them from the elect nation, but their real character came out in the wilderness. In Num. 11:4-6, we get the cry of the people who were enemies of the cross of Christ (typically of course) who had never entered into what Red Sea judgment should have taught them, of separation from Egypt and its lusts. "And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting and (sad result) the children of Israel also wept again and said, who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, the melons, and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our soul is dried away there is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes." And yet the manna spoke of Christ come down in grace to meet His people's need (Jno. 6:). But alas, His beauty, temporarily obscured by association with such as those of whom the apostle warns us "even weeping," we lose our appreciation of it though He be "as wafers made with honey" for sweetness and "fresh upon the dew:"-ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.

For manna they had no heart;-far rather would they have the flesh and fish of Egypt and the fruits which they must grovel on the ground to obtain, or even dig into the earth for. So it ever is when the cross has lost its charm for our souls; when we can no longer say "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14).

Dear young Christian, have you not known something already of the deadening influence of the mixed multitude who "walk " and "make a fair show in the flesh," but whose hearts are in the world still where they would fain draw yours? O remember, leeks, onions and garlic all leave their odor behind!

You cannot feast on things like these without spiritual loss. Perhaps you fancy that a little worldliness, a little indulgence of the flesh will not hurt your testimony, nor mar your enjoyment of divine things. You imagine it will never be noticed by others, for whose piety you have respect and who watch for your soul. If you do allow yourself to go on in measure with the world, you at least are regularly out to the meetings and manifest an interest in the gospel. Be assured it is just as impossible to dine on garlic and not have the odor on your breath as to taste of the world's follies in any form without manifestly lowering the tone of your spirituality.

A night in worldly company, how it tells on one. An evening at the theater, what a stench on the breath the day after! A popular and fascinating novel greedily devoured, what a garlic dish is that! Indulgence in earthly vanities, worldly dress and careless ways, how they eat out the spiritual life and cause the soul to loathe the manna! You cannot enjoy the world and Christ at the same time. One will inevitably crowd the other out.

I judge that there is a distinction and a marked one between the mixed multitude and murmuring Israel; just as we are called upon to distinguish between the "enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction," (not merely chastening, nor yet the break-down of testimony; see i Cor. 9:27), and the Philippian saints who are warned against such. Like them in ways, in measure, they were in danger of becoming if unwatchful; but one with them actually they never could be for they owed everything for eternity to that cross which was hated by the others. Forgetful of the cross of Christ, believers often are; sad that it should be so! Enemies they could not be.

The great characteristic of these, '' whose glory is in their shame," is earthly-mindedness:"Whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things." In this their connection with the mixed multitude is very marked. Lust, the desire for personal gratification, let it take what form it may-, and love of the scene from which the cross has separated the Christian, are their two great marks.

Let us, dear fellow-pilgrim, beware of any who would tempt us to seek our enjoyment in the sphere that has cast out our Lord. His cross has come in between us and the world. Do we, then, want any-, thing out of it, or a place in it? If so, in heart we go back to Egypt.

To do that, Israel had to go around the Red Sea (Jer. 43:1-7); through it they could not go. It is a dreadful thing thus to set the cross aside. It is not necessarily denying our interest in the death of Christ or in the shedding of His blood. These truths may be acknowledged and confessed in measure, where the cross-symbol of His shame and bitter sorrow-has really been ignored.

It is the cross that has stained all the glory of this world; even as of old the cedar wood, the scarlet and the hyssop were stained with the blood of the bird of the heavens, slain in an earthen vessel over running water; Christ the heavenly One, in the body prepared for Him offering Himself through the eternal Spirit a sacrifice for our cleansing (Lev. xiv). To faith all its glory has disappeared in the "burning of the heifer "(Num. xix). It has no glory since it became guilty of the murder of the Son of God; since it nailed our Lord to the tree. All its objects of beauty; its religious splendor; its society; its culture;-everything in which it prides itself;-all is blood-stained now.

This is what those "who mind earthly things" deny. Refusing the truth that He is outside this scene of man's pride and folly, they seek to attach His name to the world that cast Him out. Of old they cried "Crucify Him!" Now they would garnish His sepulcher.

They cannot utterly ignore Him, His impress is too strong and clear for that. It was impossible that God in human form could be in the world and yet not leave some evidence of His presence behind Him. So they claim Him now as One like unto themselves.

Have you noticed that-how every body wants to claim Jesus, even though they hate His cross? They speak of Him as the great Exemplar, the Teacher, the Martyr,-anything you will, but that He died to deliver us from this present evil age-that His cross is the dividing line-this they will not have.

In contrast to these "dwellers on the earth," how sweet to read of some "whose commonwealth is in heaven." Here they find no continuing city. They seek one to come. His lonely path of sorrow and separation is the one they would tread in such a world as this. Identified by faith with a rejected Christ, and possessors of His life, by new birth,- they cannot be at home in the scene of His deep, deep sufferings and of His awful shame. A 'separated, peculiar people, they confess plainly that they "seek a country" and are content to wait for glory in the coming day of His appearing. His path of isolation and strangership is dearer far than earth's fair by-ways, just because it was His who left us "an example that we should follow His steps."

Marked is the contrast now. Marked will it be at the close. Caught up to be forever with Himself will all those be who knew Him as Lord and Saviour. Left in the earth of their own choosing and the place of their hopes will be those who were the enemies of His cross. The future of both we have outlined in the Apocalypse.

To the assembly of a little strength, who had not denied the Name of the absent One, He says, "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which is coming upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3:10).

These last are evidently the same moral class as those whose present earthly ways we have been tracing; for that the expression does not refer merely to inhabitants of the world is clear by reference to chaps. 11:9, 10, and 14:6, where we find them distinguished from "the people and kindreds and tongues and nations."

In the verse quoted above we see that when the Lord comes and takes His own away from the place of their toil and suffering to enter into His own rest in the glory of God, these will be left behind (despite possible Christian profession) to pass through the terrible period of judgment so graphically depicted in this closing portion of the divine oracles.

We find them again specially brought before us, in the eighth chapter, immediately preceding the sounding of the last three trumpets. "And I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice ; Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound" (ver. 13).

Those who cared not for a name and a place here are seen before this, represented by the twenty-four royal priests, robed and crowned in heaven; their theme of praise, the precious blood shed on the cross which had separated them from the world. How dreadful now the position of those who refused the heavenly calling which, though grace, these had learned to prize. The earth that they loved is now the scene of the hardening judgments of God and is fast slipping from their grasp;-and heaven they have lost all hope of; though once, they fondly thought they might at least have a place there when death should snatch them from their delights here. Thus they would be making the best of both worlds. Now they have lost them both!

The testimony of God's "two witnesses" only lacerates them into the agonies of despair, and amid the well-nigh universal joy over their death, when all the kindreds and peoples are making merry in that awful day of the divine displeasure we are told:" And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth" (chap. 11:10).

But though no voice below may continue to proclaim their doom, in heaven a loud voice cries, "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time " (chap. 12:12). How marked the contrast here, with the words immediately preceding:"Rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them."

In the next chapter while authority is given to the Roman beast "over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations," yet it is only of the earth-dwellers that actual worship is predicated (ver. 8). For they will not be without a religion then, as they are not without one now. Twice in the seventeenth chapter are they likewise referred to, in connection with this same beast and its harlot rider. "The inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication" (ver. 2). "They that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is " (ver. 8).

Terrible outlook for apostate Christendom! It is the false Christ "the man of the earth;" the lamb- like beast, who leads them in their worship of the first beast. '' He exerciseth all the authority of the first beast before him and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein, to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live" (chap. 13:12-14).

Strong delusion God has given them up to. Those whose hearts were set on things down here now have a God and a Christ of their own, of earth and suited to earth, but all alike soon to be destroyed at the appearing of the heavenly One in judgment.

In chap. 14:we find the 144,000 of Israel distinguished from these as a people "redeemed from the earth." They are not the Church, nor a part of it, but during the absence of "the Lamb" their hearts had gone out to Him in the place where He was and from whence they waited expectantly for His coming, and thus they were not seduced by false Babylon or the christ of the earth.

Immediately following this vision we have the last word from God the earth-dwellers shall ever hear until they meet the rejected One in judgment. "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come:and worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea, and the fountains of waters" (vers. 6, 7). It is a call to cease from their folly though the hour is late, but we hear of no response.

Their dreadful doom as beast-worshipers is given in the message that follows:"The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation" (ver. 10). Solemn words! Who can conceive their awful import ?

Such a cup had the Lord Jesus drained for sinners when He hung upon the cross they had hated. Now they must quaff its fearful contents themselves.

Such in brief then, is the present and future path and portion of those who mind earthly things, "whose end is destruction."
Let us see to it, beloved, that we walk in holy separation from them now, "hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." "If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:1-3).

As strangers and pilgrims, may it be ours to press on in haste to the land where He has gone who has won our hearts by dying for us on the cross, and who is soon coming to take us to be with Himself in the Father's house. How paltry and poor will Egypt's fare look then when we feast upon the hidden manna! H. A. I.

EXCERPTS FROM A LETTER TO ONE ENSNARED THEREIN.

Beloved brother:Recently I heard of your having gone into a "union" in order better to support your family. This was a great surprise to me, and has troubled me so much that I cannot forbear addressing you upon the subject. Surely, dear brother, you cannot have weighed this step in the light of the judgment-seat of Christ, where we must so soon appear. I trust, therefore, you will not resent my endeavoring to draw your attention to several portions of that Word which we both love and which I know must be familiar to you, but may have, of late, been overlooked. I choose to write to you, rather than to speak to others of you, and I do so because the Book says, " Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him."I am sure too that you will remember that "faithful are the wounds of a friend," and " open rebuke is better than secret love."

I would be unfaithful to God and to you if I refused any responsibility towards " washing your feet" simply through fear of, for the time being, hurting your feelings. And so, dear brother, let us meditate a little first upon the present position of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us. His position, of course, determines our only proper one, for we are linked eternally with Him. Where is He then, as to this world ? Alas, He has been cast out of it! He is in no sense of it any more. For Him there was no room in the inn, no room anywhere while living,-and when dead, only room in a borrowed tomb. Always outside. Always getting His wrongs, instead of His rights, as one has said; always in a different path from the dwellers on the earth in His clay of humiliation ; this is in brief His history. And yet it might have been so different, if one dare allow the thought. That is, He need not have taken the place of rejection they gave Him. Had there been in Him an atom of selfishness (which there was not, for in Him was no sin,) He might have claimed a place among them here as others did; yea, and better than others, for all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them were offered Him, but on what conditions ? Conditions He could not brook for one moment, for He must have acted in violation of the word of God to have accepted them. This He could not, would not do, (oh, that we were more like Him !) and so faithfulness to God kept Him ever the rejected One, till at last He suffered outside the gate.

Let us remind ourselves, dear brother, that this is the One to whom we owe everything for eternity, whose loving kindness is better than life. Do you then want a place where He had none ? And do you want it so much that you will have it despite the fact that you must grieve His heart to get it, and that if, like Him, you seek to be faithful to God, you never can get it ? Is it really worth so much ? Will it appear so when you see His face ? Surely you cannot say so ! Better, far better, a crust of bread and a cup of water, than plenty at such a cost.

Nor has He come inside yet, despite all that men may boast of the subjection of the world to Christ. I know there is a Christ, one whom even a well-known preacher* intimates would Himself join a union if on earth a " carpenter" again; but this is not the holy, unworldly Christ dear to our hearts, my brother. *"Rev." Courtland Myers in "Would Christ join a Labor Union ?" Religious novels of this mischievous character abound to-day. How shameful to think of ministers of the gospel turning from their vocation to write works of fiction.* This is a creature evolved from the evil imagination of the writer's own deceitful heart, palmed off as the Christ of God. Our Christ, the Jesus who shed His blood for us, is outside still; and again, I say, His place determines ours. We may have another, if we will; but not in fellowship with the devoted Object of the world's hatred and malice.

What avails it if we profess to gather to His name and turn our backs on sects and systems, religiously, to be identified with systems, socially and commercially, in which He has even less place than in the various parties of Christendom ? In such a case are not our legs the unequal ones of the lame ?

Let us notice also, what you must often have noticed before, the solemn language of 2 Cor. 6:14, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?" Let us stop here a moment. Of old God said, "Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass yoked together." The clean and the unclean yoked for toil was thus forbidden. "Doth God take care for oxen, or saith He it altogether for our sakes ? For our sakes, doubtless, it is written." And here in our chapter we have the divine commentary upon what might have seemed so trivial a matter to an Israelite of old. Let us lay it to heart. Righteousness and unrighteousness cannot be yoked together without incurring the Divine displeasure. "Righteousness;" that should characterize the Christian. Can a member of a labor union be righteous ? Is it righteousness to turn my brother out of employment because his conscience will not let him affiliate with what is so manifestly contrary to God ? This is what the union demands of its members.

Ah, my brother, put the question home to your own conscience, is it righteous in the sight of God to have to turn a Christian from your employ because ungodly men (infidels and blasphemers many of them) say you shall? Where is care for a fellow-member of the body of Christ here ? Fellowship with the unrighteous destroys invariably real fellowship with the people of God. How, think you, will this look when the mists of earth have cleared from your soul, and you see all in His light at the judgment seat ? How differently will sound the words then, " What communion hath light with darkness ? " In nature there can be none! And in things spiritual if the child of light associates with the children of darkness, he will find the light within him become darkness too, and every spiritual perception enfeebled.

I need not say to you that nothing is more false than to pretend that this scripture applies merely to marriage, or even simply Church fellowship. It applies clearly to every relationship of life.

Let us read on :" And what concord hath Christ with Belial ? Or what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever ? " It does not refer alone to an " infidel," as we use the term to-day, though even that were strong here, for how many actual atheists must a " union man " have part with ! But an unbeliever, one who has not trusted Christ is what is really meant. Trade-unionism makes a man have part so thoroughly with such that they are more to him than his brethren in Christ. He may and often must boycott the latter. He dare not act out of harmony with the former.

"And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols, for ye are the temple of God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (verses 14-18).

Notice here, that the last verse depends on the previous one. " Come out … be separate . . . and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you." One might ask, Is He not the Father of all believers, whether separate from such associations or not ? Assuredly He is; a grieved Father often, but a loving Father still. Why, then, does He say to the separated one, I will be a Father to you ? Ah, dear brother, is not this the answer to what has been troubling you ? Did you not go into this ungodly association because you feared your business would be ruined, and your means of support gone if you wholly followed the Lord ? See how He rebukes such a thought:"The parents ought to lay up for the children," and He says, I will do the parents' part, I will be your Father; you shall be My son. The question of support will be Mine to attend to, if you walk apart from evil in holy separation unto Me.

Is not He better than all human fathers, and will He not care for His own ? Has He not even said, " Leave thy fatherless children unto Me and I will preserve them alive; " and " let thy widows trust in Me ?" Thus we may, if in the path with Him, be assured of care for us and ours while we walk on earth, and care unceasing for those we leave behind, if taken home. He is far more to be relied on than trade-unionism, whose one controlling principle is selfishness. But let us be careful how we practically take ourselves out of His hands, lest we learn bitterly what it is to be cast on our own resources.

But I want to pursue our subject a little further, even to its final terrible phase. For this I turn to Rev. 13:The contents of this chapter you will remember at once. The revived Roman Empire is pictured in the first beast, as I presume we both are agreed. It is its last form, after the Church has been taken to heaven and when Jewish saints are suffering on earth. The lamb-like beast with dragon tongue is doubtless the symbol of Antichrist. In connection with the image which he makes to the first beast, we are told:"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of his name (ver. 17). This, then, is trade-unionism, at least the spirit of it when full blown, and this is what, in principle, you are now associated with! Does not the very thought make you shudder as you reflect on what company you are keeping ? " Be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners."

In that awful day, a remnant will choose deprivation of all the necessaries of life, yea, choose death itself, rather than be affiliated with this antichristian association ; and shall we, with so much greater light and higher privileges, be characterized by devotion to Christ less than theirs? Rather, as Moses, let us choose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Already one sees how easily Antichrist will be able to combine men of the most diverse opinions and characteristics, as well as stations in life, in one common cause;- the exaltation of man as God:for even now this is what trade-unionism, free masonry and other like associations are doing. The spirit of it all is utterly antichristian. The great idea is to build another Babel tower and be independent of God.

The value of the book of Revelation is that it gives us the full grown trees which are seen in their incipiency, -and some quite well advanced in growth,-everywhere about us to-day. It behooves the child of God to " touch not the unclean thing," for "blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame" (Rev. 16:15).
Let us then labor, dear brother, since we are accepted in Him, let us labor to be acceptable before Him in that day (Eph. 1:6; 2 Cor. 5:9). In order to this we must avoid every entanglement which would hinder our going on with Himself.

In conclusion, let me urge you to go down before God about this solemn matter; and I know, if you are honest with Him and faithful to His word, you will at once sever the link that has temporarily bound you to the accursed thing. Let us pray one for another. It is a day of much weakness. We need each others' help in going on with our God. Believe me to be,

Yours affectionately in Christ Jesus. H. A. I.

In View of Questions Which Have Been Lately Raised.

9.Deliverance From the Law.

For deliverance from the practical dominion of sin, we must of necessity be delivered from the law; and therefore the order of truth in the sixth and seventh chapters of the epistle to the Romans. Deliverance from the law and the necessity of this are dwelt upon in the seventh chapter; where the great point is that being under law means self-occupation in a religious way, the attempt to make something of that from which God would turn us away; and in which we find ourselves confronted with an unmanageable evil rooted in our very nature as born of Adam, and from which God "Himself does not, in the way we look for it, come in to deliver us. Alas! pride tends ever to come in by the natural and conscientious endeavor to be right with God carried out by legal ordinances and self-culture, with all forms of asceticism superadded. God's remedy for all is the eye off self and upon Christ, with the apprehension, as given by the Spirit, of our identification with Him, so as to make God's delight in Him the joy in which we dwell, and thus the power by which in self-forgetfulness we live and serve Him. We have therefore only to express our cordial and entire agreement with the teaching we are now examining that the true lesson of the law is that of one's own powerlessness. It is curiously put as a supposition, though it is to be hoped that the writer does not mean that it is no more than that with him:"I suppose it works in this way, that law brings home to a man the truth of his own utter powerlessness. That is the lesson to be learnt; I do not care how it is learnt, in all probability by law, but it has to be learnt." It is evident, one would say, that the apostle expected it to be learnt in that way; and that law is so entirely the human method of religious accomplishment that, apart from the revelation of God in the matter, we have no reason to imagine any excogitation of another. But we need not dwell upon this:so far we are glad to agree with him that the entire "end of the law" is Christ.

When we come, however, to the necessary question as to what is the practical outcome of this for us, we find our agreement soon reaching its end, and a doctrine laid down which we have already sketched, but which is being pressed with continual earnestness, and (one must say) audacity. It is undoubtedly the root of the whole system presented to us. We have, of course, things inconsistent with it presented to us too; if it were given clean cut and with entire consistency, it is hardly to be thought that Christians could go on with it as they manage to do now; but this evasive character belongs naturally to the devious ways of error wherever found, a kind of Jesuitism which may be perhaps unconscious, but which all the more does its work. One may boldly assert that it passes the power of man to reconcile the different statements made. When for instance we have the question directly asked,- a question apt enough if we consider the many depreciatory remarks about it,-" What is the use of Scripture to us f " we are comforted and quieted by the assurance:"It is for doctrine, and is a guard to us, and it is a very important point in regard to it that our minds are thus kept from getting out of bounds." Yet none the less confidently is it declared that if you go to it for doctrine, it only shows you are not yet delivered from the law! Here are the words:-

"This question of law is a very great hindrance to many of us, and I think it takes us a long time to get free of law. I will tell you how it works-people go to the Scriptures to find exhortations and rules; they want chapter and verse, as they say commonly, for their doctrine, and they want precepts for their conduct. That is all legality, it is the letter, and I think people are uncommonly fond of the letter; they go to Scripture in that sense to a large extent."

So, though Scripture is "for doctrine," to go to it for doctrine is legality! and although it is a very important point that by it our minds are kept from getting out of bounds, yet where the bounds are in this case is a mystery which must remain a mystery. When it is suggested that "the unsearchable riches of Christ are accorded to us by the Scriptures," that supposition is promptly repelled with a "No; you cannot get them except by the Spirit"! Who ever thought you could? But are they communicated to us apart from those inspired Scriptures the possession of which has been thought of as furnishing us with all the mind of God for His people here ?But let us go on :-

"The idea of the word of God is, that God puts Himself into direct communication with man. …A preaches effectually only what he has learned God, not from what he has found in Scripture." These things are put in fullest opposition; and yet what a man supposes he has learned from God is to be kept from getting out of bounds by what he has learned, not from God, but from Scripture!"I do not think people learn exactly from Scripture, but from the Spirit of truth, but the more familiar people are with the Scripture the better; because a man's mind is thus continually pulled up in its tendency to go beyond the limit"!To make the contra-diction more complete and absolute, it is the same person who says, "I claim only the light of Scripture."Thus, though of course, he did not find it in Scripture, the light of Scripture is all he has! He was. taught it, perhaps, independently; and then taught that it was all the while in Scripture, although he himself did not find it there, and "effectually" no one could. There is thus a continually fresh revelation being made to souls, not derived from Scripture, and which yet Scripture gives them authority to press on others, although it cannot, of course, teach others what it did not teach them, and people are legal and wrong if they go to Scripture for doctrine at all! Surely, as the wise man says, "The legs of the lame are not equal."

And after all it may be doubted whether any of us know what deliverance from law is, even the one
who is teaching it to others. He has been himself studying Scripture, (only too much, he thinks,) and all his teaching he finds in Scripture, and only thus can press it with authority on others. How can he himself know for how much he is really indebted to this, which has thus been floating in his mind, and which he recommends us all to be familiar with? Really it seems as if the only thing that we could be quite sure he did not learn from Scripture is just this. doctrine of his not learning from it. A good deal more, however, will be found to be involved in this. It is legality also, we are told, to go to Scripture for precepts as much as doctrine. Precepts there surely are, in the New just as well as in the Old Testament:is it meant that we are not to listen to them? Well, at any rate, we are not to go to it for them. Are we to be taught them outside of Scripture? But then we must go to Scripture, to find out if our minds are betraying their natural tendency to get out of bounds! Nay, it would seem that we must be taught even more decisively by Scripture thus, than we have been already taught without it. Yet this primary teaching is supposedly by the Spirit of God, which after all we cannot rightly accept save under the "guard" of Scripture! What a wilderness of perplexity and unreality it is, which nevertheless cannot escape from the control of what the Spirit of God has provided for us all, except as, alas, this loose and careless slighting of the Spirit's instrumentality may enable us to leap the "bound," and follow our own thoughts with little check from aught beyond them.

And this is sure to be the result where (although it is confessedly good to be familiar with it) the study of Scripture is treated lightly:"a Bible student is not much after all. " Aye, but " if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" (Prov. 2:3-5). Where but in Scripture shall we search, where find, after this fashion ? Let us set then these human thoughts within the so necessary bounds which befit them.

Notice once more, that the precepts of the epistles were never anything else than part of Scripture. They address themselves directly to the heart and conscience of those to whom they were addressed. Precepts as they were, they were not legal; or else the great apostle who gave us the lesson of deliverance from the law made a terrible mistake. We at least will not charge him with it. He knew surely also, that the Spirit must act through the written Word in order that it may be effectual, whether for sinner or saint; yet that did not hinder him from claiming the most absolute obedience to what he wrote; and that obedience is no less due from us than from them. It is not merely that we are in a loose way to have it before us, but to learn from it, and to give heed as to the voice of the Lord Himself:"If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord " (i Cor. 14:37). The Spirit of God does not come in between, to make this a degree less direct or decisive, but to give it all its power for the subject soul. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

QUES. 1.-I have been puzzled about the word "hate "or "hateth" as it occurs in different passages in the Bible, and I have been unable to reconcile Luke 14:26 with 1 Jno. 3:15; also ninth and eleventh verses of the second chapter.

In Rom. 9:13, the word occurs again, and I have difficulty in thinking that the Lord used the word "hate" in the sense that we use it now.

ANS.-Undoubtedly the Lord used the strong expression "hate," not absolutely but in the way of comparison. One must be prepared for His sake to renounce father, mother, sister, brother. "He that loveth" any of these more than Him, is not worthy of Him. We are in this way to hate our own lives also. The meaning is evident. The strength of the expression is to arrest the attention. The Lord's claim is absolute.

QUES. 4.-"For the elects' sake, the days are shortened" (Matt. 24:22); is it the number of days that are shortened? Will the same 1260 days be carried out after Antichrist breaks his covenant with the Jews?

ANS.-The number of days remains the same, 1260; otherwise the prophecy would not be fulfilled. But God prevents things running on as it would seem they must do. He interposes. Christ comes and delivers when Israel is in the midst of the trouble, and it is stopped with a strong hand. It is after all only for a short time,-" made short" by divine love and pity. F. W. G.
"COVET EARNESTLY THE BEST GIFTS."

With entire freedom of heart I can say, I do not desire to lead the opinions of others. Even our knowledge of truth itself is but little worth to the soul if it have not been attained by exercise of the renewed affections before God. And opinions are poor human things, the fruit of man's midnight lamp, at which he eats the bread of literary carefulness. And how can the saint value them? But if we walk together with right desires, though it may be in much remaining ignorance, we may assure ourselves, even at this still later hour of the day, that our Lord will not refuse us both His light and His company, as once to our brothers on their way to Emmaus. Do not, however, let me intimate that I find no difficulties in considering this great subject of the Lord's return and its concurrent events. Indeed I do; and besides difficulties, I am going to say this, that I think there may be some indistinctness as to it purposely left on the page of Scripture, in. order to keep the saints in health of soul, maintaining them in spirit still, ever longing for Jesus till His return, and yet being in divine strength ready to reach Him by death through flames and floods. For indeed the soul's lively, hopeful, suffering energies are far beyond well ordered and carefully digested conceptions of these things. And sure, sure I am, that our Lord has another purpose touching us as His disciples or pupils than the merely having us of one opinion by dint of the study of the Bible. For poor is the communion our souls have tasted as the fruit of that.

I will add another thought-that though I see nothing necessarily delaying our rapture into the air, nothing put as a drag upon it, yet I know and allow that many things are to be done on the earth before the full form of evil be revealed, or the reserved week of Daniel begin. The nations of the East may have either to be reproduced or organized, and all of the prophetic words about Babylon, Edom, Tyre, and the rest of these may have to be accomplished in the ancient sites of these famous cities and lands of the peoples. I do not deny this; and we know that much is to bed one with Israel and with Judah, morally and politically, and with the land that is theirs by gift of God. The West, too, is to be got ready as the platform of a serious action ere the crisis comes, or its precursors in the seventieth week. Also I grant that the present dispensation may still go on, because God's long-suffering is salvation, and He waits to be gracious. But still I add, that none of this is made necessary to our removal. We are not to be remembering days and years, though of course the longer we live the nearer is our salvation. Nor have we to ponder the ways of the nations, though of course the maturer the iniquity, the more fit for the judgment.

But "Come, Lord Jesus" is ever to be the desire of the utterance. "Hope of our hearts, O Lord, appear " is a song, I believe, most suited to the worship of our souls. Let us call each other's spiritual senses into exercise, but not seek either to frighten or to school others into our way of thinking. For on such subjects even an inspired apostle used this chastened style, "I would not, brethren, that should be ignorant;" at the same time, as he also tells us in the same place, opening these mysteries not for the filling of the mind of the disciples with opinions, but for the guiding of their hearts with right affections, saying to them, "lest ye should be wise in your own conceits." Let us then, beloved, get the apostle's taste and spirit, as well as his knowledge. A brother's spirit is more edifying than his communication. We experience that every day.

Let us take a hint from another,'' to aim to gather knowledge more from meditation than from study, and to have it dwell in us, not as opinions, but as the food of communion, the quickener of hope, the husbandman of divine love, and the blessed refreshing of the Kingdom of God within us." I esteem it holier to confess difficulties than to grapple with them in either the ingenuity or the strength of intellect. And surely it is bad when some fond thought or another is made the great object. It soon works itself into the central place, and becomes the gathering point. The order of the soul is disturbed, and the real godly edifying of the saints hindered. For we have to remember that knowledge is only a small part in the wide field of our husbandry (2 Pet. 1:5-7). An appetite for it needs to be regulated rather than gratified. And many who in their husbandry have raised far less of it than others have more abundantly prospered in bringing forth richer fruits in service, and in love, and in personal devotedness to Jesus.

May the Lord deepen in the souls of all His saints the power of His own redeeming love, and shed I more and more among us the savor of His precious and honored Name!