QUES. 17. In Num. 21:the bitten Israelite was to look upon the brazen serpent lifted up among them ; and in John 3:the Lord, making use of this as a figure, bids us believe on Him as lifted up on the cross. Was the look of the Israelite to be constant on the brazen serpent; that he might not only be healed, but remain healed? And is the look of faith on Jesus on the cross to be constant, to be saved, and to remain saved? Also, is not the word "believe" in John 3:similar in meaning to the word "look" in Num. 21:?

ANS.-Beginning with the latter part of your question-Yes, surely, the word "look" in Numbers thoroughly illustrates the word "believe" in John. As to the rest, remember that in both Numbers and John it is a question of life-in Numbers, of life temporal; in John, of life eternal. By the bite of the fiery serpents, the Israelites lost their life; the serpent's venom once in them, it was death; and so it was a question of restoring to them that forfeited life. God's verdict was, "It shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it (the serpent on the pole), shall live." Accordingly, "it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." One look gave him back his forfeited life, and he needed never to cast a second look. It was one definite act of the bitten man to look, and it was one definite act of God to give him back his forfeited life.

Just so, too, in John 3:, only there it is a question of life eternal -a matter as much greater than natural life returned to the Israelite as the Lord Jesus Christ is greater than a brazen serpent. The poor sinner, realizing that he is "dead in trespasses and sins," casts one look of faith on Jesus dying for him there on that cross, and God answers that look of faith by giving him eternal life. It is one definite look of faith on Jesus, and it is one definite act of God, neither of which is ever again repeated. It lasts as long as God lasts.

It is not that this life now received from God is independent of Jesus. No more is it so than the life of my hand or of my foot is independent of my head. With it, it stands or falls. So also does eternal life so truly identify the believer with Christ that with Him every believer stands or falls. But He stands for all eternity; and so we, being wholly dependent on Him, stand too, thank God, for all eternity.

QUES. 18.-Was Balaam a prophet of God, or only a diviner? Would he answer to a fortune-teller of nowadays? Of what people was he ?

ANS.-Num. 22:5 states he lived in Pethor, a city near the river Euphrates, where his people dwelt. This would be near the parts where Abraham lived when God called him.

As to what he was, the New Testament amply interprets it for us:1 Peter 2:describes the "false teachers" which were to rise up among Christians by the "false prophets" of the Old Testament; and, as prominent among these "false prophets," he names Balaam (vers. 15, 16). Again, Jude, in warning Christians about the awful condition of things, and the character of some in Christendom preceding the return of our Lord, mentions Balaam alongside with Cain and Core (ver. 11). Once more he is mentioned in Rev. 2:14.
After such revelations concerning Balaam, it is not difficult to conclude that he is no mere diviner or fortune-teller, but a man who professes lo be a prophet of God, though at heart but an ambitious hireling, who, for selfish ends, is ready to curse the people of God, or to ensnare them out of the path which belongs to them. How prominent the Cain and Balaam characters have become in Christendom, and how rapidly the Core character is developing, only shows how near we have come to the time of which Jude writes-"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him " (vers. 14, 15).

(Luke 8:26-40.)

There is a fresh-water plant called "eel grass," common in sluggish streams in all parts of the world. It looms much like grass; the ribbons starting close to the root, without a stem.

It has two distinct kinds of flowers-never found together on the same individual plant. One flower is green, about the size and shape of a clove, containing the seed pod, borne on a slender stem that grows until it reaches the surface, where it floats and opens. The others, containing the pollen, are borne in a tight cluster about the size of a lead-pencil and close to the root. These pollen buds break loose, rise to the surface, open, and scatter their pollen over the other flowers in waiting.

As soon as the seeds are fertilized, the long stem begins to coil up in a tight spiral (hence the botanical name, Valisneria spiralis) thus drawing it back to the root from whence it came, and where, through the summer, it ripens, and scatters its seeds for new plants.

Is not this an illustration of God's method of spreading the gospel, as it is given in Luke 8:26-40?

The waters, with all the mud and uncleanness at the bottom, answers to this present evil world; the seed answers to the individual, without any divine life, dead in trespasses and sins, and is parallel with the good ground of ver. 15; the cluster of staminate flowers, with their myriads of pollen dust, to the word of God, any of its myriad statements or verses able to give eternal life.

The pistils of the seed-bearing flowers, which transmit the life principle from the pollen to the seed, are like the individual faith that receives the life-giving Word. The fertilization takes place in the air of heaven, not in the water; just as souls are born from above; heaven is their "native land;" and from there they are sent into the world (Jno. 17:18). If but one minute particle of pollen touch one of the delicate pistils, in one moment life is communicated to the dead seed. It is not that the seed had life once, and, having lost it, now has it anew; but it never had anything in it which would ever have become life. The life is in the pollen, not in the seed. The mysterious communication of it by the touch of the pollen is through the pistils' delicate threads, of which the silk of corn is a good example. The base of each hidden seed is attached to one of these threads, which is exposed at the end of the ear. If one is injured before being touched by the pollen, there will be a blank kernel in time of harvest; it will not fill out nor grow; the pollen from the tassel above may fall, but there is no reception of life. Just so, men may hear the life-giving Word, but without faith there is no effect, no growth, and no fruit. No goodness of ground can take the place of the good seed. Job, Nicodemus, and all others, must be born again-have the very life of God implanted in the soul; they must be "born of the word of God, that liveth and abideth forever."

Here is a fundamental principle of the very first importance running through the vegetable world and the spiritual world:-all seeds must have life imparted to them; and every soul must be born again.

There are hundreds of individual scriptures able to give life; but one is needed. In Spurgeon's case, Isa. 45:22, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved;" in others, John 3:16, or 5:24, is received by faith, and instantly the soul is born of God. Other scriptures may be enjoyed later, but that one verse has done the work, never to be undone, and never to be repeated. In many cases, where there was deep exercise of conscience, the effect has been so sudden and violent as never to allow of doubt afterwards as to the time and fact of new birth.

I do not think we have in eel grass an illustration of fruit exactly, for fruit is to be eaten-the vine and fruit-trees would give us that view:here we have reproduction ; just what we have in vers. 39, 40:a soul born again, taken out of the world, and then with a new life sent back into it to his old friends and neighbors to minister the same to them-the work of the evangelist.

For one born of God this world is a scene of evil and temptation, "where foes and snares abound"- this present evil world. Here the Lord found us, and back into it He sends us to multiply what we have received. In the world, but not of it; not taken out of it, but not to be defiled by it, even as a plant is not defiled by the earth in which it grows:on our part, using the very evil as a means and stimulus of growth (i Peter 1:6, 7):and it is just such an evil world that needs the knowledge of Christ-not from the lips of angels, but of redeemed sinners (Acts 10:3-6).

In the case of the man possessed of demons, the first result was, that when the Lord returned, those who had prayed Him to depart were now waiting for Him. Just so the seed ripening in the water grows amid its old surroundings, and produces flowers which scatter their pollen abroad to fertilize other dead seeds. And so the early disciples went everywhere preaching the word (Acts 8:4).
T. M.
"I'D RATHER SUFFER LOSS."

The "occupation " of the Church ought to be in constant reference to its Head. If its Head is not its first thought (and that is shown in thinking of its Head, and filling itself into all the thoughts and mind and affections of its Head), it cannot act for Him. This is its grand occupation. "We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word." We must get through the crowd of Satan's power, and beyond the crowd to our Head who is the only source of power. We should seek that kind of communion with the saints which living in spirit with the Head gives. We should get all who hear to join in the cry of Rev. 22:So should the Church have its own light, that all that is outside would be shut out. The apostle was living in a world of his own-he was filled with ideas of his own; but they were God's ideas, and he had power. It is not knowing the scene I have to act in that gives me power; we get no strength from the contemplation of that; but intercourse and living communion with the Head. We should get near enough to Christ to enjoy Him, and to know Him truly, and to gather up all that is like Him. If not separated by affection from the world, we shall be separated by discipline in the world. He will vex our souls to get us separate, if in spirit and in heart we are not separate. "Because thou servedst not Jehovah thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart . . . therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies which Jehovah thy God shall send against thee."
J. N. D.

(Concluded from page 267.)

Practical Results.

The various steps we have gone over in the history of God's people have brought us to where we can now look at the practical results, and at the ways of God with them.

As we have seen, Israel failed to take possession of all that God had given them; and this failure leads us from the book of Joshua to that of Judges.

They did not drive out all their enemies; "the Canaanite dwelt in the land" (Judges 1:27-30). Their failure arose from the self-confidence which prevented their drawing upon the never-failing resources in Jehovah their God. The enemies not driven out became aggressive and bold until they overpowered Israel. Similar failure has occurred among God's people in our dispensation. It is recorded in the parable of our Lord, "while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares" (Matt. 13:25). God's people may become careless and indifferent, but the enemy never sleeps. If we neglect to judge ourselves constantly, and cease to be governed by the word of God, little by little the evil increases and develops; and, instead of being overcomers, we are overcome.

If we leave the aggressive, triumphant spirit of the book of Joshua, we drop into the entanglements and defeats of the book of Judges. How important, therefore, the apostle's exhortation in Eph. 6:13, "and having done all, to stand." Having gone in and taken possession, there needs to be the strength to hold and maintain the same; and for this we need "the whole armor of God," and the continued aggressive spirit to march on and lay hold of the further possessions which lie before us, leaving no enemies behind. Not one foot of the ground taken should ever be surrendered. "Behold, I come quickly:hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."

Alas, declension is now seen everywhere; those who once possessed, are being driven back, and the enemy is encroaching. This is especially true concerning the Church testimony as a whole:the vigor, freshness and spirituality of the first days have been given up, and we are in the difficult days predicted in 2 Tim. 3:1-15; Jude 25; outlined in Rev. 2:and 3:; and all illustrated by Israel in the book of Judges. Joshua passes away, then the elders. Then departure is very marked; declension, and even open apostasy from what their fathers had fought for and won at great cost.

Indeed, throughout the Old Testament striking illustrations are furnished us of the declension and failure of Israel as a nation; whilst bright and happy exceptions to the rule shine out, also, here and
there.

Never did they enjoy so much of the whole land as in the days of David and Solomon; but after they pass away, failure develops again, and the conditions described in Judges return. It is written concerning Rehoboam, that he "forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him" (2 Chron. 12:). Those words give us a clue to all the after sorrow and disaster- the key that unlocks the mystery of their weakness and of the strength of their enemies. God's government there is over all, and His chastening hand falls upon them; for God is true to Himself and true to His people. After this it is further written, " Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord. . . . And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. … So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he took all; he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made." The enemy is triumphant.

In Joshua's day the people were strong, for they walked in self-judgment and obedience. Jehovah could be with them then, and they drive out the enemy and take possession. But with Rehoboam it was different; they were in possession of what their fathers had won by many struggles, but had become indifferent and careless; so they transgressed "and forsook the law of the Lord." Then the enemy came in, and they were weak as water; God was not with Rehoboam; so defeat and loss follow.

Shishak represents the god of this world-the prince of the power of the air-who ever watches the people of God and seeks to get a point of attack in their weak hours. The record of his victory, so soon after the bright, golden days of David and Solomon, leads faithful hearts to weep even now, three thousand years later. "Be not high-minded, but fear," is a needed word of admonition in our day; for human nature, even in God's people, changeth not, whether in the past dispensation or the present- with Rehoboam or with us.

In Paul's day, like failure in the Church gave the devoted apostle and Timothy, his son in the faith, much sorrow of heart. "All in Asia have left me" were among his last words. They were turning away from the truth at the very time he was about to go to a martyr's death for the same, because he knew its value, its power, and what it had cost. Whole companies, as " fenced cities " were taken away by the tide, as individuals also had been severed from him and the testimony of the Lord. All this was but the beginning of grievous departure, an ear-nest of what we may now observe on every hand in the closing of the history of the Church. Yet Paul had rest of heart; for he could say, "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure." God never fails; His truth, sacred and precious in every part, is ever the same, and is a stay and guide to the devout believer-no matter how difficult the days may be. Moreover, the Holy Spirit abides with the Church until "the Morning Star" appears. The land lies still before us, with its fruitful hills and fertile valleys flowing with milk and honey; the smile and favor of our God rests continually upon it (Deut. 11:12):let us therefore maintain and defend with spiritual energy what we already possess of it. While the failure is general, it is not all. God preserved true witnesses for Himself amid the darkness of their day and time, and they did shine in their sphere amid all the departure and gloom in Israel.

Two such bright exceptions we will especially note here, for our encouragement and profit. They are taken from the list of David's mighty men (2 Sam. 23:8-12).

Eleazar ("help of God") comes, first, at the time when the Philistines "were gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away." Those enemies of the Lord had moved up over the fields of Sharon, and entered the possessions of Judah, " Ephes-dammim "-border of blood, as it implies ; and the narrative is quite conclusive that the place fully answered to its name. At this place there "was a parcel of ground full of barley" (i Chron. 11:13, 14). "He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword; and the Lord wrought a great victory that day, and the people returned after him only to spoil."
In Eleazar we see a man who answers to his name. A weak man was made strong, because his help was in God. The people gave him none; they forsook him and fled when they saw the Philistines;
but he arose and smote the enemy one by one. He was a man like the rest, but dependent upon
Jehovah, and true to Him and to Israel's heritage. Such, in the hands of the Lord, are worth a
thousand. In the conflict he became weary, but his hand clave to the sword; he felt the force of what
was written after-ward, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully (negligently), and
cursed be he hat keepeth back his sword from blood" (Jer. 48:10).

The ground was not only God's gift to His people, but food for them-a field full of barley. Those who fled before the enemy did not think it worth contending for, but Eleazar valued it, and stood in the midst of it and defended it. " Having done all, to stand" was a principle that governed him that day; if all the rest of the Israelites turned away, he encouraged himself in the Lord, and got the victory.

Every part of the truth is our heritage from the Lord; we are here to care for and defend it:and the weapon with which to meet the enemy is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

After the battle and victory, the people return to share the benefit; but no credit to them:had it not been for Eleazar, Israel would have suffered loss. The Lord wrought through a dependent man, and the result was a great victory-the might, the battle and the victory all the Lord's. How blessed to be thus used of God!

After Eleazar was Shammah. "The Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines; and the Lord wrought a great victory." Here we learn, as in Eleazar's time, that the same enemy surrounded Shammah, and the people again had fled. History was again repeating itself with both the Philistines, as the enemy of God's people and of God's heritage, and with His people, for their lack of confidence in Him ; for they fled as did the people in Eleazar's time. This was a very discouraging time if Shammah had put his trust in men. But, as David long before, he "encouraged himself in the Lord his God," so did Shammah; he stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it alone.

At a later time his Lord did the same-"all forsook Him and fled "-even the disciples; but He with a firm step went to the cross, faced the battle and, by the sufferings that He endured, overcame the enemy, put all the powers of darkness to flight, and gained for those timid disciples, as well as for us, a glorious victory (Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14, 15).

Still later, when Paul's life was in danger because he would not surrender the truth entrusted to him, and "all forsook" him, he wrote, "Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me" (2 Tim. 4:16, 17).

In Shammah's case it was a piece of ground full of lentils. It was little in man's eyes, but faith values all that is of God, and this man of God would not surrender it.

In the case of the Lord Jesus, God's glory was at stake respecting sin, and the everlasting blessing of millions of precious souls; hence He endured the cross and despised the shame.
In Paul's case, after Christ returned to glory and all men sought their own, he stood for the truth which circles around a glorified Savior, and defended it.

God would encourage His people in our days by the noble example of such men and their soldier-valor to "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints " (Jude 3). The truth given us is a priceless gift, a sacred trust to guard and keep as our spiritual heritage. The whole land is ours, and we need to guard every part, great or small, even if but like the little patch of barley in Eleazar's day, or of lentils in the time of Shammah. All is needed, every part is intended to serve as food, to nourish and sustain the new life in the children of God. " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God," said our Savior.

What Eleazar and Shammah achieved at those two different periods may have been considered of little importance by many; but when David got his right-ful place upon the throne, and all the acts of those who followed him in the days of his rejection were brought into review, Eleazar's and Shammah's names were placed first upon the list. In his kingdom they were his mighty men, and did shine as the stars of heaven.

Many now also may achieve much by faithful adherence to the truth of the Holy Scriptures, by their refusal to surrender any part, known, loved, and en-joyed; and amid the constantly renewed assaults against it, yet, with a firm, unyielding grip, as Eleazar, "cleave to the sword."

We are nearing the end of the dispensation. The dark clouds are growing thicker and darker each day
in our sky, and the Scripture of truth has announced that in the last days perilous times should come, and that men should depart from the truth. We need Calebs now, men who will wholly follow the Lord; Gideons, who keep close by the wine-press, threshing out the grain to guard it from the enemy; Eleazars and Shammahs, who, single-handed, will defend and save the fruitful fields; Pauls and Peters, willing even to give up their lives for the truth; men like Timothy, as the others pass away, to commit the truth to others also, and not be discouraged by the repeated failures of men (2 Tim. 2:2). A. E. B.

The peanut has a lesson somewhat similar to the eel grass. It belongs to the pea family, grows in warm climates, and is about one or two feet Long. The short flower-stalks start close to the ground; and as soon as the seeds are fertilized, the stems bend down, still growing, and thrust the young peanuts into the ground to ripen out of sight in the darkness.

Fruit in the believer is for God, the Husbandman, and must develop and ripen here in a scene of death, unseen by man. Although there should be, and will be, outward evidence of it, still, the real work of the Spirit of God in the soul will be unseen by the eye of man, involving exercise, sorrow, trial, disappointment; and cultivation at the hands of the Husbandman, and under His eye alone. All this goes on in a world that grows more and more worthless and distasteful as the years go by. The beauty, the bright flowers, and the fragrance of the spring-time of our spiritual life, give place to the heat, drought, storms, and cultivation of summer, that fruit may be brought to perfection. Sober work this! The petals of the flowers drop off, the beauty is gone, and the peanut must be thrust into the place of death, to develop and ripen before it is fit to eat.

If the work of the Holy Spirit is not hindered in the soul, there will be some fruit in which the Husbandman can delight and find a sweet savor of Christ.

How appropriate that the peanut should be a very wholesome and nutritious food, rich in oil, type of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit! And also, how suggestive that the roasting of the peanut should bring out and improve the flavor! Fire is suggestive of trial and testing (i Pet. 1:7; 2 Cor. 8:2; Heb. 11:36; i Pet. 4:12; Rev. 1:14). Thus the line of thought naturally suggested by the peanut is somewhat different from that of eel grass.

We are in a natural world where the varieties and differences are countless and amazing. If each of these has its special lesson, then I can understand why there are so many-because the spiritual truths and principles contained in the word of God are rich and complex beyond description, and it will require eternity to enjoy it all. Every scrap of His Word and His work that we can gather up here will be just that much of the richest food to be enjoyed with the Lord in the glory throughout eternity; but we must gather it here. T. M.

Newark, N. J., 1906

John 3:1-16.

First – the need of the new birth :'' Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The Lord gives the reason, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." The apostle states the mind of the flesh:" The mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God " (Rom. 8:7, 8, R. V.). If such were allowed to enter the heavenly kingdom, it would soon be as bad as the kingdoms of this world. No wonder, therefore, that the Lord should say, " Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."

Secondly, The agents by which this new birth is accomplished:"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Water and the Spirit. One can hardly think that "water," literal water, can be an agent in the accomplishment of new birth. The term water is used emblematically in Scripture:"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean:from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you:and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them " (Ezek. 36:25-27). The term "water" is also used in like manner in the New Testament:"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive:for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.")-John 7:37-39. Here water is used as an emblem of the Holy Spirit. But this cannot be the meaning of water in the Lord's words on the new birth, for He mentioned the Spirit as distinct from the water. However, the passage serves to show that the term "water" is used as an emblem. It is also used as an emblem of the word of God:'' Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it:that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word" (Eph. 5:25,26). Peter also ascribes new birth to the word of God, including the Spirit. See i Pet. 1:23-25. James writes, " Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures " (James 1:18). Other passages might be given in proof, but the above will suffice.

But the new birth is not by "water" only, but by "the Spirit," according to our Lord's teachings. He makes the Spirit prominent, for while He mentions "water" once, He mentions "the Spirit" three times, "the Spirit" being mentioned twice alone. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:so is every one that is born of the Spirit." So that a soul born again is indeed born of God-"born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " (John 1:13). Thirdly, the judicial basis of the new birth:"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up :that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life " (John 3:14, 15). "Lifting up" meant crucifixion. On a subsequent occasion Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man," etc. (John 8:28). But while He was taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain, yet God used their wicked act to carry out His purpose of grace. The Lord in the closing words of His public ministry said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth," etc. (John 12:32). John adds, "But this He said signifying by what manner of death He should die" (ver. 33, R. V.). "The people answered Him,"-showing that they knew what was meant by lifting up,-"we have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever:and how sayest thou, the Son of man must be lifted up ? who is this Son of man ?" They had, it would seem, learned from the Old Testament that the Christ and the Son of man meant the same Person ; and if so, they could not see how He could be lifted up, crucified, and also abide forever. But thank God, we have no such difficulty; for He who died on the cross was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and sat at His right hand in a new life, and is thus in the position where He will abide forever, as He said to John on the Isle of Patmos, "I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore"(Rev. 1:18). Thus the suffering Son of man is the Christ who is to abide forever.

It is clear then that being "lifted up " meant being crucified. As the Lord's words "ye must be born again" expressed man's need, the words "the Son of man must be lifted up" expressed the meeting of the need in death. The word of God plainly tells us that the Cross is the judicial basis of the salvation of sinners, and therefore as the new birth is an important part of the salvation, the Cross must be its judicial basis.

But were not believers born again in the ages prior to the Cross being an accomplished fact ? . Yes surely, for the Cross was in the purpose of God, so that He could act in blessing according to that which He purposed. The same was true as to forgiveness of sins; God passed by, not brought into judgment, the sins of Old Testament believers, and the accomplishment of full atonement through the Cross being seen in the risen and glorified Jesus, showed God's righteousness in thus dealing with those who trusted in Him, though their lot was cast in the ages before the atoning death of the cross. God counted the value of it to them. Hence they too were born again.

Lastly, how this blessing becomes ours. Along with justification and peace, it becomes ours on the principle of faith. The Lord, still addressing Nicodemus, said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life " (John 3:16). John takes the "whosoever"into his 1st Epistle:"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God " (i John 5:i). In his Gospel he writes, "He came unto His own and they that were His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " (John 1:11-13, R- V.). And what was true then is true now,-those who truly receive Christ, that is, with the faith of the heart, are born again, yea, are pardoned, have a new life, are "partakers of the divine nature "-in short, are saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved " (Acts 16:. 31). R. H.

(Continued from page 317.-Dec., 1905.)

We will now consider what is the proper procedure to pursue when priestly discernment finds a case to be a plain, manifest case of leprosy. We read, "The priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean." We have already seen that the word of God determines for us what leprosy is. There should be no hesitation in declaring a person to be what the word of God says he is. No considerations of any kind, whether personal or not, should deter us from accepting as the truth the unequivocal judgment of Scripture. We need to remember always that the judgment of a case is not ours. The word of God judges it for us. We are responsible to acknowledge the judgment which the word of God gives. It is not our judgment that makes a leper unclean. We declare him to be unclean because the word of God tell us he is so. It is thus a very simple matter. It is just a question of obedience to what the word of God declares. It does not matter whether it is leprosy in a person, in a garment, or in a house; the case being determined by the word of God, we are to submit to its judgment.

But this is not the whole matter. When according to the word of God a case of leprosy in a person is plainly manifest, there must be no hiding or covering over the fact. The leper's "clothes shall be rent, and his head bare " is the express command of the Lord. The marks or signs of his uncleanness must be put upon him. He must not be unclean to the elders and fathers merely, but to all. He must not be unclean to a few-just the prominent and leading brethren, but everybody must be shown that he is under the condemnation of the word of God. Divine holiness will vindicate its claims, and challenge any one to show just ground for questioning its requirements. God demands that His people stand openly with Him in His abhorrence of sin.

Submission to God in putting upon the leper the marks of his uncleanness will result in his own proclamation of his defiled condition. Publicly manifested as a man who is living in wilful disobedience to the word of God, in antagonism to the holy will of God, he is a witness of his uncleanness.

Again, we read, the leper "shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be." The camp of the Lord must not shelter an unclean person. " Put away from among yourselves that wicked person " is the commandment of the apostle. It is not only that he is to be refused his place at the table of the Lord, but he is to be denied all Christian fellowship, and this as long as the plague of leprosy 'is upon him-as long as he continues in his denied condition. How much sorrow and trouble has resulted from forgetfulness of this plain requirement to "put away from among" ourselves! How often Christian intercourse has been maintained with one who has been publicly branded as unclean! How thus such an one has been comforted and encouraged in his course of evil! What a solemn thing to thus interfere with the discipline of the word of God!

In the case of leprosy in a garment we find there were two distinct forms of procedure. In the one case the whole garment was burned in the fire; in the other, the part in which the leprosy was, was rent out of the garment. In the first case it is clear that what is set forth is that the whole condition of things in which we move, or live, is evil:the foundations on which our practical lives are built are not according to God-are unholy. They must be given up. The destruction, the burning, of the entire garment tells us this plainly.

In the case where only a part of the garment was affected it was first washed and then watched. The washing with water typifies the subjection of our circumstances, the conditions in which we move, to the word of God. If after doing this the evil remains, unchanged in its manifestation, then the garment is to be destroyed. Whatever the appearance of the external parts, however satisfactory they seem to be, the evil is seated in what underlies, in what is fundamental. Hence the whole condition is unholy, and must be abandoned. But if, on the other hand, the submission of our circumstances to the test of the word of God proves that the evil is not in the underlying foundations on which our practical lives rest, then that part of our external circumstances, in which the evil is, must be given up-that part of our external life that is not according to God. How all this tells, us of God's concern about our ways! Holiness surely becomes those who are in relationship with a holy God.

We must look now at the procedure in the case of leprosy in a house. First, in connection with the application to a believer's home. Let us notice that the instructions concerning leprosy in a house were given in anticipation of Israel's dwelling in the land of Canaan. In their possessing that land we have a type of the believer's entering, by the power of the Spirit through the word of God, upon his heavenly inheritance. One may ask, Is it possible that leprosy should be connected with this? When I read, "When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possessions," I answer it is possible. Is it not true that a believer ought to establish his dwelling-place on Christian ground? Should it not be a Christian home? A home where heavenly things shall be enjoyed? Surely this must be admitted. But, alas! how many such homes have become leprous! How much activity of inward evil there has been in connection with heavenly things! Have not the things of Christ, the things where He is, been often prostituted to worldly and fleshly ends? Plainly, leprosy in a believer's home is quite possible.

But how shall it be treated? First, the owner of the house shall "tell the priest." If we see indications that there is something wrong in our homes-if we feel that somehow God is not getting His true place; if it seem to us that the things of Christ are not used in holiness, let us submit our homes to the scrutinizing eye of God, testing them by the revealed mind of God given us in His written Word.

The next point is that while this examination is going on, there must be proper effort to protect all who dwell there. There should be no hasty publication of the evil, no unnecessary occupation with it. It should not be allowed to become a matter of public gossip. At this stage it is simply a question of what the trouble really is. This is to be discovered by priestly exercise. "Emptying the house " speaks of godly care and concern lest there be unnecessary defilement through hasty and unnecessary occupation with the evil. But if after patient examination and careful watching it becomes evident that serious evil is there, then proper effort must be made to correct the condition of things. Taking "away the stones " tells us of removing what seems to be the source of the evil."Scraping within " of clearing away the results of the presence of evil. " New stones," "other mortar "and "plaster, "plainly point to effort to reestablish the home according to the holy claims of God as declared in His written Word If now after all this effort to save the house the evil again breaks out and it become thus evident that the evil is not in some special part, but in the very constitution of the house, then the house must be destroyed. No home must be owned as a Christian home that is not at least established on Christian ground and maintained according to the truth of Christianity.
Another matter must also be mentioned. We read, "Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even." While a professed Christian home is under suspicion, and is being examined, and watched, there should be no expressed fellowship with it. To enjoy its hospitality would be to pursue a course or way that would expose us to the condemnation of the word of God. It would be contracting defilement which we could only remove by submitting ourselves, to its claims upon us, and this would involve confession of having acted contrary to those claims. Only so could we "wash our clothes."

To " go into the house " even was to "be unclean until even." I take it that this applied to the priest who examined the house as well as to any one else. The very occupation with evil, however necessary, is defiling. It has effects on the mind which remain and do not pass away except we return to what is our normal state-occupation with Christ and His Word. How solemnly all this speaks to us. It is true, it is not leprosy that is contracted by the one who has been obliged to have to do with it, yet the having to do with it temporarily defiles, and there is need of special application of what God has written to one's self, of an examination of one's ways and circumstances in the light of the truth of God. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

QUES. 19.-Will von kindly explain the 9th verse of 1 John 3:?

ANS. View in" the passage as the expression of what constitutes the child of God, it declares that, by virtue of his being born of God, he possesses a life whose nature is incapable of sinning; it is God's "seed," which "remaineth in" the believer, and from it can proceed no sin, even as elsewhere we are told that from the nature we obtain in our human birth there can proceed no good.

If we view the passage as in relation to the practical life of the child of God, it is also true that, once born of God, he cannot continue in the life of sin he practiced before; it would be misery to him. He loves holiness, and henceforth treads its paths.

No notice is taken here of the evil nature which still abides in the child of God. This is expressed in chap. 2:1 of this same epistle, and fully developed in Rom. 6:and 7:

QUES. 20.-What is the meaning of the title "Son of man," as given to our Lord ?

ANS.-The title "Son of man," which our Lord constantly took, connected Him, on the one hand, with subjection and obedience to God; and on the other, with universal headship-not merely with Israel. It expresses the excellencies which God has found in Him as man. Adam had been made in the image of God, after His likeness; but he fell, and what man should have been for God totally failed in him. In our Lord He has found it. No matter in what circumstances He was placed, Jesus never deviated from the true path of man before God. Obedience, which is the highest virtue to be found in man, so wholly wanting in the first, is seen in all its perfection in the Second. Let suffering be what it would, He obeyed, and obeyed in that mind which makes His life on earth an offering of sweet-smelling savor to God. It was His meat and drink to do His Father's will.

Jesus is therefore the true man after God's heart, the very essence of the humanity which was in the mind of God, answering to all that God desired in man. All this, and more, is expressed in the lovely title "Son of man;" and it is in relation to that title that His sorrows and His future glories are seen, barring out, of course, the glories which have ever been and ever will be His as God.

Psa. 37:5.

"Commit thy way unto the Lord;"
"Trust also" in His faithful word; "
In Him " alone rely;
'' And He shall bring it " from above
"To pass " in token of that love
Which shall all needs supply.

T. Watson

Today there live those who have a title to a throne and dominions on which the sun never sets. In course of time, if God permit, they will ascend that throne, be crowned, and reign, and then die. Their reign is a limited one, and ends by their submission to the king of terrors, whose power is greater than their own; and their kingdoms, like themselves, will finally crumble to dust. Humbling thought!

Today there lives One who has indisputable title to all the kingdoms of this world. Marvelous thought! Unseen by the natural eye, yet seen and known to faith, He is hidden in the house of God meantime, to be brought out when God's seventh year dawns-crowned, owned and acclaimed as the " King of kings and Lord of lords." His reign will be "for ever and ever," and "of His kingdom there shall be no end." It shall "never be destroyed;" and Jesus, the rejected, despised and disowned Saviour, will yet be acknowledged as God's King in Zion (Psa. 2:6) and "King over all the earth" (Zech. 14:9).

There is a very remarkable analogy to this in 2 Chron. 23:We there see Athaliah, "that wicked woman," who endeavored to destroy all the seed royal and then take the throne and kingdom herself. One of the king's sons, however, was stolen away, and thus saved from her murderous hand, and hidden away in the house of the Lord for six years. During that time there were two parties in the kingdom-Athaliah and her followers, her aiders and abettors; and Jehoiada the priest, and the few who were let into his secret, and who rallied round the young king. While Athaliah was seemingly having it all her own way with the mass, Jehoiada was quietly, but steadily and surely, working on behalf of the rightful heir to the throne, and preparing the way for the coronation day that was coming.

The young king (Joash) was taken out of a scene of death when the rest of his brethren were slain. Jesus, however, went into and came out of death. He went into it for others, in order to clear them from that which would have taken them there. He bore their judgment, and cleansed and fitted them for reigning with Himself in the coming day of glory. Divine love brought Him down into that place-Divine righteousness has taken Him up into His present place, and will bring Him out by and by into His own rightful and publicly manifested place on earth, associated with those for whom He died, and with , whom He intends to reign. Wonderful thought for poor creatures like us, saved by His grace!

Joash was hidden six years in the house of the Lord. The numeral six denotes the limit of man's efforts and work, and then comes rest. "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." Six days, or be it six years, centuries, or millenniums, the teaching is the same-the end of mans day; his labor, and toil, and sin, and sorrow, all ended, and the dawn of the seventh day, the day of rest-the keeping of a sabbath which remains for the people of God. Then Jehoiada surrounded the young king with his faithful band of armed men, brought him out, presented him to the people, crowned him, anointed him and proclaimed him king :while the usurper was dragged out to the place of execution, and slain.

Jesus is hidden in the heavens during man's day. It is God's blessed answer to the perfect sacrifice of His well-beloved Son on the cross. God has taken Him in, and said, "Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thy foes Thy footstool." Jesus is on high, "crowned with glory and honor." Worthy place for such a peerless Saviour ! None the less is it true that, so far as earth is concerned,

" Our Lord is now rejected, aud by the world disowned; By the many still neglected, and by the few enthroned ; But soon He'll come in glory, the hour is drawing nigh; For the crowning day is coming-by and by."

While Jesus is thus hidden, Satan holds high carnival, and is apparently having it all his own way as he leads the masses down the broad road which ends in death, judgment, and the lake of fire. Nevertheless, souls are being called out from the mass, saved, and introduced to and let into the secret of the King. Blessed and glorious truth! By and by they will hear the bugle-call, and be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (i Thess. 4:16-18); and then, when the seventh year dawns,

The heavens which now conceal Him
In counsels deep and wise,
In glory shall reveal Him
To glad, expectant eyes.

Yes, the Lord Jesus will then appear "in power and great glory " for the discomfiture of His enemies and the joy of His waiting earthly people. Not merely one crown on His blessed head, but '' on His head many diadems"-"King of kings"-"the Prince of the kings of the earth"-and "the armies which were in heaven following Him on white horses "(Rev. 19:).What a sight!'How earth's greatest pageants will pale before that magnificent spectacle!

O beloved saint of God, what marvelous grace to give to poor sinners like ourselves a place in that company that is to come out as the followers of that glorified and manifested Saviour and King! What love and goodness to open our eyes and hearts and let us into state secrets and communion with the King while hidden! What a privilege too! Do we value it as such ? How our hearts ought to throb with joy and delight at the thought of the coronation day, the day of His manifestation to a wondering and admiring world! (2 Thess. 1:). And to think He has assured our hearts of it now, and that we shall be in that great procession as He comes out from the hidden place and publicly manifests his glory! Oh, it is wonderful indeed!

What will it be to hear the shouts of the multitudes as they acclaim Him as their King and cry " Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! " How different from the cry that once was heard, " Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Yet it is the same Saviour. Happy they who know Him, and who will own Him. How awful for those who find themselves numbered among His enemies in the day of His power!

Blessed be God for the work of the cross, accomplished by His beloved Son. There we behold everything that was against us borne by Jesus, the Lamb of God, in that unparalleled hour of awful judgment when He met the holy and righteous claims of God against us Now in resurrection-glory, He has given us a place with Himself beyond death and judgment, in light and everlasting blessing, both now and forever, in time and in eternity.

If heaven was astonished when He entered as man earth will surely be astonished when they see the same blessed One come forth as King, "in power and great glory; and then will the gates lift up their heads to let the King of glory in, and that King of glory none other than "Jesus," our own blessed and adorable Saviour. Oh for hearts to praise, worship and serve Him more! Wm. Easton

New Zealand

A WORD ON HEE .X. 19-24; 12:I, 2 ;13:10-13.

There are just two or three things I would like to bring before our hearts, dear brethren, in connection with these three scriptures, and I shall be brief.

The first brings before us the blessed results of the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The blessed Lord came, saying, " Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God," and that will was to have a people in nearness and in suitability to Himself; to gratify His own heart in the display of His grace to us, both here and "in the ages to come." Therefore we get the Lord Jesus giving Himself, and His blessed and perfect work meeting everything on and in us unsuited to God, clearing it away forever; and then we are invited to "draw near." The way into God's holy presence is opened up and "boldness" given to us to approach as happy worshipers.

The apostle brings before us the great contrast between the priests in the Old Testament, whose work was never done and who never "sat down," and the work of the Lord Jesus, who offered His one sacrifice for sins and "for ever sat down at the right hand of God." There was no seat in the tabernacle. The priests never sat down. The fact that the Lord has sat down is the proof of His work being done. " Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening," as psalm 104:tells us, and when evening comes he goes home to rest ; his day's work is done. He has a right to rest and comfort at home when he has finished his work, and no one would grudge it to him. How sweet then to know that the blessed Lord has' finished His work of atonement and gone in and sat down. He has sat down in perpetuity. His work on the cross has "perfected forever them that are sanctified." God has nothing against us and there is nothing between God and our souls. Christ is there in the presence of God for us. We know the one who is there for us, and He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever; "and just as He never changes, neither does the value of His perfect sacrifice; it abides forever before God. I need not enlarge on that I think.

But there is the blessed result of that to look at.

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath, consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say His flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near." Just think of that! Boldness to enter into the holiest. The very presence of God in heaven is open to us and we are invited "to draw near." It is no longer "set bounds about the mountain." No! No! It is Heaven itself is open. "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself" (Heb. 9:24). We are "new creation" in Christ a new people a heavenly people. And we are privileged to draw near and occupy a new position as purged worshipers and "offer the sacrifice of praise, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."

There is a rent veil and a seated Christ. God rent the veil when Christ died. As others have said before, "The same stroke that slew the Lamb rent the veil from the top to the bottom." There is nothing now to keep anyone out of (if they are willing to go and fit to go) the immediate presence of God. The veil was not let down from the top, nor rolled up from the bottom, nor removed altogether; it was rent; and we are told it typified " His flesh." It is by a Christ who has died we enter into God's presence, and we have boldness to enter. God cannot have us at a distance from Himself; He says, "draw near."

Then it is a new way; it is "through the veil." It is a living way, for we can go in without the penalty of death being executed on us for daring to do so as we see was the case in the instructions given to Aaron in Lev. 16:1:Thus we draw near with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water, – fitted, both inside and outside as it were, morally fitted both in our hearts and in our ways. In perfect suitability to God we draw near and tell out before Him the thoughts and feelings of our hearts about His beloved Son, and that is what satisfies the heart of our God. He delights to hear us speaking well of His Son whether to Him or to others.

People sometimes ask, what is worship ? Suppose I take a glass and fill it with water and keep pouring more water into it, what will be the result? Why, it will run over. Very well then; if God fills my heart with Christ, and keeps pouring in, as it were, more and more of Christ, the result is the same; it runs over, and it runs up, and that is worship. It is the overflowing of a heart that is filled and satisfied with Christ. How few really worship God.

The next thing I want is patience to run the race (chap..12:i, 2). As in the world, and on our way to another scene, we are viewed as "running a race." But there are dangers and difficulties and discouragements, and we need patience and energy of soul and purpose of heart to continue the race. It is one thing to make a good start; it is another thing to make a good, finish or continue without a breakdown. When a man runs a race he strips; he does not carry an ounce more than he can help. He lays aside every weight. He keeps his eye on the goal at the end. He runs; nor does he slack his speed till he has passed the winning post. Now this is what ought to characterize us, beloved brethren. There are heaps of things we get occupied with that are not sins, but they are weights. Young Christians specially are prone to carry weights. You will hear them saying sometimes, "Well, I see no harm in doing so and so, or going to such and such a place; it is not a sin." No, it is not a sin but it is a weight, and sometimes a very heavy one; and every one else can see the effect it has on you, but yourself; and it hinders you even running, much less running with patience.

Then again we are long-distance runners and need patience to continue at it; therefore anything that would hinder us must be laid aside and we must go on. The world, the flesh, and the devil all combine to hinder us and trip us up. Let us go on, brethren. Let us go on. We have a glorious example in the Lord Himself:"Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." How many, alas, make a fair start but do not continue; let not that have to be said of any one of us. Don't give little holidays to the flesh. Don't say, We are not at the meeting now, or among the saints, and give liberty to the flesh; but plod on; keep up the pace; exercise patience-"Ye have need of it" for "yet a little while and He that shall come will come." Don't let Him find us off the course, or sleeping or sinning instead of running. We have boldness to enter in; we need patience to run while out.

Then we have the exhortation in chap. 13:12, 13. " Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach." And what is needed for that ? Courage. Yes, courage is needed. The Jews thrust the blessed Lord out of their holy city and crucified Him outside the gate, and we are responsible to "go forth unto Him "as witnesses, seeing we are privileged to go inside as worshipers.

When David was persecuted by Saul and was in the cave of Adullam, you remember there went out a great number to him. They were a strange company indeed-" Discontented and in debt," etc. But they went out to David to share in the fortunes or failures of David. And by and by when he came to the throne and set forth the deeds of "his mighty men," in all probability some of them were the men who came to him in the cave and shared his reproach in the day of his reproach. David would not forget it, you may be sure.

The camp was Judaism, and Christians were exhorted to go outside of it to Christ. Now whatever
assumes such a place to-day, as Judaism occupied in that day, is the camp. We have not far to look or seek to find it, and our place is outside-" unto Him." They cast the blind man out of their synagogue because Jesus had opened his eyes, and he told them simply who did it and how He did it. But Jesus went after him and gave him increased blessing. He revealed Himself to him as the Son of God and the man became a worshiper. Surely it was better to be outside with Jesus than inside with the Pharisees. You will find that the moment you say, I am going to be for Christ and have Him as my object and seek to satisfy His heart, you will find the devil roaring about you, and you will find you have to bear "His reproach." But as Peter says, " If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you." The Lord always makes it up to such an one, and gives them the sense of His presence and favor, and comfort.

Where is Christ in relation to the camp to-day ? He is in the same place they put Him in that day

-outside. Where is our place ? " Outside the camp

-unto Him." But I will not dwell on it. Are we satisfied to have Himself and be outside ? Or do we hanker after the sights and sounds and things inside to fill our hearts ? An unsatisfied heart is a dread-ful thing for a Christian. Yet what numbers there are-they would not own to it were you to challenge them as having it; but their ways and whole manner of conversation declare it to everybody else. If we sing, "Jesus Thou art enough" then let Him be enough. The Lord give us to understand better, dear brethren, what it is to have boldness to enter in as worshipers; patience to run the race as witnesses in the path of faith; courage to go forth unto Him and bear His reproach till we reach the end.

"Nothing but Christ, as on we tread,
The Gift unpriced-God's living Bread ;
With staff in hand, and feet well shod,
Nothing but Christ-the Christ of God."

1. " ALL things were made by Him " (John 1:3).

2. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).

3. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief " (i Tim. 1:15).

4. If we confess our sin?, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un-righteousness" (i John 1:9).

5. "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you" (i Pet. 5:7).

6. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28).

7. "But my God shall supply all your need" (Phil. 4:19).

8. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all" (Psa. 34:19).

What a range is covered by these few "alls"! Not only in course of time, but in experience. The word "some" is not used in any of these passages, but the comprehensive term " all."

Did we but live in the power of these truths what rest of soul, peace of mind, .and zeal for Him we might have. R. E. D.

*As to some details of this article, the Editor is not quite sure. Let the readers be exercised for themselves as to them.*

"Is the ordinance of baptism figurative of resurrection as well as of death? Do such scriptures as Col. 2:12; Rom. 6:3, 4; 1 Peter 3:21, teach this ? The putting under the water is figurative of death ; is the coming out of the water equally significant ? "

These questions were answered in the negative in help and food for April, 1906.As I believe the scriptures cited, with others, answer the questions in the affirmative, and as baptism thus acquires a deeper meaning, I submit my view.

The Greek words whence we derive our "baptize " and "baptism" have a root-meaning "to dip" or "immerse;" and burial under water certainly is a natural figure of death under judgment, as witness the flood in Noah's day. Yet Scripture also speaks of "baptism " where death and judgment are not symbolized. I refer to "baptism" by the Holy Spirit. We were "baptized" by the Spirit into the body of Christ (i Cor. 12:13). Death and judgment have no place in this baptism, but rather their opposite- union with a risen and glorified Christ.

True, baptism by the Spirit doubtless is based on the realities symbolized in water baptism. The Spirit baptizes none who are not by faith identified with the once-crucified Saviour. But the Spirit's baptism goes beyond water baptism. It does not indeed express resurrection, but effects something beyond resurrection-union with Christ. Only souls already "risen with Him" are "joined"to Christ by the Spirit. May not water baptism figuratively carry us as far as resurrection, since the Spirit's baptism carries us still farther ?

As we go on, this will become unmistakable. We shall find that water baptism figures the fundamentals of the " Kingdom," even as the Spirit's baptism into "one body" forms the "Church." Baptism by the Spirit unites us to Christ as Head of the Church, His body. In water baptism we are symbolically brought to Christ as Head of a new creation, in the only way possible-through judgment, death, quickening, and resurrection with Christ.

These things are put together in the typical baptism unto Moses:"Our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (i Cor. 10:i, 2). Without difficulty we recognize a type of the Spirit's baptism and presence in the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night that guided Israel.* *No doubt the type directly points to the Spirit's baptism in a day still future, to which John the Baptist alluded (John 1:33), and which the prophet Joel describes as an outpouring of the Spirit " upon all flesh " (2:28, 29).* Baptism in the sea no less clearly typifies water baptism, the badge of discipleship in the kingdom of God.

Baptism "unto Moses," mediator and savior, pictures baptism "unto Christ." At the Red Sea a people about to be overwhelmed were "saved" by a leader who typically made a way for them through death and judgment, bringing them out "quickened " and "risen" with himself. Was the going into the sea, figuring death and judgment, alone significant, and the coming out of it, typifying quickening and resurrection, not a part of the symbolism of this baptism unto Moses ? Surely the baptized leader, and the people baptized "unto" and "with" him, were thenceforth typically "quickened " and "risen" men throughout their forty years' walk in the wilderness ! Who can doubt it, or think that Christian baptism means less ?

Mosaic baptism was " unto " a person. So is ours -"unto Christ" (Gal. 3:27, Gr.); "unto Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:3, Gr.); and it is in resurrection that Jesus is "made . . . Christ" (Acts 2:36). Hence Christian baptism is "unto" Christ risen. This explains Gal. 3:27-"As many of you as have been baptized unto Christ have put on Christ." Do we symbolically "put on " a dead Jesus in this grand ordinance, or the risen and glorified Christ, the Head of a new creation ? The latter, of course. The baptized soul in the ordinance figuratively is transferred from his old standing "in Adam" to a new standing "in Christ," as Israel was in the baptism unto Moses.

Again, baptism is "unto " Christ. It figures God's righteous way of bringing souls out of their trespasses and sins unto Christ in glory-through judgment, death, quickening, resurrection. Only so can we reach a Christ on the throne of God, and baptism is unto Him where He is.

Does this interpretation seem questionable ? Turn to the only passage in Scripture which directly commissions us to baptize :"Go ye therefore, and disciple all the nations, baptizing them unto the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have enjoined you" (Matt. 28:19, 20). Here baptism is not merely unto "the Man Christ Jesus," but unto the Eternal Son, and equally unto the Father and the Holy Spirit. Have the Father and the Spirit ever tasted death ? Yet baptism symbolically brings "unto "them as truly as " unto Christ." It brings "unto" these three Persons in glory, not unto them in death.

Baptism is no mere figure of death and burial therefore; nor even of death and burial "with Christ," but also figures quickening and resurrection with Him. It symbolizes identification with Christ in the entire mighty work whereby, out of our sins, sin, and condemnation, He fully brings "unto God" -Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-a "new man" created in His own image.

Would anything else serve as a competent badge of the discipleship, not alone of this dispensation, but of those to follow ? Or could symbolism less significant become the grand emblem of a kingdom which halts us at the gate with the solemn declaration from the lips of its King that what is born of flesh is flesh, and none may "see" nor "enter" His realm who are not "born anew" of His Word and Spirit? It would be more than strange if "new birth," pressed on Nicodemus as the one thing needful, had no place in the object-lesson administered in discipling unto the kingdom.

All that we have so far found, a little care will not fail to discover in Rom. 6:, although that text has been a favorite with holders of another view. The passage has been interpreted as if it declared that we are "baptized unto death," and "buried by baptism unto death." We are sometimes told that Christian baptism simply symbolizes "burial"-the putting of the dead in the place of death. If this be all, the rite is doleful-a Christian ordinance without a gospel ! To put the dead in the place of death is to resign them to the grave and to the lake of fire-a thing unbelief may have to do with its unbelieving dead; but certainly not the Christian, in his emblem of life and hope.

Verses 3 and 4 of Rom. 6:really read, "baptized unto His death," " buried with Him by baptism unto death." So in Col. 2:12, "buried with Him in baptism." The language of these passages corrects the view that baptism is a burial in which a dead man is let down into the grave of one who previously has died. On the contrary, Christ and the baptized soul are represented as buried together, at the same time and under the same circumstances. Our water baptism figures identification with Christ in His baptism at the cross (Col. 2:11, 12).

Burial in the "grave " of Christ is not the thought. Something like this has been suggested from 2 Kings 13:20, 21, where a dead man cast into Elisha's sepulcher touched the prophet's bones and lived. But if baptism figures burial in Christ's grave, it is bootless. Even the angel said, "He is risen; He is not here." In His tomb we shall not touch the bones of the true Elisha. They are not there, for He is risen and seated upon the Father's throne!

Sin is what separates from God, and to reach Him we must pass through sin's penalty-death and judgment. The soul attempting this for himself will never emerge from the lake of fire. But to pass through sin's penalty "by faith"-in repentance claiming the divine Substitute's judgment and death as our desert, endured for us-is to find forgiveness and justification. Hence, even if baptism symbolized burial in Christ's grave while His body still lay there, this would not avail. We should touch Him too late. We must pass through judgment and death "with Him," or we shall never be quickened and raised up together.

Elisha in the sepulcher typifies Christ on the cross, not Christ in the grave; and the "burial" pictured in water baptism is not burial in the ground, nor in the tomb of Christ, but "with Him" at the cross, beneath the waters of judgment-the waves and billows that passed over Him. Such is the grand and solemn symbolism placed at the threshold of our faith.

Another clause in Rom. 6:frequently is overlooked. It reads, not that we '' were baptized unto His death," but that "so many of us as were baptized unto Christ Jesus were baptized unto His death " (ver. 3, Gr.). Here, as elsewhere, baptism is " unto " Christ risen and glorified-a thing Paul needed not to emphasize, for it was the cardinal doctrine of Christian faith. What he needed to emphasize was this :Know ye not that so many of us as have been baptized unto this glorified Christ, have been baptized therefore unto His death on the cross, so that we have "died with Christ," our old man has been crucified with Him, the body of sin has been annulled, and we are justified from sin and set free from its dominion ! Such is the argument of the chapter.

In Romans we do not find an explicit doctrine declaring us "quickened" and "risen" with Christ. Eternal life and resurrection are viewed in their future aspects-things fully to be known only when our mortal bodies are made alive. Yet present quickening, in the way this epistle touches it, assuredly is linked with baptism in Rom. 6:4:"We have been buried therefore with Him by baptism unto death in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life," or, "on a new life-principle." Is not the quickening of soul and spirit indispensable for such a walk ?

Still more striking is Rom. 6:5:"For if we have been germinated together" (made to "sprout," "spring up," "grow together") "in the likeness of His death, so also shall we be of resurrection." No one doubts that baptism is a similitude of Christ's death; yet in this similitude Christ and the baptized company are here pictured as likewise springing up together-a figure of quickening and raising up which reminds us of the "corn of wheat" of John 12:24.
Galatians presents a doctrinal advance over Romans. The natural man, the law, the flesh, the world, are swept aside, and in their place looms up a glorious "new creation" "in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 2:19, 20 ; 3:-5:10 ; 5:24; 6:14, 15). Already we have seen emphasized in this epistle a corresponding aspect of the symbolism of baptism. The baptized "put on Christ." In other words, baptism figures our transformation into that "new creation" in Christ Jesus of which this epistle speaks.

Ephesians presents another doctrinal advance. We learn that we who believe have been quickened with Christ, raised up together, and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (2:5, 6). Baptism is mentioned (4:5), but a symbolism of baptism corresponding to the theme of the book is not developed.

But in Colossians, the doctrinal complement of Ephesians, we find what we might expect:"Buried with Him in baptism, in which ye have been also raised together, through faith of the working of God, who raised Him from among the dead" (2:12). The clause I have put in italics shows how the identification with Christ in burial and resurrection, figured in baptism, becomes effectual as God's judicial reckoning for the soul. It is through the soul's "faith in God's operation, in raising Christ from the dead" (compare Rom. 4:23-25).

But what of the Greek pronoun variously translated "which" and "whom?" The context must determine this point, and the argument for "which " seems overwhelming.

1. The doctrinal context calls for " which." Since resurrection is part of the symbolism of baptism in other texts, and since Romans and Galatians emphasize a significance of baptism especially suited to their respective themes, Ephesians and Colossians call for an emphasis upon resurrection.

2.A pronoun is referred to its nearest antecedent if this gives good" sense and a natural construction. "Baptism" is the nearest antecedent, and "which" gives the better sense and the more natural construction.

3. "Whom "is grotesque. Notice that the burial is "with" Christ, and the raising also "with" Him; that the burial is "in" baptism, and the raising also therefore naturally "in" baptism. But if we say "in whom" we are raised "together," we have this strange doctrine:"in" Him we are raised "with" Him! Each thing may be true, considered apart, though Scripture says "with" Him in this connection (Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:12, 13; 3:i). But shall we put both things together, in mutual contradiction, in one breath ?

Let us test the doctrine already found by turning to Peter:"The ark . . . wherein few, that is, eight, souls were saved through water, which also in the antitype doth now save you-baptism, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the appeal of a good conscience toward God,) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (i Pet. 3:20, 21). We will touch nothing which may seem obscure:the essential point is plain. The ark in Noah's day was a type of salvation "through water," the flood figuring judgment. Baptism is an antitype which "doth now save." Type and antitype both figure " salvation," and a salvation "through water," the symbol of judgment. Is not this precisely what we have found elsewhere ?

Mark that the "salvation" pictured is "through" water, hence out of it:-as with those in the ark, so with those baptized. The question at the head of this article is answered here by a direct scripture.

If "the putting under the water is figurative of death," so "is the coming out of the water equally significant." Indeed, this last alone figures "salvation;" and baptism, like the ark, figuratively "doth now save."

Acts 22:16 teaches a like doctrine:"Arise, and get baptized, and have thy sins washed away." The washing away of sins in baptism undoubtedly is figurative, as are burial, judgment, death, quickening, and resurrection. But a figure of sins washed away implies new creation. How can one who is a sinner by nature and practice figuratively come up out of judgment, purged of sins, unless he comes up figuratively a "new creation in Christ ? "

Indeed, regeneration is the point here. If the action of water pictures judicial purging (e. 1:, judgment), it likewise typifies regenerative cleansing by the Word. The Church is sanctified and cleansed by "the washing of water by the Word" (Eph. 5:26). To His own the Lord said, " He that is bathed … is clean every whit" (John 13:10, Gr.); and again, "Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you" (John 15:3). We are born anew of "the word of God," the "word of truth" (i Peter 1:23, 25; James 1:18). Or, as the Lord figuratively puts it, one entering the kingdom must be " born of water and of the Spirit" (John 3:5)-a fundamental truth which reappears in Titus 3:5 :" According to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." In this light the doctrine of Acts 22:16 becomes luminous:baptism is a figure of sins washed away in regeneration.

Reviewing these texts in their order in the New Testament, the symbolism of baptism unfolds a progressive symmetry corresponding to the Spirit's development of the truth.

(1) We begin with regeneration in Acts 22::baptism figures us as born anew of the Word and Spirit -our reception of that new life and new nature which alone may " enter" the kingdom.

(2) Romans 6:emphasizes death, judgment, and quickening:our baptismal burial "in the likeness of His death " pictures our "old man " crucified, and ourselves, thus "justified from sin," " springing up " anew with Christ to walk on a new life-principle.

(3) In Galatians our baptism figures complete transformation :with ourselves and the world alike crucified; nought emerges from the waters of judgment save a new creation in Christ Jesus !

(4) In Colossians our burial with Christ in a baptism wherein we also rise together, symbolizes identification with Him both in judgment and resurrection :dead to the world, but risen with Christ, we set our minds on things above, where Christ sitteth at God's right hand.

(5) i Cor. 10:warns us that Christian baptism is worthless for a mere profession that refuses the obedience of faith ; for God, displeased with baptized Israel, overthrew them in the wilderness !

(6) Contrariwise, in i Peter, where God's begotten children are viewed as strangers and pilgrims in a corrupt world, beset by fiery trials, but kept by God's power unto salvation yet to be revealed, our baptism prophecies to faith a corresponding doctrine of hope and assurance. As the souls in the ark were "saved through water," so antitypical baptism "doth now save " by resurrection of Jesus Christ, picturing the present salvation of our souls, our present preservation through difficulties, and the full, glorious issue of our pilgrimage !

Is it not like God to place at the door of our discipleship an emblem so simple, yet capable of reflecting a new and splendid light from each new development of the doctrine of our salvation ? And is it not a fault to hide this glory by pressing a single aspect of the symbolism to the exclusion of other phases still more bright ?

There remains the baptism of John. His call to repentance preceded both the Cross and Christ's own public ministry. Hence John's baptism was unto repentance, in hope of remission of sins through the "Coming One." The baptized entered a Jordan into which as yet no substitute had gone. Had this been all, the spectacle would have been pitiable. How the sight must have moved the compassionate heart of Jesus! Instantly He went down underneath the waters. Wondrous grace ! He was baptized unto sinners-unto their death. He pledged Himself to pass into their judgment for them; and we know this meant that He must taste the bitterness, that they might come through unscathed.

Baptism by Christ's disciples, prior to the Cross, had a brighter significance. It was unto Immanuel, present amongst men, and unto Him as One who already had entered the waters of baptism with sinners-His life thus pledged for theirs !

Our baptism comes after the Cross. How gloriously different! It is not like John's-burial in a Christless Jordan; nor yet like the disciples' before the Cross-unto a pledged but unsacrificed Substitute. It is unto One who has gone down into the depths, exhausting their power to bruise, and has come out with the thrilling cry, "It is finished!" It is unto Him raised up by the glory of the Father-once slain, but now alive for evermore! Yet it is no less unto His death, that we may claim association with Him in all that He passed through for us- judgment, death, quickening, and resurrection. This is life and salvation, for " as He is, so are we in this world " (i John 4:17).

It has been assumed that such views cannot be reconciled with household baptism; but I find the two things side by side in Scripture. Household baptism derives its brightest luster, its fullest blessedness, and its real justification, from this deeper import of the rite. F. A.

In Jesus our hopes are all centered;
On Him our attention we fix:
For we by Thy goodness have entered
One thousand nine hundred and six.

We thank Thee for constantly guiding
Our steps through the years that have fled;
And in Thy safe keeping confiding,
The paths of the future we tread.

May we, from all error defended,
In knowledge and wisdom increase;
And may there to us be extended
The blessings of comfort and peace.

And since Thou hast thus far inclined us
To set our affections above,
The leaves of the record behind us
We leave to Thine infinite love.

Though we may at times be defeated,
And seem to be hoping in vain,
We know when Thy plan is completed
With joy we shall see Him again.

The signs of His coming invite us
Each day with glad service to fill:
His Word and His Spirit unite us
In loving and doing His will.

T. Watson

DARK SHADOWS.

There are two words in common use which aptly describe two classes of people who are in and of the world. On the one hand there are those who are full of hope for the future, who are looking for better and better times, who refuse to see the dark side of events and are called " Optimists." Then there are, on the other hand, those who see the dark side, who have nearly or quite lost hope, and who have the name of "Pessimists." These terms can belong only to those who are ignorant of what God has revealed in Scripture as to the future of the earth and of its inhabitants. To those who have learned what God has revealed, events which are taking place on the earth are parts of the great whole of that which is the purpose of God concerning this earth and its people-not the result of chance or blind force, or of man's wickedness alone.

And where there is real faith, even if it be not intelligent in prophetic truth, there will be the realization that all things are in the hands of an all wise and almighty God, who, while enduring patiently the full development of the evil in man, is shaping everything according to His wisdom and grace. So that faith alone can rest in the midst of all the darkness of the present day.

One of the facts of the present time, which is in perfect accord with prophecy, is the rapidly increasing power of the common people. We know that in the prophetic history of the Church in Revelation chaps. 2:and 3:, the last church has that most instructive name Laodicea, which means, the people's right. We know, too, that what characterizes the present above all else in the political world is that the people are more and more getting their rights. The great surprise in the last election in England was the growth of the power of the people. Russia is seeing the people rising to possess themselves of their rights as never before. The nation is being transformed. Here, the voice of the people has never been more powerful in the government than at present. It is rapidly getting more so in a large part of the world, and is a cause for rejoicing on the part of the people. Men like to feel that they can command what they consider their rights; they love power, chiefly to this end.

But at once there arises the question, What does belong to the people? How far shall this movement go? And at once dangers begin to loom up. The doctrines of Socialism propound many untried theories based upon a strange ignorance of human nature. Any system that does not take the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man into account is doomed to utter failure. There is much in the present outlook to encourage those who are seeking to obtain the rights of the people, but there is one dark cloud which is casting its shadows over the nations of the earth.

There is growing a form of popular power which darkens men's hopes of stable government. Anarchist is a word that makes kings and rulers shrink with fear. Anarchist means "against rule"-against government. He is not alone against that which is generally recognized as evil, but to him all rule and authority and government are evil, to be gotten rid of, and that by violence. Among the ignorant masses of continental Europe especially these awful doctrines are spreading. There, they are being sternly repressed, but among those who come to this country they are preached with unflagging earnestness. More dangerous are these by far in future possibilities for evil than the ignorant masses which come here under the power of Rome.

A hindrance to the progress of these doctrines is the general prosperity in this country. When "hard times" come, with discontent of the people, as they surely will, then will be the opportunity of these propagators of destruction ; and how great their capacity for harm ! Men of culture, of knowledge, of wealth, fear this propaganda of ruin :yet in great measure have themselves to blame for the rise of this class. No one could imagine that Anarchism could gain adherents among people who have faith in God, the fear of God, or His love in their hearts. But the work of that large class called "higher critics" has been to destroy these very things among all who have come under their influence. It is from Germany, the home of "higher criticism," that the worst forms of anarchistic teachings have sprung. The leaders of the modern attacks on Scripture have lived in Germany, and so also have the leaders of these destructionists. The awful horrors of the French Revolution were made possible by the destructive writings of Voltaire and his coadjutors. Those who destroy the faith of the masses in even the ordinary beliefs concerning God and eternal things, are doing work which will end in the ruin of society. The men who are busy destroying the faith of the masses in the Bible, are preparing the way for the spread of the doctrines of anarchy. If there is no divine revelation, then there is no means of telling right from wrong. "Might makes right" is one of the foundation principles of anarchy.

But men soon tire of anarchy with its horrors, and desire a ruler. So it was in France after the Revolution; so it will be in the future. And "the Beast" arises out of this period of anarchy. Now many of the evils of sin-which is revolt against God-are hidden. But the time is coming when sin will show itself in its most hideous form; when there will be exhibited to the intelligence of the universe the fruits of sin and rebellion against God in their worst phase. Now, in mercy, God is restraining sin-holding it back, that the members of the body of Christ may be gathered out. When that has been completed and removed from the earth, the restraint upon evil will also be removed, and it will be permitted to show itself without hindrance.

The present turning of the masses from the old belief in God and the Bible and Christian truth, is paving the way for this last outburst of evil. On the one hand the professing Church has become so full of evil itself that it is no longer a witness for Christ. On the other the current teachings of the most pronounced forms of unbelief in every conceivable way, are fast destroying in civilized nations the knowledge of Christian truth. Every form of error is taking its place, but more especially such forms as will pave the way for the brief time of anarchy, and the power of the Antichrist following. Thus, "higher critic" and anarchist alike are working toward the same end. Both seek to destroy what restrains the power of evil on the earth-both are laboring to establish man's will in place of God's rule. Morality, culture and refinements of civilization, hide the awful nature of sin; but the anarchist tears off the mask and makes its character known.

But the lawless mob is not the worst form of evil; it is the despot guiding the mob. Thus we can see how both the scholarly " critic," and the coarse, brutal, anarchist are really working together to the same end. Our comfort is that God is over all this, and that out of the coming " great tribulation" shall also come a "great multitude which no man could number, out of all nations and kindreds and tongues," which " have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
J. W. Newton

(Jottings.)

Grace is favor extended, and where it was never deserved, nor by any act merited; and even where there may have been great hostility and bitter enmity. The grace of a Saviour God thus flows out to the whole world.

God's people also have grace, present grace extended to them through life. "Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you." Grace-undeserved favor- because their greatest acts done for Him, they judge in His light, are but the workings of the Holy Spirit in them-nothing of themselves:-"when ye shall have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants" (Luke 17:10).

" Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory" (Psa. 115:i).

Mercy suggests another thought, and that is God's pity. He saw the condition and the need of man, and also his helplessness, and this touched His heart, and moved His compassions, and here He extends mercy. He is the "Father of mercies" (2 Cor. 1:3). and "God, who is rich in mercy "(Eph. ii, 4). First, He shows His mercy to sinners; second, God extends His mercy also to His people, for, in a world that affords no help, He sees their infirmities and extends help and aid.

" Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy " (Heb. 4:16).

Peace is the issue-the result of the two former, and is also for those to whom the two former are
extended. It is made good to the soul by the Holy Spirit, and when God's testimony in the gospel is received by faith. And the greater the need, the more it brings out the greatness of God's resources to meet it. Peace also is twofold. First, for believers when justified. This is for the conscience in regard to our sins and guilt-peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Second, "Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you," this is peace to God's people, individually and collectively – the Spirit's desire for a redeemed people, that day by day, and hour by hour, we should enjoy peace of heart. Peace about all circumstances, amid all difficulties. It is for the heart of God's people (Phil 4:6, 7; 2 Thess. 3:16).

Righteousness is God's consistency maintained,- God acting in perfect consonance with all His attributes-He who is love as well as light, who is holy as well as gracious. There is perfect consistency in every thought, plan, word and act on the part of God.

Atonement is the great thought of both the Old Testament and the New. Atonement by blood is the foundation of all God's actions toward men. God who is holy, who is righteous, can stretch out the hand in sovereign mercy and grace to men, what-ever their sins may be, if men do but from the heart say, " I have sinned, and perverted that which was right"-confess their wrong. "Then He is gracious to him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom "-an atonement (Job 33:24-28).

Atonement is also the basis upon which God continues His blessings and favors to His own people, amid all their shortcomings and failures day by day. Thus their eternal blessings and relationships with God are both established and maintained by the blood of atonement (i John 2:i, 2; 4:4, 10). God is a just God and yet a Saviour. The cross of Christ-the blood of Atonement,-furnishes a key that unlocks all these treasures of divine truth, solves these great mysteries, and unravels every difficulty; and God righteously extends grace, mercy and peace to all. A. E B.

(First published about 1870; by F. W. G.)

FOURTH LETTER.

My dear brother:-The grand point then, surely, in the Lord's Supper is the remembrance of Him, while doing it nevertheless in the apprehension of His presence with us always, according to His promise, "In the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto Thee." We shall best enter into His praise as we most simply have our eyes fixed upon Himself- as our sayings and doings cease to occupy us, and we become receptive of His glory, and of His joy. Thus the pipes will be filled and the stream of praise flow out. The scene in the upper chamber at Jerusalem will be repeated; only upon His dear face will be no shadow of the darkness so soon to come, but the brightness of a morning without clouds, the morning of resurrection. His own hands will distribute the bread to us; the melody of His own praise will fill our hearts; the nearness in which He stands to God will make our meeting to be indeed in the holiest of all, as He presents us to His Father and our Father. Oh that He Himself were thus ever before us as the great Actor in the Presence-chamber of God, anticipating His future Melchisedek work, as He brings forth the bread and wine, and blesses God in our behalf, and blesses us from God!

Only let me guard this from any mistake. We must not so conceive His acting for and by us here, as to suppose it needful to exclude His being the object of praise as well as the Giver. We must not think it an interruption if our voice break in too with "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain; " for here the Spirit of God is only putting us "in communion with the Father',"as well as "with His Son Jesus Christ." Surely we may say this is needed, in order that "fulness of joy," which the apostle connects with this, may be manifested in our assembly. Would there be no lack of harmony in the Father's ear, if the note of praise to the Beloved Son were absent from our worship ? Does not the Father claim our communion with Himself, as also the Son with Himself ? Do we worship the Father aright, when we refuse or omit the worship of the Son ? When every knee shall bow in subjection to the Son, it will be "to the glory of God the Father;" and now, as our hearts bow in homage to the Son, the Father too is glorified.

If it be asked, "When the Lord gave thanks in the upper chamber at Jerusalem, did He give thanks
unto Himself ?". it may be fully conceded that He did not and could not; but this by no means implies that we are in such sense either to imitate Him, or to be His mouthpieces, as to be excluded from His praise. Pipes we may be through which His joy and praise flow forth; but yet not mere pipes :the figure would fail, if thus pressed, as all figures somewhere fail. We are not mere pipes or machines, but beings with hearts, which, if God fills and uses, He uses according to their nature, not arbitrarily repressing the emotions stirred by Himself. Our praise would not be even the echo of His praise if He who leads it has not His own place in it.

"Communion with the Father" necessitates it, as I have said:and without communion with the Father, the whole character of worship, which is the fruit of communion, is fatally lowered.

I return to what we were just now considering, that occupation with Christ is what is to give character to gathering at His table. From this, worship will follow, not as legal requirement, and not as an official performance, but as the overflow of hearts filled up with Him.

The tendency to degenerate into officialism has to be watched and guarded against. So many, alas, are not just in the requisite state of soul-so many who are occupied all the week with other things, and on the Lord's day are disposed to hand over to others the activities of a priestly calling which belongs to all. Hence certain individuals come to be looked upon as the quasi-official priesthood; and especially those who are known as publicly engaged in the Lord's work-preachers and teachers, for example- are apt to be put into this place.

A long step towards clericalism is thus taken, and an actual, if not formal, barrier is set up to any saint beside, especially if illiterate, infringing upon that which comes to be looked upon as the place of a special few.

This is a great evil, and which is budding out extensively into a real quenching of the Spirit, and destruction of the power of worship, while those engaged in secular employments (so called) shelter their unspirituality under these. Let brethren look to it how they acquiesce in this, whether by putting or being put into any such distinctive place. Worship is not official; and all God's saints are worshipers; women alone being (because of what is suited to their creation-place) enjoined to be silent in the assembly. All other restriction is unscriptural and injurious; and terribly so the thought of any lawful calling (lawful to the Christian, of course I mean) being opposed or derogatory to spirituality. If we cannot " abide with God " in it, we have no business with it at all. No real duty is a weight. If it seem to be so to us, either it is not a duty, or we are not taking it up in reality as such.

But, in fact, there are few places like the Lord's table for revealing to oneself the true state of one's soul. If with the precious memorials of His death before us, and Himself present in our midst, the Holy Ghost, who is come to occupy us with Him, is only able to occupy us with ourselves; or, worse still, if our thoughts wander without rebuke from Him who should have power to engage them with Himself, what does it reveal but a state in which Christ shares but the lesser portion of a divided heart ? Whatever our burdens, whatever filled our hands or took up our time-were our hearts free, what a holiday time that would be in which they could escape to the object of their desire! and the blessed Spirit of God-could He lack power or will to fulfil the work which He has taken upon Himself ? The rabble of disorderly thoughts-could they press in to take possession of a soul in the presence of its Lord ?

May He possess us so with Himself that all else shall fall into its place in the great anthem which our lives should raise to Him, and which should never find more complete and harmonious expression than when, with Himself before us, we (anticipating the song of eternity) "show the Lord's death until He come."

"Yea, He loved the people ; all His saints are in Thy hand:and they sat down at Thy feet; every one shall receive of Thy words."

That third verse came before me, dear brethren, I and I thought what a precious word it is for our souls. The first thing is, "He loved the people;" and the second, He cared for them. That is God's side-the loving and the caring. " He loved the people; all His saints are in His hand." It is like that 10th of John; " I give unto My sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand," so that being in that hand, there is perfect safety-perfect security. There is all the love of His heart going out with all the strength of His hand, because He loves those whom He cares for. "All His saints are in His hand" shows His love and care; and He is their security and everything else.

Then there is our side:"they sat down at His feet." There is quietness in that, and there is rest and confidence. They sat down at His feet; that is the place where Mary sat; she sat at His feet and heard His word:that is the attitude. Then there is that passage in Matthew where the Lord said," Make the people sit down." Then when He got them seated He filled the baskets and the disciples carried them round. He got them at rest and in quiet before Him first, and then He met all their needs. It is a great thing when we can just sit down in quietness and in confidence with the opened ear to hear what He has to say to us. "Make the people sit down on the green grass," the Lord said, and they made them sit down; and then He multiplied the loaves and the fishes, and the disciples carried them round. They were gathered together, and He got them sitting down at rest as gathered together, and then His loving hand ministered to them. We have a little example of that here today; the Lord has gathered us together, and we are at rest before Him, and now He gives us the bread of life. He just gives it, as it were, to His servants that they may hand it round to us all and we each get our portion, "every man according to his eating." But if Christ had not been there at that time the disciples would not have had anything to carry round, so that His presence is the essential thing. Christ must be there or there is nothing to take round. So that if we sit at His feet, having the opened ear to receive of His words, we shall hear what He has to say, and if He has a word for any of us and we receive it, it carries blessing to our souls. It could not be otherwise. We receive His words, and is it not a blessed thing to receive of His words and get them into our hearts? I do not want to enlarge upon the thing, because I know there are others who would like to say a word to us; I just wanted to draw attention to the passage. There are the two things on God's side and there are the two things on ours. He loved the people; that is an immense thing to begin with; we are the objects of the Lord's love. "Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." There it is, and we know it and enjoy it. "All His saints are in His hand." There they are safe and secure and everything they want is wrapped up in Him. He loves them and He cares for them.

Then there are the other two things; they sat down at His feet, at rest-perfectly happy-and they just want to hear what He has to say. If we want to hear what the Lord has to say we will get blessing, it will come home to our hearts with power, but we must sit at His feet in quiet to hear it.
Wm. Easton, New Zealand

In trustful reverence we ask,
What has the Saviour said
To those who in the sunlight bask
And in His footsteps tread?
That human souls in every land
May know the living way,
What did our risen Lord command
His messenger to say?

As those who do in Him believe,
And Him as Saviour own;
We would unto His teachings cleave,
And follow Him alone.
And as we view His nail-pierced hand
This question ask we now,
What did our risen Lord command
Believing ones to do?

Where there is grief and woe and shame
And discord, fear, and strife;
We would, as those who love His name,
Hold "forth the word of life."
We ask with those who waiting stand
And hope His face to see,
What did our risen Lord command
His faithful ones to be?

T. Watson

Keady, Ont, 1905

QUES. 15.-What is the force of the passage in 1 Tim. 3:15 :"The house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth?" What is the idea of pillar and ground?

ANS.-Such passages as Gen. 19:26-Lot's wife "became a pillar of salt;" ditto, 28:18-"Jacob . . . took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el;'' Ex. 33:9-"As Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses;" these, and others like them, show plainly that a chief idea in the pillar is that it is a witness to, or proclaims, something of importance. And the Church, by her very constitution, proclaims something of vast importance-the great "mystery of godliness," given in detail in the verse following that of your question. Bat as Paul was teaching all these things to Timothy to form his Christian character, that he might know how to behave himself in the house of God, so is the Church taught by the word of God in all the truth, that her character may be formed by it, that she may conduct herself according to the truth, and thus be the "ground" (support) "of the truth." It is the practical conduct of the people of God which supports the truth in the world. Inconsistency in them produces unbelief and discredit of the truth. Thus the Church is the pillar of the truth by what she proclaims, or rather by what God proclaims in her ; and she is the ground, or support, of the truth by the character she bears and her practical holiness.

QUES. 16.-We firmly believe, and justly so, I believe, that the three Persons in the Trinity-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-are co-equal and co-eternal. In what way, then, are we to understand John 14:28 :" My Father is greater than I ? "

ANS.-They are the same in nature, from and to all eternity, just as any man's son is absolutely the same as his father in nature. But in position the Father is greater than the Son, in the Godhead as also in creation.

The history of God's ancient people, from Egypt to Canaan, is fraught with richest instruction, especially when it is understood that their history was formed by a divine hand, molded for a certain purpose. They were a typical people; and concerning this part of their history, it is written, "Now all these things happened unto them for types :and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (i Cor. 10:ii).

In the land of Egypt we learn of their degradation and bondage. Eleven chapters describe their real condition – their burdens, their sorrows and their bitter tears (Ex. 1:-11:); but God, whose compassions are great and fail not, beheld their condition; His heart was moved, and He remembered His covenant with their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, "and God had respect unto them" (Ex. 2:24, 25).

In the person of Moses, God raised up a deliverer, a savior, and sent him to them on an errand, an errand of mercy and of love, with power. When we reach chapter twelve of that very remarkable book, we find a great change-the dawn of a new day for that favored people whom Jehovah claimed as His own.

First:The Passover (Ex. xii ).

In this chapter God brings in a new beginning- openly connecting that people with His Name. His
purpose was to bring them out of Egypt, through the desert, and into the land of promise-the land that "flowed with milk and honey" (chap. 3:8). The first lesson He would teach them was the need of a passover lamb. Our chapter describes that lamb fully, and enforces the need on the part of each to see that the blood of the lamb was sprinkled upon the door-posts of his house. For, it must be remembered, they were sinners as were the Egyptians, they were idolaters as were also the Egyptians, and in these things there was no difference; but when God spoke, they heard and obeyed His voice (chap. 4:29-31); hence, God said, "I will put a division (literally, a redemption, margin) between My people and thy people" (chap. 8:23). At this point we see the people turning to God from idols, as did the new converts at Thessalonica at an after date (i Thess. 1:9). They also accepted God's appointed way as did Abel before them (Gen. 4:4), and God provided a place of safety for His people upon that dark night, when He executed judgment upon the land of Egypt.

The lamb was God's appointed means of safety- of deliverance from judgment. The blood upon the door-posts outside was sufficient for God's eye to rest upon-" When I see the blood, I will pass over you." And this people, taken up in God's sovereign grace, could, behind the blood-stained lintel, rest satisfied, in perfect safety, and feast upon the lamb roast with fire, with the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs.

In all this we see a clear, plain picture of Christ. " For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us " (i Cor. 5:7). The blood gave Israel safety and peace ; the blood of Christ secures salvation and
peace, through the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life to every soul to-day who hears and believes the message, receiving the incorruptible word of God into the heart by faith.

Thus, Israel start on their journey a redeemed people, and that memorial month was for them "the beginning of months." So with us, when the soul accepts God's Lamb, there is a new beginning, a new birth, a new life, a new relationship-all based upon the blood of Christ, God's Lamb. Blessed start! Blessed journey, and blessed end!

Second:The Red Sea (Ex. 14:).

We leave the place of Israel's birth, the scene of their slavery-"the house of bondage"-and under the guiding of the Shekinah cloud we journey to the Red Sea. For, be it remembered, the cloud guided them in all the journey from the place where the blood was sprinkled (Ex. 14:21)-type of the Holy Spirit indwelling and guiding God's people now, consequent upon new birth and redemption by the blood (Rom. 5:5; i Cor. 6:19; Gal. 3:2; 4:6; Eph. 1:13).

At the Red Sea they encamped "before Pi-hahi-roth"("door of liberty"). The Red Sea was that door of liberty-God's appointed way of deliverance for them from the bondage of Egypt and Pharaoh, as the passover-lamb had been from divine judgment. Thus we see in their history a double deliverance:one secured them from God's wrath against their sins ; the other, from the terrible rule of Pharaoh.

That proud, haughty ruler had made them his slaves. They formed part of his dominion, and this extended as far as the Red Sea; but when God opened up the Sea and passed Israel through, they were free. Before this they groaned and wept; now, delivered, they rejoiced and sang (Ex. 15:).

Here we can compare scripture with scripture again, and find the beautiful analogy between the Old Testament and the New. In the New Testament we learn of the reign, rule, or dominion, of Sin (Rom, 5:21; 6:6; 7:23), which has sway in the whole human race-in every human heart away from God. Pharaoh's dominion had a limit, and so has that of Sin:one ruled as far as the Red Sea; the other, as far as death; but in either case the rule extends no further. The Red Sea is thus another illustration of Christ's death; only, His people being now linked with Him by the Spirit, they pass through death in Him. This is God's appointed way of deliverance for them from the world (Egypt), and from the power, rule and dominion of Sin (Pharaoh). This lesson is fully given in Rom. 6:

Thus as Israel passed through the Red Sea and were free, so we pass through death in Christ and are crucified to the world-separated from it forever, and freed from the dominion of sin under which the world is. It can be easily seen that this is a further lesson for us to learn than that of forgiveness of sins and justification, as in Rom. 3:, 4:, and 5:, just as the Red Sea lesson differs from that of the passover. All believers have, as Israel, in God's sight passed through the Red Sea. All have been crucified with Christ, and no longer live as sinners before God. As sinners, they "are dead" (Col. 3:3) Many be-believers may not have grasped this truth in their souls, and thus lose the blessing which surely follows every ray of light which enters the human soul. Israel were free from the dominion of Pharaoh, and we are free from the dominion of sin; not yet free from the presence of sin, for it still exists within us, as all around us, but we are free from its rule. So we are enjoined "let not therefore sin reign in your mortal body " (Rom. 6:12). This truth gives great rest to the soul, when apprehended. It gives rest in God's way not in the way many think, 1:e., give battle to indwelling sin with the hope to exterminate it. The principle of evil we all inherit from natural birth abides as long as we abide here; but when the believer grasps the Red Sea lessons, with their application as set forth in the sixth chapter of Romans, its fruits are both deliverance and sanctification.

This is experimental progress from what we have in Rom. 3:-5:, but progress of faith, as the Red Sea was a further lesson for Israel from the passover. Many are confused in their minds as to these different and important steps in the Christian course, and thus lose much blessing. It is of immense importance we should learn that the truth of the passover, and of Rom. 3:-5:which corresponds with it, is for the establishment of our relationship with God. The first moment the soul accepts Christ, there is forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38); there is deliverance from wrath to come (i Thess. 1:10); there is no future judgment (Jno. 5:24), for all these questions are settled, and the relationship, as born of God, is all established-the eternal issues are settled forever between the soul and God. But this is not all. There is the wilderness to go through-the sin that still dwells in us, the world full of sin all about us, and a holy walk with God through it all incumbent upon us. It is for this the truth of the Red Sea, with its corresponding lessons in Rom. 6:and 7:, has been given to us. May there be earnestness to grasp, and profit by, these divine provisions.

After Israel passed the Sea, Pharaoh's rule passed away from them. That slavery, under his dominion, was a thing of the past, and now Moses, God's deliverer, was the appointed ruler and guide of that people across the desert to Canaan. Muses took the place of Pharaoh.

The same in Rom. 6::the rule of sin is broken- annulled by the death of Christ. We are delivered from sin, as the old ruler, and free now to serve another-Him who is alive, risen-Jesus Christ our Lord.* *The reader will do well to read with care this whole chapter in the epistle to the Romans. Sins are the great question of chaps, 3:, 4:, and up to chap. 5:11. Then, from chap. 5:12 to 6:23, the subject is not guilt, not sins, but the evil principle within, that produced those sins. That evil principle within is called "sin."* We have, as Israel, changed masters, and are free to serve righteousness, to serve Christ the Lord. Glorious and blessed is this further deliverance, proclaimed to a people already under the shelter of the blood-who may be already rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins. The progress is progress experimentally, progress in the truth, progress in the faith; and this is also progress in sanctification, according to John 17:17-" Sanctify them through Thy truth:Thy Word is truth." A. E. B.

(To be continued, D. V).

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

'Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer;
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He'd answer my request,
And by His love's constraining power
Subdue my will and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea, more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed;
Blasted my gourd, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this ? I, trembling, cried.
Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death ? "
'Tis in this way," the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

"These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free,
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou mayest seek thy all in Me."

QUES. 6. What difference is between "peace with God" and " the peace of God " ?

ANS. "Peace with God," as mentioned in Rom. 5:1, is the result of believing what has been declared before in the first four chapters of the Epistle-the fallen state of man, his guilt, and the salvation provided by the grace of God through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. This brings peace-divine rest forever to the conscience.

" The peace of God,!; as it is called in Phil. 4:7, is in relation to oar circumstances. God is almighty. No matter what is going on, He is superior to all, able to make anything and everything serve His own ends and purposes of good. He ever dwells in peace therefore, for nothing can overcome Him. It is in that peace- His peace-we shall dwell too, if we live near enough to Him to be able "in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to let our requests be made known unto God" (ver. 6). Thus shall we be kept by His peace, even when human reasonings would overwhelm us. May we all know more what this is.

One of the follies of those who industriously attack the authenticity of the Bible is that they make conclusions when they are incapable of obtaining all the facts involved, or of considering at one time all that may be brought forth against their position. New facts are constantly being brought to light that should have been included in their investigations, and without which their position must be most insecure. Indeed, I am persuaded that all the arguments of any particular person against the Bible have not satisfied their own minds as being conclusive. F. H. J.

This a subject that needs to be kept to the front:the reasons are good and sufficient for this assertion, chiefly because the denial of eternal punishment is linked invariably with the worst kinds of errors, and also because it is becoming so very prevalent in the Church at large.

Were the question, as so many think, one of eternal punishment alone, it would not require so much attention, but could be allowed to rest where other more or less erroneous things are allowed to rest; that is, with the individual conscience.

But it ought to be apparent on the face of it that anything so vitally connected with the death of Christ in relation to sin, must of necessity be of the greatest possible importance, although it may not appear so at first sight. Whatever is so vitally associated with Christ's death must in some way partake of the character, as to importance, of that death. Is it not safe to say that the punishment of the unrepentant must be measured by the death of Christ for sin ? Is it not correct to say that the death of Christ is measured by the character of the person who died ? Does not that death necessarily reflect what must be the punishment of those who die in their sins ? Although the death on the cross receives its true value from what and who He is that died, yet that only the more reveals the true character of sin, and consequently the punishment for sin. The death of Christ and the punishment of the unrepentant must correspond.

We may perhaps be able to find an illustration that will enable us to see what is involved in sin, and how sin on the part of finite man can be infinite in effect. Suppose a flag of the United States was insulted. Is not the whole nation insulted ? Does every flag, or every citizen, have to be insulted before the nation is injured ? No; a part here is equivalent to the whole. Nor does the source of the insult have to be a nation of equal standing with the one insulted; it may be the most insignificant country insulting the greatest nation on earth; the result is the same. The insult is measured by the character of the nation insulted. Or, to refer to a fact in nature, we can illustrate our point still more clearly. The luminous either is supposed to be coextensive with space, and of absolutely uniform texture. Suppose we now form the mental image of a luminous body like our sun placed exactly in the center of this ether. The agitation of the ether by the luminous body will now radiate from it in every direction, and thus the whole of the ether will be agitated from a single body at the center. And as the ether may be said to be infinitely large in extension and the luminous body as of finite dimensions, and, compared with the ether, it may be said to be infinitely small, so we can picture in our minds something infinitely small setting in motion something else that is infinitely great. It is just so with sin. It is against God, and therefore the effect of sin, or what sin is, must be measured by what God is. To sin against the love of God, is to sin against infinite Love; to sin against His holiness, is to sin against infinite Holiness:and so with every attribute of God, it is to sin against infinity, to sin against God. Thus to sin against God, though man is finite, his sin is infinite. And so all this talk about God being too good to punish finite sin with infinite punishment falls to the ground as void of truth.

But there are other ways of arriving at the same conclusions concerning eternal punishment. And when we say punishment we mean infliction of pain, and not cutting off or extinction after death, as some mean when they use the word punishment. When a person uses the word to mean something else than eternal punishment, they mean eternal cutting off, or eternal annihilation, or eternal unconsciousness, but not eternal punishment.

In Heb. 9:22 we are told that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission " (of sins).Now, if the blood of Christ is the only means by which sins are cleansed or remitted, it is evident that punishment cannot; and if punishment cannot remove sins, and as the soul lives forever, the punishment must last as long as sin remains-that is, forever. If we say that punishment remits sins, we deny Heb. 9:22. The blood of Christ and punishment cannot both cleanse from sin; it must be one or the other, and the word of God says that sins are cleansed by blood. Thus it is one of the two; and since Scripture nowhere says punishment cleanses from sin, it remains, as stated in Heb. 9:2:2, that the blood of Christ alone does. But there is another way that eternal punishment is seen to be a Scripture doctrine. In i Peter 2:24 we have it distinctly stated that Jesus bore the sins of believers in His own body on the tree. Now it is plain that if He bore them, they are gone; for surely none will say that He still bears them. And if sins are gone only when borne by Jesus on the cross, manifestly those who reject Him have their sins upon themselves, and must bear them. But to bear one's own sins is to bear them for eternity, seeing that they can be removed only when borne by Christ. So that we have the conclusion that one, bearing his own sins, must bear them for eternity, and punishment for sin must last as long as sin remains, that is, for eternity; for punishment for sin must be coextensive in duration with the presence of sin. Each succeeding instant finds the sins still there, and so also the punishment for sin.

Another important passage is found in John 8:ax. Those who reject the Son of God are said to be in a state that prevents them from going to Him in heaven. "Ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins," axe the solemn words of Jesus. To "die in sins " is a very important statement. Does the state or condition "in sins " cease at death ? The following considerations show that "in sins" continues after death. Where did Jesus speak of going ? To the Father. Did any at that time ever think of going to the Father as natural men, or before death ? No; they would go to Him after death, if at all. It was not simply death that would prevent them from going to be with Him, but the condition that death would reach them in-"in sins." And since it was only after death that they could hope to go to Him, it is clear that the reason they could not go to Him is that they would be in their sins after death. If death was the only thing that stood in their way from going to Him, why did He mention "in your sins" at all ? It was their sins that prevented them from going where He was going; hence it was "in sins" after death.

So with Hebrews 9:27. If "in sins" is only until death, how can there be judgment after death ? But since there is judgment after death, it remains that there is also a state of being "in sins" after death. And since there is nothing to alter that state or condition after death, punishment must be everlasting.

When does a believer go to be with Jesus ? After death. And why can such go to Him ? Because they have no sins upon them-they are not "in sins." They can therefore go to Him. Believers are not "in sins," but "in Christ," "in the Spirit."

When the believer obtains eternal life, a new quality is not added to the soul. Eternal life is from and in Christ, for He is Himself the eternal life. It is not a change in the nature of the soul. Hence, when a man dies, his soul continues to live whether he be a possessor of eternal life or not. But the unbeliever is "in sins." F. H. J.
'THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME."

The apostle Paul in writing to "the saints and faithful brethren in Christ" at Colosse, after giving most exalted views of the One in whom they believed, says, "Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:ii).

As believers, we should see, in the light of other portions of the precious Word, how fully He is all to| us. That Word assures us as follows:-

1.We are saved by Him (Luke 19:10; i Tim. 1:15)

2.Dead and risen with Him (Rom. 6:7, 8; Col. 2:20; Col. 3:i).

3 Complete in Him; accepted in Him; yea, seated in the heavenly places in Him (Col. 2:10; Eph. 1:6; 2:6).

4. Separated to Him (John 17:6-19; Rom. 7:4; Eph. 5:25-27; 2 Cor. 11:2).

5. Heirs through Him (Gal. 4:7).

6. Waiting for Him, or should be (i Thess. 1:10; i Cor. 1:7).

7.Soon to be like Him and with Him in the Father's presence, and there forever, without spot, and without fear (i John 3:2; i Thess. 4:16, 17; Eph. 1:4).

In short, "possessing Christ we all possess;" yes now, and in sure hope (i Cor. 3:21-23; Rom. 8:32 ; Rev. 21:7).

Say, then, is not Christ all? Is He not enough? Should we not be satisfied with Him? Yes, so satisfied with Him that we shall be willing that any modern Ziba may " take all" beside (2 Sam. 19:29, 30)-each one able exultingly to say,

" I have seen the face of Jesus!
Tell me not of ought beside;
I have heard the voice of Jesus!
All my soul is satisfied."

Happy if it be thus with us, however low our place in the vale of tears! If we have truly found our in One we Can gracefully bow to the loss of all else. R. H.

A brother writing very recently from a certain place where he is laboring in the Lord, after mentioning various cases of marked blessing and consequent additions to the Lord's people, closes his letter thus :"These tokens of blessing are solely in connection with the faithful labors and testimony of the saints here."

Is not that an illustration of the passage of Scripture which is inscribed on our front page as the motto of our little periodical ? The Lord Jesus, ascended on high in triumph, the Deliverer of His people, gives various special gifts to such as He chooses, that they may labor " for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ." That is, that those special gifts may be so used as to prepare and furnish the people of God for every kind of service needful in the body of Christ for its growth and welfare, that it may fulfil its mission as God's witness on earth.

How cheering to see thus assemblies of Christ so profited by the labors of Christ's servants as to become instruments of divine blessing all around them ! Such assemblies will not fail to thankfully receive the help of every one whom they recognize as sent by the Lord to serve them; nor will they make a clergy of them . by giving up their own responsibilities to them. Moreover, if there is one kind of sin which weakens the assemblies of Christ more than another, it is that spirit of emulation which leads the special "gifts " to make their labors appear successful. This is a strong temptation, to which every one in the Lord's work is exposed, which ruins those who yield to it, and against which the only effectual remedy is to sincerely and prayerfully seek, not the praise of men, but the praise which is from God. If the soul be honestly bent upon that alone, the blessing He may vouchsafe to give to our labor will not inflate us, for we know it is "not I, but the grace of God which was with me."Nor will drought dismay us, though it may humble us, for our work is in a land "not as the land of Egypt,…where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs :but …a land of hills and valleys, which drinketh water of the rain of heaven " (Deut. 11:10, 11).The men of Egypt have the means in their own hands to produce revivals, but the men of Canaan are wholly dependent on Heaven. If God withholds, what can we do but humble ourselves and cry to Him! May He find us honestly and constantly in that holy attitude.

At the Manchester, Kansas Conference Oct., 1905.

Chap. 3:15-iv,

(Continued from page 323- Vol. 23:)

We have now the covenant that God made with Abraham considered in relation to the law. Ques. What is a covenant?

Ans. Our verses. 15, 16, and 17 clearly tell. It is a promise made by God of something which He pledges Himself to do-the purpose of His own heart-by which a special relationship is formed between Him and the one to whom He makes the promise. In the case of Abraham now before us there are no conditions whatever, as we may see in Gen. 13:14-17, again in chap. 15:, and again to Isaac and to Israel. If we turn to Exod. 32:11-14, we shall see how Moses pleads this unconditional covenant at the very time when Israel deserved to be cut off for their ways. Nothing whatever can check God from the fulfilment of such a covenant. "Thou swarest by Thine own Self" makes it secure, whatever be the people's ways. But in Exod. 19:and 20:, there is another covenant made with the people-a conditional one. This is quite distinct and apart from the other, and, without affecting in the least the former, it brings in the dealings of God with the people because of their sinful ways. In i Kings 8:23-53, Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, refers to this conditional covenant.

It is the unconditional covenant which we have in our lesson here. The grace of God in Christ-that sovereign grace which saves to all eternity, and without any conditions whatever, every poor sinner who believes in Jesus is in nowise affected by the governmental ways of God upon those saved people, however severe they may have to be sometimes. So, the law which was given 430 years after God had made the promises, could in no wise hinder the fulfilment of the promises. It was not a condition imposed upon the unconditional grace, for conditional blessing is no grace at all. It was a totally new thing, introduced to prove to the people that grace was their only hope. Law then is given long after grace has been proclaimed, that men may learn how hopeless is their case except through sovereign grace.

Moses was the mediator of law between his people and God; and Christ is the Mediator of grace between His people and God; but both covenants are of the God who is One in all His mind, and who ordained both for the fulfilment of His one purpose. How grand are God's ways! How worthy of being searched out by us. He gave the law to teach us how desperately sinful we are; His law bringing out man's sin as transgression, so that in our despair we might turn to Christ and learn that we can become children of God only "by faith in Christ Jesus."

Ques. What is the difference between transgression and sin?

Ans. Sin is the outgoings of our sinful nature without the sense of its being forbidden. Transgression is the same under the sense that God forbids it, and this produces guilt. It makes sin "exceeding sinful."
Mark one very rich thought in this chapter:In ver. 16, the Spirit applies to Christ what the letter of the promise to Abraham applies to Isaac. We see in this how Christ fills the mind and heart of God.; Isaac – real fulfilment of the promise as he was- was only a figure of Christ who is the true Seed of Abraham. But in ver. 29, we, believers, are also called Abraham's seed. Does not this show the divine oneness in which we stand with Christ? And, whatever be the government of God upon us on the way, this oneness with Christ is what the grace of God has formed, and it never changes. In this New Creation oneness "there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. Peter's gospel left the Jew still a Jew, and the Greek still a Greek, but Paul's did not. It was a revelation beyond Peter's, ushering in far deeper and more blessed things. It was taught to Paul by the Lord in heaven, whilst Peter had been taught by the Lord on earth. And you find in Scripture that the position the Lord occupies when He gives a revelation has much to do with the character of the revelation He gives.

Chap. 4:introduces to us the difference between the children of God before Christ came and since. They were born of God just the same as we are; children of God just the same as we are; possessors of eternal life just the same as we are. But they had not the intelligence of it as we have; nor the comfort of it therefore as we have; nor the power of it -A their souls and for their lives as we have; for since Christ has come and accomplished redemption, the Spirit has come and taken His abode in us. This was not before; the Spirit wrought in and with the people of God but did not dwell in them. We can have the comforts and joys of an accomplished redemption, but they could only look forward to its being accomplished. They had the dark cloud of the sufferings of Christ between them and the glory, whilst with us this cloud is past, and with unveiled faces we can look into the glory into which we may be transferred at any moment.

So by the appointment of God, they were just where a little child is by the appointment of his father under tutors and governors-and, though lord of all, differing in nothing from a servant.

Ques. But they were not mere servants, were they?

Ans. No, no more than a child is a mere servant because he is, for the time being, placed under tutors. There had to be a training for our souls which could be done effectually only in this way. What a blessing to us all this is. And indeed though we are not by the appointment of God under tutors any more, yet what practical lessons for us in all this. How much of legal bondage we sometimes pass through before we fairly enjoy our God-given place as sons. And when we do, we wake up to find that Christendom in general is but one vast Judaism- all " fallen from grace."

But whatever Christendom in general has become, the truth remains; Christ has obtained an eternal redemption for us by His blood; we are saved eternally by it; we know it because God says so; "and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." None of the Old Testament saints could use that cry. The least of the New Testament saints uses it freely, even if hampered and befogged by the legal teachings all around.

Ques. So then though we be not in our true Christian state, yet we are not in the Old Testament place.

Ans. Quite so. Else how could we teach believers? For teaching believers is instructing them, in what belongs to them in Christ, that we may pre-sent them perfect in Christ Jesus, that is, as men who have apprehended the rich grace of God toward them and have grown thereby into a true Christian state.

From ver. 9, he rebukes them for returning to law, instead of going on to acquire that Christian state, Here minds them of his "infirmity of the flesh" when he brought the gospel to them. The gospel of God's grace was so sweet and blessed to them that they did not despise its messenger because of that infirmity. Why had they so changed? Why was he now, as it were, pushed aside by them ?Was it not because the "blessedness"had left their souls through receiving a gospel which was not the gospel? Then from ver. 21, he seals his instruction by introducing the two sons of Abraham, one by the free, the other by the bond, woman. The free woman is the type of grace, and of the Jerusalem above, whose children we, who are of faith, are. The bond-woman is law, and the earthly Jerusalem, whose children are those who earn their way by law-keeping. And grace with her children has ever been an object of persecution by the children of the law. Grace abases man, law exalts him. Grace exalts Christ; law makes Him of no effect-for law-keepers need no Saviour. Grace binds the heart to Christ and constrains us to a path of obedience to Him in all things; law makes man self-important and leaves him self-willed. So therefore "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." How sweet is the last verse of our lesson. " So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free."

(To be continued.)

NOTE-The attention of the Editor has been called to the answer given to Ques. 16, in our July number, which is liable to be misunderstood, chiefly because of what it omits saying. He therefore supplies the deficiency here:

The three Persons in the Trinity-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -being in nature the same, coequal and coeternal, there can therefore be no disparity between them, nor precedence of One over the Other.

But to accomplish God's purposes of love and glory, the Son, in grace, became man, and this necessitated the place of subjection which, in creation, a sou has toward his father. It is only in this sense, therefore, that the Lord could possibly say, "My Father is greater than I." Nor does this in the slightest degree interfere with His place and eternal glory as God, any more than His humanity interferes with His deity. Nay, more; for He has by this place of subjection and humiliation accomplished that which but brings new luster to the glory of God-to His glory, therefore, who is indeed "the true God and eternal life."

Holy indeed is the theme, calling upon us to take off our shoes when we approach it, lest there be found with us fault even in expression.

(Continued from page. 230.)

Third:Edom (Num. 20:14-21; Deut. 2:4-15.)

The believer's life is one of continued progress toward the end, as was Israel's:but all their exercises did not cease with Egypt, nor yet at the Red Sea. Onward and upward was their march toward the land of their inheritance, with further lessons to be learned in God's school. These lessons, however, are of a different order, and belong no more to the book of Exodus, but to that of Numbers. "Edom "lay across their path to the promised land (Num. 20:14-21). It lay side by side with Israel the whole forty years across the desert. It represents the flesh now in the believer. God warned His people not to meddle with it; they were not to war with Edom (Deut. 2:4-8.)

Edom is a word almost identical with Adam, and the fact of this enemy of God's ancient people being left beside them day by day for forty years, was a humiliating lesson for them ; it was a trial calculated to lead them to continual prayerfulness and watchfulness to the end.

They had escaped one enemy-Pharaoh, but afterward needed to watch against another – Esau, or Edom. These were very real lessons for Israel; and when we consider that they convey parallel lessons to us, we search the New Testament to find what these lessons are, and what it is that answers to this new and hateful foe of God's people of old.

Romans 6:14, "Sin shall not have dominion over you "answers as we have seen, to the rule of Pharaoh the previous part of the epistle telling how it was broken. Rom. 7:"For I know that in me, (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing," answers to Edom. It is the flesh which remains in the believer until the end, and which, though condemned, is side by side with the new nature, as was Edom also with Israel. With neither of these enemies was Israel to "fight. Deliverance from their power was not by the effort of man, but by God. We have seen how He set them free from Pharaoh and what answers to this in ourselves. In the same way, with Edom they were not to meddle ; it teaches us that the way to gain mastery over the flesh which is in us is not by meddling with it, but by treating it as condemned, and reckoning ourselves dead to it. Esau and Jacob are yet along side each other. That which is born of the flesh, (the elder) yet dwells beside that which is born of the Spirit (the younger); and the only way to overcome the flesh which dwells in us is to walk in the. Spirit. Thus shall we not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, and thus only shall the elder be subject to the younger. The power now in those born of God is on the side of right, not of wrong; on the side of holiness, not of sinfulness. Occupation with good is our only means to escape the power of the evil in us. Other enemies there are, ahead of us, which demand battle (such as Eph. 6:10-18), but in Romans 6:and 7:the key to and secret of victory is not to fight, but faith treating it as condemned, and placing God between us and it. If Christ and the blessed things which are in Christ are kept before the heart, and communion is cultivated with Him where He is now, and the truth of His Word searched and loved, we will realize indeed that the flesh is yet in us, as Edom was alongside Israel, but its presence need be no hindrance, for the Spirit in us gives us power to refuse its workings. It will keep us humble however. It will produce prayerfulness and watchfulness at every step of the way. It will cast us upon God as our only wall of defense against it, and for the needed grace to ever treat it as an enemy and a thing utterly condemned by Him. What immense relief this gives the soul! and how much unnecessary trouble is saved by following God's thought, grasping His mind in this, and being truly subject to Him day by day which is the path itself of practical sanctification and true holiness.

Fourth:The River Jordan (Joshua 3:, 4:). In the Passover we saw what removed God's judgment from His people and what lays the ground for their redemption and relationship with Himself. In the Red Sea, what further blessing we have in Christ's death, as God's appointed way for our deliverance from the bondage of law and the power of sin.

In Edom, God's way with His people in relation to the principle of sin, the flesh, which abides in
them to the end.

Now in the crossing of Jordan the Spirit puts another touch upon the canvass, and thus completes the picture of what and where the Christian is in the eyes of God-that is, how God views him in Christ, and the place he occupies.

The passing of the Red Sea had let them out of the place of slavery. The passing of Jordan gives their entrance into "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it" (Deut. 8:7-9.).

Jordan sets forth our death with Christ; and as the twelve stones were brought up out of Jordan and placed on the Canaan side, it is a reminder that the people who descended in Jordan had also risen up and had. entered their possessions in the land of promise. We have here the lessons of Colossians iii, "risen with Christ." We have died with Him, but we are also risen with Him. The step from Romans 6:and Vii. to Col. 3:is, as in Israel's case, from the Red Sea to Jordan, from Exodus to Joshua. Christ has died, was buried, but He now is alive and risen; and God sees all His people in living association with Christ, the glorified Head of the new creation-those redeemed and brought to God. Has He died? so have we. Has He been buried ? so have we. Is He risen ? so are we. Has He entered the heavenlies ? (as we fully see in Eph. 1:and 2:) so have we-as seen by the eye of God, in the person of the Lord our living representative. True, we are not there with Him yet, but we are seen in Him there, and that is the fullest and most perfect pledge and assurance that, at His coming, we shall be also with Him. Thus, in God's reckoning, we have passed over Jordan because the Lord has passed over; we have died with Christ and are risen with Him; and further, in Christ we are seated in heavenly places.

All those stages in Israel's history were planned by a divine mind and traced by the divine hand. What a new scene spread before them as they passed over Jordan! The land (for us, type of the heaven-lies) spread before them with its hills and valleys, fountains and streams, its wheat and barley," etc., a glorious, pleasant land. They were our types, and so is their land; the better things were reserved for us, and those blessings are ours now. As to the apprehension of the truth, many believers never pass beyond the wilderness, if even, as to their experience, they pass the Red Sea. They, according to the beggarly thoughts of the natural mind, suppose that the enjoyment such as is presented here is only for the end, when we are taken home to heaven. But God spreads all our inheritance, His gracious gift to us, before our souls, and He would have us, by faith now, lay hold of all of it. As to our bodies we are yet in the world-in Egypt; as to our day by day experience we realize that this world is but a. wilderness through which we are passing; but, being in Christ, we are already heirs of everything, and God our Father would have us exercise the faith which apprehends our heavenly portion now; and by the help of the Holy Spirit we are led into our heavenly place and blessings, there to rejoice in the riches of God's grace and the riches of His glory.

Fifth :Gilgal (Joshua 5:1-9). The people are now in the land of their inheritance. To us, the parallel is that by faith we have apprehended the place which is ours in Christ Jesus-a place full of heavenly blessings. Israel was to take possession step by step of the land and all that was in it. So are we, when once we know our place in Christ, to take possession by faith of the blessings we have in Him. But enemies were there, and they were now to battle with the enemies, and enter into the enjoyment of all their possessions, as we too must give battle against our spiritual foes in order to lay hold of our heavenly blessings. Israel proved slack in this. And do not we ?

Gilgal was their first camping ground in the land, and the place of their circumcision which had been neglected in the wilderness. Their exercises and trials did not cease when they crossed Jordan, but they changed. So we are not to suppose that our trials end when we have found our place in Christ, but their character is changed. They had to contend with the seven nations there, and drive them out; but in this, alas, they often failed. So have we to contend with enemies such as mentioned in Eph vi, 12. As a matter of fact, their conflicts in the wilderness were few; they had a skirmish with Amalek, but after they crossed the Jordan they were in frequent battle. Their pilgrim character in the wilderness becomes a soldier character in Canaan. At Gilgal, upon their entrance in the land, they are circumcised; they roll away the reproach of Egypt. This reproach was their slavery, their bondage; in being circumcised they declared that they were no longer Egyptian slaves, but God's freemen. Free indeed! Free from condemnation, from the power of sin with all its degradation; free from all, to be only God's forever! What a declaration!

Gilgal to us is in Col. 3:5. After we have learned that we have died with Christ and are risen with Him, we reach also our spiritual Gilgal, and there we are to use the sharp knife as did Israel. We are
not to tolerate in ourselves anything unsuited to, or inconsistent with, the Lord and His holiness. " Mortify (put to death) therefore your members." At this stage we are beyond the lessons of Pharaoh and Edom, but we are to remember the flesh is in us still, even though we are born of God, and ever desirous of being indulged. When its tendencies arise, we are to judge ourselves-use the sharp knife upon all that comes from it; and by this spiritual exercise we declare that we are subjects or slaves of sin no longer (Rom. 8:13). We are God's freemen, free to serve God, to serve righteousness, to honor and live unto Him who died for us and rose again.

Gilgal was Israel's camping ground in the book of Joshua. From this point they start for every fresh battle, in dependence upon God; and here they returned after every victory, to give God the praise and glory. A suited place this is for God's people- indeed the only suited one if we desire to make spiritual progress. For all service, for all progress, the place of self-judgment is the only one from which we go to victory; and after victory, to return again to our knees in self-judgment, taking no glory to ourselves but giving God all the praise, is the only safe place. From this spot let us start each morning, and here return each evening. Here is the key to all true success and victory, power, joy, fruitfulness, and practical sanctification.
Sixth:The Old Corn (Josh. 5:12).

The next lesson, after Gilgal and circumcision, for Israel was their change of food. The old corn- product of the land-was now to be their meat, and this before they raised the sword against their enemies to drive them out of the land. Jordan was past, Gilgal had been reached, the sharp knife had been used; and now God shows them the precious wheat, yielded so abundantly in the land that the grain of the previous year had not all been used. They had long been promised this, and now the Lord is fulfilling it. They can now eat of it, and prove the sweetness and sufficiency of it, and gather strength to go forward and meet their foes.

Their food in Egypt-fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic-speak of their slavish condition ; in the wilderness, manna told of their humiliation and strangership; but now having reached their land, the place of God's purpose for them, the food of a free, exalted people is to be theirs.

Manna was bread from heaven truly, and that is Christ; but Christ come down from heaven, in humiliation and sorrow on earth. It is thus He is presented to us in the four Gospels. Here we trace His holy path, behold His deep and tender compassions, hear Him speak as never man spake. His being God is declared at every step of His way, that the humiliation to which He has stooped for our sakes may appear ; drawn thus to Him in love and adoration, He is our wilderness food which enables us to suffer the humiliation of being linked with Him in this scene of His rejection. The cross is at the end of His journey, and His sufferings in it present different lessons:as the Lamb "roast with fire " He bore our sins on the cross, sustained the judgment of a holy God against us, and made full atonement; and as the Ark He passed through the deep depth of judgment all alone, to bring us on the other side, to reap with Him the fruits of His victory. In this however, we are not partakers of His sufferings, but are made worshipers. We joy and delight in Him, and will forever.

But in Joshua we are carried further than this. We are in the land of promise, type of the heaven-lies. "The manna ceased" now, and the " old corn" is given them. This, of course, is Christ also, but Christ in heaven from whence He came and to which He has returned-the heavenlies. Faith has made acquaintance with Him in humiliation, and now carries the believer's heart and mind where He is (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:12 ; Heb. 10:19-22), and the Holy Spirit feeds and delights the soul upon His beauties and glories .there:this is, for us, the "old corn."

Thus, on account of being as yet in our mortal bodies, we are still in Egypt (this world); and on account of the experiences, sorrows, discipline we pass through, we are still in the wilderness; so, by virtue of the faith in us which can take in the counsels of God for us, we are already now, by the power of the Spirit, enjoying our heavenly inheritance. At times the soul finds special comfort in the Savior's life of suffering here. This is feeding upon the manna. Then we think of Him as glorified in the heavens where He now is, and where our portion is with Him, and thus we feed upon Him as the old corn. As viewed thus the manna ceases. But whether as manna or old corn, it is the same person, the selfsame Jesus. Nor do we ever get so far in our experience and into the realms of faith as to need the roasted lamb and manna no more,* but for the time being, when carried on by faith to where He now is, it is of His glories we think. *This is important to notice, as a very misleading teaching has gone forth, that there may be a stage of soul reached where "manna" is no further needed, and that only a low state of soul feeds upon manna ! But the lowly life of Jesus on the earth is ever food for God's people now; and it is manna, "the hidden manna," that will be our food in highest glory, and is the precious promise to the faithful in the Church (Rev. 2:17). The thirty-three years from the manger to the cross will ever be the "sweet savor" to God, and food for the redeemed.* Those different views of the Lord will be before the redeemed as food and delight forever; only, when we view Him in the heavens it greatly changes things, especially in His relation to Israel as the Messiah ; for in this aspect we know Him no more (2 Cor. 5:16).

The One who suffered, and purged our sins upon the cross, is now upon the throne of God, at the right hand of the majesty on high; Christ, in His most highly exalted position. And, as a consequence, the Holy Spirit is now present with and dwelling in each believer, to link each one with Christ where He is, and give us the present enjoyment of the wonderful place grace has given us.

Israel's food in their bondage in Egypt is mentioned, in Num. xi 5, 6, as of six kinds. That of Canaan has seven kinds – the number of perfection, the perfections of the Lord Jesus – wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olives, and honey ; but the old corn (wheat) was the first upon the list (Deut. 8:8).

Seventh :The Captain with the drawn sword (Josh. 5:13-15).

At this stage the Lord appears in a new form, to lead them on to battle and to victory:without Him they could do nothing:with His presence and His guiding, no foe would be able to stand before them, as their after-history fully demonstrates.

The Captain" with the drawn sword identifies Him-self with them. To us it is the Christian warfare now, as depicted in the epistle to the Ephesians (ch. 6:10-18).

Our captain is the Lord of hosts. He associates Himself with us, His own people, to lead and guide us in the conflict with our spiritual foes (which the seven nations illustrate), and to make us take possession of our spiritual heritage, that we may enjoy our spiritual blessings even now. Many of God's people fail to grasp this aspect of New Testament truth, and vainly think that all the blessings, as well as the enjoyment of heaven, are only at the end. But the taking possession, as illustrated by the book of Joshua and Ephesians, chap, 6:, does not refer to heaven after death, or at the Lord's second coming, but rather to heaven as enjoyed by the believer while here on the earth, and the spiritual conflict which is necessary to this end.

The seven nations united to keep back Israel, under Joshua's leadership, and sought to hold the land, still in their own power, from the true and rightful heirs. So does Satan now, with the principalities and powers of the heavenly places which are under him, seek to hinder believers from pressing on and taking possession of what God has given them with the Savior glorified in the heavenlies.

Israel was not to fight Edom in the desert, but they were to drive out the nations which occupied the land. So we are not called upon to battle with sin which is within us (Rom. 6:and 7:), but we are
bid "to wrestle against spiritual wickedness (wicked spirits) in heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12). Israel's warfare was for an earthly inheritance, ours for a heavenly one. But for this we need to "be strong and of good courage," as Israel was bidden to be. To this end, we feed upon Christ, the old corn, and the Captain with the drawn sword takes His place at our head.

The enemy will contest every foot, yes, every inch ; hence we are exhorted, "Take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day." Our foes are spiritual foes, and they are also strong and numerous; but we have the Captain also with the drawn sword, and our Lord who leads the battle is stronger than all our foes. But in this great conflict we need the" exercise of faith; for it is the fight of faith-the spiritual conflict against heavenly foes. No carnal weapons can avail in this war.

Faith looks on, and sees the fertile fields that lie before it, to go in and possess them:it values them, and counts them well worth fighting for, and they well repay the aggressive believer.

As Israel, with the Captain before them, marched on, their enemies around them fell and were overcome; when they were self-judged and obedient to the Lord, success attended them at every step and turn. See how Jericho fell before them, a great city, and fortified; and yet, when their hearts were lifted up, and they neglected the prayerful, dependent spirit, a very small place, such as " Ai," drove them back, and they were defeated and put to flight.

How often have we experienced the same, as the people of God, in our day! But these very failures
became sanctified lessons for them further on, as all ours should also. Past failures and defeats ought to lead us to tread the path more carefully and guardedly, seeking to be guided by Him at every step (Prov. 3:5, 6).

After Israel's failure respecting Ai, they achieve wonderful things. Many places are taken, and the enemy driven away:they capture hills and valleys, cities, towns, villages and outlying fields, with treasure and spoil.

This is the record of the book of Joshua, and a very delightful book for every spiritual mind to read and meditate upon; for their whole history is but the type of our own. Every earthly good they find and get possession of in their land illustrates spiritual blessings laid up for us in heaven. If their blessings, being only temporal, were worth fighting for, how much more ours, which are eternal!

They fought for and possessed much of the land; yet there remained much that they never possessed. Their full blessing they never entered into, and never shall until the second coming of the Lord. Then they shall enter into it all:every enemy shall be driven out of the land; "and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts," for Israel shall occupy all, from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt (Zech. 14:21).

So with us. The spiritual, heavenly inheritance is before us; and though we may already possess much, there yet remains much to be possessed- quite enough to prevent spiritual pride in us. It is at the return of the Lord Jesus for us, as the bright Morning Star, that we shall enter into the fulness of all that belongs to us through Him. We shall then enter our home in the heavenly sphere, with no foes to hinder; as Israel, now cast off, shall enter their earthly home and possessions. All shall then enjoy complete possession, according to God's purpose. A. E. B.

(To be concluded in next number.)