Editor " Help and Food ":

Your warning in last year's volume concerning " Bible Students," and the doctrine by which they seek popularity, suggests a few thoughts.

As one views the various popular evil doctrines of the day, and their followers, it is evident that the pivotal point with most lies in denying God's right to visit eternal punishment upon the wicked. This spirit of rebellion begins not with the ignorant, but with those to whom the knowledge of the gospel has come, to whom "deliverance from the wrath to come" has been offered, but who " received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." They refuse to own themselves sinners, defiled by the sin that is in their nature, and guilty by the sins which they have committed. They and their rights are of primary importance, but God and His rights are naught. Under plea of great philanthropy, they are anarchists toward the government of God. It is no wonder therefore if they seem to hypnotize themselves into the acceptance of interpretations which utterly nullify the force of the simple Word. When we see such as come under Mrs. Eddy's teaching utterly ignoring the very things which strike the senses of every man who has any, is it a wonder if rebels against God should so twist and turn the plainest statements of His Word ?

" The wages of sin is death," God says. They deny sin, and so close their eyes to death. "God is love," they say, and love cannot inflict eternal punishment; but they refuse to hear that "God is light" as well as love, and that His love is expressed, not in winking at our sins, revealed by the light, but in providing a Saviour to deliver us from the condemnation under which they have brought us. Mrs. Eddy appealed to perverted wills. Mr. Russell appeals to perverted sympathies. Both simulate faith. Both have the same end. They are Satan's religious products-delusions sent of God in judgment upon a people to whom the light has shined, but who have not loved it. Awful judgment! They will " eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices" (Prov. 1:31). " If thou be the Christ, come down from the cross, and save thyself and us! " they cried. Their unbelief and hardness of heart hid from them the need of the eternal sacrificial atonement which was of absolute necessity to save men, and which Christ was accomplishing there. Temporal relief they cared for. They saw no need of eternal deliverance.

The words of the repentant thief have more wisdom than is found in them all:" Dost thou not fear God ?"- Him who, " after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell"" seeing that we are in the same condemnation ; and we, indeed justify; for we receive the due reward of our deeds." Is this temporal judgment merely ? His further words forbid such a thought:" Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." Eternity is before him. So also his guilt in view of that eternity. So he appeals to the Lord-this Man who "hath done nothing amiss." Here is the "acceptable sacrifice" being made for his sins-"Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God to purge your conscience from dead works " (Heb. 9:14)- " To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise" is the Saviour's reply; for the soul that justifies God in its judgment is justified of God; forever delivered from the wrath to come, as also from this scene of corruption and darkness, being " translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col. i :13).

To question God's eternal judgment is to undermine all that abides. J. E. H. S.

Changing Times

''Repentance toward God " has little place in modern Christianity. It must be all sweet talk, hurting nobody, attracting everybody. It is not agreeable to speak of sin's hateful character to God. It is not nice to declare the judgment of God upon sinners. Time was-and we remember it well-when we heard little else than about sin and judgment, and very little of salvation and of the precious Saviour to deliver. We usually were left face to face with the wrath, to work our way out of it as best we could with the help of God. Mary's word, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him," was sadly true of the pulpit, high and low, in which Christ was but a crutch to help us walk our way to heaven. God heard the cry of multitudes of groaning souls and had mercy on them. A clear, full, free gospel rang throughout the earth:Christ was held up high as a Saviour for sinners, for the ungodly, for the guilty, for those who could do nothing for themselves, Christ in death atoning for sin; in resurrection declaring all repenting and believing souls fully and freely justified; in ascension back to heaven carrying our humanity there, glorifying it and giving the place which now and forever belongs to the justified. What a gospel! What a holy freedom it gives!

But Satan is not dead nor yet shut up in the bottomless pit. If he can no more hide the grace and the love of God revealed in Christ, he may nullify them. He will cry down judgment and the lake of fire as inconsistent with love. He will thus remove from the minds of men that fear which guilt produces and which makes the Saviour an absolute necessity. When once God had said to man, "Ye shall surely die," and the devil said, "Ye shall not die," man disbelieved God and believed the devil. Yet "Ye shall surely die" prevails, as the uninterrupted funeral procession ever since testifies.

So now God says," These shall go away into everlasting punishment," but the devil says, "There is no everlasting punishment," and man disbelieves God still and believes the devil still. Thus is God's love used to destroy the need of His grace. Sin is called a mistake, an error of judgment, a human weakness-anything which will make repentance unnecessary. Such conditions end in lawlessness and abounding crime.

Nor, alas, do they end with the world. They are very liable to affect the people of God too, and not the least those who are most enlightened. The grace of God, well known there-that precious grace which reigns through righteousness-will be made to militate against righteousness itself as if God had, because of His grace, relinquished His righteous character. Repentance and confession of sin one to another are thereby largely annulled; holiness suffers, and the trend is downward.

Thus do times change through the craft of Satan and the pride of man. What need therefore to watch, to pray, and not sleep, if we would pass through those changes unscathed.

Simeon and Levi

In the 49th chapter of Genesis Jacob dying pronounces the blessing which is to rest upon each tribe of his sons at their latter end. He charges Simeon and Levi with confederacy, and with the evil and cruelty which ever follow it, and with which he calls upon his soul to have no part and no association. Then he pronounces their blessing:"I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel."

Does God then bless by division and scattering?

Yes. When men confederate, it is for power to do their own will, in whatever line of things it may be. God divides and scatters them, then, that He may bring them in that place where each alone with Him may learn his sinfulness and repent. It is only as alone with God that conscience works aright.

Then follows the blessing. Simeon is true to his name "Hearing"-he has an ear for God and, as always with him who has an ear to hear, he receives and is made rich. Levi also is true to his name "Joined." When men are subject to God instead of being confederates with each other, God joins them together in a unity which is divine, holy and fruitful. Thus Simeon dwells in Judah, that is, amid the praises* of Israel, and scattered Levi assembles at Jerusalem to minister in the temple of God and to unite all the tribes in praise to His holy name.*Judah means praise.* Blessed end! but an end which is God's doing, not man's.

QUES. 20.-I have been perplexed of late by statements new and strange to me, though probably old to you, as they have been in print some time. I would appreciate an answer in Help and Food as it might give light to other perplexed ones beside myself.

It is said that the Church is now invisible. That there is no collective testimony any more. That the Lord has removed the candlestick from the Church, and that the removal of the candlestick means the removal of the testimony from the Church. So now the testimony is said to be purely individual-not collective any more, for the Assembly as tuck has ceased to be. The proof given is that all have failed, and yon cannot point to any company and say, That is the Church.

I had always thought since I learned the truth, that the seven lamps on the golden lamp-stand represented the testimony of the Holy Spirit concerning Christ through the Church as the light-bearer. That the Lord chastened the Church if false to her true testimony, but did not remove her testimony till the time described in Rom. 11:13-25.

If what I now enquire about be true, then our assembling together, and all the labor and care bestowed on Christian assemblies is but the empty form of a by-gone thing.

ANS.-Cling to what you have "always thought since learning the truth," for it is what the word of God teaches. The teaching which has perplexed you does not come from the word of God but from disappointed men who, with plenty of self-will, set themselves about doing what God has given none of His people to do, namely, to unite all His own in one company. Missing the true sense of John 17:21 they took it as an ecclesiastical unity for them to carry out. Failing utterly in this, as might well be expected, it produced bitterness of spirit, and so everything must be cried down, and all done to dishearten those who still carry on "the good fight," then retire, each man in his corner to enjoy the sweet but not very humble thought that " I, even I only, am left."

The very proof they give for their theory, "That you cannot point to any company and say, That is the Church," proves the theory wrong. No company of Christians taught by the Word and the Spirit of God would ever lay claim to being the Church since the first break in the Church took place, for they know well that God has multitudes of children outside themselves. The most they can say is, we could no longer be faithful to God and endure the idolatry of Romanism or the infidelity and sectarianism of Protestantism, so we obeyed the apostolic injunction of 2 Tim. 2. We separated from error only to be free to hold, preach and practice truth; from infidelity, to believe, enjoy, and teach the inerrant and infallible word of God from cover to cover; from sectarianism, to confess the common membership of all the children of God in the Church which is the body of Christ; from indifference about morals in the professing Church and the impossibility of godly discipline there, to exercise the holy government which God demands in His house.

Thus, while as far as possible from laying claim to be the Church, nay, weeping rather over the desolations in the Church in which they have part, and realizing how feebly they are carrying out what God has enjoined upon His Church as a whole, they nevertheless bear a collective testimony which is owned in heaven and felt to the ends of the earth. The proof that it is owned in heaven is that it meets on earth the same treatment as does the cross of Christ.
But see further:In that wonderful chapter (2 Tim. 2), of such immense importance since ruin set in, the apostle bids Timothy teach faithful men the things which he had heard from him. What would be the use of the first epistle to the Corinthians, a prominent part of Paul's teaching, if there is no more collective testimony? It would be but a dead letter. What would mean the letter to Philadelphia, one of the seven churches, if Philadelphia as a collective testimony does not go on to the rapture of the Church ? Why tell her, "I also will keep thee from (out of) the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3:10), if there is no Philadelphia to be taken out of that hour?

When some of God's people said, We are Philadelphia, the Lord disciplined them for their pride; but with or without them Philadelphia goes on, and will go on, till "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout" to take us home. Let each of us only see to it that we heed the Lord's admonition, "Behold, I come quickly:hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. 3:11).

Our having penned a few words on " The Gates of Hell " (see "Editor's Notes" of this issue) before your question came, has been a cheer to us as it leads in the same lines as this. God is a builder, not a destroyer, except of evil, and the men of God are ever marked as builders according to the dispensation in which they live. In the days of Nehemiah there were men who sought to dishearten the builders. So now. Only let the builders carry in their hearts a deep sense of the ruin of our own dispensation, then labor on to build according to God amid such conditions.

I can hear anything said about Mary now without caring; it was different then." The words were uttered carelessly to me recently by a young woman concerning a mutual Christian friend. At once the thought forced itself upon me:- There, that expresses what characterizes many Christians today toward their Saviour. They remember former days, when the name of Jesus was most sacred to them; when a word spoken against Him hurt them, and they must defend Him whom their soul loved. The rays of sunshine from His blessed face had flooded their souls and first love burned there. In ecstacy of heart they had cried, "My Lord and my God." They had answered with Simon Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."

Now they can hear any thing said about Him without being hurt. It was different then. Indeed it was! And what has made the difference ? At first, perhaps, the love of this world. It dimmed the vision. Then entertaining frivolous friends. Their light talk about holy things dulled your hearing, so that now no matter what is said it hurts you no more. If you have not gone quite so far, you cannot defend Him as once you did. You have become indifferent.

O beloved one, rouse up from such a sleeping state. Make no new promises, but confess humbly your low, wretched state, and the Lord, your dearest Friend, will wash you clean and revive in you the power to be His witness. Time is too short to waste it. Eternity is too long to lose its rewards.

(Continued from page 271.) Chapter 1 :1-4.

The apostle Paul tells us that God dwells in light-unapproachable light (i Tim. 6:16). He is the invisible God (Col. i:15; i Tim. i:17; Heb. ii:27). No man has ever seen Him. It is not possible for man to see God in His essential Godhead. Man's constitution makes him able to see only what is within the range of his vision-not the invisible.

Even angels, who by creation are nearer to God than man, have not seen and cannot see that essential glory of God in which He is alone, and which is known only by the three persons in the one Godhead. The apostle Paul tells us that angels are dependent on God coming out of the unapproachable light in which He dwells to display "the riches of His grace " and His " manifold wisdom " to acquire the knowledge of them (Eph. 2:7; 3:10). Surely, if they have not this knowledge instinctively, and can only have it through a revelation of it, a display of it, then certainly they do not know the fathomless depths of the being of God-what He is in Godhead essence-what He alone is and cannot share with another.

God, dwelling in the unapproachable light, is Father, Son and Holy Spirit; a community of essence, a community of moral nature and character, a community of life both in principle and continuous activity – a community of fellowship peculiar to themselves, known only to themselves and enjoyed only by themselves; and that jointly and co-equally. It is an eternal fellowship, abiding, unchangeably the same from everlasting to everlasting, an eternally mutual and reciprocal fellowship.

It is evident that the purpose to reveal Himself was ever in the mind of God. He designed ways of displaying Himself. This, however, needs to be guarded. God never planned to reveal His Godhead essence. In this He is, and must forever be alone. He cannot communicate His Godhead essence to any other. If this could be, He would cease to be absolutely God alone; but created beings can never become uncreated, self-existing ones, whether they be men or angels.

What then was His purpose ? It was to make known His moral nature and character and the blessedness-the happiness-of the life He lives. It was as to this that He designed to bring others into community with Himself-a community not of being, but of moral nature and of life. To do this, to carry out this purpose, it was necessary for Him to come out from the unapproachable light in which He dwells alone. This He did when He came forth in the exercise of the creatorial power inherent in Himself. In the creation which He has produced He has clothed Himself "with light as with a garment "(Ps. 104:2). But God looked at in the light of creation is not seen in His moral nature and life. Creation manifests " His eternal power and divinity" (Rom. i :20, Greek). It proclaims the power and divinity that was eternally in Him, but not what He is in moral nature and character and continuous activity.

God comes out of the light in which He dwells to exercise His providential care over His creatures.
He cares for every sparrow. It has but little value in the eyes of men, but not one falls to the ground without His notice. He does not forget one of them (Matt. 10:29; Luke 12 :6). He " maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just, and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45). He opens His hand, the desire of every living thing is satisfied (Ps. 145 :16). The least need of the least of His creatures is provided for, and the supply is superabundant. But if, on the one hand, God witnesses to Himself in giving by sun and rain and other forces " fruitful seasons," filling men's "hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17); on the other hand, by "sweeping rain" (Prov. 28:3) and the burning heat of the sun, He destroys the food of both man and beast (Jas. i:11).

If we look at God in the light of His providential care for His creatures, we find mysteries that care does not solve. Questions arise that it does not answer. We look there in vain for the revelation of God's moral nature and character, and the manifestation of the life He lives.

If we turn to His governmental ways with men, both with individuals and nations, as publicly exercised, we fail to learn our lesson if we do not realize that we are studying ways that proclaim the sovereign Ruler of the universe to be in a pre-eminent sense a moral Being. His moral nature is plainly manifested in His moral government, but how inscrutable are these ways! How past finding out (Rom. 11:33)! To our finite minds there are contradictions which seem irreconcilable. The mystery of it is to us impenetrable. He acts sovereignly, does His own will, and " giveth not account of any of His matters" (Job 33:13). We wonder at His silence when evil insolently lifts up its head. We tremble in the presence of His punishments of it. We see Him putting limits to the operation of evil and ask, Why then does He permit it at all ? If, on the one hand, God "doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou ? " (Dan. 4:35); and, on the other hand, tolerates sin, allows it to go on unrebuked, at times seems to be indifferent to it and exposes Himself to the charge of seeming acquiescence-in it; where is the line of demarcation between His abhorrence and His sufferance of it?

Looking at God in the light of His moral government, we reach certain conclusions as to His moral nature and character, and up to a certain point our conclusions are correct, but beyond that point there is felt to be a need of fuller light.

The same is true also with regard to God's special government of His own people. Any observer of the governmental ways of God with His own children, both individually and collectively, will readily see that He warns them against disobedience, threatens them with penalties, and in case of disobedience often visits them with severe punishments. On the other hand there is often apparent indulgence. There is indeed patience, long-suffering with their manners, and what seems like indifference. We see here, too, God exposing Himself to implications which upright souls feel cannot be true of Him; yet the mystery of it is not explained until God is seen in a fuller light.

God came forth from the unapproachable light to make known His law-His demands on man, what He requires of him as standing on his own responsibility ; but He did not manifest Himself. He surrounded Himself with "a thick cloud" (Ex 19:9). He spoke out of "fire and smoke" (ver. 18) and "thick darkness " (Deut, 4:11). There was a display of majesty, power and authority. So great was the tempest and the quaking of the mount that the people trembled, and Moses himself feared exceedingly (Heb. 12:21). Even on the occasion of the second giving of the law, though not accompanied with such terrible manifestations, there was still reserve and distance. When Moses requested to see the glory of God, his request was not granted. He was told, " Thou canst not see My face:for there shall no man see Me, and live " (Ex 33':20) The revelation then given was not of the " face" of God, but His "back parts " (ver. 23). It was not the Light itself in the full power of its shining, manifesting God in the fulness of what He is in moral nature and life, but a ray of the Light, partially revealing the One from whom it was reflected.

God came out of the light in which He dwells directly after Adam's disobedience and fall. He came out to reveal to him the coming of a Man to triumph over Satan and bring life out of death (Gen. 3:15); but, though the revelation was a promise of eternal life (Titus i :2), the life and incorruption of the promise was not illuminated till the giving of another revelation long after (2 Tim. i:10).

By types, by the shadows of the sacrificial system connected with the law, by specially appointed events-events happening by divine intervention and under divine control, God came out of the unapproachable light to give forth rays of what dwells in Himself. These rays, either singly or combined, while telling us something of the character of God, were in no wise a full and adequate revelation of what He is. It was a true revelation, so far, but not the full truth.

God came out of His dwelling-place in light in the promises He made to the fathers. These promises were a revelation to faith of her inheritance and portion ; yet the revelation was incomplete. The promises, however truly implying all that was in God's mind, did not in reality express it all. If the "God of glory " (Acts 7:2) appeared to Abraham, He did not show Abraham all His glory.

So also in prophecy, God came forth out of the light in which He dwells, speaking by the mouth of men who were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. i:21). None of the prophets, however, could say:"We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen " (John 3:11). Only He who came from God could thus speak. The prophets spoke as and when moved by the Spirit, and thus only what was given them to say. Their utterances therefore were always in measure, fragmentary and partial, not the full revelation of the God they served. Old Testament prophecy does not adequately and fully declare what God is. However much it does tell us of Him, it does not make Him known to us in the fulness of His moral nature and life. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

QUES. 33.-In Genesis 6 :19, 20, Noah is directed to take into the Ark " two of every sort," of fowls, cattle and creeping things. In the 7th chapter, verses 2 and 3, the " clean beasts and fowls" are to be taken by sevens. Again, in chapter 7 :8, 9, it was " two and two" of clean and unclean beasts and fowls that went in. What is the explanation of this apparent discrepancy?

ANS.-In the first statement (chap. 6 :19, 20), the purpose is the perpetuation of all the creatures; therefore a pair of each kind -male and female.

The next statement (chap. 7 :2, 3) has an additional, not contrary feature :of the clean beasts and fowls (none of the "creeping things were "clean"), there were to be seven pairs each. One object for this was to enable Noah to do as mentioned in chapter 8 :20. Another was, probably, to hasten the multiplication of what was "clean," as these were more needful for man.

In the last statement (chap. 7 :8, 9), it is the fact that all was done as commanded, in view of the perpetuation of all the creatures, male and female ; no notice taken of the larger number of the "clean"-they all went in "two and two" (male and female). There is difference in the statements because of the reasons above given, we believe, but no discrepancy.

QUES. 34.-I am sending you a tract on "Systematic and Proportionate Giving." Would you please say through Help and Food if the method described in it is consistent with what we get in. 1 Cor. 16:1-3 ; 2 Cor. 8, and Phil. 4 :10-19 ?

ANS. The tract is quite scriptural, in our judgment. The only objection we see in it is that its teaching in some places would seem to make the giving of money the one great Christian virtue.

Men of intelligence, even apart from the word of God, see the justice of proportionate giving. The government of the United States has just issued a table of taxation, beginning with one per cent, on the smaller incomes, and rising up to six per cent, on the greater ones. As to being systematic, a man might as well have no regular hours for his meals as to have no settled proportion in his giving to the Lord. If he does not settle it in his mind what proportionate part of his earnings he will bestow on the Lord, it may result in very meager giving, or nothing at all. Satan will invent good excuses for holding fast to what he has. But mark, in 2 Cor. 8:9, how the language of the apostle shows his ^anxiety that Christian giving savor not of covetousness-that it be not as if begged of them, but as coming spontaneously from grateful, thankful hearts who put their offerings as it were in the very band of the Lord Jesus as grateful worship. Money pulled out of people is a reproach to Christianity, whose principle and spirit is grace, not law. Moreover, asking and receiving from those who are not Christians is unholy. The unconverted cannot give as an expression of worship, for that is not in their heart toward Christ. To put Christ or His people in the attitude of asking from the world is an insult to the Giver of all good.

QUES. 5. – Several of our children have confessed faith in Christ as their Saviour, but as yet have not received water baptism. They desire to be with us at the Lord's table. Does Scripture forbid their being received before being baptized ?

ANS. – We do not find in Scripture such a thing as admitting at the Lord's table first, and baptizing afterward. Baptism, being the initiation ordinance into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, is always the first thing. Mark, we say the kingdom, not the assembly. The two things, though related, are quite distinct from each other. The Lord's table is for those who, within that kingdom, show a living faith in Christ. If you have not baptized your children in infancy, you should baptize them upon their confession of Christ as their own Saviour; then present them to the assembly for reception at the Lord's table.

The assembly does not receive them because they have been baptized, but because they discover in them such work of the Holy Spirit as shows them to be truly members of Christ. They should insist, however, that persons being received among them be baptized persons.

We thank God with yon for His grace in your children. What are they given us for, but to train them for Him who died for them and has made us such precious promises concerning them ?

QUES. 6.-Does the believer have a purged conscience without first having a knowledge of Christ's work ? Could we say he has "no more conscience of sins" until he has appropriated that work?

ANS.-Surely not. Until he has appropriated the work of the Cross, the question of his sins is not to him a settled question. How then could his conscience be free ? And after he has appropriated it, and his conscience is free as to his sins, he is still likely to be in bondage as to himself until he has learned that he himself, a hopelessly sinful being, has been by the hand of God put to death in the death of Christ, and raised out of death in the resurrection of Christ, to know himself now as of a new creation-a man in Christ and Christ in him, perfectly fitted for the presence of God.

Alas, how few among God's people so learn their fallen state as to realize the absolute need of this wonderful provision of God's grace revealed in the death and resurrection of our Lord, and appropriate it!

QUES. 7.-In a late number of Help and Food you had an article on the Lord's table, which was a help to me. I have since seen different things written, however, making it incumbent on the children of God to discern whether this or that company of Christians have or have not the Lord's table, and making it their ground of having or not having fellowship with such companies. If this be true, it makes one fear lest he be not at the Lord's table here or there.

ANS.-The article you mention was written to deliver such of the people of God as are entangled in this morass. The questioning as to this or that table being the Lord's may have been well intended in its beginnings, to show the inconsistency of evil with the holiness of the Lord's table. But the principle is not of God, and it leads astray therefore. It becomes an evil power to frighten the weak into unholy paths. We press afresh what we pressed in the article in question, namely, that the word of God never bases Christian fellowship on finding out where the Lord's table is, but on finding out where truth and righteousness are- where the word of God is free from cover to cover, and bowed to.

Basing fellowship on the first ends in fanaticism and Romanism -a source of abundant human degradation; the other, in spiritual intelligence and holiness-that which gives divine freedom to the soul and makes us fruitful.

QUES. 8.-In December number, in answering a correspondent, you say that the only way to enter the kingdom, whether on its earthly or its heavenly side, is by being born of God. If this be true, how shall we understand Matt. 8 :12, where the children of the kingdom are cast out into the outer darkness ?

ANS.-The Scripture always allows that what is not real may enter in with the real. During the day of grace, in which we are now, this condition of things goes on, and will go on to the end, when the Judge Himself shall separate them.

QUES. 9.-Your Question and Answer department has been a great help to some of us; for the needs of God's people are, I judge, pretty much the same everywhere, at some time or other.

May I ask a question in my turn ? The answer may be useful to others as well.

Is it proper for almost the youngest brother in an assembly to give letters of commendation when there are brethren of ripe years both willing and able to do it?

ANS.-The word of God is very explicit on this matter. It does not allow the elder brethren to silence or treat as underlings the younger ones. It says to the elder as well as to the younger, "Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility:for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5).

The verse begins, however, with the words, "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder." Even a prominent servant of Christ, as Timothy was, is exhorted, "Rebuke not an elder sharply, but exhort him as a father " (1 Tim. 5:1). " Honor thy father and thy mother" is one of the ten commandments of the law; and so important is it, that it is referred to in Eph. 6 :2 as '' the first commandment with promise.'' Lev. 19:32 says, " Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man," then immediately adds, "and fear thy God."

But we will not multiply quotations, though we realize the existing defect in this matter. An irreverent, forward youth, who fears not to take things into his own hands which belong to his elder brethren, is a painful sight. It betrays an unbroken will, and a lack of piety. We trust our Sunday-schools everywhere, while giving prominence to the great truths of Christianity, will not forget the practical exhortations which abound in Scripture. The home, of course, is the great school for practical life; but, alas, the obedience of children, so delightful to God, is not much enforced any more, and the results of this go into the assembly of God's people, more or less. Let obedience be required from 'earliest childhood, and respect to parents and older people, and we shall suffer little from the subject of your inquiry.
QUES. 10.-Would you answer the two following questions ?

1.Do we serve the Lord, or does the Lord serve us ?

2.Is hell-fire literal fire, or is it used as a figure?

ANS.-If you will attentively read 2 Kings 4, you will find a lovely answer to your first. The prophet, type of the Lord, serves the poor, needy woman. Then the other woman-the rich one- serves the prophet, though later on the prophet serves her too.

So the blessed Lord serves us in all our need-when we were yet sinners, and since we have become saints. Then, from grateful, worshipful hearts, we spend our life in serving Him.

As to your second, we suppose the fire is used figuratively, even as the worm that dieth not. They are figures, no doubt; but of what? Could the reality be less than the figure? Oh that men would lay it to heart, and heed God's solemn warning rather than the lie of Satan now heard everywhere ! What a gulf is yawning before the host of antichrists who deny the everlasting punishment of the wicked! for they thereby make ,the way of^escape which God has provided null and void.

When a Christian assembly commits injustice, and then flies behind "the authority of the assembly" to shield itself from investigation by sister-assemblies, you may be sure Jesuitism is lurking there- that abominable thing which hates the light and loves darkness.

The Security of Grace

The beautiful saying, " Grace that hath conditions is no grace" has often been repeated. It is a true saying; for the moment the least condition is appended it ceases to be grace ; it is law. Grace is sovereign bounty issuing from the heart of the giver. It imposes nothing. It attaches no string to the gift. It displays the giver, not the receiver. Its only security is the moral condition of the receiver. Were the governor in grace to forgive every criminal regardless of his moral condition, he would let men loose who would renew their course of crime as soon as free, and be a plague to the community. But if a man shows real sorrow over his past life and condemns himself in truth for the evil he has done, he will not renew his criminal life when set free. He will be only too thankful to be set free, and anxious now to prove his appreciation of the governor's grace by an upright and good life.

Such is grace with God. He delights to forgive sinners. Nothing gives him more joy than the opportunity to forgive, for He is the God of all grace, and. when He forgives it is for ever, and without conditions. Our Lord says of His sheep, "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish." He never takes it back. He attaches no conditions to the gift. The only security He has in exercising such grace is in the repentant condition of the receiver. If Peter is to be a subject of His grace he must learn to cry, " Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." If the woman at Sychar's well is to be filled with the " living water, " she must feel the shame of her sinful life. If the jailer of Philippi is to be saved, he must first learn he is lost. Grace can impart its precious treasures to such, for it has a moral, everlasting hold upon them.

Moreover, every gift which grace may bestow beside salvation, for service of any kind, will be found accompanied with some fresh special work of repentance. What probings in Peter, reaching down to the very center of his being, as the Lord, in Jno. 21, commits to him the care of His sheep! And, while under grace and in the enjoyment of its abounding sweets, what a constant reminder the people of God have in the Lord's supper of their past guilt and sin! Should they forget that, they would cease to appreciate grace. Pride would take hold. They would soon be but Pharisees-in a worse state than those who, not knowing the grace of God, go doubting their salvation and mourning all the way.

But if repentance has such a large place in relation to grace, and is its abiding and only security in our attitude toward God, it is no less important in the attitude of God's people toward one another. Self-righteousness makes them bite and devour one another, and may make them to be consumed one of another. The spirit of repentance meeting the spirit of grace draws them together, and binds them together in true love. If the spirit of repentance be wanting, then to talk of grace can be little else than indifference-lukewarmness-the sure ruin of God's people.

God deals in grace day by day with an evil, unrepentant world, but not in fellowship with it. If He dealt not in grace, but claimed His rights, the world would soon be at an end. So should we, like Him, deal in patient grace with all, ready to lose our rights all the way, the heart full of grace, delighting to forgive wherever there is repentance, but that repentance defining and limiting our fellowship.
Twice Vindicated

When, by being baptized of John, our Lord identified Himself with repenting sinners, there was great danger, as the sequel has proved, that in the eyes of men the ever-abiding glory of His Person should suffer. A voice from heaven therefore was heard:" This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). It is the jealousy of the- Father concerning the glory of His Son. If He has, in infinite grace and out of love for His Father and for men, veiled His deity in humanity, and become so much like us to become our Redeemer, woe be to the man who abases Him further by denying His deity.

But there is another place where God has to vindicate His Son again. This time it is not among sinners but among saints. Our Lord is fulfilling His promise that "there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:27). He has Peter, John and James with Him. Suddenly He is transfigured, and Moses and Elias, in glorified state too, are therewith Him illustrating the kingdom in power and glory.

If sinners have despised Him because of His likeness to us here, Peter, a saint, who is just rousing from sleep, lowers Him too in seeing how like Him are His redeemed in glory. He would put them all on a level with Him. So the jealousy of the Father speaks again:" This is My beloved Son:hear Him." In humiliation or in glory He is the same. "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet " is our only proper state of mind as we speak of the Son of God. Men talk of the world growing better, while they increasingly insult this holy Person. They see not the world from God's standpoint.

"I remember hearing some years ago of an old Christian, about seventy years of age, who had gone along in a fairly smooth path, and at his age, upon retiring from business, contemplated taking things still easier, when he was aroused by the fact that the force of the passage in Matt. 24, and especially in verse 46, was not simply an intimation of the Lord's approval of the general course characteristic of His servant, but approval of what He found him "doing" at the moment He came. It was alleged that the old Christian was so profoundly affected by the application of the scripture that he put in more real effective service to Christ after he was seventy than he had previously done in his entire lifetime."

SIMPLE PAPERS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS BY H. A. IRONSIDE

" Fear not, Paul; . . . lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee."-Acts 27:24.

BOOKS, COMPANIONSHIPS AND RECREATION.

Paul was not an ascetic. He was a sane, healthy, all-round man, intensely devoted to the One who had saved him. He loved books, he enjoyed congenial company, he recognized the profit to be derived from temperate recreation. He has, by the Spirit's inspiration, left on record enough on all these lines to serve as a guide to young believers who may be somewhat perplexed at times as to where the line should be drawn, between what would glorify God and be a means of blessing to their own souls, and what would dishonor Him and hinder spiritual growth.

The writings and addresses" of Paul show that he was a widely-read and well-informed man. He loved books; when he was in prison the second time, in a Roman dungeon, he longed for books. He wrote to Timothy, " Bring . . . the books, but especially the parchments " (2 Tim. 4:13). What these books were we have now no means of knowing; but, we may be sure, they were of a profitable character. The young believer needs books also; but let him make it a rule that he gives his time only to what will edify.

"Be a man of one book! " wrote Wesley. But he was himself a voluminous reader. What he meant was that the Bible should have the central place, and all other books should be read as subservient to it. If the Scriptures are not neglected, but thoughtfully read and meditated upon, one's spiritual judgment will soon become sufficiently clarified to enable him to discern what other books can be read with edification. Trashy novels, light, frivolous literature, anything unclean and unholy, the godly soul will instinctively shrink from. But Paul shows himself familiar with the history, science and poetry of his day. He refers on occasion to historical events; he illustrates by the use of scientific facts; he quotes, when in keeping with his theme, what "certain of your own poets " have said, and in this we need not fear to follow him, if there be in us but the heart for Christ there was in him.

It is to be feared that many young Christians have been hindered by a hard legal spirit on this very line. All reading has been tabooed that was not exactly spiritual. This is a grave mistake, and leads to extreme narrowness of mind, and even positively hinders mental development, thus restricting one's ability to enjoy what God Himself has given us in His word. " Reading makes a full man," is an old saying that is worthy of remembrance; only be careful to " take forth the precious from the vile."

And now, a word as to companionships. Paul enjoyed association with others. He loved fellowship. He appreciated friends; but his friends were among the people of God. To an Aquila or a Priscilla he could pour out his heart, and could enjoy to the full their tender affection. But, you may be sure, he never was found lounging about with an Elymas or even a Gallic! And right here is where many a young saint is not faithful. There is no clean cut with the world. Old companionships are still sought and enjoyed. No wonder there is little or no growth; no wonder there are so many stunted Christians. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate," is the word of the Lord to all who are dilly-dallying with the world after confessing Christ; for "the friendship of the world is enmity against God." Find your friends among the friends of Christ! Let your companions be those who love His name; and then be careful not to let good fellowship degenerate into careless levity. For here, too, many young believers break down.

This is very commonly the case where young persons of opposite sexes mingle much together. There is no reason why Christian youths and maidens should not meet and enjoy one another's company in a pure and holy way. But often it is far otherwise. If you feel there is a snare in such commingling, then be honest with your own souls, and faithfully avoid what might dishonor Christ and hinder spiritual growth. Timothy was exhorted to treat elder brethren with the reverence due to fathers, younger men as brethren, elder women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with all purity (i Tim. 5:i, 2). The last three words are important, and if overlooked, will lead to many a snare.

Young people need recreation; old ones, too, for that matter. It is a mistake to suppose the body and mind must always be keyed up to serious pursuits. " Bodily exercise profiteth a little"-not a great deal, but "a little." Therefore beware of giving it an undue place; but do not neglect it. And in all your recreation see that there is nothing that hinders godliness, for godliness is of profit both in this life and the next.

Any one in reading the epistles can observe that in Paul's many references to athletics, there is no suggestion that he in any way disapproves of the exercise in itself. The dangers are two:first, associations ; second, excess. "Be temperate in all things," and be as careful of your companionships in your recreation as in the other affairs of life.

Unduly rigid persons often forget young men and women have bodies to be cared for and developed in a healthful way. On the other hand, pleasure lovers forget they have immortal souls, of infinitely more importance than the body in which they dwell. Seek therefore to be a well-balanced Christian, putting first things first; and as to minor matters, ever keeping Christ's glory in view. And if you are enabled to have a healthy soul in a healthy body, see that you use your strength for Him who for our sakes "endured the cross, despising the shame." "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom," and thus you will be enabled to "do all to the glory of God."

THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD.

To Paul, the testimony committed by the ascended Lord was dearer than life. Faithfulness to it involved a martyr's death, and that he met with a Christlike resignation and calmness of soul that is blessed to contemplate.

It was his desire that those associated with him in his special ministry should be men of like spirit. Hence his words to Timothy:"Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of
me His prisoner:but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God " (2 Tim. i :8). And again he says, "That good thing (or, deposit) which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us" (ver. 14).

The testimony of the Lord embraces the corollary of truths connected with Christ risen and glorified. Some of these precious themes we have been briefly examining in the foregoing papers, and we are yet to speak of others, if God will. But what I would now press upon the conscience of each saint who may read these lines, is individual responsibility to make known this testimony and to hold it oneself, as a sacred deposit, in the power of the Holy Ghost.

There is all the difference in the world between holding particular "views" of justification, sanctification, acceptance, the one body, the Lord's second coming, and kindred lines of truth, and maintaining the testimony of the Lord. One may hold the correct view of sanctification and yet not walk in subjection to the Word that cleanses. One may subscribe to scriptural prophetic teaching and not "love His appearing." One may hold the doctrine of the one body and yet remain in human systems that by their very constitution deny it. One may have the right view of eternal life and yet live as though this world were all. But no one can maintain the testimony of the Lord who is not personally a self-judged, humble saint, walking in the truth, holding the Head, and laying hold on that which is really life. Yet to thus keep the good deposit every believer is called; and there will be eternal loss for all who fail to do so. This cannot be done in the strength of nature. Only as one walks in the Spirit will the needed grace be given.

What Paul calls "the testimony" in 2 Timothy, he designates as " the faith " in his first letter to the same devoted young servant. Note his solemn words, and remember they are as truly applicable to you, if a child of God (excepting, of course, the strictly personal element), as they were to Timothy when first written:" This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies as to thee preceding, that thou by them mightest war the good warfare; holding faith [literally, the faith; 1:e., the truth believed] and a good conscience, which some having put away, have concerning the faith made shipwreck." Now, carefully observe, you can only hold the faith of God's elect in a godly way, as you maintain a good conscience. If you ever put away a good conscience-if you allow yourself to go on with any thing of which your conscience does not approve when instructed by the Word of God-you will lose the faith and make shipwreck of the testimony.

Many people seem to think of doctrinal error as a comparatively small and unimportant thing; but where people give up a line of truth once enjoyed in the Spirit's power, or once controlling heart and life, close investigation will generally prove that moral evil of some character was behind it. When men get out of touch with holiness, they lose their grip of the truth; or, rather, the truth loses power over them. In the third chapter of i Timothy the deacons are described as '' holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience" (ver. 9). This emphasizes what we have just been noticing:there must be activity of conscience if the testimony of the Lord is to be maintained and the good deposit kept.

Further exhortation, addressed to Timothy, each young believer may profitably take to himself; in chapter 4 :6, and in verses 12 to 16:"If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shall be a good minister (or, servant) of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. . . . Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine . . . Meditate on these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." All this is most salutary instruction and must not be overlooked.

I sincerely hope that many young men who read these lines may some day be called of God to preach the Word and declare the testimony of the Lord publicly. If so, I trust the principle laid down in the passages we have been noticing will never be forgotten. "Thyself" first; then "the doctrine." God wants holy men to serve in holy things.

It is to be feared that many a young man has been unwisely encouraged to preach, because of a glib tongue and pleasing address, who did not have the necessary godliness behind it that would insure success as a winner of souls and a helper of saints. Gift, divorced from piety, may do untold mischief; but as James Caughey used to say, "A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hands of God." Where this personal fitness is lacking, there may be brilliant service for a time; easy-going Christians may applaud and admire; but the end of it all is likely to be a crash that may bring many others down with the poor fallen preacher, who was all the time "trafficking in unfelt truth" (to use an expression coined, I believe, by C. H. M ), and whose true condition has at last been exposed.

The testimony of the Lord is like the ark of the covenant which was borne through the wilderness on the priests' shoulders. So should the truth of God be proclaimed by priestly men, who live in fellowship with Him whose testimony it is.

(2 Peter 1 :19).

Wait, weary traveler, until the Day dawn:
But wait not thou in idle sloth, But with loins girt, and thy lamp
All trimmed and burning, and thyself
As one who his Lord's return awaits,
Until He comes and bids thee to the feast:
And then … !
Wait, beloved pilgrim, of God beloved and of Him
Whose coming shall be the rising of the Day-Star in
thy heart:
But wait not thou, except as He awaits
Thy gathering unto Him-in service spent and loving
deeds.
And when He comes, thy Beloved and thy Friend,
Himself shall bid thee welcome to the feast-His
feast of love:
And making thee sit down, shall wait on thee.
-Ponder it well, my soul!

A. Brother

We are told in this passage that Barnabas, who "was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith " exhorted the believers at Antioch to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart.

The Preacher of wisdom speaks to the same effect:'' Keep thy heart with all diligence (literally, above all that is kept); for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23).

What an all-important matter then, if the issues of life proceed from there. See to it my soul, as the dawn of another year arises, that no unholy thing lurk within thee to spoil the issues of thy life. See to it that the motives which marked thy Saviour's steps through this world mark also thine. His path was formed by what lay within His heart. So is it with every man-with every intelligent creature.

See those two fine ships weighing anchor. Side by side they are making all speed for the great Ocean. But they soon part. One is a " Liner " sailing under orders from shore, and her path is in earnest obedience to those orders. The other is a "Tramp" sailing as her commander thinks most expedient. One makes a straight course; the other a devious one. Both commit faults on the way, but the way of both is not alike.

Child of God, let Christ rule thee; let His truth command thee; make no reserve, cost what may; let the word of God search thee; it will judge thee at the end; let it judge thee now. Thy Father loves thee; His grace will never fail to meet whatever needs thy faithfulness may provoke; soon thy Lord will come and reward thee openly for all thou hast suffered secretly for His name's sake.

The Synagogue and The Temple

There were many synagogues, not only in the land of the Jews, but all over the world where they were scattered. There was, however, but one temple, built in the one place where Jehovah had put His Name-in Jerusalem.

The synagogues were (and are still) Jewish meeting-houses where both Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised, freely assembled to give and to receive instruction in the Holy Scriptures.

The Temple was very different. Instruction might be given there too, but only in its outer courts. It was the place of worship. None but Jews or circumcised Gentiles were allowed there, and even they were shut out if rendered unclean by some means or other. To it every Jew had to come from where-ever he might be, if he would have part in the feasts of Jehovah and the worship around His Ark. There He had put His name, and there must assemble all who loved it; there alone was the place of sacrifice- and there is no worship apart from sacrifice. The godly Jew might lift his heart to God in worship anywhere and at any time, but if he would have part in that worship of the congregation which Jehovah had established and which is so delightful to Him, he must come to the Temple. It could not be anywhere else.

The same difference is with us, Christians. Only with us the rallying center is not Jerusalem but Jesus. The Temple is not made up of dead but of living stones-of men born of God and indwelt by His Spirit. The sacrifices are not that of beasts but the one atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. When such men, thus assembled to His Name, with the tokens of His sacrifice among them, not to be instructed but to remember Him, there is the temple of God and the congregational worship of His people. Not one unconverted man, or an unclean child of God has any part in this.

The Synagogue is when we come together for preaching, for teaching, for instruction in the Holy Scriptures. There every one is free to have a part, saved and unsaved, clean and unclean, all may come freely and have a share in what is ministered.

In the Temple all are priests, presenting their worship to God. In the Synagogue all who minister are Levites dispensing the things of God to the others who are learners.

God's Institutions

The very first, and not the least, among them is the Household. It is the most sacred little kingdom in all the realms of the creation. Had not man fallen and become lawless it would be the only kingdom in existence – a kingdom of love, as God intended it to be. There would be no need of rulers, of armies, of judges, jails and scaffolds.

The Fall brought a change, necessitating government and discipline in the Household as in every other human circle. But its original design stamps it still. It is still the foundation of every other institution of God. Were statesmen wise they would protect the Household with exceeding care, punishing with greatest severity every offence against its integrity, for that lies at the root of the prosperity of the State.

In the Church – the greatest of all God's institutions (Eph. 3:8-1 1 ) – the Christian Household'^ also the chief adjunct. So important is it, and so instrumental for good in the hand of God, that the conversion of either the father or mother of a once Jewish or heathen household is sufficient to constitute it a Christian household in God's sight (i Cor. 7:14). The whole household is, by the order of God, linked with the believing one who is now free to guide it in Christian lines, and associate it with himself or herself in household worship. It is a recruiting office for the Church of God. It is a school of disciple-ship for Christ. It is there where the tap-root for eternity has its beginnings.

The Christian Household, though composed of saved and unsaved persons, is as truly a holy institution in the sight of God as is the Church, though here only saved persons are admitted. It is in the world a witness for God as truly as the Church, though in an entirely different position. The Church is a heavenly body, the household an earthly one. The individual Christian has his own sphere as a witness for God in the world, the Christian Household has another, and the Church has another.

Oh, that Christian fathers and mothers realized their responsibilities as heads of Christian households. The Sunday-school is a help if carried on according to God, but it is a help only. To surrender the Christian education of the household to it or to the Church is a fatal error. The seat of the household is the place for Christian education, for intimate acquaintance with the word of God, for learning to practice its teaching. Each Christian father and mother is the priest and the priestess of that sacred circle. It demands, of course, that they, themselves, be examples there of what they daily teach. But that will be a blessing to them. It will reveal to themselves their own failings. It will call for self-judgment. It will cause greater acquaintance with God. They will grow in grace thereby.

In this day when outside cares absorb the fathers, when a mad world howls at the mothers to engulf their children in vanity and to sacrifice them to Moloch, oh, for a reviving of the sense of household importance, blessing, and responsibilities. Marriage then will not be so lightly viewed. It will assume far greater heights and nobler aims than the pleasing of fancy. The sense that another spot in which the glory of God and the testimony of Christ will be concerned is going to be established on the earth, will call for prayer and exercise lest a mistake should be made, and dishonor brought in the relations of the household against the Name we love.
" Waiteth" and "Waiting" Rom. 8:19, 23.

Spite all the efforts and means put forth to better the existing conditions of this world, it still groans and "waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God," for it is only then that it will really be delivered. This will be at " the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." Until then, oppression, rebellion, war, envy, murder, adultery, fornication, drunkenness, robbery, corruption and lust of every sort will continue to plague the world. The return of Christ is the only remedy, and God is letting the world prove by experience the futility of every other.

In the Church too, spite the glowing hopes of seeing the world converted, and believers made sinless and free of disease, we too must "groan within ourselves, waiting for …. the redemption of our body." This will be only when " the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout" (i Thess. 4:16, 17). At that blessed hour, which may occur at any time, "the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we (the living) shall be changed" (i Cor. 15:52). No more sin within us then, to which we are to reckon ourselves dead now, and no more disease to plague our bodies; God's purpose toward us has been reached.

(Continued from page 95.)

Chapters 4 :21-5 :6.

It is very evident the Galatian saints had been led to believe that the law and the prophets were authority for their submission to the Judaizers who said:It is incumbent on you to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses. In this portion of our epistle, therefore, the apostle takes up the testimony of the law and the prophets as to the children of faith:In God's dealings with them, are they on the principle of His free sovereign mercy, or on the principle of law-works for blessing ?

The apostle's unfolding here of the testimony of the law and the prophets on this momentous question is rich in instruction. It must have produced a powerful effect on the minds of the Galatians. Let us turn to his lucid and incontrovertible statement.

First, he raises this question:In the position which you have been influenced to take, are you listening to the voice of the law ? In desiring to be under law are you heeding what the law says? (ver. 21). There can be no question as to our responsibility to give due heed to what the law says. It bears the plainest possible testimony as to whether we are heirs of God on the principle of faith or of works.

What, then, is its testimony? The apostle proceeds to give it. He says, "Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman "- these facts stand out clear and plain on the page of inspiration. Furthermore, the son that was born to the bondmaid "was born according to the flesh;" the son born to the free woman '' was born according to promise" (ver. 23). And what do these facts mean-being recorded as they are in the living and abiding word of God ?

The apostle, speaking with God-given authority, tells us what these facts mean. He interprets them for us. In verses 24 and 25 he tells us the women stand for two contrasted covenants-one the Abrahamic, the other the Mosaic. Now the Abrahamic covenant was a covenant of grace-a covenant in which God was sovereignly saying, I will. It was an unconditional covenant. The Mosaic covenant was a covenant of -works-with conditions therefore.

It is quite impossible to mistake the apostle's application of the recorded facts. He says, Hagar, the woman that stands for the Mosaic or legal covenant, answers to "Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children." It is clear he is speaking of that system which we commonly call Judaism. Judaism centers in the earthly Jerusalem.

On the other hand Sarah, the woman which stands for the covenant of grace, answers to Jerusalem that is above. The heavenly Jerusalem is the city of God-the city of foundations; and the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant of grace, centers there.

Now Ishmael, the son of Hagar, represents the children of Jerusalem that now is. They are children according to the flesh. They are not children of promise, not children of the heavenly city-the city for which Abraham looked-the city which God has prepared for faith. It is Isaac, the son of Sarah, who represents the children of promise-the children of faith.

In verse 26, the apostle insists that we Christians, we believers of this present Christian age, are counted among the children of promise-the children that are connected, not with the Jerusalem below, but the Jerusalem above. She is our mother. Furthermore, just as Sarah was the free woman, and her son Isaac was not a child of bondage, so also are the children free who are the children of promise. If law means bitter servitude and bondage, grace means, not license, but holy liberty-liberty before the face of God.

Plainly, Paul is showing the Galatian saints that in listening to the Judaizers they are not listening to the law's own voice. He makes it clear that the law declares that the children of promise are connected with the Abrahamic covenant of grace; that it is in opposition to the instruction which the law itself gives to put the children of Abraham, 1:e., the children of faith, under the bondage of law to secure the blessing they are already heirs to, and the earnest and pledge of which they already possess in the Spirit which God has given them.

Now let us see how the apostle shows that the testimony of the law is fully confirmed by the prophets. To do this the prophet Isaiah is appealed to. If any question the view I here take of the apostle's interpretation and application of the recorded facts to which he refers (in order to show what the testimony of the law is in regard to the matter he has under consideration) let his appeal to Isaiah 54:1 be well considered. A little unfolding of the prophecy will be in place. Isaiah, under the figure of two women, symbolically speaks of the same two covenants of which we have been speaking. In his thought of them, occupied as he is with the open manifested results, the covenant of grace is as a childless, desolate widow. Grace apparently has not had children. During the period of the law God did not openly acknowledge her children. There were children of grace, but they were not authorized to take the place of such. Hence in the prophet's mind, formed by the Spirit, the Abrahamic covenant was apparently as a widowed, childless woman. Jehovah was, manifestly, not the husband of grace, but of law. In Isaiah 54 the prophet is anticipating the time when the then present acknowledged wife (law) will no longer be recognized, but the one which was as a desolate widow (grace) will be. As he thus anticipates the time of her recognition-her open, public, manifest recognition-he says to her,"Sing, rejoice." In calling upon her to celebrate her manifest recognition he assures her that she shall be seen to have a vast family of children, vastly exceeding in number the children of the woman (law) which for the time being is owned as the married wife.

But this is not all. The connection of this quotation by the apostle with what he is speaking of shows that for him the children of faith and promise, whether those of Old Testament times or those of the present period of Christianity, will all be included among the children that grace will be recognized as having. That is very plainly the apostle's argument. "Jerusalem which is above is our mother" affirms our connection with the covenant of grace. The quotation from Isaiah 54:i is a justification of the affirmation. Verse 28 re-affirms it. "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." We Christians belong to the system of grace, which for a time appeared to be as a desolate, childless widow, but not withstanding finally rejoices in a family of countless numbers.

But if the promise of children to Abraham includes the believers of this Christian age, the antagonism between the children according to the Spirit and the children according to the flesh is the same as in the days of Sarah and Hagar. The latter contest the right of the former to belong to Abraham. How bitter the contest!

But Scripture itself decides the issue:"Cast out the bondwoman and her son:for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman " (Gen. 21:10). Scripture, then, decides that believers of the present dispensation are children of Sarah-of grace. It assures us of what our position is-that of acknowledged sons. It declares what our condition is-the liberty of sons with a Father, not the bondage of servants under a master (ver. 31).

Having completed his task of exposing the folly of the Galatian saints and showing what a delusion they had fallen under, the apostle now proceeds in chapter 5:i to exhort them to hold fast the ground where grace has put them, and to stand immovable in the liberty in which Christ has established them. Christ, the heir of all faith's blessing and portion, has come and freed His co-heirs from the bondage in which they were held. He has given them liberty -the liberty of sons. They should not turn back from this to the yoke of bondage-to law-keeping, or self-effort.

Paul will not close this part of his discussion without telling them plainly what turning back from grace to law really means (vers. 2-4). He seeks to show them that they are not profiting by Christ. In being circumcised they were going back from the real circumcision to what was but a shadow of it. Believers now have in Christ the true circumcision the real "putting off the body of the flesh" (Col. 2:11), a circumcision not made with hands. The circumcision made with hands was but a mark or sign put on the flesh-not its cutting off. The Galatians were going back from the actual thing to what was a mere sign of it; they were not realizing the benefit of what Christ had done. The benefit was in fact theirs, but they were not enjoying it.

But more. In being circumcised they were making themselves responsible to do the whole law (verse 3). Circumcision, as a sign put on the flesh, meant that the flesh naturally was unprofitable, and that to be profitable it must be what the law required-everything it required. In being circumcised therefore the Galatians were assuming the responsibility of doing the whole law. Here again we see how they were not profiting by what had been done by Christ.

Now let us mark well what the apostle tells them. He does not say, Christ has not benefitted them; but his idea is that, notwithstanding the benefit Christ has bestowed upon them, through their being circumcised and assuming the responsibility to do the whole law, they had given up the benefit, so that Christ had "become of no effect to them." It was on their part, a falling from grace. They were not standing firm in the liberty Christ had given them. Christ had set them free, and they had formerly enjoyed their liberty, but now they were not making use of it.

But, further, he points out to them the distinctive characteristic feature of Christianity that they were overlooking in turning back to law. Christianity means that self-effort is at an end; that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to believers:that with the righteousness which God righteously imputes to believers goes the complete blessing He has revealed as the portion of faith. The whole blessing is not received at once. Only a part of it is for the present bestowed. The Spirit is given us; but, while we have the Spirit, we wait for the completion of the blessing that is ours. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2). We do not have to acquire the glory by self-effort. It is the possession of all who are in Christ, only we wait the season of its bestowment. It is plain, therefore, that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything. It is not human works that profit, but the faith that is energized by love-the love of God. Works there will be, no doubt-an abundance of them, for faith is fruitful-but not works for the perfecting of the flesh, which the very law itself declares to be unprofitable, and which the death of Christ proclaims irretrievable and unmendable.

Faith then is the sole principle on which Christians have their blessing, whether it is the blessing already received or the blessing that is still in store for us and for which by the Spirit we wait. Works of law cannot add anything to what we already are in Christ.

What a serious mistake the Galatians were making! Thousands today are like them. Judaizers abound who need the stern apostolic rebuke of this epistle. There are multitudes of Christians who are not standing fast in Christian liberty, who will do well to give heed to the apostle's exposure of the folly and delusion into which they have fallen. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

Chapter 6.

(Concluded from page 153.)

In chap. 6:1-6 the difference between the legal system and Christianity is very strikingly presented. The apostle supposes the case of a man who has been overtaken in some fault. He has made some misstep. Who will be most likely to recover that man ? Will one in whom the spirit of pride and self-boasting has been fostered know how to reach the springs of that man's failure ? Will he so understand the way of restoration as to be able to demonstrate it to the failing one ?

It is evident the spirit of vainglory widely prevailed among the Galatians, with pretensions of great spirituality. This was the fruit of the leaven of legality which had been introduced among them.

It is to this boast of being spiritual the apostle ironically refers when he says, '' Ye which are spiritual." As if to say:Here is a test for your spirituality:this man overtaken in a fault, recover him. Will your boasts of superiority help him? Will high thoughts of self restore him? How utterly futile would all this be in such a case! How well the apostle knew it! Hence his suggestion that the recovery of a man from his fault will require real humility. There will be need of remembering one's own liability to err. It is the consciousness of this that fosters in us (men in whom sin dwells) that spirit of meekness which enables one to make the burdens or troubles of another his own. This lowliness is what Christ Himself exemplified. Christians should walk as He walked (i John 2:6). The leaven of legality in the Galatians had turned them from the ways in which is fulfilled the law which controls in the life of Christ. Grace, and grace alone, enables for such ways.

In thinking themselves to be spiritual, the Galatians were self-deceived, and this self-deception was the fruit of legality. Had grace been the controlling principle, each one would have been concerned about their own burdens-their responsibilities-and instead of glorying ifs above those they judged to have failed, they would be rejoicing in the grace that had enabled them to meet their obligations.

It may be in place here to explain that in the original the words for burden, in verses 2 and 5, are not the same. In verse 2 it expresses the trouble of mind in which the one who has failed is, and with which, where grace, not law, is operating, one Will identify himself. He will make that trouble his own in a very real way. In verse 5 the word expresses responsibility. Every one is personally accountable, and must answer for himself and not another.

In verses 6-10 the apostle contrasts the effects of legality and grace in another way. It is evident the introduction of the leaven of legality among the Galatians had resulted in the drying up of the outflowing streams of grace. The ways in which grace expresses itself had been given up. The apostle reminds them of it and would call them back to them. Grace, the grace the gospel had made known to them, taught them to communicate in all good things to those whom God had used to instruct them in the things of God. They had formerly, we may surely believe, had their part in forwarding the apostle on his way. Now the good things they once gave so heartily they were withholding. The activities in which grace had instructed them had been to a large extent checked.

The faithful apostle warns them against being deceived. He tells them, "God is not mocked." Their pretensions, their provoking one another, their envying one another, will not pass before His eye as the fruit of the Spirit. Even in nature we may learn that the harvest will be according to what is sown; this law is no less inflexible in the spiritual sphere. If the sowing is to the flesh, the reaping must be of the flesh also, and that too, according to the law of increase.

And here I must warn against a grave mistake often made. Sowing to the flesh must not be limited to what we commonly call the vulgar and gross things. There is sowing to the flesh in connection with what is regarded as cultured and refined. It was this sort of sowing that prevailed among the Galatians. In either case the harvest is not the abiding fruits of the Spirit. Christians are characterized by the fruits of the Spirit-fruits that are the anticipation of the joys of that time when we shall have entered upon the final and permanent condition of the life of which by grace we are participants now. Bearing these fruits is ",well-doing." The apostle exhorts us not to weary in it, and assures us that there will be no disappointment in the harvest if the sowing is to the Spirit. Instead of drying up the channels in which love flows out, we are exhorted to seize upon every opportunity for the service of love. How such service shines in contrast with the drying up of love's activities through the leaven of legality!

In verses 11-14, the apostle contrasts the motives actuating himself with those governing the troublers among the Galatians. Whether we read, "Ye see how large a letter," or with others, "What large letters, I have written unto you with mine own hand, "it is clear Paul was seeking to impress the Galatians with what was a manifest fact, that in the intensity of his desire to communicate with them he had not waited for an amanuensis to write for him at his dictation as was his custom (2 Thess. 3:17). A practiced amanuensis could have produced a more attractive manuscript, but the apostle had not the ambition to make "a fair show in the flesh"- which, manifestly, was actuating the perverters of the gospel. The apostle faithfully exposes it.

The reasons for forcing the believing Gentiles to be circumcised were two. First, the cross of Christ, which abolishes all distinctions of men in the flesh, was an offence to the Jews. Association with the uncircumcised, though believing Gentiles, brought persecution upon them. They were anxious to avoid it. Hence they insisted strenuously on believing Gentiles being circumcised.

The second reason was their desire to be able to point to the circumcision of the believing Gentiles as a proof of their being different from the mass-better than the rest. It was not because they themselves were in reality keepers of the law. The apostle says they were not. Nor did they really expect the circumcised Gentiles to keep the law. Their purpose and desire was to be able to justify themselves in their association with Gentiles. They thought they could do that if they could convince the unbelieving Jew that the Gentiles they associated with were a better class of Gentiles than the rest. Their circumcision would be a proof that they did not give to the cross the meaning in which it was an offence to the Jew-that they did not regard it as God's declaration of the utter unprofitableness of the flesh. Paul, however, insists vigorously on the true significance of the cross. With him it mean's God's irreversible judgment, the complete cutting off of man in the flesh. To him, who in faith took sides in it with God, it was the world's crucifixion. It was the end of the world for him. He could no more be a part of it or have any place in it. On the other hand, it was also his crucifixion to the world; because of his subjection to it, the world itself linked him with the crucified One-had no more use for him than it had for the One they had crucified. The cross then in its true import measured the gulf that was between the world and Paul.

Oh that the truth of this were in our souls, beloved, in the same power as it was in the soul of the apostle. However far behind him we may be as to actual practical realization, let us maintain the truth of it faithfully. Paul is the authoritative exponent of Christianity. It is the actuality, the verity of God. Our subjective realization of it, alas, is defective; yet, thank God, every Christian has title to proclaim and insist on the divine reality as what God Himself has established, and in its actuality is permanent and unchangeable. Of course, no one who is before God will boast of its being subjectively realized in fulness.

Verses 15-18 are the apostle's conclusion. It is brief, but a rich and most precious statement of divine truth. Christians are in Christ Jesus, as elsewhere taught; it is of God they are in Him (i Cor. i :30). How immeasurable is the grace that has laid hold of us and taken us out of our relationships with the failed first man, and established us in eternal relationship with Him who is the Second and Last Adam! What unbounded mercy to be called of God, to be connected with Him! But if our being in Christ Jesus is of God's sovereign grace, then neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. A believer from among the circumcised is nothing more than a believer from among the uncircumcised. What counts in Christ is what God has wrought. A circumcised Jew to be in Christ has to be created anew, or born again, through faith. An uncircumcised Gentile comes to be in Christ in the same way. It is not subjection to a religious rite or a ceremonial performance, but new creation.

In Christ Jesus, then, there is no opportunity for boasting, except in Christ Himself, who is all- everything. What we are in ourselves is nothing. What we make ourselves to be by our own efforts to improve goes for nothing. Christ is all.

Now the apostle wishes peace to be upon all who walk after this rule. The Galatians in following the perverters were not walking after the rule of new creation; they were not walking as men who had been created anew in Christ Jesus. They were not therefore in that faith in which peace and mercy could be realized.

It is altogether likely that being connected with the nation of Israel was a matter of great importance in the eyes of the troublers, and through them the Galatians had come to attach great importance to it also. But the apostle indicates that the important thing for an Israelite is to be an Israelite of God. Elsewhere he teaches that they are not all Israel that are of Israel (Rom. 9:6). Only the believing Israelites are real Israelites-Israelites of God. Such are included among those upon whom Paul here wishes peace and mercy.

How forcefully he appeals to the authority under which he was writing. He says, " Henceforth let no man trouble me." If proof were needed that he was an authenticated messenger of the Lord Jesus, he was able to give it. He bore in his body the brands by which the Lord Jesus had signalized him as being His bond-servant and representative. Those scars that he had received in his many persecutions declared him to be the bearer of Christ's message to the world and the Church.

The end is abrupt. There are no salutations, no reminders of associations fondly remembered and affectionately cherished. It is simply, " Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen." C. Crain

QUES. 23.-Can we apply John 8:44, "Ye are of your father the devil," to all who are not children of God?

The Lord here is speaking to people who, while professing godliness, are at the same time full of hatred and murder, rejecting the truth when it is presented to them.

ANS.-As yon remark, the Lord applies the term to a people who manifest what they are ly their works, and no wise person would apply it under any other circumstances. Even then, a wise person will realize that the Lord was free to use expressions which we are not free to use, for He never erred in judgment, whilst we do. His eye could penetrate where ours cannot.

As classes, however, 1 John 3 :7-15 clearly makes but two :"The children of God . . . and the children of the devil." "He that committeth sin is of the devil . . . Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous . . . Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."

Whatever differences of state there may be, and are, both in the children of God and the children of the devil, the word of God recognizes no other class beside those two.

QUES. 24 -Please define the word " covetousness," and give a case in Scripture of a covetous person ?

ANS.-The adjective, covetous (pleonektees), occurs many times in Scripture ; also the noun, covetousness (pleonexia). The verb pleonekteo, related to them, occurs several times also ; the way in which it has been translated being explanatory, we give the translations :In 2 Cor. 2 :11 it is rendered, " Lest Satan should get an advantage of us" (lit., lest we should be overreached by Satan). Chap. 7 :2 translates it, " We have defrauded no man;" 12 :17, " Did I make a gain of you ?" The same in verse 18, and 1 Thess. 4 :6 gives it, "And defraud the brother in the matter."

Taken all together, it is easy to see that covetousness means an unbridled desire leading to the taking advantage of others for the possession of a wished-for object. It is illustrated in the Old Testament by Balaam, for position and reward ; in Korah, for power ; in Achan, for what was consecrated to God, and many beside. In the New Testament, in Judas, for money; in Diotrephes, for preeminence in the Church; and finally, in Antichrist, for the place which belongs to Christ alone.

It is an awful passion, chiefly in relation to money. When the heart is yielded to it, it may go to any excess, even to taking the lives of fellow-men. Even of believers, the word of God says :"They who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all evil ; which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Tim 6 :B, 10).

QUES. 25. From E. C. ANS.-It would be impossible here to review the authors you mention, most of whom have exceedingly crude thoughts of truth. We would only say that the law is in no wise an expression of what God is. It is His rule for man as His creature-His standard of right and wrong. What God is seen in Christ alone, and who that knows Him as revealed there has not seen what is far beyond right and wrong ?

Get a catalogue from our publishers, and yon will find a great variety of reading which, at a trifling cost, will help you much in the Scriptures.

I should not grieve o'er yesterday,
Because 'tis in God's past:
I may not bring it back again
With all its clouds overcast.

Nor should I o'er to-morrow fret,
Because it is not here:
And if tomorrow come at all
I may be far from fear.

Why should I worry o'er to-day ?
"Pis mine, the while I roam,
To serve my Lord and grow like Him
Until He calls me home. H. McD.

Hope it is that produces all the activities of love. If hope is lost, love becomes but a mourner and ceases to be active.

Love is the motive power in God or in His own; righteousness is the guiding power.

Born of God! a wonderful expression; full of deep and precious meaning for us. It is a word speaking of life, but life of an entirely different order and relationship from any that we may otherwise know. To man spiritually, morally dead, alienated from the life of God, what a message is that which speaks to him of life, a new life, communicated by the Spirit of God, and thereafter to be developed in fulness of understanding, power and blessing. Born of God!-the most precious privileges flow from this, and the most endearing affections. To my child I give of my life-its nature, its affections, its longings and aspirations. Born of God! does it mean I am His child ? Can it mean less ? Have I His life ? has He communicated it to me ? Could it be anything less than this if I am "born of Him ?" Oh, the wonder and the blessedness of the thought! His life in me; His nature given to me- a creature dead in trespasses and sins! Yet God picked me up, dead as I was, and imparted His life, so that I can say, " I am born of Him."

It is in John's writings that this truth is especially dwelt upon, and in which the first plain statement of it is given to us. In accord with this, it is John who so largely speaks of birth-relation, children, not sons;* for position is more distinctly associated with son-ship in Scripture, and it is Paul who treats of this. *In John 1 :12 and 1 John 3:1,2, the A.V. has "sons of God," but, as it is well-known, it should be "children of God."*

God chose to reveal Himself in all the fulness of His character and the blessedness of His purpose in the Son. The Word-the Revealer-who was with God and was God, came forth as the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He was the Light shining in the darkness, though un-comprehended by it ; coming to those He had taken up to be His people, but rejected by them. It was surely meet that the coming of this blessed One should be signalized by marked advance in privileges and blessings enjoyed-not only in the revelation of God Himself, as contrasted with the fragmentary revelations of the past, but also in the blessings bestowed and enjoyed by those who received the truth perfectly revealed in the Son.

Thus it is that with the first mention of being "born of God," we are told He gave to those thus born the authority or title to be children of God- the right to take this place (John i:12, 13). This was entirely new; a place which none had known to be theirs before. It is not that new birth had no existence before, but its proper character and meaning had not before been made known. No one could have claimed to be born of God before this time, even though being a subject of the spiritual work so characterized. It was reserved according to the mind and purpose of God for revelation in conjunction with the coming of Him in and by whom alone can be known every privilege and blessing, whether of the earthly or heavenly order. Participation in any of this is alone possible through receiving Him, the Source of life and of every blessing.

It is interesting to note the order of the statements in this passage. It is first speaking of the time then present:to as many as received Him, to those who found in Him the promised Christ of God-to such He gave the title to be children of God, for they believed on His name, and received Him as being what He declared Himself to be:"Who have been born, not of blood nor of flesh's will, nor of man's will, but of God " (J. N. D.). Their reception of the Lord Jesus proved that the work of new birth had been already accomplished in their souls, for as little children they had believed the promises of God, so that they hoped for the promised One, and knew and received Him when He came. We see, then, the difference between the two great periods:His coming ending the one, during which those newborn believed in Him and looked for His coming when they would receive Him; and the commencement of the other, during which those new-born by believing in Him look back to His having come and so receive Him. Souls then were truly born of God before Christ came, but had not the right here mentioned until after He came. Then, they were really "born " to receive Christ; as being new-born they received Him-the coming One according to promise and prophetic testimony. Now that He has come the two coalesce, and we cannot make such a difference in the present time. As acceptance by faith of the promises and new birth came together, so now the reception of Christ and new birth are linked together. The difference is a dispensational one, and gives no ground for making a difference between classes of believers in this present time; such as, for instance, being born of God before receiving Christ.

Let us turn now to John, chapter 3, where the Lord dwells at length upon this subject and its connected truths:"Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." The mere intellectual assent based upon what can be observed by the senses, reception after this order, is not new birth. The Lord refuses to acknowledge such (John 2:23-25), and it was with a belief after this order that Nicodemus came; though, no doubt, with some need felt in his soul, which the mass had not. Hence, the Lord goes to the root of the matter at once. It is not reception of Him after this manner that He is looking for, but for that which is the accompaniment, the work or effect of the Word and the Spirit -such as that which had been wrought in others through faith in the promise, who, as a result, received Him when He came. Here the Lord puts new birth in connection with the seeing of the kingdom of God.

It is not put simply as a matter of seeing it in the future, but it is as much a matter of seeing it now. In a very real and important sense the kingdom of God was then present. " If by the finger of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is come upon you" (Luke n :20; Matt. 12 :28, J. N. D.) It may be well to note that such expressions are not used of the "kingdom of heaven"; of it, it was said to be "at hand." The kingdom of God is the rule of God manifested in any circumstances according to His wisdom and purpose. Therefore, this kingdom was come into their midst when the Son of God was present working in power among them. " Behold," He says, " the kingdom of God is in the midst of you " (Luke 17:21, J. N. D.). It becomes evident, therefore, that unless the work of new birth was accomplished in the individual, he would not "see" in the blessed person of Jesus, the King of God's kingdom present and working in power among them.

This again makes clear that at the time of His coming none would receive Him except where new birth had been accomplished through the word of promise being believed. This gave them eyes to see in the lowly Man of Nazareth the manifestation of the kingdom of God. Thus did Nathanael express the faith that was in him. Nicodemus had not his eyes open to this. He only saw in Him a teacher sent from God. Hence the Lord's word to him concerning his need. For it might have been said to him, as to others at a later day, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me:for he wrote of Me." And the Psalms and the Prophets too spoke of Him. He might know of them as a master in Israel, yet be far from believing.

Astonished Nicodemus may question the Lord's words, but He has no others for him, and after His emphatic style restates the truth in an amplified form:" Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
To be born anew, then, is to be born of water and the Spirit. In the Lord's words here, which amplify His first statement, we find the means employed for one to be born anew. Entering is more than seeing, though those that " see" undoubtedly "enter" also.

Recalling what we have said about seeing the kingdom, we can understand the application of it to the godly Jew who, being born again through faith's reception of the promises, saw in Christ the promised One come among them. It had been a vision afar off which filled their eyes; but when He came, faith could say, "Mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation." He had now come, and with His coming was the opening of the kingdom of God; it was no longer a question of something to reach after and wait for, but of entrance into the thing itself as revealed in Him. Therefore, seeing and entering (whether at the time of His presence here, or as now absent) coalesce, as also receiving Him and being born of God do. , By reason of the completed word of God it is given us now to enter more abundantly than it was even possible to do when the Lord was here.

This entrance then can alone be through birth, effected by the "water and the Spirit." Water is a figure of the word of God, and in some cases is used of the Spirit exercising His power in blessing. In fact the Word and Spirit are always linked together. In the first page of God's Book the Spirit is brooding over the waste, and the Word is spoken, bringing light and life into the scene.

At a later day we read of the man who was a preacher of righteousness, and of the Spirit's striving. That the Spirit and the preaching were united, Peter assures us (i Pet. 3:18-20; i:23-25). The Spirit wrought with the Word, written or spoken by prophets or evangelists, effecting then as now new birth in those who received the testimony. Whether it is the earth that is to be born anew that man may dwell upon it, or man himself being born anew that he may dwell with God, the Spirit and the Word effect the work.

The Lord's use of water in John 13 clearly figures the Word in its cleansing power, and it is referred to in the same connection in Ephesians 5. We cannot, with the word of God before us, doubt the conjoint action of the Spirit and the Word, which "liveth and abideth." Hence, to be born of God (whether John, Peter, or James i:18 speaks of it), means life conceived in the individual by the action of the Spirit and the Word, as the seed of God received in the heart by faith.

The practice of righteousness signifies being begotten of God (i Jno. 3:9), the Spirit being intimately connected with it. If the Spirit was not the life and characteristic of being born anew, it could not be said '' whoever is born of God does not practice sin" (i Jno. 3:9; 5:18) ; nor "Everyone that loves"-the love which keeps His commandments, love in the truth-"has been born of God and knows God " (i John 4:7). If these things are true of us as born of God, they were true of those of whom John 1:13 affirms that they had been born of God before Christ came, who received Him when He came. God has wrought in one way from the beginning, imparting the same life, establishing the same relationships in His family blessings. But it is quite evident that Old Testament saints did not know nor could enjoy them in fulness, as they had not been made known. This revelation was reserved, according to God's purpose and wisdom, as an accompaniment of the coming of Him who was the ordained Head of the family of God, who could say, "Behold I and the children whom God has given Me." He was the only One who could authoritatively give to the children the knowledge of their place and relationship to God as His children.

May this precious knowledge produce in us ways that accord with it. John Bloore.

Practical Christianity.-Real Christianity enters into the smallest details of our every-day life. We have heard of the little servant-girl who, when asked how she knew she was saved, gave the rather curious reply, " I sweep under the beds and the mats now instead of around them." That was an illustration of the practical Christianity spoken of by the apostle Paul when he says, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Whether you are engaged in the duties of the household or the routine of office-work behind a counter or in the workroom, always remember that everything you do is to be well done, because you serve the Lord, and your service to your earthly master is not to be "with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God."

The pretensions and energy of man are strongly manifesting themselves.

The spirit of the age affects many Christians, who labor to restore old things for the service of God
instead of being broken before Him by the sense of their downfall.

To confess openly that which we are in the presence of that which God is, is always the way to peace and blessing. Even when only two or three are together before God, if it be thus with them, there will be no disappointments nor deluded hopes.

The word for the remnant is, '' Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts." He is the only center of gathering.

The Holy Ghost does not gather saints around mere views, however true they may be, upon that which the church is, or has been, or may be, on the earth, but He always gathers them around that blessed Person, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. '' Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).

We need to be watchful against boasting as people do in these days; need to be still in the presence of God. There is much independence and self-will almost everywhere.

If anyone speaks of separation from evil, without being humiliated, let him take care lest his position becomes simply only that which at all times has constituted sects, and produced doctrinal heresy. Nearness to Christ would keep us from sectarianism, the most natural weed of the human heart. Sectarianism is getting an interest i n a little circle round ourselves.

Now I know, at the present time, of no service which is worthy of Him, if it is not done in humiliation. This is not the time to speak of a place for ourselves. If the church of God, so dear to Christ, is dishonored in this world; if it is scattered, ignorant, afflicted, he who has the mind of Christ will always take the lowest place. True service of love will seek to give according to the need, and because of their need; he will never think of slighting the objects of the Master's love because of their necessity. Men taught of God, for His service, go forth from a place of strength, where they have learnt their own weakness and their own nothingness. They find that Jesus is everything in the presence of God, and Jesus is everything for them in all things, and everywhere. Such men, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, are real helps for the children of God, and they will not contend for a place, or a distinction, or for authority, amongst the scattered flock. The communion of a man with God about the church will show itself in a willingness to be nothing in himself, and such a one will rejoice in his heart to spend and to be spent. . . .

Many think of the Church, but it is rather the Church in power.

There is great instruction in the conduct of Zerubbabel, recounted in the book of Ezra.

Heir of the place which Solomon had occupied in days of prosperity and glory, he spoke not of his birth, nor of his rights. However, he is faithful in all the path of separation, of sorrow, and of conflicts he is obliged to pass through.

If we speak of our testimony upon the earth, it will soon be evident that all is but weakness, and, like the seed lost upon the wayside, the testimony will likewise end to our shame.

Neither the anger, nor the prudence, nor the pretensions of man can do anything, in the state of confusion in which the church is now. I freely own that I have no hope in the efforts which many make to assure themselves an ecclesiastical position. When the house is ruined in its foundations by an earthquake, it matters little how one tries to make it an agreeable dwelling-place. We shall do better to remain where the first discovery of the ruin of things by man's deed has placed us-with our faces in the dust. Such is the place which belongs to us by right, and, after all, it is the place of blessing.

We need to watch over ourselves, lest, after having been preserved from the corruption of the age by the very precious truths revealed to us in our weakness, we should be taken in the net of presumption, or thrown into insubordination. These are things which God can never recognize or tolerate, since we are called to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." J. N. D.

The following thoughts have pressed upon me concerning our Lord:John 5:23 says, "That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." Do we give the Lord Jesus His full proper place when we assemble together ?

Suppose we belong to the Dominion of Canada and the King of England one day sends his son the Prince of Wales there. Suppose he does a wonderful thing for us, something so great that it has saved us from utter ruin for all time:would we not fall down and thank and praise him for it ? And would we not thank and praise the king for sending him ?

Then suppose that before he leaves again for home, he says to us:I want you to remember me, and to show out to all the world what I have done for you. I want you to celebrate this every year, and when you do, I will be there.

Suppose the day comes; every thing is ready; the city is gaily decked with flying flags, and wires are strung from the city way off to the king's palace. The Prince comes, but no one pays much attention to him, whilst the wires are busy sending messages of thanks to the king for once sending the Prince and saving them from ruin. All this looks good, but how would the father feel in knowing that his son was being slighted in any measure ? To him that son is as the apple of his eye, and if men will please the father they must give his son no inferior honors -no secondary place. But no city in the world would do such a thing. The first glimpse of the Prince would cause shout after shout to go up, and the city as one man would say, All honor to the one that saved us! For the moment they might almost forget the king, in being so entirely occupied with the Prince. But soon, out of the fulness and gratitude of their heart, messages would be sent during the celebration to thank the king too, for sending his son.

Should not this describe our coming together to remember our Lord ? God sent His Son into the world that we might be saved from eternal ruin. We praise and worship God for sending His Son, and we fall down at Jesus' feet, owning the lost and helpless condition in which He found us and out of which He took us. We own Him Lord and we worship Him. His holy Name is our center of gathering. To such He says, "Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst" (Matt. 18:20). What a glorious assemblage this is to the eye which can see as God sees! But, beholding the emblems of His sorrow and humiliation because of our sins, a lowly mind will mark each one of such a company.

Could any of us who have thus come together to remember our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and have truly drank into such a meeting, ever allow anything else to take its place, or anything to deprive us of its bliss ? How far our souls would have to fall away before this could be.

Without set rules, then, we come together primarily to remember our Lord, to empty our baskets of praises unto Him and unto the Father who sent Him. And He took the bread and gave thanks, likewise the cup. How simple. No set words nor flowery phrases. No religious ceremony. Nothing but absolute reality and sincerity. This always makes us simple and reverential.

If we only realized more who it is to whom we gather, and what it is for which we gather together, then would our praises and hymns and prayers be indeed sweet incense filling the Holy of holies in the power of the Holy Spirit. That a measure of this has been attained is joy to the heart, but may we not seek a greater measure ?

(An Extract from " The Christophanies " now publishing in Treasury of Truth )

It is worthy of note that the free, sovereign, and direct action of the Spirit, begins at the moment of this appearing. In the call of Stephen to the work, the Spirit acts above apostolic authority in the twelve. Their work is recognized in its place; but the Spirit in calling and fitting Stephen, acts independently of their authority. The Spirit is "dividing to every man severally (or in particular) as He will " (i Cor. 12:11). The twelve were called and sent by the Lord when on earth, but Stephen was called by the Lord in glory, and his fitting and sending was by the Holy Spirit, and no one else. Thus we have in Stephen an illustration of the principle of Christian ministry for all time. Only, we must go to the writings of the apostle Paul for the full development of this principle; but this is true of everything connected with the Church. Paul himself was an apostle by the personal call of the Lord in glory, and he was sent forth into the work, not by the twelve, but by the Holy Ghost (Acts 13:4). Man was not the source nor the authority of his apostleship ; he declares expressly that it was "not of man, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead" (Gal. i:i). Then in Eph. 4:7-14 he puts all ministry on the same basis, and shows that evangelists, pastors and teachers are called, fitted and sent, as he was. And he lets us know that this principle is to characterize all Christian ministry until the Church is completed. Christ as the ascended One, and head of His body, the Church, gives " gifts unto men, for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith."

Until Stephen is raised up, the miraculous signs-except the speaking with tongues and prophesying at Pentecost-seem to have been by the twelve only. But now "Stephen full of faith (grace, N. Trans.) and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people " (Acts 6:8). He had been set apart as one of the seven who were to 'serve tables in the assembly at Jerusalem. His devotedness had fitted him for this place, for before the hands of the twelve were laid on him he was '' full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom" (chap. 6:3). His being put into the ministry was entirely apart from the laying on of hands.

Philip, another of the " seven," is also a signal example of the way the Lord is now fitting men and sending them into the work. He and Stephen illustrate what is to characterize the action of the Spirit in the new dispensation. But the principle is of universal application; for it is recorded that all they that were scattered abroad at this time "went everywhere preaching the Word" (Acts 8:1-4). The sovereign choice and action of the Spirit is to characterize all Christian worship, as well as all Christian ministry. Man's authority is not to intrude itself into the sphere of worship nor into the sphere of ministry. Christians "worship by God's Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." The Spirit is to be the leader and power of the Christian Assembly (i Cor. 12; Phil. 3:3). Thus in all the circumstances connected with Stephen at this twelfth appearing is indicated what was to characterize the full revelation of the truth to be given later through Paul, the minister of the new dispensation. He comes into the history at once, first as Saul the persecutor, consenting to the death of Stephen and taking care of the clothes of those who killed him; then, as the Lord's chosen instrument in sovereign grace, to build up what he sought to destroy. He had witnessed the effect of the glory of Christ in Stephen's face, and may easily have thought of this when he wrote 2 Cor. 4:4. Even more than Stephen, he became a witness of the transforming effect of that glory. Paul, like Stephen, is to be a witness of the glory of Christ and a partaker of His sufferings.

The Labor of Love

"In all labor there is profit," wrote Solomon. We prove it in the affairs of this life, and it is no less true in those concerning eternal life. " Your labor is not in vain in the Lord," wrote the apostle.

The "labor of love" has the other life in view, not this alone, whatever be its sphere of activity. It is not mere philanthropy, though the truest philanthropy. Though bestowed on man here, it has Christ linked with it. " For Christ's sake" is our plea with God in all our needs and our motive in all Christian labor. The "labor of love" is no more confined to one line of things than the labor of this world. There is an endless variety of needs in the world we are passing through, and an endless variety of gifts among the children of God to minister to them. All that is required is love in exercise.

Labor implies toil, self-renunciation, a measure of suffering. If we travel for pleasure we choose the road that pleases us, but if for labor and business we submit to whatever road leads to it, though it be rough and painful.

There is one kind of labor of love we are perhaps most prone to neglect. It is prayer. We pray earnestly, perhaps, when we ourselves are in need, but our love is so limited we cannot summon spiritual energy to pray for others. " Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently in prayers for you that ye might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God," wrote the apostle to the Colossians. Oh that every Christian assembly had such a laborer among them! Brother, sister, will you be that laborer ? Will you throw your energies in a labor which may bring you little notice from men, but from which you will surely reap ?

20th Century Charlatanism

There was recently left at our door a newspaper sheet advertising "Pastor Russell." Its two pages contained no less than five pictures of himself. They were labeled, "-Characteristic Attitudes of the Venerable Pastor Russell of London, Brooklyn and Washington."

We had thought that "attitudes" belonged to the stage, and that vanity and bombast were no part of the Christian character, but as " Pastor Russell" is one of the "saintly few" who are being prepared for gigantic work in the coming age of the progress of man, we must have been mistaken.

He tells us on that sheet that by spending six days in Japan and twenty-three in India, he and his six associates were enabled to give a fair report of the mission fields of those countries. They had examined the converts as one would examine students in French and, as one would judge the work of the French teachers by the way the students spoke the French, so had they judged the work of the missionaries.

It does not seem to have occurred to the "Venerable Pastor of London, Brooklyn and Washington " that if men ignorant of the French language should set themselves at examining students in French their report might not be of much weight. And who that knows in his soul what Christianity is, and possesses the light of it from the word of God, could credit "Pastor Russell " and his associates with knowing it ? There may be much that is unchristian in the mission field, as elsewhere, but it takes a brazen face for such a man as " Pastor Russell" to offer himself as judge of it.

He tells us also on that newspaper sheet that "our hallucinations respecting eternal torment, which the Bible, rightly translated and properly understood, does not teach-as every scholar in the world will agree," etc. Come then, ye humble, patient, godly scholars of every age and every land-come and sit at the feet of " Pastor Russell." He probably could not face a Princeton freshman with a Greek or Hebrew Grammar, yet he will teach you how to translate the Bible. Only remember that if you fail to agree with him, you certainly are no scholar.

Is this the kind of character that God is going to use to form the coming age ? Alas for the millennium which it will produce! We have seen plenty of suffering people in search of health giving heed to the clatter of quacks. The deception was not serious. It was only for time. The "Pastor Russell" deception is for eternity. It is frightful. By teaching, by pleadings, by tears, by all means, one would fain deliver his dupes from it. Elijah even mocked the prophets of Baal if he might but deliver Israel from their deceptions. But alas, it is easier for the bird to fall into the snare than, once in, to get free. Doctrines as pleasing to the natural man as "Pastor Russell's " have roots deep down in the paradise of fools.

Interested souls will find excellent literature at our publishers' on the subject, and at very small cost. We are even assured that none would find themselves denied if they could not pay for them.

"I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also " (i Cor. 14:15).

A new song or hymn, with music, among the precious ministry of Help and Food, may cause surprise to some of its readers. Perhaps an explanation, if not an apology, may be in place here.

Our purpose is to awaken in our assemblies a deeper interest in the singing, and to stir up neglected gifts in the way of adapting or composing suitable melodies for the precious truth and thoughts of Christ, and the experiences which the Holy Spirit would awaken in God's people on their homeward way, with praise and worship.

Without giving undue prominence to music, since we do use it is certainly worthy of care and attention. Many a hymn or spiritual song is robbed of its sweetness and power by being sung to an inappropriate tune.

In realizing the increasing difficulties of the times, one would earnestly covet a more tender heart, a more diligent mind to treasure up all the help and comfort so largely provided for us. Some sweet verses of praise, or of experience, might be happily fastened upon the mind, and their usefulness increased by an appropriate melody to which they might be sung. Fresh love-songs to offer up to our Lord are certainly worth possessing. " Songs in the night,'1 Spirit-breathed aspirations, driving away our fears and leading our minds into peaceful confidence, are valuable acquisitions well worth preserving.

Our Little Flock Hymn Book has been a source of encouragement and comfort for many years, a helpful companion in our pilgrimage; but how great the loss if with it the canon were closed, if the wondrous touch of the Spirit of God had no more fresh chords from the harp of our hearts worth recording, wherewith to gladden the heart of our adorable Saviour and Lord and lighten our steps through the wilderness! How great the loss if we were to claim for that loved little book the completeness, the perfection, which belongs alone to our Bible! Indeed, neither the compilers nor the revisers of it (to whom we are so much indebted) would have claimed for their labor any more than what it really was-a help by the way for the time being.

One rejoices at the thought that there shall be fresh songs given us until the end of the journey. The Comforter will never fail us in this scene where the Valley of Baca may be changed into a place of springs. New difficulties and fresh trials may and should give birth to new songs.

Then, as various materials are gathered, a revision of our hymn-book might be indicated wherein new hymns would be added, and those left out or altered which had failed to be useful through various reasons. Should not our zeal in this direction be manifest as, through grace, it is in other ways ?

It is not only our privilege but should be our concern to leave to those coming after us, if He tarry, the testimony of our own joys in the Lord, and of the constancy of His tender care for a needy and failing people. A hymn-book is perhaps one of the best expressions that could be given of it. It is a precious legacy.
Oh, that we might overcome any sluggishness of heart, any spiritual slothfulness which might cause us to let slip things whereby we may edify one another and our fellowship be made sweeter and closer till He come!

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Col. 3 :16).
C. Jouard
O God, a World of Empty Show.

THE JEW AND THE CHRISTIAN

As I was passing along one of the main thoroughfares of Brooklyn, I met a crowd of people at one of the corners gathered about a speaker who stood on a small platform. He was holding their attention as he unfolded the glowing prospects of man's future under the rule and sway of Socialism. As he dilated on its final triumph he closed his remarks thus:"Then will the millennium that the old prophet spoke about come to pass. There will be then no more crime, no more wars, for having changed man's environment the incentive for these evils will be gone, and being bound together by the common ties of brotherhood, man will thus live in peace and happiness."

I had learned enough of man's nature, in myself as well as others, to know that his troubles did not all arise from his "environments," and this man's speech sounded to me therefore like the speech of the charlatan who holds out to the gaping crowd a medicine that cures every 99:I had also learned enough about Christ to know that in Him, and Him alone, was the remedy which this orator was trying to find in Socialism. I pitied the poor people therefore who, hanging on his lips, were only doomed to bitter disappointment, even if Socialism should prevail and have full sway. Wretched Millennium! I exclaimed to myself, if what the "old prophet" announced is to be the outcome of Socialism.

But I believe what the "old prophet" said. I believe there is a Millennium coming, and coming soon too. Not, however, by means of the Socialists any more than by the Trusts, or by means of anything that issues out of man; for the first thing necessary to bring about the "old prophet's " Millennium is a radical change in the human heart. As "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights" so the Millennium, that blessed time of deliverance and peace for which the whole creation, groaning and travailing in pain day and night, is waiting, comes direct from God Himself. As He once sent His blessed Son from heaven to obtain an eternal redemption for us by His atoning death on the cross, so is He about to send Him back again, in power and glory now, to command the whole world into subjection to Him, and to execute judgment upon every soul who refuses obedience. Having "all power" He will produce that change in the hearts of men which will at once change their environments by enabling them to practice in truth the sermon which He had before made on the Mount, which will end all war and strife and oppression and crime. " I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them," He says. Blessed Millennium indeed that will be. The whole earth will rejoice and sing under the holy and peaceful sway, not of Socialism, but of the Son of Man, Son of God, King of kings, and Lord of lords. As thoughts of these things burned in my heart, the speaker invited questions from the crowd, and a man standing by me at once replied. He was well-dressed, of refined appearance, and his speech and general features plainly told he was a Jew. Said he:"Why don't you tell the people what the Old Testament teaches about God's law? How they should live and treat their fellow men? If they kept the law of God would they not do what is right ? And if men do what is right everybody is happy."

Upon this the orator indulged in a scathing tirade against the churches. Didn't they preach the law to the people, and yet didn’t they shelter among them the men who were the chief oppressors of the poor ? Who could believe that a man in a few years could gather up millions in his lap and not rob others of their dues ? And yet all these preachers of righteousness were the first to bend their knees to these oppressors of humanity.

The Jew felt the force of the charge and was silenced.

Here I felt the Christian's opportunity had come, and looking to the Lord for help my burning thoughts broke out in words. Addressing the speaker I said, "But all I have heard you say does not reach the root of the matter." , He looked at me rather puzzled for a moment, and then asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well," I replied, "you say that all that is needed to do away with existing evils is to change man's social condition. But you seem to ignore the fact that his social condition is but the fruit of his inward moral condition. Give a poor Socialist a big fortune without changing his inward moral condition and he will at once become another of the oppressors of men, as you have called the rich. The law of sin which is in the human heart rules him, and a change must be wrought there before the social condition can be changed. Can Socialism change the heart of man ?"

All eyes were now turned toward the speaker to see what he would answer to this plain question what remedy Socialism had for this plague that holds the universal human race in its merciless grip. But he had none. Neither would he listen to what gives the remedy. He only broke out into another tirade in which he sought to justify man and condemn God. He then brought the meeting to a close, and I was about to go on my way as the rest when a voice addressed me. It was the Jew who had asked the first question. He seemed excited and his eyes gleamed as he looked me in the face and said warmly, '' See here, sir, do I understand from what you say that we are all sinners alike ? I want to tell you I am not a sinner ! " And he stood back with a look of wounded pride and great dignity. "God gave us His beautiful and perfect law and it is only they who obey it that have the true religion."

"The law that was given you, my friend, is indeed excellent. It is absolutely perfect. It is holy. The man who keeps it is a perfect man, But will you tell me why you Jews have been driven away from your land and scattered to the four winds of heaven, and been for centuries a by-word and a hissing everywhere? Have you ever read the great prophecy of your prophet Moses in the 28th chapter of his book of Deuteronomy? Has it not been, and is it not now being fulfilled to the letter because of your disobedience to the Law ? My friend, if you Jews were not sinners, every one of you, you would be to-day in your own country, the land of Palestine. You would be honored by all nations instead of being despised. Your land would be flowing with milk and honey instead of being desolate. It is your disobedience to the law of God which has brought on your miseries, and when His Son came to change your hearts and make you obedient, and bring all manner of blessings upon you, you killed Him and are now suffering the consequences. Moreover, the climax of those consequences is yet to come, and then you will confess that you are indeed sinners. Then He will forgive you and bless you wonderfully. If you would confess now that you are a sinner He would bless you with even greater blessings than you can ever have on earth during the Millennium."

But, alas, all this which he could not deny but would not confess, only seemed to raise all the prejudices of his Jewish mind, and the sad truth was again brought to light, that Christ "is despised and rejected of men." So I left him, glad in heart, however, for the opportunity of witnessing to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

After all, thought I as I went on my way, there is little difference practically, between the Socialist and the Jew, the Philanthropist, the Progressive and the Reformer. All alike seek to ameliorate the evil conditions of mankind by some system and means of man's devising or power. Everything fails. Everything is bound to fail, because there is no power in any of them to change the nature of man. The only hope is in God who has given charge of the matter to His Son Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile what is to be done for mankind ? Until Christ appears in almighty power on the clouds of heaven to hush the groans and sighs of a suffering creation and to cut down all who oppose Him in this blessed work, what is to be done ?

The answer comes from Himself in a multitude of passages of Scripture and can, in measure, be summed up in these few words:"While I tarry with My Father in heaven and wait for His time to return to earth and take the kingdom to Myself and reign, preach the gospel of my grace to every creature under heaven. Tell them that I died for them all. That every one who repents of his sins and believes on Me is cleared of all his sins, a possessor of eternal life, a child and heir of God, and that his home will be in heaven, with Me and with My Father-a far more blessed place yet than those will have who will be in the Millennium. Tell them also to be patient like Me, to suffer wrong as I did, to render good for evil as I did, to use their talents and their means for the blessing of others, serving as I did and waiting for their reward till I give it to them. This alone is what will or can alleviate the social condition during My absence. It is they who are light in the world and the salt of earth. Blessed will the portion be of all who thus are My witnesses till I come again."

Lord Jesus, make me such.

W. W. B.

SIMPLE PAPERS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS BY H. A. IRONSIDE

" Fear not, Paul; . . . lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee."-Acts 27:24.

ETERNAL LIFE

Of those who in this spiritual sense sailed with Paul, no one was dearer to him than the young preacher Timothy; and to him he writes, " Lay hold on eternal life" (i Tim. 6:12). The inspired exhortation is for us likewise; but if we would lay hold on life eternal, it is important that we understand the teaching of Scripture regarding it.

John is, properly speaking, the apostle of eternal life. He it is who fully unfolds it; but it is Paul who ever presses it as a practical thing.

The Gospel of John presents the Lord Jesus as the Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested here for a time on earth. The first Epistle presents that same life now manifested in the children of God. In both Gospel and Epistle, again and again it is insisted on that this everlasting life is the present portion of all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives eternal life to all His sheep, and assures us that they shall never perish. Indeed, they could not, or the life would not be eternal, but simply probationary.

Let there be any doubt or difficulty as to this in the Christian's mind, and true, unselfish service for the Lord Jesus Christ there can scarcely be. If I have any lingering fear of being possibly lost at last; or if I suppose that I maintain my salvation by my faithfulness, genuine faithfulness there cannot be, for I shall ever have before me-not purely the glory of Christ-but the selfish thought of making my own soul secure.

But all this is rebuked wherever life eternal is taught in Scripture. In the very nature of things a life that is eternal can not come to an end. And every believer has this life-a life that has no beginning and shall have no ending; for it is the very life of the Son of God. In the Christian it has a beginning, it is true. It is imparted to him the moment he is born of God. By human generation he obtained natural life-a life that was already forfeited. By new birth-divine generation-he becomes the possessor of eternal, inalienable, non-forfeitable life.

It is thus we are enabled to apprehend divine things and have fellowship with divine persons. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17; 3).

But in addition to the doctrine of the present possession of eternal life, the word of God presents that life as a goal and as an experience subjectively apprehended and enjoyed. This is Paul's special line. He who reads only Paul on this subject might lose sight of the truth we have just been considering; but there is no need so to do. John's truth comes first. Then that committed to Paul follows. Eternal life is ours now, but it is also our hope. " In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world (or, the ages) began" (Titus i:2).
This is the Christian's goal. He now has eternal life in him. He looks on with eager, glad expectancy to the time when, in the fullest possible sense, he will enter into life, and will be in the scene to which eternal life belongs. Now he has eternal life in a decaying body and in a crumbling scene. Then he will possess a body radiant with eternal life, and fully fitted for its display in a " city that hath foundations," and amid scenes that "cannot be shaken."

Take a simple illustration:A child possesses life -natural life-from the moment of birth. But for that child there is a long period of discipline and education ere he really enters into life, fulfilling his chosen vocation. So with the believer. From the moment of new birth he has eternal life; and yet he daily lives in hope of eternal life; and when at last earth's discipline is over and the soul's education complete, he goes away "into life eternal" (Matt. 25:46).

But Paul's exhortation to Timothy suggests a third application. He is to "lay hold on eternal life." In the same chapter, verses 18, 19, the "rich in this world" are charged "that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life;" or, as a better rendering has it, "lay hold on the true life," or, " life in reality." The original is quite distinct from the ordinary term for eternal life.

But the one passage throws a clear light upon the other. We lay hold on eternal life as we realize in our souls that we do not belong to this sphere; that everything for us is connected with the scene to which we are going. Hence we learn to look very differently upon the things of this life from what we once did. We realize that the true life is life in fellowship with God, and so we are enabled, in the Spirit's power, to use this world without abusing it, walking as Christ walked, who alone fully manifested eternal life in this scene of death. This is, for us, to lay hold on eternal life.

It is most sorrowful to hear people glibly talking of having eternal life and being forever saved, when they are really trying to "make the best of this life " like men of the world who make no profession. If I have eternal life, I am to make it known by living it out, and acting now in the light of the coming day of the unveiling of Jesus Christ.

This was what Paul desired for Timothy, and what he would see in all who sail with the beloved apostle, whose whole life-purpose was expressed in these words:"What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Phil. 3:7, 8). This is to display eternal life in a body of clay, an earthen vessel, while pressing on to the scene to which that life belongs.

(To be continued.)

"Coming out of the hospital where I have been visiting from time to time, and where I have found some who know the Lord, one of the nurses, anxious I suppose to honor me aright, came to me and said, ' May I ask, sir, what is the title by which I should address you ?'

"'I am simply a sinner saved by the grace of God,' I answered, ' and the title which God gives to such is that of children. So I am just a child of God!'

"An old negress who was listening near by, at once shouted, 'Glory to God, that is the title, a grand title-a child of god!' And the nurse acknowledged it was a title greater and more lasting than any of the titles which men give to each other."

(Ps. 50:23.)

O blessed Saviour, Jesus, Thou
Upon the Father's throne;
Upon the cross once, long ago,
Thou didst for sin atone!

Thy love transcendeth all that man
Has ever heard or known;
Ordained the Lamb by God's own plan
To suffer all alone.

None other could with Thee go down
Into those depths of woe;
Thou only couldst endure God's frown
That grace to man might flow.

Thou, the forsaken One of God,
Didst suffer on the tree;
And drink that cup and bear the rod,
The chastening due to me.

Thine anguish who can ever know
Endured for sinners there ?
Oh, love that brought Thee unto woe
And grief without compare!

There, darkness hid those tears of Thine,
Tears that Love shed for me,
The wine-press trod by wrath divine
Brings joy and peace to me.

Yes, 'twas for me, condemned by sin,
Sunk down in shame, and sore;
That Thou didst suffer thus, to win
My heart to God once more.

And can it be, O Calvary,
That man, for whom He died,
Should e'en yet be the enemy
Of Christ, the Crucified ?

O blessed One, the Father's Son,
Thy ransomed worship Thee;
For Thou hast won, for us undone,
Eternal victory.

We claim Thy blood our way to God,
We trust Thy grace so free,
We long to see Thee, blessed Lord,
And ever with Thee be.

W. H.

(Continued from page 211.)

If Christ had a ministry in which He addressed Himself to the Jewish nation as such, He had also a ministry in which He specifically addressed Himself to the true children of God in the midst of it. In John 10 He speaks of thus ministering to the true sheep of the Jewish fold. Peter was given a ministry of like nature-a ministry specially intended for the real believer among the circumcised. In John at:15-17 our Lord commissions Peter to shepherd and feed His lambs and sheep.

The Lord knew what the lambs and sheep among the circumcision would need. He knew what persecutions they would have to endure. He knew the stiffneckedness, the unbelief, the blindness of the rulers and leaders of the nation, and that they would forbid teaching and preaching in His name. Accordingly He provided for the need of His true sheep. He knew they would need the most considerate nourishing, the tenderest care and oversight, diligent strengthening and constant encouraging.

Carefully and effectually training Peter for this special service to the objects of His tender interest and love, He puts them into Peter's care-He entrusts them to him. Hence a special ministry is given to Peter. If he was to have a ministry in which he would address himself to the nation as such, so also was he to have a special ministry in which he would address himself specifically to the believers in the midst of the nation.

If in the earlier chapters of the book of Acts we have the record of that ministry carried out by Peter, in which the nation of Israel as such is addressed, the two epistles of Peter carry out a special ministry to the persecuted and dispersed disciples- the followers of the despised and rejected Messiah.

Of course, in speaking of Peter's ministry in his epistles as especially intended for converted Jews, I do not wish to be understood as meaning that it has no application to a wider circle. It certainly applies to all Christians, but its primary application is to believers connected with Israel wherever they have been scattered (i Pet. 1:152 Pet. i:i).

I do not need here to consider this ministry in detail. It will be sufficient to characterize it as a ministry in which the government of God is explained:in the first epistle, as being the Father's discipline of His children ; and, in the second, in its bearings upon the world. The first epistle shows that the governmental ways of God are pregnant with inestimable blessing for the children; the second shows their issue for the world in a sweeping judgment after long-suffering and patient waiting for it to repent.

In the second epistle Peter says he writes as anticipating soon to put off his tabernacle. Writing thus that what he had ministered to them may abide in power in their minds, he completes or fills out the service with which his Lord had entrusted him, in commending to them the ministry of Paul (chap. 3:15, 16).

John's written ministry was then not begun, but Paul's was practically, if not entirely, finished. Before turning to John's ministry I will seek to characterize that of Paul.

I will notice that Paul also had a double ministry:one towards the world-the nations-all men; the
other, towards the body of Christ, the Church (Col. i:23, 84). In either case it was a ministry of the grace of God-a dispensing of blessings from God, whether to believers individually or collectively.

A word of explanation is perhaps necessary here. In the Old Testament times promises were made, but the blessings implied in the promises were not dispensed. When our Lord was on earth He did dispense certain blessings to individuals where He found faith. He did minister the forgiveness of sins, for instance, to individuals who believed; but He did not minister the full blessing that goes with the fulfilment of the promise of forgiveness; nor did He, in the days of His flesh, give the Holy Spirit.

In connection with the ministry of Peter there was both the ministration of the forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Spirit; yet Peter did not minister the fulness of blessing which is the present portion and possession of faith. In God's wisdom, this was reserved for Paul. The full range of faith's blessings, so far as they are now bestowed, is through the ministry of Paul. We have also in Paul's ministry the blessings that are in hope-that is, what will yet be done for us and given to us as completing the blessings which redemption has acquired for us.

What we find in Paul's ministry, then, is the entire sphere of blessing in which God displays His wondrous grace. Paul thus occupies us with what, in a true sense, we may speak of as outward or external-not unreal, far from it; it is a most real display of the grace of God.

But we now turn to John's ministry. Its leading feature is that it occupies us with God Himself-with
what He is in Himself. It is what is intrinsic, essential, underived and eternal. It is the life of God -the eternal life that was ever with the Father. In his Gospel, John's ministry relates to the manifestation of God in His Son become Man. His life on earth is viewed as a declaration of what God is-His nature, character, and life, displayed on earth as testimony to men-the features and characteristics of His unchangeable nature, not only proclaimed, but shown, exhibited.

In the epistles the life that is eternally in the Son and has been manifested among men in its eternal, unchanging nature, is viewed as a communication and the ways in which it displays itself in those to whom it has been communicated are unfolded.

In the book of the Revelation John writes of the ways of the Eternal-He who is the First and the Last, the living One, though He died-in bringing all things into accord with His own eternal nature.

The distinctive features of the ministries of Peter, of Paul, and of John, are distinct and plain. They are in no way in opposition, but perfectly harmonious, each in agreement with the others, none to be pitted against the others. They are not to be compared as if one was paramount to the others. There should be no depreciation of Peter's ministry as if it were defective-not equally perfect with that of Paul or of John. There is a tendency, perhaps naturally in us all, to give a prominence to the blessings ministered by Paul which overshadows the Blesser Himself. It was this tendency that was in the mind of one whose memory we all rightly cherish, when he counseled us not to neglect John in pressing Paul. He did not mean by this advice that John is a balance to Paul, but that the apprehension and enjoyment of John's ministry will be a cure to our proneness of being occupied with the range of our blessings in such a way as to have them more distinctly before our souls than the One who has blessed us.

It is the Blesser Himself with whom John occupies us. What He is-what He is essentially, intrinsically, eternally. What He is in essence, in nature, in character:this is what John shows us.

Beloved brethren, what would all the range of our blessings be without God Himself ? It certainly ought not to need much consideration to realize that the Blesser is greater than the blessings. The Giver is higher than His gifts. Our God and Father is higher, greater than all His hand bestows. The Son of God who came from God and the Father to give us the knowledge of Himself is above the benefits He has procured and secured for us, inestimable as all these are; and we need the sense of this in our souls to keep us from glorifying ourselves on account of the great blessings that have been given us. The ministry of John serves to maintain us in this very needful apprehension.
C. Crain

( To be continued.)