(Continued from page 25.)

8. JUSTIFICATION BY THE SPIRIT.

1 Cor. 6:11:"And such were some of you; but ye have been washed ; but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

God associates the name of the Lord Jesus with justification, attaching to it all the infinite value of His blessed person and work. This must, of necessity, be stated first, as the basis, and then "by the Spirit of our God."We "are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. 8:9).That we should be temples of the Holy Ghost, who is dwelling in the believer, is a very high order of justification. It is the seal put upon us as a testimony to the perfection of the work of Christ, in virtue of which we are fully and freely justified.

As the Spirit could only come after Jesus was glorified (for His coming is plainly the witness to this fact), so He could only come and indwell the believer after justification could be publicly declared as attaching to those who have faith in Jesus. Hence, He did not and could not indwell Old Testament saints, because there was not and could not be any public declaration of the believer's justification until after Christ had come and accomplished the work of redemption, so that God could be manifested righteous in justifying him who had faith in Jesus. And with the coming of the Spirit, God linked deep and blessed consequences of another order, such as were to signalize so great a gift of His grace, and mark the peculiar blessedness of it for all eternity. We speak of the one Body of which Christ is the Head, and which is the fulness of Him who fills all in all. To this Body all believers of the present dispensation belong by the indwelling of the Spirit. This is the truth of union according to Scripture, involving much more for us than anything we have so far considered, and thus we see, too, the link between it and the truth of justification. J. Bloore

(To be continued.)

"Behold, I come quickly:hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown " (Rev, 3 :11).

The exhortation to the assembly in Philadelphia has surely a special voice to us in the closing days of this dispensation, which each of us does well to heed.

Throughout the entire history of the people of God on earth there has always been some testimony for God, whatever the general departure from God and His truth may have been. Those to whom God has committed such testimony, though not possessing at any two periods the same measure of truth, may safely be said to bear the same characteristics. :In the first place, their position has never been popular. This is inevitable, and we may be sure that no faithful position can be taken which would find applause from the mass. Again, if a position has ever been taken in faithfulness to^God and His word apart from the mass, contempt and dislike have not been disguised. The reason is not far to seek, and the Lord's people need expect nothing else, for God's truth has never been popular, and when maintained in power serves as a mirror to discover the defects among those to whom it is presented; and this, of course, is what the religious world likes least.

It is no wonder therefore if such as bear faithful witness become a special target, and every personal defect and shortcoming in them is used to damage what cannot be controverted. Alas, that God's true witnesses should have any failings! All this is not new. Nehemiah had to meet the Sanballats and Tobiahs of his day. In the apostle Paul's day, defamers who felt the keen edge of truth found material even in this, " His bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible."

Then, to look at the obverse side. God has always used men after His own mind-not the world's- to bring out the special truth needed at the moment, not for a popular movement, but that those who had ears to hear might hear, using thus His chosen men at all times to be His channels of communication and encouragement:and since Scripture was closed, using them simply to unfold its contents and give its present application.

There is another aspect we need to consider, and that is, the ever-recurring tendency to religious pride, and resulting therefrom repeated failure, and as a further consequence unfaithfulness to the testimony.

This is easily traced from the earliest days of the Church's history, and we have only to read Scripture to see that the most precious truth is that which has always been the first sacrificed.

Early in the nineteenth century, God graciously revived out of the mass of corruption truths long lost sight of, and testimony was borne to the heavenly character of the Church; the Person, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit; the all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus as the Head and Center of His people, and truths connected with His personal return. These blessed truths revolutionized the lives of many, and separated them from all that was inconsistent with the " Holy and the True." As we well know, all that might be viewed as contrary to the Word was laid aside, and many in various places were drawn together in one common desire to honor God and His word. But privilege must ever bring corresponding responsibility, and whatever God in His grace has at any time entrusted to His people has surely entailed responsibility. This we must recognize, or lose the little light we enjoy through grace.

No one can estimate the privilege and blessing of being linked with those who seek (in weakness though it be) to keep His word and not deny His Name. At the same time, let us not deceive ourselves by thinking that in taking a certain ecclesiastical position we are practically answering to the truth. Nothing but disaster can result from a position taken where faith is not in exercise. The "mixed multitude" (i Cor. 10) was Israel's undoing. Outwardly they were with the company, but in heart they were still in Egypt, and unprepared for the exercise which their separate place entailed. Let us remember, these things "are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come" (ver. n). There is a word which seems fast to be slipping out of our vocabulary, and yet its importance cannot be exaggerated, for it is what God has, again and again, insisted upon as incumbent upon His people. It is:Separation from all that He hates. This need not be enlarged upon; it is what we readily admit as to Old Testament saints; but do we sufficiently enter into the fact that the power of our testimony can only be in proportion to the reality of our separation-not outwardly, simply, but in heart. We are called to walk here as He walked, and we well know His path was one of entire separation to God-outside all that was inconsistent with His holiness. Let us compare our practice with God's principles, that we may discover our failure and learn the dangers to which we are exposed.

There can never be a day, while the Church is here, when it will be impossible to answer to God's revealed mind; however broken the condition of things may be, our privilege and responsibility is to walk apart from what is dishonoring to the Lord. In seeking to walk here in the simplicity of the truth and gathering alone to the name of the Lord, the position taken is necessarily condemnatory of that which has separated us. And while necessarily occupying a small circle, and needing to keep a large heart (remembering we are, with all fellow-believers, members of one Body), yet if we are to be true to the place taken, there can be no alliance or association with what our position necessarily condemns. Christ is the touchstone for every saint; and it is only as He gets His place in our hearts and fills our spiritual vision that there can be true separation to Himself and from what is contrary to His name.

There are doubtless many attracted by the freedom from the trammels of organization, and the helpful ministry of truth, who have come in with those thus gathering; but messtheLordHimself is the object that has drawn them, the position taken will as easily be given up. The epistle to the Hebrews (which above all others contrasts Judaism and Christianity, and insists on separation to God from all that is inconsistent with God fully made known) contains the significant exhortation, "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb. 13:13). It may be pleaded that "the camp " was Judaism, and that the Scripture cannot apply to us. As to its strict application, this is true; but has this Scripture no voice to us ? It surely has; for if " the camp" was that religious order of things set up by God on earth, and the Hebrew believers were exhorted to separate from it, what shall be said of that order of things in Christendom which man has set up, which has no foundation in the word of God ?

Faithfulness to the Lord and fidelity to the Word necessitates an outside position from what bears the stamp of human organization to the practical denial of the presence of the Holy Spirit; and it must be admitted that it is incumbent upon us individually to maintain the same character of separation as confessedly has been taken by those we company with. Hence, is it consistent for me to identify myself in any way with religious institutions or associations that are contrary to Scripture? If those with whom I fellowship refuse those who hold, teach, or are associated with, doctrines that are evil, and perhaps derogatory to the Person of the Lord Jesus, can it be pleasing to the Lord for me as an individual to connect myself or co-operate with such in the work of the Lord? Such questions need only to be asked to receive a negative answer. To be true to the truth must surely be our desire ; and in the darkness and confusion of these evil days, increased devotion and separation to the Lord is called for. It is a wondrous favor to be here in testimony for the Lord where all is characterized by departure from the truth. For us, as well as for Timothy, is this word:"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. and, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (2 Tim. 2:19-21). J. W. H. N.

For lack of space "Answers to Correspondents" have to be left for next month.

Thy child, what rest is mine! Gal. 3 :26.
Beneath a Father's eye!
Encompassed by His love divine,
By precious blood made nigh.

Thy son, what freedom's mine! Gal. 4:6.
Now by the Son made free,
And in His glorious liberty,
For evermore to be.

Thine heir, what wealth is mine! Gal. 4:7
Immortal joys to share ;
And in that nightless city dwell,
Where all Thine image bear.

J. F.

Absolute Perfection

Has the Christian reader ever seriously considered i Cor. i:30, and pondered over it? – pondered and pondered until, as with a picture long gazed upon, it seems to be alive, its beauties-and perfections captivating the mind?

Philosophers were busy after the wisdom which would satisfy the longings of the human mind. One had offered self-indulgence – the gratification of every lust. Another recommended self-abnegation as the road to happiness. All had failed. Then God stepped in and said, Here is the true wisdom, the wisdom which satisfies to the full. It is christ.

Yes, but what is there in Christ thus to satisfy us ? Three things are of paramount importance in our relations with God.

(1) God is essentially and absolutely righteous. Righteousness is the very foundation of His throne. Gracious, loving, kind, and patient as He is, He could never allow even the weight of a feather to disturb the evenness of His balances, when the question of sin came up, even his only and beloved Son, who had been charged with the work of saving sinful men, could not escape the awful hours of darkness when in soul-agony He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" It is there the righteousness of God appears in its appalling solemnity. Who is he, of the sons of Adam, who, at such a sight, dares to hope of being accepted because of his righteous life ? No, in the light of the cross "there is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10). But Christ, according to God's wisdom, is the righteousness of every one who bows his knees to Him. Who will find a flaw in that righteousness ? Is not Christ now seated on God's throne ? Could any imperfection be allowed there? And Christ up there, in that bright glory, is declared of God to be our righteousness. The believer then cannot be impugned. To question his acceptability before God would be to question Christ's, and as we have said before, Christ is already there, the very center in God's glory.

Again (2) God is essentially and absolutely holy; nothing unclean can abide before Him. But are we not unclean – every one of us ? Have we not been born in sin ? Have we not been defiled by unholy, unclean thoughts? To ask these questions is but to answer them – at least with all honest consciences. What then ? To all who believe on Christ, He is, in God's wisdom, their sanctification, By Him, on the cross, sin (not only sins, but sin itself-the very nature which produces sins) was borne by Him and put away; and there He is in the presence of God clear of everything. So are we, for He is our sanctification.

Once more (3), Sin had put us far away .from God, Adam could not stay in the garden. He was banished. How could we, born in the distance, be redeemed, that is, brought back to God, in nearness and happy communion ? Christ measured all that distance. When on the cross, as the sin-bearer, He was judicially as far from God as any of us could be in our sin and sins. Where is He now ? As we have seen before, He has answered all the claims of righteousness and holiness, and He is now as near to the Father as ever He had been. And He is, in the wisdom of God, made to us redemption.
That is, we are by Him brought as near to God as He is.
This, fellow believer, is what this wonderful bit of God's word conveys to us. Is it any wonder if it stands-between verse 29, "That no flesh should glory in His presence," and verse 31, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord ? " for this perfection is far beyond the reach of all human effort as also far beyond all practical Christian attainment. It is of God's bounty to us in Christ. Nor do we climb up into it by degrees. It belongs to every believer alike though all may not apprehend it alike. We have sometimes to be let down into deep depths of soul distress before we can give ear to the riches of God's grace.

They speak to me of music rare,
Of anthems soft and low.
Of harps, and viols, and angel-choirs-
All these I could forego;

But, The music of the Shepherd's voice,
Which won my wayward heart,
Is the only strain I ever heard
With which I cannot part.

H. McD.

From ''Notes on Second Timothy " by W. Kelly.

Scripture then, everything which comes under the designation of Scripture, is inspired of God; not merely holy men of God spoke, borne by (under the power of) the Holy Spirit, but everything written in the Spirit with a view to permanent guidance of the faithful is inspired of God. This simply believed must necessarily exclude error from Holy Writ; for who would say that God inspires mistakes, great or small ? Those who think so cannot really believe that every scripture is inspired of God. Time was when God's word was of course inspired but not yet written; now it is, in infinite mercy, written by His gracious power who knew the end from the beginning, and would provide an adequate and perfect and permanent standard for every need spiritually on earth. Hence it is written, and to be divinely authoritative, is inspired of not the sacred letters of the Old Testament only, but the writings of the apostles and prophets of the New Testament; the foundation on which the Church is built (Eph. 2).

Indeed, it is the prophetic character of gift which especially is in exercise for writing Scripture. The apostles as such governed as well as began the Church. But some were prophets who were not apostles; and the Church, or Assembly, was built on the foundation of both. This explains the true source of the authority in the holy writings of Mark and Luke. To attribute it to Peter for the one, and to Paul for the other, betrays the worthless character of early tradition, such as appears in the speculations of Eusebius of Caesarea. For whatever may be the value of his history of his own times, or of those not long before, his account of the apostolic age has more value as a contrast with the inspired record, short as this is, than as a true reflection. It even abounds with plain ignorance and error, and never rises to the spiritual bearings of what he sets before us. The inspired account in what is called the Acts of the Apostles, is impressed with the dignity, depth, power, and design of Scripture as decidedly as any other book of the Bible. A similar remark applies to Luke's Gospel, as well as to that of Mark. They are scripture, and inspired of God, each having an aim, laid bare by the contents, wholly distinct from that of Matthew and of John, yet no less certainly divine; each, therefore, contributing its own elements of profit proper to each, and found in none other as in them, though others furnish what is not therein. This is characteristic of inspiration, and is found nowhere but in Scripture.

It is full of interest to observe that the apostle quotes Luke as scripture in i Tim. 5:18. Some might hastily affirm that the last clause of the verse was drawn from the apostle Matthew, chap. 10:10; but a closer inspection proves that he cites from Luke 10:7, though he who disbelieves in verbal inspiration might cavil and evade its force. He, however, who is assured on God's authority that inspired men spoke, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, gladly owns that the apostle of the Gentiles cites literally from the Gospel of his own fellow-laborer. It is as if God meant to confirm the principle by Paul's not only quoting Luke, but quoting his Gospel no less than Dent. 25:4 as "Scripture." He knew and refuted beforehand the skeptical theories which blindly seek to deny the authority of both.

We all know that Peter in his Second Epistle (3:16) speaks of all Paul's Epistles as "scripture." This again is beautiful in that late communication of the great apostle of the circumcision. But it is not so generally seen, though it is no less certain, that in the preceding verse he renders testimony to Paul's having written to the believing Jews, who were the objects of both his own Epistles. Thus we have it on inspired authority that not Barnabas, nor Silas, nor Apollos, nor any other than Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. A few words of inspiration are decisive against endless argument.

Chap. 3:10, 11 reminded Timothy of his special opportunities, and his personal knowledge of the apostle's teaching, course, and life, individual and ministerial, with a solemn supplement (vers. 12,13) as to the godly and the wicked, whether in resemblance or in contrast. Ver. 14 is a grave exhortation to Timothy thereon to abide in those things which he thus learnt and was assured of, based on his knowledge of their character and authority from whom he learned them, as well as on his familiarity from infancy with the ancient but living oracles of God, which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (ver.15). Then comes a dogmatic conclusion of the subject, as plain as it is momentous…."Every scripture is given by inspiration of God, and profitable," etc. It thus covers all that might be added by inspiration of God, as well as what had been so given already. It expels from the field not only the bold cavilers at the divine Word, but with no less peremptoriness the unworthy, though professedly orthodox, apologists, who surrender the Holy Scriptures, either in detail all over the Bible; or, sometimes, in whole books, through a compromise with the adversary.

For what is Scripture useful, or "profitable" ? We must not regard the passage as an exception to the general principle which governs all the Bible. It lays down only what is in harmony with the context. Nor is any other place to be put beyond this in wisdom as well as power and interest. We are thus compelled to eschew partial search if we would seek really to understand the mind of God revealed in His written word; we must read and study the Scriptures as a whole. With Christ before us we shall not peruse in vain. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets our risen Lord expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself; and this said of the Old Testament is yet more evidently true of the New. We err, therefore, when He, the constant Object of the inspiring Spirit, is not our Object; but the manner is as different as the books which compose the Bible; for each book has its own peculiar design, and all contribute to form a perfect whole. " Profitable," accordingly, is limited by accordance with the character of this Epistle. Other uses are shown elsewhere.

First in order is the profit of every scripture "for teaching," or doctrine. Of this there cannot be a richer or finer instance than the Epistle to the Hebrews, wherein the grand truths of the gospel are elicited in a way equally simple and profound from the words and figures of the Old Testament. Can any means be found so well suited to help the believer to its clearer understanding and application in other parts? One truth rightly apprehended prepares the way for another. For no new truth supersedes that which you have already, but rather confirms and helps to more.

Next stands its use for "conviction." The Epistle to the Galatians may be taken as a salient example. See how admirably the apostle employs "the blessing" and "the curse" in chap. 3 to illustrate the promise and the law, which these saints were confounding, as millions have done yet more since. Take again the "Seed"; not many, but one, in the same chapter; and the principle of a mediator in the law confronted with one God, promising and sure to accomplish. Take the still yet more evident application of the two sons of Abraham in chap. 4, from the law, with prophecy brought in to illustrate, and the final sentence from Gen. 21 to convince the Judaizers of their ruinous mistake.

Thirdly comes "for correction."Here we may refer to the frequent and telling use of the Old Testament in the Epistles as a signal illustration. Almost every chapter of the first Epistle furnishes samples, of which chap. 10 is brimful.

Fourthly; who can mistake the Epistle to the romans as the brightest and most palpable specimen of Scripture used "for instruction in righteousness," and this, as in the others, not only the Old Testament so applied with divine skill, but its own supplies to the same end? Thus is the aim distinctly and perfectly met, "that the man of God may be perfect (complete), thoroughly fitted unto every good work." So it was in Timothy’s case, so for every other who follows a like path. It is the Holy Spirit’s injunction, expressly in view of grievous times in the last days.

Drifting?

We received a communication recently, saying that Mr. M., a well-known evangelist, was seeking entrance to minister among them; that it was causing friction–some approving, some disapproving. What would we advise ? As we have more to say on the subject than merely answering a question, we bring the matter into this department of our Magazine.

Upon reading the communication, the question arose at once:How can children of God who know the truth approve of opening their doors to him ? They might as well throw the doors of the house of God wide open at once, and let it be as a highway for every passer-by.

A gifted man, with oratory to make him attractive, seems to have a louder voice with some than principle. Indeed not a few now-a-days seem to have little regard for principles, but shift about in their Christian life like leaves with the wind or a plank from a broken ship on the waves of the sea. A popular evangelist's advice to his converts was, "Select the church which suits you best and join that," forgetting or not knowing that our church place is, by the word of God, no more left to our choice than the way of salvation. Once the word of God has defined our place, obedience takes it and abides in it, whatever difficulties it may encounter there, for truth never changes.

We are living in trying times, when government in the Church, in the State, in the Family, has so weakened that the rule of the mob must soon prevail. What need of the coming of Him upon whose strong shoulder " the government shall be " (Isa. 9:6).

If an evangelist, as Mr. M., loves the souls of men, he will find no end of towns, villages and country neighborhoods where they never hear a clear, full gospel, and where he could be for blessing to them without exciting strife, which his course is bound to excite where he is known. It is not of the Spirit of Christ. It is not the path of the true evangelist as described by the prophet Isaiah :" How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation" (Isa. 52:7).

More Wolves Let Loose

According to a report in the New York Herald of April n, there was hot discussion at a session of the Presbytery of New York recently concerning three young men from that nursery of apostasy-the Union Theological Seminary-for whom licenses were wanted before being ordained for the Presbyterian Ministry. Upon being questioned, the young men proved to be the usual product of "Higher Criticism"- denying the Virgin birth of our Lord, disbelief in His resurrection and miracles in general, and the Scriptures themselves, of course, are very faulty! A strong protest was made by such as Dr. Fox of the Bible House and others against licensing them, but they were disregarded, and so more wolves, arrayed in sheep's clothing, are to be let loose against the flock of Christ. When our Lord came He found the leaders of Israel in deadly opposition to Himself-the divine Light shining among them. When He comes again what will be the end of those more guilty than the scribes and Pharisees because of having had more light than they!

Concerning Ephesians 2:8,9

I would call attention to the fact that the "that" (τoυτo) of verse 8 is neuter and therefore does not directly refer to "grace" (χαριτι), which is feminine, nor to "faith" (πιστεως) which is also feminine. That it refers to the idea involved in the expression, "Ye are saved by grace through faith" there can be no question, I think. The truth of the passage might be expressed thus:The salvation that is by grace through faith is not of us, it is the gift of God. It is an out and out gift of God-made ours on the simple principle of faith; our works being neither the source nor the channel through which it comes to us. It is entirely of God who, in the freeness of His grace, bestows it upon us.

TO THE MYSTERY OF DISCIPLINE

The mystery of discipline
Oft strange indeed might seem,
Yea, to our foolish reasoning,
Like some distorted dream,
Except for Christ, the wondrous Key
Which can unlock all mystery.

This Key will open every door
That seemeth closed to thee,
And clear the mists that often cloud
Thine eyes all tearfully.
Just use it, child of God, and see
How well it fits-how perfectly!

Without it thou wert like a ship
Adrift upon the sea;
But with it (Christ in everything),
Calm shall thy passage be
Through all the things which day by day
Thou'lt meet on life's mysterious way.

It locks the .door that leads to sin,
To Satan and to shame,
But opes the door to joy and peace,
For those who love His Name.
Oh, wear it, Christian, on thy heart,
Nor ever let this Key depart.

The testings which recur each day,
The trying little things-
Too small to speak of oftentimes,
And yet they have their stings-
Take all to Christ, and thou shalt prove
His strength, His wisdom, and His love.

So shall the discipline of life
Thy life's sweet lesson be,
Teaching thee more of His great mind
And heart, concerning thee.
Press on, although the task seem long,
It endeth with the victor's song!

H. McD.

The greatest wisdom is to know
The love of God revealed below;
To know His Son who came in grace,
And died to save a guilty race
From sin and endless woe.

The greatest blessing is to have
A living hope beyond the grave;
To have, when this short life is done,
A place with Christ above the sun,
Who came in love to save.

The greatest joy that fills the breast
Is peace with God, through Christ, possessed.
It makes the heart with rapture swell;
For oh! 'tis joy unspeakable
To be thus fully blessed!

C. C. C.

Once more we find ourselves on the threshold of a new year. Our hearty greetings to all our friends, with sincere wishes for every good to each and every one. In the midst of an atmosphere charged with the varied evils which man has learned and done these six thousand years, may our Lord's parting legacy to His disciples, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" (Jno. 14 :27) be yours and enjoyed, whatever the earthly circumstances may be. We know not what the morrow may bring. The last of Daniel's seventy weeks must yet be fulfilled under the dark clouds of which his prophecy speaks. Illusions of peace fill the minds of many. They cannot give up the false hope of a millennium of peace and prosperity through the agency of twentieth century civilization, with the United States as the highest exponent of that civilization -a pride which of itself prophesies no good. If the present war be the preliminary to that sad last week of years, the nations of earth need not look for peace again till the arrival of the Prince of Peace from heaven. He and He alone it is who will bring the millennium of peace through the knowledge of the Lord, which civilization has been, and is, as incompetent to produce as the eternal salvation of a human soul. Jesus, the Son of God, is the only hope for the earth's regeneration. It may be very humiliating, after the treatment He was received at the hands of many, to confess such dependence on Him for the realization of the desired blessing, but nothing else will do it, and it is our business to keep this continually before men. The least compromise here, the least share in the prevailing mind, mars our Christian testimony and but helps to deceive men.

Our own exemption from the sorrows of the last week of Daniel's prophecy will keep our hearts at rest. The rapture of the Church is what we look for, either before that week begins or soon after, and so all is bright for us. Our trial is in suffering « with a rejected Christ, and at His coming our trial ends. Only let us not seek to evade it while it lasts, nor seek to escape its edge by any measure of return to what we have destroyed in taking the path of separation. Those who lead are especially responsible. A false step, a compromising affiliation, anything which may prove a snare to a weak soul, is a most guilty thing in one who, by virtue of gift from God, has special influence over the sheep of Christ. We may claim our rights and please ourselves, but this is not serving Christ, and He will not honor it when He comes. Let us not miss His approval. Let us not parley with our own likes or dislikes, or talk about our rights, for all this savors not of devotedness to Christ and His interests upon earth. The chief failure of Israel and the cause of their downfall was compromise and unfaithfulness in the place of separation in which God had set them. It is separation from evil in the power of enjoyed truth which also unites the children of God. The spirit of the clay which aims at bringing together the broken fragments of God's people, apart from their spiritual condition, is not of God, and can only add to the existing confusion. God has never left the exercised soul without an open door and a plain path, and faith can find them today as ever, though the difficulties be greater than ever. The blind man of the ninth of John had plenty of difficulties to meet in connection with a faithful confession of the Lord, but they only brightened his faith; and what a lovely place he got in the end.

Every one of us needs to find his way through present difficulties, by being, like this once-blind man, true to what we know of God and His word. God is with such people, and therein lies their strength for true testimony.

Jan. 1, 1916

My Dear Doctor:-

"Upon nay return home, late, 1 received the " chain-letter" you sent me; in which the request was made that I should pray an ancient prayer and send it to nine of my friends. If I did this I should be "free from calamity," and ''meet with some great joy on the tenth day "; or, failing to do this, I should " meet with some calamity or misfortune."

I appreciate your good intentions toward me ; but I know God, I am grateful to say, and because of this I cannot do what is asked of me; and for fear you should mistake my silence for a compliance, I feel under obligation to tell you why.

In the first place, I do not believe that a prayer like the one in question, made under a threat, would ever reach the throne of God, and therefore it would be uttered in vain.

Then I have no fear of calamity or misfortune. My destiny is in the hand of the Man who rules the universe, and that hand still bears the mark of the nail which pierced it on Calvary's cross when, in love to my poor soul, He bore the wrath of God against my sins and died for me the sinner.

Jesus is my Saviour; by Him lam saved from all condemnation, and daily I wait for Him to come to take me home to be forever with Himself. Until He has me there, He has promised to take care of me. This life, for the Christian, is a school of discipline, and he may often be called upon to pass through the furnace of affliction, but he knows very well that it is the dross in him that necessitates God's doing this with him. But he is never superstitious; he does not trust to "luck," nor does he fear calamities. God is his Father, and what has he then to fear under the care of such a Father who watches even over the sparrows? Many times I fail toward Him but He never fails me, so I enjoy sweet peace under His eye.

How different is the ring of the old hymn, which you know, and begins with,

"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord," from the tone of this superstitious letter which, to my ears, sounds very much like the product of a poor, benighted Romanist. Sincerely yours, F. W.

"As the Father sent Me,"

" Out of the realm of the glory-light,
Into a far-away land of night ;
Out from the bliss of worshipful song,
Into the pain of hatred and wrong;
Out from the holy rapture above,
Into the grief of rejected love;
Out from the joy at the Father's side,
Into the death of the crucified;
Out from high honor and into shame,
The Master, willingly, gladly came."
" Even so send I you."

Selected.

(Continued from page 119.)

2. – The controversy with the three friends (chaps. 4-26).

The second of the three subdivisions is, as has been said, the largest and most complicated portion of the division (chaps. 3-31). Preceded by the wail of the suffering patriarch (in chap. 3), it is followed by a monologue in which he maintains (in chaps. 27-31) that for which he had contended throughout-his uprightness-but with his sufferings unrelieved, and the dark enigma of the reason for those sufferings unexplained. It cannot therefore be considered as a satisfactory conclusion. Job has met men, and vanquished them on their own ground; but he must meet and answer God, with what different and blessedly satisfactory results! But this does not belong to our present theme.

In the controversy of the three friends we have a unity of thought, based on a common principle. That principle is that all suffering is of a punitive rather than of an instructive nature; that it is based on God's justice rather than on His love-though these are ever combined in all His ways. Such a principle necessarily fails to distinguish between the sufferings of the righteous and those of the wicked. Carried, as the friends did carry it, to its legitimate conclusion, this principle meant that Job's sufferings were for sin, hitherto undetected, and that his only hope for relief was in a confession of his sin in order to obtain mercy. Indeed, toward the close of their controversy, the friends apparently lose sight even of mercy for the penitent, and in the desire to vindicate their principle and themselves, dwell upon the awful doom of 'the wicked at the hand of God in this world, and with only a greater darkness hanging over the future.

On his part, Job evidently has but little advantage over his friends as to the principle upon which they base their addresses. He too sees that punishment is for evil, eventually for actual sin. Indeed, he takes common ground with them and states with fully as much clearness and force the certainty of the doom of the wicked, both now and hereafter. But Job differs from his friends in this:while they steadily tend to a conviction of his hypocrisy and sin, Job faces the awful thought of God's injustice. He is led to this by the consciousness of personal rectitude, which he cannot relinquish in the darkest hour. Why then is he so afflicted ? On the other hand, thank God, he has true faith. Even where he cannot understand, he must believe in God; and this faith remains, with increasing light, through all his sufferings and in spite of all mysteries.

There is a distinct progress in this twofold controversy. The friends, beginning with a measure of courtesy and kindliness, are carried forward into ever-increasing suspicion, harshness and denunciation. Job, on the other hand, though overwhelmed at the first, gradually finds a footing for his faith, and emerges from despair into a measure of hope. He thus answers Satan's accusation, and God is vindicated by the faith of His servant, and can go on to teach him the lesson he so deeply needed.

We must add a word as to this principle of the punitive nature of suffering. Nowhere in the Old Testament is it enunciated with greater clearness and force than in this book. Elsewhere there is greater prominence given to faith, and to that upon which faith rests-the mercy and goodness of God. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." But it still remains that the Old Testament view of God and His people makes possible some of the gloom that rests upon Job. It has been well said that the book of Job could not have been written after the coming of the Holy Spirit. Now that the Man of Sorrows has come and suffered as none ever could under the wrath of God for sin; now that God is revealed as Father, and the way into His house of cloudless glory has been opened–a great line of separation has been drawn between suffering for sin and for righteousness, between the wicked and the righteous. The heaviest trials now are but '' light affliction which is but for a moment."

Faith, even where it could not reason, always acted thus; and where it was in full exercise rose superior to all sorrow. Abraham laid his son on the altar without a murmur, and even Jacob was not long overwhelmed by the loss of Joseph. In Job, faith is real, but in the background, while the governmental principle of punishment for sin usurps the first place-until Elihu leads up to the great revelation of Jehovah Himself, in whose holy presence another divine principle shines out-the sinfulness of nature even in His own people, and His absolute goodness as well as righteousness, which will bring in "the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby." We are well-nigh on New Testament ground when we reach this "end of the Lord." But we must return to our immediate theme.

In the controversy, as already stated, there is a distinct progress-in opposite directions-of the friends of Job. The former are getting further from the light, the latter has his face set toward the light. Each of the three friends speaks, Eliphaz and Bildad three times each, and Zophar but twice. To each address Job gives an answer, and, as already said, silences his opposers. The entire controversy may thus be divided naturally into three sections, consisting of the address of the friends and Job's replies to them. Job therefore speaks three times more frequently than each of the friends, and as a rule at greater length.

We may also remark as to the tone of these addresses and re plies. The friends grow more severe; Job, from almost complete absorption in his own sufferings, passes into abuse and satire upon his friends, but eventually emerges from that into a high and dignified discussion of the great principles involved. The friends on the contrary are at their best at the beginning; then become suspicious and close with positive abuse.

Another fact must be added. There is a certain measure of knowledge of God. Job's friends were not heathen philosophers, but in all likelihood men who feared God, who were His children, though with but little light. The same must be said of Job with greater emphasis.

We are now ready to take up the details of the controversy. It falls as has just been said into three evident portions:

Section 1.-The first addresses of the friends-their doctrine of the punitive nature of suffering; Job's despair (chaps. 4-14)-

Section 2.-The second addresses of the friends -suspicions and charges; Job rises from despair to hope (chaps. 15-21).

Section 3.-The third addresses of the friends; Job silences them-but the enigma remains (chaps. 22-26).
The numerical significance-in the two opposite directions-is quite clear. The third is the full manifestation where each stands, as the first shows the beginning, and the second the development.

Section I. – The first addresses of the friends- their principle of the punitive nature of the suffering; Job's despair.

Remembering the fundamental error of the friends, we cannot withhold admiration for the force with which they lay down their principle; nor must we fail to recognize the truth of what they say, even though it is perverted. And the sublime poetry of their utterances has wrung admiration even from unbelievers.

This section falls again into the three parts, each marked by the address of one of the friends and Job's reply.

1. Eliphaz-the greatness and justice of God- Job's reply (chaps. 4-7).

2. Bildad-suffering is retribution-Job's reply (chaps. 8-10).

3. Zophar – suffering is for sin-Job's reply (chaps. 11-14).

It will be found that, while all the friends have a common principle from which they reason, they
are by no means without individuality. Each one has his personal characteristics and his own method of address.

Eliphaz, perhaps the eldest, is marked by dignity, the appeal to God, and a measure of entreaty.

Bildad appeals to reason and lessons of the past.

Zophar, perhaps the youngest, is marked by the sternness and impetuosity of his denunciations of sin, and declaration of the certainty of its judgment. All this will appear as we examine these addresses in detail. S. R.

(To be continued.)

Who meet simply in the name of the Lord Jesus for the Breaking of Bread, on the First Day of the Week.

Make it a special point, if in your power, always to be in the place of meeting in due time; better be a few minutes before the time, and spend them in secret prayer, praise, or meditation. Coming in late tends to distract the minds of those gathered. Remember, "When the hour was come He sat down " (Luke 22 :14; i Cor. 14:40).

2. Be occupied with ' 'Jesus only,' as He who died and rose again; who ascended, and who is coming again. Do not talk to each other, unless it be really needful, nor turn over the leaves of your Bible or Hymn-book except when necessary. "This do in remembrance of Me" (i Cor. 11:24).

3. Remember that each one gathered at the Table either helps or hinders in blessing, therefore the need that each saint there be in realized fellowship with God. " But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup " (i Cor. 11:28).

4. Remember that the Holy Spirit is present to guide in the worship and ministry. Let the brethren see, when leading in worship and ministry, that they are in the Spirit; for only as worship and ministry are in the Spirit can it be pleasing to God, and profitable to those gathered. "The Father seeketh such to worship Him . . . They that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:23, 24).

5.Remember that we are all in the same position as worshipers-blood-bought sinners saved by the sovereign grace of God (Eph. 2:4, 5); but not so with regard to ministry; some are special gifts given by Christ, the riving Head, for the edifying of the Body (Eph. 4:11-16) ; but there is also a general ministry, in which all members of the Body have their place (i Cor. 14:29-34).

6. Any brother leading in worship or ministry, should read and speak so distinctly that all present can hear well, and give due time to those gathered to find the hymn, or portion to be read, before beginning. "Let all things be done unto edifying" (i Cor. 14:26). Edifying is to be the object. "Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken?" (i Cor. 14:9).

7. When you miss any from the meeting, visit them if you can, and learn the reason; if in trouble, help them if possible. "The members should have the same care one for another" (i Cor. 12:25). " Bear ye one another's burdens" (Gal. 6:2).

8. Take heed not to condemn or hinder a weak or young brother in the exercise of any gift, however small; try rather to encourage and help him; but do not show love at the expense of truth-both are to be exercised together; and each member in the Body has its own special place. " Why dost thou judge thy brother ? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother ? " (Rom. 14:10).

9. When gathered at the Lord's Table, remember that the special object in gathering thus is to "show the Lord's death till He come" (i Cor. 11:26). Just in proportion as this is kept in mind, will the praise, teaching or exhortation be profitable; therefore the breaking of bread ought not to be kept in the background, as it sometimes is. Though there is no special time appointed for the dividing of the bread and wine, yet we have the example of the Lord Himself, for He gave it a prominent place, as the special teaching in John, chaps. 13, 14, 15 and 16 appears to be after the breaking of bread. "The disciples came together to break bread" (Acts 20:7; Acts 2:42).

10. Be considerate and courteous to strangers who come amongst you. Bear and forbear one with another. Love each saint for Jesus' sake. If the flesh be manifested in any one, pray for that one, speak kindly to such, and remember the flesh is also ill you. " Let brotherly love continue." "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love" (Heb. 13:i; Rom. 12:10).

11. Do not be wounded if others do not show love to you; let this rather lead you to show love to them. Manifesting thus the mind of Jesus, you will enjoy His love, and draw out their love. "Overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12:21).

12. If any one offend you, be sure to take the Scriptural way of dealing with that one; speak to that one personally first; go in the spirit of prayer and forgiveness; pray together over the point first, if possible. "Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone" (Matt. 18:15).

13. If you find your interest in gospel work abating, be sure that something is wrong; go to God at once about it in prayer and supplication. " Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world" (2 Tim. 4:10).

14. Remember that each saint has an individual responsibility to God, and that "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10).

15. Keep the coming of the Lord Jesus continually upon your hearts. " Looking for that blessed hope" (Titus 2:13; i Thess. 4:16-18).

16. Let none be brought into fellowship except with the full approval of all gathered; and if any has not full confidence in the one proposed, mention it at the time, or to those who have the rule, and who watch for souls.

17. In giving for the poor saints or the Lord's work, give cheerfully, as the Lord hath prospered you. If you have little, the Lord only expects little ; if much, the Lord expects much. Beware of "covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). "He gave Himself for you" (2 Cor. 8:9). "This poor widow hath cast in more than they all " (Luke 21:3).

18. As stewards, each has his individual responsibility to God. There is also a responsibility as gatherings. Remember those in whom you have confidence as sent of God to preach His gospel, not only when laboring beside you, but also when they are laboring in the "regions beyond." "Ye sent once and again unto my necessity " (Phil. 4:16).

19". Do not be ashamed or backward to take your stand beside the Lord's servants who preach the Word in the open air. "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord " (2 Tim. i:8).
20. In speaking to anxious souls, point them to the word of God. " They spake unto him the word of the Lord" (Acts 16:32). W. G. S.

The Lord Jesus knew where there was a guest-chamber furnished and prepared, which He and His disciples might use.

He knew also how to bring one with a pitcher of water in his hand who would direct them to the house … It was enough for the master of the house to be told by the Lord's disciples " The Master saith." At once he complied with His desire, and showed them the room where they might make ready the passover.

" The Master saith " something to every one of His own, for ill have something which they can place at His disposal for Himself and His loved ones. Shall we not "take stock" of all that we have, and ask ourselves whether what we have is being used by our Lm-d ? Are we willing to yield " our guest-chamber," whatever it may be, for His service, or are we reserving for ourselves that which might be utilized by Himself?

Perhaps our time and talents are employed only for ourselves. It may be that money is expended in the pursuit of pleasure-innocent pleasure we may call it-which could be spent for the spread of the gospel, and possibly our best abilities are engaged only for the laying up of treasure now, instead of being placed at the disposal of the One who gave His all for us. David's servants of old said, "Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint." They did not lose by their devotedness. Neither shall we if we yield our best for the service of Christ.

" The Master saith, Where is the guest-chamber? " Shall we not gladly say, " Here it is, Lord ; use it for Thy glory and for Thy praise "? Scattered Seed

QUES. 3.-Does Luke 9:49, 50 in any measure indicate that our Lord countenanced sects or divisions? Is the one of whom John spoke a real follower of our Lord, or is he one of those referred to in Matt. 7 :22 ?

ANS.-A scripture which needs ail interpretation must always be subjected to those which need none, and 1 Cor. 1:10-13 is unmistakable condemnation of sects or divisions.

What the Lord corrects in His disciples, especially in John who seems to have a tendency to it here, is the narrowness of heart which prevents one from recognizing true love to Christ in whomsoever found. The Lord appreciates whatever is good in any of His own, even though they may fail in other things. (See the epistles to the seven churches of Asia.) We must learn to do the same, while in no wise becoming .partakers of their failures. The Lord, in the scriptures you quote, exhorts John to recognize what He values in the one in question, but this does not mean that John should make common cause with him.

"What we have said above answers the second part of your question.

QUES. 4.-I am one who is under the blood of Christ, and I am desirous of knowing the full truth. Will you kindly answer a few questions? I have a very dear friend, a good, godly man who, if anything happens in the way of sickness is healed without the services of a physician. I am on the fence as to divine healing (not Christian Science), but by any means as the elders anointing with oil and the prayer of faith to^save the sick, as we read in James 5:14 and on. In the last chapter of Mark, Christ says, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Here I have evidence which cannot be denied. Not long ago, I was in conversation with a man who had four doctors, and none could heal him by medicine. He was anointed, and to-day is a strong man. The four doctors are now dead. His wife accepted healing and is all right, but she wears glasses, being well up in years. The former friend turned to Revelation, and read about the unbelievers and the fearful (what is meant by fearful here?), intimating that I am an unbeliever because I have not faith enough, and I am afraid ; so he thinks. How can we associate these passages with "The whole need not a physician, but the sick," and Paul speaking of Luke as "the beloved physician?''Did Luke ever administer restoratives while with Paul? Again Paul leaves a believer sick at a place. What does measure of faith mean? Our family physician is .a good, godly man. I beg of you kindly to respond, and help me on this. I love to read the word of God. I take Help and Food. Could you answer in Feb. issue ?

ANS.-God forbid that we should do anything but encourage the faith of any child of God in whatever line of things the word of God invites him to walk and to trust God for.

If it is not with you, therefore, the adoption of a religious system such as "Divine Healing " (which is false from the foundation up, and leads away from the truth), but a sincere desire to please God in proceeding as Jas. 5:14 enjoins, go on with it and God will be with you. This, however, cannot be construed as being opposed to the use of remedies, since the Word itself prescribes remedies in both Testaments (2 Kings 20 :7 ; 1 Tim. 5 :23), and every child of God knows that Scripture cannot "contradict itself.
None but God can heal any man of any ailment whatever. None but the Creator of the human frame can make the two ends of a broken bone grow together again, but would it not be fanaticism to use such a fact against calling a surgeon who knows how to bring the ends of that broken bone properly together? The same is true of any other ailment. Only God can heal, but if God has, in His mercy and wisdom, provided in creation remedies for the ailments of His suffering creatures, shall we despise them? And shall we despise the physician who knows better than we do the nature of our special ailment, and the remedy which applies?

It is this which reconciles what to yon seems irreconcilable in the statements of Scripture. Had not Luke administered remedies Paul would not have called him "beloved physician." There may be abuse in the use of physicians, as is seen in the case you mention, who had four physicians. The Scripture notices this in 2 Chron. 16:12, "Yet in his disease he sought not the Lord, but to the physicians." If the Lord is left out, He who alone does heal, we may run from one physician to another and yet find no help.

What you quote from the last chapter of Mark is by no means all the Lord says in that passage. To pretend to possess the part you quote and not the other would be a false use of the word of God It is all or nothing. It was all done in the apostolic times; nothing of it now. We are fully aware of the pretensions which exist with some, but we are convinced, nevertheless, that they do not possess the powers specified in that passage. From the moment ruin began to set in the Church, miraculous signs came to an end. The Church of Rome has tried hard to keep them up by deceiving the people, and we greatly fear that others beside Rome have attempted the same by first deceiving themselves and then others. Persons who have been mixed up with such movements, and through exercise of conscience have left them, experience much pain at the remembrance of the past.

We said the "Divine Healing system" was false. We will give the proof. It puts sin and sickness on the same level, and claims that Christ having made atonement for both alike, the believer has as good right to claim health for his body as peace for his soul. Isaiah 53:4-6 is quoted as authority for this. "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows," in verse 4, is made to be on the cross as "our transgressions " and "our iniquities " in verse 5. But Matt. 8:14-17 clearly denies this. It shows that bearing our infirmities and sicknesses is not on the cross but during His ministry. This mixing sickness and sin together leads to their saying that if a man is sick it is because he lives in sin. So you, being "on the fence" about all this, wonder how to reconcile it with such a case as is presented in Philip. 2:25-30. You cannot reconcile them. Either the "Divine Healing system" is false or the word of God is false. Make your choice between them, for they cannot go together.

If " the fearful " of Rev. 21:8 can be applied to you, then a man under the blood of Christ may yet "have part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" with other sinners mentioned in that verse. "The fearful" are those who are ashamed of Christ, unwilling or afraid to confess Him lest they should lose their place in the world.

A measure of faith cannot be in relation to salvation, but only to service-each of us receiving that measure needful for what service is ours.

We would advise you to send to our Publishers for their Catalogue. You will find there abounding sound literature which will lift your soul out of the prevailing fogs of the day.
Some answers remain for next No. of Help & Food

(Continued from page 94.)

Division II (Chaps. 3-31).

The controversies of Job and his three friends, exhibiting the futility of human reason in explaining God's ways in affliction, and the deep-rooted self-righteousness of man's heart.

We have in this division the largest and, in many respects, the most complicated part of the book. It has been well named The Entanglement, for it is a mass of argument, denunciation, accusation, suspicion, partly correct theories, and withal flashes of faith and hope-all in the language of loftiest poetry, with magnificent luxuriance of Oriental metaphor. To the casual reader there may seem to be no progress, and but little clarity in the controversy. And it must be confessed that God's people at large seem to have gained little from these chapters beyond a few familiar, beautiful and oft-quoted verses.

But can we think that God would have permitted a useless book to be included in that "all scripture," which is profitable ? Let us then come with confidence to these controversies and patiently seek their meaning, see if we can trace an individuality in each speaker, and a progress in his declarations; whether we can mark a rise in the faith of Job, so nearly eclipsed, and a preparation for the unfolding of God's ways which follow after.

We add a word here as to the inspiration of the book. There can be no question as to this, for it is referred to both in the Old Testament (Ezek. 14:14, 20) and in the New (Jas. 5:11); it is also quoted in the New Testament (i Cor. 3:19). But inspiration is often mistaken for revelation, or the infallible statement of divine truth. We have the inspired record of what Satan said to Eve, and to our Lord; of the utterances of wicked men, like Pharaoh and Rabshakeh, but 110 one thinks of these words as being the truth of God. Similarly here we have an inspired record of what Job and his three friends said, but while most of it was true, at was out of place and misapplied. This is all perfectly plain.

The whole Division may be separated into three subdivisions, of unequal length.

Subdivision I.-Job's opening Lament (chap. 3).

Subdivision II. – The controversy with the three friends (chaps. 4-26).

Subdivision III.-Job's closing Monologue (chaps.27-31).

We need hardly point out the numerical appropriateness of these subdivisions :the first introduces the entire controversy; it is the beginning of all that is said afterwards. The second speaks of antagonism and the vain efforts of man to help, with glimpses of faith between. The third is the full display of Job's heart. Significantly he begins and closes the controversy.

I.-Job's opening Lament (chap. 3).

Perhaps that which strikes the reader most forcibly on entering upon this chapter, is the great contrast between it and the preceding one. Can this be the same man who meekly bowed his head to the successive strokes of adversity which fell so suddenly upon him ?-who bore the torture of his dread disease, and listened unmoved to his wife's solicitations to suicide? " Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ? "

For seven days he has sat silent with his friends, and when he begins to speak, it is not words of submission or trust that we hear, but curses and imprecations upon the day of his birth, and longing for death! What has made this great change ?

It might be thought that it was the long continuance of his sufferings which broke Job down; when first afflicted, he bore up under it, but ,,as weary days and nights followed each other with unvarying wretchedness, he gave way. But this hardly seems consistent with the calm dignity of the man as shown in the first two chapters.

In the light of his subsequent attitude, it seems more likely that Job's thoughts of God had much to do with this change. Previously, he had seen Him as the beneficent Ruler and Disposer of events. But it appears as we go on that Job allowed suspicions of God's justice and goodness to intrude. He felt himself as if in the hands of arbitrary power, suffering for what he had not done. He sees no way of escape, and therefore wishes for death. This seems to account for the great change in his words. It is also in keeping with the answers he gives his friends. As long as his sufferings were outward, or physical, Job was calm; but when doubts of God's goodness were entertained he collapsed. This will appear abundantly as we proceed; it is simply noticed here as suggesting the main theme of the book-the vindication of God, and His ways with men.

On the other hand, we must remember that even when in such anguish of soul as well as of body, Job did not fall as Satan predicted he would. He did not curse God, although sorely perplexed at His treatment. Ever and anon in the midst of greatest anguish, his faith shines forth in prayer or in confidence-illustrating the usually accepted translation of the words, " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him " (chap. 13:15).

Taking up now the lament, we may divide it into five parts.

First:Job curses the day of his birth (vers. 1-9).

Second:Wishes he had died in infancy (vers. 10-12).

Third:Death described as a rest (vers. 13-19).

Fourth:He longs for death (vers. 20-23).

Fifth:He is oppressed by terror (24-26).

(1) Job curses the day of his birth (vers. 1-9). Of only one man has it ever been said-by our Lord- " It had been good for that man if he had not been born" (Matt. 26:24). Judas was an apostate, the "son of perdition," into whose heart Satan entered, and who sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver, betrayed Him by a kiss, and then filled with remorse went and hanged himself, and "went to his own place." For a child of God to wish he had never been born indicates a complete, if but temporary, eclipse of faith.

Jeremiah, utterly oppressed by the hardness of the people's heart, and seeing the inevitable ruin into which they were drifting, uses language somewhat similar to Job's (Jer. 20:14-18). He curses not only the day of his birth, but the man who brought his father the news instead of slaying the child, and wishes he were overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah There is this to be said of Jeremiah's outburst:it was not merely because of his own sufferings as obliged to bring a message which the people refused-and therefore hated the messenger ; but is there not a measure of grief over the people's obduracy and inevitable doom ? Like Moses before and Paul afterwards, he longed supremely for the people's blessing. Failing to see this, he had rather not have been born. We justify none of these beloved servants of God, but they seem to occupy a higher moral plane than Job does here, when his own selfishness is but too evident.

Let us contrast all these godly men with the matchless Sufferer. "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour ? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." Ah, He never failed; the intensity of His sufferings but furnished the occasion for the exhibition of His sinless perfection.

In this first part Job curses the day of his birth, wishes that it could be blotted out of the calendar, because it allowed his birth. He desires that clay and night never come into remembrance-so that the very recurrence of the day that was a reminder of his existence might cease. Verse 8 has been translated, "Let those who curse the day curse it, who are skilled in stirring up leviathan," alluding to the heathen myth that a dragon devoured the sun and moon and so prevented the day. If this is correct, it shows how far Job had drifted in his thoughts, to turn thus to the superstitions of the heathen.

In what contrast to this is the joy of the believer in dwelling upon his spiritual birthday. How Paul loved to look back to the time when the light above the brightness of the sun shone into his darkened heart. " Who before was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious . . . and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus . . . Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen " (i Tim. i:13-17). So in the many persecutions and afflictions which befell him for the gospel's sake, we hear not the faintest approach to these lamentations of Job. When he and Silas were beaten, thrust into prison, their feet fast in the stocks, their thoughts were not of cursing the day of their birth, but songs in the night.

The contrast shows the difference between Old and New Testament light, but it shows too that even in Old Testament days God's children needed to learn the sweet uses of adversity, and not to despise the chastening of the Lord. S. R.

(To be continued)

The Fall of Adam and its Results

(Continued from page 155.)

Having defined, in part at least, the nature and character of Adam's act of disobedience, we must now consider its results in relation to our general subject.

First, it is a fact that through disobedience man, as a moral being, is different from what he was before. In saying this I do not mean that he has ceased to be spirit, soul and body-a complex being with an outward material part and an inward immaterial one. After sin came in, as well as before, man is a rational, moral being; but what a change has been effected in his moral nature! Man is no longer morally what God made him. God did not create a sinful being. No element of sin was in his moral constitution as God made him.

As a sinner, man is of the devil; he corrupted man's nature. Our Lord, in John 8:38,41,44, considering those before Him as servants of sin (see ver. 34) refers their origin in that character to the devil. We find the same teaching in i John 3:8:"He that committeth (practices) sin is of the devil." The sinner's character is derived from the devil. His practice is the outward manifestation of a moral nature of which the devil is the author.

Through this moral fall, with a corrupted nature, Adam became a slave to sin. Before his fall his subjection to God was not irksome. To an un-corrupted will, obedience was liberty. His mind and heart were in harmony with the will of God, so that it was not bondage to obey. But when the principle of sin was deposited in man's moral nature, it was there as a controlling power, turning his members into servants of sin (Rom. 6:13 16, 20). He was under the dominion of sin-a dominion from which he had no power to deliver himself -no power to cast out the new element that had found entrance in his moral nature and produced in him a new moral character.

Having consented to sin, Adam came under bondage to Satan. Through sin in man's nature Satan holds sway over him. When he persuaded Adam to disobey God he set up on "earth a kingdom of evil, of darkness. It was thus he established his power and became "the prince of this world;" " the god of this age " was thus initiated. Fallen, sinful men are his subjects. He uses them for his own ends. He makes them the instrument of his own purposes. By his control over them he carries out his evil plans. He avails himself of the aspirations, passions and lusts innate in men as constituted sinners, to guide them in accordance with the age of evil of which he is the author. Through the attractions of sin he leads man captive for his will-a captivity from which man has no power to deliver himself.

We should also remark that Adam having been constituted a "son of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2, Greek), became alienated from the life of God, is at enmity with God, with a will that cannot be subject to God's rule (Rom. 8:7). His moral condition is in constant conflict with God; and he is not only out of harmony with God, but also out of harmony with himself. By the introduction of sin he became a subject of internal conflicts – conflicts which he is powerless to repress. Every way we look at it we cannot fail to realize that through the fall man came into a new moral condition ; a new character is stamped upon him; the image of God in which he was created is now a defaced image. The impress of a character not of God is there.

And how abhorrent this new moral condition must be to God ! As a son of disobedience, man could not be otherwise than a "child of wrath" (Eph. 2:3). Impossible it is for God to take pleasure in a creature made in His image in whom that image has been so defaced. The impress of an opposite character must be intolerable to Him who is holy. How could He have satisfaction or pleasure in one characterized by irreconcilable inward lusts ? His love would be sorely wounded, surely, but He could not condone the offence, could not compromise His holiness; His righteousness would require the condemnation and judgment of the disobedience. It may be said, God in His sovereignty is free to forgive. Truly so; but only in consistency with Hi£ holy nature and righteous character. He cannot ignore sin, He must judge it befittingly in appointing sinful man to death, and to judgment after death (Heb. 9:27).

It is not the place here to speak of the grace of God and the basis on which that grace is exercised. That will come before us in the next chapter. We recall that in Gen. 2:17, God warned Adam that disobedience would bring death. Here, in chapter 3:1,9 the appointment is definitely made. We need now to consider this.

We have seen that man was not made to die, that he was designed, not simply for this present earthly life, but to be exalted and spiritualized. But even so, let us remember he did not have life in himself; he had it dependently. If we say his body was not subject to death we must not forget that it was not of itself immortal. It was only dependently and conditionally so. If the natural earthly body given to Adam was not the final and permanent body that God had in mind for him, has Adam's fall rendered it impossible for God to carry out His purpose ? If so, God has been defeated by sin; but this we cannot admit while confessing God as supreme over all. In appointing man to death, and to judgment after it, God in no wise changed or abandoned His purpose:it is unchangeable as Himself. But this means that death is but temporary, though his life on earth and the spiritualization of his body on the ground of his own responsibility has been forfeited. The privilege of eating of the tree of life while obedient, is forever forfeited. Having separated himself from God, the Source of life, he cannot protect his body from death. The cherubim and flaming sword (Gen. 3:24) proclaim the absolute inability of fallen man to recover himself and acquire the right to live. And if he has forfeited the privilege of living, he has also lost the opportunity, as an obedient man, to be exalted to a higher life-to a life of eternal fellowship with God, with a body suited to the activities of life in its final and permanent form.

The record of God's ways with Adam as fallen shows conclusively that God has not abandoned His purpose. He reveals His resources for the recovery of man and for the accomplishment of the end He has in view. This revelation also shows that death is a temporary thing:it implies that God's judgment of sin is irreversible, therefore eternal. A new Man is to be raised up whose triumph over Satan, the instigator of man's fall, will be so complete that Satan's power will be absolutely nullified. This is what the crushed head means. And here we find the germ of the scripture doctrine of eternal judgment. The foot of the Second Man once placed on the Serpent's head will remain there forever. Men, sinful men, are not to be his captives forever. The eternal judgment to which men are appointed will rob him of his dominion over them. They will not be finally and eternally his spoil, his prey; and this complete crushing of Satan's power implies the resurrection of his dead. If his dead are to be raised and to be judged as men-not as disembodied souls, but as complete men – then death is a temporal thing. The existence of the soul in separation from the body is of limited duration. The dissolution of the body is only for a time-not forever.

It is not in place here to enlarge on the distinction between the resurrection to life and the resurrection to judgment. That will come before us later on, but it is important to see that in proclaiming the penalty threatened in chapter 2, God is appointing sinful man to a temporary condition awaiting a judgment for which his resurrection is a necessity; and in declaring His ultimate triumph over man's tempter, it indicates that Satan will not be able to retain his prey forever, that death is the limit of his power over men, that the final and eternal destiny of men is to be determined by God Himself. In declaring that by woman, whom Satan had used to accomplish man's downfall, a Second Man would be raised up who would completely and forever crush Satan's power, God was at least giving a hint that a Man would come into the world who would possess the divine power to raise the dead and judge them. Resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment are fairly inferred from the word, " It (the woman's Seed) shall bruise thy head."

Before closing this chapter another question is to be considered. What is the effect of Adam's fall on his progeny ? If Adam's moral nature had not been contaminated, it is evident he would have communicated an untarnished moral nature to his descendants, and so a sinless race. It is unnecessary, however, to discuss whether such a race would have been subjected to the same test to which Adam was subjected. I am concerned only with the fact that it was in the pristine condition in which he was created that Adam was to "be fruitful and multiply." Propagation was not withdrawn from him after his sin, however, but having been morally corrupted this was inevitably communicated to his descendants. The children born of him were in the image, not of the unfallen, but of sinful Adam. His own defaced, sinful image was stamped upon his descendants.

All descended from Adam are therefore born in sin; they are morally what they ought not to be; and to be what they ought to be, they must be morally reconstituted. This is the work of God. He only is able to undo the work of the devil. He only can deliver fallen man from the dominion of sin and Satan's power.

The great importance of what I have sought to emphasize makes it desirable to give here a brief summary of the main points on which I have enlarged.

First:A reconstitution has taken place in man's moral nature, different from what it was when created.

Second:In his reconstitution a dominion of sin has been set up, in which man is a slave to sin's reign-a captive in the power of Satan.

Third:In this kingdom of sin, man, though an object of divine pity, is necessarily and righteously a subject of divine abhorrence and wrath. As such he is appointed to death and judgment after death.

Fourth:The death and judgment to which sinful man is appointed, is a divine limitation to the continuance of sin's dominion. Death is the end of Satan's power.

Fifth:If death limits the reign of. sin and is the end of Satan's power, then there must be a resurrection of the dead.

Sixth :The judgment after death – Satan being robbed of his prey – will be the establishment of fallen sinful man's eternal destiny.

Seventh:This eternal destiny is a condition of subjection to the power of a Second Man, who in putting His foot upon the head of the Serpent completely subjects all things to Himself- eternally to hold all things in subjection.

Now then, if Gen. 3 more or less distinctly indicates that sin issues in death, and in a judgment after death which will turn the triumph and reign of sin into an eternal defeat, are there indications that any of sin's victims may be spared the doom of sin ? To this we will turn in our next chapter. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

(Continued from page 241.)

Bildad's address and Job's reply

(chaps. 8-10.)

The first of the friends has spoken and been answered by Job. Bildad now takes up what is fast becoming a controversy. There is perhaps less of. the courtesy and dignity which marked the speech of Eliphaz, together with some harshness toward Job, caused apparently by the bitter charge of the latter against God. With all his ignorance of divine principles, Bildad is jealous of the honor of God, and cannot allow Him to be accused. In this he is surely right, but he fails to convince Job because of the root error in the thoughts, indeed, of them all:God must punish sin, and Job must be a sinner for he is being punished.

To establish this, Bildad refers not merely to his own experience as had Eliphaz, but calls upon all the gathered wisdom of the past for confirmation. What is God's way with the wicked ? And does He not recompense the way of the righteous unto him ?

In reply Job is more subdued, and practically acknowledges the truth of Bildad's contention as to God's ways, but gives a twist to the whole by saying that God's justice is nothing but His power in another form. No one can maintain his cause before Him, because He is almighty, and can not be reached. His judgments are arbitrary, but no one can question them, nor is there a daysman, an advocate, to plead the cause of the wretched. This brings Job back to his original complaint and longing for death. We will now briefly examine the details of each of these speeches.

Bildad's Address.

This may be divided into five parts, suggesting the righteousness of God's judgments and the certainty of His recompense, both upon the wicked and the just.

(1) He reproaches Job (vers. i, 2).

(2) Is God unjust ? (vers. 3-7).

(3) The light of the past (vers. 8-10).

(4) The way of the wicked (vers. 11-19).

(5) Divine recompense for the righteous (vers. 20-22).

(1) Job's words are like a strong wind, a blast of bitter complaint, and still more bitter charge against God. How long is he going to utter such things ? This is a harsh, but, we may well say, just, correction of the irreverent and extreme rashness of Job's words. Perhaps sympathy might have pursued a gentler course, but when a man begins to charge God it is well to rebuke him sharply.
(2) Bildad asks Job a plain question, "Doth God pervert judgment ? " Is He unrighteous ? For anyone who knows Him there can be but one answer. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? " He would not be God, if He were not perfectly righteous. This shows the dreadful precipice to which Job was approaching, goaded on by this false principle that God always punishes for sin. Job was not a sinner; therefore God was unjust ! Fearful reasoning this, in which both the premise and the statement of fact are wrong and in which the conclusion is blasphemous. Why did not Job, and Bildad also, pause and ask if there was not something wrong in the premise:Does God always punish for sin alone ? Why does not Job consider the statement of facts; is he sinless ? But this will come out in due time. We will follow Bildad.

He proposes two proofs of God's justice, the first of which is, to say the least, most arbitrary and unkind. We may read verse 4, "When thy children sinned against Him, He gave them over to the hand of their wickedness." In other words Bildad assumes that Job's children had reaped the due reward of their wickedness, and had been cut off; " Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." This is indeed most lacerating to a parent's feelings, who had found no evidence of such wickedness in his children, and who had carefully watched over their spiritual state. Bildad is driven to this by his wrong theory of God's ways.

Next, he proves the justice of those ways by telling Job there is restoring mercy for him, if he will but turn in prayer to God-" If thou art pure and upright"-there is a strong suggestion of suspicion here-God will restore all, and bless Job's latter end. This indeed was fulfilled, but in a vastly different way from what Bildad expected; Job is blessed not for his purity, nor because of confession of suspected evil.

(3) Bildad here seeks confirmation of his contention from the wisdom of past ages. He goes beyond Eliphaz, " For we are but as children of yesterday." While this is true, what does the garnered wisdom of all the past give us when it is a question of God's truth ? It is not to the past that we are to turn, but to God and His word. How immeasurably superior is the position of those who have the "sure word of prophecy," "the oracles of God."

(4) In this portion Bildad traces the way of the wicked; and there is much truth in what he says, though it is not all the truth. Can the water-reed, or papyrus, nourish without moisture ? It grows luxuriantly when water is about its roots; as soon as that is exhausted, it withers more quickly than all other herbs. So is the prosperity of the wicked, who for a time spreads himself as a green bay tree. The hope of the ungodly-not merely the hypocrite-perisheth. Changing his figure, Bildad likens the confidence of the wicked to one leaning upon a spider's web; how pitiable is the plight of one vainly clinging to so frail a thing ! Once more in the exuberance of his metaphors, he likens this passing prosperity to a luxuriant vine covering a heap of stones in the garden, filled with sap and vigor in the bright sunshine. Soon God cuts him off, and " the place that once knew him shall know him no more." Others shall take his place.

(5) Lastly Bildad reminds Job of the sure recompense for the righteous. God will not join hands with evil doers by punishing the righteous ; He will fill Job's mouth with laughter and his tongue with singing, and all iniquity shall stop its mouth, if-

Job's reply to Bildad.
Job's reply, beginning in quietness, passing on to bitter charges of God, and ending in a wail, may be divided into seven parts; he sounds all the heights and depths of misery in this complete survey of his case.

(1) God supreme; who can contend with Him ? (vers. 1-4).

(2)His resistless power (vers. 5-10).

(3)His inaccessibility, and arbitrary dealing (vers. 11-24).

(4) Job's utter weakness (vers. 25-28).

(5)Longing for a daysman (vers. 29-35).

(6) The complaint against God (ch. 10:1-17).

(7) Longing for death (vers. 18-22).

(1) Although he speaks quietly, there is an intense bitterness in what Job says here. Apparently agreeing with Bildad that God is just, Job says, "Of course He is just, for there is no appeal from whatever He does. He has both wisdom and power, and can overwhelm any vain attempt to reason with Him." This is terrible. It is not one presuming in all lowliness to ask God for a reason, as Jeremiah under similar circumstances does (Jer. 12:1-4), but rather the hardness of despair-might is right; and God has might on His side.

(2) In this part Job enlarges upon the power and greatness of God. The language is noble, the description true, but underneath lies the awful doubt of this great and powerful Being's goodness. God overturns the unconscious mountains in His wrath; He makes the earth to tremble. Passing from earth to heaven, He causes the sun and stars to cease their shining. Returning to earth He walks upon the raging waves of the sea. He is the creator of those distant glorious constellations- Arcturus in the north; Orion "sloping downward toward the west;" Pleiades in the east, and the unknown "chambers of the south," toward the horizon and beyond view. These are marvelous sweeps of language, taking in the whole heavens; but, alas, it is not,"The heavens declare the glory of God," but rather a declaration of absolute, resistless Power.

(3) Coming to the heart of his trouble, Job declares, in language whose poetic beauty is only exceeded by the misery of his plaint, that he can have no access to this great and mighty Being who hides Himself, and gives no account to any of His ways. He passes by, viewless as the winds; He deals in anger, but none can ask a reason, not even the "proud helpers "-the " helpers of Rahab" (Egypt), they can only bow under Him. How much less can poor Job address Him, even though he knew the righteousness of his cause, save as a cringing suppliant before his Judge! He would scarcely believe it if God did answer him, but would expect rather to be crushed in a tempest and further wounded without cause-beaten down into bitter helplessness, and not suffered to take a breath ! Yes, if it is strength you speak of, "He is strong;" if justice, "Who will plead with' Him? " Job adds, even if he were right, his own mouth would be forced to condemn him; and if he were perfect Gcd would declare him guilty! Even if he knew himself innocent, he is all at sea and despairs of his life. God is a destroyer alike of guilty and' innocent, at whose passing away He mocks. The earth is in the hands of the wicked:is it not so ? Who else has done this unrighteousness ? Oh Job, for these words thou shalt yet abhor thyself, and repent in dust and ashes.

(4) Identifying himself with the innocent sufferers at whose passing away God laughs, Job describes his own utter weakness, and the brevity of his life. He has forgotten all his former prosperity, and draws similes of the evanescence of life from earth and sea and sky. His days are like the swift postman who runs with his message ; like the ships, passing along the horizon; or like an eagle swiftly dashing out of sight in pursuit of prey. At the suggestion that he forget his troubles and try to look bravely forward, as Bildad had urged, he can but shudder at his sorrows, his pains, for he knows God will not hold him innocent. So he is held in his misery as in a vise.

(5) Continuing, Job hints that there is no use in his making any effort to clear himself:if he is already pronounced wicked, he labors in vain to convince God that he is not; he may wash his hands in innocency, in snow water, only to be taken by this resistless Power and plunged into the ditch! Vain are all efforts to alter the judgment, and oh -where is there a daysman, a mediator who could enter into judgment, laying his hands upon God and Job alike ? Consumed with terror, Job cannot speak. Thank God, we know, as Job later knew in part, that there is such a Daysman.

(6) Words fail to describe the misery of Job which would lead him to speak thus against God. It is not the bodily suffering which has wrung this bitter cry from him, but he has lost, or is in danger of losing, faith in God's goodness. There is scarcely a gleam of light in his whole speech, and in the closing part (chap. 10) he lets himself loose in the dark despair which has settled down upon his soul. He is weary of life, and might as well pour out all his thoughts against God. He does not stand, as the poet has described a despairing man,

"Deep into that darkness peering,
Long I stood there, wondering, fearing,
Dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."

but rather pours out all those thoughts before the eye of God. May not this very abandonment of misery suggest the root of faith in his heart ? He will at least tell God to His face that he doubts Him:"though He slay me." He will ask God why He thus contends with him – is it any pleasure to Him to despise the work of His own hands, and allow the wicked to go unpunished ? Does God judge according to the flesh, failing to see the inward parts ? Are His days so brief that He must punish evil before' it is manifested-nay, when He knows a man is innocent? "Wilt Thou pursue a worm to death ?" Will He take the frail being whom His hands have fashioned with such skill, as the delicate clots of milk-as the "curiously wrought" substance of skin and flesh, bones and sinews (see Ps. 139:15, 16), and bring them back to their parent dust ? God has given him breath and life, and yet has hidden enmity in His heart against His own handiwork!

"Thou madest death ;and lo, Thy foot
Is on the skull that Thou hast made."

If he sins, God would note it and woe be to him; if he is innocent he dare not lift his head, for God would quickly hunt him as a fierce lion seeking his prey. God would display His wondrous power, and bring up witnesses against him like a countless host of invaders. In other words Job declares he is at the mercy of an almighty, arbitrary enemy!

(7) And so this awful plaint goes on to its close. The wailing passes from blaming God for His injustice to lamenting his birth. Pitifully, Job asks a brief respite, a surcease of sorrow before he goes hence and is no more. It is the lament again of chapter 3. S. R.

(To be continued.)

SHUT in-shut in from the ceaseless din
Of the restless world, and its want, and sin.
Shut in from its turmoil, care and strife
And all the wearisome round of life.

Shut in, with tears that are spent in vain,
With the dull companionship of pain;
Shut in with the changeless days and hours,
And the bitter knowledge of failing powers.

Shut in with a trio of angels sweet-
Patience and Grace all pain to meet,
With Faith that can suffer and stand and wait,
And Jean on the promises strong and great!

Shut in with Christ! Oh wonderful thought!
Shut in with the peace His sufferings brought;
Shut in with the love that wields the rod-
O company blest! shut in with God!

The sons the Prophets

The frequency of this expression in some parts of the Old Testament, and the characteristics generally associated with it, constrain one's taking notice of it, lest an intended lesson be lost. In 2 Kings 2 they stand in sad contrast to the devotion of Elisha for Elijah. They seemed to have knowledge enough, for, at Bethel and at Jericho, they approach Elisha with the words, " Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day?" Elisha has a different mind from them, however, for he only answers, "Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace." Their talk was so heartless that, though true, it only disturbed his own -deep emotions, for with him it was no mere knowledge; his heart was bound up with his master, and to be without him was real sorrow.

At Jordan, where the two prophets cross over dry-shod, the sons of the prophets "stood to view afar off." Curiosity actuates them-not the devotion which binds men together.

When Elisha returns with his master's mantle, full of power, and " the sons of the prophets, which were to view at Jericho, saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him." They can appreciate power, as any natural man can, but right away show their lack of faith by insisting upon searching for Elijah, "lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley."

Later on(chap. 4) they are starving, and while Elisha's servant is preparing food for them, one of them puts poisonous gourds in the pot. His help only spoils the grace working through the prophet. But enough. We have said so much only to ask:Are there no "sons of the prophets" now?-Such as have knowledge of truth a-plenty, but lack of heart-submission and affection to the Lord Jesus? Such can criticize well and intelligently the prophets themselves, but fail to drink at the Fountain-head, and follow the rejected One. The word of God is so little fed upon-so carelessly read-that they cannot detect a "wild gourd" from the real food of the fields? The heart is unsatisfied be cause so little surrendered to Christ, yet knowing too much about Him to be satisfied with the "husks" of this world ? They know that the blessed Saviour who died for them is up there in the glory of God, but their faith is too little in exercise to follow Him there ?

Are there any such "sons of the prophets" about us, whose chief credentials are that they are sons and daughters of Christian parents? If so, may the Spirit of God arouse them from their sleep among the dead, and link them livingly with the Lord Jesus !

The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show in prayer, but that which we carry with us, and carry out in our ordinary conduct. Murray.

(1 Kings, chap. 19.)

It is surely a cause for abundant thanksgiving, that in the Scriptures God has given us the failures as well as the faithfulness of His servants who were prominent in His service. The failures bring into stronger relief that faithful Servant (Jesus) who never had a divergent thought from the will of God, but found, ever found, His sustenance in doing the will of the One He came to glorify.

The failures are also beacons of warning to those who still tread the path of faith.

Elijah was discouraged and disconsolate ! The office of "Prophet" was at the moment more precarious than popular. This uncompromising man, who had been the bearer of a most unpalatable message to Ahab, and fearlessly denounced his wickedness; this man of faith who, in the midst of straitness, trusted in the living God and proved His unfailing care when every resource had failed; who had been the channel of God's resurrection power (i Kings 17); who fearlessly withstood demoniacal power; who called down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice as a witness against the worshipers of Baal (i Kings 18); the man of prayer and faith whose cry reached heaven, and whose name has been indelibly recorded as one who had power with God (James 5:17) is utterly dismayed and cast down by the threat of- a woman. The crisis had come, and the future was pregnant with dark forebodings; circumstances seemed to combine against him, and the prophet, weary of the strife, asks for release from the prophetic office.

" If thou faint in the day of adversity,
Thy strength is small" (Prov. 24:10).

But God knew the weakness of this beloved servant, and as Elijah, dejected and despondent, fled from this wicked, designing woman in terror for his life, God led him to the refreshing shade of a juniper tree and gave His beloved sleep. How tender and considerate is our God ! How often when, in the storm and stress, our spirits faint and disheartened, we feel ready to retire from conflict, deeming everything gone, He in gracious love revives our spirits, strengthens the feeble knees, 'and enables us to "lift up the hands which hang down."

The" days in which our lot is cast are evil; we are in troublous times, when the foundations are shaken. Kingdoms are tottering and thrones falling. Corruption, civil and moral, over abounds, and the religious world grows more wantonly apostate every day!

Our darling hopes may be crushed and as disappointment succeeds disappointment we may cry out, "Who shall show us any good ? " But " God is for us," and "If God be for us, who against us?" (Rom. 8:31). Elijah could say with another in similar circumstances, " I laid me down and slept ; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me" (Ps. 3:5). Angelic ministry attended this weary servant, and he awaked to find the gracious provision of God -a cruse of "water, and a cake baked on coals was at his head.

All was changed now, and while Elijah had further lessons to learn, the tension was over; once more, in the strength of that refreshment, he is before us in the dignity of the servant of God. Is God less faithful in our day ? Nay, He remains unchangeably the same, and our poor failing hearts, ever ready to give up, may well take courage. The cake baked on coals, and the cruse of water are near by. The word of God and the Spirit of God wait upon our need. Oh, to make use of our resources!

The man of God, going in the strength of spiritual refreshment forty days and forty nights, repaired to Horeb, the mount where God met Moses (Exod. 3:1-12). But what dull scholars we are! Elijah is soon found in a cave, careful of his life, and thinking that every bit of testimony for God was in him.

Here a fresh lesson is learned. He is called out of his cave as the Lord, passing by, displayed His almighty power (i Kings 19:n, 12). Nature might be convulsed, but the "still small voice" drew Elijah from his hiding place and encouraged the faltering prophet to pursue his mission.

May we, in the midst of difficulties, be in the attitude of the perfect Servant in whom there was no breakdown, and learn of Him to tread the path in dependence upon God, as it is written of Him, "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned [instructed], that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary:He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned [instructed] " (Isa. 50:4).

Let us remember that " whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope " (Rom. 15:4). J. W. H. N.

BY A. E. BOOTH

The Salutation (chap, i:1-7).

In Eastern lands people are noted for the order and manner of their salutations – both oral and written. " Peace unto you," was the usual salutation extended. The apostle salutes them here with " Grace and peace unto you."

The Introduction (chap, i:8-17).

A word of introduction always followed this salutation, especially if they were strangers to each other. This would set the mind of both parties at rest, and the message would then follow.

The epistle to the Romans has five main divisions, which in their spiritual lessons correspond to the Pentateuch of Moses. Each of these main divisions has its sections or subdivisions.

First Division (the Genesis), Man's Ruin (chaps, i:18-3:20).

In Genesis we have the fall of man-the entrance of sin in the human race and the story of guilt which followed. In the first three chapters of Romans the guilt of the whole human race is summed up; all are declared guilty, and under judgment before God.

Three Sections in the First Division

(1) The guilt of the Barbarian-the uncivilized part of the Gentile world (chap, i:18-32).

Note a better punctuation of verse 18-"all impiety, and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness" (J. N. D.'s Trans.)

(2) The guilt of the Greek-the civilized part of the Gentile world (chap. 2:1-16).

Note here the margin of chap. 2 :9, 10 where the word is Greek, not Gentile.

(3) The guilt of the Jew (chaps. 2:17-3:20).

Instead of "Behold," in chap. 2 :17, read "But if thou art called a Jew."

The first two sections include all Gentiles, Greek and Barbarian, civilized and uncivilized ; the last section, the Jews, who had in their possession the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament).

Second Division (the Exodus), God's Salvation (chaps. 3:21-8:39).

This division presents to us the gospel of God, His salvation and His righteousness; but God's salvation in the epistle to the Romans includes more than justification. First, the salvation of the soul:then successive deliverances, including the salvation of the body, are the theme of this second division, which corresponds to Exodus, where we get the salvation of Israel out of Egypt. Theirs was a national and temporal deliverance; ours is individual and eternal.

Five Sections in this Second Division, and Seven distinct Deliverances.

justification

(1) Deliverance from our sins (chap. 3:23-26).

(2) Deliverance from the judgment of God (chap. 3:21-5:11).

A better reading of chap. 3:19 is, "And all the world be under judgment of God" (J. N. D.'s Trans.).

(3) Deliverance from judgment on the Adamic creation (chap. 5:12-21).

(4) Deliverance from the rule and power of indwelling sin (chap. 6:1-23).

Note :Sin (not sins) is the subject of this chapter. "Sin," the evil propensity or principle, which is in all of Adam's race, abides in us unto the end ; it is compared to a master which we formerly served as slaves, but from which we have been freed or discharged by the death of Christ. This is as God views us. Hence, we are now to "reckon ourselves" as having died to sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This is a practical and present deliverance.

(5) Deliverance from the law as a rule of life (chap. 7).

Note:This implies that by the death .of Christ we have also been discharged from the law. We are not under sin as a master (chap. 6). We are not under law as a rule (chap. 7). A discharge has been secured for us from both by Christ's death ; and Christian service, under grace, is to Him who has delivered us.

(6) Deliverance from the presence of sin.

(7) Deliverance from the groans of a weak and infirm body (chap. 8:22, 23). Note:These last two (6 and 7) are at the coming of the Lord.

Third Division (the Leviticus), Nearness to God (chaps. 9-11).

The second division brought us to the Second Coming of Christ, and the final deliverance of the body. Now, in the third, we are brought nigh to God, there to learn the truths concerning the Second Coming of the Lord more fully, and also the ways of the Lord-past, present, and future- in regard to both Israel and the Nations. This part of the epistle is distinctly dispensational, as the first two divisions were doctrinal.

Enoch walked with God, and the future was opened up to him (Jude 14).

Abram was the friend of God; therefore the destruction of the doomed cities was not withheld from him (Gen. 18:16-33).

Moses, the servant of Jehovah, was in the secret of God's thoughts, and had the ways of God made known to him (Ps. 103:7).

The disciples as "friends" had the Father's communications revealed to them (John 15:14, 15). In this favored dispensation, we are brought near, and the mysteries of God have been made known to us -His plans, purposes, etc., are all spread before us for our enlightenment. How diligent we ought to be in view of this-like Enoch, seek to walk with God, and like Abraham, be exercised in prayerful intercession, both as to the Church and the world.

The Fourth Division (Numbers) the Practical Life of Believers (chaps. 12:-15:33).

This division brings us now to the practical part of the epistle; as the book of Numbers, it serves to guide the walk and life of saints who are brought into relationship with God.

The various positions of a believer are presented -his life Godward, Churchward, and Worldward.

The spirit in which the life should be manifested is fully expounded, and Christ presented as the perfect example for us to follow (chap. 15:3).

Note how this division closes the epistle proper, followed by the benediction, " The God of peace be with you all, Amen." This division brings us to the end of the practical part, as Numbers brings us to the end of the wilderness journey of Israel.

The Fifth Division (the Deuteronomy) chap. 16.

This last chapter, as an appendix to the epistle, resembles the fifth and last book of Moses. The book of Deuteronomy, at the end of the wilderness life, is a review of the just completed journey. In this review they were called to "remember all the way" (Deut. 8:2). It serves as a picture of what the judgment-seat of Christ will be for each believer, of which this last chapter of our epistle is also a picture. There, Moses reviewed the past for Israel; here it is Paul who briefly reviews the service of devoted hearts in various spheres of life, and adds his commendation. Soon these pictures will give place to the final review, when Christ will manifest all for us, and each shall have praise of Him.

Three Sections in this last chapter.

I. The Review:

"I commend Phoebe" (vers. 1,2). A woman thus heads the list.

"Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers, "etc. (vers. 3,4). A wife here precedes her husband.

"Apelles approved" (ver. 10).

" Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord " (ver. 12).

" Persis, which labored much in the Lord," etc, (ver. 12).

At the judgment-seat of Christ all believers shall be manifested-the labor and service of each will be reviewed. Rewards for faithfulness will be given-not for outward success. Many quiet and unseen names will be brought to light, then. Many women as Phoebe, Priscilla, etc., will come to the front, having perhaps been little known on earth, but prayerful, devoted, and faithful. The righteous Lord "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall each one have praise of God." It will be known then who labored, and they who labored much.

Then, after all these personal, lovely touches are recorded, comes another benediction, corresponding to what will follow the final review by and by:"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen."

2. The joint Salutations (vers. 21-24). In this section we learn of others, in the fellowship of the apostle, to whom the saints elsewhere were dear, because dear to God, and as fellow-members of the one Body. They all unite in the salutations. After this we get a third benediction, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen" (chaps. 15:33; 16:20, 24). How these benedictions magnify God's grace, and are a further illustration of how God ever delights to give with a liberal hand. We are indeed the people of a liberal Giver.

3. The Epilogue (vers. 25-27).

We have read the apostle's salutation and introduction in chapter i, and have traced out briefly the divisions in outline. But within these outlines the whole epistle resembles a good and large land, a land flowing with milk and honey. They invite the most careful and prayerful study. This ministry from the apostle's pen-how rich, and wholesome i-is intended by the Holy Spirit to lay the foundation of the faith, to introduce us to, and establish us in, the fundamental themes of New Testament doctrine.

Then, in the closing verses, how suited to find a doxology of praise. Throughout the entire epistle the stream flows as a pure river, clear as crystal, from the throne of God and the Lamb. Believers throughout the epistle have been made recipients of these blessings. Now, in the doxology, the living water in us springs up unto everlasting life. We are become the happy givers:it is an outburst of praise to God:we enter, in anticipation, the sweet and happy spirit of eternity-of praise and worship:

" Now to Him that is of power to establish you, according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus. Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but is now made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets (or "prophetic scriptures," 1:e., New Testament scriptures), according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:to GOD only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever! Amen."

(Continued from page 350.)

Chapter VII. The Disembodied State

From what we have had before us it is evident that from earliest times it was known that man's soul continues to exist after death. Men understood that when the body disintegrates the soul lives in a disembodied condition. Death was not considered to be the end, but only a temporary condition. A resurrection-state was anticipated, and that in the resurrection the soul would be re-embodied.

We may first inquire, however, What is the testimony of the Old Testament scriptures to the disembodied condition of the soul? What idea of this condition does it give us ?

In Gen. 25:8 we read, " Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, . . . and was gathered to his people." How are we to understand this expression, "gathered to his people?" If we turn back to chap. 15:15, we read, "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age." "His people," then, were his fathers who had died before him. They were thought of, and spoken of, as still existing. This is a clear proof that the soul was considered to exist apart from the body. Abraham's fathers were dead; they had gone out of this present state of existence into another; and he is told that he is to be gathered with them-to be where the souls of his fathers are, while the body was to return to the earth.

The force of the expression, "gathered in peace " we shall look at later; but I desire here to raise the question, Are we to take the words, "thy fathers," as including all who had died before Abraham ? Or limit them to the line of Abraham's ancestry ? Or are we to take them as referring to the line of faith ? These questions may be difficult to answer, but in the light of New Testament revelation I have no hesitation in saying they have special application to the line of faith. However, it is not necessary to deny an application to the line of Abraham's natural ancestry; nor are we forced to refuse, their application to the dead generally, 1:e., to all who had died before Abraham. It matters not, however, so far as our own present point is concerned. Gathered to "thy fathers," or, "thy people," testifies to the truth of the soul's continued existence after death; and if this is established, then the immortality of the soul is proven clearly, it is not the soul that dies when men die, but the body. It is not the soul that goes to corruption, but the body that returns to the dust while the soul lives on.

In Gen. 37:31-35 we find very clear evidence of the belief in the continued existence of the soul after death. When Jacob's sons produced what he accepts as proof that Joseph was dead, he said, "An evil beast hath devoured him :Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. " Then he mourned many days; and when "all his sons and daughters rose up to comfort him " he refused to be comforted, saying, "I will go down to my son into Sheol mourning." (The reader will notice I have corrected the erroneous rendering in our English Version). What Jacob really says is, I will mourn for Joseph while I live, till I go down to my son in Sheol – where his soul is. He thought the body had been devoured by an evil beast, and he believed therefore that the soul was in "Sheol" – the place of the disembodied spirit. We see here one who cherishes the hope of the continued existence of the soul after death. Jacob's hope, founded on divine testimony, was that when he died he would be with Joseph.

Notice now that Jacob speaks of going down into Sheol. This gives us an idea of how in these early times the world of the departed was viewed. The condition of the disembodied spirit, as compared with the condition of those who had not died, was thought of as an inferior state. Sheol was considered to be a descent – a lower place or condition. Death was regarded as a humiliation, and the state of the dead as a degradation, compared with the state of the living.

A striking example of this conception of Sheol is found in the 14th chapter of Isaiah. It is the patriarchal view of Sheol. Isaiah here pictures Israel's celebration of Babylon's downfall. He portrays the afflicted remnant of Israel exulting because of rest and quiet on the earth resulting from the downfall of the persecuting power, and describes also the excitement of the world of departed spirits. "Sheol from beneath is moved for thee at thy coming:it stirreth up the dead for thee" (verse 9). Then in the next verse the inhabitants of Sheol are spoken of as saying, "Art thou become weak as we ? art thou become like unto us ? Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol." The view of Sheol here is that it is a place of humiliation, a degradation – a view quite inconsistent with the idea of death being the end of all. In view of such passages it is impossible to maintain the doctrine of the extinction of the soul at death.

But we turn to other scriptures to gather further light on how Sheol was regarded in Old Testament times. Job 10:21, 22 is very instructive. Old Testament saints, as well as ourselves, were dependent on revelation for any right apprehension of the character of Sheol. They did not have the light that is in our possession. In speaking of Sheol it was impossible for them to speak of it in the intelligence in which now we are able to do. They knew, however, that death did not end all, for God had revealed it. They knew both from divine testimony and experience that the body returned to dust. They knew that the soul in Sheol was disembodied. Of the character of the place of departed spirits they possessed only a few hints in what God had revealed. Their ideas of the place, so far as they based them on what was revealed, were correct, and consistent with later and fuller revelations. Their ideas of Sheol, as based on their experience, were correct from the standpoint of that experience, though often incorrect from the standpoint of New Testament revelation. It is important to keep this in mind in speaking of the ideas of Sheol commonly entertained in Old Testament times. They had no experience of the place itself, of course; still experience showed that the dead did not return to this earthly life; and they had no testimony as to the condition of the dead from any who had experienced that condition.

In the passage above mentioned, it is evident that Job is not speaking from revelation. He is speaking entirely from the standpoint of experience. It was a matter of common experience that the dead do not come back to this earthly life, and in the light of that experience he says, "Before I go whence I shall not return."

It must be noticed that Job is not denying the resurrection. As we have already seen, there is clear evidence that he believed in both the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body; but he knew that the resurrection, whether of the just or the unjust, would not be a return to this present earthly life. His outlook as to going at death where he would not return was correct. He was not speaking in unbelief, nor was he denying the hope of a future life in which both soul and body would share. He was but affirming a demonstrated truth that though existing after death in a disembodied condition man does not return to the earthly life from which he has gone.

And this place to which he expects to go when he dies he calls a "land of darkness." He has but little light on the character of the life beyond death. He knows he shall be waiting for the resurrection, but as to the character of the life in the intermediate state he is almost in complete darkness. He looks to be free there from the troubles the wicked are raising here, and be at rest as regards the trials and burdens of the present life. Like another he is assured that his spirit will have to do with God rather than with men or Satan (Eccl. 12:7), but as to the soul's joys or sorrows in its relations to God he has no New Testament light. He can go down to Sheol with the conviction that God will be with him there-like the psalmist (Ps. 139:8)-but as to what being thus in the presence of God will be he knows not. Both to the righteous and the wicked, Sheol is an untried world. From the standpoint of experience it is an unknown land, a "land of darkness," though the ultimate hope is not at all in question.

These statements, and similar ones elsewhere, cannot be used for the denial of the soul's immortality, or that death ends all for both body and soul. On the contrary they confirm the doctrine of the soul's continued existence after death, and are quite consistent with the teaching deduced from other scriptures that the dead-both just and unjust-shall rise and eternally exist as complete men.

There is another class of passages often pressed to deny the immortality of the soul, as Eccl. 3:19-22 as an example. But a little attention to the language used will make it clear that the standpoint there is of mere human knowledge. Man, as he observes what takes place in this world, naturally says, The same thing that happens to the beast happens to man; both die. That is a matter of common human knowledge. But what does man know of what is beyond death ? By mere human experience who can tell ? The whole point of this passage is, Who knows ? It is as true to-day as then, that, unaided by revelation, no man can tell what transpires after death. By mere human experience who knows that the spirit of men goes upward ? The statement recorded here is not what God has revealed concerning what befalls one after death, but what a man says of his personal experience. From that standpoint surely men must say, We know nothing of what is after death, their experience is limited to this present life. But denying any practical knowledge of what is after death is not proving there is no future life. It is only a confession of ignorance as to it. Such passages therefore cannot honestly be used to disprove the immortality of the soul.

Another passage which presents incontestable evidence of the soul's immortality is found in Isa. 24:22. The prophet is speaking of the complete desolation of the earth in the day when God will execute judgment upon the living nations. No class will escape it, though there is to be a remnant that will be sheltered from the storm that shall prostrate the whole earth. Every effort to hide from this terrible infliction of divine wrath will be useless. It is to be the complete end of man's power in opposition to God, and the establishment upon earth of Him who will reign in righteousness. This judgment will include the fallen angels-the host of the high ones on high, as well as the impious kings on earth; they all shall be dealt with then.

Let the reader consider that the prophet here speaks of a judgment which involves the destruction of men from the earth. In verse 22 we read, "And they shall be gathered, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." It is not their bodies which are shut up in prison, but their souls. After the violent destruction of the body, their souls imprisoned "many days" are to be visited. His description of their disembodied condition in no wise conflicts with the belief in a resurrection. It is true he is not thinking of all men, nor contemplating the righteous dead. He is speaking of the living wicked who will be overtaken by this destructive judgment when the earth is to be prepared for the reign of righteousness. My point is that the prophet shows that death does not end all; but that the soul continues to exist after death. Many other passages point to or imply what the prophet shows here. Others also, like some we have considered, more or less plainly affirm the immortality of the soul. But we need not multiply proofs. What we have had before us establishes the fact that the Old Testament teaches the continued existence of the soul when the body returns to its native dust. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

From the size of the book, and a rapid glance at its contents, we would judge that the book of Job is a very important part of the word of God. Yet how much it is neglected by most; an intimate familiarity even with its contents is the exception rather than the rule.

Unquestionably the treasures of New Testament truth claim our first attention. The life, teachings, sacrificial death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; the work of the Holy Spirit in establishing the Church on its broad Christian basis; the Epistles, unfolding the wondrous truths of redemption in its individual and corporate aspects-these must have a place in every Christian heart in precedence over all other revelations of truth. But so far from this making us indifferent to the Old Testament, it will beget a hunger which will lead us to search afresh for " things new and old " in its pages. Let us then take up anew the record of God's dealings with His servant in olden times, and find how needed and unchanged are its lessons for the present.

Job is one of the poetical books, called in Scripture "the Psalms." With "the Law and the Prophets," these form the entire Old Testament Scriptures (Luke 24 :44). This group of poetical books was called by the Jews Kethubim, "the writings." In the fourfold division of the Old Testament, with which many are familiar – the Books of the Law, the Prophetic History, the Prophets, and Books of Experience-we find Job belonging to the last group. Arranging these experimental books according to their subjects, we have them as follows :

1. The Psalms – the experiences of the godly in Israel, and of Christ, in view of the varied sufferings at the hand of man and of God, with the outlook toward the future.

2. Job – the experience of a righteous man in learning deliverance from himself.

3. The Song of Solomon – the experiences of the remnant in Israel and of the individual in relation to the love of Christ.

4. Ecclesiastes – the experiences of a wise man vainly seeking for good in the world.

5. Proverbs – wisdom for the path, the garnered experience of faith enlightened by revelation.

Naturally, the Psalms are the fullest and most varied of these experimental books, with the special charm of revealing "the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." They are dispensational, prophetic, and therefore strongly Jewish, using the term in a good sense. The Song and Proverbs have the national characteristics, but in a less degree, and Ecclesiastes least of the four. In Job we pass entirely out of the national atmosphere into what we may call Gentile, or at least patriarchal, modes of thought and speech. The dispensational features are completely in the background – seen only in the light of other scriptures, and in a secondary way. This leaves us with a book of intense individuality, in which we see a man learning the lesson of his own nothingness, in the fierce fire of deep affliction, by " the messenger of Satan " – through loss, bereavement and disease – fighting single-handed against the crude philosophy and cruel attacks of his friends; above all, with his own proud, unsubdued self-righteousness and unbelief, until "an interpreter" is heard, who leads him to the point where he listens to God and learns the lesson of all the ages, that He alone is God, and therein lies his blessing.

May we turn aside from the mad rush of the present day, causing even God's people to have superficial views and experiences, when restless activity even in service so often hinders meditation and the learning of what self is in the presence of God; may we sit down with this suffering man and his friends to learn our lesson too.

Many preliminary questions of interest and importance might claim our attention, but to these we can only give a few words.

First, Is Job a real or a fictitious character ? Scripture replies by associating him with Noah and Daniel (Ezek. 14 :14, 20), and James refers to his well-known trials and patience, and to " the end of the Lord" (Jas. 5 :n). That the book is a magnificent piece of poetry, cast in a strikingly dramatic form, does not in the least imply that it is not absolutely true. Indeed, in God's word poetry must be truth, and there is nothing grander than the sublime dramas in which the setting is heaven ani earth, and the participants are God, the angels, Satan and man. There is no room for fancy here, because the truth is grander than all the imaginations of men.

Next, who is the author of the book ? God. Some have ascribed it to Moses, or possibly some earlier writer, and undoubtedly the general tone of the book suits the patriarchal age. Moses, who wrote the 90th psalm, certainly had sufficient knowledge and versatility to be the human instrument, and during his stay in the land of Midian may have found this book or gathered its materials. Others have associated the book with the writers of Solomon's time, and it cannot be denied that there is much in its stage that reminds us of Solomon in the Proverbs. In general theme it may be associated with that time when the experiences of God's people were being gathered by inspired men. The knowledge of Jehovah, and of sacrifice, shows that its author must have been in the light of revelation–could not have been a heathen in the ordinary sense of the word. For how feeble for instance are the thoughts of Homer when compared with what we find. here. We rest therefore in the all-sufficient fact that it is a most important portion of that Word given by inspiration of God and " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

Geographical and other questions need not detain us long. Uz is believed, by competent authority (the elder Delitzsch), to lie west of Babylon and east of Palestine ; perhaps, to the north-east of Idumea, including Damascus and the Hauran. This country, with its fertile grazing land, broken by great stretches of rocks, and with the desert near, the land of the inhabitants of Seir when dislodged from their original territory, is the suited home of Job and his friends. These outward details are however of minor importance, given in part of the first verse, where at once we plunge into the narrative which forms the introduction to the book.

The Divisions of the Book.

The book divides naturally into five parts, of 'unequal length, which seem to correspond in theme with the numerical significance of their order. The first and last of these divisions are historical, very brief and concise, giving us the introduction and the conclusion; these are written in prose. The main part of the book is poetry of a high order, rising into the sublime, and tender in its parts. Three divisions are found here:the controversy of Job and his friends, the testimony of Elihu, and the answer of Jehovah. The five divisions may therefore be given as follows :

I. Chaps, i, 2. The historical introduction; Job's piety and prosperity; his sufferings at the hand of Satan-in his possessions, his family and his person.

II. Chaps. 3-31. The controversies of Job and his three friends, exhibiting the futility of human reason in explaining God's ways in affliction, and the deep-rooted self-righteousness of man's heart.

III. Chaps. 32-37. The manifestation of God's character of holiness and of mercy, as exhibited in the testimony of Elihu.

IV. Chaps. 38-41. Jehovah's testimony from creation, testing Job and bringing him into the dust.

V. Chap. 42. "The end of the Lord :" the result of the divine ways with Job, restoring him to greater blessing than before.

It need hardly be said that we shall not find the full light of truth as we now enjoy it. The veil hangs before the holiest of God's presence, now revealed in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. But there are wondrous glimpses of the glory not yet revealed, and faith in the living God shines brightly at times. With New Testament guidance we find the same principles of light and of love lying beneath the covering. This will come out as we proceed, the Lord graciously enlightening and enabling.

Division I.-The Historical Introduction.

Job's piety and prosperity; his sufferings at the hand of Satan in his possessions, his family and his person.

In piety as well as in prosperity Job resembles in some measure the patriarch Abraham. His faith, however, was feeble in comparison, and there seems to have been a lack of that personal acquaintance with God which marked "the father of them that believe," who was called " the friend of God." Nor could he compare with Melchizedek, "the priest of the Most High God," to whom Abraham gave tithes, whose personality and nearness to God must not be lost sight of in the brighter light of his typical position.

It is this lack of true acquaintance with God, with the corresponding ignorance of his own heart, which probably made necessary the trials to which Job was subjected.

We come now to the narrative of the first two chapters, which may be divided into three main parts:

I. Chap, i :1-5. Job-the piety and prosperity of the man.

II. Chap, i :6-22-Delivered to Satan.

III. Chap, a-Full trial.

Job's character is described by four adjectives, which in their order remind us of the significance of numbers, which already seems to mark the structure of the book. He was perfect, complete and rounded out in character; humanly speaking, there was nothing uneven or lacking in him. Many men have excellent traits, but are deficient in other elements which go to make up a complete man. They are, for instance, truthful, but lacking in kindness ; amiable, but inclined to be weak. Job was a well-balanced man.

Next, he was upright. This describes his relationship to others. Righteousness marked his ways, as he himself knew all too well.

Then, he feared God; this is the "beginning of knowledge," and must be taken at its full value. Job was not, as some have thought, an unregenerate man; there was life in his soul. He was a child of God, not a sinner away from Him. Unless this is seen, much of the exercises through which he passed will lose meaning. Lastly, he "eschewed evil;" his outward walk corresponded with the state of his heart.

All this was morally excellent; it was not the false pretense of the hypocrite, but the genuine character of one of whom God says, "there is none like him in the earth."

In fitting correspondence with his moral character, and according to Old Testament standards, Job was a man of prosperity, both in his family and his possessions. He had seven sons-their number suggesting completeness ; and three daughters- the manifestation of his character and excellence. These numbers are also seen in his possessions-seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels; while the five hundred yoke of oxen and asses indicate complete ability for all work. Great numbers of servants complete the picture of this noble Emir, "the greatest of all the men of the East."

With abundance of wealth, Job's sons led a life of prosperous ease and enjoyment, sharing their pleasures with their three sisters. Some have thought that this round of festivities was daily, throughout the entire week; but there seems no need to hold it down to such a routine. Nor is it intimated that these festivities were in themselves of a wanton, worldly character, as were his who bade his soul to "eat, drink and be merry." Job only recognized the possibility that they might, as Agur feared for himself, "be full and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord?" (Prov. 30:9.) The word "curse" God, is literally "bless," as also Job was later urged to "bless God and die"-to renounce Him, bidding Him farewell (chap. 2 :9). In view of the possibility of this, Job offered for each of his sons a burnt-offering.

This sacrifice, while it shows the knowledge of the only way of approach to God-the way of sacrifice, from Abel and Noah onward-indicates that Job lived before the institution of the Levitical ordinances. He offered a burnt-offering rather than a sin or trespass-offering.

It is possible that there is a slight token of Job's self-righteousness in his thought that his sons might have turned away from God, rather than that he himself had. But this is rather reading a. meaning into his action from his subsequent state. It seems only to indicate the solicitude of one who feared God, that his children should not succumb to temptations too common to the life of pleasure. It seems to be mentioned as a proof of the real piety of the man. S. R.

(To be continued)

II ( Continued from page 35.)

The ascension of Elijah had put upon Elisha a double ministry; one of sovereign grace, the other of judgment most severe. Chapters 2 and 3 of our "constellation" give examples and principles which characterize those ministries. The fir^t is at Jericho. Upon arriving there on his journey back, " the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth:but the water is naught, and the ground barren."

What a forceful description of this world in its fallen condition! As a creation is it not beautiful and enjoyable ? Who is it that does not admire the charms of nature ? Had sin not come into it, and with it all its train of ills, who would not enjoy life here? But sin has come in, and so "the water is naught." That element which is the medium of growth for all things that have life; which enables the tiniest, thread-like roots to appropriate what is food for them, softening the dried-up ground and reviving drooping nature ; which restores strength and vigor to the thirsty, worn-out traveler-how various its functions, how beneficent, how absolutely needful, it is! If that be "naught" nothing can be right; the ground is barren; nothing is produced.

Such is the importance of the relations existing between God and men. If they are suitable relations, all is well; if they are not suitable, all is wrong. Sin has ruined the once most happy relations between God and man; it has disturbed the whole creation and causes it to groan continually. Nor is there any hope of any change until the return of the Lord Jesus. When He returns He will, like Elisha who used salt out of a new cruse, bring a totally new order of things, and thereby cleanse the whole scene. So perfect will be the change that "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."And here is the root of all this, "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:6-9).The sovereign grace of God will do this when the time has come for the establishment of the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ over the earth.

But the same grace is even now operating in individuals, imparting to them, who repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, a new life-eternal life-whose nature, like God's, is holy, and brings its possessors into happy relations with' God again. That is why to every invention of man for the restoration of such relations, God answers, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nothing short of new birth, imparting a new and eternal life, with its new nature, can avail.

Jericho is the place where such grace can be displayed. It was the city of the curse, and it is Christ who "hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). If man has anything to give, he looks after the most deserving upon whom he may bestow his gifts. God looks after the most needy to whom to impart His gifts. " Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." We have seen men sufficiently attached to a friend or a benefactor to do this, "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us " (Rom. 5:7, 8). And again, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly " (Rom. 5:6). This is grace according to God. And it not only saves outright and forever the soul that comes under it, the moment we trust in Jesus, but it transforms the character as well. The liar becomes truthful; the drunkard becomes master of his passion; the thief becomes a trustworthy man; the libertine walks in the paths of holiness. The water of Jericho is "naught" no more, and the ground is no more "barren." Such is the ministry of grace-the "grace and truth" which came by Jesus Christ. Oh that men realized the privilege and solemn responsibility of living in the day of such grace!

From Jericho Elisha goes to Bethel. As we have already noticed, Bethel was the place of great promises made to Jacob. But what had they done at Bethel in answer to those promises-to the grace that had given them ? They had revived there the old idolatry; they had set up a golden calf to worship it, and established an order of worship in imitation of, but supplanting the true worship of God (i Kings 12:26-33). This forms the character of its adherents ; and when the man of God arrives near Bethel, a company of young lads meet him with mockery. They practice what they have heard at home. They know about the ascension of Elisha's master, but only to ridicule it, and swift judgment comes upon them. Two bears come out of the wood and destroy forty-two of them. This is the inevitable result of grace rejected.

So in our day. The ministry of grace has been going on ever since our Lord went back to heaven and from there sent down the Holy Spirit. What have men done with it ? They persecuted, beat, imprisoned, killed the apostles themselves, and it may be safely said that not one man who has since been a faithful witness of that grace has failed to suffer for it. When after centuries of Satan's . success in covering it up, multitudes, headed by such men as Huss, Luther, Zwingle, Calvin and others, rose up to be its witnesses, there was no end of inventions which demons could help men to produce, to torment, tear in pieces and destroy those witnesses. Idols have been substituted for truth everywhere. A woman who, herself, declared her need of a Saviour (Luke i:47) is deified and idolized, and worship offered her by multitudes. Blasphemy has gone to the extent of calling her "the mother of God." Wooden crosses are set up, and knees bend to them continually. Images of wood, stone, pasteboard and wax, painted and varnished, are set up to be adored. A little piece of bread muttered over by sinful man is declared to be God, and a poor mortal like the rest of us is held to be infallible! All this is called Christianity, with God's holy Book in everybody's hands which says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them" (Exod. 20:4, 5).

All this is done under much greater light than Judaism ever had, and the truth which gives that light is mocked! The Lord's return to this Bethel-Christendom will make short work of it. Indeed it looks much as if He were already now giving warnings of this. It is His usual way. The rumblings of thunder are heard in the dark clouds before the storm breaks. If it be true that the coming of the Lord is about to take place, the European struggle now going on is but the prelude of what is to follow. The idols then will melt away, and the priests of Baal in their misery will cry out to the mountains and rocks, " Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev. 6:16). "Our God is a consuming fire," and if the ministry of His grace is refused; if men mock the glories of the ascended Lamb of God; if they deny His deity, His virgin-birth, His miraculous works, His sin-atoning death, His resurrection and glorification, they must be held to account at His coming again, and face the "bears" of judgment ready to execute vengeance.

The principles which govern during the ministry of grace are also clearly exemplified in our third chapter:The king of the idolatrous ten tribes asks Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to go with him to war against Moab, and Jehoshaphat, anxious perhaps to heal the breach between the tribes and to manifest large-hearted ness toward all Israelites, takes no notice of existing conditions, and replies,"! will go up:I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses." Accordingly that lovely man of God is found in a company of which the prophet said, "Were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. ' It may be argued that the presence of Jehoshaphat proved a blessing to the rest, but can anything make up for the reproach of a child of God being found in company of which God is ashamed ? It may also be argued that the ten tribes were Israelites as well as those of Judah, but the fact that the prophet of the Lord was ashamed of them is sufficient answer to all human pleas. It is also true that all Israel should have been one nation, and not two, but to seek to bring them together by forgetting the past and overlooking the present conditions argued a sad lack of spiritual perception and of faithfulness.

But if His children are unfaithful to God and put Him in a second place. God is faithful to them according to the promises of His word. He chastens. Desperate thirst comes upon the kings. But He does not forsake; one of His own is there, and He has promised never to forsake them. He will even, in His rich grace, make his unworthy companions sharers in the deliverance because they are with him. If we are careless in honoring Him, His heart is not closed toward us. Accordingly not only water fills the valley, but complete victory is granted them.

Our next papers will now, D.V., be taken up with the present reign of grace in various individual cases, carried on according to the principles above mentioned, for the salt of God's holiness and righteousness never fails to accompany the sweetness of His grace.

(To be continued.)

(Continued from page 101.)

We turn now to consider the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If the tree of life was intended for an educational purpose, so also was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What, then, was God, by means of this tree, seeking to teach the man He had put in Eden ? Clearly, it meant that, as His creature, God had rights over him; that it was His .sovereign right to determine the conditions under which man could continue in the estate in which his Creator had placed him. Subjection to the will of God and obedience to His word, were the conditions God imposed upon him. As long as he continued in subjection and remained obedient, he would be entitled to the earthly life God had ordained for him. But by any insubjection to God's will or departure from strict obedience he would forfeit all right or title to his life upon earth. God was thus teaching Adam that he was capable of dissolution.

We have already seen that there must have been implanted in man, by the very manner of his creation, an aspiration for a higher life than what he then enjoyed, and that in connection with the tree of life a hint had been given him as to how this aspiration was to be realized. Now, by the other tree, with its prohibition and penalty attached to disobedience, he is reminded that there is also in him a basis for degradation. And if capacity for a higher life is shown to be not intrinsically in him, but attained through Another (as the tree of life shows), so also was it shown by the other tree that obedience was the only way to be preserved from a dissolution of which he was capable. Thus were the two issues set before him.

And, further, as the tree of life pointed to life for men through the incarnate Son, so the other tree pointed to knowledge of good and evil through the Son of Man; God caused both to grow out of the ground-a striking picture of the Man who knows both good and evil absolutely. With the Man, Christ Jesus, knowledge of good and evil is intuitive, is intrinsic, as in the Father. He is thus the Fountain or Source of knowledge for men. Let us mark that with Him it is not knowledge through experience, but intrinsic knowledge.

Thus, by means of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God was suggesting to Adam that there are two ways of acquiring knowledge-a right way, and a wrong way. In the exercise of His sovereign rights over man, the wrong way was forbidden. The right way was to look and wait for the divine communication of the knowledge of which the tree was a promise. The wrong way was to learn by disobedience-by taking part practically in evil.

As we have seen, in eating of the tree of life Adam would have set to his seal that the testimony of God is true; it would have meant coming into community of life with God ; to receive divine, eternal life, which in its full result would be the exaltation and spiritualization of the body. Thus Adam would have come into community of knowledge with God-to know good and evil, not intrinsically, any more than to have life intrinsically, but in communion with God. It would have been both life and knowledge dependently realized-the blessedness of eternity-of new creation, energizing and filling the soul while waiting for the transformation of the body.

It seems inevitable that we should consider the import of these two trees as a part, a very important and essential part, of God's training of Adam. It is also manifest that the training was in view of new creation and the eternal state.

My readers will understand I am not saying that the full light of what .eternity will be was shining in the garden in Eden. All I mean is that some rays of light were already given, however dim or feeble, sufficient to turn man's mind to the eternal destiny which was in God's mind for him. The truth of eternity was there in germ, in bud:the germ needed to be developed, and the bud to mature and become a flower in full bloom. This development was the work of the succeeding ages-a gradual progress of the revelation of God through the various dispensations, until the perfecting of it through Christ and the apostles of this Christian age. The promise of life and immortality is now illuminated. To say there was no ray of light shining in the garden, no promise of life or state of immortality for both soul and body, is to flatly deny God's purpose in the plant-in;; of the two trees we have been considering.

Space does not permit me to dwell at any length on the river that "went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence parted, and became four heads." It will be sufficient to say that as part of a significant scene it must have had its significance. That we are to see in it a representation of the Man who even then was before the eye of God (though not yet introduced into the sphere of the material creation) must be admitted. It pictures Him, surely, who is the life-giver to the soul that receives Him-satisfying the cravings of the soul, through the constant revivifying and sanctifying power of the Spirit that dwells in Him who is the Source of life to men-the Man Christ Jesus. If drinking at this Fountain of life now fills the soul with peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, what must be the energy that shall be manifested when the body's present condition shall be swallowed up of the life that is in the incarnate Son of God! Surely this river of Eden was like a ray of light, to suggest a hope, a prospect of eternal life.

I cannot enlarge on the circumstances connected with the creation of the woman. That they had a typical significance, no one I think, will question, though there may be difference of judgment as to the extent of their significance. But there is one point we should not overlook. The woman was not created in the same way as the man. The man was formed of the dust of the ground; but verses 21, 22 tell us that, having caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, the Lord God took a rib out of him and builded it into a woman. She is thus of the man-bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh. Like him, then, she is of earthly origin, and shares also in his spirit nature. Adam could not find such an one among all the earthly creatures around him. She was fitted by her derivation and constitution to be his associate, and assistant companion. That this earthly fellowship was a shadow of a higher fellowship there is no reason to doubt. Sharing thus with the man in community of life, she possessed in common with him the capability of exaltation and spiritualization; thus to participate in all his hopes and destiny.

In thus providing Adam with a companion fitted to share in his earthly life and eternal destiny, God was providing an instrument for the incarnation of His Son. God had in mind a Second Man who was not to be a natural man-not to be naturally born into the world, but supernaturally. In some true sense He must spring up out of humanity, yet not an earthly man, not a man of the earth, but a heavenly Man-a Man belonging to or of heaven. The woman was God's appointed instrument for this. The incarnation was to be a divine Person not merely indwelling a human person, but a divine-human Person in one undivided personality. Only through the activity of supernatural power in the woman could a superhuman Man be born into the world.

Through woman, then, God's eternal purpose was to be carried out. If she was a necessity to human propagation in this present world, she also was to the fulfilment of God's purpose as to the world to come-the new creation. She was needed as the instrument of a power from a higher sphere, the spiritual in the material, to lay hold upon it and exult it-spiritualize it. How wonderful the wisdom of God !

Before closing this chapter it maybe well to note that, as derived from the man, the woman is a striking figure of those chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world, redeemed by the precious blood of the foreordained Lamb of God, who thus have life through His supernatural death. All believers of every age, in virtue of having life by means of the death of Christ, are in Scripture viewed as derived from the dead and risen Man- the Man who had power to lay down His life and take it up again. All believers are thus in kinship with Him. They are, so to speak, the rib taken out of Christ and builded into woman, having community of life with the Man who is the Head of the new race.

Of these, who are in kinship with Christ, some by the Holy Spirit are baptized into one Body, the Body of Christ, to become His Bride. In presenting the woman to Adam, God made her a figure of those of the race of Christ, united to Him by the Spirit, to be in a special, eternal association with Himself. This special association is not the result simply of community of life and nature with the Last Adam, but of union with Him.

It is not the place to enlarge on this here, though it seemed necessary to call attention to it. We may note, however, that in making the woman His instrumentality to carry out God's purpose as to incarnation and new creation, we can understand why in Adam there is male and female, but not in Christ. The male and female condition of humanity was to be but temporary, was to pass away.

We have thus far been looking at Adam as un-fallen, as he came from the creative hand of God. What we have gathered as to his nature and constitution and his destiny, the hopes God set before him, will be of value to us as we turn to consider his fall. C. Crain

(To be continued.)

QUES. 17.-Some one here accuses the Bible of being a book of contradictions because in one place it says, "No man hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven," while in another it tells that Elijah went into heaven without dying.

ANS.-A careful reading of John 3 :13, with what precedes and follows, will, we believe, show that what occupies the Lord's thoughts is not the mere ascending to heaven to abide there, as was the case with Elijah, but a testimony rendered here by one who had teen there, had come here from there, and belonged there ; was therefore truly heavenly, and as able to bear witness concerning heavenly things as in the Old Testament He had told of earthly things.

QUES. 18.-In Genesis we have the account of God clothing Adam and Eve with coats of skin. Does this imply that they were saved ?

ANS.-That alone would not, for it might have been done simply as a type of what to us is salvation. But in calling his wife Eve (chap. 3:20) Adam shows his faith in God's testimony concerning the promised Seed of the woman (verse 15), and wherever there is true faith in what God reveals, there is salvation. The measure of spiritual intelligence depends upon the measure of the revelation given, and received in the heart; but whatever the measure of the revelation, the believing God is salvation. Abraham believed God's promise of a son when he was old and childless; "he believed the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:3-6).

QUES. 19.-Will you kindly answer through Help and Food the following question ?

If a person has been baptized, on the profession of faith, in the name of the triune God at the administration of the ordinance, is it necessary to be baptized again on any plea whatever ! Is not being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Christian baptism ?

ANS.-Assuredly it is, and Eph. 4:5 affirms there is " One Lord, one faith, one baptism." To repeat it therefore is contrary to the Word, and the destruction of its meaning. Imagine a foreigner coming to this country, renouncing all allegiance to the Power he was under, and pledging solemn allegiance to the Power of this land, then after doing this asking to have it done over again. It could only cast ridicule upon the solemn ordinance.

"Pilgrim, if the way be dreary
Brighten it with song;
One who loves to ease the weary
Leads thy steps along.
He hath trodden all the pathway,
All its sorrows known,
And He lives beyond its turmoil
Just to help His own.

Not for nought hath He ordained
Just this path for thee ;
But by Him each hour sustained,
Thou mayest happy be.
Fear not, though yon cloud be darksome,
Dread not coming woe,
Every cloud must flee His presence,
Every shadow go.

Tis His joy to walk beside thee
Telling of His love;
Never leaving till He guide thee
To His home above.
There, by all His own surrounded,
Thou wilt find a Friend,
Who has proved that He is faithful
To the very end.

Then let nothing stay thy singing,
Make His praises known;
In thy weakness ever clinging
To His strength alone.
None can have so bright a pathway,
None so light a load,
As His own who walk with Jesus
All along the road.

C. M. B.

(1 Cor. 4:1-5.)

In this scripture the Lord's servants are said to be "ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God " (ver. i). They minister Christ and use wisely what God has taught them of unseen things. Primarily this refers to the apostles, but it is also written to show the Corinthians, and therefore us, the marks of a true servant.

Having made this statement regarding himself and those associated with him in the Lord's work,
the apostle then proceeds to show the exercises of soul he passed through in carrying out his service.

(1) He did not accept the judgment of man as authoritative (ver. 3).

(2) He did not pronounce upon his own work (ver. 3).

(3) He did not regard a good conscience as judge (ver. 4, N. Trans.).

(4) He acknowledged the Lord only as judge (ver. 4).

(5) He awaited the Lord's coming to reveal what was hidden (ver. 5).

He did not accept the judgment of man as authoritative, saying :"It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment," because, had he accepted it, he would have admitted a principle of authority which by its recognition would ultimately have caused the Lord's servants to look and listen for the approval of man. Such an attitude would have hindered God's servants from doing their work, or would have so lowered the standard of judgment that in result man, not the Lord, would have ruled God's servants.

This does not mean that laborers can ignore what their brethren may think or say about their work. It would be ruinous to assert that what is self-evident could not be pronounced upon by saints who hear or see it. Scripture, on the contrary, says:"Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge" (chap. 14:29). What is said, is what "the others" are to judge.

However, what is before us in 'chapter 4 are things in service hidden from the eye of man, which can only be judged of by Him who weighs motives and tries the heart. Hence, however valuable the approval or disapproval of one's brethren may be as to matters which are open to all, the Lord's servant will only do his work right as he labors consciously under the eye of a Master who searches the heart, and not as under »the eye of those who can only judge of what lies on the surface. Otherwise, unfaithful stewardship will mar his work, and may lead to his removal from it.

The apostle did not pronounce upon his own work, as he says:"Yea, I judge not mine own self," for he well knew that there was the possibility of something of the flesh seeking to mix itself with what was of the Spirit, and that only the Lord could appraise things at their just value. It is true, of course, that the apostle sought to walk in accord with the cross of Christ and in the power of the Spirit of God ; that he habitually exercised himself to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man; nevertheless, having so done, he did not therefore assume that his work was all it ought to be; indeed, he owned that he was incapable of deciding upon such matters, saying:"I judge not mine own self."

He did not regard a good conscience as judge in such matters, for he says :" I know nothing by (literally, against) myself ; yet am I not hereby justified." And if the apostle took such ground, surely it becomes us all to weigh his words. For although we may be sincerely working, each in our measure, and know nothing against ourselves in what we are doing, our unconsciousness of anything wrong by no means guarantees that all is right. Perhaps if the Lord suddenly allowed us to see all in our work, or in our way of doing it, which He disapproved of, we might be overwhelmed with shame or despair. It is not that He will pass over what is unsuitable, but in His knowledge of our measure and of our frames, and in His goodness and wisdom He makes us see only a little at a time.

The apostle acknowledges the Lord only as judge:" He that judgeth me is the Lord." To him the knowledge of this was as encouraging as it was solemn. Although aware of human criticism and conscious of personal infirmities, he did not .allow the knowledge of these things to divert him from his work. On the contrary, he could look up to One who makes no mistakes, and say:" He that judgeth me is the Lord." In the strength of this holy supervision he pressed forward diligently, and we know he labored more abundantly than any other apostle.

He awaited the Lord's coming to reveal what was hidden, as it is written:"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart:and then shall every man have praise of God." Here the apostle warns against going beyond one's depth in assuming to give verdicts on matters which lie beyond our vision. Those who neglect this warning will do harm. Let us rather trust our blessed Lord to deal with things which lie bare before Him, although obscure to us. They will be laid bare before all at the proper time. "Many a human verdict will then be reversed. Meanwhile, he who would serve the 'Lord must go on day by day in sympathy with the attitude of our patient Master, knowing that if in this life he has done any good thing, he will get praise from God in the day that is coming. R. J. R.