. . . How many fathers, and mothers too-unwittingly, perhaps, but really-hold their children back from the high honor of giving themselves up wholly to Christ's service ! Their poor human hearts cling to them, and they feel they cannot let them go ; and in their short-sighted love, while ready to sacrifice themselves, they are not willing that their children should forego ease and home comforts, worldly position and advancement. They want them to have these things, and Christ too. Oh, when shall we learn that sacrifice is the spirit of Christianity-that it is our precious privilege? "He spared not His own Son." " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." If parents so love that they can give their children when the Master says, " I have need of them," He who knows what the word sacrifice means, will accept the offering at their hand; and they have His promise that He will repay then "an hundredfold."

The second epistle is in many respects in contrast with the first. In the first, the House of God is in order, with every needful appointment for the preservation of godliness and of that which becomes this House. In the second epistle, we may almost say that we miss this House altogether. There is a foundation which remains firm, but it has become "a great house," with its vessels not only to honor but to dishonor also. We hear no more of elders, or even deacons-everyone has, as it were, to think and act for himself, and it may be in the face of everything against him. We have to purge ourselves from the vessels to dishonor, and "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

There is no hope preached of recovery from this condition. We have to face it, not in the/ spirit of cowardice, but with a firm reliance upon Him who remains ever the same for us, and sustained according to counsels which have been toward us before ever the Church or even the world was.

The apostle himself is brighter, if possible, than ever; with the light of eternity in his eyes, and the sense of his good fight being finished, he leaves those that are behind him to face the condition of things without apostolic power at all. The departure of Paul is in this way most significant, and he does not depart with the sympathy and fellowship of all the people of God, as we should have expected would surely be the case. Instead of this, those in Asia have departed from him; of those around him in Rome only two or three have yielded him unmingled satisfaction. The circumstances are as dreary as can possibly be imagined, but heaven is bright, and the road brightens with the glory upon it to the perfect day which is at hand.

The epistle appeals in a peculiar manner to ourselves. We have seen the decline and all the confusion attending upon it increase only more and more up to the present time, the mercy of God coming in indeed to revive, but only with regard to a remnant, more and more separated from the rest. Even the very movements which have been from God are prone constantly to dwindle and terminate in the flesh; and if there is to be anything, God has to work again, as it were, from the beginning, and to separate, it may be, a fresh remnant from the remnant which has just failed. Strange indeed it is, and yet according to the character of things, that this decay, with all the terrible consequences of it, should not be perfectly obvious to all Christians-that we should have need still to debate about it, and that the dream that the Church is a little leaven in the world which is to convert the world to God should still be clung to by so many who yet advocate it in the present day.

The first division (chap, i) begins with what is the abiding comfort and security of the soul-that God abides, and that "according to the promise of life," which was given in Christ Jesus before the world began.

The second division (chap. 2 :1-13) insists upon the conflict of faith, which was now ending for the apostle, the need of strength to meet the conditions, and of patience, whether in the warfare as a soldier of Jesus Christ or as a husbandman waiting for the fruit of the seed sown. The dead and risen One is the example here. Through death to life, through the cross to the glory, is the divine principle.

We have in the third division (chap. 2 :14-26) the manifestation of the evil now in an organized form; the whole condition of things is affected by it. The house of God is unduly enlarging. Its enlargement in this way is no cause for joy or triumph, but the very opposite. It is practically the parable of the mustard seed, which, from the smallest of seeds, becomes a tree; which is, after all, poor enough as a worldly show, and its spiritual character strangely affected by the evil introduced -the birds of the air are lodging in the branches of it.

In the fourth division (chap. 3) we go on to the last days, but find that there is nothing but increasing lawlessness, and the persecution of the godly remaining as the constant experience; the opposition of the enemy being, oftentimes, by imitation of that which is of God-the wiles of the enemy being what we have to do with in the large part of the conflict with him. Here we are reminded of how God has furnished the men of God with God-breathed oracles, which are His Word, ready for all emergencies, the one stay of the soul by the power of the Spirit manifested through them in the midst of the wreck of such authority as God had endowed the Church with at the beginning.

In the last division (chap. 4) the apostle bids farewell to the scene of his labors, and leaves to others the conflict for him now finished. It is plain how the whole epistle is an appendix to the first, a gracious remembrance of our necessity on the part of Him who still abides with us, of all that might otherwise stagger and discourage us. The word is still, and always, what it was at the beginning :" Be strong," and, evermore, " Be strong."
From "Numerical Bible"

"Thou shalt not be forgotten of Me " (Isa. 44 :21).

Not forgotten, while the banner
Of His everlasting love,
Spread on every wind of danger,
Floats thy trembling soul above.

Not forgotten, while beneath thee-
Proof against thy vain alarms-
With embrace secure and tender,
Fold the everlasting arms !

Not forgotten, while behind thee,
On the footprints of the past,
Goodness, hand in hand with mercy,
Follows closely to the last.

Not forgotten! Thou hast traced it
On life's pathway o'er and o'er;
Now it rises like a rainbow
Over all that lies before.

See! beneath that benediction,
Lighting up thy desert lot,
With each thorn of sore affliction
Springs a sweet forget-me-not!

Jesus bids thee come and gather
All these tokens of His love:
Thou art His "peculiar treasure;"
This He still delights to prove.

J. M. G.

CALENDAR FOR AUGUST

Daily Bible Reading …. .August 1st, Jer. 17; 15th, Jer. 31;
Memory Work…… Galatians, chap. 3:1-14.. [31st, Jer. 47
Good Reading… . C. H. M. Notes on Genesis, pages 174 to 243

During the past month, July, we finished in our daily consecutive reading, the prophet Isaiah. Don't you feel as if you would like to start at the beginning and read it again ? How grand it is, even as a piece of literature;-how noble the description of the future glories of Christ's earthly millennial kingdom, as in chap. 35; how tender and sweet the 40th chap., "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people; " how inspiring the call to Zion in the last days, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come," chap. 60 ! How rich it is, too, in what we call Christology, or Scriptures directly referring to our Lord. We have His birth of the Virgin predicted, chap. 7:14; His earthly ministry and His deity, chap. 9:1-7; His future kingdom, chap. 11; His rejection and atoning sufferings, chap. 53. But we cannot go into details. I trust we have received profit from it. If you have the time, it would be a good thing to read the entire book through again, rapidly; this will help to fasten it in the mind. But we have already been reading in Jeremiah, and you may have noticed the change. The condition of the nation has become worse, they are fast bringing the judgment of captivity upon themselves; in fact the account of that captivity is included in the book. If national hopes depended upon national faithfulness, it would indeed be the end of everything for Israel. Indeed, the sorrow of it all presses much upon Jeremiah, and makes the name, "the weeping prophet," most appropriate. But the Spirit of God leads him beyond the gloom of the present, to the brightness of the coming restoration of the people to the Lord and their land. We must then read carefully each chapter as it comes, and we will be amply repaid.

We are cutting chapter 3 of Galatians in half for the Memory Work during August, as the magazine is quite late in reaching you, but the publishers hope to send it out earlier. This half-chapter leaves time for review and "catching up." You will be interested in reading the communication from "an old brother'' (with a young heart), in " Correspondence." It deals with " Memory Work."

Of Good Reading I will not say much. C. H. M. speaks for itself-so simple, rich in the gospel, and withal so pungent. I am dividing the remainder of the book between August and September. So let us try to interest others in this reading. It would be no difficult task (for those who have not yet begun to read the book) to start now, and they could easily finish the volume with us by the last of September, and start with us on Exodus, in October. How many recruits can you enlist in this Good Reading ?

Correspondence

"A word of cheer is always in season. I want to say I am much pleased because a New Department for Young Christians is added to Help and Food. This I am sure, under your care, will be a channel of much help to young and old. I am especially pleased that you suggest the memorizing of Galatians. This should be a pleasing and profitable employ for all.

"The Bible says:-'Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.' How else can we hide the word in our heart if we do not commit it to memory ? The first chapter I memorized was Isaiah 55. I did this in England when at Sunday-school. I always had all my memory lessons by Tuesday night, and kept reading and repeating them from memory the rest of the week. I had to walk six miles to Sunday-school, and the school opened at 9:30 A. M.

"A Korean Christian tells how he memorized the Sermon on the Mount, and repeated it without an error. He says it was a little difficult at first. He would commit a few verses to memory, but soon forgot them. Then he took one verse at a time, learned it, and went out to find some one on whom to practice what he had learned; and when he practiced, then he remembered. Let us follow his example, his method was a good one. Don't follow the example of a sister who told me the other day she began to learn Galatians but got discouraged and gave up. She was repeating some verses, and her sister said, Wait till I get the Bible and see how you say them. She had been making a few mistakes. Mistakes are common to all of us. The mistakes we make should make us better men and women. I wonder how many of my young friends can tell me the difference between Galatians and Romans ? " "An old brother."

" The more we study the word of God, the more we want to, for what wonders unfold before us as we ponder its pages! We have found this in our Bible Class.

"At 4 P. M., every second Lord's Day, our young people meet and join with the school in the opening exercises. We then repair to the room on the 2d floor and continue our class for about an hour and a half. To eliminate the difficulty of distances we serve a light supper of sandwiches and cake after the class. At this we are joined by the Sunday-school teachers and generally two or three of the pupils. We thus have happy intercourse together until the time for the evening meeting, and it is noticeable that the attendance at the evening meeting is usually larger on these occasions.

"One of the class was appointed as treasurer to take care of the funds, as the expense of the tea is met by contributions from the class. Another acts as buyer, and different ones in turn take charge of the kitchen. Another acts as secretary.

Our leader-an older brother-prepares a set of questions on the subject chosen-half as many in number as the number of young people-and prior to our coming together these are mailed to the members of the class. Each finds his answers at home, and they are taken up in the class. We had some very profitable lessons. Our first subject was, 'Salvation-past, present, and future.' Then we spent several weeks on 'The Titles of the Lord.' We then took up some doctrinal subjects as 'Righteousness,' 'Grace,' etc., and at our last two meetings the subjects were, ' The Holy Spirit' and ' The Trinity.'

During the vacation months the class is discontinued, but should the Lord delay His coming we hope to re-commence it in the autumn with increased profit and blessing.

" For the successful conduct of the class we are very much indebted to both Mr. and Mrs. P." M. E. B.

We thank our young correspondent for such an interesting account of the Young People's meeting. It is most helpful, and I think will stimulate others to attempt similar work for the Lord.
" I have, like a good many others, I expect, read the ' Y. B. D.' with much interest. I think it will fill a long felt want with the young people, and doubt not that much blessing will result.

" It is so easy in this busy life to let the days slip by with very little time-and sometimes even none-devoted to the study of God's word. This frequently occurs, not from wilful neglect, but because of pressure of manifold duties. The result, however, is disastrous. One cannot expect to maintain a healthy existence spiritually, not to speak of growth, without a constant feeding on spiritual food; nor is it possible without this to withstand the effects of the heavy, impure atmosphere of the world with which we are sur. rounded, and which we are forced to breathe in our daily lives.

"The fact that a course of study has been outlined for us, and that others in various places are following the same outline, will, I think, furnish the needed stimulus."

We have a letter from a brother who has the Young People much on his heart, and speaks of opposition to Young People's meetings! Why ? By whom ? That there are dangers, as in everything, we all know- danger of independence of the assembly, of levity, of lack of judgment-plenty of dangers, but let us be on our guard, prayerfully, against these. Is there not a greater danger of neglecting the beloved young Christians ? Let us counsel together, and get all the helps and hints we can; but let us ask the Lord if He has not something for us to do in this line.

Save the Pieces

Did you ever stop to think of how much value the neglected fragments of many lines of work are? I have a very striking example before me just now in the immense heaps-mountains we might almost call them-of refuse from the coal mines. These vast heaps accumulated till they were in the way; the streams which flowed from the mines became so clogged up that they were choked, and overflowed their banks, spreading far and wide over the valleys, and covering them with unsightly blackness. Then it was found that these heaps of refuse had immense quantities of fine, but most valuable coal in them ; and now the dredgers are at work gathering thousands of tons out of the beds of streams and rivers.

There is something more valuable than coal. It is time. Perhaps we all waste a good deal of time, but it is not libel, I think, to say that " we young folks " let immense numbers of golden minutes and hours slip by without yielding any true profit. Just try for yourself to account for the hours and minutes of any day, say to-day. Of course work takes from eight to ten hours; sleep, eight hours; meals, one and a half hours -and so on. But no one can keep your time account but yourself. So take your note-book, and try to see how much of the twenty-four hours you can really account for; the balance will be the waste. Now we will not be able to dredge those golden hours that are past from the stream of time. The water that has flowed by the mill grinds no corn. But it is for the present and the future I speak. Let us stop some of this waste. In this way you will find that your complaint of " no time " for Bible Reading, and for Good Reading, and other things, will have ceased. Save the pieces.

Wanted!

Short sketches of your work-its interests, difficulties, and above all its opportunities of work for the Lord. Let me illustrate:

1. The Trained Nurse – her training, work, and chances to witness for the Lord.

2. Office work-stenographer, etc.

3. The School-teacher.

4. The Factory, and men's work generally.

5. In Government employ.

These are only hints. There are plenty of other callings of which we will be glad to hear, and have our interest and prayers aroused. See what you can send -about 150 words. I believe this will be helpful in a number of ways.

Now there is another matter of very great importance, which I think ought to draw out a good many useful thoughts. It is the high school; its value, opportunities, helps, dangers, etc. Some of you have just finished High School. You have things of which you are glad, and some, perhaps, for which you are sorry. Let us hear, in a general way, about these. Others of you are just starting in, or are "mid-seas." It's for you to let us hear about things. These articles would be seasonable for September and October numbers ; but let us have them whenever you can.

The Secret Life

We have been talking and thinking of our team-work, things we can do and enjoy together. But there is a life which must be lived with God alone-we call it, in a general way, the life of communion. It embraces the intercourse between ourselves and God, and includes secret prayer, self-judgment, confession-and the feeding upon His holy word. We cannot make rules for this life; it must be personal, and largely private. We cannot talk much about it, but we must live it in our own hearts with God. Such a life is happy, free, holy. It will not make us recluses; on the contrary it will fit us to give and to receive much in our intercourse with others.

Are you happy in this secret life ?

(Ps. 25 :12)

Lord Jesus, 'tis exceeding gain
To be alone with Thee;
Thy presence here doth ease my pain,
From fear it sets me free.
The message Thou art pleased to send,
In mercy from above,
Appoints the silent hours I spend,
Reposing in Thy love.

I leave awhile the thronging crowd
To be apart with Thee;
I hear not now the strivings loud
That vex the distant sea:
The heavings of its restless tide
Sound faintly on mine ear,
And from Thy haven fair and wide
I see my home so near.

I know not what may be in store;
The charge is Thine to keep:
Perchance my bark need never more
Launch forth upon the deep;
But whether toward the golden strand
Be set the vessel's prow,
Or whether sailing far from land,
Doth not concern me now.

Thou art Thyself, O precious Lord,
My one eternal gain;
Thou art my solace and reward
Alike in ease and pain.
Because Thy love enfoldeth me
No ill can e'er befall;
'Tis perfect peace to rest in Thee,
My Lord, my life, my all !

H. K. B.

" Wherefore take up the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having girt about your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace :over all, taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Have also the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the saying of God :praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

QUES. 2.-In Acts 8 :13 it is said, "Simon himself believed also; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip," etc. Then in verse 23 Peter says :" I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." How could Simon be a believer and then be "in the bond of iniquity ? "

ANS.-You will see the same thing in John 2 :23-25 :"Many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, … for He knew what was in man." There is a vital difference between a convicted soul believing in Jesus, coming to Him as the Saviour of sinners, and those attracted by miracles, who believe on Jesus as a great prophet, or one endowed with wonderful powers. Simon was such an one. He had bewitched the people of Samaria by his remarkable tricks and sorcery. But when he saw the miracles done through Philip, and demons cast out of persons, he perceived there was a power at work there with which his tricks and sorceries could not compare ; he believed in the superior power of Jesus whom Philip preached, and he became a professed believer in Jesus. Yet his heart was unchanged. He was the same Simon as before. There was no repentance as to sin, no crying to God for forgiveness, no new birth therefore. So when Peter and John came, and Simon saw that by the laying on of their hands the Holy Spirit was given (with the then usual accompanying manifestations, probably), Simon coveted to have this power too, and offered money to buy it. He thus discovered himself to Peter's spiritual discernment as a man who, though a professed believer in Jesus, was still in his sins, ignorant of God. and "in the bond of iniquity." This shows how many professed adherents to the Christian religion may be strangers to God and His forgiveness, unconverted, yet in their sins, deceiving others and themselves too in a measure, until the mask is torn away ! Then, alas, in the end they will hear the awful words, "I never knew you:-Depart from Me ye that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:23).

AND THE CHRISTIAN'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS THEM

A Trade Union I understand to be a number of men of some particular trade united together, or organized for the purpose of resisting real or supposed oppression on the part of their employers, and for the purpose of conserving their own interests as members of the Union. There are many such orders – as Bricklayers' Unions, Stone-cutters' Unions, Carpenters' Unions, Printers' Unions, etc., etc.

There are also many orders of another kind, which may be called Benefit Societies, into which money is paid by the members at stated times with the understanding that, in case of sickness or death of a member, a certain benefit shall go to the sick one, or to the widow and family of the deceased member. Among these may be classed the Free Masons, Odd-Fellows, Woodmen, and the like.

These orders are numerous, and differ in various respects; but they all have one common object, and they all agree in this, that the motive appealed to for joining them is one of self-interest. This self-interest is the principle by which they are governed from first to last, so that Trades' Unions seek not only to promote the interests of their own members, but in many cases they seek to exclude from the field of labor those who are not members. If a contractor has union men employed, and employs others, the union men refuse to work, and the contractor must either dismiss the non-members, or have his work suffer. This is mentioned only to show the motives which underlie the workings of these organizations-the motives are essentially selfish. The organization may have selfish motives to contend against in the employer; but, even so, it is selfishness in a struggle with selfishness; and this is not Christianity, though Christians may be involved in the struggle.

It is not the purpose of the writer to take up the cause, on one side or the other, of those engaged in this struggle. There may be wrong or right on one side or on both sides, viewed from a worldly standpoint, but this is not the question. Viewed from the same standpoint, there may be fairly good arguments presented both for and against the existence of such organizations; but neither is this the question. As to these things we have no contention; they belong to the world, and to those who are of it, and there we leave it. What is put forth in this paper is for Christians, with the desire that they may see what should be their attitude, as Christians, towards these various orders; and that the Christian may know what to do, it is essential that he should see what is the origin of these orders.

Need it be said that they are purely of the world ? It is indeed within the sphere of Christendom they chiefly nourish, but this is no proof that they are of God. Their source cannot be found in Christianity, nor can one word be found in Scripture for their support. They may, with other human organizations, be referred to in the "bundles" of Matt. 13 :30; but if so, it is only to show that they will come under the judgment of God:they are to be burned.

Another scripture shows us what will be the full development of the principle underlying these organizations. This will be manifest in him in whom man's will, unrestrained, and energized by the tremendous power of Satan, will have its full embodiment – the man of sin, the wilful king, the antichrist. "He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads ; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the number of the beast, or the number of his name " (Rev. 13 :16, 18). The principle is that of self-will using force, legally or otherwise, to further its own selfish interests and ends, regardless of the feelings, or consciences, or welfare of others. This principle will be found largely operative in all these combinations of men, whether combined in the interests of capital or labor.

Can a Christian, then, hold membership in one of these organizations, without compromising the name of Christ, by which he has been called ? Surely the honest answer of every intelligent and true hearted Christian must be, No.

But while admitting that all these orders are of the world, and that membership in them places the Christian in a false position – a position in which he is uncomfortable, and unhappy, and hampered as to his Christian testimony-nevertheless, there may be not a few ready to ask what they are to do. They have spent, perhaps, the best part of their lives in learning some useful trade, and they have wives and families to support, and the time has come when, unless they join the Union, they will, without mercy and without appeal, be thrown out of employment; and they ask, "Must we refuse membership in the Union at such a cost ? May we not hold membership, and, while remaining passive as to all the active operations of the society, simply pay our dues, in order that we may be permitted to pursue an honest trade, and thus support those dependent on us ?" For such as have households dependent on them for daily bread, these are not mere idle questions; and they call for a serious answer, in a spirit, too, which knows how to enter into the trials of those for whom labor and money and bread are failing. To the meeting of these questions we desire to give ourselves in the fear of God.

The difficulties are admitted ; and our desire is to encourage the Christian to take ground where he can meet them, and go through them without weakening the maintenance of divine principles, or compromising the name of Christ.

In the first place, let it be remembered that, if membership in these orders is contrary to the Word of God, no amount of reasoning, nor plea of suffering, can ever make it right. And if it be admitted, as admitted it must be, that these orders are of the world, it must also be admitted that, for a Christian, membership in them is contrary to Scripture ; for the blessed Lord, speaking to the Father about the disciples, says, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world " (John 17:15, 16). Thus for a Christian, to join one of these orders, would be to do exactly what the Lord prays
the Father he might be kept from doing. Nor will refraining from active participation in the workings of the society remove the difficulty; for, if a member, you pay for its support, and are in your measure responsible for its actings, to say nothing of being under an unequal yoke.

In the second place, we need to remember that suffering is part of the Christian's heritage in this world. We need not seek it, but we may expect it. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." " If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be my disciple." "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." " If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." "In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world " (Luke 9 :23, 24; 14:26, 27, 33; John 15 :19; 16:33).

These passages show not only that we may expect suffering in this world, but that for Christ's sake we should also accept it. And the Scriptures show that the saints in early days did accept it, taking joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven they had a better and an enduring substance (Heb. 10:32-34). Many, indeed, suffered unto death for the name of Christ. Even in Old Testament times, when far less light was enjoyed than we now have, they accepted suffering without question for the testimony which they held. "They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword :they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy) ; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (Heb. 11 :37, 38). Ah ! my tried and fainting brother, you have not come to this yet. You may have thought you saw hunger and want just at the door, but you have still been supplied, and have better than a sheepskin or a goatskin for clothing, and better than a den or a cave for a home. Why then should you faint? "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Heb. 12 :5, 6).

Every trial that God sends is sent in love, and has a purpose of blessing in it; and instead of despising the chastening, or fainting under the rebuke, we need to be exercised by it, so that it may yield "the peaceable fruit of righteousness," and we may be made "partakers of His holiness."

If called, then, to suffer in being faithful to the Lord, is it not vastly better to accept it cheerfully and without hesitation, looking for His sustenance in it and His blessing through it? "Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus " (Phil. 4:6, 7). We are not living in days, or at least, in lands, where faithfulness to Christ is being tested by fire and sword. Those who, for Christ's sake, refuse to be members of some Trades' Union, are neither burned nor beheaded. They may suffer inconvenience, they may be hindered from earning good wages, they may be tried in their circumstances-be it so, this is not yet resisting unto blood, striving against sin, and it should only cast the tried one upon God, whose faithfulness will not fail.

In the third place, God pledges Himself, in the most blessed way, to care for all who in faith refuse the unequal yoke. In this connection, special and earnest attention is invited to the last five verses of 2 Cor. 6 :" Be ye not unequally yoked together with Unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel (or unbeliever)? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

Every sentence in this scripture shows the utter inconsistency of Christians holding membership in these worldly societies. By reasoning, and by command, God appeals to the Christian to be "separate," and not to touch "the unclean." The language is clear and unmistakable. God calls His people to be a separate people, as was said of Israel, "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations" (Num. 23 :9).

But there is also the blessed encouragement to be separate:"I will receive you and be a father unto you,"is the pledge the Lord gives. It is not here a question of how we enter into relationship with God. As Christians, we are already His children. It is here as acting a Father's part to us. On condition that we keep ourselves separate, and touch not the unclean thing (a course which may involve trial and suffering) Jehovah Almighty pledges Himself that He will act the part of Father to us, and treat us as His sons and daughters.

Yes, dear tried brother, you may refuse to be a member of what would put you in touch with the unclean, and in consequence, you may be forced from a certain field of labor, and hunger and want may threaten you and your dear ones, but HE has said, "I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you." And will He not redeem His pledge ? He shall! " He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things ? " Has He not said, "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills ? " Has He not said, "The world is mine and the fulness thereof?" Are not the silver and the gold His ? and the wealth of the universe ? Does He not love us with a measureless, endless love ? And has He not power to carry out the dictates of His love ? Ah, yes, He has given us abundant proof of all this; and why should we not trust Him ? Why should we appeal to a selfish society governed by the god of this world, rather than leave ourselves in the hands and under the care of such a Father ? He has not promised us wealth or luxury or ease in this world, but He does assure us He will be a Father to us in our need, and what is good for us He will surely give.

Be sure, dear fellow-Christian, He will never fail. He cannot fail. He may allow you to be tested, He may allow you to suffer for Christ's sake, He may allow you to feel your dependence, He may teach you that gain is not godliness, He may pass you through needed discipline, He may allow the earthen vessel to be broken that Christ the Light of life may shine out, but He will never leave nor forsake you, and He will give strength for the day, and make you to know that underneath are the Everlasting Arms.

I would appeal, then, by the Word of God, to every dear Christian brother who may be tried by these questions, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the truth, for the peace of his own conscience, and for his spiritual joy, to keep himself free-absolutely free from all these defiling links with the world, and to trust Him who forgets not even the sparrows, who numbers the very hairs of our heads, and says, " Fear not, therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows" (Luke 12:6, 7). A. H. R.

A striking contrast is presented in Mary Magdalene's attitude and that of the two disciples who accompanied her to the sepulcher on that memorable resurrection morning. Ignorant though she was, her affection for the Lord brought her first to the garden where she had seen her every hope buried, and to her surprise she found the stone rolled away.

Carrying the news to Peter and John, they verified her statement, and they became satisfied that the Lord was not there. To their homes they returned, to find solace in human relationships.

'' But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping" (John 20 :n). Here was a widowed heart; the light of life for her had gone out. She could say:'·''Without Him whom my soul loveth, the world is a barren wilderness to me ; " and her flowing tears bore eloquent testimony to the depth of her sorrow. What a striking illustration of the Lord's own words:"The day will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days" (Luke 5 :35).

I was interested in reading, a few days ago, an incident which may serve to stir and touch our hearts.

At one of the large cantonments in this country, a young French officer was stationed as instructor in the use of gas-masks. In the mess-hall, one day, the officers were laughing and joking, in which the French instructor did not join. Noticing this, one of the officers said, " There is a dance down at the Club tonight; will you join us ? " To the surprise of all, the Frenchman pushed his chair from the table, arose with tears swelling up in his eyes. "I, dance ! " he said, slowly, " I, dance, when the feet of the enemy are on my native land. NO, gentlemen, no true Frenchman can make merry while the enemy is on French soil; I beg to be excused; I cannot eat."

The American officer, deeply moved, arose and apologized, which was gracefully accepted, but the Frenchman left the room with tears falling from his cheeks. Who can read such an incident without being moved by the true-hearted loyalty of this French patriot ? For him mirth was out of place while France lay bleeding.

Fellow-Christian, what of ourselves ? The One to whom we owe our everlasting blessing, is not here. Oh, let us never forget that the world gave Him only a gibbet, and for His grave a borrowed tomb. He has been refused, disowned, cast out, and we . . . can we find joy where He had none ? or link ourselves with a world which stands charged with the murder of our Saviour ? Can we be content to settle down in this scene, where He is rejected ? Oh, for a heart like Mary's! Ignorant though she was, her all was in the Person of the Lord Jesus. She counted everything else loss compared to Him.

His company fills the soul of His loved ones with heavenly joy. This is feasting; so that -while fasting as to the things of this world, the heart knows what it is to feast with Him. What a royal feast was that which Mary enjoyed when His own familiar voice uttered her name! In communion with Himself she learned the true meaning of His death and resurrection, and left that garden freighted with heavenly knowledge to comfort the hearts of those more intelligent but less ardent in their love, with the most wonderful message human lips had ever borne. (See John 20:17).
J. W. H. N.

QUES. 14.-In Mark 13th chapter, speaking of those things which are to precede His appearing, our Lord Jesus says, " But of that day and that hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (ver. 32). Is there something that the Father has hidden from the Son ? How is it that Christ did not know the hour and the day of His coming again? Matt. 11:27; Jno. 13:3; 17:10 seem to speak differently. Will you explain in Help and Food.

ANS.-The Gospel of Mark records preeminently the life of our Lord here as God's Servant, in absolute obedience to do and say all and only what it was the Father's good pleasure to have Him do and say. The time had not come for the revelation of the Father's purpose as to sending back His beloved Son to put the enemies under His feet and to take the kingdom ; as God's Servant, therefore, He knew nothing of that. Throughout this chapter our Lord reveals the conditions and events that are to precede the time of His appearing at the Second Coming-these things the Father would make known for our instruction and the world's warning ; but the time of the Son's return, it was not the Father's mind to reveal; therefore His beloved Servant wills to know nothing as to it. Oh depth of love's obedience-who can fathom or know it but God Himself !

We know that our Lord said, "I and the Father are one " (Jno. 10:30); we know He is "the true God and eternal life" (1 Jno. 5 :20); we know He is the Living Word, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" before whom nothing is hid (Heb. 4 :12, 13), but the mystery of His Person in humanity and obedience as well as in deity and sovereignty-how little we are able to enter into!

"The higher mysteries of thy fame
The creature's grasp transcend :
The Father only Thy blest name
Of Son can comprehend.
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

That every knee to Thee should bow."

ERRATUM, page 170 (July Help and Food), 6th line from bottom:'The infidel restored," should read "retorted."

(Joshua, chap. 9)

"What communion hath light with darkness ? " (2 Cor. 6:14)

A great combination of the people of Canaan followed upon the overthrow of Jericho and Ai and the establishment of the law of Jehovah in the center of the land. The nations, whether of hills, valleys, or the seaboard, gathered themselves together to fight against Joshua and Israel. They recognized the necessity of sinking their differences, and of uniting together to gain their great end- the overthrow of Jehovah's army.

Amongst these combined peoples were the Hivites' four cities-Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. The heads of these cities took counsel together, and, while others of their nation sought the sword, they resorted to stratagem in order to gain their end-"they did work wildly."

The open hostility of the enemy is easier to meet than his devices. When the powers of the world array themselves against the poor saints of God, the latter have to conquer or to die. The early Christians, who had to stand before the great and the mighty of their day, out of weakness gained victories of which we Christians reap the fruit to this hour. At the time of the Reformation also, the few poor men who would obey God rather than man, discomfited kings, emperors, and popes. God was with them and for them, and by His might the victory was won. To their faith and courage Protestants owe their present freedom.

But when the Enemy comes guised as an angel of light, speaks smooth and flattering words, and argues religiously, let Christians beware. Satan has gained more successes by his wiles, and sowing his tares while men sleep, than by all his strength arrayed to crush God's people. When he fails to crush, he tries to corrupt:such are his devices.

The command of the Lord bidding Israel to abstain from all union with their enemies, and to which they had said Amen, was frustrated when the ambassadors from Gibeon presented themselves in the camp at Gilgal. These ambassadors had a fair appearance to the elders of Israel. They bore upon them the signs of having come from far, and their credentials looked antique. Thus they obtained a hearing which, had they been better known, would have been denied. The strange fascination that pertains to apparent antiquity for antiquity's sake, is patent to all. It does not occur to many to ask, "Are they genuine in the light of God's word?" nor even to enquire what the venerable things were when new !

Let the saints beware of "dry and moldy" bread, for stale fare is not of God's providing for His children. Rent wine-skins, with the wine run out, are like teaching and preaching which retain but the remembrance of the glad past-the joy in the Holy Ghost being gone. Patched-up garments do but indicate that they have served their day, and may be discarded. God's true messengers have their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and the longest journey never wears them out. " By their fruits ye shall know them," is the Master's word concerning false teachers and guides. Alas, for the infatuation of tradition instead of Thus says the Word. Let the saints beware of traditions of days long since past; it is a common device of the Enemy to lead them to set aside the living word of God for tradition!

The "old sacks, old wine bottles, old shoes, and old garments" of these "ambassadors" commanded the respect of Israel's princes. The elders took of their victuals, trusted to their own eyes, and sought not wisdom from God. When ambassadors present themselves to us as did the Hivites to Israel, we may safely assume that their wine was grown in the enemy's land, for God's ambassadors carry with them the living energy and unction of His Holy Spirit.

Satan is wily and masterful in his way of dressing up his ambassadors, and coloring their credentials. Where he cannot ruin God's people by open war, he will squeeze himself in amongst them and corrupt the soldiers of Christ. In our own day he is terribly successful with his wiles, and will succeed where men, instead of asking counsel of the Lord, or humbly following His word, betake themselves to the wisdom of their own hearts.

Israel's camp was at Gilgal, where God had rolled off the reproach of Egypt from them, where they had been nationally separated to Himself, and whence they had issued to war against the powers of the land of promise; and to Gilgal, in their daring deception, the Hivites came. And Satan, this day, comes as an angel of light on to the very ground that Christians occupy, and by flattery and deception succeeds in effecting an alliance with them in the camp itself. He corrupts the most sacred truths by introducing error into them, and spoils heavenly realities by the leaven of evil doctrine.

The place that Israel occupied gave them no sufficient power against the Enemy-a lesson for us Christians! A correct position and orthodoxy are no sufficient barrier to keep out the Enemy. Our resource is, to which, alas, we so slowly resort, "the mouth of the Lord." Christians have no Urim and Thummim as had Israel, but they have the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever. " Peradventure ye dwell among us, and how shall we make a league with you ? " said Joshua to these ambassadors. "We are thy servants," they softly replied. "Who are ye, and from whence come ye?" Joshua further enquired. Then they talked of old times, and spoke of work and warfare in years gone by ; they were eloquent upon Jehovah's wonders in Egypt forty years previously, and of victories away from their homes on the other side of Jordan, and so disarmed him of suspicion. But not a word had they to say of the work of God at their very doors at Jericho and Ai; not a sentence had they to utter of God's command to Israel and their assent to the word of Jehovah -that must be excluded.

So also is it now; the facts of God's work in bygone days have become, in our own times, history of which the world is willing to speak ; but the effects of God's truth upon us, its present victories, its demands for present obedience-these are not to be mentioned. Anyone may speak of victories over pagan Rome, or papal Rome, of centuries ago; but the victories of the gospel in the world, upon ourselves, and the Word's authority over the children of God at the present moment, must not be mentioned-as Jericho, Ai and Ebal were carefully ignored by the Hivites. Satan has consummate art in mingling lies with truth, to parry off the edge of the Word.

Flattery overcomes more saints than does the sword. When fierce opposition prevails over its tens, unctuous words overcome thousands. The princes of Israel accepted the testimony of the victuals; they trusted their own wisdom, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord; and so the Hivites gained the day.
Perhaps because the ambassadors presented themselves to the princes, they gained their way the easier. Many a man of position in the things of God, many "a prince in Israel," falls through flattery. Flattering words blind the soul to the reality of things. The truly dependent spirit is often more rare in the "prince" than in the rank and file of God's army. Achan, a prince, brought the accursed thing into the camp, and the error of the princes of Israel is placed before us in a marked way by the Holy Ghost in the book before us.

"To the law and the testimony" must ever be the Christian's test. He must ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord, gain the true wisdom from God's word by the Holy Spirit, and obey the Scriptures.

The truth came out at last. What appeared to come from a venerable distance was a next-door neighbor. At the end of three days the error was discovered, but the princes had committed the people to the alliance; they had opened the way into Israel's bosom for the pretenders, and their oath had to be respected. And God would not allow the deception to excuse His people for the evil brought in through their neglect in asking counsel at the mouth of the Lord. Gained by deceit, the covenant nevertheless must stand ; for had Israel been with God, no deceit could have prevailed. Thus with Christians also, yokes, unequal yokes are entered into – yokes of marriage, yokes in business relations, which faithfulness to others bind upon us. In a limited way, too, the same truth applies where God's command has been neglected in spiritual things ; conditions have been brought in among God's people from which we cannot escape. The book of Joshua leaves us with such things upon Israel, and the book of Judges opens with Israel at Bochim – weeping. H. F. W.

QUES. 5.-Will you please explain to us this text, "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved " (Mark 13:13) ; it has given us some difficulty.

ANS.-This chapter is occupied with the tribulation through which the Jewish nation is yet to pass because of their rejection of their Messiah when He first came to them.

The disciples were admiring the grandeur of the Temple (ver. 1 and Matt. 24 :1), and the Lord tells them it was doomed to complete destruction. But not only that, there would be "great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people " (Luke 21 :23), -a time of great persecution-of apostasy on the one hand, and of faithfulness toward God on the other. (Compare Matt. 24:8-13 ; Mark 13 :6-13, and Luke 21:22-24.) Those who will faithfully refuse to worship the Beast, remaining true to God, shall be " saved "-kept for, and have their place in, the Lord's earthly kingdom. Rev. 7 :1-8 points them out to us, in Israel, and vers. 9-12 shows the multitude from among the Gentiles also ; all these are preserved through "the great tribulation," and shall enter and have part in the kingdom when the King returns to establish it upon earth. Matt. 5 :1-10 refers specifically to these.

Mark 13 :13 may be applied to us morally, however, in this respect:that the true disciple confesses Christ as his Saviour to the end, whilst the mere professor falls away in the time of trial.

QUES. 6.-The apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 14 :34 forbids women to speak in the Church, or assembly. How far does that order extend? Does it include gospel meetings, prayer meetings, Bible readings, and house-to-house readings and teachings ?

ANS.-In the assemblies, says the apostle-that is, in any public meeting :a godly woman will not put herself forward in a public assembly. The beauty of God's order is to have all in its God-given place.

Priority and leadership were given to the man. If this be disregarded or reversed, as it was in Eden, disaster follows. Teaching, preaching, praying in public, is taking leadership. A woman doing so, subverts God's order. Helping, serving or ministering is not leadership, and in these woman excels man by far. Helping God's servants, as did those devoted Philippian sisters with Paul (Phil. 4 :2, 3), as did faithful Phoebe in Rome and other assemblies (Rom. 16 :1, 2), as did the sympathetic Dorcas in Joppa (Acts 9 :36, 39), as did Priscilla, with her husband Aquila, in taking Apollos in with them to instruct him more fully in what he but imperfectly knew-all this is not taking a place of leadership, but of service. Service, ability for service, devoted service, this is true greatness in the sight of God (Matt. 20:25-28). Going from bouse to house to read and instruct in the way of truth, is thoroughly in accord with service.

Books produced by our fellow-men- of intelligent, learned, gifted persons -are read with pleasure or profit once, twice, thrice it may be, according to their value. We have understood their meaning, their object, their lessons, and further reading would yield nothing more. The book is set aside.

Not so with THE BOOK. It spans the whole history of man upon earth. The simplicity of its language, the naturalness of its narratives, of its biographies, of its histories, appeal to us as a book of truth. Even in speaking of wonderful and deepest subjects, as Creation, the incarnation of the Son of God, His life and works of power on earth, redemption by His "blood, His resurrection and ascension to glory-all is told in simple language, free from the profusion of adjectives which we are so prone to use in connection with great subjects or mighty issues. The narrator is above human excitement-he is in the hand of One above man as the heavens are above the earth.

But this is very far short of the marvels of the Scriptures. As the particles of gold along the stream reveal to the experienced eye mines of unexplored wealth in the neighboring mountains, so do the Scripture narratives, histories or biographies, with the whole Jewish system of sacrifices and ordinances, point to greater and better things than what lies upon the surface:the material and natural things point to spiritual and enduring realities. Here are mines of much unexplored wealth which only the wisdom and knowledge of God could have provided and stored for the blessing and instruction of His people. To such things our Lord could point His wandering disciples on their way to Emmaus, on the day of His resurrection, when, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets"- in both type and prophecy-" He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Is it any wonder that they afterwards confessed to each other, " Did not our hearts burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures ?" (Luke 24 :25-27). In the strength of this, and in their joy to know Him as their living Lord, they soon rejoined their company. Does not the truth of Scripture and the person of Jesus still unite His disciples?

The Power of the Truth

Until a century ago the truth of the Lord's coming as the Church's present hope had been all but forgotten. The "virgins" had all fallen asleep, and "the blessed hope " lay buried under various traditions in opposition to that hope.

Then came the Voice, as a wind from heaven, reawakening faithful souls to the Lord's own promise:"If I go and prepare a place for you, I will-come again and receive you unto Myself." And lo, the books of prophecy were reopened. The hopes of the Church and the promises to Israel; the distinctions between the heavenly calling of the Bride and the promises of blessing and glory to Israel upon earth, were distinctly set forth in their order according to Scripture.

As might be expected, the Adversary soon exercised his ingenuity to offset the power of such truth. If the truth could not be denied, he might discredit it by introducing and mixing with it various pretensions, such as "gifts of tongues," miraculous powers, apostolic and prophetic assumptions mixed with insidious errors as to the person of Christ, as in Irvingism, and more modern forms of these errors. But the lamp of truth soon exposed these impositions and branded the errors as the product of the father of lies. The truth, overwhelmingly opposed in the great House of worldly profession, has maintained itself amid it all, until nearly all those who bow to God's word confess to the recovered truth-the Church's blessed and near hope, disentangled and distinct from the promises to Israel, now also looming up as at hand.

The New York "Prophetic Conference"

A conference on the Lord's coming, as the hope of the Church, and of Israel's restoration to their land according to prophecy, and the outlook of present events, was held in New York in the latter part of November. The large "Carnegie Hall," with a seating capacity of 3,500, was entirely filled every day of the conference, with some hundreds unable to be accommodated. It gives joy to say that the whole range of prophetic truth spoken upon was well and truly presented by various and well-known speakers connected with various Protestant denominations. It is another proof how the ears and hearts of God's people have been reopened to prophecy in its various lines and applications. A complete report is announced as in press Copies may be ordered from this office. Price, in paper covers, 50 cents.; cloth, $1.00.

World Outlook

The hopes of a world-peace, with a League of Nations to insure this blessing to present and future generations, has become the expectation of a large part of the world. What the immediate outcome of this " Peace Conference " will "be, and how much or how little of the high hopes entertained may be realized for a time, remains to be seen. It is not for us to predict as to what shall be accomplished, or what turn present events may take, but rather to turn to God's word as to the final issues.

The Lord is long-suffering. It is not His will that men perish in their sins, but that they turn to Him and be saved; and we know not how much He may yet bear with the increasing tide of evil, of pride, and insubjection to His word, and consequent ungodliness, so revolting in Christendom long blessed with the Oracles of God-the Bible.

Christianity's Prospect

But these conditions point to a near and overwhelming disaster, foretold in Scripture. Romans 11:20 affirms that "because of unbelief" Israel, after long patience from God, was cut off from its place of privilege and blessing; and verse 22 tells Gentile. Christianity that if it continues not in the faith and in the goodness of God " thou also shalt be cut off." Alas, both past and present conditions clearly proclaim that Christianity is to be "cut off." The decree has gone forth that the Lord shall spue out this Laodicean church-condition-"neither cold nor hot"-which He hates ; which neither completely rejects Christ, nor sincerely loves Him who gave Himself unto death for our redemption.

It is said that Christianity is to "conquer the world for Christ," and it has an appearance of truth, in this that it has grown, and is now throwing out branches over the world. But let us remember that it is a Christianity shorn of what has ever made it unpopular to the world. It spreads out mainly in the way of the mustard seed and of the leaven in our Lord's parables of Matt. 13:31-33-by taking a worldly character in place of the heavenly one it bore at the beginning, so that the evil birds (the devourers of the precious seed, of vers. 4 and 19) find lodgment in its branches. Christianity has been leavened too with traditions and superstitions, with church-forms and ceremonies, substituted for the pure truth once delivered to the saints.

The following excerpt from a .secular paper of March 2,19, exemplifies this mode of aggrandizement and adaptation of Christianity to the world:

Three bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church -will go to Rome to lay before Pope Benedict XV a plan for the formation of a league of churches, it -was announced yesterday. The Bt. Rev. R. H. Weller, Bishop of Fond-du-Lac, Wisconsin, made the announcement at the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin, No. 146 West Forty-sixth Street, New York.

The proposed league is to follow lines similar to those embodied in the League of Nations project. All Christian churches, including Roman Catholic, Greek, Russian and Protestant, are to be represented.
Bishop Weller said yesterday :'' The people here may think it impossible for such a league to be brought about. They may believe us embarked on an impossible task, though hoping that our mission may not be futile. The idea of a League of Nations was laughed at, yet our beloved President Wilson said that it was not an impossibility, and the conferees at Paris actually agreed upon a proposed constitution for such a league." …

Bishop Weller has been working for nine years to bring all churches together on a co-operative basis. A commission was appointed to arrange for a conference in Europe just previous to the outbreak of the war.

The Rise of Atheism

Yet, in opposition even to such Christianity as this, a bolder evil is now rising in the world as never before. Open infidelity in the masses is lifting its arrogant head against God, religion, and even morality. This atheistic spirit, lawless and cruel in the extreme, showed itself in the French revolution of 130 years ago, but in increased fury and vastly wider range is now overrunning Russia; it has filtered into Germany, and has ramifications in various parts of the world, waiting for opportunities.

The following is from the International News Service of Feb. 28, 19:

SOVIETS OPEN WAR AGAINST RELIGION.

The Russian Soviets have opened a campaign against religion, particularly the Orthodox Greek Church.

The Bolshevik! have decreed that all children born after December 20, 1917, who have not been registered with the Soviets, will be refused food cards. Persons attempting to secure food for the unregistered children will be placed on trial.

Already this ruling has resulted in civil war in the communities of Smolensk and Kaluga, where many such babies, called by the people " stone sucklings," have died.

Peasants who have stores of food on hand refuse to register their children except with the priests, denouncing the registration with the Soviets as the work of anti-Christs. A feud has developed at Kaluga between the parents of anti-Christs and the " stone sucklings."

The Soviet Guard is supporting the anti-Christs.

Henceforth all christenings, marriages and burials may be solemnized only by authorized members of the Bolsheviki.

To the above may be added the revolting fact that marriage as a divine institution has been abolished in some of the Russian Soviets. More corrupt by far than savages, more beastly than beasts, woman is degraded from being the wife of one man, and the unclean progeny is to be the State's property and care!
Another gives the following from Bavaria:

The Munich Congress has adopted several radical measures for the regulation of the non-Socialist press. The Housing Commissioner has received dictatorial power to seize palaces, villas, and barracks, and convert them into lodgings for the working people.

The non-Socialist newspapers are compelled to publish proletarist propaganda, and the Clerical organ has been selected to publish a series of articles preaching atheism.

Fellow-Christian, such is the outlook of the so-much boasted world's progress." Is it not a Satanic progress? And why? Because with the development of man's God-given intelligence and capacity, man, exalting himself and refusing God's testimonies, becomes blinded by Satan, the god of this world, is led by the devil even while denying that there is a devil and a hell, where evil and all rebellion is finally to be shut up.

Conclusion

Rev. 17 :16 shows that Babylon the Great (corrupted Christianity) shall be destroyed by the atheistic powers; but God, taking the judgment into His own hands, will make a summary end of the infidel powers and their followers, described in Rev. 19 :19-21.

"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless " (2 Pet. 3:14).

You remember that when God would bring His people out of Egypt, Pharaoh wanted to compromise-of course by that compromise to keep the people as his slaves. Three separate offers he makes to Moses, each of which would have prevented salvation according to God's thought of it. The first compromise was, Worship in the land."

"And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land."

And still the world asks, Why need you leave us ? You are entitled to your opinions, but why be so extreme ? Why three days' journey into the wilderness ? – why separate from what you were brought up in, and from people as good as you ? Ah, they do not know what that three days' journey implies; that the death and resurrection of Christ place you where you are no more of the world than He is! Egypt-luxurious, civilized, self-satisfied, idolatrous Egypt-and the wilderness ! What a contrast ! Yet only in the wilderness can you sacrifice to God.

Then he tries another stratagem:

"And he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God; but who are they that shall go ?

"And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we will go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord.

"And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones:look to it; for evil is before you. Not so:go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire."

By their little ones he had them safe, of course- a perfectly good security that they would not go far away. And so it is still. How many are brought back into the world by the children they did not bring with them out of the world.

One last hope remains for Pharaoh:

"And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed:let your little ones also go with you."

"Leave your possessions," he says; and how many leave their possessions ! Themselves are saved; but their business, their occupation, these are still not sacred things, they are "secular"- what have these things to do with the salvation of the soul ? But God says, No:bring them all out of Egypt:yourselves, your families, your property, all are to be Mine. And, in fact, His they must be if we would ourselves keep them, for we cannot keep them of ourselves.

How important it is for us to be right with God! It is not a mere question of points or detail; it is a question of truth of heart to Him, which affects every detail-the whole character and complexion of our lives, indeed. So you must not wonder at a question of cattle being concerned with a deeper question of salvation itself-looking at salvation not merely as from wrath and condemnation- but salvation from all sin also. Be persuaded of this that only thus can we find, in the full power of it, what salvation is. F. W. G.

*This paper has appeared in Help and Food years ago ; its importance is our excuse for reproducing it in our pages at this time.-[ED.*

To whom does my child belong ? Is it mine, or the Lord's? Surely this question should need no discussion by Christian parents! For do we not recognize, even before they are born, that they are peculiarly "a heritage from the Lord?" And when they come into the world, our first duty is to hold them and offer them to Him.

Now, the keeping of this one fact before the mind of a mother will be the best guiding principle in their training. It is because Christian parents so often forget whose their children are, that they make such mistakes in training them. I say then to you, mothers, settle it in your minds that your child belongs to God, and not to you ; that you are only stewards for God, holding your children to nurse them and train them for Him.

Now, any parent, however poor, unlearned, or occupied, can do this, if only she has the grace of God in her heart, and will take the trouble. A little child, who has been rightly trained, has unquestioning confidence in its parents. What father or mother says, is to it an end of all controversy; it seeks no further proof. This influence, wisely used, will be as an atmosphere around the child's moral nature, safeguarding and molding all its future life.

I sometimes meet with parents who tell me that at the age of from 15 to 18 their children have become unmanageable, and that they have lost their influence over them. I cannot tell you which I pity most-such children, or such parents. One of the worst signs of our times is the little respect which children seem to have for their parents. There are numbers of boys and girls of from twelve to seventeen years of age, over whom their parents have little or no control. But how has this come to pass ? Did these children leap all at once from the restraints and barriers of parental affection and authority ? Oh no; it has been the result of the imperceptible growth of years of insubordination and want of proper discipline-the gradual loss of parental influence until they have thrown it off altogether, and resolved to do as they please. Hence the terrible exhibitions we frequently have of youthful depravity, lawlessness, and rebellion.

"Well," I think I hear some mother say, " I feel my responsibility, and long to train my children in the way they should go, but-how am I to do it ? "

First, let us look at the meaning of the word " train." It does not mean merely to teach. Some parents seem to have the notion that all they have to do in training their children aright is to teach them; so they cram them with religious sentiment and truth, making them commit to memory the Catechism, large portions of Scripture, many hymns, and so on. All very good, as far as it goes, but this may all be done without any real training such as God requires, and such as the hearts of our children need. Nay, this mere informing the head without interesting or influencing the heart, frequently drives children off from God and goodness, and makes them hate, instead of love, everything connected with Christ.
In the early part of my married life, when my dear husband was traveling very much from place to place, I was frequently thrown into the houses of religious families for three or four weeks at a time, and I used to say to myself, " How is it that these children seem frequently to have a more inveterate dislike for religious things than the children of worldly people, who make no profession ? " Subsequent observation and experience have shown me the reason. It is because such parents inform the head without training the heart. They teach what they often do not practice themselves, nor take the trouble to see that their children practice, and the children see through the hollow theories, and learn to disrespect both their parents and their religion.

Mother, if you want to train your child, you must practice what you teach, and you must show him how to practice it also; you must, at all costs of trouble and care, see that he does it.

Suppose, by way of illustration, that you have a vine, and that this vine is endowed with reason, and will, and moral sense. You say to your vinedresser, "Now, I want that vine trained"-1:e., made to grow in a particular way, so that it may bare the largest amount of fruit. Suppose your vine-dresser goes to your vine every morning, and says to it, "Now, you must let that branch grow in this direction, and that branch grow in another; you are not to put forth shoots here, nor many tendrils there ; you must not waste your sap in too many leaves,"-and having told it what to do and how to grow, he leaves it to itself.

This is precisely the way many good people act toward their children. But lo ! the vine grows as it likes-nature is too strong for mere theory- words will not curb its exuberance nor check its waywardness. Your vine-dresser must do something more effectual than talking. He must fasten that branch where he wishes it to grow; he must cut away what he sees to be superfluous; he must lop, and prune, and dress it, if it is to be trained for beauty and for fruitfulness. And just so, mother, if you want your child to be trained for God and righteousness, you must prune, and curb, and direct, and lead it in the way in which it should go.

But some mother says, "What a deal of trouble! "

Ah, that is just why many parents fail; they are afraid of trouble. But, as Mrs. Stowe says, " If you will not take the trouble to train Charlie when he is a little boy, he will give you a great deal more trouble when he is a big one." Many a foolish mother, to spare herself trouble, has left her children to themselves, and "a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame!" Many parents teach their children in theory the right way, but, by their negligence and indifference, let them grow in just the opposite.

See that mother seated at some important piece of work which she is anxious to finish-her three little children are playing around her-one with his picture-book, another with his horse and cart, and baby with her doll. It is Monday afternoon; and only yesterday she was giving those children a lesson on the importance of love and good-will amongst themselves. That was the teaching; now comes the training. Presently Charlie gets tired of his pictures, and without asking permission, takes the horse and cart from his younger brother, whereupon there is a scream, and presently a fight. Instead of laying aside her work, restoring the rightful property, explaining to Charlie that it is unjust and unkind to take his brother's toys, and to the younger one, that he should rather suffer wrong than scream and fight, she goes on with her work, telling Charlie that he is a "very naughty boy," and making the very common remark, that she thinks there never were such troublesome children as hers Now, who cannot see the different effect it would have had on these children if that mother had taken the trouble to make them realize and confess their faults, and voluntarily exchange the kiss of reconciliation and brotherly affection ? What if it had taken half-an-hour of her precious time; would not the gain be greater than that which would accrue from any other occupation, however important ? Mothers, if you want your children to walk in the way they should go, you must not only teach, you must be at the trouble to train.

(Concluded in next number.)

"And to godliness brotherly love, and to brotherly love, love " (2 Pet. 1:7.)

The distinction between love and brotherly love is of deep importance; the former is the source from whence the latter flows; but brotherly love may be mingled in its exercise with sentiments that are merely human-with individual affection, with the effect of personal attractions, or suitability in natural character. Nothing is sweeter than brotherly affections; their maintenance is of the highest importance in the Church; but these affections may degenerate, and if love-God's own character-does not hold the chief place, they may displace Him-set Him aside-shut Him out. Divine love, which is the very nature of God, is to direct, to rule, and gives character to brotherly love; otherwise, it is that which pleases us and governs us.

If divine love governs me, I love all my brethren; I love them because they belong to Christ; and there is no partiality. True, I shall have greater enjoyment in a spiritual brother; but I shall occupy myself about my weak brother, with a love that rises above his weakness, and has tender consideration for it. I shall concern myself with my brother's sin from love to God, in order to restore my brother, rebuking him, if needful. Nor, if divine love be in exercise, can brotherly love (or the name of it) be associated with disobedience. In a word, God is to have His place in all my relationships. To speak of brotherly love in such a manner as to shut out the requirements of what God is, and of His claims upon us, is to shut out God in the most plausible way, in order to gratify our own hearts. Divine love, then, which acts according to the character and will of God, is that which ought to direct and characterize our whole Christian walk, and to rule our hearts. Without this, brotherly love may easily substitute man for God.

It is not as children of God that I love the brethren, unless I love God, of whom they are born. I may love them individually as companions, or I may love some among them, but not as the children of God, if I do not love God Himself. If God Himself has not His true place in my heart, that which bears the name of love to the brethren shuts out God; and that in so much the more subtle a manner, because our link with them bears the sacred name of brotherly love.

If I love them because they are God's children, I should love all who are such, because the same motive engages me to love them all.

The universality of this love to all the children of God, and its exercise in practical obedience to His will, these are the marks of true brotherly love. That which has not these marks is a mere carnal party spirit, clothing itself with the name and forms of brotherly love. Most certainly I do not love the Father, if I encourage His children in disobedience to Him. J. N. D.

( Concluded from page 266. )

"That ye may grow thereby." The intelligent 1 Christian has a twofold object in the reading or study of the Scriptures :one of these is to inform and familiarize himself with its teachings, in order that he may by this means not only defend himself against the attacks of the enemy, but be able also to assist others against the assaults of the evil one. This we learn from the following passages:"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth " (2 Tim. 2 :15) ; also in chap. 3:15, "The Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation " – the salvation or deliverance from all that would oppose our progress in the Christian life, draw us aside or drag us down into the pitfalls of Satan. There is a like thought in Ps. 174:" By the words of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer."

This is a very necessary use which the believer in Christ should make of his Bible; by it he meets the adversary and overcomes the tempter, even as our Lord and Master met him with the scriptures- " It is written." Thus the word or sayings of God is called " The sword of the Spirit."

But this is not all; there is another and very important object attained by the Christian's habitual reading of Scripture; it is that the soul may be fed – "nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine." All real growth of soul is by the truth. Growth in the truth is essential to the believer's happiness and security from spiritual decay, or backsliding; just as plants to be saved from succumbing to harmful fungus growths and insect pests, must be kept in a state of continuous growth and vigor. The wise husbandman knows this, and uses all means and puts forth every effort to keep his plants in a healthful growing condition, in order that they may resist and throw off those diseases and plagues to whose attacks they are exposed. It is the same with the human body. We are constantly exposed to germs of disease of various kinds ; they are almost everywhere – in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the things we handle. And the best safeguard against contagion is to keep the body in a good condition, well nourished, follow regular habits, with cleanliness both of body and mind.

And so it is with the believer's soul; the diseases to which it is constantly exposed may easily arrest its progress and bring decay. Only a vigorous growth can preserve it from falling before the spiritual contagion found everywhere to – day-in books, in the lyceum, the class-room, social meetings, the market, the street, the playground, and where not ! It is even found in the pulpit and religious assemblies; it is, in fact, here most prevalent, and that in its most virulent forms – as " Higher Criticism," coupled with a subtle denial of eternal punishment, denial of miracles and what is beyond the mind of man, and the all-but-universal conception of the Unitarian "All-Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man."

And what is the remedy, the antidote for all this Anti-Christian teaching of the last days ? It is given us by this same apostle Peter in his second epistle. In the second and third chapters he warns us of the false teachers that were to come in the last days; and he says, "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." But how can the believer avoid this ? What is the safeguard or protection against this deadly doctrinal and moral contagion ? Listen, hear him, or God, rather, speaking to us through him :"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 3 :18). Only this will be our sure protection against being drawn after or into the error of the wicked, or from becoming ensnared, by some one of the many false doctrines and cults and denials of faith now so fearfully prevalent.

And so we read, "That ye may grow thereby." It is not by keenness of intellect or breadth of knowledge that souls are preserved from being deceived and carried away by some of the multitudinous heresies and false teachings of the times in which we live, but by feeding on and growing by the nourishment supplied us in the Word of God.

And this is also the believer's safeguard against moral defection, falling into various sins, as, alas, so often happens with God's blood-bought children. "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee," the psalmist says (Ps. 119:11). By God's word treasured in his heart (from whence are "the issues of life,") he was preserved from sinning against the Author of his being, and the God of his salvation. In a world of moral defilement, found everywhere, in the midst of a scene of universal revolt against God, where the spiritual atmosphere is contaminated, and with the propensity in our very nature to respond to the temptations, what need there is earnestly and constantly to resort to the " sincere milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby," escape the temptations of the wicked, and by God's grace be kept from falling! But if we cease to grow, if we no longer progress in our souls, that moment decline begins, and unless checked by repentance and restoration, we are on the road to shipwreck, either of faith or morals-if not both ; or if blameless still as to the outward life, a backslider in heart and atrophied in soul, all joy and power gone, with nothing left but a name to live while dead!

There is a third, a minor object, we may have in the reading of the Bible. The Christian not only reads, studies and searches the Scriptures to prepare himself against the onslaught of the enemy, and to feed his soul and be kept in a healthy growing state, as we have before pointed out, but he also reads it for his enjoyment. How intensely interesting he finds its well-told histories, how beautiful its poetry, how pungent its moral sayings, how apt and illuminating its parables, how wonderful and grand are its prophecies, its doctrines, enforced by arguments, backed up by examples, and illustrated by things of earth, sea and sky. No doubt God intended we should be charmed and encouraged to the reading of His precious book by the very beauty of its composition, the lure of its matchless literature. Even men of the world, men of culture and of good taste, have recognized this literary excellence of the Bible, as many of them have testified. A president of one of the great mid-west railway systems never left his home without having his Bible in his valise, though making no pretense of being a Christian.

Physiologists tells us how much more digestible, and therefore more beneficial, food becomes to us when eaten with relish or good appetite; and so, when God's Word is read with pleasure, when it is sweet to our taste, its preciousness and sanctifying power will then be realized. We are sanctified by the truth-by God's word (Jno. 17 :17), whether in its formal study, with eager searching, or reading it with pleasure and delight.

Fellow-believer, let us feed upon the precious Word of God as a "feast of fat things;" let us earnestly desire it, that we may ever "grow thereby." Amen. C. Knapp.

The other day I turned over the leaves of an old book, in which, more than fifty years ago, my mother had begun entering the names, wages, and other items relating to her servants, making notes as to their service, capacity, character, etc. It set me thinking about my own service-whom I am serving, how I am serving, and what will be the result of my service.

You see, when we were saved-you and I-we became "servants of righteousness," "servants to God" (Rom. 6 :18-22), or as another scripture tells us, "Ye serve the Lord Christ" (Col. 3 :24); and when we call Him Master and Lord, we say well, for such He is to us whom He has redeemed to Himself by His blood.

As I looked through my mother's old book, it was wonderful to find how much of it fitted in with what the Bible says about our service, and how her little entries spoke to my conscience; perhaps they will also speak to yours.

" Selina M., a very good and clever, hard-working servant; she was, however, violent at times with her fellow-servants."

Is that what may be written of you in the accounts above ? Is your energetic, faithful service marred by a temper that is a trial to fellow-workers ? Thus was it long ago, when Paul wrote to two "good, hard-working" servants:"I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord" (Phil. 4 :2).

It is pleasant to find that Selina, after having been away for a time nursing:her sick mother, returned; and that when she left again on the same mission the following year, the entry runs thus:" She is a great loss to me; she has governed her temper, and made no trouble with her fellow-servants this last year. They all seem to regret her very much."

God grant that we, too, may thus grow in grace and in likeness to our Master; that we may never be found beating the men-servants and maidens, as did the evil servant, who thought the master would never come to look into his conduct (Luke 12:45).

Of another, I read:"A very nice-looking young woman, obliging, and clever in her work, but giddy in her conduct." Alas, if such "little foxes " spoil our "tender grapes" (Song 2 :15), and mar our service for Christ ! Give good heed to the apostle's word, teaching "the young women to be sober" (Tit. 2:4), so that no occasion may be given to speak reproachfully.

"Mary Ann H., an able nurse, but had not patience with the children; none of the little ones liked her, and were glad when she left." Yet, how dear to Christ's heart are the little ones! Do you lose patience with the lambs of the flock ? Are you a Sunday-school teacher, a "nurse " in the Church of God, yet lacking patience with the children, so that they do not like you, and are glad to get away from your class, and care not for the truths of God taught by your impatient lips ?

Of one who travels with her mistress, it is said:" She was very thoughtful on the journey, and kind to the little ones." How much we might lighten one another's burdens in the wilderness journey were we more " kindly affectioned one to another" (Rom. 12 :10), thus fulfilling the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2).

I will give you one more entry:"Eliza H., a most excellent servant. She lived with me for more than seven years, and left in a consumption, of which she died. She was much attached to the children, and always thoughtful and attentive to them. She is a very great loss to me; few are to be found like her. Her mind seemed in a happy state, and she was fully prepared for her death." Does it not make you think of him to whom his Lord said, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant :thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things:enter thou into the joy of thy Lord " (Matt. 25 :21). The term of service being ended, there comes the call to come up higher, where "His servants shall serve Him " for ever!

But there is another point in the old book that has struck me very much. I see that in those days the maids were engaged by the year, and their wages paid at the year's end. It seems that as the year ran its course, a girl would draw a few shillings at a time in advance. On each such occasion she would sign her name-sometimes with evident difficulty-sometimes only the initials are scrawled (for those were not days of "graded school" and "high school"), but one way or another she acknowledged having received the money ; and when the term of her service was completed, the words "paid in full" or " settled" are written, and she adds her signature for the last time.

Now we who serve Christ get some of our pay " advanced " to us, do we not ? Yes, a hundredfold more in " this present time" than we have sacrificed for His name's sake. But, dear fellow-Christian, think of the pay-day coming! It will be well to have some arrears to be " settled " on that day in which He will reckon with His servants (Matt. 25 :19). Not one but shall be paid in full" for He will give to " every man according as his work shall be " (Rev. 22 :12). Then it will be "made manifest" how each one has served, and "then shall every one have praise of God " (i Cor. 4 :5). You will find how God's unforgetting heart has treasured up every thought, word and deed that has been given in loving service to Himself, and you will marvel as He praises and repays you for what His own grace has wrought in you! H. F. W.

(NOTES OF AN ADDRESS BY C. GRAIN.)

There is a striking contrast in these two psalms :the 90th brings before us the first man, the gist sets before us the Second Man. The first of these two psalms gives us the disaster and ruin brought in by the first man-a disaster and ruin in which all of his race are involved. In the other psalm we have the character of the Second Man and His blessing; and not His alone, but the blessings which He has found for those who put their trust in Him.

Notice the title of the 90th Psalm. It is called " The prayer of Moses, the man of God," but it is striking to find that the larger part of it is in fact concerning the first man. In it Moses surveys the first man's world. He considers all that characterizes it. Man, being made in the image and likeness of God, was to abide, to dwell with God; that is what is spoken of in the first verse of the psalm:"Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations."

When God created man and established him here upon the earth, his security and blessing was in abiding under God's sheltering wing. What a privileged, happy creature God had made him ! Had he continued abiding with God, no ruin would have come near ; never would have been the condition of things which exists to the present day.

In verses 3-6 he says, " Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men; Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep ; in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up ; in the evening it is cut down and withereth." What is in the mind of "the man of God " as he looks about over the first man's world? Generations upon generations are passing away-fleeing away, as it were, before God's rebuke. Let us look a little at the significance of it all.

Although the world has endured many centuries since Moses uttered these words, if we look at the history of men upon the earth with the eyes of Moses, we shall realize that man, is a passenger in this world, passing through it rather than a dweller in it. He cannot abide here. Turning his eyes from man to God, Moses says, " Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God." He is the eternal-the same from everlasting to everlasting. He does not fly away. He is not involved in the disaster or ruin of man. He dwells in peace eternal from everlasting to everlasting. But man, where are the generations that lived and peopled the earth before the days of the flood ? Where are the generations that followed after the flood ? Where are the builders of those Egyptian pyramids ? All gone; all passed away one after another. Where are the empires of Assyria, of Babylon, of Persia, of Greece? All passed and gone; only their histories and their ruins remain-silent witnesses to their past greatness and the truth of God's word! And again, if we look around, what is it we see daily ? Funeral processions, following one after another! Some of us, who have reached what we call advanced years, begin to realize our stay here is coming to an end. Every gray hair is witness that the seed of mortality is in us. And we, too, like the generations of the past, will be here no more. We are but sojourners here, and death is stamped upon man.

If I pass along the streets, and see a fine building, then a day or two afterward find one half of the building has been demolished, I say, It is ruined; it is no longer suited to the purpose for which it was built. Now, death, as regards man, is like the demolition or destruction of one half of the building. When man dies, he is no longer a complete man, with spirit, soul and body. When his body goes to corruption, he is no longer in the condition in which he was created. Death is not indeed an extinction of being, as some affirm. It is ceasing to be in the form of being in which he was created. In dying, man passes out of the present form of existence into another. As dead, his spirit and soul are without a body. Using my illustration, we may say one half of the building has been demolished. Just as the half-demolished building is no longer suited for the purpose for which it was built, so man in death is no longer suited for the purpose for which he was created. He is not a complete man.

I think this is a complete argument for the resurrection. If death is a cessation of the present form of being, the passing out of the present into another form, no longer a complete man, implies that one day he is to be a complete man again. Physical death is only a temporary condition. Scripture says that death is the last enemy that is to be destroyed. The Son of God, who came into the world to undo the works of the devil, is going to wipe out completely the serpent's work; it will be fully accomplished at the last resurrection, when the dead, small and great, shall be raised to stand before the great white throne. Those that have not part in the first resurrection, shall be raised to judgment at the second, the last resurrection. Physical death shall then come to an end. In Rev.20:5 we learn there will be an interval of at least 1000 years between the first and the last resurrection, but when the last resurrection occurs, it will be the end of physical death. Brought oat of the death-state, they shall be in man's complete state again-not disembodied spirits any more.

What is the significance of death ? It is the expression of God's abhorrence of sin. As Moses says in this psalm, "We are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee; our secret sins in the light of thy countenance." Death, then, is God's stamp upon sin. Has there ever been any exception ? Some will tell me that Enoch did not die, and Elijah was caught up to heaven without dying. But neither Enoch nor Elijah went to heaven by virtue of any power in themselves. Neither Enoch nor Elijah annulled the sentence of death to which they were exposed; they were exempt only by God's sovereign grace. So they are no exception to God's sentence upon man- upon sin.

Now, is it possible for man to recover himself from the sentence of death to which he is exposed ?
The law raised this question, and there is great misapprehension as to the law in the mind of many. People think the law of Moses was given to man as a means to get to heaven. But God had another reason for imposing the law upon the nation of Israel. God would have man to learn, by practical experience, his helplessness; that by practical experience men should learn their utter inability to recover themselves. In order to teach the lesson God desired men to learn it was not necessary to impose the law upon everybody. It was sufficient to take up one nation, and work out the question there. This lesson was fully demonstrated in connection with that nation. There it stands for all mankind. Let us look at it.

The law proposed life on the ground of obedience. It did not give life. The law says, "This do, and thou shalt live." But while it says what man is to do, it also says, " Cursed be he that continueth not in all the things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Here is the question raised :Can fallen man, on that ground, establish a right to exemption from death ? Did any of the children of Israel, to whom the law was given, ever come in God's presence and assert his right to be exempted from death? No; not one! Why? The opportunity was given them, but not one ever succeeded in obtaining the right to be exempted from death. Not one of the nation ever succeeded in establishing a claim to life. Not one continued in all the things which were written in the book of the law; therefore, the law said:You are under a curse, you must die!

In Romans, chap. 3, we read that "what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth maybe stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." In Israel, God has worked out in a practical way the question of man's competency to establish a right to live, and thus proved that no man is competent to deliver himself from the sentence of death to which he is exposed. It is not only that no Israelite is competent to deliver himself from the sentence of death, that no Israelite is able to establish a right to live, on the ground of compliance with the conditions imposed upon him by the law, but it proves that no man can do it. If none of that nation could establish a right to live, it settles the question definitely and finally for all mankind. No man under less favorable conditions is able to do so.

Apart from God's provision for man, we should say that man's case is hopeless. He is doomed. The stamp of death is upon him, which means, finally to stand before the great white throne to be judged for his sins. "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment." Death is the sign that man is on his way to the judgment of God, and apart from God's provision for man, as revealed in Scripture, we have to say that man's case is absolutely hopeless ; for the result of having to stand before the great white throne, will surely be the lake of fire; and the lake of fire is "the second death"-not another physical death ; and to be consigned to the lake of fire, is to be for ever and ever lost!

But we turn to the gist psalm, and there we read about another Man, a Second Man. If the first man found the path to death and corruption, the Second Man, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, has found the path to life. This Second Man-come into the world in a supernatural way-is a unique Man, a sinless Man, on whom death had no claim. It will be asked, and has been asked, Did He not die ? We will look at that directly, but I repeat, He was not a mortal man; no seed of mortality was in Him. He alone of all mankind could stand before God, and say, "Death and judgment have no claim upon Me."

That, in substance, is what is presented to us in the gist psalm; the perfection of the character of the Second Man-the One perfectly obedient, perfectly submissive to the will of God, absolutely perfect. The eternal God was His dwelling-place. He never left that place. In this 91st Psalm we have the perfection of His character as a man living here in the world in subjection to the will of God, in perfect obedience to Him; a man therefore who could stand before God and say, Death has no claim upon Me.

Thus, in John 10 :18, we hear Him say, " I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. No man taketh it from Me." It is one who is exempt from the claim of death; one who has a right to live; one who has a personal claim on life, with whom there is no presumption in coming into the presence of God and saying, I have a just right to live. And He has come into the world for the purpose of finding the path of life -not for Himself (though in a sense it was true that for Himself He found that path in His sinless holy life upon earth), but for us the path of life is found in His death. Thus, in John 10 :11, He says, "I am the Good Shepherd:the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." This unique, perfect and obedient Man, has come into a world where sin and death reign, to provide a path of life for His sheep; and He had to provide it by His death. In coming to those who are under the sentence of death, to find the path of life for them, He must enter into death Himself, and He enters it to annul it for us. Of His life He says, "No man taketh it from Me. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." In the body prepared Him He acquired ability to die, but there was no seed of mortality in Him. In His own unique and blessed person He was the annulment of death and corruption.

In John ii, Jesus said to Martha, " I am the Resurrection and the Life." That is, He is announcing Himself to Martha as the One in whom is the annulment of death and corruption. When our Lord Jesus was here upon earth, He came in contact with lepers. He touched the leper, and the leprosy was banished. The power of life was there to annul leprosy, sin, and death itself. If by His touch He could annul leprosy, He has power to annul corruption in any sense, and that is what is meant when He says to Martha, " I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." He is the annulment of death and corruption. He was capable of entering into the kingdom of death, and did so of His own voluntary will, righteously to abolish its power over us who have fled to Him as our Saviour. Sovereign in death as in life, death had no more power over Him when He was in death than it had over Him when He was living upon the earth-when He raised the little maid that had just died-raised the widow's son as they were carrying him to the grave-and raised Lazarus who had been dead four days. He was master over death. When He Himself was put to death in the flesh, it had no more power over Him than when He was a living man upon the earth. All being accomplished according to God's will, He arose from the dead absolutely untainted by corruption, having found for us the path of life through His death. He was raised out of death to life, as verse 14 of this gist psalm expresses it:"Because He hath set His love upon Me, therefore will I deliver Him. I will set Him on high, because He hath known my name." Having in all things glorified the Father in His life upon earth, He was raised from the dead and glorified in heaven.

In Revelation i :18 He says, "I am the First and the Last. I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and hades." He is a Man in triumph over death, over the power of Satan, eternally triumphant. He has found the path of life for us; and we, sinners as we are, incapable of delivering ourselves from the sentence of death, we come to Him who died for us and rose again. We put ourselves and our eternal destiny in His hands. We believe in Him, trust Him, and that links us with Him forever. He who lives and believes in Him shall never die.

But some one may say, "Do not believers also die ? Do not Christians die ? " Ah, my friends, while one after another of us is passing away, there is an eternal link in our souls by faith in Him who ever liveth in the presence of God, and this means that death has no more claim over the believer than it has over Him who died for us and rose again. The penalty of sin is abolished for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; he has forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Christ triumphant. In John 5 :24 we read, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment." Our sins will be remembered no more. We have eternal life; we have passed out of death into life. Death is annulled for him who believes in Jesus, and in whom Christ now dwells.

He came in love, He came in grace,
Toward Calvary He set His face,
And on the tree,
In love for me,
He took my place!
Oh love divine, oh love supreme,
That He should thus my soul redeem
From death and hell!
This love doth set my soul aflame;
I praise, I praise His peerless name,
And shall His glories tell.

He'll come again, some happy day,
And I shall soar with Him away
From earth's chill night
To scenes of light,
With Him to stay!
While boundless ages sweep along,
I'll praise His name in tireless song
Around the throne:
Like mighty thunders through the skies,
Oh what a burst of praise shall rise
From all His own!

Beyond that bright and rapturous hour,
He'll come again in regal power
To hush earth's groan,
Assume His throne-
Be Israel's mighty tower!
He'll thrust the prince of darkness down,
He'll rule the earth, He'll wear the crown,
He'll hold almighty sway:
We long, O Lord, that age to see,
When all creation shall to Thee
Its homage pay.

C. C. Crowston

CALENDAR FOR THE MONTH

Daily Bible Reading……… June 1st, Isaiah, chap. 22.
Memory Work………………… Galatians, chap. 1.
Good Reading………….. C. H. M. on Genesis, 100 pp.

Please note the Calendar given above. Our daily reading, a chapter a day, begins with Isaiah, chap. 22, on June 1st., and therefore on the last of the month will have reached chap. 51. Let us try to "keep step."

Memorizing is one of the best ways of improving the mind, and nothing is worth storing up as much as God's word. Probably you already have been doing some work of this kind, and know its value. But there are many who may be glad to unite with us in learning the entire Epistle to the Galatians, at the rate of a chapter a month. Begin promptly, and persevere until you have the whole first chapter in your mind. We won't have to do much urging after that. Better make it a verse a day, till the whole chapter is learned, and then some of you get together, and hear one another recite it. A little pocket-sized copy of the Epistle would make a nice prize. They can be had, bound up with a few other epistles. Let us hear how you succeed.

The next item on the Calendar is Good Reading. Have you ever read C. H. M.'s Notes on the Pentateuch ? If you have, all right ; I know you like them. But if you have not, let us begin June with a few pages. A little over three pages a day, hardly five minutes' work, will cover the 100 pages, which is our monthly allowance. It has been many years since I read it, and it made the Bible a new book to me. I expect to read it again with you, and we will pray for one another as we do it.

Do You Keep a Note Book ?

A note book is one of the best companions we can have. We can make it a sort of journal or diary, or we can simply use it to jot down all sorts of things- thoughts on our daily chapter or memory verses; outlines of addresses, or studies of our Sunday-school lesson. We can write out interesting accounts of conversions, etc. We can put down the names of those for whom we are praying, and note when the answers come. Do not try to make your note book too prim and systematic, but treat it like an old friend to whom you can tell anything. When you have filled one book, get another. They make interesting reading in later years. Carry your book with you in pocket or bag, and use a fountain pen preferably.

"Take Care of Him "

The Good Samaritan was not content with binding up the wounds of the man who had fallen among thieves. He brought him where he would be cared for. Are we like Him ? Or do we say, " Am I my brother's keeper ? " One of the saddest things is to see a young Christian drift. But it is equally sad to see others let him drift. You may say he or she is " not in your set," whatever that may mean; you may say they were not congenial, or that you didn't have time to look after them. But what will the Lord say if we do not take care of one another ? A story is told of two travelers who were overtaken by a dreadful snow-storm. For a while they pressed bravely alone, but gradually the cold began to deaden their feelings, and to lure them to that slumber from which there is no waking in this world. One of them saw the danger of his companion, and began to use all his efforts to arouse him, with happy success. But not only was the friend preserved, the one who had busied himself about him was also fully aroused. We cannot help others without being helped ourselves.

Summer-time

We are near the most delightful season of the year. No need to hurry indoors for fear of the cold; no early nightfall, but the long gloaming, inviting to pleasant walks, and all kinds of attractive things. Then there is the vacation, two weeks for the workers, and all summer for the school-folks. What are we going to do with our summer? I am hoping it is going to be a very enjoyable and healthful one. Some people get colder, as the weather gets warmer. Strange paradox, but true-not for you, I hope. If we begin to neglect the little routine duties, if we let it get too warm to go to meetings, beware!-we are getting cold. If we are not so careful where we go, with whom we associate, we are falling prey to summer-time diseases, which will leave their mark upon us after the bracing winter weather comes on. Summer-time is the best season for pen-air work-giving out tracts, attending open-air meetings, etc. Once we are happily engaged with these, there need be little fear of dull times. May your summer be a happy and useful one.

Team Work

A team of horses must pull together if their full strength is to be utilized. Did you ever see a team trying to start a heavy load ? First one pulls, and then the other. Finally the driver, by quiet control, a word to one horse that is holding back, a check on another that is plunging forward, gets them to pull together, and the load is drawn with ease. That is team work. Many a game of ball has been lost through lack of team work. The side with the strongest individual players may go down before the others who work unitedly under a recognized leader, and for the common end. Now if this is true in earthly things, it holds good equally in spiritual. We are members one of another, and members of the body of Christ. Therefore we are to work together, under our blessed Leader.

How?

Regular attendance at the meetings is one of the elementary kinds of team work. Did you ever attend a prayer meeting where, maybe, fifteen were present out of the hundred or more whose regular place of meeting it was ? Were all the absentees sick, or detained by important business, or household duties? Where were many of the young people ? It may be we would hear in explanation that this or that one "never attends the week meetings"-they are "dull" or "dry." Perhaps the voice of the young brothers is never heard in public prayer. Perhaps they never ask a question in the Bible Class or Reading Meeting. All this is lack of team work, and we need not be surprised if the state of the meeting reflects it.

The same truth applies in the Bible Class for the young or the Young Peoples' Meeting. Let each one be always present, unless it is out of the question, and each one ready publicly, or privately, to pray or participate. Let the absent ones be visited, not in an uppish way, but in real loving interest, and we will see things move.
In all our work and service let us beware of class distinctions – between young and old, between rich and poor, etc. A rope is made up of many strands, and they do not all begin at the same point; if they did, where would the rope be? Let us be "fitly joined together " (Did you ever read the little booklet, " Hebich's Tub " ? -if not, get it).

What Can I Do ?

You must ask this question of the proper Person. " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ?" is the way it is put in the Bible. We cannot put this or that work in someone's hands, and tell them to do that. The one who has saved us is the one who can give us our work. Let us then ask this question of Him.

But there are some hints and suggestions we can give one another, not as rules, but for your consideration. There are first the great private responsibilities -Bible-reading, prayer, self-judgment-things that are needed if we are to walk with God. Then there is the privilege of confessing the Lord before men. If we are long in a company, at work or otherwise, where they do not know that we are children of God, there is something the matter. Let us show our colors, not in an offensive, harsh way, of course, but clearly and unequivocally, and we will have a joy in our hearts that .amply will repay for any rebuff or suffering connected with it.

Coming next to what would be called more exactly " work," there is the steady giving away of tracts. I don't mean the broadcast handing out (which one may sometimes do),but one here and there, perhaps one or two a day, and gradually increasing as you felt enabled. Think of the foreigners all about us-Italians, Poles, and other nationalities. God has brought them to our very doors, it may be that they should be saved through us.

Then isn't there somebody that no one in particular is looking after? Some old person who is very lonely, some sick body who would be much cheered by a visit ?

There is plenty to do, if you really want to do it. But you must not be legal about it, must not be driven to it with the lash of a bad conscience. God wants your love, and your happy service flowing from that. "The love of Christ constraineth us."" Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say, Rejoice."

Materials for Young People's Bible Class

First, Some young people, two to twenty in number.

Second, Bibles and note books.

Third, A teacher with a young heart.

Fourth, A convenient room, most any kind.

Fifth, A hunger for the Word.

Sixth, A spirit of reverence.

Seventh, Abiding faith in God.

Do you know where a class is needed ? Why not try to start one, by asking the Lord to lead ? Perhaps there is room for one in your own Sunday-school.

Correspondence

O fellow-heir of glory, come
And think upon His love
Who left His bright supernal home-
Those stainless courts above.

Angelic hosts His servants were,
They worshiped at His throne;
All worlds to Him their homage paid-
He ruled in every zone.

Thus boundless glory crowned His brow,
And yet He left it all
To be a lone, a sorrowing Man
In scenes of sin and thrall.

Unbending Justice held us fast
And sternly pressed its claim;
Its iron law proclaimed our doom,
Unsheathed its sword of flame.

But HE came forth, and dauntless stood
Our Surety to be;
That flaming sword was sheathed in Him,
And Justice counts us free.

In freedom set-forever free!
All praise to Him who died !
He's made us heirs-co-heirs with Him-
The Throned, the Glorified!

O fellow-saint, rejoice and sing-
Sing of His matchless grace,
Who from His home in glory came
And suffered in our place.

Unceasing praise our hearts should move
For love so deep and strong;
Our lives should be one joyous day,
One burst of praise and song!

But oft, alas, our bosom-fires
Have little warmth and glow,
This we deplore and sadly mourn,
Since He has loved us so.
But soon, unshackled, we shall rise
To breathe our native air:
Untrammeled then by things of time,
We'll praise Him fully there.

C. C. Crowston

There are many scriptures which, though not 1 expressly stating the deity of the Lord Jesus, infer it. Among these, the beautiful incentive to Christian giving in 2 Cor. 8 :9, has its place :

" For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

"Though He was rich." This could not be applied to His earthly pathway. The circumstances surrounding His birth all point to poverty. The manger-cradle, the offering brought by Mary on the day of her purification and the Lord's presentation (see Luke 2 :22-24) was the poorest admissible by the law, which read, " If she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtle-doves or two young pigeons" (Lev. 12 :8). Then also His Nazareth home and lowly connections:" Is not this the carpenter ?" they said of Him.

If we think of His pathway in ministry, it is evident that earthly riches He had not. Dependent on the ministration of others (Luke 8:3), with "nowhere to lay His head," He certainly was not rich, as this world counts wealth !

The words therefore in 2 Cor. 8 can have but one application, viz.:to a prior existence-His deity is implied! " He was rich." Yes! rich in glory; the One whom the angels worshiped and served; the One who was before all things, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things; the Creator and Upholder, by whom all things subsist – the eternal god!

He laid aside His glory, left His glorious estate, became poor, and was found in fashion as a man. No creature could rightly leave his first estate:to do so, would be to violate the bounds which God has set. Our first parents did this with direful consequences; a path of self-will has and ever must produce the bitterest fruit. But thus in self-abasement DEITY expressed itself, and the rich grace of a Saviour-God was made known. That mighty down-stoop was taken in deepest love, and out of the depths of His voluntary poverty we have been eternally enriched-rich in blessing now, enriched in glory by and by. The memory of it all surely bows our hearts in adoration, and we sing :

"Were the whole realm of nature ours,
That were an offering far too small;
Love that transcends our highest powers
Demands our lives, our souls, our all."

May the memory of that unselfish, infinite grace ever be before us, while we wait the full realization of our hope, and see His face. J. W. H. N.

My wee one walked the narrow wall-
What child but hungers thus to go ?
Her eyes alert lest she should fall
On the rough bouldered pave below.
At length she stopped, and this her plea,
As though overfull of care her cup:"
Please, father, hold my hand for me,
So when I walk, I can look up."

My Father, when I walk the ways
That teem with pitfalls for my feet,
That baby-plea of by-gone days
Shall to my sorer need be meet.
When halting 'twixt fearfulness and care,
In strife with the contents of my cup,
" Hold Thou my hand," shall be my prayer, "
That while I walk, I may look up."

How often is the expression heard among the people of God, "What we need is ministry!" But, when this is not available, are we to suppose that the people of God are left without provision to meet their need ? Far from it. On the contrary, we are told in Hebrews 3 :13 to

" Exhort one another daily."

In this passage, to exhort means to encourage, and one translation renders it, "Encourage yourselves each day." It is not that a speaker publicly exhorts an audience, but that we encourage one another-in a mutual way.

No doubt, like David in a day of testing, each must encourage " himself in the Lord his God " (i Sam. 30 :6), but Heb. 3 :13 goes further-we are to encourage one another. While seeking courage to go on ourselves, we shall seek to contribute to the on-going of all. I shall seek to encourage my brother, and he will seek to encourage me:we shall all encourage one another.

Often we courage one another. Some time ago a brother was deploring to me the lack of interest in gospel work; yet, although there was a gospel meeting that evening in his locality, he was absent from it; and, on enquiry, it was found he seldom came to any meeting except on Sunday morning. He was

Discouraging his brethren every day.

And it is here we are tested. We are prone to be affected in the same way; and, feeling mortified at such inconsistency, take the brother to task about it ungraciously. For unless we are walking humbly with our God, the danger is that we shall not know how to speak that good and faithful word which comes from Him who knows so well how to reach the conscience and heart, and an atmosphere of bitterness or depression may result. Could we but know how to get close to that brother's need- which may have its root in discouragement-and get him to see that if things are very weak, there is the more need that he with us make the most of what we have, what a gain it would be!

But some may ask, How can we encourage ourselves each day if we do not see one another each day? Let us at least endeavor to do so. If we think this is impossible, let us put it to the test and see; and if we fail, let us tell God about it. He knows all about us, and never suggests anything impracticable in His Word.

Often, Christians travel to the large business centers in the same trains. Often we discover a brother or sister in the same factory or store, whom we might never have seen had we not been similarly employed. Perhaps our neighbor loves the Lord. Perhaps the mail-carrier, the grocer, the milkman, or doctor is a believer. If we reside in the country, where it is said, '' Everybody knows his neighbors; " is there no opportunity in this for spiritual contact ? It would seem almost certain that if there is any heart for Christ we can at least

See one Christian every day,
even for a few minutes, or even while passing by. But when we do meet a fellow-Christian, how do we employ the occasion ? Do we fail to use it because we are in a hurry, or we think the brother doesn't see us ? Alas, while we would not be discourteous, if accosted, we may be cold of heart and pass him by without recognition. But let us remember that Christ is in him, and the "bowels and mercies" which are in Christ for us all will reveal themselves.

God intends that the vital bond between Christians should be turned to good account, and not merely for a few commonplace remarks. If in communion with God, even a sentence spoken in His fear, even a hand-clasp in His name, will be a blessing. Moreover, if cultivated, the habit of turning daily contact into mutual encouragement will grow.

It is not of gifted persons that we speak, but of all the followers of Christ. And gifts are not always accompanied with blessing. Is it not a fact that companies may have gifts without corresponding blessing? The Corinthian assembly was an example of this. On the other hand, is it not equally true that companies of believers may have no special gift or ministry, yet prosper and increase in numbers and in the knowledge of God ? With love and spiritual energy they are ready to enter into conversation with the unconverted, turning the drift of conversation toward the gospel, enter into the trials and joys of their fellow-believers, and support one another by prayer; or, with wisdom from above, deal with matters that arise in their midst, and are not averse to seeking counsel when necessary.

What a refreshing atmosphere such places afford! What a savor of Christ!

And what is the secret of it ? love putting to use the knowledge God has given, sharing it in a mutual way, encouraging one another each day.

While valuing public ministry, which our Lord provides for the edification of the Body, let us not undervalue that far-reaching and gracious method of edification, in which all can be contributors to the common good and the glory of the Lord. R. J. Reid.

(Read Genesis, chapter 26.)

From the opening verses of this chapter we learn that " there was a famine in the land"- the land which God had given to Abraham and to his seed forever, and where Isaac was to dwell. God encourages him afresh to this by this promise:"Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee and will bless thee;" and He reaffirms to Isaac the promises made to Abraham (vers. 3-5). This shows us that, even in the path where God had put his servant, there were to be trials of faith, and dependence upon God; even as at the present time those who occupy the position and path marked out for us in God's Word, in separation from the world, acknowledging the Lord Jesus as our only Head and Center must expect testings as to faith and obedience to God's revealed will.

Genesis 22 :i affords us an example how God tries or tests His servant Abraham's faith. We also know how He permitted trials to test His servant Paul; and He will test us also, that the trial of our faith may work patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope, with the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. But we must not be moved from our place of testimony through trial, for it is not our experience which decides whether or not we are in God's path, but it is the Word of God 'which is to be our guide, and settle all such questions for His people.

Egypt is a type of the world, where Isaac was not to go. In days of testing, we also may seek relief by departing from the place of God's appointment. Abraham did this on a similar occasion (ch. 12 :10). So did Elimelech later on (Ruth, ch. i) ; but such departures only bring sorrow, shame, and trouble to the child of God, while he who endures the trial in the place where God puts him, increases in blessing.

Isaac did not go all the way to Egypt, but abode in the border-land, in a town of the Philistines, who are a "type of natural men in heavenly things." He dwelt at Gerar-"wandering"-he became a wanderer instead of a pilgrim, as many a child of God has done by departing from the narrow path with God-not going all the way back to the world (Egypt)-but becoming wanderers, in association with natural men in heavenly things, which the world-church largely is.* *The proper faith of the child of God cannot be exercised at "Gerar," and God allows Isaac to be humbled there, even by a Philistine. Faith is sustained and blessed of God in the path He has marked out for His obedient people. [ED.*

Of course in such a place Isaac failed in his testimony (vers. 6-11), as many a child of God has done to his sorrow. But God's eye was upon His servant, and even in Gerar He blessed him, according to His promise, so that Isaac grew until he became very great and had great possessions.

Naturally this excited the envy of the Philistines and brought on strife and contention, for God will not allow His child to remain comfortably at ease in a false position. A Philistine can be at home in Gerar, just as an unsaved worldling can be at ease in a dead profession, but no true child of God can ever be really happy there; nor will he be allowed there the refreshments of soul which are rightfully his.

The Philistines had stopped the wells which Abraham's servants had digged, and filled them with earth, as a world-church to-day by earthly contrivances stops the pure streams of life and joy in the Lord, which are the blessed heritage of God's own children, and which those who have preceded us in the truth have opened up for the household of faith.

Finally, Isaac departed from Gerar, but only to the Valley of Gerar-not completely away from the country of the Philistines. He had not yet returned to the place of God's covenant, so that even while his servants found a well of springing water -type of the ministry of Christ by the Holy Spirit -he was not at peace. The herdsmen of Gerar claimed the water, as Protestantism to-day claims much of the precious truth which God gave His people to enjoy in communion with Himself. God has reopened His word to faith; and the living truth, which for long had been lost sight of, is restored for faith to enjoy. Many in our day would enjoy precious truth if it does not lead them too far. Many will take justification by faith, salvation by the blood of Christ and title to heaven through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much other precious truth, if only they do not have to go too far from Gerar. They would have the well of springing water, but not separation from what hinders full appreciation of our heavenly calling.

Isaac dug another well at Sitnah-"opposition." Opposition is what is found when the truth as to separation and practical holiness is maintained. It is sure to meet with opposition on the part of the great world-church, until, like Isaac, the follower of Christ moves out in full obedience and enjoyment of what God has marked out as His people's portion; then they find Rehoboth-" enlargement"- and here the Philistines do not follow them.

Now begins Isaac's true walk with God. He went up to Beer-sheba-"well of the oath"-where his father Abraham had " called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God" (Gen. 21:33), and where Abraham dwelt after the trial of his faith in offering up his son Isaac.

Thus did Isaac, sustained of God, come out of the land of the Philistines, into the place where God could fully be with him and bless him; and where we also, walking in accordance to His Word, shall be blessed. To Rehoboth-" a large place "- God would bring His people. There, communion is found. "The Lord appeared unto him, and said, "I am with thee." Does not our mind revert to the 23rd Psalm, " Thou art with me? " Or to Enoch, who walked in such close fellowship with God that one day he was not found ? He never returned, for God had taken him to Himself. We remember also the three Hebrew young men in the fiery furnace, and with them a fourth, "like the Son of God." And it is the blessed portion of every Christian to walk with God, to know His blessed presence, and to have secret communion with Him.

Isaac builded an altar there. He had none in Gerar. Now he can worship. There is no real worship except as we walk in fellowship with God. In communion with God we enter into the blessed knowledge of the Son of God-His blessed person. His atoning work, His love to us, the blessed promise of His return, how He has glorified God, and made Him known to us. It is this which enables us to worship.

At Beer-sheba Isaac "called upon the name of the Lord." We do not read of this in Gerar. What a blessed privilege we have in prayer. In worship we offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving:in prayer we make known to God our needs or intercede for others, and offer thanks as well for mercies received. We cannot live and enjoy the full Christian life unless we are a praying people. Oh, that God would lead us to be a people of deep, earnest, constant prayer and supplication!

At Beer-sheba the pilgrim character of Isaac is shown, for here he is able to walk in separation from the Philistines. An obedient walk with God must lead His child not only to separation from the follies and sins of a world away from God, but in separation from an empty profession of Christianity which has but "a name to live," while it is dead-a profession which admits to its ranks skeptics, Higher Critics, unbelievers of many kinds and various characters who, in greater or less degree deny the Person or atoning work of the Lord our Saviour. In association with evil, the child of God not only defiles himself, but in so far, links the holy name of the Son of God with that which is evil.

As citizens of heaven, we are not of this world, but pilgrims passing through, and daily

" Pitch our moving tent
A day's march nearer home."

Can we wonder that thus separated to God Isaac "digged a well" at Beer-sheba and found abundant refreshment there-"a well of water, springing up to everlasting life," as our Lord said to the woman, who left her water pot to tell the people of her city what and whom she had found.

The Holy Spirit has come to tell us what we have in Christ Jesus, and to guide us into all truth. He is here to glorify Christ and to give to God's people new views of the beauties and perfections of our Lord, as revealed in God's Word. Through the Spirit's guidance we drink afresh and again of this Living Water. At "Beersheba," in fellowship with God, we can " dig " into the pages of the Word, and the springs of refreshment will gush forth. May we ever dwell beside this well.

And now we find that the Philistines themselves have to bear testimony to Isaac's blessedness. They say, "We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee." As the Lord says of those who keep His Word and deny not His name (His own real character), "I will make them who say they are Jews (God's people), and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee " (Rev. 3:9). This is the final result of a real separation to God. But if they see in us only "a good man," of "square dealings," a good citizen, considerate of others, they see only what a good worldling may show while journeying on the way which leads to perdition. The Philistines' testimony to Isaac was, "We saw certainly that the Lord is with thee." It points to a different character as well as a different companionship than the worldling ; just as "they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus." Oh, may this character be ours, beloved reader, which is found in separation from the world and its aims, while enjoying true fellowship with Him who has called us by His grace. F.

QUES. 12.-Please answer in Help and Food a question which has been raised in our small meeting here. In Mark 1 :12 it says :"And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness." The question is, What spirit ? "Was it the Holy Spirit ? or the evil spirit?

ANS.-The connections leave no doubt that it was the Holy Spirit that led our Lord into the wilderness, where He was to be put to the test, "tempted of the devil." Luke 4 :1 says, "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness ; " " to be tempted of the devil," adds Matt. 4 :1. Satan never could lead thus the Holy One of God. It was necessary that the Second Man-the last Adam- in coming forth from His retirement and hidden life with God, into His public life as our Representative and Mediator, should be fully tested by him who had ruined the first man. The Holy Spirit therefore leads, or "impels" him to this test, as later He was to lead Him on to the cross.

There is much instruction and great beauty in all this. The first man, Adam, surrounded in the garden by tokens of God's care and goodness, breaks through God's one prohibition, and surrenders to Satan's first temptation. The Second Man is urged by the Spirit to meet Satan-not in Divine power, but in human weakness-to defeat Satan in all his wiles. The "saying of God " alone is used by the Second Man. Not once, but three times (that is, completely) and Satan is utterly defeated by " It is written ;" "It is written;" "It is written"-that is by complete obedience to God's word.

We quote, in connection with this, from the Numerical Bible, on Matt. 4 :"And here now is His own Beloved ! He uses not the power that is in His hand against the adversary. In conflict between good and evil, power cannot decide ; the good must manifest itself as that, and stand by its own virtue against all odds. The glorious Wrestler is stripped therefore for the wrestling. Son of God though He be, He comes into the poverty of the creature, the conditions of humanity, and these in their utmost strait-ness. Man, in Adam, had been tempted in a garden specially prepared and furnished for him. The weakness of the creature was owned, but tenderly provided for, so as to witness to the tender arms of love that were about him; he had but to shrink into them to be in perfect safety, beyond all possible reach of harm.

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

QUES. 13.-In John 6 :44, our Lord says :" No man can come to Me except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him." Does not God want all to be saved? Is not salvation free for all ?

ANS.-Yes, surely. In Heb. 2 :9 it is written, " That He (Christ) by the grace of God should taste death for every man." 2 Pet. 3 :9 also says, "The Lord … is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;" and our Lord Jesus, in that beautiful scripture, John 3 :16, declares that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." No one can read these declarations from God and say that He has not provided for the salvation of all, or that it is not His will that all should be saved.

But having thus declared His gracious will, and provided a means of salvation for all, what if they for whom He has thus provided, refuse His gracious appeal :"Come; for all things are now ready? " Alas, the next word is, " They all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said," etc. (See Luke 14 :15-24.)

Is God's prepared supper then to be absolutely fruitless ? Will none be there? Oh, yes! How, then? Verses 21-23 give the explanation. They are not asked to come, now ; the Servant (the Holy Spirit) is to "briny in … the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind." Yea, " Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in "-their needs, their very misery are used to compel them to come. They who otherwise would not come, are thus by the Father's will drawn to the Son our Saviour, who says, "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me ; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (Jno. 6 :37).

"I will put my trust in Him," may be said to have J. been the language of the life of Jesus. But His faith was gold, pure gold, nothing but gold. When tried by the furnace, it comes out the same mass as it had gone in, for there was no dross. Saints have commonly to be set to rights by the furnace. Some impatience or selfishness or murmur has to be reduced or silenced, as in Ps. 73 and 77. Job was overcome:trouble touched him, and he fainted, though often he had strengthened the weak hands, and upheld by his word them that were falling. "The stoutest are struck off their legs," as an old writer says. Peter sleeps in the garden, and in the judgment-hall tells lies, and swears to them; but there has been One whom the furnace, heated seven times, proved precious beyond expression.

See this Holy One of God in that great chapter, Luke 22, in the hour of the trial of faith. He is first in company with the sorrow that was awaiting Him; then with His disciples; then with the Father; and then with His enemies. Mark it all, beloved:how unutterably perfect all is! What unalloyed preciousness, when tried in the fire! But all the life of Jesus was this-the life and obedience of faith. In one light of it, it was the Son of God in the form of a servant, humbling Himself even unto death; but in another, it was the life of faith, "I will put my trust in Him," " I have set the Lord always before Me:because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." These are His breathings, and we celebrate Him, after our own way, in His life of faith, and sing together of Him-

" Faithful amidst unfaithfulness,
'Mid darkness only light,
Thou didst Thy Father's name confess,
And in His will delight."

And all this precious life of faith was answered by the care and keeping of God. " He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." The faith of Him who was serving on earth was perfect, and the answer to it by Him who dwelt in the heavens was perfect (see Psalm 91).

The care which watched over Him was unceasing, from the womb to the grave. So had it been of old declared by His Spirit in the prophets:"I was cast upon Thee from the womb; Thou art my God from my mother's belly;" "Thou didst make Me hope [or, Thou keepest Me in safety] when I was upon my mother's breasts." It was love's unwearied care throughout. " Thou maintainest my lot; " "My flesh also shall rest in hope; for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades ; neither wilt Thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption" (Ps. 22 and 16). This help, and care, and watchfulness, in one aspect of His history, was everything to Him; and He who kept that Israel could not slumber in the care of Him.

But all this, instead of being inconsistent with the full divine rights of His person, gets its special character from them. The glory of this relationship, and of the joy and complacency which attended it, is gone, if the Person be not vindicated and honored. Such was the Person, that His entrance into the relationship was an act of self-emptying; but He had taken "the form of a servant" in counsel before the world began; and, as fruit thereof, He was " found in fashion as a man." He was "Emmanuel" as an infant in Bethlehem, as He is now at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. All was humbling of Himself, from the womb to the cross. I forget His person, or who He was, if I doubt that. He was the -object of the Father's care, and yet Jehovah's Fellow; and we may look at His path in the chastened light with which that divine care and watchfulness invest it, as we may gaze at it in that brightest light and most excellent glory in which His rights aud honors as the Son of God present it to us.

By reason of such various truth as this, He could say, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up; " and yet the Holy Ghost could say of Him, that the God of peace brought Him again from the dead (John 2:19; Heb. 13:20). His enemies, who sought His life, fell before Him at a word; and yet, so did His perfect faith acknowledge God's perfect care and guardianship, that He could say, " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (John 18 :5, 6; Matt. 26 :53). He could, with a touch, heal the ear of the servant, nay, restore it when cut off, when just at the same time He would have His own brows bleed under the crown of thorns. In the perfection of His place, as the emptied One, He would ask for sympathy, and say, " Could ye not watch with Me one hour?" Then, in still greater gloom, He could be above the pity of the daughters of Jerusalem, and honor by the promise of Paradise the faith of a dying malefactor, for His glory shines even in the deepest moment of His humiliation. And let sinners know that it is not the compassion of men His cross seeks, but their faith; that it does not ask them in human kindliness to feel that hour, but in the faith of their hearts, to the full peace of their consciences, to be blessed by that hour ; not to pity the cross, but to lean on it, and to know, that though accomplished in weakness, it is the very pillar which is to sustain the creation of God forever.

In such different, but consistent forms, we read the life of the Son of God in flesh. Is the one the less real because the other is true ? The tears of Jesus over Jerusalem were as real as though there was nothing in His heart but the sorrow of an ill requited Lord and Saviour over a rebellious, unbelieving people. And yet His joy in the purpose of divine wisdom and grace was just the same pure reality. The "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! " and then the "I thank Thee, O Father" (Matt, 11:21, 25), were equally living and true affections in the soul of Jesus. There was no want of full reality in either; and so "the form of a servant," with all its perfect results, and "the form of God," in all its proper glories, were, in the like way, real and living mysteries in the one Person.

Let us turn aside to gaze more intently at His person, while we are tracing either the acts of His life, or the secrets of His love and truth. It is a part of the obedience of faith to do so. "The fear of the Lord is clean; " but there is a fear that is not altogether clean, having some spirit of bondage and unbelief in it. The refusal to turn and look at such great sights as these may be such. I grant the "mystery," and that the mystery is "great." So was it a great and mysterious sight which Moses turned to look at; but with unshod feet he might still look and listen. Had he not done so, he would have gone away unblessed. But he listened, till he discovered that the " I AM " in the bush was also " the God of Abraham." A strange spot for such glory to enshrine itself! But so it was. In a burning bramble-bush, the Lord God Almighty was found.

And supposing I go to Calvary, and look there on the smitten "Shepherd," whom shall I discover, if I have an opened eye, but the Fellow of the Lord of hosts ? (Zech. 13.) And if I go into the midst of the rabble which surrounded Pilate's judgment-hall at Jerusalem, whom shall I find there ? The One spit upon and buffeted and derided, is Him who of old dried up the Red Sea, and covered the Egyptian heavens with sackcloth (Isa. 50 :3). And I ask, When I have so looked, and by the light of the Spirit in the prophets made these discoveries, am I quickly to retire ? If I had bowels, I might ask, Where can I go for richer refreshment of spirit? If my faith discover, in the grieved and insulted Jesus, amid the men of Herod and the Roman officer, the God who did His wonders of old in the land of Ham, am I not to linger on that mount of God, and Moses-like to turn aside and look and listen ? I cannot treat the sight as too great for me. I do not believe that such would be the mind o£ the Spirit. An unsubdued spirit or reasonings of the mind shall be rebuked as they transgress, but to linger there is not transgression but worship. The exercises of our hearts are dull and cold indeed;
and the sorrow is (if one may speak for others), not that we spend too much thought over the mystery of the person of the Son of God, but that we retire to other objects too quickly. Another has well said, "That Person will be the eternal wonder and ornament of the creation of God."

"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him," says the apostle in Phil. 2. We are only in new wonders when we read these words. For what, we may ask, could exalt Him ? Ere He entered upon. His course of sufferings and of glories, He was in Himself infinitely great and blessed. Nothing could personally exalt Him, being, as He was, "the Son." His glory was divine. It was unspeakable and infinite. No other honors could ever increase His personal glory. But still we see Him traversing a path which conducts Him to honor and glory still.

Strange and excellent mystery! And these new and acquired glories are, in some sense, the dearest with Him. Scripture entitles us thus to speak; as it does to speak of many things of His grace which the heart would never have conceived. To compare divine things with human is the way of the Spirit's instruction. Let the highest by birth, the son of a king, go forth and acquire dignities:his acquired dignities, though they cannot raise him personally, will be his dearest distinctions; they form the choicest materials of his history in the esteem of others. Such a thing as that is instinctively understood among us. And so is it (in the unspeakably precious mystery of Christ) with the Son of God. According to eternal counsels, He has gone forth to battle; and the honors He has acquired, the victories He has won, or is still to win, will be His joy for eternity. They are to form the light in which He will be known, and the characters in which He will be celebrated forever ; though, personally, He dwells in a light which no man can approach unto. And this He prizes:" Jehovah-Jireh" (the Provider, Gen. 22:14); " Jehovah-rophi " (the Shepherd, Ps. 23 :i) ; "Jehovah-shalom " (the Peace-Giver, Judg. 6 :24); "Jehovah – Tsidkenu " (our Righteousness, Jer. 23 :6) ; " Jehovah-nisei" (our Banner, Ex. 17:15), are all acquired honors-they are chief with Him in the unspeakable ways of boundless grace ! In Ex. 3 He communicates His personal name to Moses, saying out of the bush, "I AM THAT I AM." But then He communicates His acquired name also, calling Himself " the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; " and to this acquired name He adds:"This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations "-words which deeply tell us how He prized that glory which He had acquired in His doings for sinners. As also in the tabernacle, or temple, where His name was recorded, it was His acquired and not His personal name that was written and read there. The mysteries of that house did not speak of His essential omnipotence, omniscience, or eternal glories, but of One in whom mercy rejoiced against judgment, and who had found out a way whereby to bring His banished ones home to Himself.

Surely these are witnesses of what price in His sight is His name gained in service for us. That "God is love," may account for it all, and tells the secret. If the manifestations are excellent and marvelous, the hidden springs are in Himself.

"Of the vast universe of bliss,
The Center Thou and Sun :
The eternal theme of praise is this,
To heaven's beloved One :
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow."

J. G. B.

" In all undertakings of service for the Lord consider what your purpose is, not your feelings about it. It is your purpose God looks at, not your feelings about that purpose. We may follow our feelings, but God does not deal with feelings; He searches our hearts as we wait before Him. Let emotions come, or go, just as God pleases:they are not sure indicators of your spiritual state, but may be merely indicators of your temperament or physical condition. See that your heart's purpose is right, and leave the rest to God."