The reader should always turn to the Bible and read the passages referred to.

QUES. 1.- Did God write on the tables that Moses hewed? Exodus 34:28 would make it appear that Moses wrote the Law on the second tables, but Deut. 10 :1-4 is in apparent conflict with that conclusion. I have always taught that God never does anything twice. Am I right in that? I am convinced that the second tables were written by the Spirit through Moses.

ANS. – In verse 2 of this chapter to which you refer, God says to Moses, "I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them into the ark;" and in verse 4 Moses repeats it. Should not that be final?

The only possible difficulty in Exod. 34 :28 is to whom does the pronoun "he " in the last sentence refer. This was answered in Help and Food, March, 1919, in which it was pointed out that verses 10-26 of Exod. 34 give the items of what Israel was to observe, when God would bring them into Canaan. Moses was to write these things – not merely tell them to the people. Verse 27 closes the subject. Then, verse 28 reiterates how Moses was with Jehovah on the Mount, and that He (Jehovah) wrote upon the tables the ten commandments, which were then to be kept in the ark (type of Christ) instead of those broken by Moses, in view of the people's sin.

To assert that "God never does anything twice," though in a general way true, is going beyond Scripture, as this about the tables shows. 2 Sam. 22 is, with slight differences, a repetition of Ps. 18; and some of our Lord's miracles and parables are repeated in different Gospels, usually in different connections, with a purpose not always easy to discover.

QUES. 2. – Can an unsaved person lie to the Holy Ghost or tempt the Spirit of the Lord?

ANS.-Lying to the Holy Spirit refers to the circumstance in which such an offence is committed, rather than the person's condition. The presence of the Holy Spirit was manifest by works of power and grace before the eyes of Ananias and Sapphira when they professed what was not true. Dissembling at such a time made their offense exceeding serious and hateful. It was tempting, or provoking, the Spirit of the Lord to His face, and by their sudden cutting off from the earth God impressed upon all the holiness of His presence and character.

In Leviticus 10:1, 2 and 2 Kings 5:20-27 we find similar circumstances. On the inauguration day of the priesthood in Israel, after "fire from before the Lord" had consumed the sacrifice upon the altar, two sons of Aaron presumed to offer what the Lord had not commanded, and fire from the Lord consumed them. Sacrilegious Gehazi falsified the grace of God by lying to the Syrian, and the leprosy from which divine grace had just delivered Naaman was attached to Gehazi. In all this we are not called to judge if the person is saved or lost, but to the fact of God's holiness, who "will be sanctified in them that come nigh, and glorified before all the people."

QUES. 3.-Will you give us your thoughts in Help and Food as to Christmas celebrations-Christmas trees, etc.? Are those things right for Christians?

ANS.-It all depends on the purpose of the heart. Generally speaking the day is used as a public holiday, for feastings and pleasures in which our blessed Lord Jesus has no place. It were far better in such case that Christ's holy name were not associated with it. On the other hand a large number do think of Christmas as a celebration of our Saviour's birth, and associate innocent pleasures with it for the children, such as a green tree hung with lights and little presents, often accompanied with suited hymns. Let us not condemn such, though thankful when the joy takes more spiritual forms.

QUES. 4.-To whom was Paul speaking in Gal. 6:1? -to those who were seeking to be justified by the law, or was it to others?

ANS.-"Ye that are spiritual" (in ver. 1) seems to be used by the apostle somewhat as a challenge to the law-teachers who posed as superior or more advanced Christians. Here was the opportunity to show true spirituality -a true spirit of Christ-in caring for the lame and the sick among His flock. A legal spirit is of necessity self-occupied. To bear one another's burden is the spirit of grace-the ways, the spirit, the law of Christ.
Young Believers' Department

"Ye shall hallow the 50th year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof:it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession . . . every man unto his family" (Lev. 25:10).

'Tithe land shall not be sold for ever," says the Lord, JL "for the land is mine" (Lev. 25:23). Man has a term of years in which it is left in his power to disturb the divine order. For forty-nine years in Israel the disturbing traffic might go on, but in the 50th year the Lord re-asserted His right, and restored all things according to His own mind, for it was a time of "refreshing" and of "restitution" as from His own presence.

Oh, bright and happy expectation! "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof," is the proclamation of Psalm 24. Then the challenge goes forth, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?"-that is, Who shall take the government of this earth and its fulness? and answer is made by another challenge to the city gates:"Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in;" and this King is "the Lord of Hosts; He is the King of glory." it is a fervent form of words whereby to convey the truth that the Lord, in strength and victory, the Lord as Redeemer and Avenger, should take the government.

In Rev. S a like proclamation is heard, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?" And the answer from every region is this, It is "the Lamb that was slain, the Lion of the tribe of Judah." He who sat on the throne gives the answer by letting the Book pass from His hand into the hand of the Lamb. The living creatures and crowned elders join in that answer by singing their song over the triumph of the Lamb and in their reigning with Him over the earth. The hosts of angels add to it, by ascribing all wisdom and strength and honor, and right of dominion unto the Lamb; and every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth and in the seas, in their order and measure, join in uttering the same answer. The title of the Lamb to take dominion in the earth is thus owned and verified in the very place where alone all lordship or office could be rightly attested-in the presence of the Throne in heaven.

And so it is. The nobleman has now gone into the distant country to get for himself a kingdom. Jesus, who refused all power from the god of this world (Matt. 4), or from the selfish desire of the multitude (John 6), takes it from God; as psalm 62 declares that to Him it belongs. And in due season He will return, and those who have owned Him in the day of His rejection shall reign with Him in the day of His glory; those who have served Him now shall reign with Him then.

In the prospect of such a day, Paul says to Timothy, "Keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:which in his time He shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, the Lord of lords." And in the like prospect the same dear apostle could say of himself, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

May the Lord give us, beloved-for we need it much- more of the like spirit of faith and power of hope! Amen. J. G. B.

In the August number of last year's Help and Food we gave an account of the doctrinal conflict in the Baptist Body in Convention at Indianapolis, Ind., between the so-called "Fundamentalists -' and "Modernists." These last, still professing Christianity (falsely, indeed), reject all its fundamental doctrines, as the virgin birth of our Lord, His vicarious death in atonement for sin, His bodily resurrection and ascension to heaven, and His coming again in judgment upon the ungodly. All the miracles recorded in the Bible, therefore, are also denied. It has been well said that Modernism goes full well with Tom Payne's "Age of Reason."

Yet, with Modernism preponderant at the Baptist Convention last year, an open division between the Fundamentalists and Modernists was cleverly averted by the proposition that "The New Testament is the all-sufficient ground of faith and practice, and that we need no other," to which it was agreed-and this after the Modernists had openly rejected its cardinal truths, as embodied in the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, which hitherto had been owned by the Baptist churches!

It was predicted then, that as Modernism is rampant in all the large Protestant denominations, the same conflict, with probable cleavage, would result at their great conventions. The large North Presbyterian body has just passed through this test in their General Assembly, convened in Indianapolis, Ind., as the Baptists a year before. Alas, it was the clergy that chiefly supported Modernism as expressed in Dr. Fosdick's sermon of a year ago in the New York Presbyterian Church, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"-in which rationalism, smoothly and cleverly expressed, is made to supplant faith in the whole foundation of Christianity.

The Presbytery of Philadelphia, alarmed by the Rationalistic preaching, unchecked in the New York Presbytery, which represents about 170 congregations, desired the N. Y. Presbytery last year to take notice of and examine the unfaithful teaching among them. Little notice being taken of this by the N. Y. Presbytery, it was carried to the General Assembly this year. A committee of the General Assembly before whom this appeal came for examination, was not disposed to take it up however; and recommended that it be left with the N. Y. Presbytery, only one out of the members of the committee dissenting from this. A vote, however, was taken on this matter by the Assembly, and the Committee's recommendation was over-ruled by a majority of 80 votes in about 800 clergyman and elders composing the Assembly. Thus it was decided:

"That the anti-Fosdick resolution of the Assembly be sent to the session of First Presbyterian Church of New York, and that their reply to the Assembly [when it assembles again] be drafted only after lengthy consideration, and that the overture from Harlem, New York, Church on the same subject, which has been under discussion by the committee, be withdrawn by that church."

"It was generally believed among the presbyters," says a correspondent, "that yesterday's action virtually disposes of the ecclesiastical onslaught against Dr. Fosdick, and that when the committee reports again it will merely announce that after due inquiry it has found that the preaching in the First Church conforms to the Westminster Confession (!)."

Thus, after all, the slender victory of the Fundamentalists in the Presbyterian General Assembly of this year may yet (and probably will) be frittered away when it shall again assemble.
Meanwhile the N. Y. Presbytery, in general, is reported as a bold supporter of Modernism. The following extract, and many others, show this:

"I charge the Assembly," said Dr. Clarke, of the First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, "with having wrought a grave and fearful injury to the Church it was supposed to bless. Without any authority whatsoever, and in distinct defiance of the basic principles of our Church, it has served an impertinent and arrogant notice that there is no room in the Presbyterian ministry for the progressive mind.

"Let there be no mistake about the significance of the action of the General Assembly. It undertook to say certain things must not be tolerated in the preaching from the pulpits of the denomination. It voted that it was essential and necessary for a Presbyterian minister to believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, in the virgin birth of Jesus, in a particular theory of the death of Christ on the cross, in the physical resurrection of our Lord, and in the veracity and genuineness of the miracles attributed to Jesus.

"In all frankness I do not believe one of those five points." (S. S. TIMES.)

A Unitarian preacher in his discourse commented upon the Presbyterian General Assembly at Indianapolis and the Modernists as follows:

"While we believe Mr. Bryan is wandering in the biological darkness of pre-Darwinian days, we also believe he is right in recognizing that a belief in evolution attacks orthodox Christianity at a vital center. The one foundation of the orthodox church is a belief in the fall of man necessitating an atonement through the sacrificial death of Christ. Remove that foundation and the whole edifice crumbles. The distinction between the orthodox church and the Unitarian begins with our belief in the rise of man. Thus, man is rising from lowly beginnings and is marching upward. To us evolution is as much of a demonstrated fact as the sphericity of the earth."

If Modernists but honorably withdrew from the professedly orthodox Christian bodies to which they pledged their allegiance in entering them, one might respect them while deploring their defection from what they once professed. But, no!-they persist in remaining attached to the body they have betrayed, and still call themselves by the precious name of Christ while they deny all that makes Him the true Christ of Scripture-the Christ of God-whom the Gospels declare. A deluded man may be pitied, but a deliberate betrayer can only be scorned, whatever his haughty and false profession may be.

"Caesar's friends? or friends of Jesus?
Solemn question for today! Friends of Caesar!
Friends of Jesus!
Take your sides, without delay-
Friends of Caesar! Friends of Jesus!
Stand revealed-your choice declare,
Who in truth two masters pleases?
Who may rival banners bear?"
"He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me . . . and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me"-Matt. 10:37, 38.

Calendar:Aug. l&th to Sept. 15th.
DAILY BIBLE READING:………Aug. 16th, Rom. 3; Aug. 31st, 1 Cor. 2; Sept. 15th, 2 Cor. 1. MEMORY WORK:. …………………….. .John 13.
GOOD READING:-"Glories of Christ," by C. C .Crowston, from page 83 to end.
MONTHLY QUESTION:..What difference of thought is connected with the references to water in John's writings?

Our Memory Work

Having finished the first epistle of John, I have thought it would be both precious and helpful for our souls if we now studied the chapters of John's Gospel which record the closing conversations of our blessed Lord with His own just before the betrayal, and also His priestly and intercessory prayer to the Father. This takes in from chapter 13 to the end of chapter 17.

This portion is full of the Lord's desire, and provision for His people. It speaks of and unfolds the precious fellowship in which we are brought with the Father and the Son, through the eternal life communicated to us, and the Holy Spirit, to which the teaching of John's First Epistle has introduced us.

In these chapters the Lord is bringing us in association with Himself as Man, in fellowship with God the Father, so that we may have part in His peace, His joy, His love, His fruitfulness-in fact in all that marked His path, in eluding rejection from the world.

As we study this portion may the Lord give us an abundant entrance into all that He has for us in it.

Our Daily Bible Reading

We read this month two very important epistles- Romans and 1 Corinthians.

In Romans we get great unfoldings of the gospel of God. Man's need is fully stated. God's full provision is made known-in "the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." The principle of faith, upon which blessing alone is realized, is enforced by argument, example and precept. The new headship, in Christ, is made known, and certain aspects of practical deliverance, to which the knowledge of the new place in Christ should lead, and indeed does, in proportion as the truth here presented is held fast according to the reckoning of faith. Freedom, service, fruitfulness, and power, through the Spirit, with the enjoyment of His things, are the result in the believer.

Then the relation of the gospel, and God's blessed grace in His dispensational ways are set forth in chaps. 9-11. Finally, the practical ways, which become the recipients of such mercies, are set before us in chaps. 12-15.

Romans deals with much that is individual in character, while 1st Corinthians gives what is corporate. In it we find the assembly of God, the company of those called out from both Jews and Gentiles, to be in separation from the world, its spirit, its ways, its wisdom, its evil, and to be wholly for Christ, with the blessed hope of being with Him and like Him.

This epistle, then, sets before us the place, character, order, and fellowship which pertain to the assembly:that is to any company of believers gathered to Christ's name; they are to walk in the light of God's thoughts for His people, as built together for His habitation through the Spirit.

First, we have the unity of the saints, founded upon God's grace expressed toward us in Christ. Being made to us wisdom and power, our confidence and rejoicing are to be ever in Him. Yet as the Crucified One in the world, it necessarily involves that the assembly is unworldly, 1:e., separated from the world and its whole system. It is linked with God's eternal counsels; to it is given the divine revelation through the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, and the mind of Christ is to characterize it. Then, since the saints are God's building, His temple, holiness becomes them:sin must be judged, and our relations together must be such as He can approve. Fellowship with Christ our Saviour, in His humiliation and sacrifice, is expressed in the cup and the loaf which symbolize the blood and body of Christ given for us; and with one another as assembled together to announce the Lord's death until He come. Then, the Spirit of God, who dwells in God's House, exercises His ministry through the members in whom He dwells-all in the grace and power of love,-the first and chief part of the fruits He produces. Upbuilding in love,-not in outward display according to the spirit of the world-is the great object in view. All is to be done unto edification.

Finally, the foundation of our hope and destiny is founded upon resurrection, as the result of Christ's work upon the cross.

I trust our month's reading will prove of great profit to us all.

SOME HINTS IN RELATION TO THE BIBLE AND

MODERN THOUGHT

The distinctive character of the Bible comes out in several ways. First, as to the established facts of science there is an acknowledged harmony. Even granting that the Bible is not written to teach science, yet, since it is God's Book, for which we claim fullest inspiration, and therefore absolute inerrancy, we must expect to find its statements as to matters of scientific import, to be of abiding value and truth. What it says on any subject does not call for any apology from us. If God is the author of the Bible, it must have divine accuracy as coming from One who sees the universe through and through. His vision penetrates beyond the range of the greatest telescope, and nothing can be too small for His eye to discern. If there be anything referred to in Scripture which telescope, microscope, or any other means of investigation has not yet made known, it is no ground to discredit the Bible record, for neither scientific investigation, nor scriptural interpretation, can claim to have reached the ultimate.

We may safely state that the Bible, being God's Book, teaches nothing scientifically false. It does not use the so-called exact language of science, but to admit this is very different from charging it with errors in science. The astronomer with all his scientific nomenclature still speaks of sunrise and sunset, and does not expect to be condemned for it.

The Bible was written for man in language perfectly adaptable to him in every age and clime. Of no other literature, ancient or modern can this be said. Hence the abiding value of all Scripture. "The word of the Lord abides for ever" (1 Pet. 1:25). It is not a classification of scientific facts, like a museum of specimens, but a book possessed of all the variety which we see in the multiform manifestation of life, as we behold it with our eyes; it is a book full of moral and spiritual teaching, revealing God to man in a way always precious, while it also faithfully portrays man in every phase of his life and responsibility.

The Bible is marked by the individuality of those used of God to write it; yet all is in evident control, blended in perfect unity, all contributing to the one ruling mind and purpose. Yet when that which bears a relation to scientific matters is introduced, whatever may be the difference in diction and style between the Bible and Science, there neither is, nor can be, any actual difference as to facts. If otherwise, God must be thought to err! Many have been the supposed antagonisms which have been dissipated either by the more careful study of the text of the Bible, or by scientific men finding it necessary to change their dictum when their investigations have reached further.

Though often assailed the Bible remains impregnable. The conflict has really been between the errors of science and the truth of the Bible. It would be sad indeed to find the Bible agreeing with some supposed scientific fact, dressed up in the strictest scientific garb, which later is proved incorrect. This has never been the case with Scripture, but it is one of the evident marks stamped on all other ancient literature, proving its origin to be human, not divine.

Conflict between the Bible and science is mainly to be found in connection with scientific opinions (not facts) which lack confirmation. We may well accept unquestioningly the statements of the Book, no matter what the greatest of men may say. Science has changed too often for its dictum to be considered infallible.

Another important point to guard is that we must distinguish between what Scripture says, and what is recorded in the Scriptures. False statements are unerringly recorded for our instruction. The words of evil and foolish men are given, and even those of Satan. Because such things are found in the Bible does not mean that they are accredited as truth, for its Divine teachings will be found to refute them, but it is a true record.

It may prove of interest to very briefly outline some of the great differences between the Bible and ancient literature when both are considered in the light of established scientific facts. The Bible does not lose, but its preeminence is manifested by such a comparison. It has nothing to fear.

The reader should always turn to the Bible and read the passages referred to.

QUES. 12.-Will you please answer in Help and Food as to the following:In Mark 9:42-48, what does the Lord mean by cutting off hand or foot? How can the hand or foot offend one?

ANS.-Our Lord constantly used things natural or physical to illustrate spiritual truths. Note how largely in the Gospels the Lord taught by parables-as in Matt. 13th chapter. It is a simple and forceful way of presenting truths which might be difficult for our apprehension. Things that we see are made to illustrate what we cannot see. Thus the hand represents things that we do; and the foot points to our walk, or conduct. Persons may think they have to do this, that, and the other, to get along in this world; or they must go with, associate with, what they know is not right, not according to God. It brings a bad conscience, and if continued in it acts like local paralysis-it deadens the conscience. "Cut it off," says the Lord. Better lose a member than the whole body- better endure a temporary loss in this life, better cut off present indulgence, than lose one's soul eternally in hell! How simple the picture, and forceful the application.

QUES. 13.-In John 20:22 it is said that the Lord breathed on the twelve disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Did He speak of the day of Pentecost, or did they receive the Holy Spirit at that time?

ANS.-It is not of a special act or moment that this passage speaks, but of what characterizes the present dispensation. Consider the last part of John's Gospel from chap. 13 to end of the 20th, you will see that in this last night, with His disciples alone, the Lord prepares them for what was before them. He was going to leave them; His work here on earth was finished; He was going back to the Father; they were to believe in Him now even as in the Father, invisible to them. He washes their feet as a picture of what He is doing for us now. He strengthens them in view of the opposition they would meet from the world, even as He had suffered opposition. In His high-priestly prayer (ch. 17) He says, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (though the cross was yet before Him), and He presents them to the Father in the value of that work which is considered as done. It is all anticipative, you see.

Now in the 20th chapter, as the Risen One, He takes His place before them as the Head of a new race to whom He gives a new life-eternal life-"He breathed on them." As He had breathed natural life into Adam, now as "the last Adam, a quickening Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45), He takes His place as the communicator of eternal life to the new race of whom He is the Head, and the gift of the Holy Spirit accompanies the new position in which He brings those whom God has given Him. The passage therefore speaks not of receiving eternal life then, nor the Holy Spirit then, but is emblematic of the Lord's place in new creation.

"If we were but more emptied of ourselves, the Lord might use us more. The carpenter can use his saw, file, or hammer without fear of its boasting of the work for which it was used by its owner. If God uses any of us, how much discipline often accompanies it, lest we boast in what He has wrought by our means-lest we be spoiled by it."

(1 Cor. 11:17-34.)

Having fenced off in the previous chapters what is inconsistent with the Lord's house, the apostle now comes to the consideration of the assembly itself; and, first, what gathers it. The order here is very simple and beautiful. We have, first of all (ch. 11:17-31):Christ in the exhibition of His love for us in the sacrifice of His death as that which draws us together. This is what our eyes are first fixed upon. This is where communion is found with one another.

Then, in chapter 12, we turn to look at those who are in this way gathered. They are members of Christ, the body of Christ; and we learn what is implied in this, not only that which makes them one, but the diversity which exists in this unity, which is implied in the body as an organism. Then we have, in the 13th chapter, the spirit which practically animates the body of Christ, the spirit of love, which is the spirit of ministry-a ministry which the body implies, for the members are members one of another, and exist not merely for themselves, but for the whole. We are then competent to look at the exercise of the gifts as come together in actual assembly. This is in the 14th chapter, and we see how the spirit of love orders everything, and produces that which is true spiritual order according to God. This closes this part of the epistle.

Now, in chapter 11, we have, in the first place, the center of communion, Christ Himself-not looked at as a living Person, as many would expect, although He is in the midst. We are gathered together to His Name. That implies His absence rather than His presence, but it is the expression of what we know of Him as the absent One. It is this apprehension of Him that gathers us, and we see at once that it is not a living, but a dead Christ that is before us. That is the very point of it. We are brought to look back upon the hole of the pit from which we are digged, and to realize our indebtedness to this blessed One whom we remember. Important it is that we should realize this fact, that it is a dead Christ and not a living One we remember. It is the destruction of ritualism, in this respect, to its very center -the body of Christ which some speak of as indeed received in the Lord's supper. What body do they think of-a living or a dead body? Do they really think that they actually receive the dead body of Christ in the Lord's supper? The living body is out of the question. It is a dream which is not found in any text of Scripture. A dead body they do not think of, and yet if it be any participation that we have here, it is in the dead body, not in the living one.

The apostle begins here with a reference once more to their divisions-that in coming together they came not for the better, but for the worse; it makes apparent-as coming near to God in fact does-their true condition. Their sects declared themselves in making separate parties in that which they owned to be the one body of Christ, even going so far as each to take before others his own upper; it was manifest that he made it his own and not the supper of the Church as a whole, and one was hungry and another was even drinking to excess.

The "agape" or love feast, which existed very early in the Church, was the continuation of this paschal supper, which, though it did not really belong to the supper of the Lord ("the breaking of bread"), yet was supposed to make it all the more exactly according to the institution. Thus there was in connection with the supper the taking of a meal, which gave the opportunity that we see here the Corinthians availed themselves of for license. The preliminary feast was in fact, crowding out the Lord's supper altogether, and they were going on as if in entire forgetfulness of it. That is evidently what the apostle is saying here. He reproves them by asking, have they not houses for eating and drinking in, or were they putting to shame the poor who had not, and despising the assembly of God which embraces them all?

Then he calls them back to the institution of the supper as the Lord had given it. It is striking that he had received this of the Lord Himself. As the distinct minister of the Church, it was not simply what he found already existing, as in the case of baptism. Christ had not sent him specially to baptize, although he did baptize as others did; but the Lord's supper has a different place altogether. As that in which the unity of the body of Christ was manifested, he must have a special revelation concerning it. Thus he speaks of the special way and circumstances, so touching as they were, in which the Lord had instituted this gathering feast; it was on the night on which He was delivered up, in which there was the treachery of one of His own, one of those specially gathered around Himself, who had walked in company with Him, beholding the manifestation of divine love and power in Him.

It was upon such a night as this, and in the midst of the shadow which was thus coming upon His soul, that He had taken the bread, giving thanks, and broken it, and said:"This is my body, which is for you; ["broken" is not in the original] this do in remembrance of Me." Simplicity itself all this is; how completely opposite, again, to all that ritualism has connected with it! In like manner also, after supper He took the cup, saying:"This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do ye, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." The apostle adds, as this interpretation of it:"For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye declare the Lord's death until He come."

No atmosphere of mystery surrounds this. It is simply the memorial of a death to which we as Christians owe our all-the death of the One whom it has made our Lord forever. In contrast with all this, think of what ritualism has made of it! It is striking, also, that the thing for which he is reproving the Corinthians, is for not discerning the Lord's body. It was the very opportunity to show what this discernment of the Lord's body would be. He takes no trouble to define it. He does not in the least suppose that there is any mystery about it, in the sense in which men speak of it. That which he speaks of is bread and the cup. These are the memorials of the Lord in His death. The bread is His body, more strictly Himself, as one may say. The cup is His blood, the remembrance not so much of Himself as of His work. The body and the blood are separate. It is, again, a dead Christ that we remember. We surely remember also that He is risen from the dead, and we know, by faith, that He is present with us; but all this, while it gives additional gladness to the celebration, in no wise forms part of the celebration itself.

The Person of the Lord, as already said, appears more distinctly in the bread which we break. It is this One, the Man Christ Jesus, whom we remember. This implies no forgetfulness of what He was, of course; it is in fact the One who was here in the world in that life and death of His which were for us, which give us all our knowledge of Him as He lives now before God. All our apprehension of Him belongs to this manifestation of divine love and glory in Him who was upon earth among us. He is gone out of it, but He is the same Christ who was here, and He is coming again to receive us to Himself. We look back in the ordinance to His death. We look forward to His coming again.

The cup is here said to be the new covenant in His blood. It is the memorial of a life given up for us, and which, as given up, in its sacrificial character is the foundation of the new covenant of grace in which we stand. The Lord adds again in this case:"Do this in remembrance of Me." That is its distinctive character, a remembrance. A remembrance is not of something existing at the present moment, but of something in the past. It is all our joy to know that this death that we celebrate is actually past, and that it can never take place again. To talk of an unbloody offering, as men do in their mass, is only to destroy the whole reality of what is expressed here. The bread is the communion of the body of Christ. The cup is the communion of the blood of Christ. It is the expression of our fellowship in it, which is the very thing which the common remembrance implies. The bread and the wine would be nothing to us except we saw in them the body and the blood of the Lord.

How thankful we may be for the simplicity that we find in all this scripture! But there is, none the less, in the celebration of the Lord's supper, a solemnity which the apostle warns us of. They could not eat this bread or drink of the cup of the Lord in a light manner without being guilty in respect to the body and blood of the Lord. Here it is distinctly the "Lord" who is spoken of, that we may realize the character of the slight here given. We cannot bring sin into the presence of that which we celebrate as having put it away from us. If we come to celebrate the Lord's death without self-judgment, we destroy the holy character of that which is the most impressive proof of the holiness of God that could be given. It is impossible that sin and the knowledge of the Lord can go on together.

But he would not frighten us away from the table of the Lord. He does not say, "Let a man judge himself and refrain from eating," but, "Let a man examine (or judge) himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." It is true that " he that eateth and drinketh" does so in judgment to himself if he discerneth not the body. That is the whole point. It is evident that the Corinthians were making a mere common meal of that which was intended to be the constant reminder of a love which has nowhere else any equivalent, and were reaping the fruits of this laxity. There were, he says, many weak and sickly among them, and a good many had fallen asleep. Thus the judgment of the Lord was necessarily upon them; not because they were not His own; rather because they were; for, as the apostle says, "When we are judged" in this way, "we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world." He distinguishes between this present judgment and the judgment to come. But this present judgment is a most serious thing. It is the infliction of a love which, because it is holy, must inflict what is pain to inflict. We force the Lord to judge us in this way when we do not judge ourselves. God must of necessity exhibit His holiness with regard to the sins of His people. Whatever the work of Christ has done for us, it can never be allowed to be used for unholy purposes. These were the main points of what he had to say to them."The rest," he says, "will I set in order when I come."F. W. G. in "Num. Bible."
A "FAITH CURE" AND ITS SEQUEL

Farewell, beloved sufferers, companions in the fight,
Farewell!-the tearless morning breaks, and past the weary night.
Farewell, my mother and my kin; farewell, my sister dear;
My God shall bind your broken hearts and wipe the parting tear:
For soft as beds of roses are, so are death's pains to me.
Fear not the cross, His Spirit strong shall your sure comfort be.

Farewell, ye lone night wanderings in weariness and cold;
Farewell, sweet Bible teachings, more precious far than gold-
A lamp unto my wandering feet, and to my weary heart
Sweet balm of consolation, a light in trials dark.
Farewell, declining sun:I go where suns no more go down;
In the pierced hand of Christ I see the martyr's crown.

Farewell, pale moon, that oft has lit my feet with travel sore;
These eyes that oft have blest thy beams shall need thy light no more-
No waning moon, no darkening cloud, no night nor parting see
Where God's resplendent glory shines o'er all eternally.
And soon these eyes shall see THE KING! All ravished in His love
My soul shall to her mountain fly through parting clouds above!

O mother dear, Jerusalem, thy bulwarks strong I see:The pure Assembly of the Just to glory beckons me. Ten thousand thousand shining ones, "Worthy the Lamb," they sing, And far beyond death's shadow pale shall bear me on their wing. The stainless robe, the waving palm, the joyous, glad acclaim, The victory of my Lord, "the lamb," for evermore proclaim. Then welcome, welcome, precious Christ! I hear the bridegroom's voice! Weep not for me, ye parting crowd; with me rejoice, rejoice!
" STAND YE … AND ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS "

"Worldly religion, and religious worldliness, are the pests of this day, but they will not stand in the day when the Lord shall try all things"-J. N. D.

Special circumstances, touching to the Christian's heart, are connected with the institution of "the Lord's Supper." They had eaten the last Passover together, and, as the true Passover, His own blood was to be shed on this same day.* *In the O. T. Scriptures the day is reckoned from one evening to the next evening. (See Genesis, ch. 1:5, 8, etc.; also Exodus 12:6). This reckoning was always followed by the Jews.-[Ed.* Our Lord's path of devoted love was reaching its climax; the shadow of the cross was upon His spirit, and, surrounded by His disciples in that Upper Room, He tells them of His impending betrayal by one of them. Then, Judas having gone out, His heart flows out toward them, and with desire for their hearts' response to His love He requests their remembrance of Him in partaking of the bread and wine.

Memory lingers with tender and affectionate interest round that first institution of the Lord's Supper:Himself still with them, but so soon to be separated from them- to be betrayed-forsaken-denied-condemned-mocked -scourged-crucified! Yet it is He that comforts them, and gives them this tender memorial of His love for them which was taking Him into the depths for their deliverance and eternal blessing.

"THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME"–no pompous ritual, no ceremony; but what could so touchingly recall Himself and His love to the hearts of His own as these symbols of His body and His blood-His body given, His life-blood shed for us! It is the special portion, or remembrance-feast of the Church of God; for to Paul, the minister of the Church (Col. 1:25), it was freshly given by the Lord Himself from heaven (1 Cor. 11:23), showing what value He attaches to His people's love and remembrance of Him.

An open confession of Him is connected with it also:"For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show (announce) the Lord's death, till He come."

In a spiritual sense we are standing like Israel on the Canaan side of Jordan's banks:we look back to where the Ark stood, in the midst of the overflowing waters, till all the people had passed over. In taking that place, our Jesus had to cry, "All Thy waves and billows have passed over Me." Alone, He stood there for us; and we. like the stones taken out of Jordan, are set up on Canaan's side. Risen with Christ, we keep the memorial feast in remembrance of Him, the good and precious Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep, and in resurrection associates us with Himself, the Leader of praises to God in the assembly (Ps. 22:25).

As we contemplate who our Shepherd is-His glorious Person-His eternal Godhead-His perfect Manhood- the Fulfiller of all God's counsels and Revealer of the Father to us, in love, in grace, in tender compassion and self-sacrificing love, going down to the lowest depths where from His holy soul was wrung the cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" our subdued hearts repeat:

"Oh, what a load was Thine to bear,
Alone in that dark hour-
Our sins in all their terror there,
God's wrath and Satan's power!"
What could ever stir our hearts like this? What could so appeal to our affections?-and the Lord covets the responsive love of His people. Therefore He has left us this memorial as an appeal to our hearts.

Then, as in spirit we look at the cross, we see it is vacant, and the tomb is empty, and we hear His words, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them:I ascend to my Father, and your Father; to my God and your God." He brings us with Himself into this wondrous place of nearness to the Father-"My Father and your Father; my God and your God!" Himself too, in Spirit, is in our midst, as He said (Matt. 18:20)-our Lord, our Head, our Guide.

And our remembrance of Him is "till He come," when He shall bring us into the Father's house, in the prepared place for the Church, His Bride to share with Him all that is committed into His hands by the Father whose counsels He came to fulfil. What a cluster of glories are thus connected with the Lord's Supper and our remembrance of Him! And while we cannot speak of it as the only "worship meeting," may God grant that we realize it as such in our experience each time we have the privilege thus to remember our precious Lord.

It will be apparent, I doubt not, that ministry, as we usually understand it, has a subordinate place here, yet is not excluded. We are together on such occasions as priests to offer the sacrifices of praise, worship, and prayer to our Saviour-God. Ministry is service man-ward; worship is rendered to God by the "holy priesthood" which all of Christ's redeemed ones are. What a place and privileges He has conferred upon us who have received Him into our hearts! May we be enabled to value and use these privileges in the power of the Holy Spirit, till we enter into the home prepared for us in the glory. F. L. Harris

Calendar:Nov. 16th to Dec. 15th
DAILY BIBLE READING:……….. Nov. 16th, Heb. 8; Nov. 30th, 1 Pet. 4; Dec. 15th, Rev. 4. MEMORY WORK:……………………… John 16.
GOOD READING:"On the Gospel of John," by J. G. Bellett. (paper covers, 35 cents.)
MONTHLY QUESTION …With whom, and when is the new covenant made? What is its meaning for, or relation to, the Christian?

Our Memory Work

We get, first, the thought of rejection, carried over from the previous chapter. It is, necessarily, the lot of those identified with Christ, who follow in His path. But there is in it a blessed Companion for His people, even the Holy Spirit. He it is who would lead them into the realization of what it means to have fellowship with Christ in the world which persecuted Him. For this it was expedient that He should return to the Father.

The Lord outlines the double testimony of the Spirit here in the world:on the one hand, toward the world (vers. 8-11), and on the other, toward those who are Christ's (vers. 12-15). For the latter it means participation in the things of the Son (ver. 14) and of the Father (ver. IS). The Spirit's ministry is such as makes the Son Himself blessedly real to those who obey the Word. Thus the Lord speaks of His disciples as "seeing Him," because He says, "I go to the Father" (ver. 16, see also ch. 14:18-21). This brings a rejoicing of heart, a joy which none can take away.

Finally, among other things, He speaks of the full liberty of access to the Father, to be known in the day of the Spirit's presence. This shows how the Lord in these chapters is introducing His own to the place He filled in obedience to, and in fellowship with, the Father, when here as a man upon earth.

But let us ask ourselves, How much of these precious things do I really enjoy day by day? Are the things of the Son and the Father being shown to me by the Spirit, through the Word? Don't we occupy ourselves too much with the things about us in the same way as the worldling is occupied with them?-instead of using them only in so far as they may serve the interests of Christ, If the latter attitude marked us, heart and mind would be more open and free' from fretting cares, to be occupied with the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Let us with purpose of heart turn from needless things, and whatever of the world's vain show may attract, to concern ourselves with the worthy and needful things, which we may do heartily as unto the Lord, that we may be more free and undistracted for the enjoyment of our spiritual heritage.

Our Daily Bible Reading

The Epistle to the Hebrews is full of truth which directs our hearts to the Lord Jesus in a most blessed way. In it the deity and humanity of Jesus are both emphasized. He is set before us as the One in whom the types and shadows of the old economy have found perfect fulfilment. His humiliation and sacrifice, with His present exaltation and glory at the Father's right hand, in high priestly character, constitute the basic themes of this epistle. God's people are viewed as in the wilderness with the heavenly rest in view, but constantly receiving ministry from our great Forerunner who has already entered in.

James gives us various practical features of Christianity. Endurance (ch. 1), lowliness (ch. 2), works (ch. 3), submission (ch. 4), patience (ch. 5), may serve as key thoughts. He also presents in a vivid manner the real character and spirit of the world.

In first Peter the thought of heavenly calling and relationship is coupled with the path of suffering incident to Christian faithfulness in a world in which what is of God is not acceptable.

In both 2nd Peter and Jude the departure from the truth and the growing evil of the last days, are treated of. They point us to what abides as the resource for God's people in the last days (which are upon us now), and we do well to take special heed to these epistles, as also to 2nd Timothy, which is of similar import.

"John's epistles also speak of last-day evils; but they chiefly present the blessedness of the life and fellowship which belong to God's people, and which remain unaffected by any breakdown of what is characteristic of the dispensation. He treats of the heavenly family and its life-eternal life, imparted from God to His children. The character of this is fully developed in the first epistle; in the second, it is the obedience and the testimony which are to mark those enjoying this life. In the 3d epistle, we see those who manifest the spirit and life of Christ are rejected.

May we all gather daily refreshment as we read these Scripture portions, which are truly quickening to those who receive them into their hearts.

When you next read Psalm 119 note the many times the psalmist speaks of quickening in connection with God's Word or commandments.

Questions

Explanation of Rev. 2:14 is requested, and in particular what present application can be made of the reference to eating "things sacrificed to idols."

The doctrine of Balaam consists in the counsel he gave, directing the women of Moab and Midian to seduce the people of Israel into association with them in their idolatrous festivities, with which there was a practice of gross moral evil (Num. 31:16). Israel was caught in the snare of these friendly advances, which had behind them the enemy's purpose to destroy the character of God's people as called to "dwell alone," in separation to God, whose holy ways and worship had been fully revealed to them. Doubtless, the seduction was intended to deprive Israel of her distinctive position and favor with God, which Balaam had been compelled to proclaim.

God's thought was that His people should be separate from all the abounding evil of the nations. Balaam's doctrine was that mixture should be effected between them and the Moabites. Fleshly lusts and false religious activities were the instruments used.
This history has been repeated in the relations established between the Church and the world. In the apostolic period the evil of idolatry and its moral corruption touched every sphere of life. As a result, the early Christians of necessity withdrew very largely from all the social and festive activities in which moral evil abounded, and in which they had formerly taken part (1 Pet. 4:1-4). This brought against them much persecution and evil speaking. In those days, to partake of the idol sacrifices came to signify the recantation of Christianity.

But things changed; the world became friendly and sought association with the Church, and, like Israel, she was snared into evil practices. The doctrine of mixture prevailed, and this destroyed the true character and testimony of the Church in the world. Expansion, by compromise with the idolatrous world, became the policy of its leaders. Features and practices of heathendom were incorporated into its life, both publicly and privately. Church history gives evidence of how, with certain parties formed in it, there was a literal fulfilment of these abominable evils. But to-day we do not think of this, because idolatry, as then prevalent, has passed away. Nevertheless it has its lesson for us. This same principle of mixture assailed the returned remnant in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. It wrought havoc and caused much sorrow. It is one of our great, if not the greatest, dangers. The idols' feasts, whether social or religious, with their open immorality, are not about us today as they were in the days of the early Church; but there are still idols to keep from, and fleshly lusts from which to turn away. With the light and knowledge we have, whatever displaces God, or would give us one different! from what He is now known through Christ, or that changes His truth, cannot be followed without some form of moral failure resulting. Truth refused, perverted, or neglected, is accompanied in some degree by moral laxity and spiritual decrepitude. Remember the word:"Covetousness, which is idolatry"-1:e., going beyond the true bounds, to attain any object which should not engage us, is idolatry.

Another question refers to Heb. 12:16. Here we have two characters, of which Esau is given as an example. Fleshly indulgence, to attain which holy things are ruthlessly disregarded, is what the apostle warns against. It is not the failure or sin of a Christian, but the act of an apostate, whose true character is thus revealed. To satisfy his fleshly desires he tramples under foot his birthright. He profanes what should have been cherished as holy and precious. He lost the blessing beyond recall. Such must be the result for all who barter future blessing for present ease or pleasure.

A third question:What crown does the Lord refer to in Rev. 3:11? First, it is the reward for individual faithfulness to Christ. Crown is used with a variety of qualifying words (2 Tim. 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:4; 1 Thess. 2:19), which in such cases give it a special meaning. Here, there is none; it seems simply to refer to the reward Christ will bestow at His coming upon those who have kept His word and not denied His name. Compare Col. 2:18; 3:24; Rev. 22:12.

"We may think that if we had that man's means or opportunity we could do something worth doing; yet God does not want us to fill any other man's place, but to improve our own opportunities. God asks none of us to do more than this, nor has any of us the right to do less." Extract

Just outside the town from where I write, a motortruck was stalled on the road. The driver had tried every means to start the engine, without success. Baffled and exasperated, he sent to the town garage for help. The mechanic came, examined the motor, testing its various parts to discover the seat of the trouble, but failed to find anything wrong; everything seemed in order, just as it should be; and there he was, perplexed at the refusal of the motor to work. As a last possibility, he thought of testing the gas, and to the surprise and disgust both of the truck-driver and himself, found the gasoline tank was empty! To add to the chagrin of the two worthies in this instance, they had been working on a gasoline delivery truck with a supply of at least 500 gallons in the tank! This was indeed a most unusual occurrence, and it created no small amount of amusement at the driver's and the mechanic's expense.

Now, if these two men felt mortified in finding they had ready at hand what would instantly have cured the trouble, what shall be said of the Christian who once went along happily and steadily in his Christian course up the "Hill Difficulty" and through the "Valley of Baca" in his journey to the glory, but now is at a sad and dishonorable standstill, whilst the power which had carried him on is at his very door-aye, within himself!

And what is this power which, if used, would prevent the spiritual breakdowns and the haltings in the Christian's course?

Before answering this question, let us take a look at those stalled along the road, while others are speeding by. So frequently do we meet such, that it excites little interest or compassion from the rest. Alas! how much like this are the spiritual breakdowns!-so common are they, that they attract little attention from the others; yet they are precious souls, halting on the heavenward road, whilst they should glorify God, by life and testimony to the power of His grace.

My reader, are you progressing, or at a standstill? In the things of God, a standstill means going back. For the Christian's way to glory is upwards; and in such a case, to stop is to go backwards, for God has provided no brakes to prevent the Christian's falling back when he ceases to progress. If this be your case, and you earnestly desire to return, listen while I tell you what is to be done.

Salvation from such a condition is found just where your breakdown has come about. In some way you have been grieving the Holy Spirit who is the power by whom the child of God is sustained, blest, and strengthened to live to the glory of God, to serve the Lord, and testify for Him in the midst of opposing influences. It is just as our risen Lord said to His disciples in Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." And if He is grieved, dishonored in our life, and silenced by heedlessness when He testifies in our conscience, notwithstanding He is present, we must be left stranded on the road-side, a sad spectacle to those speeding on their heavenward way. Our power for progress in a holy life and faithful witnessing for the Lord, is by the Holy Spirit. It is only as we "walk in the Spirit" that we do not "fulfil the lusts of the flesh." Therefore the exhortation is given, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). It does not say "grieved away," as many have mistakenly supposed it to mean, for the sealing of the Holy Spirit is "unto the day of redemption," when even our body shall be made like unto the glorious body of our Lord. But being grieved, it is as if He were away, and the Christian becomes a spectacle by the road-side. Redemption from sin, the world and Satan has been made ours by our blessed Lord, but it is made good to us in a practical way by the Spirit who dwells in us.

So, dear reader, if you are one of those halting on the way, making no heavenward progress, take courage; arise, confess to God your condition, your shame-whether it be worldliness, or sins committed, breaches of the moral law or whatever else:own it frankly to God-not in a lump, but in detail, calling the sins by their names, with resolve by the Spirit's help to cease from evil, and you will find His power actuating you, giving energy and willingness with ability to walk in the way marked out by God for us in His written Word.

See David, in his notable "penitential psalm," the 51st, after making full confession of his sin, he begs for restoration of soul and desires grace to be of service in blessing to others. Notice how three times over in seeking this restoration to God he makes mention of the Spirit (vers. 10-12). And though he knew of the Spirit only as from without, not as from within, as we do since He has come to dwell in the believers (see John 14:17; Rom. 8:11), he looked for restoration and power by the Spirit. One important lesson we may learn from it is, that power to keep us from falling into worldliness and sin is through the Holy Spirit. Let us be careful, then, not to grieve Him that dwells in us, through infinite grace. There is no limit to His power, and no excuse for any believer to fall and remain helpless by the way.

THE EVOLUTIONIST:

Science! O Science! unto thee
Life's pages past unfold,
And weird and wondrous are the things
We through thine eyes behold-
From "cell" up to our simian sire,
Some super-ape of old!

Yet, ape ancestral, thou abidest
A mystery profound:
For form or fossil we have sought,
Above, below the ground-
In vain, alas!-thou "Missing Link"
Art nowhere to be found!

But what although our theory lack
A vital link, or two?
And though the leading Scientists
Deride it-as they do.
That it belies what Scripture saith,
Commends it to our view!

By Evolution's trail we trace
Life to its primal clime:
Through all its myriad multiforms,
Since dimmest dawn of time,
To plasm and primordial cell
And ancient ocean slime.

"Man" may accept what Moses wrote –
No "simian" savant can;
He gives the cell and ape no place,
Says "God created man!"
The "slime" and "monkey" we prefer
For our creation plan:

Can Adam's race presume to claim
A lineage old as we?
Some few short thousand years ago
First signs of man we see:
To ages hoar our racial sire
We trace back-up a tree!

Beyond all language known to man
Our oral records reach,
To ages dim, when super-ape
First lisped in human speech
The lore of the primordial cell
Which we our apelings teach.

But though we have from Nature's heart
Her inmost secrets rent,
Through ages vast from cell and ape
Have traced our proud ascent,
Alas! our triumph yet alloyed
With fateful gloom is blent,

For all our science cannot keep
Great Nature's torch alight,
And e'en life's highest, fairest forms
Must fail and fade from sight,
And Evolution's long, long day
Shall surely wane to night.

For, soon or late, life's cycle vast
Its zenith must attain,
And high howe'er the height achieved
It may not fixed remain;
For Evolution's law demands
A downward curve again!

Life's order is Development,
Maturity, Decay,
And Evolutionary life
This order must obey.
And so, through transformations vast,
Through future ages, as through vast,
Life must fulfil its course at last,
Must ebb, and pass away!

E'en now, 'mid pleasure-loving throngs
That giddily go by,
'Mid fevered unrest, dire distress,
And pride that flaunteth high,
Disintegrating agencies
Fast spread and-multiply.

Why, some who flout our theory,
Don't scruple to avow
That we, the simian stars that gem
Our fair Science's brow,
In our primordial mud and slime
Are wallowing e'en now!

THE CHRISTIAN:

Beyond faith in a "Missing Link"
This "faith" has naught to show-
It knows not God, nor Christ, nor hope
Beyond this life below:
Ah! much the heart of "man" holds dear
The "simian" must forego!

The God of mankind, to redeem,
His Well-Beloved gave-
But 'twas the race of fallen man
He came to seek and save:
The anthropoidal race must share
The anthropoidal grave!

A glorious resurrection-morn,
A blest eternity,
Can seed of ape, howe'er so far
Removed, e'er hope to see?
Evolved into a "son of God,"
How could an ape e'er be?

The thought must wring the heart bereaved
With unassuaging pain,
That they and their beloved dead
Shall never meet again!
For Evolution cannot break
Nor free from death's cold chain.

This theory, brazenly, a mask
Of "so-called science" wears. "
One flesh of men, one flesh of beasts,"
The Word of God declares;
And all true science so affirms-
All nature witness bears.

In lieu of God's inerrant word
And sacred truths sublime,
Unfolding verities which link
Eternity and time,
It proffereth a concept based
On monkey hood and slime!

It knoweth but material life-
Somehow, sometime received;
Denieth man's immortal part-
The spirit God in breathed;
Enshroudeth present, future, past
In darkness unrelieved!

From all life's deep realities
It powerless stands apart-
It meeteth not one human need
Nor soothes one sorrow's smart;
It breathes no heavenly benison,
It heals no broken heart.

God's work creative it defames,
Redemption's truths deny;
The Man of Calvary's cross dethrones
To lift an ape on high;
And leaves its dupe at life's lone close
E'en like the beast to die!

But God's own Word inerrant saith
That all the dead shall rise,
And they must stand before that God
Whose Word they now despise.
Appalling thought! How shall they meet
Those holy, flaming eyes?

W. L. G.

In his "Undesigned Scriptural Coincidences" (a work altogether too little known), the author, J. J. Blunt, remarks that those passages to which he calls attention will doubtless suggest others to the reader. One of these is found in John 2:1-11, compared with John 3:29. In the first of these passages an account of "a marriage in Cana of Galilee" is given, and no groomsmen are spoken of; whereas, in the other passage, John the Baptist speaks of himself as "the friend of the bridegroom," meaning what we call to-day "the best man," or groomsman.

Commenting on this fact, Edersheim, in his Sketches of Jewish Social Life, says;

"It deserves notice, that at the marriage in Cana there is no mention of 'the friends of the bridegroom,' or, as we would call them, the groomsmen. This was in strict accordance with Jewish custom, for groomsmen were customary in Judea, but not in Galilee (Cheth. 25 a). This also casts light upon the locality where John 3:29 was spoken, in which 'the friend of the bridegroom' is mentioned. But this expression is quite different from that of 'children of the bride-chamber,' which occurs in Matt. 9:15, where the scene is once more in Galilee. The term 'children of the bride-chamber,' is simply a translation of the rabbinical 'bene Chuppah,' and means the guests invited to the bridal. In Judea there were at every marriage two groomsmen or 'friends of the bridegroom'-one for the bridegroom, the other for his bride."

Thus we have a remarkable, and altogether undesigned coincidence; for the writer of the two accounts, if a forger, would hardly have known of this difference of custom between the two districts of the land of Palestine. He would likely have pictured groomsmen present at the wedding in Cana, thus laying himself open to the charge of inaccuracy, if not of forgery.

Only a few days ago the newspapers told of the error of an English artist who in his design of a medal on the discovery of America represents Columbus standing on the deck of his vessel looking westward through a telescope -but the telescope was at that time unknown! Had this designer pretended to be contemporary with Columbus, or even of Bacon, who would to-day believe him? Would he not by his mistake be convicted of fraud? And if the writer of the Gospel accredited to John had been a forger of a later date than the apostolic age, he would hardly have escaped the error of representing groomsmen at the marriage in Cana of Galilee; and he would the more easily have fallen into this error since he knew of the custom of bridegrooms elsewhere, as John 3:29 shows.

This is a very reasonable test of veracity and has been aptly designated, "consistency without contrivance." And while the believer's faith does not "stand in the wisdom of men," it may be strengthened by these undesigned coincidences-always absent in a forgery, or in fiction pretending to be truth. If a modern designer of medals could make the mistake of antedating the telescope by some two hundred years, how readily would a forger, assuming to be a contemporary of the apostles, have betrayed his ignorance of the customs of the times by depicting "friends of the bridegroom" at the wedding in Galilee.

Reader, you may be sure beyond all doubt that the Scriptures are what they claim to be, "THE WORD OF GOD." Let nothing make you doubt them; and above all, let that Saviour of whom they everywhere speak, be all your confidence. Hope only in Him, and so believing, so confiding, you shall never be confounded. C. Knapp.

Humboldt, who wrote five volumes of a work he entitled Cosmos, in which he never once mentioned the name of God, yet declared that "numbers are the powers of the Universe." If this be true, would it not be surprising that the Creator, who built the world on a frame of numbers, "who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance"(Is. 40:12)-would it not be surprising, I say, if the Creator who made such liberal use of numbers in the visible universe, should find no use for them in that other revelation of Himself-the Scriptures?

The dear brother, now gone to his reward, Mr. F. W. Grant, was the first, I believe, who called attention to this by his book, "The Numerical Structure of Scripture." It is a remarkable study, unfolding a great subject, which is a source of great delight to the reverent student who takes it up soberly and patiently.

It is a striking fact, which impressed me much, that the first word which challenges our attention in Scripture is GOD-a Being about whom agnostics tell us we can know nothing; that as to His existence or non-existence we can neither affirm or deny-that we know absolutely nothing about it! But Moses, taught of God, presents Him to us without any introduction or attempt at proofs. In all human systems we have, at the threshold, elaborate explanations to make known and endeavor to prove the truth of what is advanced. Not so in Scripture. It is taken for granted that we know who God is. Having been created in God's image and likeness, man, the world over, has some knowledge of God, which the beast has not. So, against all agnostics, I would say that God is the most knowable Being in the universe. We should not need to prove to man that God exists and that we are His creatures, any more than we have to prove to a child that he has a mother. It is intuitive in man, unless he has so stifled his conscience, and gone so far astray as to utterly lose his bearings. When we tell our child that God sees him in the dark, and knows his thoughts, he takes in the truth of it without question, as later he accepts from his teacher the axiom that "the whole is equal to the sum of all its parts," which can be illustrated by the parts of a divided apple, but cannot be proven.

Now Moses speaks to us of God as "Elohim"-a uni-plural noun, 1:e., a noun implying plurality, yet always used grammatically in singular construction-thus foreshadowing the Trinity, acting in unity, one God in three Persons, the triune God. This is more strongly intimated in verse 26 where God comes to His crowning work in man's creation. A council of the Holy Trinity is there spoken of:God (Elohim) said, "Let US make man in our image."

Now the fact I wish to present is that the Trinity is mystically imbedded in a numerical structure in this chapter, thus:

God said (the creative Word) 9 times – 3 x 3.
God (Elohim) is repeated 30 times – 3 x 10.
God created (the Spirit's active power) 3 times, in
(1) the creation of inanimate matter, ver. 1.
(2)the creation of animal life, ver. 21.
(3)the creation of a spiritual being, ver. 27.
This last, God's crowning work, is followed by the sabbatical rest, after which He had pronounced all His work, "very good." This indeed was soon broken in by man's fall, but it points us to another Rest-that Rest which remaineth for the people of God (Heb. 4:9).

Can any sober mind deny the truth and work of God in this first chapter of Genesis? G. Nash Morton

Lecture II.

THE CALL OF THE DELIVERER. (Exod., chap. 3.)

(Continued from page 208)

We have looked at Israel's deliverer from Egyptian bondage. We have seen him given over to death, and brought up out of it. We have seen him put himself forward as the savior of his people, and rejected by them. Then, as rejected by his own, making affinity for himself in the land of his exile. Now we come to look at the call of the deliverer, in the next two chapters. I only take up one of these to-night, as we shall find abundance in it for meditation.

Here we see the one who was indeed to be the instrument of Israel's deliverance, who had hitherto run before his time, now drawing back when he receives the needed call. The man who had illustrated the forwardness of nature now illustrates the backwardness of nature. With instinct in his heart, forty years before, he had been ready to run without a call. But those forty years have made their mark upon him, and he is a changed man. The voice of God, now authoritatively urging him forward, is not enough for him. With his eyes upon himself, he responds, "Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

That may look like humility in us, but is not. When God has laid hold of us for a certain thing, to turn round and say, "Who am I, that I should do it?" is not humility. God did not raise any question as to who or what Moses was. If He chooses and sends, it matters not who the person is. The power lay in the One who was sending; so the Lord says, "Certainly I will be with thee." But, even so, Moses' reluctance is not overcome. There is just this tendency on the two sides. The forwardness of nature, I may say, is the failure of our youth, constantly- our spiritual youth, as well as our natural youth; eagerness to run in God's path, but not apprehending what the path is, or what it needs to walk in it. On the other hand, when the cost is counted, and our weakness known, the energy begotten of self-confidence being gone, we need a stimulating call on God's part, to get out of the persistent occupation with our weakness now, as with our strength before.

You find that very strikingly in the Gospel of Matthew, when our Lord, at the commencement of His labors, is addressing some of the disciples, at the end of the eighth chapter. One proposes to follow Him without any call at all. He says, "Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." The Lord says-Do you know where this will lead you? "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has not where to lay his head."

Of this man we hear no more; but to another He says, just as He says to Moses now, "Follow Me." But he says, "Suffer me first to go and bury my father."

If we count the cost on our side, we shall always find it more than we have resources for. Yet we need to consider the cost; to look at it gravely and solemnly, until, in the sense of our utter insufficiency, faith roots itself in Divine omnipotence, and finds ability to stand where God calls.

Now let us look upon Moses as the type of One in whom was no defect. A very plain type he is. First, in that employment in which we find him. A shepherd was the type of the Divine deliverer and king. King David was a shepherd, and the beautiful word in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, which speaks of Christ as the Governor who shall "rule" God's people Israel, is literally, "shall be a shepherd" to them. That is God's thought of a true ruler. Moses was trained for forty years as a simple shepherd, until he is fit to go forth to lead God's people; then power is entrusted to him-the meekest man upon the earth. We who know in whose blessed hands the scepter of God's kingdom now is-for whom God's throne is a throne of grace-can realize a little the unspeakable blessedness of this!

You remember when the disciples were indignant with James and John because they had asked for places on the right and left hand in His kingdom, the Lord turned to them, and said, "You know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them; but so shall it not be among you; but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all; for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

How beautiful! Not merely does the Lord inculcate humility, and forbid the craving after place and power; but the places themselves are not such as would suit those ambitious to get them. They would not satisfy ambition -the greed for place. They are places of service in which the highest ministers to the lowest, as the mountain-tops send down their streams to the vales below; and the highest place of all is His whose love made Him come not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. "It is more blessed to give than to receive," is His own utterance, and ever true-in glory as well as on the way to it.

This training in service shows the character of the place for which He is training us. And He of whom Moses is but the picture, true Shepherd of the sheep, will never, however different the circumstances, give up the service to which love consecrated Him. With love, rule is service; and how blest the time when love alone shall rule!

We find Moses then, in the course of his service, leading his flock to the back side of the desert, to the Mount of God (called so, no doubt, from what now took place there) even Horeb. And there "the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." There the Lord addressed Moses; and, as the Angel of the bush, gives him his commission.

This is a wonder for our eyes as well as those of Moses. God had before, in reference to this very captivity in Egypt, revealed Himself under the similitude of fire. The "smoking furnace" had been His symbol, when (as we have already seen) in covenanting with Abraham He passed between the pieces of the sacrifice. And how striking is the symbol here! Abram had kept watch by the victims, driving away the unclean birds which would have come down upon them. But the sun goes down; night comes on; a deep sleep overpowers him, and a horror of great darkness falls upon him. It is to these points that the vision addresses itself. The smoking furnace and the burning lamp are what the deep sleep and the darkness demand:and these the sacrifice secures, and the faithfulness of God supplies to His people. If the activity and vigilance of faith fail, the furnace of trial will not fail as the appointed means of purification; while for the darkness which is the result of unbelief, the burning lamp is equally provided. How sure the inheritance for those to whom God is thus pledged in Christ to bring them through to enjoy it, securing the conditions which His holiness of necessity imposes!

Thus the fiery trial which was trying them in Egypt was in reality God's remembrance of His covenant. It might not look like it. It might look any thing but that. Alas, unbelief mistakes the simplest dealings of God with us; nevertheless, if the people's deliverance from Egypt was to be really deliverance, they must realize in their own soul what bondage was. Thus it was God who raised up Pharaoh, just as it was God on the other hand who raised up Moses.

Now, if we look at this thorn-bush, (for such it is), it is a striking picture of the people. In the tenth chapter of Isaiah, speaking of the Assyrian scourge, the prophet says:"And the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his Holy One for a flame! and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day." These thorns and briers picture those of whom David speaks as "sons of Belial" who "shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands." You remember that thorns were the sign of the curse at the beginning. They are, in fact, as botanists tell us (at least of the kind we have to do with here), abortive leaves, parts of a plant incapable of fulfilling their original purpose. Sinners-are thus in this symbol naturally connected with the curse upon sin. And the thorn-bush itself we may, without forcing, view as the type of sinful flesh. This is what the people are:hence the fire; but the bush is not consumed, for the Angel of Jehovah, their covenant God, is in that fire.

As afterward, in the judgment which swept over Egypt the night of the passover, they had to be taught that, as far as they were concerned, there was no difference between them and the Egyptians. The judgment which delivered them must have fallen on them, had not grace provided them a shelter from it.

They needed tribulation then; needed the purifying fire, in which God was. For what were the Egyptians?- they had their part in what the fire symbolized. Nevertheless it was God who was dealing with Israel in love- a holy love, or it would not be God.

It is a hard thing oftentimes to learn, that while God has power to save His own to the uttermost; while He has got in Christ's sacrifice a full and sufficient satisfaction for our sins, nevertheless the necessities of His holy government oblige Him to deal with us as to the very sins which the sacrifice of Christ has put away as wrath bringing. For instance, in 1 Cor., chap. 11, we find this doctrine:"For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged; but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (ver. 32). Now mark, these are redeemed men. They are those for whom Christ's blood was shed, and to whom Christ's blood had been applied. They were "in Christ" before God, and delivered from the wrath to come. Does it not seem strange to read that, if they were not chastened of the Lord, they would have to be condemned with the world?

Surely it was not because God had not sufficient power or grace for them. But God is a holy governor, and a throne of grace is still a throne. It is not a question of judgment in the sense of wrath, or of exacting anything from His people, but He must display Himself as the Holy One. And this is necessary in a double way:for the sake of His people and for those who are looking at them. All must learn and own the God of grace to be the thrice Holy One.

Thus, again, the apostle Peter says:"The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God" (the people of God), "and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of those who obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous are difficultly saved"-that is the force of it-He has, so to speak, to take pains about it, "where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" We find this all through Scripture. God says to His people, "What a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Grace does not set this aside but confirms it. In reaping he finds out what it is that he has sown, and learns to judge in the fruit what he did not judge in the seed.

So also our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount:"With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will men give into your bosoms." Thus, as we can judge in others very clearly what in ourselves is not so clear, we are made to learn in others' dealings towards us, our own towards them.

It is so with the first thing:in repentance in order to salvation. God has to show us what sin is. I do not say it is by chastening; but still He has to bring us face to face with our sins, that grace may be grace, and salvation be from sin as well as from wrath to come. It is the necessity of His holy government that "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Not that repentance is the price we pay for salvation in any wise; for Christ's work is the only price of what to us is absolutely free. Repentance only makes us learn how needed and free it is.

This bush then reveals the ways of Him who is the Saviour of His people. And Moses' unshod feet should teach us reverent contemplation of them.

And now God reveals Himself to Moses as the God of their fathers, "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" to which He adds, when Moses further asks after His Name, "I am that I am:thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you … the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent:me unto you:this is my Name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."

That with which God begins here, and to which He returns, is that He is God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. He has taken a name in relationship to men, which is to be His continual memorial. Back of that He has another name, which, simply rendered is, The Unsearchable. "I am that I am" does not so much reveal as declare the veil that hangs before Him, when man would "search out the Almighty to perfection." Inscrutable, He "dwells in the light unapproachable, whom no man hath seen, nor can see." He declares Himself the Ever-present:the One who is; the great fact for man always to realize, which gives reality and meaning to every thing else.

"Jehovah" is the title which God takes throughout the Old Testament, and which for us remains with all its significance, in spite of the dearer title, by which as sons now we know the "Father." Jehovah is the name by which He declares Himself in covenant with His people. Throughout their fleeting generations He abides "the same yesterday, today, and for ever."

What God here insists upon is, that He is the "God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob," and that this is to be His memorial unto all generations. He was to be known as in connection with those three honored names.* *"The Almighty" is the name God took with Abraham; "I Am" or "Jehovah" is that which He took with Israel; "The Highest" is that which He will show Himself to be in millennial times. None of these in themselves declare, His nature, or the character of His ways toward us. But in the mouth of the Lord Jesus, "Father" has become indeed a revealing name, and we know God as He was never revealed before.*

He identifies Himself with them, as the apostle shows us, because of the practical faith they had in Him-a faith which manifested itself in a life of pilgrimage, in obedience to His call. God is not ashamed to link Himself with those whose faith in Him gave Him so good a character. If He had called Himself the God of Lot, what would Lot's conduct have led men to suppose God to be? But (spite of Abraham's failures) God's character is shown by calling Himself the God of Abraham.

Look closer, and you will find this true in a still deeper way. Why does God connect Himself with just these three? Why no more nor less? These three displayed Him in His true character, in three ways, as the God of each separately. With the light of the New Testament, we should at once interpret what His threefold name expresses-as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Who can read the 22nd of Genesis without discerning in the offerer and the offered another Father than Abraham, and another Son than Isaac? As in the Gospel of John, which gives this side of the Cross, it is all between the Father and the Son. The Father is giving; the Son too is giving Himself up. There is no word of dissent from Isaac; and nothing is suffered to mar the precious representation of Him who spared not His own beloved Son who came expressly to do the Father's will. How the narrative dwells upon each point in the father's trial!-a three days' journey to the place-three days with the word in his heart which bade him give up his only, his beloved son! The whole extent of his sacrifice revealed to him in measured terms:"Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

It is inexpressible comfort to see that God knows every ingredient in the cup of trial He mixes for us. It is His own heart He is telling out while He is thus searching out Abraham's? Did it not cost Him to give up His own beloved Son? Was the sacrifice all on the Son's part, and none on the Father's? Shall we call Him "Father," and not credit Him with a Father's heart? Is our God revealed as an impassive God who does not feel? We must not ascribe to Him human defect or frailty, surely, but must we not credit Him with love? He would rather come under imputation of defect than that we should think this of Him. "God is not a man that He should re pent," yet He will talk about repenting. Nay, not only did it repent the Lord that He had made man, but "it grieved Him at His heart." Blessed to know such a heart; and that what the Son of His bosom suffered, the bosom that held the Son suffered also.

Thus the "God of Abraham" tells out the Father to us, and He bids us know Him as our Father also; for, as the apostle tells us in Gal. 4, Isaac was a picture of the sons of the freewoman; sons is what God calls us now-the child of the bondwoman having been put away.

That the God of Isaac reveals the Son to us also, we have already seen. Every Christian heart will recognize in Isaac the figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only the 22nd of Genesis, but many other passages speak of him as such. I need not enter upon this as perhaps none will question it; although blessed it is to see God thus coming near to us in human guise to draw us as it were with the cords of love to Himself.

But what about "the God of Jacob?" Can self-seeking crooked Jacob speak of God to us? His brother Esau says, "Is he not rightly called 'Jacob'? for he has supplanted me these two times." Is he not a strange person to be linked with a holy God?-not concealing his name either; for He does not in this connection call Himself the God of Israel, but expressly the God of Jacob.

Do you realize how fearless a book Scripture is? Do you think all the infidels in the world could ever make God ashamed of what He has written? Never! No, the very things they think to shame Him by, are the very things He takes up to show us how His "foolishness" is wiser than all man's wisdom.

No, He is not ashamed to be the God of Jacob. Well for us that He is not. He takes up this Jacob as the very one in whom He can show His power and grace. Whom shall He take to show His grace, but the chief of sinners? Whom shall He take up, in order to show His power, but one of the most intractable material? And so Jacob is just the person in whom to display His grace and power. If He is the God of Abraham and Isaac on the one hand, it is not less Jacob's God. It is Jacob, in fact-crippled as to human strength, in which he trusts-who gets the name "Israel"-a prince with God. If the God of Abraham shows us God the Father, and the God of Isaac shows us God the Son, surely the God of Jacob shows us God the Holy Ghost.

How beautifully then does this last name (so different from the other two) unite to tell us what God will perpetually have as His memorial! What a gap there would be, if Jacob had not his place here! In it, our connection with God is seen; Jacob's need brings him in, as our need it is that practically brings us to God. God too has need of Jacob to display the riches of His grace and the power of His salvation.

Before we close, let us lock at what answers to this memorial name of God in the New Testament. No need here to take up three men to tell Himself out. There is now One Man who is by Himself all-sufficient to tell out God. He does not now say, "I am the God of Peter, or of Paul, or of John," but He is "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." How could He put another beside Him? And as He stands upon earth, heaven opens, and the Father's voice is heard declaring, "This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight." The Holy Ghost comes down visibly upon Him in the form of a dove, and abides upon Him. God is manifested now, openly and completely.

(To be continued.)
The CITY and the FOREST

(2 Tim. 3:1.)

We have sought at different times to sound an alarm concerning the moral dangers to which the young people are especially exposed in these "last days" – by infidel teachings in schools – by movies, dances, pleasure-mad habits, independence and insubjection to parents, who know not where their children go-all of which demoralizes the youth of these days. Parents who allow their children these things do so at the terrible peril of seeing them grow in ungodly ways, self-will, marry with the ungodly and become a grief to them and to God.

"But what can we do, how can we help it?" some may say. It is a great step toward the correction of evil to see the sources or causes of it, and confess it to God if we are implicated in it. Scripture gives us examples which, if pondered, will surely be of help in this.

Abraham is spoken of as "the father of all them that believe" (Rom. 4:11), and his life, in general, is given us as a pattern of faith and obedience to God, with consequent largeness of blessing. Thus we read, in Gen. 18:17-19, "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? … for I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken o] him" Thus in "commanding his children and household," God's blessings were secured to them as well as to himself:so Isaac, and Jacob after him, continued in the path of Abraham's faith, dwelling as pilgrims and strangers in Canaan, awaiting God's time to enter into possession, in fulfilment of the promise.

Let us ponder over this, dear Christian parents, and in all probability we shall find that the evils we deplore have their roots in ourselves-in not "keeping the way of the Lord" and not "commanding" our children.

As Abraham is given us as an example, Lot and Eli are for warnings. When Sodom was on the eve of destruction, "Lot went out to his sons-in-law who had married his daughters, and said, 'Up! get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city.' But he seemed to them as one that mocked."-Was he jesting? When the divine messengers came to Sodom they found that "Lot sat in the gate of Sodom" (Gen. 19:1); if thus honorably seated as a judge at the city's gate in the afternoon, did it not seem like jesting to declare that God would destroy it the next morning? So the young people stayed, and perished in Sodom.

In an apparently more favorable aspect than Lot, another "righteous man," Eli, is presented to us as a warning. His two sons' abominable conduct, profaning the priesthood, was a by-word and a reproach in Israel (1 Sam. 2:12-17). Knowing this, and more (ver. 22), instead of removing them from the priesthood, Eli is content with a reproof. Therefore the word of God is pronounced against Eli's house with unsparing judgment (vers. 27-36), and confirmed through Samuel, "because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not" (3:13). Might he not have saved his sons from their untimely end, and preserved his house, by "commanding his children and his household" as did Abraham?

At an earlier time the solemn results of the amalgamation of God's people with the world is given us. The descendants of Seth ("the sons of God") had maintained a holy separation from those of Cain. But the time came when "the sons of God saw the daughters of men (of Cain's posterity) that they were fair:and they took of them wives of all which they chose" (Gen. 6:1,2). Intermarriage broke down the godly separation. Their children might indeed be "mighty men . . . men of renown," but "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," and in abhorrence of it all God determined to sweep the earth with a flood! And we believe, dear reader, that the conditions that brought on the flood and the destruction of Sodom are now in progress in Christianity, if not yet fully developed. We have our Lord's word for it that, "As it was in the days of Noah . . . and as it was in the days of Lot . . . even so shall it be when the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:26-30). What an answer, this, to the deceivers (and self-deceived) who preach "peace," "progress" and "grand prospects" for the world!

What has urged this renewed appeal to Christian parents concerning their families is a movement now seeking propagation in this country, called, "The German Youth Movement," with which the "Women's International League for Peace and Freedom" is affiliated, with headquarters in Washington, D. C. We quote from the Philadelphia North American of Nov. 14:

In her recent trip Mrs. DuBois* came in contact with the leaders of the various European youth movements, and is setting forth a very appealing challenge to the youth of America to unite with the youth of other countries in order to "help build a world as it ought to be in the midst of things as they are." … It is figured that several thousand young men and women of this state heard Mrs. *Mrs. R. D. DuBois, recently returned from Europe, is one of the lecturers sent out by the association.* DuBois urge co-operation with the German "youth movement" before her return to Washington.

We do not know what Mrs. DuBois had to say about the German youth movement, but since her organization officially commends an article on the subject printed in the December, 1921, issue of the Survey Graphic and written by Bruno Lasker, who avowedly sympathizes with the movement, it is fair to quote therefrom. He says:

It is when we come to the sex relations that the ethics of the movement become most distinctive; for it is of no monkish asceticism. Its demand is for absolute self-control of the individual, and at the same time for a new freedom based upon primal human needs. This implies combat of false shame no less than of prostitution; of marriage of convenience no less than of the one-sided selfishness that has marked the pre-marital concubinage long current especially among students of Germany and the continent.

But the youth movement has gone further, not only by greatly increasing the number of those who take part in long hikes and climbs, but also by introducing new and stimulating elements. One of these is a cult of nakedness, the belief in the healing and preserving power of sunlight. Though widespread also among the older people and those responsible for the welfare of children, this cult has become associated more particularly with that of personal freedom. It means the openness and lightness of dress to which I have already alluded, and mixed open-air bathing, which is new in Germany; even days spent nude in the open air. Pride of body and the duty of health are frequently emphasized in the speeches and literature of the youth movement.

There is much more in this line, some of which we would refuse to print; but enough is said, and hinted at, to show the trend of what is sought to be introduced. "The last days" are surely upon us. May grace and power be sought 'from God to hold for Him all the dear children He has entrusted to our care.

"Many a good intention dies through inattention or delay. If through carelessness or indolence a good intention is not put into effect, we not only have lost a good opportunity, but in that measure demoralize ourselves."

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

What wonderful words are these, "No condemnation," and "In Christ Jesus!" There is no condemnation here, for "in Christ" there is nothing to condemn. It is like a similar verse in Galatians where Paul, speaking of the beautiful fruits of the Spirit in the lives of believers, says of them, "Against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:23), because they are according to the mind of God Himself. The law of the Spirit always leads in the same direction-in the path of godliness. In whomsoever that law is unhindered in its operation, there will be seen the fruit of the Spirit. It is a law of life and liberty-not of coercion or prohibition, but with desires and aspirations according to God. Being produced by the Spirit, it also is led by the Spirit when the heart dwells in obedience and dependence upon God. It is implanted in the soul of the believer as a living seed, to grow and develop in the child of God (1 Pet. 1:22,23; 2 Pet. l:5-8).

The believer is identified with this divine life; it introduces into a new sphere of being, a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15) ; for as the Lord, speaking to Nicodemus, says:"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell from whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:6-8); and it is by this new and heavenly birth that we become "children of God" (John 1:12,13).

God could not improve the flesh, so He condemned it. The flesh has been evil from the Fall, and spiritual relationship with God has always been through faith-faith that recognized that God had set aside man after the flesh, and faith in the One that was to come was the ground of this new relationship with God. It is in the cross of Christ that man after the flesh is seen to be utterly condemned, root and branch; but those in whom faith dwelt saw that the new Seed, the "woman's Seed," was to take the first Adam's place; therefore they drew near to God by sacrifice pointing to the promised One to whom they looked in faith.

The law came in as an experiment for man's sake, or, as Paul tells us, "That sin by the commandment (the law) might become exceeding sinful" (Rom. 7:13). The law came in as a prohibition to the desires of the flesh-the fallen nature. But instead of the law's righteous demands being fulfilled, it caused sin to "abound;" the rebellious will of the flesh was stirred by its prohibitions, and man became, not only a sinner (which he already was), but more, a transgressor. Thus it was demonstrated that as a means of procuring righteousness the law was powerless, because the flesh "is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." The natural man then was set aside forever, when the Son of God presented Himself as our Substitute and the law's full judgment fell upon Him.

The death of Christ ended man's probation; he is no longer on trial; he is utterly and forever condemned as unfruitful; he must give place to the "new man, who after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." God therefore has done with the law-it has served the purpose for which it was introduced. Its righteous requirements nevertheless are to be fulfilled in the Spirit-born and Spirit-led people of God, but it is not by the law's authority that they are fulfilled, but by the operation of the Spirit of Christ, "the law of life in Christ Jesus'" operating in the believer.

This new life of which Scripture speaks as "eternal life," "life in Christ Jesus," etc., is an "incorruptible" life, having the character of its source, which is Christ Himself, as Scripture says :"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4). See also chapter 1:27; 1 Jno. 5:12. It is by the Word of God in the power of the Spirit that this eternal life is communicated to the believer (1 Pet. 1:23; Jas. 1:18; Jno. 3:5).

The apostle John, speaking of those possessing this life and identifying them with it, says, "He that is begotten of God does not commit sin, because His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." No sin can proceed from the new life in the new man, which is "created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).

We shall see presently why those in whom is this new life and nature, do sin at times, alas; but it is first necessary to see clearly that the new life is incorruptible; and secondly, that the believer in Christ is identified with this new life, and that God speaks of us at times as if we were entirely characterized by the divine nature; for He desires His people to realize what they are in His eyes, that they are no longer in their sins, nor even what they often are in their actual experience; for it is by this standard we should judge our ways and regulate our life, and God's purpose to conform us to the image of His Son is already in measure true of those in whom Christ dwells. This law of life in us is to spring up into action, under the control of the Spirit, who creates its desires by means of the Truth; and this new life never acts in rebellion to the Spirit's impulses, but always in accordance with them. Hence is it said of those who believe, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The Spirit's leading is ever in accordance with His revelation in the Word and it is by this Word, and not by mere inward suggestions, that His mind is known and followed. Even our Lord Jesus, who had no disposition ever to act or speak other than as the Father would have Him, was always governed by the Scriptures, and not by mere impulses. In meeting and overcoming the tempter, He always replied, "It is written."

The title "Christ Jesus" is suggestive of His present position as "the Last Adam." As such He is the Head of His race, as Adam was the head of his race. The poison of sin is in the life we have received from Adam, as Gen. 5:3 hints, "Adam lived . . . and begat a son in his own likeness;" and Rom. 5:12-19 states it doctrinally. A "new birth" therefore, or a "new creation," is necessary to deliver out of such a condition. So the new life and nature received from our new Head, called "life in Christ Jesus," frees us from our former link with Adam, as we read:"The Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has freed us from the law of sin and death." Does this mean that the old nature has been eradicated? If it meant that, it would be impossible for any believer ever to sin again, for this "life in Christ" is not the possession of a few superior Christians, but true of all who are Christ's. It does not mean that by the Spirit's presence in us we are freed from the sinful Adam nature, but that we are freed from it as a ruling principle. We are to count ourselves no longer debtors to it, and to give ourselves up to the control of the new law of the Spirit. What the law of "Attraction" is in the physical realm, so it is in the spiritual:the nearer we live to the "Sun" of our souls, the more powerful the influence of the Spirit of Christ upon our lives; and, conversely, if we follow Him "afar off," the influence of the flesh, or as it is called here, "the law of sin and death," comes to have its influence over us. This is why true believers are in danger of falling into sin. If they lived in the joy and power of their place in Christ and His fellowship by the Spirit, the old nature could have no power over them:the greater power of the Spirit would hold and lead them.

Characteristically, the believer is Spirit-led:"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." What need there is, then, to be always near to Christ, "abiding in Him," for then sin has no power over us. This is what the apostle means when he says elsewhere, "Let us put on the armor of light." To clothe ourselves with the light of His presence, is the surest protection from the power of darkness.

"Therefore, brethren, we are no longer debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh:for if ye live after the flesh ye are on the way to die. But if through the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Notice, it is not, "If ye mortify the deeds of the body," etc., but "If ye through the Spirit do mortify," etc. The manner by which the Spirit enables us to put to death the deeds of the body, which characterized the old man, is not by conflict with it, but by a practical enjoyment of Christ through occupation with Him. Israel was commanded to go around the land of Edom, not through it, which would have brought the two into conflict. For us this means to 'abstain," or keep away from "fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." They make war against the soul if we engage with them, or enter upon their territory, so to speak. To do so means defeat. Our sphere is communion with Christ. In His company we are safe, and nowhere else. Wm. Huss.

Christ is the official, Jesus the personal name of our Lord. It is from the Greek word Christos, which signifies "anointed," corresponding to the word Messiah in the Hebrew. He is called the Anointed in allusion to the custom of anointing with oil such as were set apart to a sacred or regal office, because by the Spirit He was anointed to the threefold office of prophet, priest, and king.

The word "Jesus" is derived from a Hebrew word signifying "to save," or "sent to save" (Matt. 1:21; Lk. 2:11, 21). The word "Joshua" has the same meaning, and is a very common name among the Hebrews, and should have been used in Acts 7:45 and Heb. 4:8 instead of "Jesus."

Jesus the Christ is a descriptive phrase, like John the Baptist (Mk. 14:61; John 1:41). The word "Jesus" is almost always used alone in the Gospels, while, in the Acts and Epistles, "Jesus Christ," or "Lord Jesus Christ," i? the prevailing expression.

The first promise of the Messiah was given in Gen. 3:IS. The Son of God is "the seed of the woman." The devil and his servants represent the serpent and his seed. The temptations, sufferings, and ignominious death of Christ, are significantly described by the bruising of the heel; while the complete victory which our Redeemer has Himself achieved over sin and death, and which His grace enables the believer also to obtain, and the still more perfect and universal triumph which He will finally accomplish, are all strikingly illustrated by the bruising or crushing of the serpent's head.

The books of heathen mythology furnish curious allusions to this passage of the Bible. In one of them Thor is presented as the eldest son of Odin, a middle divinity, a mediator between God and man, who bruised the head of the serpent and slew him. And in one of the oldest pagodas of India are found two sculptured figures, representing two incarnations of one of their supreme divinities, the first as bitten by a serpent, and the second to crush him.

The promise thus given when man fell was supplemented by many types and symbols-in poetry and prose, in prophecy and history; so the Jews had before them in increasing prominence and clearness the character and life and-death of the promised Messiah, and yet, as a nation, they grossly misapprehended His character and the purpose of His mission. They were accustomed to regard His coming as the grand era in the annals of the world, for they spoke of the two great ages of history, the one as preceding and the other as following this wonderful event; but they perverted the spiritual character of the Messiah and His kingdom into that of a temporal deliverer and ruler. Or, rather, they refused to see a description of Him as the Sufferer and sin-bearer in Isa. 53, Ps. 22, and typified in the sacrifices. They only looked for His kingdom, and refused the atonement sufferings which were to precede the kingdom.-[Ed.

We find that about the time of the Messiah's appearance Simeon, Anna, and others of like faith, were eagerly expecting the promised salvation (Lk. 2:25-38).

At the appointed time the Redeemer of the world appeared. He was born in the year of the city of Rome 749 -1:e., 4 years before the beginning of our era-at Bethlehem, in Judaea, of the Virgin Mary, who was espoused to Joseph; and through them He derived his descent from David, according to prophecy (Ps. 89:3,4 and 110:1). Com. Acts 2:25,36; Isa. 11:1-10; Jer. 23:5, 6; Ezek. 34:23, 24; 37:24, 25; John 7:42.

The story of Christ's life is told with so much simplicity, completeness, and sweetness in the Gospels, and is at the same time so familiar to every Bible-reader, that it is not possible or necessary to give even an outline of it here. In one sentence, Jesus Christ was the incarnate God, whose coming was the fulfilment of prophecy; whose life was the exemplification of absolute sinlessness; whose death was the result of man's malice, and yet the execution of God's design and the atonement for the sins of the world; whose resurrection was the crowning proof of His divinity:whose ascension was a return to His abode, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us. To prove His character we have the unanimous testimony of eighteen centuries. "The person of Christ is the miracle of history."

We claim for Him perfect humanity and perfect divinity. He was not only the Son of Man, but the Son of God in one undivided person. The term "Son of Man," which Christ applies to Himself about eighty times in the Gospels, places Him with other men as partaking of their /nature and constitution, and at the same time above all ' other men as the absolute and perfect Man, the representative Head of the race, the second Adam (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:20-22). While great men are limited by national ties, Christ is the King of men, who draws all to Him; He is the universal, absolute Man, elevated above the limitations of race and nationality. And yet He is most intensely human. The joys and sorrows of our common life are met by His deep and tender sympathy. All love Him who know Him. His foes are the cruel, the licentious, and the malicious.

The records of the Evangelists are not elaborate, artistic pages, with many erasures as if the writers had toiled after consistency. They are simple, straightforward, guileless testimonies; and yet the impression they leave upon the attentive reader is that in Jesus Christ-the plant of Humanity bore its rarest flower, the tree of Life its most precious fruit.

It will be granted that the question of the justice of this claim turns upon His perfect sinlessness. Some have dared to say that while in the Gospels no sinful acts are recorded, there may have been sins which are unrecorded. But without fear He challenged His foes to convict Him of sin (John 8:46). He was the only man could make such a challenge. Christ's sinlessness is confirmed by His own solemn testimony, the whole course of His life, and the very purpose for which He appeared. Self-deception in this case would border on madness, falsehood would overthrow the whole moral foundation of Christ's character. Hypocrites do not maintain themselves under such a strain.

But besides being sinless, He was perfectly holy. He did not simply resist sin; He blended and exercised actively all virtues. The grandeur of His character removes Him at once from all the sordidness, pettiness, and sin-fulness of our every-day life. His memory comes to us with the refreshment of the cooling breeze on a summer's day. We can supplicate His help because we have seen Him tried and triumphant, and we know His strength is great. All human goodness loses on closer inspection, but Christ's character grows more pure, sacred, and lovely the better we know Him.

But Jesus was likewise the Son of God and so He is usually called by the apostles. The perfection of His humanity is matched by the perfection of His divinity. His Godhead comes out in many ways. He exercises a supernatural control over Nature. The waves sink at His command, the fig tree withers away, the water turns into wine. By His touch or word, without a prayer or any recognition of superior power, the lepers are cleansed, the blind see, and the lame walk. Higher yet does Christ go :He forgives sins-not with the ostentation of a presuming charlatan, but simply, authoritatively, gently. He takes from the sinner his damning load by the same action which brings back health. He likewise intercedes with the Father for men. He claims equality and eternity with God. Twice God proclaims Him as His Son. Jesus of Nazareth lives as the express image of the Father, conquers the grave, rises from the dead, and ascends to take His place as God, blessed for ever.

"Behold the God-Man!" cries the Church; and this is the exultant exclamation of the soul left to its deepest instincts and noblest aspirations, the soul which was originally made for Christ, and finds in Him the solution of all moral problems, the satisfaction of all its wants, the unfailing fountain of everlasting life and peace.
From "Schaff’s Bible Dictionary."

In the 7th chapter of Acts, Stephen filled with the Spirit calls the Jewish council's attention to their history, beginning first with God's sovereign grace in the call of Abram out from the idolatry of his country, and kindred, saying, "Get thee out of thy. country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee." Then Stephen rehearses the whole history of the nation down to the days of Solomon. He goes no further, for the corruption and idolatry that came in during Solomon's reign was morally the end of things for the nation, though God bore with them down to the death of Christ, and even after-yes, was bearing with them still in sending them this message through Stephen. The death of that man of God by their hands was the fulfilment of Luke 19:14, where the Nobleman's citizens sent a message after him, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us." That is, virtually, what Israel said, when they cast out Stephen.

What Stephen says as to Moses (as a striking type of Christ) is most instructive:"Cast out to the end that he might not live," in God's providence he is brought up in the family of the king; but when for the sake of his poor and afflicted brethren he exposes himself to the vengeance of the Egyptians, he is despised and refused by Ms own people. This is just what was repeated in the coming of Christ:"Because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, they fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that He should be slain."

Nearly half of Stephen's earnest appeal is taken up with the treatment which Moses received from the fathers of the generation whom he was addressing. The Spirit of God presses upon them that they were no better than they. "As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers."

We have no reason to suppose that the professing Church has been or is any better than was Israel in their unbelief and rejection of their God-sent Redeemer. The devil has shifted his cards, but it is the same devilish purpose all through. He is ever leading men to "resist the Holy Spirit." To-day this is largely done by corrupting the truth, introducing philosophy and man's proud unbelief into the tenets of the Church. We are told that we must be abreast of the times; that it will not do to stagnate in the same views as those held by well-intentioned but misled men of the first century. We must own that they were ignorant of much that science has since revealed, and therefore were not so much to blame for views belonging to those "dark ages," but which we, with all the modern light that has come in, cannot agree with.

Thus Satan has his men of "brilliant minds," to work his ends; but the believer says with the apostle, "We are not ignorant of his devices," which the title, "That old serpent," suggests-he is too wise, in fact, for even the leaders of this world's thoughts, seeing he has them so thoroughly under his hand:as it is written, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

But not only is this so:God too has ordained that those who are wise in their own conceits should be given up to the darkness which they love, for the Lord Jesus says, "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight" (Matt. 11:25).

The world, even the religious world, has been in hostility to God and to His Son from the days of Cain. (Comp. Matt. 23:35 with Rev. 18:24). The form, or outward features, of that hostility may and do change, but the essential or underlying principles which constitute it what it is, remain the same throughout history. Some main features of that hatred of the truth, first manifested in Cain, and continuing to this day are these:

1st. The denial of the "Fall," 1:e., that man is not a fallen, ruined sinner. Cain assumed this position, for he claimed ability to approach God on the ground of nature, with no confession of sin. His offering clearly indicates this. He "brought of the fruits of the ground an offering unto the Lord." To him the ground was not cursed for man's sake, and in his eyes the offering was entirely acceptable. His worship would be good and acceptable, providing the basis of it be a just one; but the fact that God had ordained substitutionary sacrifice as the only ground of approach to Himself, gave the lie to Cain's position. It showed that arrogant unbelief was behind his act, besides rejecting the grace of God which the sacrifice displayed.* *The Hebrew word in Gen. 4:7 translated "sin" ("sin lieth at the door") may be rendered as well "sin-offering"; it evidently should be so rendered here; "a sin-offering lieth at the door"-such as Abel brought for his acceptance with God.-[Ed.*

2nd. His denial of being constitutionally a sinner involved, as already suggested, the denial of atonement; this, therefore, is purposely absent from his system of worship, and of all those who follow in his steps (Jude 11).

3rd. If there be no need for atonement, there is no need for a divine Saviour to make atonement:hence Cain, as shown by his creed, evidently rejected God's promise of a divine human Deliverer, as given to his parents (Gen. 3:15).

Those who now reject Christ's deity, His sinless birth a? the "Seed of the woman," and His atoning death, stand in the same position as Cain. If Christ be not Divine in the unique sense of the word, He could not make atonement for sin; and if man is not fallen, it is not needed. The absence of these things from many cults to-day brand them as what they are-of Cain's religion.

4th. If man be an unfallen creature, and by reason of this is a "child of God," then he has a right to live and enjoy life to the full. But Cain will not allow those who are not of his creed the right to live; he rises up and slays Abel. And Abel, by his approaching God through sacrifice, utterly condemned Cain's religious system. Cain's ire is aroused by God's favor resting on his despised brother, and he will get rid of him even by murder!

It is not the present policy of Cain's school to indulge in violence. Corruption, rather, is the order of the day; but Satan, "the prince of this world," has the same end in view. It matters little to him whether he destroys by violence or by corruption. The world-system, founded by Cain, under Satan's skillful leadership, builds- its cities, cultivates the arts and sciences, adorns the earth, and through inventions and discoveries makes itself as comfortable a "dweller on the earth" as possible, forgetting, or ignoring, that man is under the sentence of death.

5th. We are not surprised that Cain and his class complain of the punishment apportioned to them as being unjust:"My punishment is greater than I can bear." What is that punishment? It is banishment from God, and under His frown. Death is the "wages of sin," and "vagabondage" seems to be the result of refusing the provision that God in grace made for sinners. But if Cam refused the grace of God, he also refuses His righteous sentence. "We do not believe in a God of wrath:ours ii a God of love," say those of Cain's religion in the present day. Nevertheless the whole posterity of Cain perished when God visited the earth in wrath in the time of the flood. Scripture asks the solemn question, "What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel?"

The truth remains, spite of all the enemy's efforts to destroy or to annul it:"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that -whosoever believeth in HIM should not perish, but have everlasting life." The inference here is plain and unmistakable. There is but one avenue of escape from perishing. To refuse that, is to perish surely, and eternally. Wm. Huss

(Ps. 104:34.)

My meditation of Him shall be sweet,
His name is like ointment poured forth;
No seraph or angel of light,
Ever whispered a name of such worth.

I gaze with deep wonder and joy
In the manger of yon lowly stall,
And praise Him for coming to earth
To save from the curse of the fall.

I ponder and muse on the cross,
Where He suffered and died in His love,
To save from the doom of God's wrath,
And fit us for dwelling above.

In muteness and sorrow I sit
On the brink of the dark silent grave,
And think of His measureless love-
His life for my ransom He gave.

Through tear-drops that well up and fall,
I behold that blest Man of the tomb
Come forth in His glory and power,
Dispelling all darkness and gloom.

I scan the deep blue of the skies
And see Him recede in the air;
He mounts to the court of all worlds-
In God's presence, to plead for me there.

And in the bright visions of hope
I see Him descending the sky,
To rapture His loved ones away
To mansions of infinite joy.

Then, in the glad strain of the Seer,
I see Him returning to reign:
To set up His kingdom on earth
Where He was derided and slain.

His redeemed ones in millions shall come
And bask in the bliss of His reign,
Creation shall own Him as King.
And join in redemption's sweet strain.

Beyond the swift passing of years
The end of Time's ages I see,
When He'll reign through the cycles beyond –
Though undated, unmeasured, they be.

Then, ponder and muse, O my soul,
On themes which His glories embrace;
And seek with deep fervency of love,
His greatness more fully to trace.

Read daily the leaves of the Book
Whose pages are gilded with light;
Rejoice in the One it unfolds-
May He be thy constant delight.

C. C. Crowston

"Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children; let them praise the name of the Lord:for His name alone is excellent; His glory is above the earth and heaven . . . Praise ye the Lord"-Ps. 148:12-14.

(Continued from page 294)

Lecture V.

UNDER SHELTERING BLOOD (Exodus, chap. 12.)

With just the brief notice given in the last lecture, I must pass over the history of the plagues of Egypt, until we come to the last, in which we find what is more or less plain to every Christian heart-the death of the first-born, and God's deliverance from it by the passover blood.

The apostle has given us inspired interpretation as to it:"Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5. 7, 8).

It is to the Christian memorial feast that the apostle refers, of course; and, in several respects, that is different from the passover. This we shall see hereafter. I am not aware that this in Egypt is even called a feast at all. The circumstances were perhaps too solemn. And we may remember that Israel's feast to Jehovah was to be held in the wilderness. However this may be, the passover lamb figures Christ Himself, as the blood that sheltered them figures the blood of the Cross. The blood anticipated the judgment upon the people, so that when it came, they were untouched by it.

In this last plague Israel was made to realize their own solemn position before God. They were subject, naturally, to His judgment as much as the Egyptians. They had to meet, not a lesser infliction than the Egyptians, but death itself, which is God's sentence upon all men, and the figure of the final doom beyond this life. Death they must meet, pass through it, and leave behind them, before they can be freed from Egyptian bondage or their feet leave Egyptian soil. In Egypt they must keep the passover:and to this the very first verse of this chapter points:"And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt."

There is no progress on the part of the people up to this. God has been moving, no doubt, steadily onwards towards the accomplishment of His own purposes in their salvation; but to them, as to all others to whom God's mercy comes, it comes where they are. "The people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up." There may be plenty of exercise and experience of a certain sort in this condition, and plenty of effort also at self-help; but it only confirms the fact that no advance is made in the path of God, nor even towards God, until the shelter of the Cross is reached and known. They sit in darkness and keep the passover in the land of Egypt- the land of bondage.

This is declared in another way in this divine communication:"And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months:it shall be the first month of the year to you." The preceding months of the year are blotted out, as it were, and God begins afresh for them with the paschal month. Grace gives them this new beginning; and it can do nothing kinder than to blot out the past. And so it is with our history until that which is the antitype of the passover is known. Our previous history has its use as a lesson, no doubt; in that sense it is not all lost. Will anything be really so, even in this world's history? All will have its moral lesson in the coming day of revelation; instead of being forgotten, it will abide in profit for us forever. But when God says, "I will remember no more," it has a very different meaning. He cannot really forget any more than He can repent; yet both terms are relatively used of Him. He does not remember our sins and iniquities when He treats us as if these had never happened-when we can find nothing whatever in His conduct toward us which indicates His remembrance of them; when not only they are no more a shadow in our heavens, but not a mote even in the sunshine of His perfect love.

His "not remembering," however, has its solemn as well as its gracious side. Love would gladly remember, not forget. If our deeds and words be such that love itself can only draw the veil over them, what must they be! Yet the veil that love can draw may be so surpassingly glorious, that the glow of it may enable us to look back, as well as forward. For, if God sets aside the past with a new beginning, He directs our eyes to the beginning-in fact to the veil with which He has covered the past. Thus our passover month is henceforth the beginning of months to us. The blood of Christ, which has blotted out the past, has begun for us all things anew. The veil of the past is the glory of the present and the future.

But the year does not begin exactly with the pass-over itself. If the death of Christ for us blots out our past, it surely blots not out His blessed course on earth- that path of perfect obedience which led Him to the cross! Thus, the Passover is on the fourteenth day of the year, not the first. On the tenth day, the lamb was taken, and kept up four days, until the fourteenth day at even, when it was killed. That all this is significant, I suppose none of us will doubt; and the numbers are, of course, a special part of it. How full of meaning is this fourteenth day for the passover, a number compounded of the number of testimony-two, and that which speaks of divine and perfect workmanship-seven! For have we not here the perfect work which is the great subject of God's testimony?

The other numbers are no less clear and beautiful. Ten days of the month are passed when the lamb is taken. The ten days point to the measure of human responsibility, as the ten commandments do. They pass in silence before the lamb is taken-a silence which answers to what seems so great a gap in the Gospels. What account have we of those thirty years in which our Lord grew up in retirement at Nazareth, and lived in the quiet fulfilment of human duties in the carpenter's house? We have a brief vision of Him at His birth; a still briefer one of His visit to the temple at twelve years old; then no more till He comes forth at thirty (the Levite age), to take up His work among men openly. Then, fulfilling righteousness in that Jordan-baptism-in which all others confessed their departure from it-He is sealed with the Holy Ghost, and proclaimed by the Father as His own Beloved. John announces Him as the Lamb of God; and the Father's Voice, and the Spirit's act, declare Him how much more than without blemish!

The lamb being taken, not immediate sacrifice follows, but the keeping it up four days. Four speaks of testing; and this follows immediately the announcement of the divine satisfaction and delight in Him. Hitherto He had lived under God's eye alone; now man and the devil are to test Him as they please. To the devil He is at once exposed; not going there of His own mind, but led of the Spirit expressly "to be tempted:" all circumstances designedly permitted to be as adverse as to the first man in Eden they were favorable. His language to His disciples, at a later day, tenderly acknowledges their companionship, even though it had been so deficient; but in these forty days of temptation by the devil, He is alone. And this testing brought out only His perfection. The four Gospels show the result; how, as Messiah, Minister, Son of Man and Son of God, He approves Himself the same blessed One whom all circumstances only magnify.

At the end of these four days, the lamb was slain; its life is surrendered in meekness:"He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth."

The character of the offering is not otherwise dwelt upon in Exodus. It is in Leviticus, where as priests we go in to God, that the various aspects of the sacrifice are displayed; for the soul at first is not in condition to take it in. Here, in Exodus, it is naturally more the effect of His work for us than the glories of the work itself; although some details, necessary for our full peace, we shall find in the sequel. But first of all, and most prominent, is the power of the redeeming blood under which the people find refuge.

What we have here, in an unmistakable way, is that redemption must first of all be by blood before it can be by power:that the wrath of God must be met, before the enemy can be-that the enemy's full judgment and our deliverance are only completed at the Red Sea. But the first and deeper question is to be settled between the people and God.

As we have already seen, the enemy is the sin that reigns over us and holds us in bondage. We are apt to think that the first thing is, by God's help to deliver our selves from the bondage of sin. We are slow to realize that first of all, and while still slaves in Egypt, God's sure "and dreadful judgment upon sin must pass over us where we are; that whilst power over sin may yet be an unsolved problem, our peace with God is made by the precious blood, by which, if under it, we are sheltered from the wrath to come.

"And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt."

I need scarcely dwell upon the fact that God's eye was upon the blood; His judgment therefore could not be on the people. Whether young or old, whether good or bad, whether experiences and feelings were right or wrong in any one of them, was not the point:God looked upon the blood. Had judgment entered a house so shielded, not only the blood would have been dishonored, but the truthfulness and righteousness of God would have been done away with. These stood on the side of all those who had fled for refuge to the hope set before them. And so with us. The glory of the gospel is that the righteousness of God itself is on the side of every one who welcomes it in faith.

The blood was for the eye of God, rather than the people's eye. As often said, it is not, "When you see the blood," but "When 7 see it." As it is God whom sin has offended, it is to Him that the blood of atonement speaks. And in the resurrection of Christ He has declared His complete and perfect satisfaction with that atonement. He only can take in its full value. He rests in it. He has found a ransom. Peace is made. It is not ours in any way to make peace, but only to enter into it, and enjoy it. There may be no need to dwell upon this for those present here to-night, yet to recall it to our minds is unspeakable comfort, and should be the occasion of fresh praise in our hearts.

Let us now look at another point in this picture, of which there are so many, and so important. While outside the house the blood of atonement spoke to God, inside He had provided what was to satisfy them, and enable them for that path with Him upon which they were now to go forth.

The lamb is theirs to feed upon, and God is bent upon their enjoying this provision of His love. They are not only to be sheltered, they must be sustained also. The lamb is to be eaten-all of it. If the household were too little for the lamb (we read nothing of the lamb being too little for the house), then, says the Lord, "Let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every one according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb."

Thus God would have Christ apprehended by us. He would have our souls sustained; He would have Christ honored. We are to eat-to appropriate to ourselves what Christ is. Eating is appropriation for our need; and that which we appropriate becomes part of ourselves; so God would have Christ become as it were part of ourselves- that we should be characterized by what He is. As Himself said, "He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me." And there is such a laying hold of Christ for our soul as makes Him to be reproduced in us. In the measure in which we spiritually feed upon Christ, our life will bear His character.

Oh that we knew more of this! How would the truths of Scripture change in us from hard, dogmatic, unlovely forms, into those soft and beautiful lineaments of the life itself! Christ Himself is what we want, in the midst of a utilitarianism which "wastes" no box of ointment on His head; not the Christ of a mystic dream, but a living and life-giving Christ.

Let us note another thing here:that God has ordained death to be the food of life. We are so familiar with this that we are apt by the very fact to miss its significance. Nature everywhere is thus instructing us (if we would but learn) in the deeper lessons of divine wisdom! The laying down of life becomes the sustenance of another life. For man, this did not begin till after the deluge; at least it is only after this that we read of divine permission to slay animals for food. And when we see in that deluge the ark of salvation as its central figure, bearing within it the nucleus of a new world (figure of how God saves us, bringing us in Christ into a new creation), its similitude to what we have here bursts upon us. It is as sheltered and saved from death that we can feed upon death. Thus is Sampson's riddle fulfilled:"Out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness." Death is not only vanquished and set aside by the Cross, but it is the sweet and wonderful display of divine love and power in our behalf, accomplished in the mystery of human weakness. Death is become the food of life-of a life eternal. Let us observe also the mode of eating the lamb.

"And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. Bat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire:its head with its legs, and with the pertinence thereof."

We are to notice three things, which destroy the dangerous dreams which are abroad with regard to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, it was not to be "raw" or "underdone." The fire must do its work, do it thoroughly, upon that which was to be the representative of Christ-for our redemption. In God's Word, fire is everywhere used as a figure of God's wrath. The lamb exposed to the full action of the fire, thus represents to us the Lord in atonement, not merely laying down His
life, but "made sin for us"-the chastisement for our peace falling upon Him, in our awful place. The whole lamb, roasted with fire, they were to eat, and so are we.

And again, "Not sodden at all with water,"-or rather, "not done in water," or boiled-"but roast with fire." The water would hinder the direct action of the fire; and as water is the type of the Word, His delight in God's will, in God's Word to Him, was not to hinder the action of the fire. Could He be made sin, who knew none? That is just what Scripture affirms. The holiness of His life, the blessed perfection of His obedience, did not prevent or soften the agony of the cross which He endured for us. "He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The lamb was not sodden in water, but "roast with fire!"

"His head with his legs, with the pertinence thereof" (or "inward parts"), were all exposed to the searching fire. The head expresses the thoughts and counsels with which His walk (the legs) keep perfect company. The inward parts, the affections of His heart, were the motive power which impelled Him upon the path He trod. The fire tested all; it brought forth nothing but sweet savor to God, and is for us the food of our true life; and for us now to appropriate. It is the great want-may we not say?-to know more Christ's mind, to walk in His blessed ways, to apprehend His love! All this is set before us to enjoy and make our own, at the very beginning of the way in which He would lead us. It is not merely peace that God would have us enjoy, but Christ-Christ bestowing all these, and made known in them, yet Himself immeasurably more than all these things put together. It is a Person, without whom the heart is not sustained, the soul is not fed. Indeed, without occupation with Christ Himself, the superficial knowledge of peace and salvation may but too easily be associated with very worldliness. Christ alone keeps and satisfies.

I pause here. The rest of what the passover scene unfolds, so far as I am able to speak of it, we may take up next time.

(To be continued.)

Dear owners of the folded hands
Who sit in quiet all the day,
Grieve not that with the falling sands
Your knitting has been laid away.

Those hands are stilled to free your hearts,
That they a finer work may do:
For God His richest gifts imparts
To special pleaders such as you.

So lift those hearts to Him above
In streams of yearning, strong desire.
For all the scattered ones you love,
That they may feel His quickening fire.

None else can know, as you, their needs-
What this one lacks-why that one fails;
True knowledge with true insight pleads,
And wrestling inwardly, prevails.

So heavenly light shall through you glow
And healing fly to distant lands,
While angels, looking down below,
May envy you your folded hands.

Sarah Hopkins

"Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it … that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church" (Eph. 5:25-27).

A servant's place He took in grace;
Came from the Father's side-
Came to fulfil God's blessed will
To seek on earth the Bride:
Though captive in the bonds of sin,
Though deep in darkness laid,
His love o'ercame the sin and shame-
His life the ransom paid.

For ere set free the Bride could be,
His precious blood must flow:
At love's command, from God's own hand
He drank the cup of woe.
On cross of shame-blest be His name!-
He full redemption wrought:
Himself He gave! naught less could save,
Could win the Bride He sought.

From glory's height a flood of light
Now streams on faith's clear eye:
The Lamb once slain broke death's cold chain,
And lives, our Head, on high.
And while earth's wise His grace despise,
And worldling coldly scorns,
With robe divine and linen fine
The Lamb His Bride adorns.

But ere the Bride can grace His side,
Ere dawns the nuptial day,
The dreary desert must be crossed,
A dark and toilsome way.
But faith can still, 'mid good and ill,
His guidance wise discern;
And, ah! 'tis there we prove His care
His ways of mercy learn.

At last! at last! the desert past,
The race of faith is run;
The night is o'er for evermore,
Eternal Day begun:
For He who died comes for His Bride
In triumph Home to bear;
With Him to be, His face to see,
His kingly throne to share.

While angels raise their note of praise,
And joyful homage bring,
The blood-bought throng the new sweet song
Of grace exultant sing.
God's wondrous plan, with love to man,
He'll gloriously display:
In light divine the Church shall shine
Throughout Eternal Day!

W. L. G.

When Luther had woefully wronged and reviled Calvin, the latter said, "Well, let Luther hate me, and call me Devil a thousand times, yet I will love him, and acknowledge him to be a precious brother and servant of God."- Spencer.

FRAGMENT

What does it stand for in Scripture?

Salt is mentioned in numerous passages of Scripture _ in connection with important truths and practical admonitions, though in most cases its meaning is left unexplained. Nevertheless, relying upon the Holy Spirit's guidance, we may find what are the principles to which it points, and apply them correctly.

Among other passages, one in Exod. 30:35 sheds much light on the subject. It reads as follows:"And thou shalt make of it a perfume after the work of the perfumer, salted, pure, holy" (Num. Bible). The words pure and holy added to "salted," make plain that salt stands for what preserves in purity and holiness to whatever it may be applied, as we shall further see.

In Lev. 2:13 we read, "Every oblation of thy meal-offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meal-offering; with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt." The meal-offering was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity. Leaven, the type of evil, was not permitted among the ingredients which composed the meal-offering, because there was no evil in Him. But the absence of evil was only the negative side; it did not fully express the perfection of His character, even as, man; that which speaks of incorruptibility had to be introduced, and the offerer was enjoined not to suffer salt to be lacking in any of his meal-offerings, as well as in all the other offerings; even the incense, as indicated above, expressing the fragrance which ascended up to God from Christ's blameless life, was not complete without what the salt typifies. It is said of the meal-offering, "It is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire" (Lev. 3:2,10); the same as is said of all the other offerings (Num. 18:9).

Here, then, salt represents the principle of incorruptibility, giving character to that to which it is applied. Thus salt is called "the salt of the covenant of thy God" (Lev. 2:13). God's covenant with Israel was based on His holy and unchangeable character, and the sacrifices and offerings were ordained for the maintenance of His relation with Israel. A "covenant of salt" is therefore a holy covenant, sure, unchangeable and eternal. Emphasis is laid upon this in Num. 18:19, where we read:"All the heave-offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee as a statute for ever:it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord unto thee and thy seed with thee."

In 2 Chron. 13:5, likewise, we read:"Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever; even to him and his sons by a covenant of salt?" In this case salt stands as a guarantee for the endurance of that covenant.

Again, in Judges 9:45, when Abimelech fought against the city and took it, and slew the people therein and beat down the city, he "sowed it with salt," indicating thereby that its destruction was to be without recovery. It points to the perpetuity and holiness of judgment upon the wicked. Whether he had God's mind or not in doing so, is another question.

When Elisha came to Jericho, the city of the curse, he found that the water was bad, instead of pure and refreshing, and the land was barren. In the name of the Lord he cast salt into the spring, and the waters were healed (2 Kings 2:19-22). Here it is the power of sovereign grace, purifying the source of life, as God's act of mercy through His prophet.

Turning now to the New Testament, in Matt. 5:13 we read as follows:"Ye are the salt of the earth:but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It i? thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men." What Israel should have been, but was not, the disciples, as Christ's followers, were really to be-the salt of the earth, the representatives of a holy God to bear testimony against evil in a world that lies in wickedness, thus preserving the world from moral corruption. As long as they are in it, it defers the day of judgment, as it is the peculiar property of salt to resist the process of decay. They were also "the light of the world" in their day, and we also are to "show forth the virtues of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light," warning men of the coming judgment and proclaiming the good news of salvation ere the judgment falls upon the rebellious and the ungodly. God's witnesses therefore are characterized as "the salt of the earth."

In Mark 9:50 we read of the possibility of salt losing its saltness, thus useless, and to be cast out; as Israel who, as a nation, had utterly failed in her collective testimony for God (see Rom. 2:24), and was about to be scattered among the nations, as disowned by God. And this is applicable to the professing church, and to any movement or body professing allegiance to Christ, Where evil, or a dead condition prevails, the salt has become saltness, and removal of the candlestick follows.

In Mark 9:49, SO we read:"For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its saltness wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." Here, salt is identified with fire-the fire of God's holiness, by which in the coming day every one shall be tried, even the believer's works (see 1 Cor. 3:13-15). Here then salt with fire stand for divine holiness to be manifested in judgment. "Every sacrifice," everything connected with the Lord's name, is thus to be tested whether it is acceptable to our holy Lord, or not. May it produce godly fear and holiness in our whole life.

"Have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another" seems to reflect on what is related in verses 33-36, namely that the disciples disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. Pride had raised the dispute, and it disturbed the peace. They needed to have salt in themselves. The Lord supplied it by setting before them a pattern of humility-a little child, by which to judge their pride-judge themselves, thus ending dispute and restoring peace.

Finally let us hear the apostle's admonition in Col. 4:6. He says:"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." It is indeed our greatest privilege to make known to others the gospel of God's grace, but we must not forget the salt that is to go with it. And what is that? It is the principle of holiness, in testimony against evil. Grace and truth must go together. The proclamation of grace without a call for repentance, dodges the sin question; it is like food without salt, flat and savorless. Yet our testimony consists not merely, nor chiefly, in denouncing evil and condemning the sinner, for it would be no more a word of grace. Wisdom and divine guidance are needed to discern where and when salt is needed. The apostle knew how to use it when he spoke to Felix concerning the faith in Christ; he "reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come." Felix then trembled and answered:"Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee."
Salt then stands for the principle of holiness, be it as giving character to the thing applied, preservation from moral corruption, testimony against evil, self-judgment, or judgment upon the wicked. John Kofal

Faith is a principle of immense importance in the lives of men. Faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ transforms the lives of men, and determines their eternal destiny.

In Paul's Epistles, faith is the principle wrought of God in the soul. True faith involves both mind and heart. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. 10:10; quotations in this article are from JND’s translation). The mind must be convinced, and the heart must be exercised.

Scripture speaks of faith in the individual believer in four aspects or connections:

First:Faith, in salvation.

Second:Faith, as productive of good works.

Third:Faith, as making real the unseen.

Fourth:Faith, in prayer.

We will take these up in the order given.

Faith, in salvation.

Throughout the entire Scriptures faith is the vital requirement for salvation. In the Old Testament faith appears as a living fact in the lives of men. The comment on these men of faith is found in the 11th chapter of Hebrews.

In the New Testament the necessity of faith for salvation is stated as a doctrine. The great exposition of the doctrine of faith, as necessary for justification, is found in Romans. The doctrine set forth in this Epistle is briefly as follows:

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth (Rom. 1:16). Apart from faith in the gospel-faith in Christ our Saviour-man is hopelessly lost, as demonstrated in chapters 1,2, and 3; the conclusion being that, "ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Paul establishes the indisputable fact that all men are sinners, and also that none can be justified by their works in the sight of God. "By works of law no flesh shall be justified before God." This universal ruin of man is further emphasized in chapter 5 by the statements that man is without strength, is ungodly, and at enmity toward God. This condition of man would be hopeless, apart from the grace of God, who has provided a way of salvation open to all through faith in Jesus Christ. God's grace has operated in sending Jesus Christ to be a Saviour for the whole world. Christ has given His life, has shed His blood for sinners, thereby manifesting to all the world God's love for man, and God's holiness in judging sin. God now invites sinners to approach Him in faith through Jesus Christ, and He is righteous in so doing. For now, "apart from law, the righteousness of God is borne witness to by the law and the prophets- the righteousness of God, by faith of Jesus Christ, toward all, and upon all those who believe" (Rom. 3:21, 22).

In chapter 5:1, 2 we have set forth the immense results of justification by faith:"Therefore, having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace toward God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have also access by faith into this favor in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God." Well may the Christian rejoice in a salvation based on the death of Christ and the righteousness of God, made good to him on the principle of faith. Every question of guilt and sin is settled, access into God's presence is given, and the future is made bright with the glory of God. This is the portion of everyone who has faith in Jesus.

Works of Faith.

The second great result of faith is the transformation of the life of the believer. God has not only done a perfect work for the sinner, but in everyone who believes He does a work in his soul. "For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). A vast amount of doubt and distress has been caused by failure to see these two great truths, namely, that we are freely justified by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, on the principle of faith, and that after having been thus justified by the work of Jesus, God works in the soul producing good works.

The apostle James distinguishes true faith from an empty profession by this statement:"Faith, if it has not works, is dead by itself" (Jas. 2:17). Professing Christians may well test themselves by this solemn statement, and we all do well to examine our manner of life, our works, as to how much they prove to be works of faith- works that accompany salvation. Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, said that in his prayers he remembered unceasingly their work of faith, and recalls how "they turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God." This is the proper characteristic of a Christian life.

Faith makes real the unseen.

A third effect of faith is that it enables us to apprehend the unseen and spiritual things of God, and makes them living realities to the soul. "Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen" (Heb. 11:1). Abraham was a pilgrim in Canaan, for "he looked for a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God." He "desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one." Faith made the eternal and unseen things real to him. Faith does the same thing for us. Salvation is as real to the believer as any earthly possession, and more so, in that it abides forever. God's work in his soul is more real to him than any mental acquisition that he may obtain through education. Jesus Christ is as real to the believer as his nearest friend, and heaven is as definite a place as his own earthly dwelling, and far more to be desired.

Faith answers a thousand questions that we otherwise could not answer. Faith tells us where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. Faith tells us the origin of all material things. "By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear" (Heb. 11:3). How precious is this faith which opens heaven to us and makes us able to commune with God while still in a world at enmity with Him. Let us be jealous that no fleshly lusts or sin which so easily beset us spoil our appreciation of unseen things.

The prayer of faith.
The fourth great result of faith in God is to make it possible for us to approach Him in prayer with the assurance that He hears us. There is a great difference in this respect in individual believers. Some are known as men of great faith, others of little faith. Some have power with God, as did Jacob when he clung to the Angel-Jehovah for His blessing, and his name was changed to Israel. What a grand privilege vouchsafed to man to have power with the Almighty! What a noble figure was Moses pleading with God for the sinful people, when he succeeded in turning aside the judgment that was hanging over the guilty nation.

The prayer of faith is conditioned in Scripture on several things. James tells us, "The fervent supplication of the righteous man has much power. Elias was a man of like passions to us, and he prayed with prayer* that it should not rain, and it did not rain upon the earth for three years and six months. *He "prayed with prayer" is a Hebraism, to show the earnestness of the prayer-a supplication.* And again, he prayed, and heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to spring forth" (James 5:16-18). This principle runs throughout Scripture, that God will give more heed to a righteous man than to one who is not righteous. Another principle is that we should ask according to God's will. "If we ask anything according to His will He heareth us" (1 John 5:14). Importunity in prayer is a mark of faith, and we are urged to perseverance until we receive God's answer to our request. God's answer will be for our good; and if our requests are not for our good He will answer in another way, according to His perfect knowledge and His perfect love. We are encouraged to make the utmost use of the prayer of faith. "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24). May we know more of the prayer of faith and the abundant answers that God give« to those who ask in faith, nothing doubting.

To summarize:Faith makes ours the mighty riches of God's salvation. Faith bears fruit in our daily life, producing good works, like riches laid up in heaven. Faith in connection with the unseen brings us into God's presence. Finally, faith enables us to lay hold of God for all our needs, and gives us power with God to intercede for others, claiming every good thing which is according to His will. May God grant us more richly the fulness of faith as set before us in His Word.